GREENWOOD SCHOOL, sometimes called SEED TICK 1878-c 1922, in the old fifth and new first District was first on a farm owned by Caleb Swain on Lamar Road about one mile north of the present Jefferson Pike. It was near the Fall Creek. GREENWOOD SCHOOL was next located about one-half mile west of the former school, on 1.5 acres of land donated by George C. Garrett and Sam P. Adkerson. The site of the first schoolhouse and the names of C. Swain and G. Garrett are on the 1878 Beers Map. Sam Adkerson is given on the map as S. Adkins.
Garrett and Adkerson signed the gift deed on March 3, 1892 to Directors of the 5th District, I.S. Sanders, Jr., C.W. Robison, and J.B. Eads, for as long as it was used for a school.
The first school was a log building heated by an open fireplace. When it burned in 1892, the school was relocated. A one-room weather boarded building painted white was then erected by Bill Swain. There was a gable
on the front, a door, three windows on each side, and a chimney.
Teachers known to have taught in the log cabin were John J. Northcutt, a Mrs. Rushing, and Sal].ie Garrett Lloyd who was the daughter of George Garrett. Other teachers, probably all in the new school, were Dora Sanders, Emma Harralson, G.C. Batey, and Mr. Alsup. Later teachers were Lula Bell Wrather, Mattie Becton from the Christiana area, Lassie Henderson Adkerson from Powell’s Chapel, Mary Short Martin, and Cleo Mann. Ruby Lannom was the last teacher.
Among the early students were: Lycurgus Arnold, b. 1879; Ed Arnold, b. 1881, who died May 1984 at the age of 103; Ollie Carter Waller, b. 1886, and her brother Herschel Carter; John Adkerson, b. 1893, son of Sam Adkerson.
John attended school for eight years and then crossed the river by boat to attend Jefferson.
When the school closed, students were bused to the JEFFERSON SCHOOL.
While the second school was in operation, the building was used also as a community non-denominational church. When the school closed and the property reverted to Jim Adkerson, it was bought by the Wilson Line Free Will Baptist Church whose building had burned on Mona Road. The schoolhouse was torn down, the lumber was sold, another building was bought, and from that lumber was built another church a few feet from the site of the school. The Baptist Church still holds services in 1986. Much of the area of the first school is now under Percy Priest Lake.
SOURCES: Rutherford County, Register’s Office, Deed Book 33, p. 390. *Gene Sloan, “Exploring Early Smyrna Schools,” The Daily News Journal Accent, Nov. 20, 1977. *Julia Alphin. Walter K. Hoover, A History of the Town of
Smyrna, TN. Nashville: McQuiddy, 1968, pp. 276-77. Interviews, May 17, 1984, with Alice Short Adkerson, b. March 17, 1903, sister of Mary Short Martin and wife of John; March 15, 1984, with Mattie Lou Christian Allen, b. 1902, student in the picture; March 24, 1984, with Everett Wailer, son of Ollie Carter Waller; March 15, 1984, with Robert E. Barrett; June 7, 1984, with Harry Arnold, b. 1909, student from 1915 to the close of the school, son of Lycurgus, nephew of Ed, and descendant of W. R. Arnold whose name is
on the 1878 Beers Map; Aug. 25, 1984, with *Inman Swain, grandson of Caleb Swain; Jan. 26, 1986, with Howard G. Eads, who lives on Mona Road near the site of the Wilson Line Baptist Church which burned. *Ann Elizabeth Swain Odom, great granddaughter of Caleb Swain.