"I just received this picture from Jenny Frazier. I am attaching front and back, and an enhanced copy of the faded picture." John C. Porter (1863-1928) is in the back row, 2nd from left, and his son Will (W.A.) Porter (1887-1964) is in the back row 2nd from right. We think Will Porter was the teacher. This links to a picture already posted on the Carter County site at this link http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~kycarter/photos/people/r/richards_aria.htm The following comments were added to this picture on our Andrew Porter website.... Porter Creek School? (Or Rock Springs School?) After reading what some of the cousins said going through that discussion, sounds like Porter Creek School was a different school all together. I would think the schools were in the same area, but two different schools. Does anyone know any details about the school. Exactly where was it? When was it in use? Who is Aria Richards? JC Porter - Jenny FrazierJan 28, 08 I know that my Aunt Kathleen Porter, wife of Tracy Porter, s/Will Porter, taught the Porter Creek School right after she graduated from Berea College. I don't know where that school was located or if it was the one she taught in. I just remember the newer school down below Uncle Herman's. She met my Uncle Tracy while teaching there but this school looks to be before her time. - Vickie StamperJan 29, 08 The school was located close to Sam Porters old home place. It was just across the bridge from the current Porter Creek church and before you would get to Sam and Lucy's home place. I've asked around and no one knows a Aria Richards, said most of kids that attended were Porter's - JC Porter Apr 21, 08 Does anyone know who some other teachers were at the school? When did this school open? How large was the area kids would come from to attend school? How many grades did it have? Was it close to Leatherwood or Sheep Skin School? - Jenny Frazier, Apr. 21, 08 JC, This picture isn't the school where Kathleen taught. I don't know where that school was but it must have been before her time. The school where she taught was a little white building, down from Herman and Mae Porter. Kathleen came to Porter Creek straight from Berea College. It must have been in the late '30's or early '40's. She had 8 grades in the same room. One year she earned enough money to take her students on a trip to Renfro Valley, KY. I suppose all the kids on Porter Creek attended this school until it consolidated with several other schools and then the kids went to Lawton School. Kathleen taught there until she retired. It must have been the late '40's when my dad was showing the movies there. I don't know about the other schools.My mother told me that her dad, Will Porter taught school at Rock Springs. I don't know where that is either. Since I didn't live on Porter Creek, I didn't know where a lot of these places are. Kathleen was the only teacher at the Porter Creek School during all those years. Jenny - JC Porter Apr 21, 08 Jenny, Could this be an older building, maybe built before the one that you remember? Maybe it is another school that was in the Porter Creek area, and maybe I misunderstood Uncle Everett Porter (son of Alex, son of AJP) who had the picture. - Jenny FrazierApr 21, 08 JC, The building looks really old so it could have been in the same place before the building that I remember. It could have been in another area. Maybe some that went to the Porter School where Aunt Kathleen taught will know if there was another school or just a newer building in the same place. I am trying to see if Janice Miller has a picture of where her mother (Kathleen) taught. - Larna BinionApr 22, 08 That isn't the school that I attended. Kathleen was my teacher. I thought Sam Porter taught there before her. Kathleen lived with a family there before she married Tracey. There were 8 grades. There was 4 to 5 students in each grade. I remember in my grade which was 1st. Tex Dee Roe, Gaye Rice, Talmadge Porter, Myself. The Hendersons came to school there. 6 of Edward Porter's children attended. Gladys Evans's children 6 of them. Virgle and Johnny Porter. Several of Eva Holbrook's children. Janice Porter, Tracy and Kathleen's daughter. The Maggard's children. Leatherwood was a way down the road. At least it seemed so at the time. Rock Springs school is up past Harlen and Gladys Porter's old home place. That looks more like that school than Porter Creek School. Leatherwood School was located close to Burley Mabry's store. These little schools closed around 1958. A new school was built at Lawton. Including Soldier School. I attended Lawton School for 2 years. My 7th & 8th grade years. After 1st grade I went to Olive Hill until I came back. In 1985 I came back as principal for 10 years. - JC Porter Apr 22, 08 Thanks for all the information about the school history. Maybe someone will come across some more pictures of old schools in that area. - JC Porter Apr 15, 10 This is from one of Everett Porter's interviews (son of Alex, son of AJP) Track 1 Tape 45. Everett talks about going to school at Rock Springs School, and Ed Porter (s/o Jim, s/o AJP) was his teacher. Could this picture be Rock Springs School? JC: What was your Uncle Jim like? You never said much about your Uncle Jim (Porter) (s/o AJP). What kind of a man was he? Everett: Well that was Pa’s brother. He was a farmer. Stock man. JC: Stock man? Stock market? Everett: No, just keeping stock on his farm. JC: Livestock? Everett: Ya. Raised a big family. I knowed Andy (son of Jim, s/o AJP) better than any of them. Ed (son of Jim, s/o AJP) taught our school when I was back in school. I got pretty well acquainted with him. He would call me up front every once in a while. (laughing) JC: He was your cousin, but he was your school teacher too? Everett: I can recollect it as well if it happened yesterday. We had a habit of calling John, ______(6:15) I don’t know how it ever got started. That was in our spelling once. They give it out to me, and I spelled it and I said ______(6:30), and I never noticed the difference. I was used to calling it that. He (Ed) said, “Say that right.” He talked real kind. He called my name and said, “Call that right.” I had to stand there a little bit before I understood what he wanted. I never knowed they were calling it wrong. We was just acting a fool. We had named it that way back. (7:03) JC: What did he make you do, stand in the corner? Everett: Oh he had me about everywhere. (7:15) JC: He was your cousin wasn’t he? Everett: Me and Fred Guttenberry ? (7:30) sat together, and we was up before the court every little bit. (laughing) JC: Well where was this school at? Everett: It was Old Rock Spring over here. JC: Was it a log or frame school? Everett: Big log from across the road down here. (7:47) JC: It was a log cabin. Everett: I’ve got the picture of it here somewhere. - JC Porter Jul 7, 10 More about Rock Springs School from my grandpa Everett Porter (s/o Jasper, s/o Alex, s/o AJP) in 1979.... J.C.: Do you remember that log school over by Jacobs where Uncle Everett went? He said he went to school in a log school house over by Jacobs and Ed Porter (s/o Jim, s/o AJP) was his teacher. Everett: You’re getting back to far for me. I don’t know anything about that. I never went there and even the log school house was tore down before I can remember. I don’t remember the log school house. That Rock Spring School was a log school - that’s where Dad (Jasper, s/o Alex, s/o AJP) went to school. J.C.: Oh, it was? Everett: Right up above Harlan’s there, you know. Grace: Did you ever go to Will Underwood’s to school? Everett: No, Dad (Jasper) went to Will Underwood when he was teaching. Dad said the boys run Will off when he was teachin. JC: Run the teacher off? Why? Everett: They was mean! If they wanted to do something, they just told him to get out of that holler - just give him two minutes and half of his time was already up and said he just grabbed his dinner bucket and took off and never did come back. They sent ‘em an old man up there to teach the school. Dad said he was a rough blooded fella. He come in and said “Boys - I come to teach the school and I’m gonna teach it! You ain’t a runnin’ me off. He tuck a big ol’ knife out of his pocket and laid it up on the table and he said “if I have to fight it out with my fist, I can do it. I’ll fight it out with you. He said, “I’ll cut it out with ya” and he had a big ol’ gun and laid it out up there and said “I’ll shoot it out with ya.” He said “But I’m gonna teach the school if I stay here. He said “They may take me outta here with my toes stickin’ up, but you’re not runnin’ me off. Boy he said you could hear a pin drop on the floor. There was fellas going there 20 years old or more. When Will was teachin’ they got out there and shot in a bush while he was tryin’ to teach school and then they told Will he just had so many minutes to get out of that holler. Then they sent that guy up there. Dad said they never run that guy off. That guy sat down when he first went in and he said “Well, I’m a gonna make a rule. If I have to whip a fella, I’m goin’ home with him to stay all night so he don’t tell no lie on me or nothin’. I’m going to tell his Daddy about why I had to whoop him and stay all night with him. I don’t want him going to misrepresent the thing. Dad (Jasper) said he done something and he whooped him. He said “he ain’t going home with me!” As soon as school was dismissed he jumped up and he took off as far as he could run and run off and left him. He said when the other kids come in from school, here come the old teacher. He said, (speaking to Alex Porter, s/o AJP) “Mr. Porter, I had to whoop your boy today. Said “I have a rule that if I have to whoop one of ‘em, I go home with ‘em to stay all night, so I come over to stay all night and tell ya how it happened.” and Grandpa (Alex Porter) said, “That’s exactly what he needed. If he needs a whoopin’, he needs a whoopin’ and he said I made a rule that if one of em went to school and got a whoopin and I find out, I give ‘em another one. He went and got a switch and whooped him again (laughing) Grandpa whooped him. He said he didn’t get nary other whoopin’ for awhile - he didn’t want no more. He said, “the teacher come to stay all night and grandpa whooped him again - that was enough!” JC: Was that that same teacher that had a gun and a knife? - Everett: Yeah. That there mean fella. J.C.: What school was that at? Everett: That was Rock Springs. JC: And that was over by Jacobs? Everett: That was right up the holler from Harlan’s there, just a little piece. - JC Porter Jul 9, 10 More from my grandpa Everett Porter (s/o Jasper, s/o Alex, s/o AJP) Dad (Jasper) said them boys would get out there and them fellas would come along ridin’ on the road over there by the school and them boys would throw rocks at em and yell, “School butter, chickens flutter, rotten eggs for all you fellers” and then they’d just take off and run. One day this feller come along and he got back there and rared back on his horse and they said “school butter, chickens flutter, rotten eggs for all you fellers.” He kicked his horse. Then they already made it up that the next one to come along they’d throw him right in the creek. So some of em got down there by the road when recess or something was going on and when somebody’d come along, them fellers up there would holler at em down there and them boys would jump out and catch his horse. This one feller come along and they hollered down the road - he took off just a flyin on that horse and they hollered “catch him down there” - a whole bunch of boys just run out into the road and they stopped him. They stopped his horse and grabbed him and throwed him right down into the creek. A rough bunch over there, I guess. 20 or 21 years over there goin’ to school. - JC Porter Mar 23, 11 From 1980 Interview with Florence Williams (d/o John C. Porter, s/o AJP) Track 1 Florence: The school house, where we went to school, last time I was out there, it was tore down. It was a log school. (17:25) JC: Was that Rock Springs School? Florence: Ya. JC: Did you go to school there? Florence: Uh huh, till we moved to Hog-town. (1915?) JC: Who was your teacher there, do you remember? Florence: I don't remember who taught there, but Mr. Fouch was the teacher when we moved to Hogtown. I guess my brother (Will Porter, s/o John C., s/o AJP) taught school back there. JC: Oh he did? Will did? At Rock Springs School? Florence: Uh huh. He taught Singing School too. JC: Was that at Rock Springs? Florence: Ya, that was a big thing to go and sing at night. You didn't have no where to go. - Jenny FrazierMar 23, 11 My mother, Treda Porter Mundy told me about her dad, Will Porter, teaching school at Rock Springs. I know he loved to sing. He taught singing by using the shaped notes as did everyone back then. I was thinking the Rock Springs school was over close to where Harlan lived. My grandmother Edna Mundy, also talked about attending these singing schools. My grandmother would sing in the kitchen while she was cooking and so did my mother. That's how I learned a lot of the old time hymns that I still love today. I have several of Will's songbooks and to me they are priceless, He would mark his favorite ones which were quite a few.
Submitted by: Mike Barker