MIDLAND SCHOOL 1949-1962 was built across the road from the old MIDLAND SCHOOL which had at one time been called MIDWAY ACADEMY.
On January 6, 1949, Mrs. Laura Cothran sold to the Rutherford County School Commission three acres of land for a new school.
The school was a project of the Midland Community Club organized in 1948. The building committee consisted of James I. Williams, chairman, Edgar B. Haskins, and James Threet.
The club raised $600 for the purchase of three acres of land. The sale of the old school added $625. The Rutherford County Court appropriated $8,000 from the “overage sales tax.” Men in the community pledged. a total of two hundred working days of labor, and forty-five men from a trade school laid the concrete blocks.
The concrete-block building consisted of a large class room which also served as an auditorium, a classroom for lower grades, a music room, a kitchen, and rest rooms. The building had a front porch. Gas was used for heat.
Teachers in the new school were Myrtle Smotherman Wilson, who had longest tenure at MIDLAND, Mary Frank Auberry, Mrs. George Joyce, Myra Morris, John Hodge Jones, Nell Hale Alexander, and John Cooper.
After the school closed, the building was used as a community building.
On September 12, 1980, Harold Gaither and wife Eloise and Gerald Gaither and wife Linda bought the property at auction for $10,000. The building still stands.
SOURCES: Deed Book 36, p. 525; Book 295, p. 721; Book 186, p. 384. *Gene Sloan, “Preserving Midland’s Past,” The Daily Journal Accent, March 27, 1977. Interview, Sept. 24, 1982, with Eunice Williams Holden, b. Oct. 21, 1889, d. Jan. 8, *Carrje Wheelhouse Mitchell, b. Oct. 21, 1892, d. June 26, 1985 *Myrtle Ogles Robinson. *Myrtle Wilson, d. 1984. *Bess Pate Williams.