Since running the story about the consolidation of the small schools that were located around Andrews in 1934, I have heard from several about the old schools and the teachers who taught the students.
Darlene Waldroup, who was raised in Andrews, and now lives in Westminister, S.C., remembers her mother, Mary Jo Tatham Powers, telling her about teaching at the Valleytown/Junaluska School. “My mother and her friend, Birdie Jo McGuire, graduated from Andrews high school in 1921, and then they attended Western Carolina College and received a two-year teaching degree, that is all you had to have back then.”
Mary Jo Tatham was one of 10 children born to Jasper and Ellie Moore Tatham. Her siblings were John, Chase, Purd, Bon, Allie, Laura, Fannie, Chelsie and Mannie. The family lived in the white two-story house that was located on the left just as you turned up on Pisgah Road from Fairview, and the house is still standing today.
“My grandpa Jasper used to own a grist mill behind his house and used the water from a large pond to grind the meal and we loved to eat the warm cornmeal as it came through, Some of the young people, like the Wilhide Boys, would come over and swim in the pond,” she said.
“Mother rode a white horse from her house on Pisgah to teach at the Junaluska School in Valleytown even in the rain, sleet and snow. One of her students was Fred Lunsford, and the last time I was in Andrews, he told me that my mother was a very
strict teacher. He said that him and a friend decided not to pay attention in school and climbed under a table, but my mother would not stand for that so she pulled them out from under the table and paddled them.”
“A lot of people rode horses back then,” said Darlene, “My mother and Birdie Jo McGuire used to ride their horses up Webb Creek past Bill Webb’s grist mill and cross over the mountain to Hooper Bald so they could visit Cotton McGuire and his wife, Mabel.”
Mary Jo Tatham later married Grady Powers, and they had three children, Fredrick, Darlene and Mary Nell. Fredrick married Christine Stratton from Robbinsville, who was a sister to Ruby Stratton Curtis. Darlene married Vincent Waldroup who was from Robbinsville. And Mary Nell married Pete Nichols.
The large fourth grade class was taught by Miss Batten who later married Weymer Conley. The names of the students pictured in 1914 are as follows: (married names of the females were listed if known) left to right, front row, Willa Raegan McGhee, Lenna Barker Kirkland, Fannie McGuire, Winnie Herbert Lindsey, Annie Laura Elliott Green, Bertie Jo McGuire Ford, Emma Lou Standfield Hughes, Lenna Tidwell Perkinson, Carrie Robinson Womack, Winnie Rickett Pierce.
Second row, Olive Tatham Ellis, Mary Jo Tatham Powers, Susie Hall, Lola Phillips Williams, Ruby Waldroup Baldwin, Winnie Adams Whitaker, Margaret Everett Walker, Jessie Carter, Beryl Robinson Fulton, Lucy Hogsed, and Texie Young Frazier. Third row, Pauline Rogers, Nannie Newman, Gladys Christy, Etta McClain, Betty Pullium Wilson, Vesta Whitaker Wood, Louise Frazier West, Miley Mull Ravencroft.
Fourth row, Winslow Pullium, Charlie Deaver, Ben Gregg, Winnie Morgan, Crawford Cathy,
Etta Anderson Guthrie, Boyd Hamilton, Charles Porter, and Edgar Walls, Fifth row, Edwin Bryson, Charlie Wilson, Elmer Beaty, Ellis Everett, Arnold West, Porter Ayers, Charlie Jones, Luther Anderson, and Bob Barker. Other classmates who were not pictured were, Francis Sumner, Margery L. Brown Stapp-Neal, Harriett Blackwelder, Sallie Sue Leach and Chase Tatham.
There are many of these students that I remember as adults when I was a child growing up in Andrews. One of my favorites was Boyd Hamilton, he was so kind to all the children, and he had three sisters who were all beloved teachers in the Andrews Schools: Lenna Hamilton Ford, Helen Hamilton and Ruth Hamilton Kyker. And that is another story.
Kandy Barnard is a columnist for the Cherokee Scout. To talk about the Andrews Valley, call her at 361-3268 or email kandybarnard@gmail.com.