Scotts Hill High School - Lion Yearbook (Scotts Hill, TN)

Page 7 text:

Ben A. Tucker headed the famous old college from its start until his untimely death in 1903. A Method¬ ist leader, he also had a book store and published the weekly newspaper, THE SCOTTS HILL BANNER. Here is the $1,000 Scotts Hill College building erected 1895-96: three teachers; 200-odd boarding and day students; box stove heat; water from a spring; no library! B. A. Tucker with poverty, zeal, hard work, and an obsession to teach, housed here, to unprecedented standing and fame. that year one Samuel P. Winston came in to become our first teacher. He came from Hick¬ ory, N.C., where he had been teaching. The first school house - a small log structure - was built In the Jess Holmes woods just back of the present gymnasium. (Jess and Cynthia Austin gave the site for the building, and several succeeding schools were also built on their donated lands.) My father, J. S. Turner, recalled visiting this first school more than once to hear the scholars recite. The house had two windows closed by shutters in inclement weather, split-log benches, a chimney and fireplace for heat, and only a few books, always shared by students. Winston married Annie, the pretty daughter of the Holmes, in 1875 and thus became the nephew of the town ' s popular doctor, Pleasant W. Austin. Reports were that Dr. Austin soon began efforts to persuade Winston to enroll for a medical course at his (Austin’s) alma mater, the University of Louisville College of Medicine. Since Professor Winston’s salary was so meager ($15 per month) as a teacher, and since he could moonlight by practicing medicine, or vice versa, arrangements were made for Winston to enter medical training. He commuted by steamboat on the Tennessee and Ohio Rivers, made a good record attending the lectures, and still taught school here between terms - never more than three or four months in a year. Graduating in 1884 with an M.D. Degree, Winston was a success as a doctor at once back here. But he had also increased school interest and soon began urging the town to provide better quarters for a school.

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The History of the Scotts Hill Schools by Gordon H. Turner, Sr. No known records exist of any kind of school here before the Civil War. This is true also for the first few years following the war. The first settlers came here (from N.C.) in 1825. It may be assumed that certain families cooperated after living necessities had been provided, to assure that their children had at least elementary training in the Three R’s. General plans were agreed to by patrons signing their names to a sort of contract agreeing to pay certain amounts for the school. Such were known as subscription schools and this finance plan continued around here until well after 1900 when tax money for schools became more plentiful. Scotts Hill’s first effort toward what might be called a public school, came in 1870. In Samuel P. Winston, native of N.C. who came here in 1870 to open our first public school in a small log house. He later graduated in medicine at the Uni¬ versity of Louisville (1884) and returned here to become a successful doctor and leading citizen. He was instrumental in obtaining a much larger frame school building during the 80’s. His family later moved to Texas and then to Okla., where he prac¬ ticed medicine until his death. Annie Holmes (Mrs. Sam P.?) Winston. She wa s the daughter of Jesse and Cynthia Austin Holmes, long prominent and successful citizens. Known for their philanthropy, the Holmes gave the land for every school our town has had except the old college.

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This picture shows the front of the frame school house erected in the 1880’s to replace the area’s first small log schoolhouse. The date is 1895 after Ben A. Tucker (extreme right rear) had come here to teach. The other teacher is Jim C. Duck, third from left, extreme back. A few of the students shown are still living (1976), - all in their 80’s and 90’s. So in the late 1880’s a frame building was erected, with two large classrooms which dou¬ bled as an auditorium. This house stood about where the gymnasium and east campus entrance now are. This larger building was filled with students in a year or so, making two and then three teachers necessary. First teacher in the new structure was Henri Heuterburg, a German, who left after one year, in 1889. Ben Davis followed (1889-90); then W. Ben and John H. Duck (brothers), 1890-91; Frank and W. Alfred Austin (1891-92); John H. and Jim C. Duck (1892-93); D. S. (Samp) Duck and William Stinson (1893-94); then Jim C. Duck, Ben A. Tucker and Myra Turner (1894-96). School interest had grown so by 1895 that Tucker and others began promotion of a larger school building, to house also a ’’college” department. He had graduated from Hunting¬ don’s Southern Normal University and had served for a term or two as superintendent of Decatur County schools and by now had an unexcelled reputation as a school promoter and administrator. The two-story frame ’’college” building was completed with local labor and materials, in time for the opening of school in September, 1896. It was located a few hundred yards from the old campus, to the northeast - on what is yet known as ’’College Ridge. ” Water for this Scotts Hill College came from a fine spring; heat was by box stoves, often fired by upperclassmen to pay for their tuition who cut the wood from the virgin timber back of the building; there were two large classrooms on the first floor; an auditorium doubled for classes upstairs and also had a stage and siderooms for extra activities and ’’exhibitions” at school closings. A small ’’office” was located also on the first floor and the ’’college” had no library except a few books loaned by teachers. For girls, an antiquated toilet was installed; boys used the deep woods still farther back! Tucker was contracted by the new Board (Henry Austin, A. L. Goff, John Austin, George Swift, Jodie Davidson, P. W. Holmes and J. S. Turner), to head the school ’’provided he 6