[Granville-Hough] 17 Aug 2009 - Schools 6

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

Remembering my mother Carol Louisa Steckelberg Hough, who passed this date in 2003.

Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2009 06:11:48 -0700
From: Granville W Hough <gwhough at oakapple.net>
Subject: Schools6 - 17 Aug 2009

Oak Hill School People. The Oak Hill School by its excellent program and 
support from the Concord Church attracted people from the surrounding 
communities, including the McNairs and Robinsons from Calvary, and 
Sullivans from New Sardis, and Kennedys and Garners from Sharon in 
Simpson County. As a result, bonds were formed among these families 
which lasted a lifetime. Numerous marriages resulted, which further 
increased the bonds.
I do not recall the discussions about consolidation, but Oak Hill was 
not as well located as Shady Grove or New Haven as a branch school. It 
was also a county line school, and the consolidation process also put 
everyone into their home county. It split the Oak Hill district between 
Smith and Simpson Counties, whether we liked it or not. The Simpson 
County families joined the Sharon district which eventually consolidated 
with Magee. We in Smith County were slated to go to Mize.
Late in her life, my mother, Lizzie (Richardson) Hough, became 
interested in recovering and recording the history of Oak Hill School. 
She joined with two old neighbors and friends, Vick (Sullivan) Wells and 
Scrap (Sullivan) Wells in collecting pictures and identifying individual 
students on them. Surprisingly, they could recall the names of nearly 
every one. They spent many happy hours together reminiscing about their 
old classmates and their families. The pictures with the annotations 
remain in the Hough/Travis families, but the recall discussions among 
Lizzie, Vick, and Scrap were not recorded. How interesting they would 
have been! More about Oak Hill School later.

Oak Hill School Building. It was a two story, four room building with a 
bell tower which I remember very well. It was located where the Concord 
Church Cemetery was later laid out. I vaguely remember that, in its last 
year of operation in 1926, I was allowed to ôgo to schoolö with my older 
brother, Rudolph, for one or more days. Then, the building was turned 
over to the Oak Hill Masonic Lodge which met on the second floor.
During church services, which seemed to go on and on, I would sneak out 
the church door with Ershel and Vernon McAlpin, and anyone else who 
could get past their parents and dare each other to climb to the top of 
the bell tower. It was by no means safe, but we never had an accident. 
We could get out on the second floor and see the locked door of the 
Masonic Lodge. We were deathly afraid of what might be behind that door.
The building had been built by family contributions, and, with the 
Depression upon us after 1929, the families agreed to tear down the 
building and distribute the lumber. This they did about 1933 and the 
Masonic Lodge moved first to a place called Maddox in Simpson County, 
then later to Magee. The building was carefully disassembled, and even 
the nails were saved for reuse. A share of lumber was set aside for each 
contributor, or the contributors could take their shares or donate them 
for building Sunday School rooms on the back of the church.
My grandfather, Jim Richardson, took home the 1 by 10 boards in his 
share but gave all the remainder to the church for the Sunday School 
project. Eventually, we had Sunday School rooms on the back of our 
church and this was much quieter than when we just had curtains between 
the various classes.
When I was able to return home for leave from the Army in the summer of 
1946, I found my grandfatherÆs barn was about to lose all its protective 
siding. Looking around for some way to repair the barn, I found the 1 by 
10 boards, carefully stored in the long hayloft. I used them the 
stabilize the sides of the barn. I believe this lasted until my brother 
Clifford Hough could replace that old barn with a livestock and hay pole 
barn. So 1946 was the last time I saw a piece of the Oak Hill School 
building. (I forgot that I could also see parts of the old building in 
our Sunday School classrooms.)