Students from the Palmersville School competed at the University of Tennessee at Martin in the school’s annual mathematics competition.
Shown are students at Donoho School during the last year the school was in service. The school was located in District Number One at the intersection of Glover Road, Donoho Levee Road and Austin Springs Road.
Students shown are (L-R):
Palmersville, TN Oct. 21st, 1921, The new $10,000 Palmersville School
The building received two expanded wings (additional rooms) in the following years. The structure served as Palmersville’s High School for 59 years, demolished to make way for a new modern school building in 1980.
And here it is in the late 1960s:
Three Palmersville School cooks
(L to R) Alphabelle Jackson, Nell Olds and Anabel Henderson
And here are six Palmersville School bus drivers (L to R) Denny Watkins, Frank Olds, Martha Copeland, Steve Bowlin, Jerry Crittendon and James Rawls
Here is the Palmersville School as seen in the 1940s.
Source: Robert G Reynolds of Palmersville TN News on Facebook @palmersvilltennessee;
Another great picture of students. Do you know anyone in this picture or who attended Welch High?
(click on picture to see a larger version)
Goodness, there were a lot of schoolhouses back in the day – – – –
(click on the picture to get a larger view)
Schools listed are:
YouTube user KitariFox made a drone video of the Palmersville school:
“This is my old school in Palmersville TN. Our class was actually the last to graduate at this school (middle school) due to not having enough people. We had 8 people in my class, and about 98 people in the whole place.”
by Nelda Rachels (published formerly in Hometown, 2003)
Latham, like many small communities, has moved slightly from its original location in order to serve customers on a rerouted and busier highway. Fortunately, the town’s main business area only had to move a few hundred yards to a rerouted Highway 118.
However, the greater mobility of the populace, the changes from a predominantly agricultural to an industrial economy, and the volume buying and cheaper prices of chain stores have all but killed the economic base of such communities in recent years.
The economic future looked much brighter in the 1850s when E.P. Latham settled in the area north of Dresden. By the early 1900s, according to Virginia Vaughan’s text about about Weakley County’s history, Latham had at least two general stores, one owned by R. L. Stevens and another owned around 1919 by Winstead and Jones. The Winstead and Jones store is said to have “sold everything from coffins to coffee.” The drug store was run by Sam Winstead, who later managed the entire general store after his father had left the business.
During the 1920s Carlos Brundige operated a gristmill, sawmill, and general store. Waterpower ran the gristmill while it served the community on the North Fork of the Obion River, but when the mill moved to Latham, it converted to steam power. In addition there was a blacksmith shop and the early churches of Pisgah Methodist (organized in 1887) and Old Concord Baptist. Later, the Calvary Missionary Baptist Church and the Church of Christ of Bible Union came to the community.
A small school by the name of Bible Union educated many students until 1955, after which it became a community center. It was a long white wooden structure with a row of windows down its length. Unfortunately, this historic building burned during the summer of 1999. This tangible reminder of the community’s past, like much of any town’s history, now remains only in the memories and recollections of its people.
by June Childs (original publication date unknown)
As I sit with my second cup of coffee-a privilege I’ve given myself upon retirement – I “see” across my field, through the rolling morning mist, my early childhood. The spot is vacant now-fire took both of the Bible Union School buildings-but nothing will ever erase the memories of those wonderful years. The one-room country schools are gone, but most of us can still remember our experiences there.
By the time Bible Union became a two-teacher school, I was old enough to be in the “big room,” so Miss Mignone Morrison was the only teacher I had until high school! Each class came to the recitation bench for lessons while the other grades worked at their desks. Yes, we learned-I know we did because we blended right into high school and had successful careers.
Somewhere early in my 37 years of teaching, “group learning” was introduced as a new idea for our classroom. I knew that would certainly be a good thing as we had “group learning” at Bible Union as a way to help each other while the teacher had another class. Play time was fun then as now.
I remember Town Ball, Farmer in the Dell, London Bridge, marbles and jacks, as well as many, many more group activities. Didn’t the skills we learn in communicating with each other gives us lifetime knowledge of working with people? I can’t help wondering if game-boys and computer games do the same today!
Everything wasn’t a pleasant memory. One lunch break, my friend Jean and I rushed to get to the top of an old empty hog house to eat our lunch (the PTA had raised hogs to get money to buy things for the school). As we opened our lunch boxes, wasps spotted us! As the wasps became entangled in our long. thick hair and our clothing, we each received many stings during our running and screaming! Others also were pounced upon by the wasps. Finally, we were “doctored,” the wasps gone, our lunch boxes retrieved, and we thought we had put that whole experience behind us. Not so – in the middle of the afternoon, the supervisor came in. While she was there, I became very sick in the classroom. She immediately knew that it was from the wasp stings when she heard what had happened. My embarrassment was much greater than my hurt!
Other fond memories are the programs, plays, box suppers, and other extra curricular activities. These things involved the community, which was always 100 percent behind the school.
The first Bible Union was built around 1909. My dad went to that first school, as I did. It burned in the spring of 1942 or 1943. The new school was ready that fall, however, and I went to it, too. Children continued going to school there until it closed in 1956. There was a Bible Union School Reunion under the leadership of Kenneth Rogers in 1995. The laughter and joy of everyone that day helped us recall many happy years-of learning, yes, but also of friendships and pleasures that came from the little county schools of the past!
Palmersville Historical Society 