Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1919-04-11
THE OLD GRANGE HALL
Toms Crock. Va Anril

Toms Creek, Va, April 6.
Editor, Clinch Valley News.
wonder how many persons in
IaZcwc!l county remember the Grange
! Hall, formerly located in Burke's Gar
den, on the east side of the main
road and fronting westward. about
opposite the present residence of Mr..
John Thompson?
Is there anywhere photograph
, of the Grange Hall?
! have a very vivid picture of this
building in my mind, and, were | an
artist, would paint that picture for
, the benefit of the survivors Of those
who were my schoolmates there.
The building has been gone for
years. | do not know who removed it,
But ! cherish many delightful-somc
sad, and others mot so pleasant,
memories, concerning it.
In 1867 the National Grange was
organized. 1t was Il secret asSocia-
ton or lodge" of farmers, the OBJ
iect of which was to abolish the mid
die man." both as to purchase of farm
supplies and sale OF farm products.
But the organization took place
before my day, and my only rccollcc-
ton connected with the National
Grange is embodied in the old school
house in Burkc's Garden, known us
the Grange Hail." where, previous
to the year 1888, but the exact years
not now rccollcctcd, though very
small boy, ! attended the Grange Hall
school, which was merely one of the
public schools Of the county, and
which probably only operated for Il
few months of the year.
The Rev. H. +. Bailey was teach
cr, who made the most impression on
my mind. There were other teachers,
no doubt. Probably Miss Kate Clay
pool, who afterwards became Mrs.
Bourne, and doubtless still resides on
Clear Fork, was one of them.
The Grange Hall was IL two-story
frame building, weather boarded and
painted white on the outside; cciled
and implanted within. The desks were
of home construction, also Imprinted,
but not uncomfortable, and not unlike
Tin construction), the factory-built
modern school desk now in common
use.
The Hall was prohaly 20 feet in
width, by 40 or so feet in depth, one
end thereof facing the road. The on
~ entrance was at this front end, by
means of Il large door, in centre,
NulNIi OpCIltu lllNO al S.liiil tcCSIJllOtl
hall and cloak room, and from which
as | recall, Il stairway led to the up
per room, where the primary school
was taught.
The lower room was reserved for
the higher grades, to which, howev-
or, in that school at least, the writer
never attained.
The seats in two tiers, from rear to
front, on either side of an aisle, in
which was maintained, near the cen
ter OF the room, an old fashioned
Franklin wood heater, into which was
fed, in cold weather, logs of wood Git
seemed to me mostly green and sog-
my)-oaf sticks from tree tops from
a nearby forest, whenever the older
boys could he induced to cut and car
ry them. This stove WAS equipped
with Il long pipe, carried for some
distance, along near the ceiling, and
attached thereto by means of wire at
intervals, to Il flu with which the
stove pipe connected. At inconvenicnt
and inooportune moments, especially
in cold weather, and (strangely
cnough) not infrequently when one
of the larger boys walked across the
floor shaking the house, down would
come the stove-pipc, filling the house
with smoke and SCOT, and bringing an
extra rccessi
Some of the older boys who attend
cd this school were John Phillip Gose
Ed. l.. and Albert Greevcr, Dir. X.
Benton Peery, J. X. and j. b. Meek,
James r. and William Crockett. Joe
Kelly, j. Kelly Groscclosc and james
and John Rhudy and John Thompson.
Some of the younger boys were DR..
'ThnrpnS H'I Dnnt.,. Nilii.,NN Tlnp,,N