The two articles below from 1932 issues comes by courtesy of Howard Osburn, treasurer of the Wayne County Genealogy Society. Howard, as mentioned in an earlier post, does extensive research on the history of Wayne County. Our thanks go out to him for this new information as well as the previous information that he provided for an earlier post.
One would have to remember that when the Butler District High School (later to become FGHS) was being built, it was in the early throes of the great depression of the thirties. What a struggle it must have been and there had to be strong-willed individuals behind it all to drive it forward to completion as they did.
It appears from the articles below that Fort Gay also had some pretty good tennis players at the time. I wonder where they would have practiced. Is anyone aware if there were tennis courts in the immediate area at that time. I hope the following arouses some pleasent memories of events and people from the past.
(WCN – 8/11/1932)
THOMPSON, LOVELY WIN NET HONORS
Wayne County ran away with the honors at the Marshall College Tennis Tournament again this summer when Wardy C.
Lovely, teacher in the Fort Gay Junior High School and Jack Thompson, athletic coach at Butler District High School, Fort
Gay, won the doubles championship for the summer. The Wayne county pair played two matches Thursday afternoon,
August 4, defeating Dale Henderson, Richwood, W. Va., and Clyde Alford, Ravenswood, W. Va., in the first match and
Landis Litchfield, and Charles Gillian of Huntington in the finals, with a score of 6-3; 6-2.
Wardy Lovely upset the dope in the singles tournament by defeating Jonathan Lowe, of Milton, singles champion of last
summer, by a score of 6-4; 6-3. It will be remembered that last summer the Wayne pair were the doubles champs while
Rebecca Lambert, of Wayne, was the girls singles champ.
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
(WCN – 10/6/1932)
WORK IS RESUMED ON H. S. BUILDING
BY L. L. LYCAN
M. W. Zinn, contractor, resumed work on the new high school building at Fort Gay this week, and will rush the outside
work to completion within 60 days. The first story was completed last year with a special levy of 30 cents on each one
hundred dollars valuation. This year the legislature reduced expenditures of Boards to 85 percent of what they spent last
year, and as a result the Butler High School Board of Directors will be unable to complete the inside of the building for
use this year, the amount of the reduction being equal to the amount to finish the inside.
It is hoped that some money may be obtained from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to finish the building this
year, and thereby save the amount that would be spent for rent.
The enrollment of Butler High has increased this year considerably, there being approximately 115 in Jr. High and 120 in
Senior High, making a total of 235 students.
Butler high school is a first class temporary high school, all teachers holding degrees from standard colleges, all
equipment being first class, and meeting all the requirements of the State Department of Education, except buildings or
rooms. As soon as the school is housed in its permanent quarters this temporary standing will be removed and the
school will be first class without any restrictions.
All students taking the teacher’s examination this year were permitted to substitute their high school work for grades on
their certificates.
The faculty is composed of N. E. Plymale, principal, Iliff West, R. J. Thompson, R. W. Gillette, Mrs. Madge Matthews, Mrs.
Opal Lycan.
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
The Viking Chronicles 