Pleasant Grove School

Another one of our county schools was Pleasant Grove School.  It was located on what they called the Irma-Salem Road, and later became S. R. 723 S.

Early settlers built the first school house in this community.  It had a dirt floor, a large fireplace and a stick chimney daubed with mud.  The seats were made of logs that had been split open and had pegs for legs.

This building was located south of the Pleasant Grove Church near a spring.  This was the water supply for both places.

As the community grew there was a need for a larger building.  A second one was built on the west side of the church on the road known as the Pleasant Grove and Lola Road.  This was also a log structure, quite a bit larger and with some improvements over the first building.  Some of the improvements included a puncheon floor, glass windows and a stone chimney.

As time went along another building was needed.  This was the third building.  It was much improved over the other two.  It was frame with modern seats and windows for that time.   Slates had been used in the previous buildings but this one had a large blackboard across one end of the room.  

The fireplace had been replaced with a coal heater that had a large jacket around it.  There would be no more carrying water from the spring because a cistern had been dug and a latticed shed was built around it.

The fourth building was erected in 1909 or 1910.  It was located on the Salem and Tolu road and at that time it was a narrow dirt road.  Later it was made wider and was blacktopped and would be S. R. 723.

Due to the growing number of students the fourth building was much larger than the preceding ones.  Enrollment was somewhere near 70 or 75.  That did not mean the attendance was always that many.  Boys that were large enough to do farm work would have to drop out and help during the harvest season.  During the cold winter months, the smaller chilren couldn't make it every day. 

This was a one room school for several years, but later another room was added, as you can see in the picture above.

The last year for school here was the 1957-58 school year.  The old building burnt and the students were sent to Tolu School.