Thanks to Beverly Paushel at the Lowe Public Library for providing information about the history of the school. The library has all the school’s yearbooks, except for periods during the Great Depression and World War II, when no yearbooks were published.

Information up to 1946 came from James Meredith Currey’s booklet, Shinnston High School: Class of 1946…Looking Back. Information for 1947 through 1978 was gleaned from the school's yearbooks.

Early History

of Clay District High School

In the early days of the 20^th century, the citizens of Harrison County’s Clay District felt the need for a high school in which to educate the young men and women of the district. Under the leadership of Dr. Waitman T. Barbe of West Virginia University, a number of local residents campaigned for their cause. In the fall of 1907, the Clay District High School opened with 18 enrolled students. The school was housed within the Shinnston Grammar School on Mahlon Street.

The first principal was Isaac E. Ash, a graduate of West Virginia Wesleyan College. John B. Wyatt, a Shinnston native and graduate of West Virginia University, was the only other teacher. Ash taught classes in his office, and Wyatt had a classroom on the first floor.

The first class graduated in 1910, three years after the school opened. The class had completed four years of high school work, having been tutored in freshman subjects by high school teachers from Clarksburg during the summer. The college preparatory course taught at the time included four years each of English, Latin, mathematics and history; two years of German; physics or chemistry; and several electives, especially in natural science.

The school’s first athletic coach was W. E. McCarty, who coached the 1912 track team to a state championship. In the first decade of the school’s history, the baseball, basketball and football teams won several Monongahela Valley High School League championships.

The first literary contest – between the Franklin and Shakespearean Literary Societies – was held in 1912. In the same year, the yearbook, The Courier, was published for the first time, and the first Senior Class Play was performed.

In the fall of 1916, the school moved into a brand new brick building on Pike Street.

The 1920s and 1930s

The school newspaper was called The Mirror during the 1920-21 school year. This was the same year that the school started the first orchestra, the first boys’ glee club and the first student council. During the 1921-22 year, the jazz band was organized, which performed during athletic events to increase school spirit. In 1923-24, a boys’ quartet was organized, which performed at several school functions, including commencement. There was no yearbook published during the 1929-30 school year, but there was a yearbook for the 1930-31 school year. During 1931-32, neither yearbook nor school newspaper was published, although the class of 1933 did print a mimeographed booklet with no pictures that they called The Depression Courier. The next yearbook printed was in 1939.

The Lowe Public Library's collection has yearbooks for Clay District High School up to 1937, and for Shinnston High School beginning with 1940, so apparently the school's name was changed sometime between 1937 and 1940.

The Spartans

During the 1938-39 school year, the school adopted a new team mascot – the Spartans - and this may be the same year the school's name was changed. Prior to this, athletic teams had been called the Wildcats, then the Tigers. The name of the school yearbook was also changed this year from The Courier to The Spartan. The school newspaper was called The Tattler. The school started its first chapter of the National Honor Society of Secondary Schools during the 1939-40 school year. This year was the first that the Letter Club selected a girl to represent the school, and the first Miss Spartan was Phyllis Mearns. The class of 1942 did not have a yearbook due to the paper shortage during World War II, but the newspaper, The Spartan Echo, did have seven issues that year.

The 1950s

The 1960s

The 1970s