Clay County, Tennessee Schools

Note: These are the schools listed on the USGS 1:24,000 (7.5 minute) topographical maps, as determined from the USGS Geographical Name Information Server (GNIS). These are undoubtedly NOT all the schools currently in Clay County.

Notes:

1. Fred Arms reports that Plainview school was located on Pea Ridge. When the new highway was built through the area, the building and most of the ground was in the right-of-way. The school was on the Lum Williams property which is now owned by one of Fred Williams' children. Fred attended the school in 1923, the first year the school was used. It was abandoned when the schools were consolidated.

Leah C. Savage provided the following article.

Eminence School in Clay

Eminence School was located one mile south of Boles. It was located at the top of the hill on the right just before the road turns left toward Wood River. This was a one room school. Constructed of wood and heated with a wood stove in the back of the room near the doors. It had blackboards across the front and wooden benches were there to sit on. There were no desks in the beginning. Two doors entered the building. One on the right was used by the boys and the one on the right was used by the girls. There were four tall windows on each side. The house faced the east. The campus was rather hilly and rough with very little play area. The restrooms were located out back behind the bushes. They became more modern and two, two seater outhouses was constructed. Also following the tornado of 1935 when Tompkinsville was literally demolished a craze was on to build storm cellars. One was constructed to the front and south of the school. Logs covered the structure and dirt covered the logs. The most popular game was marbles. (Rolley hole marbles) When Roy Spears was teaching, basketball was introduced. The first ball the school had was leather and had a seam separating the portions that was also leather and was protruding. It could be rough on the hands. This was a one teacher school until the time that Roy started teaching and many additional children started coming from neighboring communities such as Moss, Pine Hill and Oak Grove. The first additional teacher that Ralph recalls was Idera Fisk. Also Nellie Hayes and Lona Walker taught as the second teacher. The competitive school was Tinsley Hill which was located to the east and north of Eminence. There was discussion among the patrons of each school as to which had the most merit. Ralph recalls his uncle Shelton's wife not allowing their child to go to Eminence because she thought Tinsley Hill was a better school. Books were usually purchased second hand from an older student. If new books were bought they were considered expensive and had to be purchased at a store in Celina. Students had tablets of paper and pencils. Ralph remembers making one group picture and it is labeled Eminence 1937. It is in the Clay County History book. Students usually went there through the 8th grade. Sometimes the better students would repeat the 8th grade for a lack of something better to do. Ralph went to Eminence about 1928 until 1937. He went almost none to school the first 3 years, and made 3 grades the 3rd year. The teachers were Creola Grace, Mattie Capshaw, Erma York, Roy Spears, Iders Fisk, Nellie Hayes, Phillip Dalton, and Raymond Spears. The following year Hance Wilkerson and Lona Walker taught at Eminence. The school was dissolved following the fire in 1938 and the students went to Moss, Pine Hill and Oak Grove in Tennessee, and to Tinsley Hill in Kentucky. Prior to a school at Eminence different subscription schools were conducted at Boles in the upstairs of the store building. These sessions were only about 3 months duration and in the summer or fall when heat and road conditions was not a factor.

A few began to go to High School about 1930 to 1933. Students from Eminence would walk to Moss and catch a ride to Celina. Others caught a ride and or boarded at Hermitage Springs. Ralph went to Hermitage Springs and paid a dollar a week to ride on the back of a ton and half truck. This truck was owned by Neville Chitwood and was a student with Ralph at HS. The second year the board of Education established a bus route. Part of this time the bus was an old bus with seats down each side, and on the last Eula Copas had a pick-up with a camper type body on the back. Eula started back to school and graduated with Nevill, Ralph and the others in 1941. In 1940, Highway 52 was rebuilt and rerouted. This was the most severe winter known to people in this area. The temperature went as low as 22 below Zero. The road was impassable for a number of months around Christmas time. Ralph was forced to walk to Oak Grove to meet the bus.