WALNUT GROVE ACADEMY c1830-c1900 was located on the Jefferson Pike near its intersection with the present Sam Davis Highway. It was near the site of the present Stones River Baptist Church (ed. note: the intersection of Nissan Blvd. and Jefferson Pike, across from Gil’s Ace Hardware). The school is shown on the 1878 Beers Map.
On July 13, 1878, Sarah E. Espey signed a deed for WALNUT GROVE ACADEMY and four acres of land to Trustees John S. Gooch, Daniel M. Nelson, Lycurgus Nelson, James B. Moore, William S. Hill, William Martin, and William H. Patterson.
The school was a one-room, one-teacher school. In 1883, it was a well-kept building, weatherboarded, painted white, with a chimney and a front door. Four windows on the side had small panes of glass and slatted shutters.
Pickney Edmondson was teacher from 1870 to 1885.
The school was often referred to as the PICKNEY EDMONDSON
SCHOOL.
Children of the EdmondsOn and Nelson families were students. Others were Charles L. Davis, Oscar Davis, Hick Davis, Charley Weakley, Mary Hollis, Silas Brackin, George Gooch, Allen Gooch, Ernest, Will, and Fannie Watt King, and Walter and Tom Hibbett.
The first meetings of the Stones River Baptist Church were held in this building.
SOURCES: Deed Book 23, p. 639. Hoover, p. 264. *Louise Hilliard.