McAdoo School was built southwest of McAdoo Church. The land was on the Will Brown property with a contract that the land would be returned to the Brown survivors when the school was not in use.
      From 1921 to 1926 there was one schoolroom with a small room for coats and supplies in the back. There was a high six-foot porch for entrance to the room by the thirty pupils.
     John Davidson, the teacher, lived in Hickory Point and rode a horse or mule to the school, a distance of about five miles.  This was from 1921 to 1923. Elizabeth Bellamy, who taught from 1923 to 1926, lived in St. Bethlehem.  She boarded with Clarence and Docie Ryan, across the Ashland City Road near the school.
      All children walked to school. Big and little McAdoo Creeks had long swinging bridges.  Children climbed up the ladder, crossed the swinging bridges and came down the other side.  It was good until heavy rains when children often had to wait two to three hours for the creeks to go down enough for them to wade to the ladders to cross the creeks. Parents waited on the opposite side, as it was often after dark before children could cross to the ladder.
      The water supply was a spring at the bottom of a hill in a pasture.  The wooded area with large oak trees served as bathroom facilities.  A pot bellied stove was supplied by the school system with coal for heating.  The lunch was packed at home and water was the drink.
     In 1926 the enrollment dropped as twelfth graders had finished school. Superintendent Jobe divided the students in three areas - Hickory Point, Fredonia and Bethlehem and this closed McAdoo school. Later the consolidation of schools was Fredonia and Roosevelt, with busing.
 

Submitted by Sandra Stacey and Mr. Winters.

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