BUNKER HILL SCHOOL, 1898-1913 and 1920-1926 was on the south side of Bunker Hill Road, first about one-half mile and later one-fourth mile west of the present Hay Road. It is thought that the first school closed in 1913 and the second was built in 1920. It is not known what school the students attended in the interim. BUNKER HILL was not far from the Bedford County line.
The first school was a one-room unpainted building which was also used as Bunker Hill Church. The second was also a one-room frame building heated by a wood-burning stove. It was built by Sam Taylor, Eddie D. Ralston, Mr. Lorance, and Mr. Epperson.
Teachers in the first school were Walter Cole in 1898, Marietta Pinkerton in 1907-1908, Annie Wilson, Maud Manire Powers, Anna Bell Becton, who boarded with Virginia Jordan Taylor, Miss Tommy Ervin, Era Hutchison, Edie Swanson, and Aubrey McClaran, who was the last teacher. From 1920 to 1926 the teachers were: Claudie Bryson, Jessie Hastings, Allie Pomerey, Miss Moon, and Mildred Morgan.
Family names of students were Manier, Ralston, Taylor, Lorrance, Freeman, Leverette, Epperson, Hudson, Freeman, Morris, and Pinson.
Marietta Pinkerton, who was hired to teach about three weeks before Christmas and wanted to do something special for the students, requested and received five dollars from Superintendent Jacobs to “buy Christmas” for the thirty children. Miss Pinkerton took the five dollars to Puckett’s store and told Mr. Puckett that both she and the children were good customers there. He sold her enough fruit and candy to make the holiday a merry one for all.
Jessie Hastings, who was considered a “real lady” by her students, had great influence on Alline Taylor Weichance. Alline remembers one situation in which Irene Ralston got a prize for the best handwriting. Alline, in her disappointment, cried until Miss Hastings said, “but Alline has the plainest.”
Alline also remembers that Miss Hastings brought colored chalk to school, the first colored chalk that the children had ever seen.
When the first school closed, it was used as a barn. The second school was used afterwards as a church and is so shown on the General Highway Map, Rutherford County, 1966.
Neither building is now standing.
SOURCES: Interviews, Feb. 26, 1984, with *Marietta Pinkerton Alford, b. 1888; Oct. 8, 1984, with Earl L. Manier, student in first grade when it closed in 1926; with *Virginia Taylor Jackson whose mother, Emma Epperson, whose father, William Culleri Taylor, and whose aunt, Virginia Tennessee Taylor, were all students at BUNKER HILL and who was herself a student under Jessie Hastings; May 18, 1985, with Alline Taylor Welchance, who was a student and was the daughter of Sam Taylor.