Mattie McQuay Berryman
Research by Eugene Scheel in 1980 on Saint Louis also indicated that Mattie McQuay Berryman, Anna Gaskins, Grace and Clarence Murray, Powell Gibson and Armistead Smith and his son Alfonso were instructors. We are now examining archival records to verify dates of employment and other details. See Scheel, E. (1980, September 25). St. Louis Dates to late 1800's pp. D-12. Scheel is one of the best historians in Loudoun and his work here was based on interviews, which are essential for this kind of research; however, people's memories can sometimes deceive. An examination of Berryman indicates that while she was an instructor in Loudoun, she didn't teach in Saint Louis. We went through 75 pages of school files related to Saint Louis. There are of course gaps and she might have done substitute work but she was also born in 1895, so probably didn't operate much before 1918/19, when she operated at Lincoln. Having said that, what is odd in her records is that a gap between Lincoln and Marble Quarry, where records indicated she instructed in 1948/49. What happened in between? Was she in a different county? What we do know is that she died 7 May 1976 in Loudoun, was buried in the Solon Cemetery in Middleburg; but not occupied in 1930, according to the US census, nor in 1940, in both cases being a housewife and mother of six. Records can be in error. The 1940 U.S. census indicated she only had an 8th grade education, yet her Teacher's Record indicated she studied at Hampton Institute. See also Marble Quarry page. Source: Teacher's Record, LCPS Archives.