Scott County Historical
Society
Scott County, Virginia
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Mildred McConnell's Scrapbook Articles
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One
Room Schools
Cedar Point School was originally built by Garfield and Edward Wood By: James I. Wood In
1879 a small plot of land was deeded to the Scott County School System for
the purpose of building a school house thereon with the stipulation that
the land revert to the farm owner if at any time the house should be
abandoned. This
plot of land was a part of the Skillern Wood place mentioned in the
History of Scott County. A
one room log building was erected and used for several years and known
as "Wood School", having been built in the Wood Community of
Scott County in Moccasin Valley about fifteen miles east of Gate City. This
log building was used until a two room frame house was built nearby in the
early nineteen hundreds. This house was known as "Mount Hagan"
and was used until schools were consolidated several years ago. Known
teachers at the Wood School were
Mr. R. M. Dougherty, Miss Lina Welsh and Miss Lena The
Wood School was built on the same farm where one hundred years earlier
Fort Houston had stood, as related by Mr. Addington in the History of
Scott County. Central
heating and indoor plumbing were unknown in these old country schools. Mount
Hagan had pot-bellied stoves for heat. We
boys carried water to drink from a small spring nearly one half mile from
the school. Another
chore for the boys was to get switches. Back then teachers were allowed to
discipline the students. There
were no indoor restrooms at Mount Hagan. The girls had an outside toilet.
The boys didn't even have a toilet, what we had was a small grove of
bushes about two or three hundred yards from the school house! On
occasions church services were held at Mount Hagan as there were no
churches in the community A
few of the teachers that were at Mount Hagan. over the years were Mr.
Charles Smith, Fanny Carty, Mount
Hagan had a high ceiling and a partition to divide the two rooms. This
petition could be raised This
old house has stood empty and silent for several years, a reminder of
happy times many of us have spent there. Some
of the families living in the Wood Community of Scott County, surrounding
Mount Hagan sixty There
are just a few descendants of these families living in the community; most
have settled elsewhere, while several yet live in Scott County. I
think that most of us older citizens look back to our school days with
fond memories, more so if we Cedar
Point School was built about the same time that Mt. Hagan was.
It is a few miles west of Mt. Hagan.
Two brothers, Garfield and Edward Wood, were the builders of Cedar
Point School House. A
few of the students attending school in the old log building were: Mrs.
Emma Francisco Wood may have been the last teacher to teach in the present
building at Cedar Mount
Hagan was named for Patrick Hagan, a widely known attorney of Scott
County. |