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At the very beginning of education in Rappahannock County was the little school house at the very end of Gay Street in Washington, a tworoom brick building beloved by students and townspeople, who affectionately called it “the Rabbit Gum” because of its resemblance to a rabbit box. This academy existed before public education as a private academy and with the formal establishment of the public school system in 1871, it became Washington’s public school.
In 1956 Louemma Moffett wrote a two-part series on the old academy for the Rappahannock News, basing some of her article about old times at the school on the memories of William E. Compton.
Moffett said that the Rabbit Gum served as a town hall for the community, a place for dances, prayer meetings, lectures and parties. When the occasion arose to use the school building at night, chandeliers from the Masonic hall were borrowed to light the rooms.
Later, the school was the scene of the annual foot tournament dance, celebrating an unusual jousting tournament conducted on foot by the students. After weeks of practice, the boys took turns running through the tournament course, accumulating rings on their lances. These barefoot knights were competing for the honor of picing the tournament queen. This distinction won by the young man who ended victorious with nine rings on his lance. A first, second and third maid were also selected by the other successful knights.
After the foot tournament the music started. Moffett relates that a distinguished three-piece orchestra was often on hand: Joe Barber on the banjo, Jim Grason on the mouth harp and a friend of Joe’s from Sperryville who also played the banjo. ‘‘Seeing after” the teenagers at the dance were the townspeople of Washington, who came in and out all through the evening to check on the young people and perhaps dance just a dane or two. All the young people danced, as it was considered a disgrace to sit out and catch your breath. Mr. Bob Pullen of Washington went to the Rabbit Gum from 1901 until 1905. Ruby Jenkins had him record a tape of his experiences there which she has made available at the Washington Museum. . “We didn’t have to pay,” Pullen remembered. “But we did have to buy our own books. We bought them at
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