ROCK SPRING SCHOOL 1887-1937 or 1938 succeeded the UNION SCHOOL and was built on its same site. It was known as School no. 1 in District 35.
The school was a one-room frame building.
H.A. Alexander was School Director in the 1896 period.
School records show the early school teachers: James McLaughlin, teacher of the Free School starting Sept. 1, 1888-Jan. 25, 1889; Estelle Leonhard, Aug. 12-Oct. 24, 1889; C. H. Hill, Nov. 4-Dec. 20, 1889; Florence Taylor, Aug 11-Oct. 31, 1890; Lockie Webb, 1891-1893; Beatrice Elrod, Aug..-Dec. 1893; Maggie Brittain, Aug. 1894-March 1895; Beatrice Elrod, July-Dec. 1895; Buena Vista St. John, starting July 13-Dec. 1896; S. W. Peebles, Jr., Feb. 1898-May 1900; Mallie Peebles, Sept.-Dec. 1900; Clyde M. Gleaves, Jan.-March 1902; Prof. S. C. Reid, Sept. 1902-April 1903.
Salaries ranged from $25 to $40 per month. Later teachers were Jessie Haynes, Mattie Holland, Lavonia Lee, Lacy Elrod, Viola Tucker Carter, Grace
Brittain Hall, 1929-30, Mary McAbee, Dudley Wood, Marian Brittain Maxwell, 1933. Bessie cynn McDonald taught after the school had been closed for some time and then reopened.
The Enumeration of Scholastic Population between the ages of six and twenty-one on May 30, 1899 was: 3 white males, 28 white females, 12 colored males, and 20 colored females. It was the duty of the Clerk and
Treasurer of the District to take a census annually in June.
S.W. Peebles in December 1899 had 2 students in first grade, 2 in second, 10 in third, 9 in fourth, 7 in fifth, and 4 in eighth for a total of 34 students.
A Teachers Abstract for the school term ending Dec. 20, 1889 with C. H. Hill, teacher, showed 32 enrolled in school in these classes: Orthography, 32, Reading, 31; Writing, 27; Arithmetic, 19; English Gramn-ar, 4; Geography, 9, U.S. History, 16.
When ROCK SPRING SCHOOL closed, the Rutherford County Commission on February 17, 1940, sold the building and lot to Will Hood. He moved the building to a lot on the Rock Spring Road just west of the church. The school house was converted into a residence which later burned.
SOURCES: Deed Book 87, p. 476. Interviews, Sept 22, 1984, with *Marian Brittain Maxwell; Sept. 11, 1984, with Mabie Batey Blair; Aug 12, 1984, with Mary Evelyn Brittain Gwynne, who also has a paper under “Rock Springs” in the file of the Rutherford Historical Society; March 12, 1986, with Mattie Gambill Rion, daughter of Annie Mae Potts Gambill, b. 1871 and a student in the picture. Hoover, pp. 270-71. *Loujse Hillard. Clerk and Treasurer’s Record, Rutherford Co. District 35, containing the Enumeration of Scholastic Population from June 1884 to June 1902; Teacher’s Abstract for the school term ending Dec. 20, 1889; Contract with Teacher, July 13, 1896; 2 Teachers Registers, covering the period 1896-March 1903; 2 Warrant books showing expenses paid Aug. 18, 1890-April 8, 1903, all owned by *Marian Brittain Maxwell.