The early school system in Graham County was made up of a series of one-room schools, with most communities having a school located in it.
The schools were usually simple log structures, with one teacher for all ages of children who attended.
In the mid 1800s, there were 20 such schools in the county. Even the more remote sections of the county – such as Cable Cove, Little Snowbird and West Buffalo – had schools. There was a one-room school on Atoah, which was located on what is now William Corbin Road.
My parents – Clyde and Edrie Lovin McClung, who were born in 1905, attended a one-room school. Heat was provided by a wood burning stove and it fell the lot of the older boys to keep it supplied with wood.
Once after being instructed by the teacher to put wood in the stove, my father put a firecracker in also. He kept waiting for an explosion, but nothing happened. After some time had passed, the teacher instructed another boy to “chunk” the fire. When he did, the firecracker exploded.
Thinking that boy had put the firecracker in, the teacher gave him a paddling.
The photo accompanying this story was provided by Orville Crisp and is the school on Frank’s Creek in 1913. The last one-room school to close in Graham County was the one in Cable Cove, which was discontinued in 1940 due to the construction
of Fontana Dam and the lake covering much of the area.
Marshall McClung is the historical columnist for The Graham Star.