Mathias High School of Honor

Old Mathias High School Hall of Honor

Open Saturday Only

There is a tremendous collection of local and county history tucked away in the old Mathias school. The earliest schools were in their communities. With the school year lasting about 6 months, students walked or rode a horse to attend. Many of those small local schools fed into the first Mathias Elementary School when it opened in 1909. Grades went from 1 to 8; a high school education required boarding away from home.

Mathias High School, in the center of the Lost River District, began in 1929 and graduated classes from 1937 until 1979 when Mathias, Baker and Wardensville schools consolidated as East Hardy. An unsolved mystery is the “First High Grade” required of Mathias students because they had not gone to kindergarten. Research has produced no record of this practice or policy, but students graduated from Mathias High School with 13 years of schooling without kindergarten.

Mathias was known as a “small school where big things happen,” and the Hall of Honor is a big thing! Thanks to the Mathias Ruritans, and Willard Barb in particular, the old school is goldmine of meticulously displayed history. The high school yearbooks, The MAHIGAN for MA[thias] HI[gh] AN[nual], are there, surrounded by hundreds of photos, plaques, trophies and uniforms from sports teams and events, clubs (Future Farmers of America, Future Homemakers of America, National Honor Society, Glee Club, the band, etc.), teachers and staff, and school happenings. Huge notebooks provide more detail, right down to meeting minutes and game scores. The most esteemed leaders of the community and area are commemorated in the hall, which is dedicated to Stanley Moyer. Additionally, there are photographs of local churches and an impressive history of the Mathias Ruritans.

Follow Upper Cove Road in Mathias.