ANTIOCH SCHOOL BLACK 1889-1946 was on the north side of the present Joe Brown Road. On October 9, 1889, James E. Stockard deeded to School Directors James W. Hunt and John W. Putman the land for a school. The parcel was bounded on the east by the Antioch Church lot. The church is shown on the 1878 Beers Map.
Henry and Mary Muse signed a deed on August 13, 1898, giving School Directors G. W. Tomberlain, T. E. Hoard, and D. Maney the right to use water for drinking purposes for the ANTIOCH free school. Said directors were to furnish windlass, chain, and bucket and were to put a platform around the well. The teachers in charge were to take care that those coming for the water should conduct themselves in an orderly manner.
The schoolhouse was a one-room frame building which in the 1930’s was painted a bright red. In later years, also, it was heated by a stove with a drum at the top.
Among the teachers were Mrs. Jimmie Lee, Annie Quarles, Mary Buchanan Cartwright, Annie Gooch Hampton, and George Hampton. Miss Minter, Mrs. Harnmons, and Mrs. Joe Vaughn were substitute teachers.
Older settlers in the Antioch area were Sam Payne, Joe Johnson, Mike and Phil Gooch, Liz Miller, Caroline and Boldy Scruggs, Jack and Sallie Huddleston, George and Amanda Elder, Doc Miles, Henry Kimbro, Harry and Ann Ward, Hosea and Sally Brown. Their children and their grand children attended ANTIOCH SCHOOL. Later family names were Woods, Windrow, and Swader.
The school has been torn down but parts of the church still remain.
SOURCES: Deed Book 32, p. 410; Book 39, p. 195. Robert M. Sanders and *Maggie Knox Sanders, “History of Bethel-Leanna Community” RCHS, Pub. no. 8, Winter 1977. Interview, Nov. 7, 1985, with Robert Woods, a student for eight years, who finished in 1939. *Willa Kimbro Foster, a student in c1920.