RIDE RURAL ROCKCASTLE COUNTY

Take a ride with me through Rockcastle County, Kentucky. I'll drive my small Tacoma truck but many folks bike it for its beauty. It's very scenic and full of cultural history. 

Rusticated Metal Barn Roof

1819 House With Stacked Limestone Chimney

Original Construction is Log. Presently Weatherboard Covering

Mt. Vernon, Commercial Building With Quilt Square

Early Country Home, Possibly Log Construction Underneath Present Siding

Old barns - Still Active

Old Davis Branch Schoolhouse

Not Active - Privately Owned

ONE ROOM SCHOOL HOUSE TRADITION

ONE ROOM SCHOOL HOUSE
October, 1940. Breathitt County, Kentucky.

Library of Congress, Farm Security Administration Photos

Mary Post Wolcott, Photographer

Tis the time for all young folks to parade back to school. There are different types of school choices today -- private, public or home schooling. 


Notice that none of these choices are the one room school house which used to dot our country's landscape during the latter part of the 19th century and into the earlier part of the 20th century. Primarily rural in nature -- they were located in the country and small towns. 

I have always appreciated the tradition of the one room school house. I thought it would be interesting to find some old photos of students attending one of these types of schools. Luckily the Library of Congress provided a couple from their archives.


As I am sure you know, the one room school usually held quite a few grades all taught in one room with one teacher. The usual school room scenario seemed to be first through eighth grade.

MOUNTAIN CHILDREN PLAYING
 MARBLES AFTER SCHOOL

October, 1940. Breathitt County, Kentucky.

Library of Congress, Farm Security Administration Photos

Mary Post Wolcott, Photographer

These schools had a traditional social culture where everyone knew each other and you didn't compete by wearing fashionable clothes. Children learned from the students as well as the teacher, and most students assisted those who needed help.

Also, you usually walked quite a distance to school, sometimes brought your homemade lunch in a tin lunch bucket  and got time off to help with work chores at home -- these activities would keep children healthy and strong.


It was a tight school community onto itself. It was self regulated in a sense.

Today young folks are attending large consolidated schools where they do not know all the teachers or other students. The idea of "school community" has become a loosely knit phrase.


My question is -- are we going in the right direction with our school culture today?

DAVIS BRANCH ONE ROOM SCHOOLHOUSE

DAVIS BRANCH ONE ROOM SCHOOL HOUSE

This past weekend my son and I rode the back-roads toward a place called Climax to stock up on some fresh spring water. It was a gorgeous sunny day in the 70s. We filled many gallon containers and then decided to take a ride looking  for some disappearing fragments of the area's culture.  


One thing we wanted to do was to stop and check out an old one room schoolhouse we had noticed previously.  We were in luck as the owner of the schoolhouse was available to fill us in on some of the background of the old building.
.

MIKE HEIMS -- NOW OWNER AND FORMER STUDENT OF THE DAVIS BRANCH ONE-ROOM SCHOOLHOUSE  IN THE BACKGROUND

Mike Heims is the owner of the Davis Branch Schoolhouse. He represents its past as he was a student there from the first grade through the eighth grade. He has a store of memories related to the school.. 

Mike has lived in his family home, about fifty yards from the original site of Davis Branch School, for most of his life. Attending school and farming with his dad filled much of his early life. In his adult life he has worked in the building trades and continues still  at age 68. 

SCHOOLHOUSE ENTRANCE

They closed the school 53 years ago. A new larger school was built a few miles away that took in the surrounding students that attended one-room schoolhouses. Thus Davis Branch was closed two years after he left it. 

Eventually the school and property were auctioned off  with the winning bid going to Mike. He paid about four hundred dollars for it. He bought it for its memories and the fact that it sat right next to his family's farm.. .  

POTBELLY  STOVE

Mike shared several stories about the school with us. Here is one of them.


The school was heated by a coal burning potbelly stove which  still resides in its original place. Older boys, during certain school days, gathered tree twigs in the nearby woods for kindling.  The teacher hired Mike to start up the stove before she and the students arrived in the morning. She paid him a nickel a day for his services. A load of coal sat behind the schoolhouse -- close to where the two outhouses were -- one for the girls and one for the boys. 

OLD METAL ROOF MEETS SIDE WEATHER-BOARDING

The metal roof is in fairly good shape. 

SCHOOLHOUSE WITH ROCK PILINGS

Mike admits that the schoolhouse's structure is struggling. He won't sell  --  it has too many memories for him. It is all original -- wood weather- board siding and metal roof. The windows are original -- the bottom sash was opened to let the cooler air drift inside to cool off the students during warm days.. 

RECTANGULAR FORM WITH ROCK PILINGS FOUNDATION.
STAIRS TO FRONT DOOR ARE CUT LIMESTONE SLABS. 

Overall the schoolhouse has a gable sided entrance. There is only one door to the interior, six windows for light -- three on each adjacent side, all within a beautiful country setting.

The school sits like an elderly gentleman gracefully adding its own history to the landscape.