Carter County Schools

From Sherry Lowe

 Charlotte Furnace - (Also known as Iron Hill) A one room school that my father, Rev.

 Bill V. Burnett,  and his siblings attended for elementary school. They then

 transferred to Carter High School at Carter City.

 Carter City - This used to be grades 1-12.  Grades 1-6 were housed in an old frame

 building that once sat where the Carter Christian Church now stands, and grades 7-12

 were housed in the stone building that now houses the Carter Elementary School, since

 the formation of the East and West Carter High Schools.  I began attending at the old

 Carter School in 1961, when there was no indoor plumbing and each room had a pot belly

 stove.  The older boys were usually sent down to the coal room to get coal to keep the

 fires burning.  In the winter, you either froze or sweated, depending on how close you

 sat to the stove.  We did have a water fountain and two sinks in the main hall, but

 most of the time either the pipes were frozen or in a state of repair that did not

 allow for water to actually flow from them. The classrooms opened from the main hall,

 and each room did have an exterior entrance of its own.  The first grade teachers were

 Clevie McGlone and Cynthia Hilger.  Second grade was taught by Christine Ramey.  Third

 grade always seemed to have a new teacher for some reason.  Fourth grade was taught by

 Hazel Menix.  Fifth grade was taught by Carter Co. poet, Paul Salyers, and Sixth grade

 was taught by Norma McGlone.  I can remember the bus trying to get up John Moore Hill

 in the snow and the older boys having to get off the bus and help the bus driver put

 chains on the bus to make it up the hill.  There were nearly 75 students crammed onto

 the bus each day due to the shortage of buses. Because the same bus had to make two

 runs each morning and each evening (I lived approximately 13 miles from the school and

 there were others on our run that lived farther away) we normally had to catch the bus

 very early in the morning and didn't return home until nearly 5:00 in the evening.  One

 year we missed so much school, because of the winter snows, that we had to go to school

 on Saturday for a couple of months to keep from losing the entire school year.  Other

 teachers that taught at Carter High School, which included the elementary: Charlene

 Potter, Kathryn McGlone, Ines Dean, Virgie McGlone, Glenn M. Sparks, Marice McGlone,

 Iva Jesse, Faye Phillips (Librarian), Audrey Danner, and Mildred Lewis.

 Olive Hill - The old building is now being turned into a Community Building and will

 house the Olive Hill Historical and Genealogical Society.  Olive Hill High School

 Faculty 1947-48 included Hazel Roe Martin, Ruby Duncan Mabry, Bernice Stallard Kiser,

 Hayden Colson Parker, Parma Johnson Sparks, Marie Barbour Howard, Orene Mcglone Wilburn,

 Martha Stallard Keaton, Ollie Adams, Jacqueline Stamper, Myrtie Jessee Parker, Mary

 McClave, Thelma Cartee Roe, Lucille Cartwright Tomlinson, Frank Owens, Beulah Payne

 McGlone, Ralph "Buster" Cartee (later elected as Carter County Court Clerk) and Lelia

 Forrest.

 Prichard - (This was originally the High School for Grayson, the old Prichard Building

 burned a few years ago and was rebuilt.  Since the construction of East Carter and West

 Carter to consolidate all the little schools into two large High Schools, Prichard has

 been only an Elementary School).  The 1952 Prichard High Faulty was made up of Leona

 Smith, Lorraine Brammell Criswell, Maxine Yates, Helen Adams Kees, Floris Gee, Hazel

 Horton Calhoun, Ethel Wolfford, Thena Terry Cox, Marie Justice Lewis, Harold Holbrook,

 Max Calhoun, Edna Parsons, Peggy Morrison, Herald Bowling, Shupie Wheeler, Beatrice

 Haight, Maude Gilbert Lewis and Mary Elizabeth Castle Stringer.

 McDavid School - The McDavid School at Little Fork no longer stands.  Until a couple of

 years ago you could still see the edge of the steps going from the road up the hill.

 The last round of road work has now made those steps obscure. The school was located on

 Route 1122, between Silver Mine Hollow and Moore Branch Hollow on the former Norman

 Hylton farm.  (Note: Norman's wife was Betsy McDavid) The McDavid School was a one room

 school, with one pot belly stove, one well, two outhouses and was graded first through

 eighth.  This school was attended by my husband's mother, Nerva Lowe, who was born in

 1909 and by my husband, Garrett Lowe, who was born in 1946.  The last year that school

 was held at McDavid School was cir 1958.  The school did have a cafeteria in a separate

 building and Arva Kitchen was the cook.  My husband seems to remember that soup beans

 were the main course at least 4 out 5 days a week. Garrett also remembers that there

 was an annual school fair held in Grayson and the children from each school would wear

 sashes bearing the name of their school spelled out in glitter and march in the parade.

 He still remembers his McDavid sash.  As McDavid was so common a name in Carter Co.,

 many of the children from the McDavid school were actually McDavids by name.  It was

 confusing because it made all the children seem as though their surname was McDavid.

 Mary Elizabeth "Betty" McDavid (her picture can be found  in the Carter Co. Heritage

 Book, Vol. I), Mary Adams, and Deloris Adams were three of the teachers at McDavid

 School. Garrett's mother, Nerva Lowe, told us that the McDavid school on the hill that

 she and Garrett attended was the new McDavid school.  Apparently, the original McDavid

 school was located directly across the road from the one built just after  the turn of

 the century.  So it seems that there was probably a McDavid school early in the 1800's

 as well.

 Upper Tygart - Elementary school, the older students normally finished school at Olive

 Hill High.  The first stone school building constructed by the WPA.  It opened in 1942.

 Willard - now an elementary school to be consolidated with Hitchins Elementary.

 Hitchins High School - Served as a high school for 30 years until the formation of East

 and West Carter High schools.  It then became an elementary.  In 1998, a decision was

 made to consolidate Hitchins Elementary and and Willard Elementary into one school and

 build a new building.

 Others included, Perrys Branch, Tick Ridge, Aden, Bens Run, Breckinridge, Buckeye,

 Clark Hill, Corey, Davys Run Enterprise, Flat Rock, Fultz, Gravel Lick, Grayson Colored,

 Grayson Graded School, Greenbrier, Gregoryville, Henderson Branch, Johns Run, Kings

 Chapel, Lawton, Leatherwood, Locust, Lower Grassy, Lower Stinson, Music, Pine Springs,

 Plummer, Porter, Rattlesnake, Rock Springs, Salem, Smith Branch, Smith Creek, Denton,

 Anglin, McGlone Creek, Sulphur Springs, and Upper Stinson.   According to George

 Wolfford's "Carter County, A Pictorial History", "In 1850 there were 16 schools with

 696 pupils, supported by $171 from local taxes, a matching amount from the state, and

 $1,392 in parent payments."

This page was last updated on --

Thursday, 13-Sep-2018 05:36:56 MDT