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Van LearKy.com
is the personal hometown webpage of James Vaughan, who was privileged to spend his boyhood in that eastern Kentucky coal-mining town (1928-1942), back when Van Lear was maintained as a model for other towns to emulate. This is NOT AN OFFICIAL WEBSITE of the Van Lear Historical Society, but rather a page dedicated to the same goals as that non-profit organization. There are at least two other personal sites devoted to Van Lear, and an OFFICIAL WEBSITE by its webmaster, Danny Blevins, former president of the society. Debbie Burton Music is the current president. Inquiries concerning the historical society should be directed via e-mail to blevinstar@yahoo.com, or you may write to VLHS, P. O. Box 369, Van Lear, Kentucky 41265. Volunteers may also be available from time to time to assist you at telephone number 606-789-9725 Be sure to ask for dates concerning school and town reunions, and the best time for a visit. This page and the next one feature numerous old photos which will require varying amounts of time to load, depending on the speed of your modem. We recently modified these pages to permit visitors to view a number of the photos selectively, and then return to our main page. This latest version of our website was updated December 15, 2009. We would appreciate your comments and suggestions regarding this site at e-mail address jevaughn@jevaughn.com Be sure to RELOAD or REFRESH this site periodically via your browser to view the latest updates.
Click here to continue your stroll down memory lane, or scroll on down.
After viewing this page, click on the hotlink to our final pages. If you visited our website earlier, thanks for coming back. We've added a few things. If you're a first-time visitor, welcome. We hope you will enjoy this visit to our virtual-museum webpage. For more than twenty years, a small group of volunteers has endeavored to preserve some of Van Lear's past history. During the early years, these unpaid volunteers attempted to offer tours of the museum by appointment. Both a school and town reunion were staged when enough volunteer help could be assembled. It is our understanding that another school reunion may be held the first Saturday in August 2010. For a modest annual contribution of $15, you can become a member of The Van Lear Historical Society, which includes a subscription to THE BANKMULE. Recent donations have enabled VLHS to purchase its own printing equipment, which has resulted in an improved product and more timely delivery. It is highly advisable to call a member of the historical society well in advance of your visit to set up an appointment if you wish to visit the museum. Try calling 606-789-9725, write VLHS, Box 369, Van Lear KY 41265, or e-mail blevinstar@yahoo.com
To enter the next phase of our Van Lear Virtual Museum, scroll down or click here.
The sepia-toned images you see on this page have been reproduced from some old photos of Van Lear structures as they appeared in the 1920s and 1930s, the two decades that represented this company-built town's heyday. Upper left is the coal-fired, steam-generated electric power plant at "The River" with the Mine #151 wooden tipple (coal-processing and loading facililty) pictured to the right. At the lower left are the Club House and Recreation Building, with tipples for Mines #153 and #154 at the lower right. All of these structures have been torn down, but are represented on the scale model of the town which may be seen on the third floor of the museum building. The electric power plant, built in 1912, was for its time one of the finest such facilities in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, supplying electricity in Van Lear and, for a time, to the county seat town of Paintsville. An early ambition of the historical society was the erection of descriptive markers at these and other historic sites; however these goals have been shelved temporarily. Again, if you plan a visit, be sure to call ahead. See the addresses and numbers on our final pages. Click anywhere on the old sepia photos at the left or on this text to enter our main portal.
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To visit jevaughn.com, James Vaughn's personal family web site, click here.
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1890s Eighth Grade Exam
If you would like to search the e-Lynks files, enter your search words in the form below, and click.
... and you thought present-day public education was better than it once was?
The following exam was given to candidates for graduation from Eighth Grade classes in a number of states in the 1890s. Five hours was the allotted time to complete this exam, which was administered without access to notes or other reference materials. After taking the exam, click on the link for acceptable answers, but no fair peeking beforehand. Then decide what you think about today’s public schools? No, we didn't take this exam when I graduated from Van Lear's Eighth grade in 1939. Our parents did, back in the 1890s. Some state exams had only 48 questions. If you attempt to answer these 53 questions, sit down with pencil and paper—no books or PCs for reference—and allot five hours to the task.
1. Give nine rules for the use of capital letters.
2. Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifiers.
3. Define verse, stanza, and paragraph.
4. What are the principal parts of a verb? Give the principal parts of "lie," "play," and "run."
5. Define case; illustrate each case.
6. What is punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of punctuation.
7-10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.
11. Name and define the fundamental rules of arithmetic.
12. A wagon box is 2 ft. deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?
13. If a load of wheat weighs 3942 lbs, what is it worth t 50cts/bushel, deducting 1050 lbs for tare?
14. District No. 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?
15. Find the cost of 6720 lbs of coal at $6.00 per ton.
16. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 per cent.
17. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft. long at $20 per meter?
18. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 per cent.
19. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance of which is 640 rods?
20. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt.
21. Give the epochs into which U. S. History is divided.
22. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus.
23. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.
24. Show the territorial growth of the United States.
25. Tell what you can of the history of the state of Kansas.
26. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.
27. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe?
28. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, and 1865.
29. What is meant by alphabet, phonetics, orthography, etymology, and syllabication?
30. What are elementary sounds? How are they classified?
31. What are the following, and give examples of each: trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, and linguals.
32. Give four substitutes for caret 'u.'
33. Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e.' Name two exceptions under each rule.
34. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling; illustrate each.
35. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi, dis, mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup.
36. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, and last.
37. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite', site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane, vain, vei n, raze, raise, rays.
38. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.
39. What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?
40. How do you account for the extremes of climate in the state of Kansas?
41. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean?
42. Name and describe the major mountains of North America.
43. Name and describe the following: Monrovia, Odessa, Denver, Manitoba, Hecia, Yukon, St. Helena, Juan Fernandez, Aspinwall, and Orinoco.
44. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S.
45. Name five republics of Europe and their capital cities.
46. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitudes?
47. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.
48. Describe the movements of the earth. Give the inclination of the earth in degrees.
49. Where are the saliva, gastric juice, and bile secreted? What is the use of each in digestion?
50. How does nutrition reach the circulation?
51. What is the function of the liver? Of the kidneys?
52. How would you stop the flow of blood from an artery in the case of laceration?
53. Give some general directions that you think would be beneficial to preserve the human body in a state of health.
To check your answers to the 8th-grade exam, click here.For a fast-loading, general-purpose alphabetized index/directory to the Internet, click here.To visit jevaughn.com, James Vaughn's personal Vaughn-Vaughan family web site, click here.Danny Blevins has assembled a collection of photos of "Old Van Lear" available from Jesse Stuart Foundation.This web site was last updated December 15, 2009, and is hosted by VanLearKy.com.
