Payne Gap Schoolhouse and Students Circa 1940

That’s our very own Glenn Dale Duncan (Sam’s dad), front center, with suspenders. He was about six years old when an anonymous photographer took this picture of the 1940-41 class. This is the earliest known photograph of the rock schoolhouse, which replaced an earlier wooden structure destroyed by a fire. We know it was wood because a 1912-1913 teacher’s report completed by Dow Hudson, the teacher, identifies it as such (reproduced below), adding that its condition was fair. Dale Duncan remembers melted glass strewn about after the fire. Undeterred, the community quickly agreed to a $1,200 bond to rebuild, this time using stone. A copy of that bond agreement is reproduced below. The structure was completed soon after, but the school shut down for good after the 1942-1943 school year. The teacher for that year was Lula A. Hulsey as shown below in the the daily register document reproduced below.

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^ Verso of photograph

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