Pictured is Donoho School, which was located in the 1st District at the junction of Donoho Levee Rd, Workman’s Cemetery Rd (or was it Glover Rd?), and Austin Springs Rd.
The school was built c. 1910 on land donated by Augustas Donoho. Teachers who held positions were Eula Aniley during 1935, Florence Mae Donoho during the later part of the 1930s, and Gurtrude Moore until the school’s closing in 1940.
The photo and part of information are courtesy of Janice (Donoho) Laws.
Constructed in 1921 at the cost of $10,000, with two wings added in 1939, the building served 1st through the 12th grades.
During the late ca1930s, a separate building was constructed behind the school for Agriculture classes and a shop. In 1950 the largest gymnasium in Weakley County was built on the property, along with two classrooms and a lunch room, later a one room separate building was constructed for the 4th and 5th grade classes.
In 1980/81, the building shown here was demolished and replaced by a new modern school building serving grades K through 12. For the next 17 years the school operated as full service public school offering classes for students in grades K through 12.
In 1997 the high school or grades 9 through 12 were moved to the Dresden High School system. Palmersville school would operate as a grade K through 8 school for the next 6 years until state funding would no longer support the expense of operating a school in Palmersville.
For 82 years the community of Palmersville offered public school for all that lived within the Palmersville school zone or district.
For those students who attended Palmersville School during any of it’s 82 years of service; most can close their eyes at night and walk its halls by memory, walk through each class room, remembering classmates, teachers and events that shaped their lives, the school that made them part of who they are today.
Workman’s Grocery was located in the heart of downtown Palmersville, on the lot currently hosting the Palmersville Fire Department.
Owned by Carmon and Eva Workman; the left side of the building was used for the grocery and the right was the location of an upholstery shop, which we believe was operated by Mrs. Eva during the early years.
Workman Grocery, or Carmon’s, as many referred to the store, carried a variety of groceries and hardware such as milk, bread, sandwich meats even nails and hunting supplies.
Carmon’s, was a gathering place for locals, who gathered on winter days around the pot-bellied stove that stood in the center of the store, where patrons (old men) exchanged stories of summer garden crops and tales who caught the biggest fish or who grew the biggest watermelon that previous summer.
It is unknown exactly when Workman’s Grocery closed for business. Carmon and Eva Workman both passed during the early 1990s leaving behind a legacy of an invaluable contribution to the community and having build a successful Palmersville business through years of hard work and determination.
Story By (and special thanks to): Robert G Reynolds, Palmersville, TN News
Shown is West Tennessee’s first cheese factory, located on the left hand side of the Palmersville School driveway loop. The factory was built close to 1923, the Nashville Tennessean newspaper wrote that the factory would be on display at the Palmersville Fair during that same year. During 1933 the Tennessean again published a story telling that Bates Pentecost, who was Pres of the milk organization, had announced of an upcoming expansion plan for the factory, we assume he was referring to the addition seen on the left of the building in this rare 1939 photograph found in Atlanta Ga at the National Archives. It is unknown when the factory stopped producing cheese but it had been a great benefit for local farmers who sold milk to the factory for years to produce grade A cheese. The cheese factory’s dilapidated building remained on the school loop until the 1970s, efforts to save it for historical purpose failed because of its poor condition. (photo courtesy of the US National Archives) Story By (and special thanks to): Robert G Reynolds, Palmersville, TN News
Palmersville’s Minida Normal College (at left) served the community from 1891 to 1912. Recently, a reader, David Stephenson, contacted us saying he is “proud to own” his grandfather’s Certificate of Graduation. What a rare find.
The Stephenson family lived on Boydsville Road, just down from Fairview Cemetery, where many members of the family have been laid to rest, including David’s grandfather Charlie P Stephenson, grandmother Mary Mitchell Stephenson, and uncle Thomas Mitchell Stephenson.
Charlie Patterson Stephenson graduated from Minida in 1894. Though the ink has faded considerably and it’s quite difficult to make out the hand-written text, we are very pleased to present this part of Palmersville’s history.
Palmersville’s 
Palmersville Historical Society 