TWELVE CORNERS SCHOOL 1860’s-1937 was located at the intersection of the Twelve Corners Road and the Bradley Creek Road. The church, called Bradley’s Creek Church, the graveyard, and later the school occupied the
three corners of the intersection. The church is on the 1878 Beers Map.
During the Civil War, the church was used as the school. The present church building, erected in 1833, had twelve corners on the outside. Because of the addition of Sunday School rooms, it no longer has the twelve on the outside but does have the twelve on the outside and inside.
Two outside vestibules, the right one for men and the left for women, account for eight; the large original room, the other four. The men always sat on the right with the front right corner, the amen corner, reserved for the elderly. The women sat on the left and the children, in the middle.
While the church was used as a school, Miss Bethenia Nance was the teacher. She also wrote poetry. It is reported that even the halls in her colonial home were filled with books.
On September 29, 1883, a deed was registered by C. S. or L. Dillon, W. A. Black, and W. C. Black and their wives. They gave one-third acre of land, forty feet east of Bradley’s Church lot, to School Directors H. B. Hogwood,
J. E. Jarman, and J. H. Cook “for as long as it was needed for educational purposes.”
The schoolhouse was built on a corner of the intersection. It was a one-room building with a stage, raised just a step, for class recitations. The classes were ungraded. A pot-bellied stove furnished heat. A bucket of water with one dipper provided drinking water; later students brought collapsible cups from home. There were great oak trees in the yard but little open playground space. The students went across the road to play in the cemetery and across the road to attend meetings in the church.
Among the teachers were Ollie Dillon, Walter Rion, Ernest Rion, Hattie Bass, Bessie Hooper, Robert Jones, and Albert Hall, who was nineteen’when he started teaching and who drove a horse and buggy to school. Others were Lula Ogles, Freas Knox, Bertie Knox McKee, Carrie Mccullough Ward, Alice Hill Craddock, Haley Craddock in 1919, John Osborn in 1906, Elsie Williams Smith in 1922-1923, Maggie Brandon, Elsie Givens, Marjorie Odom, Leslie Thompson Chambers, and Lela Givens.
The school burned in the 1920’s. While it was being rebuilt, classes were held in a tenant cabin called “Lindy Low” on the McPeak farm. Mrs. Lela Givens taught while the school was being rebuilt. Sallie Glover Hill was a student at the time.
The second TWELVE CORNERS SCHOOL was built on the same site. Again it was a one-room school. The building of “many windows” had most of the windows on the west side. There were two small windows near the roof on the east side.
Among the last teachers were Marianna Brandon, 1933; Sara Donnell Smith, 1933-1936; and Mrs. Grace DeLay, the last teacher in 1936-1937.
After the school closed, students went to LASCASSAS or to MILTON SCHOOLS.
The school building was sold and was torn down by Dement and Ferguson.
SOURCES: Deed Book 27, p. 71. Interviews, Feb. 1978, by Hector Floyd Adams with Louise Givens Edwards, b. 1912; Stacey Dillon, b. 1890, d. Jan. 27, 1985; and Addie Hill, b. 1900. They were all former students. *Buist Dement Smythe, student in 1914, rode in the buggy with *Albert Hall. *Elsie Williams Smith, teacher 1922-1923.