SILVER HILL SCHOOL fl. before 1887-1924 or 1925 was located about ten miles from Murfreesboro on the east side of the old Lebanon Highway, not far from the Wilson County line. On February 10, 1887, Drury Hall and wife
Martha deeded three-fourths acre of land and a donation of ten dollars toward a schoolhouse to Trustees of the old schoolhouse J. A. Hall, R. D. Puckett, Jessie Estes, and A. J. Rather. The school was north of Bennet’s blacksmith shop. Both the shop and the name D. Hall are on the 1878
Beers Map.
On January 15, 1914, S. P. Kemper and wife Harriet sold to the Rutherford County Board of Education one and one-fourth acres of land for a new school on the west side of the road.
The buildings were one-room structures. The 1887 schoolhouse was of logs with only a front door. There were no desks and the seats were split logs. The last building was weatherboarded, painted white, and had a porch on the front.
Teachers were Carrie Yearwood, who was a teacher in the last two schools, Allie Bennett, before 1907 and again later, Benton Christian, Vera Oakley, Sadie Ayers, Grace Alsup, Maggie Dill, Myrtle Ball, Annie Bell Vaughter
Dunnaway, Lillian Estes Smith, Mr. Martin, who had two thumbs on his right hand, Miss Tucker, and Fruzie Wrather.
The 1887 school was an eight-grade school. The last went “through high school books.”
At times when water in the branch would rise and children could not get home, people in the immediate area would keep the children in their homes overnight.
Erline Vaughn Lester remembers that, when the 1912 picture was made, she wore a pink dress with embroidery on the front. Her mother’s last instructions were, “Don’t get your dress dirty.” The schoolhouse was so
dilapidated that the photographer had to find a background elsewhere. Earline’s place to sit was in the mud. She was very unhappy.
When SILVER HILL closed, students went to WALTER HILL SCHOOL.
On December 17, 1925, the Rutherford County Board of Education sold to Doll Drennon the one and one-fourth acres that had been deeded by S. P. Kemper.
In about 1930, Ollie May Kemper Jones Higgins and her husband bought this same schoolhouse; and in 1932 they used it for making furniture. Later they rented the building out for a home which they sold in 1956 or 1957.
Mrs. Lance, the last owner, tore the schoolhouse down and with the lumber built another house on the site.
SOURCES: Deed Book 29, p. 105; Book 56, p. 484; Book 69, p. 591. Interviews, Mar. 21, 1984, with Elwood Vaughn, student; Mar. 21, 1984, with Walter Wrather, student 1912–about 1920; Mar. 19, 1984, with Irene Wrather Bagley, b. 1903, who attended grades 1-8; Mar. 20, 1984, with Ollie May Kemper Jones Higgins, who attended school in the last two buildings; May 26, 1984, with Erline Vaughn Lester, student; July 17, 1984, with Lorene Singleton West, student in 1905 at four years of age. *Emjly Dill Florida,
daughter of Annie Hall Dill, student in the 1907 picture, and niece of *Maggie Dill.