History of Clay County
Schools
From 1850 until Present
by
Mark Leek
Acknowledgements and Author’s Note
This document
of the History of Clay County Schools was a summer doctoral project in the
Issues of Rural Education class at
I wish to
express my sincere appreciation and gratitude for all the individuals from both
Mark Leek
Doctoral Student
July, 2003
Table of Contents
Introduction 4
Chapter One 6
Brief History of
Chapter Two 8
Education from 1850 until 1899
Chapter Three 23
Education from 1900 until 1929
Chapter Four 44
Education from 1930 until 1959
Chapter Five 58
Education from 1960 until 1989
Chapter Six 63
Education from 1990 until Present
Chapter Seven 67
Conclusion
References 68
Appendix A 72
From Log Cabins to One Campus: History of Schools in
Introduction
As the Clay County School System enters the 21st Century, it becomes important to stop and reflect back on the history of the school system. This reflection will not only record the past for posterity, but it will also enable the school system to have a better understanding or picture of time and place. This history may better enable the school system and the community to chart the future of education in the county.
The Clay County School System, not unlike many rural school systems all across the nation, has undergone extensive and diverse changes during the past 150 years. The school system persevered and flourished in the face of many issues that have been commonplace for many rural and urban schools alike over the past century. Such issues consisted of consolidation, segregation and integration, busing, funding, facilities, politics, and other such issues involved in providing the highest quality education available.
However, in examining and researching the history of schools
in
In examining and researching the history of schools in
Chapter One
According to Padgett J. (1976), the first white
settlers arrived in the Tusquittee section of what was then to become
What is now
Chapter Two
Education from 1850 until 1899
Although Clay County originated in 1861, it can be found that schools and the education of children existed years before this action. Although many people contributed to the efforts of developing schools in the region, the history of education in Clay County would not be complete without mentioning the efforts of John O. Hicks (Padgett, 1976). From all of the available history on schools in Clay County, it can be said that John O. Hicks was the father of education in the area.
According to Padgett (1976), John Hicks arrived in the Tusquittee section of Cherokee County, later to become Clay County, in 1850, at the age of twenty-five. Padgett goes on to state that John Hicks was born in Burke County, North Carolina and received his education in small, one-room schoolhouses until the age of twelve. However, some of the other research disputes the claim that Hicks was born in Burke County. According to the 1860 Federal Census conducted in Cherokee County, John Hicks birthplace was in McDowell County, North Carolina (Morrison, C., 2002). However, the census information is in agreement with the other research on John Hicks’ age and occupation. It reveals that John Hicks would have been twenty-five in 1850 and that his occupation was that of a schoolteacher.
Padgett (1976) states that after his arrival in the Tusquittee section of the county, John Hicks began opening one-room, log cabin pay schools in the area. The first of these schools was opened on the farm of Alec Martin. Later, John Hicks opened schools on A. G. Moore’s farm, the Bristol Cove, and Shiloh respectively. Pay schools required fees for tuition from the students in addition to purchasing the required textbooks from which they would study. Padgett goes on to explain that Hicks taught in all of these schools using Webster’s Old Blue Back Speller, Smith’s Grammar, Davis and Fowler’s arithmetic, and penmanship with the goose quill pen and pokeberry ink. The literature and research is unclear as to whether or not these schools continued when John Hicks would leave one school and establish and teach at more schools. There is no mention of Clay County public schools in the literature researched during the period of the 1850s.
As time moved on into the 1860s so did John Hicks. He eventually found his way toward the Fort Hembree area, which was a hub of community action for the citizens of the southeastern section of Cherokee County. The fort had been built by the federal government in 1839 to assist in the removal of the Cherokees to the Oklahoma Territory but now served as the center of community and business affairs. He had also moved towards the Lick Log Creek section where it is believed that he opened another one-room pay school. By 1868, Hicks had established a good reputation in the area and had gained sufficient stature in the newly formed county (Padgett, 1976). It also appears that Hicks’ prestige as an educator exceeded the boundaries of the county and extended into other areas of western North Carolina. Robert Lee Madison, founder and president of Western Carolina Teachers College, writes that John O. Hicks was among the most prominent pioneer educators in the area and his accomplishments and efforts greatly assisted in creating the educational system that was in place today (Western Carolina Teachers College, 1939). This stature had gained him enough support to be elected as the first representative from Clay County to the North Carolina General Assembly. He served two terms in the legislature from 1868-70 and 1874-75 (Clay County, 1981).
During his first tenure in the North Carolina General Assembly, John Hicks purchased land near the Fort Hembree area to establish a school. Unknown to John Hicks at the time, this land purchase and school establishment would be Hicks’ long-lasting contribution to the school system in Clay County. According to Padgett (1976), on August 12th, 1870, John Hicks purchased two tracts of land on which to build Hicksville Academy that was later to become Hayesville High School. The land which John Hicks purchased to open Hicksville Academy would have had a view similar to the one in the photo that follows taken thirty some years later.
Picture was obtained from the
Clay County Historical Museum.
Although this date of 1870 coincides with the founding date of Hayesville High School, the school and property changed hands numerous times and it was not until years later in the early 1900s that the name of the school was changed to Hayesville High School. It is also believed that during this time period Hicksville Academy was another pay school that eventually boarded students and was not to be considered a public school.
However, it appears that other “public” schools coexisted with the academy during this time. As early as 1863, the North Carolina Government recognized the need for public schools in each of its counties. In 1863, the North Carolina General Assembly proposed a bill for the establishment of public schools in each county (North Carolina General Assembly, 1863). As Clay County moved through the beginnings of the reconstruction period after the Civil War, it should be understood that all schools in the state and nation were segregated by race and schools would remain segregated in Clay County as well as North Carolina for the next 100 years.
In the late 1860s, the state superintendent pointed out in his report to the governor that Clay County had 770 white and 60 “colored” school age children and that the county had been apportioned by the state four hundred fifteen dollars for the operation of its public schools. The report also lists the county examiner for Clay County as A. B. Alexander (Ashley, S., 1869). Although it appears that public schools existed in Clay County in the late 1860s, no record other than that of the state superintendent’s report can verify their existence and the locations of the schools were not to be found in the existing research.
During the 1870s it appears that the Hicksville Academy flourished and had gained a solid reputation in the education of the students that attended. John Hicks apparently not only served in the state legislature during different periods of this decade, but also managed to operate and teach at the Hicksville Academy. Written records of the curriculum at the academy have not been found, however it is clear that the curriculum was more than just the basic curriculum of the day and surpassed the curriculums at the various pay schools that Hicks had established in the area previously. According to Padgett J. (1976), in 1872, John Hicks had sent to Kansas for a good music teacher to be employed at the academy. He later in 1874, married this music teacher. John Hicks superintended and taught at Hicksville Academy for eight years before leaving the area. It was not until 1878, that John Hicks sold Hicksville Academy to R. B. Chambers (Padgett, 1976). This real estate action further verifies that Hicksville Academy was not a public school and was under private ownership.
R. B. Chambers only owned the school for one year before selling it to N. A. Fessenden who served as the principal and head master of the academy (Padgett J., 1976). However it appears that the academy’s reputation continued to flourish under the new ownership. According to WebRoots.org Genealogy Foundation (n.d.), a fine high school at Hayesville existed with Mr. N. A. Fessenden in charge after succeeding John O. Hicks. Another source also verifies the quality of the school. “The same school that John O. Hicks organized and built up at Hayesville is still in operation with an enrollment of over two hundred. The influence that has gone out from this school has permeated the whole county until the public schools of the county are unsurpassed” (Arthur, J., 1914, p. 15). This also verifies that public schools coexisted with the academy in the county.
However, Fessenden did not superintend the school for a long period of time. In 1883, N. A. Fessenden deeded the school and property to the Joint Stock Company of Hayesville High School (Padgett J., 1976). It appears that during this time period in the early 1880s, the name of the school was changed from Hicksville Academy to Hayesville Academy. In the early 1880’s, Dr. James Hual “Tobe” Crawford attended and graduated from Hicksville Academy before studying medicine at the University of Chattanooga (Morgan, L., 1996). However, according to a biography on George Washington Truett, George Truett graduated from Hayesville Academy in 1885 before moving to Texas and becoming a well-known Baptist minister (Powhatan J., 2002). Crawford and Truett were not the only students that lived distinguished lives after attending and graduating from this school or academy in Hayesville. According to WebRoots.org Genealogy Foundation (n.d.), the Reverend Ferd. C. McConnell, along with Reverend George Truett, both became well-known Baptist ministers, and the Honorable George Bell of the Tenth Georgia Congressional district all attended and graduated from this academy during this time period.
Clay County also had other public schools operating in the 1880s. Although no written records have been obtained to name and verify the locations of the public schools in existence during this time, it can be concluded from the 1883-84 state superintendent’s biennial report that public schools did exist in Clay County in conjunction with the academy at Hayesville. For the school term of 1883-84, Clay County operated nine white public schools and one “colored” public school serving 884 white students and 36 “colored” students with the white teachers being paid $23.50 per month and the “colored” teacher receiving $20.00 per month. The school term lasted seventy days for both the white and “colored” schools (Scarborough, J., 1885).
During the late 1880s, the former Hicksville Academy was operated by the Joint Stock Company of Hayesville High School deeded the property to the Methodist-Episcopal Church, South which in turn granted the management and organization of the school and facilities over to Trinity College 1891 (Padgett J., 1976). At this time in 1891, the name of the academy was changed to Hayesville Male and Female College and courses were offered from the first grade through college courses with the general superintendence of the college belonging to Dr. John F. Crowell, President of Trinity College in Durham, North Carolina (Trinity College, 1891). Although the college in Hayesville formed in 1891, the founding date listed on the catalogue was 1850, which corresponded with the founding date of Trinity College of Durham, North Carolina (King, W., 2000). The courses offered at Hayesville Male and Female College consisted of primary courses, mathematics, algebra, Latin, English, geography, Greek, and history with the Reverend W. H. Bailey, A. M. serving as Head Master (Trinity College). Cottages were built for boarding students and tuition was charged. Tuition did not cover the cost of books or materials, which had to be purchased separately. Students boarded at the college and the enrollment for the 1891-92 school term was two hundred twenty-five students coming from six different states (Trinity College).
The relationship between Hayesville Male and Female College and Trinity College of Durham existed for two years. “In the year 1893, The Board of Trustees of the said College sold and conveyed all the buildings and property belonging to the College, to the Public School Committee of the Hayesville School District” (Hayesville College, 1898, p. 4). Trinity College of Durham no longer superintended the operation and management of Hayesville Male and Female College, and later Trinity College changed their name as well. In 1924, Trinity College of Durham, who had operated and managed the college in Hayesville, changed their name and became Duke University (King W., 2000).
Although the college in Hayesville was no longer operated and managed by Trinity College, it still continued to maintain the name Hayesville Male and Female College and offer courses from the first grade through college level subjects (Hayesville College). The college catalogue illustrates that tuition, room and board, and the cost of books still was assessed into the 1898-99 school term. This is different from the public schools of the time in the aspect of charging for tuition, room, and board, but public school students like the students at the Hayesville Male and Female College still had to purchase their textbooks. This practice of public schools students purchasing their textbooks continued in Clay County as well as the rest of the state into the 1930s (North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, 1999).
As it can best be determined, the Hayesville Male and Female College proceeded through the 1898-99 school year and continued to charge tuition, room and board, and offer college level courses along with conferring the degree of Baccalaurei Artium (B. A.)(Hayesville College, 1898). It has not been determined through the available research as to the exact time or date that the school ceased to offer college level courses and degrees. However, it can be verified that the elementary education at this institution became free with no charge for tuition and the name of the institution was changed from Hayesville Male and Female College to Hayesville Male and Female College and Graded School. This was a result of a 1895 legislative action by the North Carolina General Assembly enlarging the school district and empowering the local government to levy a tax for the support of the graded school that offered ten months of instruction (Hayesville College). Ten months of instruction far exceeded the terms of instruction offered at the other public schools in the county. According to Mebane, C. (1900), Clay County public schools taught fourteen week terms in the public schools for whites and eight and one half weeks term for the “colored” students.
Although the Hayesville College transformed through the 1890’s, the reputation of the school still continued to grow. According to Hayesville College (1898), the enrollment was 201 students representing six states. Ms. Sue Haigler, whose father was a trustee of the school, stated that the school had a good reputation and offered a wide variety of courses for the day and had students attending from a variety of states (S. Haigler, personal communication, June 19, 2003).
During the 1898-99 school year, it can be concluded through the existing research that public schools in addition to the Hayesville Male and Female College and Graded School continued to coexist and operate in Clay County. It also appears that the public schools were developing in the other communities in the county. According to Mebane, C. (1900), in the state superintendent’s biennial report for the 1898-99 school year, Clay County operated eighteen public school houses serving 736 white students and 15 “colored” students. The exact names and locations of these schools were not verified in the existing research. This was an increase in schools and school buildings of 80% over the previous fifteen years.
It was also during this time period that the first mention of student discipline surfaced in the available research. It was found that students who exhibited inappropriate behavior would be issued demerits that could lead to expulsion from the Hayesville Male and Female College and Graded School (Hayesville College, 1898). However, as time progressed and the college became Hayesville High School, student discipline was in the form of corporal punishment, which appears through the research to have been the discipline form of choice for many years. Ms. Sue Haigler, a 1919 graduate of Hayesville High, recalls students being disciplined with a ruler slapping the palm of an outstretched hand. This method of corporal discipline continued in many classrooms for at least the next half of century, as Ms. Haigler employed this type of discipline in her own classroom. Ms. Haigler retired from teaching at Hayesville in 1967. Ms. Haigler also recollects that when the boys misbehaved, they would be given the assignment of digging up stumps on the school grounds or shoveling coal for the furnace (S. Haigler, personal communication, June 19, 2003).
Corporal punishment was not reserved for schools at Hayesville but was employed in the other schools in the county as well. Garnett Johnson, who attended the Fires Creek School from 1926 until 1934, recalled that the first task of the teacher to begin the year was to cut and bundle switches. This bundle was placed in the corner of the schoolhouse and he believed that it served as much as a deterrent for inappropriate behavior as it did for the consequence for such behavior. He recalls that during the late 1920s, he and another student at Fires Creek School would receive a switching on the back of the legs on a regular basis for writing left handed. This continued for two years and was eliminated when the next teacher was hired (G. Johnson, personal communication, July 6, 2003).
Although corporal punishment has continued through the years and still remains permissible to date in Clay County Schools, it no longer continues to be the discipline form of choice. Other forms of student discipline have evolved such as written assignments, parent conferences, time out of activities, in-school-suspension, and out-of-school suspension (Clay County Schools, 1921-2003).
Another interesting aspect of public schools is the transformation in the administration of public schools. It appears that the earlier superintendence of public schools fell to the county commissioners. In the 1869 state superintendents report of public instruction, a letter was found from the state superintendent that all schools are to be superintended by the local governments’ county commissioners (Ashley, S., 1869). However, this appears to have changed sometime prior to the 1898-99 state superintendent’s report. According to Mebane, C. (1900), the superintendent of Clay County Schools in 1898 was T. H. Nancock (sic) and the board of education consisted of G. W. Sanderson of Hayesville and I. H. Chambers of Warne.
The inception of having a board of education developed sometime after 1870, with the local board of education being appointed by the North Carolina General Assembly, a practice, which continued for nearly one hundred years, until the local school boards were elected by the local population in a general election (D. Penland, personal communication, June 5, 2003). It appears that soon after the state began appointing local boards of education, the local boards of education not only appointed a local superintendent, but appointed committeemen to oversee the various schools in the county. This practice was found to be controversial from the beginning due to the created bureaucracy and politics involved with the appointments and a move to abolish this practice can be found as early as 1898. According to Mebane, C. (1900), the act of appointing committeemen should be abolished as schools have too many officers that burdened them down and that the practice of committeemen’s selection of teachers based on political and church affiliation has not provided the best for public education. Mebane goes on to list qualifications of committeemen, if the practice was to continue, and stated that all committeemen should be able to read and write as well as be in favor of taxes for schools in order to be successful as a school official serving in the capacity of a committeeman. It appears that Clay County Schools appointed and utilized the principles of assigning committeemen for each of their schools. The use of committeemen has been documented in Clay County from 1921 well into the 1960s (Clay County Schools, 1921- 2003).
Further qualifications and duties of committeemen can be found in other literature and research. In the Republican State Committee (1906), the handbook states that another responsibility of a committeeman was to take a census of school age children in their district or community. In many cases, committeemen were also responsible for seeing that wood was supplied for the purposes of heating the school with the wood stoves (S. Haigler, personal communication, June 19, 2003).
Another development in the late Nineteenth Century was the certification of teachers. In many cases, the teachers merely had to complete a grade as a student to be qualified to teach the grade. In many instances, the teachers were not much older than or as old as some of the older students in the school (N. Jarrett, personal communication, July, 2, 2003). John O. Hicks who began some of the early schools in Clay County only received formal schooling through the age of twelve in one-room schoolhouses (Padgett J., 1976). However, this was beginning to change in the late 1800s. The available research indicates that Clay County had an examiner in 1869 for the purposes of certifying teachers in the county. H. B. Alexander was appointed as county examiner (Ashley, S., 1869). According to the report submitted by Mebane, C. (1900), the examination for teachers to obtain a life certificate that enabled them to teach in public schools in any county in the state consisted of questions concerning geography, history, arithmetic, history and philosophy of education, physical geography, school law, botany, grammar, literature, algebra, civil government, physiology and hygiene, physics, and elementary psychology. The report further reveals that fifteen white teachers and one “colored” teacher in Clay County were examined and approved in 1899.
Chapter Three
Education from 1900 to 1929
Little can be found on schools in Clay County from 1900 until 1906. It is unclear if the Hayesville Male and Female College and Graded School continued to operate under that name and offer college courses, charge tuition, and board students beyond 1899. However, it appears that the high school at Hayesville continued to board students through the 1909-10 school year and sometime prior to 1909, the name of the school was changed to Hayesville High School. An extract from a report from D. M. Stallings, the principal of Hayesville High School, to the state superintendent details the need for dormitories to accommodate boarding students. “With dormitory to accommodate our boarding students and with more funds to increase our teaching force, we could double our enrollment for next year” (Aycock, C., 1910, p. 61). This also indicates that what has now become Hayesville High School continues to teach students not from the Hayesville area much the same way that Hayesville Male and Female College apparently did.
The length of the school term or year in the early 1900s was about four months unless it could be extended through additional local funding. The North Carolina Constitution required local taxes to be levied to provide for a four-month public school term (Republican State Committee, 1906). However, the four-month school term was to be mandated through the first compulsory attendance law. In 1913, the North Carolina General Assembly passed the Compulsory Attendance Act that required all children between the ages of eight and twelve to attend school at least four months a year (North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, 1999). This was to change within the next six years by extending the required time in school to six months. According to North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, the North Carolina Constitution moved the mandated four months compulsory attendance to six months in 1919 as well as developing the State Board of Examiners to be responsible for the certification of all teachers.
However, even though most of the funding for the operation of public schools was derived from local sources, the required length of a four-month school term was almost always accomplished in Clay County’s public schools for both the white and African-American students. This was quite an accomplishment with the lack of employment opportunities in the county during this time period. In Table 1, the number of schools in the county as well as the average length of the school term is illustrated for the years 1906 through 1918.
Table 1.
|
Number of Schools and Average Length of School Term in Days According to North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (1906-1919) |
||||
|
|
White Colored |
|||
|
Year |
Schools |
Term |
Schools |
Term |
|
1906 |
18 |
70 |
0 |
N/A |
|
1907 |
17 |
80 |
1 |
80 |
|
1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 |
16 17 18 14 15 15 15 15 13 14 14 |
80 80 80 84 100 119 152 118 110 114 112 |
0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 |
N/A N/A 80 70 80 80 102 80 100 100 100 |
Clay County had as many as eighteen public schools operating and instructing students in the early 1900s. The available research does not provide the names or locations of these schools. However, in 1912, of the sixteen public schools operating in the county, thirteen of them were one-room schoolhouses (Aycock, C. 1910). It is assumed that many of these one-room schoolhouses were located in some of the more remote locations in the county that served some of the more isolated populations. For instance, on the wagon road over the mountain from Hayesville to Fires Creek, a one-room schoolhouse existed in a location referred to as the schoolhouse patch. This school employed Laura Lyons as a teacher and paid her $6.00 a month to teach at this school (N. Jarrett, personal communication, July 2, 2003). Other such schoolhouses existed in many of the remote locations of the county. Apparently similar schoolhouses existed in the Bristol Camp and through the Carver Gap sections of the county (G. Johnson, personal communication, July 6, 2003). Berts Bristol was taught for a period of time by Star Bristol in a log cabin at the Bristol Camp. Star was paid a teacher’s salary for performing this duty (B. Bristol, personal communication, July 16, 2003). It can be assumed that the operating of one-room schoolhouses occurred in other remote areas of the county as well. The following photograph illustrates the students that attended Sweetwater School in 1906.
Photo obtained from the Clay County Historical
Museum.
The next photograph was a photo taken during the early 1900sof the students that attended Oak View School that was commonly known as “Chigger Hill School”.
Photo obtained from the Clay County Historical Museum.
Although Clay County was able to operate their public schools for the required four months during this time period, the number of school age children between the ages of six and twenty-one attending school always fell short of the school age population. This may be attributed to the method of transportation that the students would have utilized to get to school. During the early 1900s, the mode of transportation was still by foot, horseback, or a horse-drawn vehicle (Padgett J., 1976). Table 2 provides the attendance data for Clay County’s public schools from 1906 until 1918.
|
Table 2. Student Population and Student Attendance According to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (1906-1919) |
||||
|
|
White Colored |
|||
|
Year |
Pop. |
Att. |
Pop. |
Att. |
|
1906 |
1507 |
1189 |
55 |
37 |
|
1907 |
1400 |
1220 |
65 |
53 |
|
1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 |
1430 1435 1440 1200 1493 1401 1326 1599 1602 1603 1614 |
1043 1093 1104 874 1089 958 957 1228 1156 1156 1192 |
68 65 61 53 53 53 52 58 52 52 50 |
35 55 80* 39 30 36 44 45 37 37 30 |
* An error
occurred in reporting these figures.
Other reasons were found for school age children not attending the public schools. These reasons consisted of work, home schooling, and many of the public, one-room schools only provided for instruction through the seventh grade.
Many school age children belonged to families that farmed for a living. Once the children were old enough to work on the farm, schooling became a second priority. The older children were needed on the farm to work and range the livestock (N. Jarrett, personal communication, July 2, 2003).
Other children were home-taught or schooled. Frankie Murphy recalled the “colored” school but did not attend as she was taught to read at home by her father. Her textbook was the Holy Bible (F. Lloyd, personal communication, June 27, 2003).
In many of the cases in Clay County, the smaller, one-room, public schools located in the various communities only instructed students through the seventh grade. In order to further their education, they would have to travel to Hayesville to attend classes beyond the seventh grade (G. Johnson, personal communication, July 6, 2003).
Although a large number of schools in the county were one-room schoolhouses, larger schools did exist such as Hayesville, Elf, and Ogden and instructed students through at least a couple of years in high school. In May 1909, the local board of education made application to the state board of education for the establishment of a state high school at Hayesville. This was significant for the county students prepared to enter high school as it made the tuition for high school classes free of charge (A State High School, 1909). Apparently, the 1895 legislative act that created Hayesville Graded School did not apply to high school instruction. The newspaper article goes on to state that if Hayesville becomes a state high school, then a speedy restoration of the dormitories will be expected (A State High School).
High School instruction during the 1909-10 school year consisted of high school classes that were taught at Hayesville and Elf High Schools. Students could receive four years of high school instruction at Hayesville and three years of instruction at Elf. Hayesville High School had five full-time teachers and Elf High School had one full-time and one part-time teachers (Aycock, C., 1910). The photo below illustrates the faculty at Hayesville High School in 1915.
Picture was obtained from the Clay County Historical Museum.
The 1910 graduating class at Hayesville was twenty-five students consisting of seventeen girls and eight boys (Aycock, C., 1910). Later between 1910 and 1919, high school classes were also offered at the Ogden School but students could only complete four years of study at Hayesville (North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, 1906-1960).
In 1909-10, Elf High School, located in the Elf Community, had an enrollment of forty-one students, while Hayesville High School had an enrollment of 108 students. The high school at Hayesville was a framed, two-story building, and it is assumed that it was one of the original buildings that served Hayesville Male and Female College. The picture below was taken in the early 1900s of Hayesville High School and this building was dismantled in 1924.
Picture was obtained from the
Clay County Historical Museum.
Another interesting historical note was found in the training of teachers. At various points and times, teachers in Clay County would have to go to summer session or teacher institutes held in the county to further their training and possibly obtain or upgrade a teaching certificate (Clay County Schools, 1921-2003). It appears through the 1902 photo that follows, such institutes or summer sessions occurred early in the 1900’s and were conducted at the county courthouse.
Picture was obtained from the Clay County
Historical Museum.
Prior to the 1920’s, it can be concluded that five men served at different times as superintendent of Clay County Schools apparently beginning sometime in the 1890s. T. H. Nancock (sic) served as superintendent of Clay County Schools during the 1898-99 school year (Mebane, C., 1900). Nancock (sic) would be the first superintendent from the available records. Four other men served as superintendent of schools prior to 1921. The names of the men that succeeded Nancock (sic) have been determined but their tenure date as superintendent is uncertain.
Although these dates are not recorded, the approximate order in which these men served as superintendent can be speculated. These superintendents were G. M. Fleming, G. H. Haigler, T. C. Scroggs, and D. M. Stallings (Padgett, J., Penland, A., & Moore, J., 1961). G. M. Flemming (sic) and G. H. Haigler had served on the 1898 Board of Trustees for the Hayesville Male and Female College and Graded School apparently prior to serving as superintendent of Clay County Schools (Hayesville College, 1898). It could be speculated that these two men were to follow T. H. Nancock (sic) as superintendent of schools sometime after 1899. D. M. Stallings also served as principal of the Hayesville School. It can be determined that Stallings was principal of the school during the 1909-10 school year (Aycock, C., 1910). His tenure as principal was not to extend, beyond the 1913-14 school year, as Professor E. L. Adams served as the Hayesville principal beginning in the 1913-14 school year (Padgett J., 1976). It could be that after his tenure as principal, D. M. Stallings had been promoted to superintendent. According to Padgett, T. C. Scroggs served as superintendent of schools in Clay County up until 1921.
By 1921, the tenure of the superintendents can be determined. Beginning in 1921, Allen J. Bell served as superintendent of schools. His tenure as superintendent would last for thirty-five years until 1956 and the school board consisted of three members that were appointed by the North Carolina General Assembly (Appendix A).
Clay County Schools in the 1920s dealt with a variety of issues affecting the operations of the schools in the county. One of the issues the school system faced was the move to consolidate some of the smaller schools that occurred during the latter part of this decade. According to Clay County Schools (1921-2003), during the 1920s, it can be concluded that the following schools were in existence at one time or another. These schools consisted of Pisgah School, Buck Creek School, Fires Creek School, Sweetwater School, Ogden School, Pinelog School, Oak View School (also known as Chigger Hill), Upper Tusquittee School, Shooting Creek School, Elf School, Curtis School (also known as Lick Skillet), Lower Tusquittee School, Hayesville High School, and Hayesville Colored School. Downings Creek School can also be added to this list as apparently it operated during the 1920s (N. Jarrett, personal communication, July 2, 2003). These fifteen schools would also collaborate with the statistics obtained from the state superintendent’s biennial reports from the 1920s (Table 3). The only exception is that fifteen schools are identified from the Clay County School Board Minutes and as many as sixteen schools are found in the state superintendent’s biennial report in the early 1920s.
Table 3.
|
Number of Schools and Average Length of School Term in Days According to North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (1920-1929) |
||||
|
|
White Colored |
|||
|
Year |
Schools |
Term |
Schools |
Term |
|
1920 |
15 |
120 |
1 |
120 |
|
1921 |
15 |
150 |
1 |
120 |
|
1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 |
15 15 15 15 14 11 11 11 |
148 130 134 135 142 - - - |
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 |
120 85 120 120 120 |
It is indicated by the data contained in Table 3 that after 1926 three schools were closed and consolidated into some of the other area schools. From Clay County Schools (1921-2003), it can be determined that Pisgah and Buck Creek Schools were closed in this time period. It is assumed based on locations of the schools that Pisgah School was consolidated with Ogden School and Buck Creek was consolidated with Shooting Creek School. According to Neal Jarrett, he said that he attended Downings Creek School from 1915 until 1924. He said that the school was closed one year after he stopped attending (N. Jarrett, personal communication, July 2, 2003).
Another significant event in the 1920s was the accreditation of Hayesville High School. According to North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (1906-1960), Hayesville High School received accreditation in 1924. Padgett J. (1976) even discusses the fact that some of the high school’s former graduates returned to graduate from an accredited high school.
From the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (1906 -1960), it can also be determined that as many as eight of these schools were one-room schoolhouses. It is also apparent that in these one-room schoolhouses, instruction only included first through seventh grade with a curriculum consisting of arithmetic, spelling, writing, reading, history, geography, and grammar (N. Jarrett, personal communication, July 2, 2003). As it can best be determined, students would have to travel to Hayesville or Elf to receive high school instruction. Garnett Johnson remembers only one student from Fires Creek School District in the late 1920s and early 1930s graduating high school and that was because the student was able to board through the week with his older sister who lived in Hayesville (G. Johnson, personal communication, July 6, 2003).
These smaller one-room schoolhouses dealt with other issues besides a limited curriculum and instruction that were unique. During the 1920s all of the schools in Clay County had outdoor plumbing (Clay County Schools, 1921- 2003). However, in the smaller one-room schoolhouses, water would have to be carried from a local spring as far away as five hundred feet in some instances. Different students would also be assigned to going into school early to build a fire in the wood stove that supplied heat to the schoolroom. In addition to these physical differences that were characteristic of one-room schools was that of instruction. One teacher would teach all of the different grades and subjects in a multi-aged classroom (G. Johnson, personal communication, July 6, 2003).
It also appears that instructional organization was structured differently in some of the larger county schools that employed more than two teachers. According to Ms. Haigler, elementary instruction at Hayesville was self-contained instruction throughout her career, which spanned from 1921 until 1967 (S. Haigler, personal communication, June 19, 2003). Some of the other larger elementary schools such as Ogden, Shooting Creek, and Elf utilized combination grade classrooms that assigned one teacher to teach two different grades at the same time in the same room. It is suggested that this organizational structure of instruction continued until all of the multi-teacher schools were finally consolidated approximately fifty years later (D. Jones, personal communication, July 8, 2003).
Transportation of students was another and novel issue facing Clay County Schools in the 1920s. Early forms of transportation consisted of what was referred to as school trucks and contracts were awarded by the board of education through a bidding process. Although school trucks would run routes to transport children to school, these routes mainly consisted of transporting students to the larger schools of Hayesville and Ogden only (Clay County Schools, 1921-2003). Students who attended the smaller one-room schools would have to walk to and from school (G. Johnson, personal communication, July 6, 2003). According to Ms. Sue Haigler, who taught school at Hayesville from 1921 until 1967, as many as five school trucks transported students to the various schools during the 1920s. These trucks were an early style pickup truck with some having a canvas cover tied over the bed of the truck to shelter the students from the weather. Bus duty or truck duty by the teachers made for an extremely long day, as the transportation was both slow and unreliable (S. Haigler, personal communication, June 19,2003).
Funding for the schools was another major issue that the school system had to contend with. Throughout the 1920s as in years before, the majority of the funds for school were derived from local taxes. There were instances during the 1920s that the school fund was in a deficit and the local board did not have enough funds available to pay teachers and vouchers were issued (Clay County Schools, 1921- 2003). Sometimes it was difficult for teachers to get the local merchants to sign off on the vouchers in order for teachers to purchase goods (S. Haigler, personal communication, June 19, 2003).
Teacher qualifications and personnel was another issue that Clay County Schools was faced with in the 1920s. The school board passed an action on December 5, 1921 that ordered no second grade teachers be allowed to teach as long as the schools can be supplied with other teachers. The board further stated that all second grade teachers that are allowed to teach must have completed high school (Clay County Schools, 1921-2003). The board minutes further state, in 1928, the problem with the scarcity of high school teachers with four years college training.
Another major issue that faced Clay County Schools in the 1920s was the increase in student enrollment and attendance at the various schools in the county. As indicated in Table 4, the attendance significantly increased from the previous decade.
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Table 4. Student Population and Student Attendance According to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (1920-1929) |
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|
White Colored |
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|
Year |
Pop. |
Att. |
Pop. |
Att. |
|
1920 |
1440 |
1052 |
65 |
45 |
|
1921 |
1484 |
1179 |
62 |
43 |
|
1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 |
1518 1554 1549 1543 1673 1685 1770 1647 |
1348 1372 1392 1310 1495 1495 1505 1520 |
30 52 25 33 36 41 28 37 |
30 37 25 29 28 20 23 26 |
The student attendance data from Table 4 indicated a growth in the white student population but a decrease in the African-American population by the close of the decade. However, it is interesting to note the number of students that would have attended the one-room Hayesville Colored School ranged from fifty-five students in 1909 (Table 2) to twenty students in 1927 (Table 4). Although this appears to be a large number of students in a one-room, one-teacher school, it apparently happened in most of these small schools in the county. According to Johnson, in the late 1920s, the one-room, one-teacher school at Fires Creek had student attendance ranging from thirty to forty-five students.
Clay County in the 1920s was predominately agricultural. In some instances school would close for various agricultural responsibilities and work that the children of the home would be expected to perform. School would generally close for two weeks at the beginning of September for foder and would also close for the students to work in the fields and pick Clay Peas (G. Johnson, personal communication, July 6, 2003). However, this practice of closing school ceased by the 1930s. The school board voted to not close school for foder in a 1929 meeting (Clay County Schools, 1921-2003).
Chapter Four
Education from 1930 until 1959
One of the most historically significant events that took place for Clay County Schools during this time period was the action initiated by the 1931 North Carolina General Assembly. In 1931, the North Carolina General Assembly passed the “School Machinery Act” that provided for a free and uniform education for all children of North Carolina (North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, 1999). This legislation led to other state initiatives that benefited Clay County Schools in a variety of ways.
First, schools no longer had to depend solely on local funds to operate schools. The state would financially contribute to provide a uniform education throughout the state (North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, 1999). This greatly assisted local school boards in the operation of schools. On