The Silas Creek School by Lonnie Jones

Shown here is Silas Creek School; during the 1930s, it held classes from 1st to 6th grade but only had one teacher.

The last time I drove by my dad’s old school building, it was falling in one area. The write-up in the Historical Society Architectural Survey says plainly it was in a deteriorated state when surveyed. This building was the Silas Creek School and served as the Odd Fellows Hall for that area. It was unique because it was a two-story, frame school building in a very rural area. I remember Dad talking about attending school there in the 1920s and 1930s. The school had been built in the early part of the twentieth century, so it is over 100 years old today. My father talked about walking to school from the North Fork New River Area to Silas Creek across the hills between the locations. He carried a lunch of cornbread and molasses many times with a jar of milk. Sometimes he took an apple or a jar of “fruit,” something we would call applesauce. Most kids had similar lunches. The teachers were well-known names from the county: Charlie and Walt Dickson, Bonnie Dickson, Claude Dickson, and Lola Porter. Mr. Charlie Dickson later became superintendent of schools. The Odd Fellows met upstairs until the 1950s; the school closed in 1949. The building was used in part as an apartment building for a time. During the 1930s, the school housed grades one through six but had only one teacher for those six grades. Apparently there was a limited number of students in attendance. One thing gleaned from newspaper articles about schools in Ashe was that prior to the mid-1930s, the school term was much shorter than today. School started later and ended earlier in the spring. Another thing that also apparently contributed to the number of students in attendance was that mandatory attendance was not in effect or not enforced. My father was known to say he may have attended school only parts of about four years. This was not unusual for many people in those years. This large, unusual building still stands but is in danger of being gone soon. There were two large classrooms downstairs, and at the time of the survey, one of the classrooms retained even the original blackboards. I will include photos of this building. It is included in the great Architectural Survey of Ashe County produced by the Historical Society, and much of this information comes from that article. The book is available at the Museum of Ashe County History Gift Shop.