By Stephen Smoot, The Moorefield Examiner
ROMNEY, W.Va. — “It’s a cool story,” said Clayton Burch, Superintendent of the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind.
That story predates not only the State of West Virginia, but the United States of America itself in a fashion. In 1756 the tiny settlement of Pearsall’s Flats, later named Romney, appeared at the edge of civilization. Soon after settlement, those there constructed a log structure that would serve as both a church and school.
About 90 years later emerged the Romney Classical Institute, also known as the Romney Academy. Classes now took place in a low slung, two-story Revival style building that, until the tragic fire a few years back, served as the crown jewel of a town full of antebellum architecture.
The Civil War ended the building’s role as a local educational establishment, but the campus would take on a new purpose in 1870. Since the first school for the deaf in the US opened in 1817, many states had established educational services for the deaf and blind. After West Virginia emerged in 1863, other states’ institutions took in those from the 35th State.
Then in 1869 a blind gentleman from Pendleton County, Howard Hill Johnson, took the issue to Wheeling to convince state leaders to establish such a facility for his state.
