The historic Stony Knoll Elementary School building is 75 years old this year. The school building still stands in the Stony Knoll Community of Mill Spring, N.C. It is located beside the Stony Knoll CME Church. The school building was built in 1940 as a public school to educate African American students in the Mill Spring area. It had one classroom and one room for industrial arts.

The school building was constructed of rock-face cement blocks. First grade through eighth grade was taught in the school. Today, however, the Stony Knoll Elementary School no longer has reading, writing, and arithmetic taught within its walls. The school was closed by the Polk County Board of Education in 1951 and the students from this school were transferred to the new expansive Cobb Elementary School, a consolidated school for all of the African American elementary students in rural Polk County who attended the one to three classroom schools. (The writer of this article, Mae Jackson Williams, attended Cobb Elementary School from 1951-1957.)

At about 1916, the first Stony Knoll Elementary School building was built. It was a wooden building with one classroom. The Polk County Board of Education bought the land to build the school from Miss Harriet Carpenter. At this wooden school building, students were taught from the first grade through the seventh grade by one teacher. Sometime before 1940, the Board of Education tore down the wooden building and in 1940 constructed the new Stony Knoll Elementary School building which was made of rock-face cement blocks and that is the building that still stands today.

Before 1945, no high school education was provided for the African American students who lived in rural Polk County, so students could attend the elementary schools as long as they desired and were well behaved.  Often there would be students in the class as old as the teacher.

The teachers who taught at the Stony Knoll Elementary School, the wooden school or the block school, from 1916 through 1951 were Rev. J. D. Jones, Professor B. H. Deck, Mrs. Mamie Jones Mills, Mr. Miles Holbert, Mrs. Esther Wilkins Robinson, and Mrs. Della Hayden Jackson.

The students who attended the Stony Knoll Elementary School, the wooden school or the block school were from the following families who lived in the Mill Spring area: Mills, Hayden, Petty, Logan, Thompson, Gray, Flack, Carson, Miller, Moore, Murray and Broadwater. Most of the families ranged in size from five to eleven children. Therefore, there were enough children to fill the school.

Some of the former students of the Stony Knoll Elementary School who have visited their elementary school in recent years are Mrs. Emma Logan McIntyre of Washington, D.C.; Mrs. Inez Logan Hines of Mill Spring, N.C.; Mr. Robert Logan of Capitol Heights, Md.; Mrs. Helen Hayden Fulton of New Haven, Conn.; Mrs. Lois Hayden Fulton of New Haven, Conn.; and Alonzo Petty of Mill Spring, N.C. before his death.

The former students of the Stony Knoll Elementary School that I talked with said the following things about their school: “I enjoyed going to my elementary school.”  “We learned a lot at school even though it was small and several grades were taught in one room.”  “The teachers were very devoted and worked hard to see that the students learned.”  “The teachers showed kindness and love to the students.” “The students helped each other.”  “I will always remember my elementary school with fondness.”

Beginning in 1945, the students from Stony Knoll Elementary School and the students from the five other African American rural elementary schools in Polk County were able to get a high school education at a public high school. The Polk County African American high school students, who lived in rural Polk County, were bussed each day to Rutherford County to be educated. These students attended the New Hope High School in Rutherfordton, N.C. and later Carver High School in Spindale, N.C. (The writer of this article, Mae Jackson Williams, attended Carver High School during the school year of 1957-58.) Prior to 1945 any African American students, living in rural Polk County, seeking a high school education would have to go out of the county to a boarding school.

After the consolidation of the students from the six rural African American elementary schools in Polk County at the Cobb Elementary School in 1951, the six rural one to three classroom schools were sold.  Stony Knoll CME Church bought the Stony Knoll Elementary School building.

The church has used the school building in many ways since purchasing it. From the late 1950s until 1975 the church used the school building as a church parsonage. From 1975-1978 the church used the school building as a child day care facility. In 1982 the school building was used again as a parsonage for the pastor, Rev. L. C. Williams. Since the late 1980’s the school building has been used as a church fellowship hall. Evelyn Petty, a member of the Stony Knoll CME Church said that the church members and church friends enjoy receptions, dinners, and breakfasts in the school building as the church’s fellowship hall. Rev. Arbutus Hines, the current pastor of the Stony Knoll CME Church is very happy to have the school building as the church’s fellowship hall.

This African American Heritage information teaches us that a student can get an education from a small school or a large school. All that is necessary is a teacher that is willing to teach and a student that is willing to learn. This information also teaches us that a school that has been closed can be used by the community for other useful purposes.

 

The Lovejoy Institute: An African American elementary school that was established in 1896 in the Stony Knoll community

The Lovejoy Institute was an elementary school that was established in 1896 in the Stony Knoll Community by the Methodist Church North as a mission school for African Americans and Indians. In 1906 the Christian and Missionary Alliance began running the school and changed the name to the Lovejoy Bible Training School. There was more than one wooden building on the campus of the school.  The school provided instruction for students from first grade through the eighth grade. Miss Mary B. Mullen was the superintendent and Miss Emily Pruden was one of the teachers. The school was located off Fox Mountain Road across the road from where the Stony Knoll CME Church Cemetery is now located. The school flourished but was destroyed by fire in 1914.

– Submitted by Mae Carolyn Jackson Williams