Roane County Schools
The Roane County Normal for teachers was held in the county high school building at Kingston beginning June, 20 and closing July, 1. The attendance was large and constant from the beginning to the close. The interest of the teachers in the work was of the highest order showing that they had given the subjects discussed the most careful thought. The entire work went to show that the teachers of Roane County have made great progress in the art of teaching, as also in scholarship attainment during the past year. The improvement of the teachers of the county for the past few years has been marvelous This is evidently due to the thorough work done by Roan College, by the county high school, and by the splendid summer schools which we have been having. The first six days of the normal were given to institute work and the other five days to examinations.
The examinations were thorough and searching a half day being devoted to each study. Roane County has 61 primary schools, 7 secondary schools, 3 prosperous towns with city schools, and one county high school. It has also two colleges Roane College and the American University. Its primary and secondary schools will run from 5 to 7 months the coming year, while its city schools high school and colleges will run nine months. The County Court has increased the county levy for school purposes to 46 cents on the $100. The day is in sight when the levy will be put to the legal limit. Three eights of the population of the county is urban with nine months of school. The five eights of rural population will soon be in the line of nine months.
The future for education in Roane County is full of hope.
FACULTY AND DIVISION OF WORK
JC Wright, Director
(Source: Annual Report of ... State Superintendent of Public Instruction for Tennessee,Tennessee. Dept. of Public Instruction, 1906, p. 260)
Roane County High School Kingston Tenn
Roane College Wheat Tenn (Source: Patterson's American Educational Directory, Volume 14, American Educational Company, 1917, p. 466)
American University of Harriman, Harriman Tenn (Source: Patterson's American Educational Directory, Volume 14, American Educational Company, 1917, p. 819)
American Temperance University opened in 1893, the name was later changed to American University.
The building built and occupied by the East Tennessee Land Cornpany is significanTTTo Ha~rrimari, Tennessee, because it was that company which founded the town. The East Tennessee Land Company secured over 10,000 acres of land located along the Cumberland Plateau which contained coal and iron
deposits. In a state largely defended from saloons, advocates of Prohibition
resolved to create an industrial town where labor should have its own - and
where homes, churches, and schools might be free of the liquor traffic. Chief
among these men determined to combine a moral and economic principle with an extensive commercial enterprise was Gen. Clinton B. Fisk., Prohibition candidate for president in 1888. Fisk had military service in Tennessee and was Freedmen's Commissioner in command of the entire state at the close--qf, the war. It was Fisk who organized the East Tennessee Land Company in June, 1889, along with a number of other gentlemen.
After serving for two or more years as office space, the building was used as quarters for the American Temperance University which opened its doors in September 1893. The idea of its founders was to create an institution of higher education which would remain free of the vices connected with most universities. Harriman was chosen for the site of the American Temperance University because Harriman was a Prohibition City and a city in which "high ideals could be maintained." The school which existed...until 1909 graduated two United States Congressmen and many well-known lawyers, ministers, and educators. Later the building was used as a prep school for boys before it was bought by the city for use as a city hall before 1912. It served this purpose until the 1950's when a new municiple building was constructed. It as been vacant in recent years, but the city is now interested in renovating and preserving through adaptive uses this old historic structure which was all-important in the history and development of Harriman, Tennessee.
Roane College
Wheat, settled in the middle of the 19th century, was named after the first postmaster, Frank Wheat. It was the home of Roane College, a liberal arts college that was open from 1886 through 1908. Our history begins in 1846 when a community was established known as Bald Hill which lasted until 1880 when a post office was established and the name was changed to Wheat after its first post master Frank Wheat. In 1876 a Methodist minister named John Dickey established a "loud school" (A practice of reciting the lessons in unison) in a cabin on a Baptist church property. That was followed by the establishment of the Poplar Creek Seminary in 1886 by a Presbyterian minister named Rev. W.H. Crawford and George Jones, A.J. Burum, James W. Watson, J.F. Browder, D.H. Gallaher, and W.T. Galllaher acting as founders. The Poplar Creek Seminary was charted by the state of Tennessee in 1886 and its name was changed to Roane College. In 1908 trustees to the college transferred ownership to the Roane County Board of Education and the school became the Wheat High School which operated until its closure in 1941 when the community began to dissolve.
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The following is a list of schools known to have existed in Wheat: Robertson Schoolhouse was one of the first schools in the area (mid1800s) and was located a few yards east of the present George ... In 1885, the trustees applied to the state of Tennessee to make the seminary a four year accredited college. The charter was granted on January 6, 1886, and the name was changed to Roane College.
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List of Schools
Campbell High School was the only high school for blacks in Roane County. It started out as the Rockwood Colored School in 1920 and later became Campbell High School. It closed in 1965. Link
Cardiff School
Emory School
Fairview
Jamieson School a school for black children in Harriman Linka>
Harriman City School
Harriman High School began in 1891.
Johnson School
Kingston School
Lawrenceville School
Midway High School was opened in September 1947. It was the last high school to be created by the Roane County Court. It replaced Fairview and Paint Rock High Schools, which were organized as two-year or junior high schools in the 1920s.
Mountain View School
Oliver Springs High School had its beginning about 1895. In 1925 the first four year high school wasorganized. In 1935, the Oliver Springs Independent School District was dissolved and it became part of the Roane County School system.
Paint Rock High School
Pond Grove School
Poplar Creek Seminary
Roane County High School had its origins as the Rittenhouse Academy and was the first high school created by the Roane County Court in 1905.
Rockwood High School’s first graduating class was in 1892. In 1922 it was recognized as a state approved high school. In 1935, both the Rockwood High School and Campbell High School became a part of the county system.
South Harriman High School was the third county high school to be created by the Roane County Court. The resolution was passed in 1915 and became effective in 1916. The school closed in 1963.
Sugar Grove School
Wheat High School started out as the Poplar Creek Seminary and later as Roane College. It came under the Roane County Board of Education in 1908 and closed in 1942 as part of the government acquisition of land for the building of Oak Ridge and the Manhattan Project.
Winton's Chapel School
