Districts
Districts, Cities, and Communities
Districts are not numbered sequentially because of changes between 1870 and 1880. A family could remain in the same location yet appear in different districts in separate census. As best as can be determined, the table below reflects present day district location of cities, towns and communities. Lake County TN was part of Obion County until 1870. NE panhandle was in Weakley County until 1870.
| Dist | Location | Towns and Communities (Former Names) | |
| 1 | N border KY, E border D-16, S border D-13, W border D-2 | Chambers | Harris Station (Mink) |
| 2 | N border KY, E border D-1, S border D-13 & 10, W border D-3 | Woodland Mills | Crystal near/on Dist. 2 & 3 Line |
| 3 | N border Ky, E border D-2 & 10, S border D-12, W border Reelfoot Lake | Clayton | Walnut Log |
| 4 | under D-13, E border D-7, S border D-8 & 11, W. border D-6 and D-15 | Pleasant Hill | McCutchen Heights |
| Rives (Troy Station) | |||
| 5 | under D-12, an original district. Border on N by D-12, E by D-6, SE corner D-14, S by D-9, W by Lake Co | Hornbeak (Wilsonville) | Lassiter Corner |
| Paw Paw | |||
| Samburg | Webb Chapel | ||
| 6 | N border D-10, E border D-13 & 4, S border D-15 & 14, W border D-12 & 5 | Troy |
Mt. Moriah |
| Englewood | Polk Station | ||
| 7 | N border D-1, E border Weakley, S border D-8, W border D-4 | Central | Sunnyside |
| Crockett | Alamo Bap. Church at Hop-In | ||
| 8 | N by D-8 & 4, E by Weakley, S By Gibson (Kenton on Co line), W by D-11 | Kenton | Macedonia |
| 9 | N by D-5, E by D-14, S by Dyer, W by Lake | Cat Corner | Elbridge (Beech Point) |
| Cloverdale | Gratio | ||
| Minnick | |||
| 10 | W of Union City | Dixie | Fremont (Caldwell) |
| 11 | N by D-4, E by D-8, S by Gibson, W by D-15 | Mason Hall | |
| 12 | N border D-3, E border D-6, S border D-5, W border Reelfoot Lake | Mt. Zion | Chigger, Protemus, Star |
| 13 | N border D-1 & D-2, E border D-7, S border D-4, W border D-10 & D-6 | Union City | Gibbs/Paducah Junction |
| 14 | N by D-6 & D-5, E by D-15, S by Dyer, W by D-9 | Glass (Palestine) | |
| 15 | N by D-6, E by D-4 & 11, S by D-11 and Dyer Co | Obion | Trimble |
| 16 | Panhandle jutting into Weakley County and part of Weakley before 1870 | South Fulton (Jacksonville) | McConnell |
| Pierce Station | |||
| Reelfoot Lake: A portion, 36 acres, is in Obion County. The first mentioned lake shore points are Wheeling, later called Shaw’s Park, Samburg and Carpenter’s. | |||
| Weakley County: In the reforming of counties in 1870, a NW corner of Weakley was added to Obion. | |||
I am looking for a town called Cloars School House in Obion County, Tennessee it existed in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s… I donot see it …was it merged with another town?
Cloars School House was at one time a community in Obion County, but I can’t recall exactly where it was at the moment. There were some Cloars from the Dixie, Obion County, TN community area, but I don’t know if that’s where the community was. Would have to check the census. If you are still looking for it, email me at jakeu2018 [at] gmail [dot] com, and I’ll try to find it for you.
Catheerine & Jake – Here’s what I know about Cloar’s School; It was published in my “Old School” column in the __?__ Union City Messenger. OLD SCHOOL(s)
CLOAR/CLAYTON
The following photograph was borrowed from the Obion County Library and fussed over by several people for weeks! Where was this building located? It is obviously a relatively recent photograph, given the high quality of the four-color image. Anyway, Cloar/Clayton School went on the back burner until more information could be gathered.
Meantime, I had a couple letters from Martha Fowlkes Tarkington of the Crystal Community relating to the town of Clayton. I thought it might be of interest to readers as well as that about the town’s OLD SCHOOL.
“… Clayton was settled soon after the Civil War. It had a general store which operated for 56 years; Clayton also had a cotton gin operated in connection with the store. I remember there were three stores across the gravel road from each other. Also a silent movie theater; I remember going to a silent movie there when I was 5 or 6 years old. Mr. Cleve Williams owned a blacksmith shop. Cloar and Reelfoot schoolhouses were consolidated into Dixie School….” [Martha (Fowlkes) Tarkington, personal correspondence, Aug. 30, 2017, Crystal Community, Union City, TN].
PHOTO OF CLOAR/CLAYTON SCHOOL. [Courtesy the Tennessee Room, Obion County Public Library, Union City, Tennessee].
Friends Jennifer and Nicky Barnes offered to show me the original sites of several OLD SCHOOL(s) in the Walnut Log area. One site led to another and we found ourselves at the Reelfoot Baptist Church on Hwy. 22.
Nicky took a left off the highway onto the road that runs behind the church, then a dogleg onto a private drive… and Lo, and Behold! there, right in front of us was this same building, looking today exactly like the above photograph! Someone is taking good care to preserve a bit of Obion County history… and, I thank you very much!
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In the May 17, 1901 issue of Union City’s Commercial newspaper appeared the following nuggets from the “Hornbeak News” column submitted by “News Teller”: Mr. Cloar and family, to the regret of their many friends, have moved to their farm near Protemus. The “Fremont News” piece, written by “Violet,” stated: “J.E. Cloar and family, who for the last three years have been living in Hornbeak for the benefit of the school (Hornbeak School founded in 1854), have moved back to their country home…”
I hate assuming ANYthing, but one must in this case – that John Elijah Cloar began his own school for his kids, and probably those other community children, soon after moving back into the Protemus area, maybe in his home? Seemingly, then, school was being taught at the Cloar School for about 6 years.
This educational facility was later called Clayton School (the building in the photograph?) and was in session until the consolidation into the Reelfoot School many years later (and, then into Dixie School, per Martha Tarkington above).
We know that CLAYTON School was in session for the Winter 1907. Miss Mexie Cloar, Nicky Barnes grandmother, wrote the following in her diary: “Miss Gladys Stephenson, teacher. Year 1907; my age 15, her age 21; eighth of November 1907.”
In 1908, Mexie wrote: “Miss Mildred Hastings is my teacher; her age 18, my age 16. Year 1908.”
To justify having two teachers, Clayton School must have grown considerably during the last year; a 1908 newspaper article published at Union City stated: “Mr. Walton Stigler is getting along well with his school at this place. He has 45 pupils enrolled….” (Union City Commercial, March 3, 1908, p. 2).
Later in the same CLAYTON column, submitted by “Wild Plum,” is this: “A number from here attended the debate at the schoolhouse last Friday (February 28). The question was, ‘Resolved, that the Indians have received less recognition than the Negroes by the U.S. Government.’ The affirmative was represented by Hurdle Donnell, Annie Barnes, Rosa Lee Smith, Pearl Cloar, Daniel Brown, H.W. Stigler. The negative by Robert Reeves (Rives?), Idella Smith, Gracie Donnell, Albertie Bryan, J.S. Ratliff.” (ibid).
Debate is mentioned as having been a regular event at the Clayton School during H.W. Stigler’s years as teacher there… and was obviously enjoyed by the whole community.
Miss Mexie Cloar’s next Diary entry reads:
“Miss Kate Chambers is my teacher. Year 1910, 20 her [age], 18 my age…”
“School began Monday, July 10, 1911 at Clayton. The pupils in the ninth grade class are Nellie Philipps [sic], Vira Howard, Gracie Darnell [sic], Inez Caldwell, Mexie Cloar, Hugh Caldwell, Roy McDaniel, Hurtle Darnell [sic], Arnet Cross and Robert Rives. Rev. H.W. Stigler [is] our teacher.”
In an undated entry, Miss Mexie wrote: “My teachers are as follows, Cousin Adell, Delia Ross, Fannie Fulghum, Mary Fulghum, Lola Ward, Maggie Burnett, Murlie Cloar, Dee Glover, Van Glover, Gladys Stephenson and Mildred Hastings, Inez Cloar. Kate Chambers, H.W. Stigler.” I wonder if Mexie meant that throughout her school years, the above-mentioned people had been teachers at the Clayton School?
At the bottom of that last entry, Mexie appended “Oren & Nolan Stigler.”
PHOTO OF CLAYTON SCHOOL CHILDREN. Mexie Cloar is the middle girl standing behind the teacher, Mildred Hastings (?), perhaps dating the photo to 1908. [Courtesy Nicky & Jennifer Barnes, Union City, TN]
The three Stigler men were from Weakly County and visited family there when schools were not in session in the Clayton/Crescent vicinities. H.W. (Walton) was teaching at Clayton as early as December 1907 and both his brothers, Oren and Nolan were, at various times, taught at the Crescent School over near Walnut Log.
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The 1907 Obion County List of Schools states, “#18 Cloar/Clayton–Consolidated to form Reelfoot.” (Never mind Reelfoot right now, we’re coming to that ol’ gal!).
Unfortunately, there are no dates for any of the consolidations of schools in the Board of Educations files. The nearest I have found in the BOE’s Minutes of its meetings is in May 1926, when eight small school buildings/sites were sold. (Remember it was that year that Obion Chapel School building was sold to Reverend P. F. Graves? See article Aug. 7, 2017).
The last newspaper article found for Clayton School was dated December 8, 1921 and read: “The patrons of the Clayton School announced a play, ‘Home Ties,’ to be given Saturday night, December 10, at the schoolhouse. Admission, 15 and 25 cents.”
The very last report on the Clayton School (and Rogers) was in the Board of Education’s Minutes of its May 11, 1925 meeting, when Clara Green and Pauline Kirk were elected as teachers for the upcoming school sessions.
So, once again assuming, I believe the last year for Clayton was 1925-26. This school is never mentioned again in the official Minutes of the Obion County Board of Education.
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Hello, and thank you for this information on the schools. I just started researching on the Cloar/Clayton School where my father and his sisters all attended. My father, Wm. R. (Billy) Morris was next to youngest born in 1929. He attended through 2nd grade, so the school must have remained open until at least the mid to late 1930s. Unfortunately, my Dad & aunts are all gone now, so I don’t know anything other than they did attend school there, and not at Dixie, probably because it was too far for them to walk.
I am trying to locate the Davidson Chapel and Cemetery where Robert Spencer Valliant and his wife Martha were buried, both in 1848. They were living with their youngest son Robert C. at the time of their deaths. Robert C., however, is buried in the Elbridge cemetery. These places seem to be too small to make it into the records. Can you advise me?
You might be looking for David’s Chapel Baptist Church and Cemetery in Brownsville, KY not far from Hickman.