Workshops

Ganta United Methodist Mission School, known then as Ganta Mission School was established by Dr. George Way Harley and Winifred J. Harley in 1926. The Harleys were Methodist missionaries from America assigned by the Methodist Episcopal Church Mission Board to open a new Methodist mission station in the hinterland in Gompa, now (Ganta), formerly Central Providence, and now known as, Nimba County, Liberia.

Dr. Harley was a graduate of Harvard and Yale Universities Medical schools. He and Winifred met at Yale when they were students there. They married and took on the missionary assignment. The day they left the USA for Liberia, at their farewell church service, they sang, “Lead on O King Eternal, the day of march has come.”

Along with their pioneering tasks of medical mission building which included the establishment of a dispensary, a hospital, a clinic, a laboratory, a leprosarium, workshops [mechanical, electrical, saw-mill] farming and agricultural projects, and a church, they also established the first Methodist school in the region.

In her mud hut in Ganta, Mrs. Harley started teaching a few children A. B. C. until they moved to the new mission station. On the station, the first school building was a “small square classroom with walls of split corkwood [musanga Smithii] and upper portion open for light and air. The students lived in a half-dozen native style houses, furnished with wooden beds, iron pots, and lanterns. Boys furnished their own sleeping mats and clothes. They cooked their own food.” Mr. Henry Miller, one of the missionaries that followed the Harleys to Liberia, was the first instructor at the school. In the morning Mr. Miller taught the classes and in the afternoon, the students worked at the carpentry or did other tasks with Dr. Harley. Religious education was a part of the education.

In 1928, Henry and Kate Miller were assigned by the Board to head the Nana Kru Mission station. Rev. R. L. Embree, a representative of the overseas Mission to Liberia, who was also the president of CWA, (The College of West Africa) had promised the Harleys that he was going to find a replacement for Henry Miller but the search was very difficult especially since he was hoping to get a Liberian teacher. Because of the difficulty in finding a Liberian teacher, Mrs. Harley took on the teaching responsibilities. She would leave her two babies for a few hours each day to teach at the school and spend additional few hours to help with the patients.

In 1930 when Rev. Embree returned from furlough, he saw a lot of changes that have taken place on the mission station. When the Harleys were preparing to go on their furlough, Rev. Embree brought in Cyril Henry, a young West Indian, to head the school. Cyril Henry, previously, was in charge of the school at White Plains, but the White Plains school was closed down. Mr. Henry was very reluctant to take charge of the Ganta Mission School. He declined Dr. Harley’s offer, so the Harleys had to stay for one more year until the next Methodist Conference before leaving for their furlough. The Harley’s replacement was a teacher from Garraway by the name of Miss Hattie Hooks. Miss Hooks was asked to come to Ganta, leaving her school in Garraway, on the Kru Coast, which was being closed because the Board was trying to consolidate its work in Liberia. Mrs. Harley said this about Miss Hattie Hooks: “She proved a sincere, conscientious teacher who served Ganta Mission well during its need.”

In 1932 when the Harleys returned from their furlough, they reported that Miss Hattie took very good care of the mission station. The Harleys had returned with some of their friends who expressed interest in the work at Ganta. Mrs. Harley wrote: “There was much work to be done! Miss Hooks had responsibility for the school and each of us took on weekly class. Alfred took the schoolboys in the late afternoon for drill and soccer. He was to spend half the day on mission work; and the other half he was free to go off with his paints and easel.”

By 1935, it was time for Miss Hooks to leave, but because there was no one immediately in line to take her place, she had to remain for another year until Elmo and Mary Taylor Tabb arrived. The Tabbs were former missionaries who have served in the Congo. Elmo Tabb was to take over the responsibilities of the school and the Sunday school. His service at the school was short lived after whipping one of the students for climbing an orange tree belonging to the Mission. Momo Massaquoi, an assistant, took charge of the school after Elmo Tabb left. There were much difficulties during the first ten years. The Harleys needed someone to organize the work of the school.

In 1938, on their furlough, while speaking at one of their home churches in New Haven, Connecticut, they met Mildred Black and “B. B.” Cofield. After hearing the Ganta Mission story, both of them wanted to join the Harleys in the mission work.

“B.B. Cofield had come from Alabama to attend Yale Divinity School. He decided to interrupt his training to come to work at Ganta. He went home and married Martha Hanes, thus more than doubling his usefulness.” The Mission Board asked them to stop first at Kakata to take charge of B.W.I. until the Phelps Stokes people could find a permanent principal. Mildred sailed with the Harleys to Ganta. Upon her arrival, and with the assistance of Momo Massaquoi, Mildred Black, affectionately known as “Kau Black”, “organized four grades with subjects corresponding to American standards, plus a preliminary class for beginners.” The Harleys and others thought that the school should stop to grade 4. This was 1938. Therefore the stone house, Hartzell Building, was built to accommodate only four classes, a library, the principal’s office and an assembly hall upstairs. But before the building was completed, they realized the need to expand because the demand for education and the number of student population was expanding. It was this time that the main school building was constructed and named Hartzell Building because the “building funds had come from sale of a discontinued school on the Kru Coast, which had been named for Bishop Joseph C. Hartzell who made notable efforts in Liberia at the end of the last century.” At this time five small dormitories [Washington house, Carver house, Aggry house, Harris house, and King house and a Kitchen-dining room were built closed by for the boys. The first few years of the school at Ganta, there were only boys because the prevailing beliefs among the local people at the time was that girls are not fitted for school, only boys need western education. When girls started coming to the school in later years, a hostel was built for the girls. Students, boys and girls were coming from every county and Province, to attend Ganta mission school. The girls’ hostel was funded by the Women’s Division of the Mission Board. That Board had been responsible previously for sending nurses to the hospital.

In 1941, the Cofields were released from the job at B.W.I., and B. B., Martha and baby Bonnie went to work in Ganta. Martha took over the school while B.B spent much of his time with the religious activities and helping Dr. Harley with other routines of Mission Building. More missionaries and nationals were teaching at the school by the mid 1950’s. When Martha Cofield took over the school, Jackie J. Wrotto became her assistant principal. Ruth Longstaff, Charles Britts, and others took on the responsibilities of the school.

By 1955 students were now graduating from the 8th grade instead of the 4th grade. Manchester building was opened up for classes to house the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades. Teachers at Ganta mission were now all high school graduates and above.

By the 1960s, much improvement has taken place. Mrs. Harley had this to say about Ganta Mission School. She wrote: “The School at Ganta Mission has such an excellent reputation that it could easily be filled with students from the more sophisticated parts of the country. But we have given preference to boys and girls from our own tribe and neighborhood. The village Christians have been particularly anxious to put their children in school under the influence of a Christian institution.”

Local boys and girls who have studied at Ganta Mission School have gone on to other institutions of higher learning and have acquired advanced learning. Some have earned degrees of all kinds, Ph. D’s, M. Div., D. Min., B. Sc. M.A., M. Th., B.D. etc, in many fields including Theology, Education, the sciences and the humanities. Others have earned their medical degrees such as M. D., some R.N, and Masters in Public Health and other medical fields. Still, there are those who have earned the Bachelors degrees and Masters degrees and others have learned many professions and skills in different fields around the world. A few have come back to serve the institution and the country. Many graduates from Ganta Mission are making tremendous impact around the world.

After the Cofields retired, the school was handed to J. J. Wrote for his supervision. His tenure was also very remarkable. In later years in the 1970, much work at the school was expanded. A gymnasium was built for indoor sports. The standard was raised from elementary school to a junior high school and then to a high school. Many principals have come and gone. Many students have also come and gone. The Liberian Civil War had a devastating affect on the school. But under the leadership of Herbert and Mary Zigbuo as mission superintendent, and John Gbilia as principal of the school, lots of reconstruction work is going on. Much support is needed to revitalize the school.

         George Schwab and George Way Harley, Tribes of the Liberian Hinterland. (Harvard University: Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. XXXI. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Peabody Museum. 1945).

         Nya Kwiawon Taryor, Impact of the African Tradition on African Christianity, (Chicago: Strugglers’ Community Press, 1985 second printing.) pp. 105-109.