LOAFER’S REST SCHOOL 1881-1913 was on the second lot west of Mt. Herman Road and on the south side of Woodbury Highway. The school was first called WALNUT GROVE but the name was changed to LOAFER’S REST when Mr. Jim Anderson gave that name to his store at the suggestion of “Uncle” Dave Macon.
On November 12, 1881, L. C. Hall deeded one acre of land to John Coleman, S. D. Barker, and James Hill, school directors. The land was bounded by Jesse Early and John Easterwood shown as John Eastwood on the 1878 Beers Map. On July 7, 1883, Issac Coleman, J. W. Jamison and wife Sallie deeded .25 acre to John Coleman, J. Hill, and W. J. Knox, school commissioners, for school land adjoining the acre already given by
L. C. Hall.
The school was an unpainted building for grades one through eight. The long one-room structure had a door on the front facing the highway.
LOAFER’S REST was a one-teacher school. Teachers included Louis C. Hall, Dora Rooker, Nannie Wade, Nannie Todd, a sister of State Senator Andrew L. Todd who worked to bring the STATE TEACHERS COLLEGE to Murfreesboro, J. L. Bivins, Lockie Young, Ellen Champion, Emily Jamison Boyd, Mary Halliburton, Alta Hall Northcutt, Fanny Snell, Frank Lowe, who was son of Nick Lowe, Ruby Overall Lynch, and Marietta Pendleton Alford who taught in 1913 and boarded with Mrs. Will Thompson about one-half
mile down the road.
Family names of students were Anderson, Benson, Coleman, Jakes, Melton, Philpott, Sloan, Thompson, Weeks, and Zumbro.
LOAFER’S REST was consolidated with KITTRELL. Floyd Weeks, a cousin of George and Lizzie, drove a two-horse school wagon from LOAFER’S REST area to KITTRELL. P. M. Weeks, father of George and Lizzie, substituted in driving the wagon.
By a deed filed Nov. 12, 1926, Joe Jakes received only the school building from J. C. Chumney and wife; and by a deed filed March 24, 1927, Mrs. Ada Chumney received the one acre of land deeded by L. C. Hall in 1881.
SOURCES: Deed Book 26, p. 45; Book 27, p. 22; Book 70, p. 534; Book 71, p. 141. *Mary Hall, “Loafer’s Rest” in the files of the Rutherford County Historical Society. Letter dated March 7, 1984, from George Weeks, b. July 1888, whose two sisters and five cousins by the name of Weeks attended the
school. Interview, March 28, 1984, with Lizzie Weeks Saums, b. July 1893, who was a student under Alta Hall Northcutt. *Marietta Pendleton Alford, b. 1888.