CRAWFORD SCHOOL BLACK -1900 was built on the Richard Crawford lot on Rocky Hill Road which runs north off Holly Grove Road.
The school was a one-room frame building with Novella Crawford and Mrs. Johnnie Scales as teachers. Susie Rucker Rucker, who did some private teaching in the community, may have taught here.
CRAWFORD SCHOOL preceded BETHEL ELEMENTARY. The United Sons of Relief Lodge donated land joining Little Bethel Missionary Baptist Church to the county and the county built BETHEL, a Rosenwald school, in 1900.
When CRAWFORD SCHOOL closed, Sam Crawford, son of Richard, used the building as his home.
On December 19, 1922, the Rutherford County Board of Education colored acknowledged the one acre that had been deeded to the school by Richard Crawford and wife Rosanna. The return of the lot to Richard Crawford was
registered February 10, 1938.
When Richard Crawford died, the family property was sold and the schoolhouse was torn down.
SOURCES: Deed Book 84, p. 156. “Bethel Was Founded 1900,” The Daily News Journal, Nov. 13, 1963, p. 11. Interviews, Jan. 1983, with Sam McAdoo, 82 years old at the time of interview; Nov. 16, 1985, with Samella Butler Patterson, who lives across from the former school.