Peru School, 1894-1912

PERU SCHOOL 1894-1912 was on Maddox Lane, between Sharp Springs Road and Weakley Road, and north of the Smyrna Air Base.

In a deed dated August 21, 1894, A. V. Maddox and wife Mary Jane sold to School Directors Thomas Miller, Robert Mason, and R. H. White one acre of land for a school.

On July 28, 1896, they sold to the same directors three-fourths acre. The Land had been inherited from O. G. Tucker, the father of Mary Jane. The school property was in the line of S. M. Weakley and the land was to revert to the grantors if there was no school for a period of five years.

On March 28, 1895, S. M. Weakley deeded land in his southeast corner for a school for white children. The same restriction was made as to the return of the school to the owner.

The names A. Maddox, S. Weakley, and O. G. Tucker are shown on the 1878 Beers Map.

The schoolhouse was county-built. It was a one room frame building that according to a teacher, J. N. Barnett, “was never warm except near the stove.”

Children of the Weakley, Summer Sanders, and Lee Garrett families attended the school. Other family names were Patterson, Webb, Young, Parker, Maddox, and Tucker.

When PERU SCHOOL closed, pupils were transported to JEFFERSON SCHOOL by a two-horse wagon. It was driven first by Joe Young and then by Jesse Webb.

SOURCES: Deed Book 35, p. 551; Book 36, P. 305; Book_37, p. 415. Hoover, p. 270. Interview, May 9, 1984, with Everett Wailer. *J N. Barnett, now deceased. *Louise Wheeler Hilliard. *Dora Thompson.

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