In later years there was a number of excellent schools founded in Upshur County that did valuable work and had a great influence upon the character of the young men and young women of their day. Sometime in the 1880’s, T. J. Allison established an important school at Pleasant Hill. He erected a two-story building and had boarding pupils from various parts of the county. This school was kept up for several years when T. J. Allison sold out to the local community and entered the medical profession. J. M. Perdue conducted a school at West Mountain of considerable note. He was a great teacher and exerted a wonderful influence over his pupils. In the fall of 1889, the citizens of Shady Grove erected a school building, organized a Board of Directors, and established a high school to run eight months in the year. This school also had a number of boarding pupils from this and other counties. This school had a great influence upon the community and was instrumental in bringing in a number of fine citizens. The Rev. W. H. McClelland Sr. built and maintained a good school at Glenwood in the early 70’s. He kept a few boarding pupils. This school was destroyed by fire on the night of December 14, 1876. It was never rebuilt. Progress In The Country Schools Many of the older citizens can remember when Gilmer was not the beautiful little city that it now is. They can remember when the streets and public square were sand beds when it was dry, and mud puddles when it rained. They can also remember when the public schools were not what they are today. No phase of the county institutions has felt the effect of the magic wand more than the county schools. The school children of today know nothing of the inconveniences of forty or fifty years ago. They now have comfortable school buildings, supplied with desks, maps, libraries, and free text books. They are carried to school in comfortable busses, and many are served with hot lunches at noon. How different was the conditions back in the 1880’s and 1890’s. At that time, the country school houses, as a rule, were very unattractive and uncomfortable. The pupils were required to sit on long, hard benches and do their sums on a slate. They had no libraries and each child had to furnish his own books. There was no uniformity of the text books, which worked a considerable inconvenience to the teachers. Webster’s Blue Back Speller was almost universally used, however, and a pupil’s grade was estimated by the page he had reached in this book. The schools had no playground equipment, and the boys and girls were required to have separate playgrounds. It was not uncommon to find a bundle of switches lying on the teacher’s desk, and the teacher that did the most whipping was considered the best teacher.