Cedar Grove School (Black), 1901-1967

CEDAR GROVE SCHOOL BLACK 1901-1967, also called the JOHN E. WINDROW SCHOOL, was near the Williamson County line. It was on the John Windrow Road about one-half mile north of its intersection with the Rocky Glade Road and across from the Cedar Grove Missionary Baptist Church.

On July 27, 1901, Deacons of the Church, R. S. Hendrix, J. A. Hendrix, Jordan, George Hughes, Sam Swancy, and Ned Hayes signed a deed to School Directors colored for one-half acre of land for a school. On October 4, 1952, Freeland Bracy and Elam Bracy and wife Mary signed a deed to the Rutherford County School Commission for five acres for a new school.

The first schoolhouse was a one-room frame building with one door and four or five windows. The second, of concrete blocks, was built in 1952-1953 for two teachers. It had a porch at the center front with a gabled roof and classrooms with windows of small panel glass.

Teachers of the one-teacher school were: Fred Jordan, L. T. Glanton, Henry Osborn, Mr. Rideout, Fruzzie Holford, Florence Holford, Charlotte Burns, Polly Smith, Henry Isom, Sally Blackman, Miss Jones, Edith Ransom, Ida Bracey, Viola Rouser, Stella Douglass, Marie Bright, Littie Mae Puckett, Lydia Jackson, Richard North, Willie Lee Freeman, Margaret Smith, Wintonia Green, Miss Hamilton, and Lydia Glanton.

Teachers of the two-teacher school, which incorporated BEECH GROVE SCHOOL, were Margaret D. Smith and Alice Cleora Gordon Washington in 1953; Mrs. Annie W. Huddleston, who replaced Mrs. Smith; and Miss M. L. Lawrence in 1963.

Family names of students included Sheffield, Jordan, Johnson, Dotson, Carney, Patton, and Bracey.

The school was consolidated with ROCKVALE. Both schools are still standing.

The Rutherford County Board of Education on April 12, 1977, signed a deed to William E. Bracy and wife Addle L. for the property of the CEDAR GROVE SCHOOL.

SOURCES: Deed Book 45, p. 528; Book ill, p. 444; Book 255, p. 406. “Cedar Grove Origin Lost,” The Daily News Journal, Nov. 13, 1963, p. 18. Interview, August 19, 1984, with Modena Glenn, student in the frame building, 1944- . *R, T. Butler, d. April 5, 1986.

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