Education and the schools in Virgin Valley was the topic of the history presentation by Mary Phalan at the Mesquite Library on Saturday, Sept. 20. Phalan, Virgin Valley Heritage Museum coordinator, told stories of the first school held in a tent, all the way through the building of the current high school on Valley View Drive. She had a PowerPoint presentation of the teachers and the construction of school buildings.

The early settlers were determined to have their children receive an education.

“Education was so important to them, not only to their own children but to future generations,” Phalan stated.

Edith Knight was one of the many teachers. A memory quilt was displayed showing the names of the many students she taught in the more than 30 years she was a teacher in the valley. When she retired in 1966, the blue satin quilt was presented to her. Each ray spreading out from the center had the names of her students.

“Some years, there were very few, but she kept on educating and loving the children as if they were her own. During the depression, she had about 10 students because they had to work in the fields or the homes, taking care of the siblings,” Phalan said.

Martha C. Cox became the first certified teacher for the Bunkerville Church Academy, earning about $50 a month. She was the sole supporter for her family, yet she donated a month’s salary to help build a new school in place of the 16 x 16 tent.

Edgar Mineer, third- through sixth-grade teacher, became superintendent and was able to get funds to improve the schools in the valley.

Mina Connel, a graduate of Columbia, came to start a teacher prep course for college credit. She had six students when the Spanish flu epidemic arrived. Not wanting to end the program, the teacher and the girls moved their classroom to the mountain, where they continued working on their lessons. They lived in makeshift shelters and cooked over open fires. They did get homesick, but supplies were brought up weekly, and with the spring water, they were able to wash their clothes and lay them out on the sagebrush to dry.

Emma Abbott taught for 25 years to pay back the grant she received to become a teacher.

“Charity Leavitt named her 1925 class the ‘Flying Bananas.’ Maybe they were a rowdy bunch,” Phalan laughingly said.

Leon Pollack’s class of 1952 was able to enjoy a new building with electricity, indoor plumbing, and running water.

Phalan showed a timeline of the many events in the history of the schools, starting with Charles Heath who, with a couple of readers and a math book, taught the young boys in the mess hall with log benches in 1877. Myron Abbott, seeing the need for the education of the older boys who did the farmwork, taught them in night classes.

William E. Abbott had a public square set aside for a school, which was a tent with a dirt floor that also served as a church on Sunday. In 1899, a school was built of wood planks and named the Wilson House. It was on the same lot where the old gym now stands.

The young people of Bunkerville wanted a dance hall to socialize, and they were in the process of building it out of rock when the church burned. The bishop approached the young people and offered to donate $800 to finish the building if they could use it on Sunday for church and for a school during the week.

The children who wanted to go to high school were sent to Las Vegas until 1911, when higher-level classes were added. There were 12 grades, and all the children in Mesquite went to Bunkerville for high school. The first class to graduate was 1916 and, in 1918, a graduation ceremony was held for that class. In 1923, the new high school was completed, with gas lighting, a chemistry lab, home economics room, eating hall, assembly hall, gym and library.

Eventually, a campus was built in Mesquite in 1958 for grades K-12. In 1991, the current Virgin Valley High School was built and dedicated.