GMS History The History of Greenbrier Military School | Page 24

own tested dairy herd and stored in our perfect modernly cooled room,
comes on our tables to nourish the growing boys placed in our care. Our
constant aim is to furnish a scientifically well-balanced food, well cooked
and carefully served. We do not guarantee all the frills and knick-knacks of
the home—would not furnish them if we could, as plainer food is more
wholesome. Some dessert is served at dinner each day.”
GMS was located in the clean countryside of West Virginia, in a town
described in the 1925 catalog as a “typical ‘Old Virginia’ residential town,
fourteen miles from the Virginia line just off the C & O Railway. . . It has a
population of about 2000 people, most of whom are well-to-do,
conservative in politics, business and religion, and enjoy the prosperity and
happiness which comes with industry and integrity. They are cultivated and
hospitable, and take a kindly interest in the cadets, offering to them pleasant
and refining social advantages in the inner circles of their homes, warmly
welcoming them to their churches, and . . . showing the esteem which is ever
commanded by gentlemanly conduct and merit.” The C & O Railway had
ten passenger trains a day coming through Ronceverte in 1925, and parents
could depend on telegraph and telephone to communicate with their boys at
any time of day or night. Cadets went to the Greenbrier Hotel in White
Sulphur Springs to play golf or to watch golf and tennis tournaments. They
could go to the swimming pool with swimming instructors at school
expense. And dances like the formal, elegant Final Ball at the end of the
school year were always held at The Greenbrier.
The school had a five-member Board of Visitors “appointed by the
Presbytery of Greenbrier, at our request, to advise with us in regard to the
morals of the school.” H.B. Moore was principal and president, J.M. was
vice-president, D.T. was business manager. Miss Kate Moore was the
librarian, Miss Emma and Miss Willie were dieticians. Momma Moore (as
Mrs. W.J. Moore, the matriarch, was called by the family) helped in the
dining room and fixed butter pats for every table. “Mother Moore,” as she
was known to cadets, and her three maiden daughters lived in an apartment
in the GMS barracks in the early years. Col. D.T., who lived across the
street, used to go over and play Chinese checkers with his mother nearly
every night. When enrollment boomed after the wa