DROMGOOLE SCHOOL 1865 was located east of Rucker Road and west of the Stones River. G. Dromgoole is on the 1878 Beers Map as being a landowner on Road 476.
Federal Judge Tillman Johnson wrote: “The teacher George Dromgoole opened a school in a room in his residence about two miles from where my father and mother lived.” The parents lived on the east side of the present Rucker-Christiana Road.
The school was a private school. The cost was about two dollars per month.
Tillman Davies Johnson was a pupil in 1865. He stopped after only a few days. It was soon after the war and he was afraid to pass the pickets and a tent with four or five soldiers. This was Tillman’s first school. He was seven years old having been born January 8, 1858.
George C. Dromgoole was a member of the family of Will Allen Dromgoole, the author and a daughter of John E. Dromgoole and Rebecca. According to the 1850 census, John E. Dromgoole, 44, and wife Rebecca, 31, had in their household, John E., 18; George C., 15; Susan F., 12; Helen E., 7; Maria, 4; and
Sally L., 2. In the 1860 census, John E. was no longer listed with the family; George C., 26, was head of his own household and was married to N., who was 18. Will Allen, born in 1860, was not yet listed. George C. Dromgoole was also a trustee of the school for which F. G. Miller gave land in 1878.
SOURCE: Tiliman Davis Johnson, “Memoirs” n.d.. Contributed by Dorothy Fingers Barringer, a niece.