KNOX SCHOOL 1899-1924 was on the Knox farm, at the intersection of Lebanon Road and Osborne Lane. On July 12, 1899, J. C. Knox and wife George Anne signed a deed for one-half acre for the school. The land was “on the Stones River and Columbia Turnpike bounded by the Collier or DeJarnett Place. Said land was to revert to owner when not used for school purposes.” Both the names I. B. Collier and J. G. DeJarnett are shown on the 1878 Beers Map.
The first one-room school burned in about 1909 or 1910. The second schoolhouse was a one-room frame building with a front and back door and windows on each side. There was a small playground. Inside, a stage was built at the back of the room.
Teachers were Miss Miles, who married a Walkup, Miss Riggs, and Thomas Jamison. Mary Knott is remembered as a teacher who was very strict in the application of the rules of English. If a student made an obvious grammatical error, he was required to walk all the way around the school
building. Other teachers were Anna Bell Becton and Christine Baskin.
Lillian Dill Baskin, b. October 1896, and Robert and Beve Drake attended the first school.
KNOX SCHOOL closed when WALTER HILL SCHOOL opened in 1924.
In a deed signed in 1928, E. B. Hardison, H. A. Hardison, Jr., John B. Hardison, and Mrs. A. D. Knox, all heirs, sold the KNOX SCHOOL property to Edwin Neeley. Mr. and Mrs. Neeley first converted the building into a
house. In 1963, they tore it down and built a brick house behind the original site.
SOURCES: Deed Book 40, p. 84; Book 72, p. 181. Interviews, May 17, 1984, with Pauline Lannom Neeley, Mrs. Edwin Neeley, now deceased; May 17, 1984, with Leona Singleton Duffy, b. Oct. 28, 1897; May 21, 1984, with Tom
Butler Drake, b. 1904, student from 1911 to about 1915 or 1916; May 11, 1984, with William Baskin, student in 1923, and son of Lillian Dill Baskin. *Sarah Young. *Edna Short Drake, whose husband, Matt Drake, was a student.