Etowah NC Heritage
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  • SPECIAL
    • Virtual Tour of Selected Historic Places
    • History Displays in Etowah & Library Notebooks
    • Etowah Heritage Day 2019 - 130 Years
    • Etowah Treasures Exhibit, Sept/Oct 2019
  • PEOPLE & PLACES
    • Maps
    • Memorabilia
    • Places, Early Homes, Other
    • French Broad River & Valley Views
    • People - early times
    • People - later times
    • People - Gash Family descendants
    • Veterans
  • HIST. I
    • Timeline
    • Formation of Henderson County, est 1838
    • Etowah History Notes - Research To Date
    • 1889 Money, then Etowah
    • Etowah - Creek/Muskogee Translation
    • How Etowah Got Its Name
    • Postmasters 1889 - 1968
    • Etowah Train Depot - 1895 >
      • Trains of Etowah
    • The Railroad - Hendersonville to Toxaway
  • HIST. II
    • 1900 U.S. Census
    • Farms of Early Etowah
    • Historic Etowah High School 1928 - 1960 >
      • 1st Annual 1938 -The Chief
      • Little Chief - Gleanings from
      • Students & Faculty EHS
      • EHS Memorabilia
      • Etowah High School - Memorial Plaque 2014 - HCEHI
    • Historic Schools 1800s - 1928 >
      • Etowah Institute 1911
    • Schools of Nearby Communities
    • Historic Churches
    • Historic Cemeteries >
      • Thomas-Fletcher Cemetery
      • Adopt-A-Cemetery: Thomas-Fletcher
  • HIST. III
    • Sheriff Robert Thomas
    • Civil War Union Monument
    • Orr Cabin Homeplace - early 1800s
    • Mountain Lily - 1881
    • Welsh Colony 1880s
    • Grist Mills
    • Shape Note Traditions
  • HIST. IV
    • Community Fairs 1938-1941, 1950s
    • Stores of Early Etowah
    • McKinna General Store
    • More Business Ads 1938 - 1960+
    • "Etowah Brick" Moland-Drysdale Corp. - 1923
    • Calx Mfg. Company - 1919
    • Camp Peep-Out - 1935
    • Etowah Grange #984 - 1937 >
      • Grange - 25th Anniversary 1937-1962
      • Grange Quilt - 1953
  • HIST. V
    • 1952 - Hatheway Floral Company
    • 1954 - Etowah Lions Club, Park & More
    • 1960s - Growing & Changing
    • 1964 - Etowah / Horse Shoe Volunteer Fire
    • 1966 - Water & Sewer System, Tower
    • 1966 - Etowah Riding Club
    • 1982 - A Library Comes to Etowah
  • Stories
    • Eade Anderson, Reverend
    • Lois Adcock Bayne
    • Emma Louise Curtis Bradley
    • Richard Brown
    • Patricia Bell Cantrell
    • Jerri Whiteside Lambeth
    • Wanda Sumner Love
    • David S. Mallett
    • Opal Dalton Parkinson
    • Jeannie Huggins Revis
    • Glenda Maxwell Simpson
    • Marylin Annette Jones Thomas
    • "The Follies" & "Matilda's Folly"
  • About
 SCHOOLS OF NEARBY COMMUNITIES
  • Big Willow  -  1850
  • Blantyre  -  1911
  • Boylston  -  18??
  •  Holly Springs  -  1878 & 1902
  •  Horse Shoe  -  1839
  •  Pleasant Grove  -  1905 or earlier

Source for schools, year established:  
"Early Buncombe-Henderson County Educational Time Line"
by Bill Barnwell, HCGHS
Henderson County Genealogical & Historical Society, Journal June 2018

Other sources in the following material may cite different years for the school's beginning year.

​​From the Educational Time Line:
1883 - 1884  Henderson County School population


​3,443 whites and 568 blacks
40 white schools with 1,448 attending
11 black schools with 249 attending

  • Big Willow  -  1850  
Date Source:  HCGHS Journal, June 2018, "Early Buncombe-Henderson County Educational Time Line," B. Barnwell

The school was located on Patterson Road.  The original structure was later remodeled into an existing home.
Picture
1907 - Big Willow School. Courtesy of Henderson County Genealogical & Historical Society. Featured in the Western Carolina Tribune - March 9, 1967, identified incorrectly as 1904. HCGHS info confirms the photo date as 1907, and includes names.
1907 BIG WILLOW SCHOOL
FRONT row, L to R:
  Julia Morgan, Adger Hamilton, Garret Blythe, Willie Cantrell, Weldon Blythe, Bertha Blythe, Bessie Patterson, Ethel Orr, Nellie Dalton, Hettie Huggins, Armuldia Revis, Martha Orr, Bessie Redden, Emma Cantrell, Ollie Morgain [Morgan?].
SECOND row, L to R:  Carrie Patterson, Harvey Hamilton, Matildia Cantrell, Joice Patterson, Sally Blythe, Mary Dalton, Maggie Blythe, Fay Morris, Teachers - Ida Bell Freeman and Charlotte Young, Syntha Dalton, Vane Revis, Manning Morris, George Orr, Ira Hamilton, Coy Orr, Frank Patterson, Strick Dalton, Ernest Blythe.
BACK row, L to R:  Charlotte Blythe, Louline Drake, Elizabeth Cantrell (big hat), Lila Mace, Bessie Scott (black hat), Isabella Blythe, Pearl Revis, Della Blythe, Lilly Hamilton, Hubert Morris, Albert Drake, Allard Harding, Henry Hamilton, Joe Cantrell, Hezekiah Drake, Jason Huggins, Rora Blythe, Jesse Pritchard Huggins, Albert Hamilton.

Picture
Picture
Picture
Henderson County Heritage, Vol. II, p144
Picture
Courtesy of Henderson County Genealogical & Historical Society
Picture
Courtesy of Henderson County Genealogical & Historical Society
Picture
The chalk board reads "May 6th, 1921." Note the pot bellied stove between the desks and the pump organ on the raised floor at the front of the room.
Picture
Picture

  • Blantyre School  -  1911
The school was located on King Road near Blantyre Baptist Church.
​

The following notes are excerpts from  " The Sylvan Valley News, " compiled &  contributed by   Earleen  Orr

Deed for school property from Mr. & Mrs. Charles Baldwin, Book 31, p. 19-20.  On August 12, 1910 , Chas. F. Baldwin and Lillian S. Baldwin of Transylvania County and State of North Carolina donated 1 95/100 acres to W. W. Zachary, Edwin Poor, and M. W. Garren, County Board of Education of Transylvania County, North Carolina for $1.00.

Blantyre School - June 23, 1911
" The  new graded school at this place (Blantyre) is nearing completion.  The next thing is a good teacher.  We see no cause why we should not emerge from the miry clay of ignorance to the plains of wisdom and knowledge."

Blantyre School - July 7, 1911
"The new school building at Blantyre, erected byT. C. Holtzclaw, is finished with the exception of painting and seats.  This is said to be one of the best school houses in the county, and is another evidence of what local taxation can do."

Blantyre School - August 4, 1911
"The teachers for the coming school year will be Miss Louise Laughter and Miss Myrtle Clayton."
Picture
Illustration of typical one room, country school.
In search of a photo of the old Blantyre School.

  • Boylston School  -  18??

The school was located next to Boylston Baptist Church Cemetery, at Banning Road and Hwy 280.  


Picture

  • Holly Springs Union Chapel & School  -  1878
& rebuilt in 1901 by HC Board of Ed, Horse Shoe
Read more from the Board of Trustees.

The site of the School / Chapel is across the road from the Town of Mills River and on the line of the Etowah/ Horse Shoe and Mills River Fire Districts.  This building is still standing today.
Picture

  • Horse Shoe School  -  1839

Located behind the current Horse Shoe 1st Baptist Church.  When the school was torn down, the bell went to the Johnson family and was later donated to Cummings United Methodist Church.
More info at hendersonheritage.com
Picture
Illustration of typical one room, country school.
In search of a photo of the old Horse Shoe School.

  • Pleasant Grove School  ​-  1905 or earlier

The school was located on Pleasant Grove Church Road past the current cemetery.  The one room school was painted red.

This photo shows the building In later years.  In 19??, Creed Banks purchased the property with the former school building, removed the floor, and used the structure as a hog house.  "The Heritage of Henderson County, North Carolina, Vol 1, 1985," pub. H C Genealogical & Historical Society

Picture
Picture
Courtesy of Henderson County Genealogical & Historical Society
Picture
Picture
Pleasant Grove School, Class of 1917. Courtesy of Kathy Hamilton Briggs
Picture
Bottom row, third from right: Dewey Hamilton, born 1908. Note that a number of the children do not have shoes.

Sources for this page:  Etowah Committee of Henderson County Education History Initiative,
Henderson County Genealogical & Historical Society, hendersonheritage.com.
Thank you to everyone who has provided material on the schools.  

  • Home
  • SPECIAL
    • Virtual Tour of Selected Historic Places
    • History Displays in Etowah & Library Notebooks
    • Etowah Heritage Day 2019 - 130 Years
    • Etowah Treasures Exhibit, Sept/Oct 2019
  • PEOPLE & PLACES
    • Maps
    • Memorabilia
    • Places, Early Homes, Other
    • French Broad River & Valley Views
    • People - early times
    • People - later times
    • People - Gash Family descendants
    • Veterans
  • HIST. I
    • Timeline
    • Formation of Henderson County, est 1838
    • Etowah History Notes - Research To Date
    • 1889 Money, then Etowah
    • Etowah - Creek/Muskogee Translation
    • How Etowah Got Its Name
    • Postmasters 1889 - 1968
    • Etowah Train Depot - 1895 >
      • Trains of Etowah
    • The Railroad - Hendersonville to Toxaway
  • HIST. II
    • 1900 U.S. Census
    • Farms of Early Etowah
    • Historic Etowah High School 1928 - 1960 >
      • 1st Annual 1938 -The Chief
      • Little Chief - Gleanings from
      • Students & Faculty EHS
      • EHS Memorabilia
      • Etowah High School - Memorial Plaque 2014 - HCEHI
    • Historic Schools 1800s - 1928 >
      • Etowah Institute 1911
    • Schools of Nearby Communities
    • Historic Churches
    • Historic Cemeteries >
      • Thomas-Fletcher Cemetery
      • Adopt-A-Cemetery: Thomas-Fletcher
  • HIST. III
    • Sheriff Robert Thomas
    • Civil War Union Monument
    • Orr Cabin Homeplace - early 1800s
    • Mountain Lily - 1881
    • Welsh Colony 1880s
    • Grist Mills
    • Shape Note Traditions
  • HIST. IV
    • Community Fairs 1938-1941, 1950s
    • Stores of Early Etowah
    • McKinna General Store
    • More Business Ads 1938 - 1960+
    • "Etowah Brick" Moland-Drysdale Corp. - 1923
    • Calx Mfg. Company - 1919
    • Camp Peep-Out - 1935
    • Etowah Grange #984 - 1937 >
      • Grange - 25th Anniversary 1937-1962
      • Grange Quilt - 1953
  • HIST. V
    • 1952 - Hatheway Floral Company
    • 1954 - Etowah Lions Club, Park & More
    • 1960s - Growing & Changing
    • 1964 - Etowah / Horse Shoe Volunteer Fire
    • 1966 - Water & Sewer System, Tower
    • 1966 - Etowah Riding Club
    • 1982 - A Library Comes to Etowah
  • Stories
    • Eade Anderson, Reverend
    • Lois Adcock Bayne
    • Emma Louise Curtis Bradley
    • Richard Brown
    • Patricia Bell Cantrell
    • Jerri Whiteside Lambeth
    • Wanda Sumner Love
    • David S. Mallett
    • Opal Dalton Parkinson
    • Jeannie Huggins Revis
    • Glenda Maxwell Simpson
    • Marylin Annette Jones Thomas
    • "The Follies" & "Matilda's Folly"
  • About