PRUETT SCHOOL 1874-1928 was on Hoovers Gap Road about two miles north of the Gap. It was on the west side of the road in a sharp curve. In May 1874, Henry and John Pruett gave a gift deed of a parcel of land to School Directors S. J. Cobb, John Hale, and William Hoover.
The school was a one-room, one-teacher school. Heat was furnished by a pot-bellied stove; the water came from a spring and later from a well.
Teachers remembered are John Arnold, about 1890, Robbie Ring in 1909, Lola McHenry in 1905, Lera Lynch, Queenie Lynch, Burnice Couch, Ida Mae Nesbitt, and Eva Gilmore Pruett, 1917-1928.
Students were Alvie, Rosie, Mattie, and Johnny Delbridge; Gladys and Estelle Pruett; Louise, Luther, Mary Lee, and Geneva Thomas; Frank Hoover and Gladys Hoover Delbridge; Bob Sim White, Frank White, and Elizabeth White Davenport; L. C. and W. P. Gibson; Silas Hoover; Monema, Reynolds, and Marvin White; Algar Carter Fox; Clemmie, Bettie Mae, Pauline, and Ernest Brothers; Youree and Dave Thomas.
The playground was very small. Recreation consisted of playing marbles, string ball, rise-thimble-rise, hide-and-seek, farmer-in-the-dell, and ring-around-the-roses.
The school closed in the spring of 1928. Students were transported to the CHRISTIANA SCHOOL. Mr. Joe Perry drove a mule team and school wagon for the first two years. It was a very rough vehicle with wooden walls. Planks were down each side and a plank was down the middle for seats. Beginning with the third year Mr. Perry drove a regular bus.
SOURCES: Deed Book 20, p. 499. Interviews, August 27, 1983, with Commodore Arnold, grandson of John Arnold; Jan. 1985, by Ida Mae Delbridge Beavers with Rosie Delbridge Mason, b. 1903 and a student under Rabble Ring, and with Alvie Delbridge Adcock. *Elizabeth White Davenport.