Gates County, NC - Eure School ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The pictures from the old Eure school are a little before my time. Let me tell you what little I do know. The teacher Nora Jones (Bankston) roomed with another teacher, Elsie Hale (her husband was Walter Hale). Elsie died in her 90's last year. Her husband was an automobile mechanic. Nora Jones's nickname was "Peaches" because she was from Georgia. The Eure School's original name was: Hall Consolidated School because it took the place of all the little schools in Hall township. It was first high school (high schools only had 11 grades in NC until 1945). Later (before 1937) it was changed to an Elementary school with only 8 grades. Grades 9 thru 11 (then 12) had to be done at Gatesville. It closed down in 1948 and was turned into an appartment building. Sometime in the 1980's a resident in the old building went to light a gas stove, turned on the gas and looked around for a match and when he lit the match, set the place on fire. It was burned too bad to repair it so they tore it down. As far as the photos: The last name Tinkham -- first name was Randolph; The Lonford -- last name was Spivey; The Necie was a Eure, daughter of Charlie Eure; Roxie was a Parker; Whitmell was a Hale; Clayton was a Powell; Irene was either a Felton or a Eure; Delphine was a Jones. I got that info from: Mrs. Lousie Lyons who started to school at Eure in 1933 and stayed there until she finished. Louise was a Parker. Mrs. Elsie taught the 5th and 6th grades at Eure when I went there (1938-1946) She left Gates County about 1943 and moved to Va. She was a tough teacher. She wouldn't tolerate not one penny's worth of foolishness. I saw her rip the shirt right of a boy when I was in the 5th grade and didn't mind manhandling him. She was an excellent teacher. Things I remember about Hall Consolidated School (Eure School) The school was an all brick building that was finished in the late 1920's. It was partially a WPA project and was built to consolidate all the little schools in Hall township, Eure, N. C. Initially it was a high school that had grades one thru eleven. There were no indoor toilets, running water, or lunch rooms until the summer on 1939. The building faced a northerly direction along a sandy dirt road in the front with the back about three hundred yards from the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. There was a No. 2 pitcher pump on the east side of the building that furnished drinking water. (One of a new students tasks was to learn to make a paper cup from writing paper to use for drinking water.) Both the boys and girls wooden toilets were about two hundred yards behind the building. The boys on the left corner of the ball diamond and the girls on the right corner of the ball diamond. Both toilets were "four holers" with wooden pegs on the wall for hanging your outer garmets if the need arose. There were two big class rooms in front of the building and two on the back side and the same room arrangement upstairs. The principal's office was on the East end, bottom floor at the back. Across the hallway from his office was the class room for the first and second grades. The third and fourth grade class room was also in the front of the building on the west end. There was a set of big double doors between the bottom floor class rooms for entrance and exits. A big auditorium was on a ground floor at the middle and back of the buidling. It had a pair of double french doors that were hinged to open both ways. The school was changed to a grammer school sometime prior to 1937 with only grades 1 thru 7. The grades 8 to 11 were taken on to Gatesville. The teachers there in 1938 were: Mr. Raleigh King, principal, who also taught the seventh grade; Miss Charlotte Roberts, who later married Raleigh King, taught the first and second grades; Miss Helen Eure, who later married a Mr. Wiley, taught the third and fourth grades; Mrs. Elsie Hale who married a local automobile garage owner and mechanic; Walter Hale, taught the fifth and sixth grades. A lot of the students walked to school if they lived nearby. There were three school buses that picked up and carried studens from Hall township to school. Two of these buses stopped and parked for the day at the elementary school. The High school students all were taken to Gatesville on a single bus. The basketball court was in the yard with two goal posts buried in the dirt at both ends. There were four swings, four see saws and a monkey ladder on the West side of the building. They put in bath rooms, running water and modified an upstairs room at the back of the building for a lunch room during the summer of 1939. The first lunches were peanut and butter sandwichs for five cents. Later you got a bowl of soup and crackers with the peanut butter sandwich for ten cents. Many students continued to carry their own lunch since money was hard to come by in those times. It was a tough school! Teachers were allowed to paddle the "misbehavors" and it was not unusual to get the famous "board of education". Also, you didn't pass if you couldn't do the work. There were some students who failed four or five grades before being passed. One such student was smart but didn't come to school very often, quit school in the 6th grade and was old enough to join the army. The school was finally closed before the school year 1946-1947 and Hall township then sent their students to Gatesville. The school was sometimes referred to as: "Scratch Hall's College of Knowledge". Written by: Walter Askew, 12-4-04, Eure student 1938-1946 ___________________________________________________________________ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Walter Askew - wlaskew@inteliport.com ___________________________________________________________________