RANSOM SCHOOL 1907-1930 was a private elementary school held at 717 North Academy Street in Murfreesboro.
Some remember the school as having one long frame room added to the building. Others remember a room in the brick building with a smaller room on the west side for mathematics classes.
Miss Eliza Ransom, who operated the school, was assisted by Miss Belle Ransom.
It was largely a neighborhood school with seldom more than twelve students. School was in session from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. The monthly tuition fee of $8.00 was paid in money, produce, or services.
“There was a high quality of thorough teaching coupled with strict yet kindly discipline and moral code.” If a pupil was tardy, all those present rose and sang, “A diller, a dollar, a ten o’clock scholar.” The students were assigned three pages of Webster’s Dictionary each day and used the trapping method for spelling. For punishment, a student stayed until 4 p.m. and memorized poetry.
Among the students were Dr. Robert Miles, who perfected heart surgery technique, Dr. James Cason, scientist, Dr. John Cason, Del Fuston, attorney, Rev. James A. Ransom, Chip Ransom, Robert Overall, Bill Overall, Bobby Burnett, Dr. Bart White, John Nelson, Bobby Wilson, Houston McBride, James Butler, J. R. Henry, Burnett Moore, Alvin Moore, Matt Murfree, Judge Whitney Stegall, C. B. Arnette, Charles Ragland, Howard Spain, Frank White, Arthur B. Wharton, Frank Partee, Al Lytle Partee, Tom Crichlow, Lawrence Freeman, and Edwin Hooper in 1907.
Among the few girls who attended was Lucille Byrn Reagor who remembers that Annie Byrn Roberts, Annie Alsup Jordan, and Margaret Ragland were classmates of hers before TENNESSEE COLLEGE opened. Louanna Robertson Holloway attended in the late 1920’s.
SOURCES: *Gene Sloan, “Ransom School Boasts Distinguished Alumni,” The Daily News Journal Accent, Feb. 19, 1978, p. 11. Rutherford County Historical Society files.
For further reading, visit:
The History of the Ransom School House
The Ransom School House, 1976