HICKORY GROVE 1848-before 1912 was located 2.5 miles south of Christiana on the east side of the railroad tracks. The site is indicated on the 1878 Beers Map. A deed registered on September 18, 1848, shows that Erismus C. Lynch gave five acres and water rights for a school and church.
HICKORY GROVE was a one-room, one-teacher school.
Teachers were Betty Webb Powell who married John Mitch Powell, Sally Jamison, Lyda Sims Woodfin, who was born about 1869 and was Jordan Sun’s oldest sister, and possibly Jim Hale.
Students were Kitty Neeley Webb, Florence Prater Rutledge, Joanna Prater Clark, Jordan Sims, and the three sons of Franklin Brothers.
In the early 1920’s, a reunion was held on the site of the school. Will Miller, Ida May Delbridge Beavers, and Jewell Prater Powell were among those who attended. The honored oldest guest was Nannie Neeley, the mother of Mrs. Kitty Webb. The building was not standing in 1912.
The school was also used as a church. Some of the churches existing now in Christiana came from groups meeting at HICKORY GROVE SCHOOL.
SOURCES: Deed Book 3, p. 574. Interviews, Jan. 6, 1980, with Epper Bell Newman Webb, b. Dec. 9, 1898, d. July 9, 1983; July 10, 1979, with Jewell Prater Powell, b. 1902; May 22, 1985, with W. J. Miller, b. 1889., and with Stanley Miller; July 1979, with Ophelia Spence. *Elvira Brothers, d. June 15, 1985.