CEDAR HILL SCHOOL 1880’s-c 1920 was about 12 miles east of Murfreesboro on the Bradyville Road. It was about .25 mile east of Donnell’s Chapel store, up a hill on the north side of the road. In 1890, County Superintendent James P. Nelson said, “We have some of the best schools in the state in our county: Cedar Hill High School”.
The weatherboarded schoolhouse had two rooms, a big room with a little room at one side. Grades 1-8 were taught with some high school subjects such as algebra offered.
Among the teachers in the two-teacher school were Herrod McNabb, Susie Ashley, Lacy Elrod, W. S. Donnell in 1913, Elizabeth Hall Barker, Clara Youree, Ellen Champion, Sue Becton, Bessie Tolbert Holder, Jim Lowe, Larkin Earls, Herman Pinkerton, and Mattie Bright Youree Mitchell.
Family names of students were Lowe, Carter, Tolbert, Donnell, Harney, Jacobs, Todd, McNabb, Jernigan, Arnold, Youree, and Richardson. Seemus Carnahan Lowe, b. Dec. 22, 1876, and James Lee Harney, b. Oct. 20, 1882, were early students. The school closed about 1920 because of low enrollment.
Alec Lyon bought the school building and with the lumber built a house on Cripple Creek.
Frank Lowe drove a school wagon for five years. He started his route at Cripple Creek and took students to MURRAY SCHOOL.
SOURCES: Tennessee. Department of Public Instruction. Annual Report 1890 Nashville: Marshall and Bruce, 1891, p. 160. Interviews, June 21, 1985, with Sue Belle Harney McCrary, daughter of James Lee Harney; March 1, 1983, with Frank Lowe, b. May 23, 1901, who started as a student in 1907 and was the son of Seemus Carnahan Lowe. *Sarah Donnell Smith, daughter of *W. S. Donnell. *Mary Lawrence Barker Oliver, daughter of *Elizabeth Hall Barker.