THIS INFORMATION CONCERNING THE TRANQUILLITY SCHOOL (LOCATED WEST OF ATHENS) WAS SUBMITTED BY MARVIN AND SAMME TEMPLIN FOR THE SAKE OF PRESERVATION. WE SINCERELY THANK THEM FOR ALLOWING OUR SITE THE USE OF THIS INFORMATION
HISTORY & MEMORIES ABOUND IN TRANQUILLITY
Thanks to a civic-minded, caring group of people who believe in local history conservation, the Tranquillity School made a transition in 1994, becoming the Tranquillity Community Center. By utilizing this historical site, users get to reflect and enjoy a part of the community’s past.
Driving out Highway 305, turning right on County Road 220 and looking up on the right, one follows a gravel drive to an old red brick schoolhouse with newly painted dark green shutters to match the green shingles on the roof. Several cars are parked in the circular drive and about eight women are waiting near the front door to talk about their community, their school heritage.
It is a still warm morning. The sun seems to sizzle and it’s not 10 a.m. yet. One cannot help noticing the several-hundred-year-old oak tree just to the left of the schoolhouse. If trees could speak, wonder what tales this one would reveal? One imagines briefly the time which has passed under its limbs.
The old oak has been around a lot longer than any buildings which may have been constructed on the site. Many children have known the shade and shelter of that mighty tree. Its huge knarred roots are now pushing out of the earth, reminding one that the stories heard today about past times at the school and the people involved are like the roots of a community resurfacing, telling what is remembered about a special place.
“Several individuals, making donations of what they could afford and about four or five families funding the rest, had a meeting up at Webb’s Store and agreed to pay $600 to purchase the school and land from the School Board,” Frankie Yoder Coleman said.
“The first community meeting was in 1964. For years they just used the property to play ball. Later it was decided to renovate the deteriorating school and use it for a community center. They re-roofed, painted inside and out, built new shutters for the windows, replaced broken windows and windowpanes, re-finished the original wood floor. Families in the community paid for most of the windows in memory of loved ones. Thelma Coleman McNutt donated the flagpole this year in memory of her husband, Luther McNutt.”
All the women in the room speak at once, wanting it known that the real worker behind the renovation was Coleman’s husband, Nelson Coleman, agreeing he was responsible for most of the labor and the work wouldn’t have happened without him.
Coleman explained the building is now used for parties, receptions, school and family reunions. This year’s school and family gathering will be Sept. 12, beginning at 11 a.m. Everyone who lives in the community or attended Tranquillity School is invited. Music will be provided by the SilverTones and everyone should bring a covered dish.
Continuing-to-prosper community members want to talk about the place where they were given instruction and understanding---where knowledge was imparted, where theories were practiced, where convictions, assertions, and errors were made and where joy and humiliation knew no limits----where they spent their youth and learned. They wanted to talk about what their school used to be like.
“This is our school, our heritage….it’s, in a sense, personal,” said Nellie Goins Matthews. “But, we love it and don’t want people to just forget it existed.”
Coleman said Emma Carpenter Stairs, born in 1904, said there may have been as many as three schools by the name of Tranquillity in the community.
“You see the red brick building,” Coleman said. “Prior to that it was wooden and Emma said she could remember her grandfather talking about going to a log school in this location.
“Neva Shultz Scroggins, daughter of Nathan Shultz, said her father attend Tranquillity School in the 1890s,” Coleman said. “At that time it was a one-room school and had all eight grades. She said her mother taught at the school.”
The land where the school building exists now was purchased in 1930, Coleman said.
“The Board of Education bought 3.6 acres from A.M. and Lila Carpenter for $50 to build a new school,” Coleman said. “The deed is dated Aug. 23, 1930. The description reads, ‘Bounded and described as follows, being a part of the M.M. Carpenter Farm Deceased. Beginning at a Black Oak tree in the hollow near the Tranquillity School house running southeast 35rd to a hickory tree then northeast 20rd to a white oak tree or iron stake. The northwest course 38rd to the Tranquillity and Pon Hill Road. The 11rd with the big road to the starting at the oak tree.”
Coleman said the brick school was a large, one-room structure with a blackboard running the length of the room.
“A folding wall in the middle created the ‘little room’ for grades one through four, and the ‘big room’ for grades five through eight,” she said. “There was a teacher for each classroom. There were outside toilets.”
“My uncle, Frank Hutsell, bricked the new school,” said Nellie (Hutsell) Kyker-Sliger. “He’s the one who put the 1930 date in the concrete steps. He was a fine brick mason.”
“I remember when our house burned down,” said Mae Yoder, Frankie’s mother, “and your dad helped brick the chimneys when we rebuilt. He was the finest man. I’ll never forget that day. Edith (another of Yoder’s daughters) was upstairs reading or napping and we all were outside screaming for her to jump.
“Finally she heard us and she jumped from the second story, spraining her ankle. One of the neighbors got the word into town to my husband, who was working for Mayfield’s. I went over to the Coleman’s and fainted more than once. We lost everything.”
This caused Pat Elliott to remember the day her house burned and she said she was so thankful for a neighbor’s help.
“A Mrs. Newman, who lived on a dairy farm not far from us, made me dresses from feed sacks,” Elliott said. “I was so grateful to have those dresses. We, too, lost everything. She was a wonderful woman.”
Eula Rogers remembers going to the wooden school before the brick one was built.
“I was about five years old in the old wooden building,” she said. “I’m 74 years old and raised two boys that went to this school.”
Coleman recalls the school had a cafeteria, which was a separate building from the school.
“It was called a soup kitchen,” she said. “Eula came back and worked as a cook for the school for a number of years. She’s an excellent cook. The food was hot and delicious.
“A Dec. 19, 1935, local newspaper printed, ‘Free school lunches provided for all by WPA (Works Progress Administration) Eight institutions favored so far with others added later. Only requirement is heating the place. The eight schools were Hillsview, Idlewild, Union Grove, Niota, Riceville, Calhoun, Claxton and Clearwater.”
Before the school lunchroom was built, Lois Lingerfelt said her father-in-law, Ranson Lingerfelt, would drive to Chattanooga and get commodities for lunch, Coleman said.
“The teachers would make soup for the children on the coal stoves in the classroom,” she said. “Each child would bring their own bowl and spoon. Names of some of the cafeteria cooks were Essie Rica, Willie Mae Hutsell, Ella Mae Ray, Ora Nell Foster Hutsell, Mattie Coleman, Eula Rogers and Lois Lingerfelt.”
Coleman said there was a spring across the road behind where the Tranquillity Church is located.
“Neva Schultz Scroggins said they would go to the spring with a bucket each morning to get water and the children would drink from a metal cup.”
“Why, we brought or made our own cups,” Rogers said.
Coleman said in 1954 or 1955, lightning struck a tree close to the school, running a bolt of electricity into the school, hitting several children, including Don Hutsell, Judy Lingerfelt and Buddy Cranfield.
“During the later years at Tranquillity School, basketball was a popular sport,” Coleman said. “Softball was also a big sport enjoyed behind the school in the summers by many former Tranquillity School students.”
Coleman said the first 4-H club in McMinn County was held in Tranquillity School.
“Neal Ensminger, who was the editor at The DPA, was a charter member of the Tranquillity 4-H Club, the first organized in the county in 1923 by W. G. Adsmond,” she said. “They met at the school and Ensminger had to catch a ride to the club meetings with agents.”
“We have a lot of memories out here,” said Kyker-Sliger, a graduate of Tranquillity School. “My sister, Carolyn (Hutsell) Pemberton, now lives in Nashville and love telling people that she’s from Tranquillity. When they ask her where such a place is, she responds, ‘Oh, it’s just this side of heaven.”
“We used to walk to school together. They’re going to try to be here for the reunion.”
The Daily Post-Athenian,
September 11-13, 1998
Thanks to Eula Rogers for sharing this article.
Page last edited 05/07/2004