June 10, 2022 Coats Museum News
In the years between 1892 and 1897, the American flag displayed 44 stars. The newly-erected Statue of Liberty stood majestically in the New York harbor. The Duryea brothers and Henry Ford were perfecting the first successful gasoline-powered automobiles. It would be a few years before the students at Turlington would travel with this mode of transportation.
Are you ready to read about some more public schools that were located in Grove Township? Dorothea Stewart Gilbert and I had the awesome opportunity to interview Brookie Stewart in 1993. However, this was not the first time that she had recalled historical information about the Grove #4 Turlington area. In 1985, when we were seeking information for our “Together We Leave” book, Miss Stewart who by the way worked at the Turlington Station at the Durham and Southern Railroad shared so much information about the Grove #4 Turlington School. Later in 1993, she would share much about the businesses in Coats when she was growing up and rode the train to Coats for ten cents to take piano lessons.
According to Miss Stewart, the original Turlington #4 was built by and on the land of Andrew Jackson Turlington and was located about 3 miles south of the town of Coats near what is now Highway 55. The school was a one room building, built mainly for the convenience of his granddaughter, “Little Mary” as she was a victim of polio and could not walk the distance of the Sorrell School where other children of the community attended. Exact date of the construction is unknown but as far as can be ascertained was between 1892 and 1897, as Mr. Andrew Turlington died in 1897. Fortunately at the time Brookie Stewart was helping us collect the history of Grove District #4, Brookie talked to Mrs. Nettie Turner Turlington who had attended that original school and supplied her with names of some of the following teachers: Perry Morgan, Joe Wilson, Randall Turlington, Sudie Bell, and Millie Bailey.
Early students in that school would have probably attended school between 55 and 84 days, and the teacher would likely have earned between $27.73 and $42.60 a month according to the July 1, 1912-June 30, 1913 Harnett County Treasurer’s Report.
The second Turlington School listed as Grove District #4 A School was approximately .8 miles farther west on the same farm and was near the grist mill known as the “Turlington Mill”. Water for drinking was obtained from a nearby spring. Some teachers who taught in that school were Grant Gardner, Maude Keeter, Cora Parker, Lena Parker, Perry Morgan, Dora Creel, and Lillie Smith.
As the population grew, the Harnett County Board of Education decided to consolidate the Wiggins (#5) School, another one room school, and build a larger building in 1913. The new building was centrally located between the two schools (districts?) and consisted of three rooms. This building was approximately .9 miles farther west.
According to old public school records, the first adult classes were established between 1912 and 14. A moonlight school was conducted in the Turlington District #4. Superintendent J.D. Ezzell requested Principal Ralvin McLeod to invite older adults (with no age limit) to attend this night school. Thirty-eight mothers, fathers and grandparents were eager and willing to sign up to learn simple numbers, writing, and reading from the Progressive Farmer. The oldest student was sixty-five years old.
In 1922-23, Ralvin McLeod was principal and he reported that the school had four classrooms on a two acre lot, two school toilets, no U.S. flag, no teachers’ desks. 40 patent desks (no single or double), one homemade device (?), 1 bench, four stoves, no thermometer, nine books in a bookcase, 175 square feet of blackboard( no slate but composition), one musical instrument, one pump but no open well, no globes but some sort of maps, no charts or pictures and one basketball.
Private donations to Grove District # 4 Turlington School that year were listed as $5.15. Ninety-two compulsory age students attended daily with only four parents displaying indifference about school attendance of their children.
The building later had an additional room added and was now a five room school. The school term had increased from four months to six months and all children between 8 and 12 years of age had to attend school.
Many memories were etched into the minds of the young pupils at Turlington. Few have never forgotten William C. Lee. Students recall him as having been very stern in discipline. A command was to be followed to the letter stated Brookie Stewart who was disciplined for returning to the building during recess. Annie Turlington Underwood remembered he played ball and teased her older sister Minnie as they walked home from school. Possibly General William C. Lee’s first little soldiers were the students at Turlington School.
It was recalled that once the loft at the school had caught fire and the students were told to empty their lunch from their tin buckets. They were lined up and had to march to the well which had a “pitcher” pump, operated by a pupil until exhaustion was the victor. Teachers and older students marched to the building with water until the burning fire was extinguished.
The William Roger Turlington family shared that their Grandfather L.L. Turlington gave the lumber to build a Turlington School. Was this the school?
The Grove District 4B slowly began to drop in attendance and in the 1935-36 school term, Thelma Turlington and Mary L. Robinson (Grades 1-6) closed out the last year of the beloved school.
Why do you think the students were leaving Turlington? Were they headed to consolidate with Grove District #3? Had many of the students already left the Turlington School years earlier? I do know an examination of an old picture we have in the Coats Museum shows that several of Sheriff Will Turlington’s children were students at that Coats#3 in 1911.
In 1915, the first telephone line linked New York and San Francisco and the patrons on the east side of District #4 Turlington School saw a need to send their scholars to a school that was not overcrowded and offered the advantages of piano lessons, a library, and better qualified teachers. This is when Brookie Stewart’s father, Gus Stewart (G.M.), devised the county’s first public school transportation system. He built a frame over his two horse wagon and covered it with a black cloth for protection against the elements. An opening in the rear allowed students to enter. A long bench on both sides accommodated 18 to 20 children who rode the “Jitney.” Mr. Stewart rang a large gong as he approached a rider’s home to announce his arrival. Maude and Nell, the two large mules, began their trip at 7:00 each morning and arrived at Coats District #3 in time for their riders to meet the 8:30 tardy bell. Forty dollars was paid to Gus Stewart each month for his transportation system. The system lasted for one year and is accredited, in part, for the enlarging of the Turlington District #4 to a five-room school.
It would be in 1999 that a school would come back to the Turlington area and would be named Coats Erwin Middle School over the objection of many locals who felt it should be named Turlington as were the three original schools that had sites in the area had been named.
You must agree that Turlington has an interesting history. It is the home of the Shaw’s Halfway House which is currently being restored. It was the site of a post office. It was offered as the site for the county courthouse by two businessmen -Taylor and Slocumb, but Lillington received the most votes. The Raleigh –Fayetteville Stagecoach Road went through the Turlington farm. The William Avery House was located in the area and was one of the oldest houses in the county. H.A. Turlington, Sr., one of the nation’s most prominent Duroc breeders, and his father, W.H. Turlington, Harnett County’s first Farm Demonstration agent, lived in Turlington.
In next week’s column, you will learn about Grove #5 Parker and Grove # 6 Sorrell School.
Thank you H.L for remembering Pat Gregory Richardson who donated the Gregory mantel clock, her dad’s, Vic Gregory, t handmade wooden mallet and his fiddle to the Coats Museum and for remembering Harold Medlin who has made so many contributions to the area through his preservations of old photographs. He gave my family the only photograph we have of my Thornton grandparents and uncles from Elevation Township.
In the years between 1892 and 1897, the American flag displayed 44 stars. The newly-erected Statue of Liberty stood majestically in the New York harbor. The Duryea brothers and Henry Ford were perfecting the first successful gasoline-powered automobiles. It would be a few years before the students at Turlington would travel with this mode of transportation.
Are you ready to read about some more public schools that were located in Grove Township? Dorothea Stewart Gilbert and I had the awesome opportunity to interview Brookie Stewart in 1993. However, this was not the first time that she had recalled historical information about the Grove #4 Turlington area. In 1985, when we were seeking information for our “Together We Leave” book, Miss Stewart who by the way worked at the Turlington Station at the Durham and Southern Railroad shared so much information about the Grove #4 Turlington School. Later in 1993, she would share much about the businesses in Coats when she was growing up and rode the train to Coats for ten cents to take piano lessons.
According to Miss Stewart, the original Turlington #4 was built by and on the land of Andrew Jackson Turlington and was located about 3 miles south of the town of Coats near what is now Highway 55. The school was a one room building, built mainly for the convenience of his granddaughter, “Little Mary” as she was a victim of polio and could not walk the distance of the Sorrell School where other children of the community attended. Exact date of the construction is unknown but as far as can be ascertained was between 1892 and 1897, as Mr. Andrew Turlington died in 1897. Fortunately at the time Brookie Stewart was helping us collect the history of Grove District #4, Brookie talked to Mrs. Nettie Turner Turlington who had attended that original school and supplied her with names of some of the following teachers: Perry Morgan, Joe Wilson, Randall Turlington, Sudie Bell, and Millie Bailey.
Early students in that school would have probably attended school between 55 and 84 days, and the teacher would likely have earned between $27.73 and $42.60 a month according to the July 1, 1912-June 30, 1913 Harnett County Treasurer’s Report.
The second Turlington School listed as Grove District #4 A School was approximately .8 miles farther west on the same farm and was near the grist mill known as the “Turlington Mill”. Water for drinking was obtained from a nearby spring. Some teachers who taught in that school were Grant Gardner, Maude Keeter, Cora Parker, Lena Parker, Perry Morgan, Dora Creel, and Lillie Smith.
As the population grew, the Harnett County Board of Education decided to consolidate the Wiggins (#5) School, another one room school, and build a larger building in 1913. The new building was centrally located between the two schools (districts?) and consisted of three rooms. This building was approximately .9 miles farther west.
According to old public school records, the first adult classes were established between 1912 and 14. A moonlight school was conducted in the Turlington District #4. Superintendent J.D. Ezzell requested Principal Ralvin McLeod to invite older adults (with no age limit) to attend this night school. Thirty-eight mothers, fathers and grandparents were eager and willing to sign up to learn simple numbers, writing, and reading from the Progressive Farmer. The oldest student was sixty-five years old.
In 1922-23, Ralvin McLeod was principal and he reported that the school had four classrooms on a two acre lot, two school toilets, no U.S. flag, no teachers’ desks. 40 patent desks (no single or double), one homemade device (?), 1 bench, four stoves, no thermometer, nine books in a bookcase, 175 square feet of blackboard( no slate but composition), one musical instrument, one pump but no open well, no globes but some sort of maps, no charts or pictures and one basketball.
Private donations to Grove District # 4 Turlington School that year were listed as $5.15. Ninety-two compulsory age students attended daily with only four parents displaying indifference about school attendance of their children.
The building later had an additional room added and was now a five room school. The school term had increased from four months to six months and all children between 8 and 12 years of age had to attend school.
Many memories were etched into the minds of the young pupils at Turlington. Few have never forgotten William C. Lee. Students recall him as having been very stern in discipline. A command was to be followed to the letter stated Brookie Stewart who was disciplined for returning to the building during recess. Annie Turlington Underwood remembered he played ball and teased her older sister Minnie as they walked home from school. Possibly General William C. Lee’s first little soldiers were the students at Turlington School.
It was recalled that once the loft at the school had caught fire and the students were told to empty their lunch from their tin buckets. They were lined up and had to march to the well which had a “pitcher” pump, operated by a pupil until exhaustion was the victor. Teachers and older students marched to the building with water until the burning fire was extinguished.
The William Roger Turlington family shared that their Grandfather L.L. Turlington gave the lumber to build a Turlington School. Was this the school?
The Grove District 4B slowly began to drop in attendance and in the 1935-36 school term, Thelma Turlington and Mary L. Robinson (Grades 1-6) closed out the last year of the beloved school.
Why do you think the students were leaving Turlington? Were they headed to consolidate with Grove District #3? Had many of the students already left the Turlington School years earlier? I do know an examination of an old picture we have in the Coats Museum shows that several of Sheriff Will Turlington’s children were students at that Coats#3 in 1911.
In 1915, the first telephone line linked New York and San Francisco and the patrons on the east side of District #4 Turlington School saw a need to send their scholars to a school that was not overcrowded and offered the advantages of piano lessons, a library, and better qualified teachers. This is when Brookie Stewart’s father, Gus Stewart (G.M.), devised the county’s first public school transportation system. He built a frame over his two horse wagon and covered it with a black cloth for protection against the elements. An opening in the rear allowed students to enter. A long bench on both sides accommodated 18 to 20 children who rode the “Jitney.” Mr. Stewart rang a large gong as he approached a rider’s home to announce his arrival. Maude and Nell, the two large mules, began their trip at 7:00 each morning and arrived at Coats District #3 in time for their riders to meet the 8:30 tardy bell. Forty dollars was paid to Gus Stewart each month for his transportation system. The system lasted for one year and is accredited, in part, for the enlarging of the Turlington District #4 to a five-room school.
It would be in 1999 that a school would come back to the Turlington area and would be named Coats Erwin Middle School over the objection of many locals who felt it should be named Turlington as were the three original schools that had sites in the area had been named.
You must agree that Turlington has an interesting history. It is the home of the Shaw’s Halfway House which is currently being restored. It was the site of a post office. It was offered as the site for the county courthouse by two businessmen -Taylor and Slocumb, but Lillington received the most votes. The Raleigh –Fayetteville Stagecoach Road went through the Turlington farm. The William Avery House was located in the area and was one of the oldest houses in the county. H.A. Turlington, Sr., one of the nation’s most prominent Duroc breeders, and his father, W.H. Turlington, Harnett County’s first Farm Demonstration agent, lived in Turlington.
In next week’s column, you will learn about Grove #5 Parker and Grove # 6 Sorrell School.
Thank you H.L for remembering Pat Gregory Richardson who donated the Gregory mantel clock, her dad’s, Vic Gregory, t handmade wooden mallet and his fiddle to the Coats Museum and for remembering Harold Medlin who has made so many contributions to the area through his preservations of old photographs. He gave my family the only photograph we have of my Thornton grandparents and uncles from Elevation Township.