Photo courtesy of Western Carolina University Southern Appalachian Digital Collections
To see an enlarged version visit this page and click on photo.
Speedwell School – Early Jackson County School
This undated photograph shows a class standing outside of Speedwell School. The school held St. David’s Episcopal Church’s first service in 1879. Information on the school’s consolidation or closing is unknown.
Time period: unknown.
It’s been a long time since I had to worry about the start of the school year, but I still hear folks around me talk about it as well as see signs of the event when I read local papers and go shopping.
Every year when I notice a new school year is quickly approaching I’m transported back in time to my school days. I remember the excitement of having a new teacher as well as a new pair of tennis shoes and new clothes.
Granny loved school and she’s told me many stories about her school days. Neither The Deer Hunter nor our girls especially liked school. I guess my attitude about it was somewhere in the middle.
When it came to school I mostly went along to get along. There were certainly parts I really enjoyed, but most days I would have jumped at the chance to stay at home too.
Recently I was poking around Western Carolina University’s Southern Appalachian Digital Collections and noticed several school photos from days gone by.
I’m always interested in old photos and especially enjoyed seeing all the children lined up in front of their schools.
The school photo from the beginning of this post is from Jackson County NC. All the students and the teacher look sort of well to do. They all appear to be dressed very well. Makes me wonder if that was their usual attire or if it was only for the photo. Three of the small girls in the front have dresses made from the same fabric. I wonder if they were sisters or perhaps cousins. I like how a few of the older girls have their hands on the younger girls’ shoulders. At first I thought the boys in the back were standing on some sort of bleachers, but if you look closely you can see they are standing on the first rung of a fence.
School in Hewitt NC
This glass plate negative labeled school Hewitts is part of the Frank Fry Collection and shows a group of people standing in front of a school house. Frank Emmett Fry (December 13, 1877-February 12, 1939), originally from Ohio, settled in western North Carolina around 1895. He was superintendent of the North Carolina Talc and Mining Company, located in Hewitt, NC (Swain County), and was also involved in the lumber industry. He married Martha Emerelda Pender (February 24, 1879-October 31, 1958), and the couple had seven children. Fry’s photography appears to date from the first decade of the 1900’s, and features images of Hewitt, Bryson City, and the surrounding area.
Time Period 1900s; 1910s.
To see an enlarged version visit this page and click on photo.
This photo is amazingly clear. I swear I could almost reach out and touch some of the children. Although there are several barefeet in this photo, the students still look like they are dressed very well. The girl on the far right front row has a beautiful dress. Also interesting is the flouncy collars on some of the wee boys shirts. I noticed a few flowers on a couple of their jackets as well.
Sweetwater School
Gideon Thomas Laney (1889-1976), also known as Gid, was the prominent photographer for the Brasstown and Sweetwater areas of Clay County, North Carolina in the first part of the 20th century. Trained as a portrait photographer and motivated by the need for flexible work after the death of his wife Martha Creech Ison in 1929 left him a single parent, Gideon borrowed his sister’s bellows camera and began to photograph the people and events of his community. He sent his film off to be developed by Weaver Studio in Copperhill, Tennessee and later by Crisp’s Studio in Murphy, North Carolina. From the negatives, he made 6 cent postcard prints using his in-home darkroom.
Time period: 1920s; 1930s.
To see an enlarged version visit this page and click on photo.
The last photo I’m sharing was taken just up the road from where I live. The photographer was from Brasstown. It is a later photo than the first two. Maybe that explains the difference in clothing between the photos. Almost all of the boys in this photo have overalls on and the girls’ dresses don’t look near as elaborate as the ones in the previous two. I like the one girl that has a hat on. If you look closely she has a necklace too. Her necklace is similar to the teacher’s. The photo looks like it was taken in the road. I like the ivy and laurels I can see on the bank. I also like the two boys on the front left that have their hand on the shoulder of the boy near them.
I really enjoy seeing the students from days gone by, but boy I wish I knew the stories that went with each child and the teachers too.
Last night’s video: Making Kraut in the Jar – Old Timey Recipe.
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You seldom see smiling faces in these old-school photos. The same holds in those taken of my
family back in the day. Petrified of the teacher? LOL
I liked school about as much as Matt. The Algebra and Physics …and studying French bout did me in.
I really liked school, but not the homework. Since I was the youngest of our family the older siblings didn’t want me around as much except for our middle sister who got stuck taking care of me. Thankfully she didn’t mind. So school was her break from me and my time to have friends my age to play with or later to hang out with. Sometimes I miss those years and my friends but then we can’t stay in the past, we must move on. The old school pictures are real treasures. Thank you for sharing!
I loved school especially when basketball practice started. Loved to play sports. Nowadays when I hear my greats talking about school I just can’t connect. Have you all seen the new math? Thanks for sharing the old photos which I dearly love.
Tipper, have a great day and take care of yourself. Continued prayers for the family.
my dad and his brothers walk to school, built a fire before school in the winter time and had a naughty relationship with the teacher, God help!
In the Hewitt photo there were lots of bare feet. I love all these old photos. Every child is cute. My grandmother was a teacher in Oklahoma ( Bryan county ) in around 1910. Her teachers photo with students, hangs in my hallway. Thanks for sharing this Tipper!❤️
My first 8 years of school were in a two room school – two teachers. We had one boy in our first grade class that was more than three years older than the rest of us. For some reason he chose to be a bully, maybe because he was so far behind in education. I think he dropped out about the fifth grade. Once I learned to read I always had a book in hand or very close by. I read the newspaper by spreading it out and lying on the floor. Now after eight decades of life I still enjoy a good book. My wife is legally blind and gets books on cassette. We both enjoy those.
Thank you, Tipper, for sharing the photos with us. I, too, wonder about the lives of each child and teacher photographed.
School was a haven for me, and I enjoyed everything about it: the predictable nature of the days, the emotionally and physically safe environment created by kind (or at least, not overtly hostile) teachers, and the opportunity to learn new ideas and skills. Most of all, I enjoyed the library! My, what glorious worlds inhabited the pages of book after book after book after book.
It is my hope and prayer that all children – no matter their age – find refuge, encouragement and wonder in school.
I love old photos. I’ve seen some of my Mother’s school photos and noticed no one was smiling. When I asked her about that she said they were probably all hungry!! My Mother grew up so poor. She loved school, but had to quit in the 8th grade to go and work in the cotton mill. She didn’t have much formal training, but was a very smart woman. Prayers for all! Tell Granny God is still on the throne and looking after her! Take care and God bless ❤️
I loved these old school photos! I liked seeing the girls in dresses, something you rarely see these days. The children were dressed very well in the second picture which I agree could have been just for the photo, but they had no shoes on. Really enjoyed you sharing these photos, Tipper. Thank you. Continued prayers for Granny and the family.
In my first comment I mentioned the high school boys bringing and having guns in their cars when I went to school. Since making this comment, I have read on one of my local new station’s website of a parent along with her son beating and stabbing another student’s parent on the their student’s school first day back at school. She said the man that she stabbed cut her off in the car line for picking up or dropping off the students. How can we expect our young people to act or do different when this is the example their parents are setting for them? One other thing, someone else mentioned the students in at least one picture not be obese because of the food they ate, I will add this, if these same students were country kids they had chores or work to do when they came home from school and didn’t sit around eating and drinking while playing video games. The food mentioned did not include what is now called fast food from restaurants. Even though my late wife had to be at work at 4:00 AM she would come home and take a short nap and then cook a full course country supper from scratch 5-6 nights a week for me and her children. Very seldom would she stop and buy fast food to bring home.
Randy, there’s great truth in what you say above.
The behavior of a parent stabbing someone for being cut off in a line speaks of failures in our legal system to me. That was not the first time that parent had done unacceptable acts and he/she had got away without punishment that was severe enough to change behavior. It’s my view that the criminal justice system should exist to protect the general population from such behavior and to effect changes in that behavior for those it apprehends and punishes. I believe that only harsh punishment can change behavior. Yes, harsh punishment only makes some worse; and they are the ones who must be removed from general society in my opinion.
I was middle ground on school too. But… I loved back to school shopping. So much promise with new composition books, lunch boxes, shoes and clothes, etc… When I first started 1st grade in 1966, (no kindergarden in my area) we weren’t allowed to wear pants. On very cold days we would wear them under our dress and in the morning the teacher would lead all the girls into the restroom where we would remove our pants fold them up and put them under our desk. Just before school let out we all went back into the bathroom and put on our pants. How silly was that!
I am interested in the phographer’s wife. Martha Creech Ison. My father, Charles Albert Nelson, married a young woman named Milia Creech around 1921 in Harlan, Kentucky. Her parents were Harvey and Oma Creech. My father and Milia were married until October 1933 when Milia passed away from cholera.
They had four children…Mildred, Charles Jr., Mary Christine and Dorothy Nelson.
My father married my mother on Thanksgiving Day 1933. My mother said she couldn’t stay with him to take care of his children…it was not done. So she married him and they had three children:
Bobby Ray, Raymond and me (Linda).
Before 1913 North Carolina had no compulsory school attendance. Maybe that’s the reason these photographs show the children being dressed better than expected. Maybe these were the children of the elite class who could afford better than average clothing. Maybe the last picture, being post 1913 and obviously of children of the working class, has more to do with state compulsory school attendance laws.
Did your grandparents go to school? Do or would your children have gone to school without laws that force them to? Are all children equally benefited by compulsory school attendance?
>>>Caution, some degree of deep thinking might be required here! <<<
My Pa turned 19 in 1913. He went to the Baptist Orphanage at Thomasville in 1900 and received schooling there but I think that was controlled by the board of directors not the state. In fact he even did a year at Mars Hill College when he was 16 years old but didn’t go for a second year. He was born in Needmore in the Nantahala Township in Swain County.
Yes, my children would have been sent to school without compulsory education laws. In fact, my daughter went to private school for a few years. I pulled her out because I wanted her to be in public school to learn to deal with less affluent folks. It worked.
To the extent that children learn to read, write, add and subtract, multiply and divide, I think compulsory education is good – even necessary – for all kids. The socialization also helps, but is a minor part of what kids should learn in school, in my opinion. There are some who should not be in school beyond what it takes to learn those 3’r concepts above. There are some on whom the whole concept of history and science is lost. I believe that passing children to the next grade if they couldn’t do the work is wrong on just about every level. We have come to accept a lowest common denominator approach to teaching rather than to expect the highest level of accomplishment from every student.
That’s my 2/5th’s of a nickel.
I love looking at old photos, especially school photos. The stern apprehensive faces on some of the students make me wonder how hard their lives were. I like to study their facial features to see if I can find possible siblings. Seeing these lovely old school picture reminds me of the memorable Christy series on tv some years ago. Thanks for sharing these.
I have a class snapshot made at Fall Creek School in Salem, (Oconee County) SC, in 1927. My mother and two of her Alexander siblings were among the students. The teacher was also an Alexander. I’d gladly share a copy with anyone with an interest. I don’t know whether or not an archive exists in the Upstate or in Columbia. Mom preserved the photo. I recently made copies for some cousins in Honea Path and Belton.
I wonder about the individuals and families in old photos too, like you mentioned, all the stories. I bet in the last photo there would be a lot of bare feet if we could see them. Back then I can imagine how it would be quite an event to get a photo taken. I also would like to know where the photo would be located after it was taken. Was there a special event just for the viewing. Lots of questions.
I so enjoyed these photographs and learning about the local schools from long ago. I am sending up love and prayers for Granny and all of you.
Love all the bare feet in photo 2. I was telling my son the other day died my it gave that look of school starting time, the position of the sun in the afternoon, and soon it will be wear a jacket in the mornings and it’s tied around your waist in the afternoon going home. I’m in the Matt and the girls camp on school not my favorite thing for sure. I’m going to try to make granny’s kraut, my husband loves it so I’m going to give it a whirl. My thoughts are with granny, everyday sending all the best prayers up for her. She’s just the best!❤️
About time I started school, 1959-60, I think overalls had almost completely been replaced by blue jeans. It is interesting to me to note the differences in dress by age of the boys in the second picture. The youngest boys have the wide white collars on what looks like a pullover shirt. Next-older has button up white shirts, no coat; next buttonup white shirts with coat but no tie. The oldest boys have dress shirt, coat and tie like the male teacher. There is a visual lesson there I think about how growth, responsibility and independence were thought of at that time and place.
Love these photos that provide us with windows to the past.
When school started I was so excited to have new crayons. But, the paste! It was in a plastic jar with a scooper attached to the lid. I never saw that before and it was so fun pasting cutouts from old magazines.
The last photograph said farm children to me and would have been about the time my grandmother was born. Most children did not have shoes during the hot months, only in winter were shoes had. The first picture I love how the teacher is dressed, how beautiful her hair is. It’s a whole different time which is obvious but people thought and acted differently.
I’ll bet some of my cousins are in this photo from Sweetwater. They grew up right off Sweetwater Branch. Old photos are very interesting. I always look to see if I recognize anyone from my extended family.
By first school in my original post I’m referring to the Hewitt picture. The very first picture also shows a well built school.
Great pictures!!! So glad we have these to see today and ponder about. The first school looks to ge a nice, new, sturdy building. The Sweetwater photo shows a local church through the trees. Was the church where school was held?
Prayers for Granny.
I truly enjoyed looking at these school pictures it conjures up memories of days gone by. I started first grade in 1957 in a small school in Jefferson County Alabama. In 2005 I returned to that same school as a ” lunchroom lady” where I spent the next ten years, the best ten years of my working career. This year I ‘ve been blessed to help get one of our great grandsons ready for this school year at the same school that I started in 1957. I love this little school where the enrollment is less than 150 students in all classes K-6th grade. We never know from year to year if it will stay open due to low enrollment even though it is a BLUE RIBBON SCHOOL. Please pray for our school WJES in Jefferson County Al.
Love the old photos, Tipper. Thank you for sharing.
Tipper,
No need to warn anyone to “watch out for the buses” back in those days!
Most of the schools in the counties around me have already started, one county (Greenwood, SC) started the last week of July. My grandson ‘s school – Spartanburg county will start this coming Monday, they are one of the latest to start. He will be a Senior this year. I think when I was going to school , 1960-1972, we didn’t start until after Labor Day. I passed a high school school yesterday and couldn’t believe the number of student cars (all newer models) in the parking lot, there would be no more than 30 or so when I was in high school , most of them junkers bought by the students themselves working jobs after they got out of school each day. I can not understand the times of today, many of the cars drove by boys in my day would have guns in them especially during the winter months when they hunted, some even in a gun rack mounted in the back window of pickup truck, these guns would be there all day long and never stole or bothered by anyone, but yet you never heard of anyone shooting up a school.
I see the old blog of Cardinals being sent as messengers. Red birds as we called them were my mother and grandaddy’s favorite birds now they are mine. Right now as I write this, there is one male and two females on my deck eating my cats food. I wonder if that means double fun or double trouble for him!
I always enjoyed school. Good thing since I became a teacher. My local school is still a K-12 school. The main building dates back to the 1930s and was built after an earlier building burned. My grandfather was one of the carpenters that built it. My dad and his siblings attended that building, my grandmother taught there, I attended there and eventually became principal. Lots of connections and memories with that old building.
These old photos are wonderful! There is one thing that I noticed, apart from the precious faces of the children: none of them were obese! They were being garden fed! Chicken, pork, wild game, butter and milk and eggs were on the menu… wild foraging too maybe, but not in excess for sure. We live in a much different world today. It’s amazing!
There are aps that can add color to old pictures. I’m wondering how the pics would look in color. Thanks to you Tipper.
Thank you for pointing out that old pictures can be colorized on the computer. I looked into it and found a web page that you can’t drag a black and white photo onto and it will colorize it. You can then download it. I’m working to build a family website with a lot of black and white photos – I’m old and I’m the youngest of 9 kids – and your post pointed me to a valuable tool.
Thank you, again.
School has changed vastly over the years, even from when I went to school. I love the old photos
I can still remember the day the school superintendent in our local county said on the radio, ‘because the temperature is 19 degrees, you girl can wear trousers’….not pants or jeans mind you, but trousers. I think that was the beginning of ladies not dressing nor acting nor sitting like ladies. I personally did not think there was anything wrong with wearing dresses. Now that was near the end of the ’50’s, 1950 that is. I am not sure why children as so pushed to grow up and get away from their rightful age and be a ‘grown up’. Parents, please let your children be children. Being a responsible adult is ok, but enjoy childhood, it is soooo fun. Take care of Granny, she is a gem for sure. God Bless and payers all around.
I noticed that none of the children in the well dressed group had shoes on. The only child’s feet visible in the second photo were bare as well.