Cherry Grove School, 1890-early 1900s

CHERRY GROVE SCHOOL 1890-early 1900’s was on “Cemetery Lane” to the south of Asbury Road.

On September 13, 1890, J. W. Littler and wife M. C. deeded to School
Directors Z. T. Dismukes, J. E. Stockird, and N. W. Mullins three-fourths acre of land on the Asbury Church Road. The school was to be for white children. If it was used for anything else, it was to revert to the owner.

The frame building consisted of one big room with a front porch. A pot-bellied stove for coal furnished the heat.

Teachers were Ola Martin, Kate Manson, Tennie Dunn, and Zula Wiggs.

Among the students were Joseph Jackson Gannon, b. 1881; Assorah Homer Gannon, b. July 30, 1886; John Gannon, b. 1889; Dallas Gannon, b. 1892; and L. C. and Mitchell Cannon. Others were Raymond and Essie Bell; children of Jim Brinkley: Ethel, Minnie, Lewis, and Sarah; and the children of Kit Clark: Laura, Nimmie, Leona, Jesse, and Daisy.

It is said that the school was later rolled across the road and is now part of the house of John A. White on Asbury Road.

The Cherry Grove Cemetery is the only thing that remains of the original community.

SOURCES: Deed Book 32, p. 408. Interviews, Aug. 23, 1982, with Daisy Clark Brinkley, b. 1895, a student, and now deceased; Jan. 11, 1984, with Homer Jackson Gannon; Jan. 11, 1984, with John A. White; Oct. 12, 1985, with
Evelyn Clark Gray, whose father Ed was a brother of Kit.

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