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Local resident Loy Williamson has written a detailed account of the history of schools in the Hiwassee Dam area.
Hiwassee Dam - Loy Williamson has built a lot of computers over the years, but he’s still learning a lot about how to use them while in retirement.
“When I first started building computers, there were no hard drives, just two floppy drives,” he said.
Williamson has been working with a publisher in New York to print copies of his book, A Pictorial Representation of Hiwassee Dam Schools in the 1940s and 1950s. He’s learned how to place his images and thoughts into PDF files, then send those through email to the publisher.
He’s gotten a few copies printed, and has given them out. He’s not interested in making money and will order more copies as there’s interest.
“It’s a hobby,” Williamson said. “Something for personal satisfaction.”
He graduated from Hiwassee Dam in 1953. Since retiring 21 years ago, he starting collecting photos and information about all the schools that were once in the area.
“I finally decided I needed to do something with it,” Williamson said.
He is a firm believer that communities should be recognized.
“A school offers a lot in the life of people,” Williamson said.
The book contains about 200 pages of photographs. He found photos, memorabilia and information from a variety of sources, including local flea markets.
In fact, Williamson found copies of the Kilowatt, a publication the high school seniors created in 1943-1944, at a flea market. The publication included articles mostly written by students and was printed by the Cherokee Scout. He dedicated a chapter of his book to the publication and sharing images of it.
He found images of about 12 old schools that directly became what today are the Hiwassee Dam schools, and wrote a short history on each of them.
At one point, Williamson tried to identify all the students who didn’t graduate with his class. In eighth grade, there were about 38 kids, but by high school graduation there were only 22.
Williamson’s father was a postmaster, and last year he printed a book on all the post offices of Cherokee County. He is working on one about area churches and has also written a book about the school his father attended.
Samantha Sinclair is the Scouting Around columnist for the Cherokee Scout. You can reach her by phone, 837-5122, Ext. 24; or email, scoutingaround@cherokee-scout.com.