Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Freedom School

 

The land for the new one room Freedom school was obtained August 11, 1917.  The school was a large modern building for those days.

When State Highway 91 was built it split the school ground and left the schoolhouse within 15 feet of the highway.  The  nearness of the highway was always a disadvantage to the school.

In the late 1940's the school became a target for vandalism.  It appeared to be a nightly sport of a group of youngsters from Marion to borrow the family car for a drive through town.  Instead they would rush two and one-half miles out the highway to Freedom school and overturn the boys' toilet, which sat within five feet of the highway, or would knock out a few window panes, then head home as innocent as youngsters could be.  Thus Freedom school building became a total wreck.

In 1951, County School Superintendent, and trustee of Freedom School, Ivo Hughes, knowing the poor condition the school had become,  asked the help of Mrs. Edna Fritts Easley to help get the school back on its feet.  With the help of the Freedom community parents they patched up the broken school with many repairs and made it usable again.

 Some of the teachers who taught at Freedom were Emma Terry, Homer David , David Postlethweighte, Gladys Graves, Lady Roe Ruyan, Mable Ryan, Mary Todd, Lela McMican, and Edna Fritts.   

Some of the prominent family names of the Freedom area were McEuen, Nesbit, Conger, Fritts, Brown, Roberts, Hughes, Gipson, Crider, Millikan and Perryman.

In 1958 the school was consolidated with Marion.  The building was sold and used for a fish market and grocery store for several years.  After that the Crittenden County Gun Club purchased the building, along with 15 acres. 

 The old school building was demolished, thus the history and happenings of Freedom School passed into history.

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