Taken in front of the first Herndon High School building, the above photograph is from the J. Berkley Green Collection of the Herndon Historical Society. The following biographies of the teachers and school trustees found in the historic records of the town of Herndon School Board were researched and written by volunteers from District V, Virginia Daughters of the American Revolution.

Teachers

James H. Beazley

James Henry Beazley was born in January 1884 in Caroline County, Virginia, to William F. Beazley and Emma J. Alsop. He was educated at Richmond College and later in life received a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania, after which he practiced law in Richmond, Virginia. James Beazley appears in the minutes of the town of Herndon School Board as principal of the Herndon School in 1910-11. He was one of the last principals of the three-room frame schoolhouse, which was replaced in 1912 by a brick building that was once located on the site of present-day Herndon Middle School. Additionally, James Beazley served in the U.S. Army, where he attained the rank of Lt. Colonel, and was a member of the Sons of the American Revolution. He passed away in March 1939 at Mount Alto Veterans Hospital in Washington, D.C., and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

James F. Brawner

James Franklin Brawner, whose surname also appears as Brauner in historic records, was born in 1844 in Loudoun County, Virginia, to James Brawner and Sarah Rousseau. He married Susan Edmonia Edwards in 1894 in Leesburg, Virginia. James Brawner was elected by the town of Herndon’s school trustees as principal and lead teacher of the Herndon School for white children during the period of 1905-1907. As principal, Brawner would have taught children in the sixth and seventh grades in the three-room schoolhouse. In the 1910 U.S. Federal Census, James Brawner was listed as a widower living with four of his siblings in Mercer, Virginia, in Loudoun County. While he only appears in FCPS records as having taught in Herndon for a brief period, his occupation listed on census records from 1870 to 1910 is that of public school teacher.

Nannie B. Garrett

Nannie Berry Garrett was born in September 1886 to John D. Garrett, who served on the Centreville District School Board from 1904 to 1922, and his wife Mary R. Elgin. Nannie’s parents came from old Loudoun County families and had moved to the Centreville District of Fairfax County before the turn of the 20th century. In the middle of the 1905-06 school year, Herndon’s school trustees unanimously decided to employ a third teacher at the Herndon School for white children, and selected Nannie Garrett for the position. This is the only record of Nannie Garrett having served as a teacher in FCPS. In the fall of 1907, Nannie was one of five applicants for the teacher of the intermediate department (grades 4-5) at the Herndon School, but she was passed over. Like many young women of her day, Nannie Garrett ceased her teaching career upon her marriage in 1908 to Buford M. Bridwell. After marriage, Nannie and her husband continued to reside in Fairfax County, living at various times in Centreville and Falls Church Districts. The couple had one child who died in infancy. Nannie Garrett Bridwell died in the summer of 1956 in Warrenton, Virginia, and was buried in Union Cemetery in Leesburg.

E. Barbour Hutchison

Born in September 1876 in Virginia, Edwin Barbour Hutchison was the son of Lycurgus E. Hutchison and Sarah E. Benton. Hutchison attended the College of William and Mary and married Mary A. Auld in 1915. He taught school in Fairfax County in the Dranesville District at the Jefferson School (1896-97) and the Colvin Run School (1898-99), and in the town of Herndon at its three-room school from 1907 to 1909. While teaching at Herndon, Hutchison studied law at Georgetown University at night. As an attorney, Hutchison worked in private practice and for the State Department. He also served on the Herndon town council, on the vestry of St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church, and was a mason. E. Barbour Hutchison died in November 1971, and was buried at Chestnut Grove Cemetery in Herndon. Hutchison Elementary School in Herndon is named in his honor.

Ruth Richards

Born in June 1885 in Hand County, South Dakota, Ruth Richards was the daughter of William H. “Will” Richards and his wife Katherine Detwiler. By the turn of the 20th century, the Richards family had moved east, settling in Washington, D.C. Around 1908, Ruth’s father began construction of a summer residence in the town of Clifton, and gave it the name “Red Gables.” During the period of 1904 to 1908, Ruth Richards was the assistant teacher at the two-room Clifton School for white children. During the summer of 1909, she attended a “Normal School” (Teacher’s College) and shortly thereafter was hired by the town of Herndon School Board to teach in the three-room Herndon School. Surviving records indicate that Ruth Richards taught at Herndon during the 1909-10, 1910-11, and 1914-15 school years. While teaching at Herndon, she boarded in the home of Florence Van Sickler. Ruth Richards never married. Census records indicate that she left the teaching profession prior to 1920. After teaching, she worked as a clerk in the U.S. Treasury Department and later in the Department of the Interior. Ruth Richards passed away in October 1969, and was buried at Clifton Cemetery in Clifton, Virginia.

Virginia E. Wrenn

Virginia E. Wrenn was born on May 30, 1887, in Fairfax County to Washington Clay Wrenn and Susan Lane Utterback. Virginia's uncle was Gabriel Hite Wrenn, who appears in the meeting minutes of the Dranesville District School Board. Her first cousin, Minnie J. Wrenn, also appears in Dranesville’s minutes as the teacher of the Vale School. Virginia Wrenn taught at the Herndon School from 1906 to 1908. In 1920, she married Walter W. Wyatt, a carpenter and building contractor who had built the first Herndon High School on Locust Street in 1912. Virginia Wrenn Wyatt stayed in Herndon until about 1957, when she relocated to Florida. She died in 1970 and was buried in Chestnut Grove Cemetery in Herndon.

School Trustees

Enos L. Garrett

Enos L. Garrett was born in February 1841 in Chester County, Pennsylvania, to Enos Garrett and Sarah Hipple. He served in the U.S. Army during the American Civil War as a Second Lieutenant in Company D of the 20th Pennsylvania Cavalry, which saw action at the Battle of Gettysburg. By 1865, Enos Garrett had relocated to Northern Virginia to care for his brother, Captain Henry H. Garrett, a fellow Union Army soldier who had been wounded in action. While in the area, he met Louisa Caywood, a native of New York, who had moved to Fairfax County as a child. The couple married in Herndon in 1865. Family tradition tells that Louisa was in Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., on that fateful night in April 1865, when President Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. Following the Civil War, Enos and Louisa Garrett settled in the growing community around the Herndon post office. Enos Garrett served as the community’s postmaster in 1867, and after the town of Herndon incorporated in 1879, he served at various times as the town clerk, as a member of the town council, and also as mayor. A wagonmaker and wheelwright by trade, Enos Garrett operated a shop adjacent to his home on Elden Street. From 1884 to 1905, he served as a trustee on the town of Herndon School Board and was its clerk during his final year. In 1915, Enos Garrett suffered a debilitating stroke which left him unable to work. He relocated to Amelia County, Virginia, where he was cared for by family members until he passed away in December 1926. Enos Garrett is buried in Chestnut Grove Cemetery in Herndon.

H. Earlton Hanes

After the retirement of Frank W. Huddleson from the town of Herndon School Board, Harvey Earlton Hanes was elected to fill the remainder of his term. H. Earlton Hanes, as he was commonly referred to, was born in Ashburn, Virginia, in 1871. From 1893 to 1898, he taught at the Herndon School. In 2021, historian Barbara Glakas with the Herndon Historical Society published a comprehensive biography of H. Earlton Hanes, in which she describes his career in education and his years of public service.

Ernest L. Robey

Dr. Ernest Lee Robey was born in August 1869 in Herndon, Virginia, to William Isaac Robey and his wife Mary Ellen Kidwell. Dr. Robey served as a trustee on the town of Herndon School Board during the period of 1916 to 1922. Members of Dr. Robey’s immediate family and his in-laws also once served as school board members in Fairfax County, namely his father William, his brother, George B. Robey, and his father-in-law, Isaiah Bready. Dr. Robey was a farmer who specialized in Holstein cattle and became a pharmacist. In 1888, Dr. Robey and his father, who was an experienced merchant, opened a drugstore in Herndon. In 1896, he married Edith Bready, and the couple took up residence on Pine Street until their home was destroyed in Herndon’s “Big Fire” in 1917, after which they built a new home on Elden Street. Dr. Robey opened the first bank in the town of Herndon. He also served on the Town Council from 1909 to 1915, was the town’s mayor for one term beginning in 1911, and was the Herndon Town Clerk for 21 years. His first appearance in the minutes of the Herndon School Board was in November 1910, when, in his capacity as a town council member, he met with the school board to view possible tracts of land for the first Herndon High School. Dr. Robey appears in records of the Dranesville District School Board as well. In 1907, he was paid $5.70 for providing paint and other supplies for the Vale School. Ernest L. Robey died in September 1938 and was buried in Chestnut Grove Cemetery in Herndon.