Before consolidation, many schools served families
Posted on Thursday, July 17, 2008
Did you ever wonder why there were so many schools in rural areas of the Ozarks during the 1800 s and early 1900 s ? It's something to ponder, and so is what happened to so many of them. Especially today with the problems smaller schools are experiencing. Today it's the economy that rules the lives of our schools. In those days it was more than just economy, it was population and transportation.
With the coming of automobiles and better roads and cheap gasoline came the moving about of populations. Up to that time folks had pretty much remained on the old homestead for generations. We might suppose that today, with the high cost of gas, smaller schools to serve those who have chosen not to settle in large cities might be on the comeback. But this doesn't seem to be so. We who chose to live in the rural areas have become the forgotten ones.
Early settlement in Northwest Arkansas took place after 1828 when the last of the Indian population was removed to Indian Territory. Immediately after homes were built came the discussion of where to build the schools and churches. Women were the ones to insist on this. If you don't believe that, look at the gold mining towns further west where only men lived. There were saloons first and it wasn't until women moved in that churches and schools became important.
So, back to Arkansas. I want to offer a few examples of these small remote schools. Because the rugged Ozarks presented deep gorges and tumultuous creeks, high rocky ridges and thick forests, a school needed to serve a small pocket of settlers. Students couldn't get to one that might be close enough to toss a rock at and hit, because it sat on the other side of the gorge or raging creek.
Take District 92 which is Union Star and 94 known as Holcomb or Longview. Union Star is not all that far from present day West Fork out highway 170. There's not a lot of information available on Union Star, except that it could've been in operation as early as the 1850 s. Officially, it wasn't a district until 1883. In 1895 a log building was erected in which to hold school there. Prior to that school was probably held just about anyplace available. Until 1916 one term was only held in this remote spot three or four months out of the year.
In 1949, enrollment was so scant that the few students remaining were sent to West Fork. This was called consolidation back then too. Fire took the old log school house soon after that, but before it did residents continued to have community activities and their annual Christmas party there.
Consolidations of these smaller schools became somewhat confusing over the years. Holcomb or Longview became a district in 1885, but again, you can bet school was held there earlier as a subscription school. Each family would pay what they could to see that classes were held a few months a year and a teacher paid. Often those teachers only had an eighth grade education themselves, but they did know more than their students. At some time after the building went up, some families petitioned to transfer their children from Longview to Union Star. Probably because they were closer to one than the other. Usually when these transfers were granted, boundaries were changed. In those days students could attend the school closest to them.
Boundaries moved about regularly. Not far away there were two schools closer to Hogeye and known as Big Springs and Shady Grove. Then Hogeye was known as Billingsley and later became Moffitt. Requests for boundary changes between all these schools went on until 1894. The name of Longview became more popular for Holcomb because the school sat high on Devil's Den Road with a panoramic view of the mountains and valleys to the north and west. This district consolidated with West Fork in 1944. According to early stories, the first school at Holcomb had split log benches for seating and a dug well for water. The first school burned in the early 1900 s and was rebuilt across the road.
Now, let's move to another area where many small schools dotted the hillsides and valleys, some no more than four or five miles apart. Remember, no school buses, no automobiles. Children walked, rode horseback or were taken by wagon. Mostly, they walked.
Cartwright Mountain is a razorback-like ridge west of Highway 71 south of Mt. Gayler. The two Cartwright brothers with their families migrated to Arkansas from Alabama. One settled in Winfrey Valley beside Big Frog Bayou, today known as Clear Creek. The other built on the ridge that would soon carry the brothers' name.
A few years later, for reasons lost in the shadows of history, the two families exchanged homesteads. There was no school on the mountain. The closest was in Winfrey Valley in Crawford County. The Becky Wright School was located on land now buried beneath the waters of the new Lake Fort Smith. It was named for a pioneer woman who originally came west to Arkansas in 1832. Her husband William Bradford Wright was killed during the Civil War in a battle near Fayetteville. The original school was remembered by Charlie Wright, who started school there in 1911. His father attended there before him, so the building was quite old. It was a double log building on a rock pillar foundation. The floor was made of rough two by ten boards that had been worn smooth with use.
Hogs ranged free in the area, and often went under the floor of the school where they'd fight. This must have been quite entertaining to the students studying above them. Charlie remembered that he and his uncle W. F. Wright would pour water on the hogs from the drinking bucket to make them squeal. Court was also held in the school, and the last trial was that of a man who was tried for shooting his daughter's boyfriend. The original building burned in 1912 and the following term began out under some big oak trees near the school.
Because so many children were living on Cartwright mountain, a new school was built, and they called it Who'd A Thought It. Someone's idea of hill humor. There is no official record of this school, but those who told about it before they passed to their reward remembered it well. As late at the 1920 s the school house was still standing within sight of highway 71.
There are probably hundreds of stories like this about our earliest schools. One has to wonder what sorts of stories will be told in years to come about our schools. If you have any such stories to share, call me at 634-3151 or write my email address.
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