In about 1915, Louis Russell and my grandfather, John Dickerson, were sawing Chestnut logs (2 - 3 feet in
diameter) into 18 inch lengths to split into boards for roofs. These cuts may have weighed 200 - 300 pounds
each. They were working on the top of a hill on my grandfather's farm located on Little Peyton's Creek about
a mile northwest of Pleasant Shade. At the bottom of the hill, was the original Kittrell schoolhouse that had
been moved from its original location one-quarter mile down the creek. A new Kittrell schoolhouse had been
erected many years earlier on the original site. The original building was now being used as a schoolhouse for
the Negro children of the community.

While sawing the logs into sections, one cut got loose and headed down the steep hill. The hill was inclined about
40 degrees in some places and rose to a height of about 300 feet above the valley floor. As it careened down the hill,
it would bounce and go high into other trees as it made its way downward. Soon the section went out of sight and
shortly after that a crash was heard. Immediately, they assumed that it had hit the schoolhouse and Louis said, "John,
that cut has hit right in the top of that schoolhouse and killed ever child in it." At that point, they "took off" down the
hill to the school to provide whatever assistance they could. Louis out-ran John and stopped in a clearing where he
could view the damage. Seeing Louis sizing up the situation, John called, "Did it hit the school house" and Louis replied,
"No, it hit the outhouse!" They proceeded down to the school and found that indeed, the cut had hit in the roof of the
toilet and demolished it. Had it been occupied, someone would surely have been killed. They said those kids were
"scared to death". I don't know if Louis and John rebuilt the outhouse or not.
(See the Cal's Column article of July 23, 1953, paragraph 10, about the original Kittrell schoolhouse.)

Allen and Louis are noted in their grandfather's (Robert Allen Russell) Will.