Bon Jellico School

 

    Before Bon Jellico was established, there was a one-room school called Briar Creek on the place where a Mr. Wilder had a house near the entrance to Bon Hollow Park (circa 1985). The teacher in 1911 was Miss Flora Whitehead. In 1912 Bon Jellico School of two rooms came alive with Mr. Joe Keehan as principal and Mrs. Maude Foley as the teacher of the first three grades.

    The new school was built up on a hill by itself with plenty of playground space. Everyone in those days raised hogs which ran free, and under the schoolhouse floor was the hogs' bed, fleas and all. In 1926 a third room was built on the Bon School, and Earl Lovitt was the first principal and teacher in the three-teachers school. The other teachers were Leonard Inman and Mary Calloway. The principal's salary with two teachers and 168 students was $85.00 per month in 1926 and $115.00 in 1927. The building was

school drawing

hot in the summer and cold in the winter. A large potbelly stove was in the middle of each room. On snowy days the students would all sit around the stove and would still be cold.

    Bon Jellico School had many good things going like P.T.A., baseball, basketball, and debates.

    When the mines closed down and people began to move away, a few people were left on Briar Creek. The Bon Jellico School was open until 1960 and then it closed when many rural Kentuckky schools were consolidated.

School Information Index

  Teachers
  1911 School Census Report
  1916 School Census
  1920 School Records
  1926 School Records
  1937 School Records
  1962-1963 School Records
  School Memories - Velma Pemberton Decker
  School Memories - Mary Hinkle Green
  School Memories - Edna Cox Moses
  School Memories - Mart Pemberton
  School Memories - Mae Perkins Simms
  School/Class Pictures
  Old Time Customs - A Young Teacher Begins A Career in Bon Jellico
  1926 Report Card

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