INDEPNDENT HILL SCHOOL 1922-1940 was on the south side of Independent Hill Road, about one and one-half miles west of its intersection with the Almaville Road in District 4.
On May 13, 1922, W. S. Newsome and wife sold to the County Board of Education one acre of land for one dollar. The lot was bounded by the Christopher graveyard and the land of W. S. Newsome.
After PAW PAW SCHOOL closed, the students were sent to INDEPENDENT HILL SCHOOL and to ROCKY FORK SCHOOL.
The schoolhouse was a one-teacher, one-room frame building with one door. The children sat on double seats. At the far end of the room was a stage for the teacher’s desk and class recitations.
Teachers were: Winnie Moody Lee, who taught before and after Fannie Short Wright, 1924-1925; Lillian Lee, Arline Wright Lee Adams, Katherine Ward Barrett in 1927, Frances King Coleman, Mary Frances Johnson Coleman, and Lavonia Lee.
Family names of students included Coleman, Lee, Webb, Sanford, Christopher, McDowell, Heaton, King, and Alsup.
The building is no longer standing.
It is said that Independent Hill was so named because a battle had been fought there during the Struggle for Independence.
SOURCES: Deed Book 74, p. 194. *Louise Wheeler Hilliard. *Katherine Ward Barrett. *Fannie Short Wright. Hoover, p. 274. Interview, Dec. 5. 1985, with James Webb who finished eighth grade in this school.