Click here for a larger image of this photo.
Click here for an adjusted image of this photo.
Porter School
"Cecil Porter was born in April, 1932, so I would guess this picture is around the later 1930's"
Submitted by: JC Porter
Names(?)
Clarice Stamper, Evelyn Caudill, Ray Conn, Charles Clay, ?, ?, ?
Little Pearl Porter, Berha Rae, Ofill Manning, Harald Caudill, Cecil Porter, Ed Conn, brother, Robert ?
This is a pic. of the Porter School house on Porter Creek. The pic. was taken 06/24/2005 The school house is no longer there. I went to school there when my Grand Father Sam L Porter was the teacher. Later Kathleen was the teacher.She was married to Tracy Porter s/o Will Porter. My name is Carl R. Porter s/o Ernest s/o Sam L.Porter s/o Alex s/o Andrew
JC Porter: From Cecil Porter's autobiography "Raised on the Knobs of Kentucky" Cecil remembers being awakened one night by a lot of noise and a big commotion going on outside. When he got up and looked outside he could see a lot of big flames and a lot of very bright sparks coming up from behind the barn. His Grandfather was down at the barn trying to get the live stock out of the barn because the old school house was on fire and he was afraid that the heat and the hot sparks would catch the barn on fire and burn them all up. The barn didn't catch fire, but the Porter School house was a total loss. This was to be Cecil's first year in school. He was only five years old, but since his Grandfather (Sam Porter, s/o Alex, s/o AJP) was the teacher he was going to let him start early. Since the school house had burned down the school board had to find another place to have school until they could get a new one built. They rented an old store house. It was only about a quarter of a mile down the road so Cecil could walk to school. Porter school was only a one room school. It had all eight grades in one room. There were only about twenty or thirty kids in school at any one time, If they were all present at the same time which didn't happen very often. When there was work to be done on the farms the older kids were kept at home to help get the work done if they were to survive at all every one had to do his share of the work. Education came after every thing 9 else was done. That was the reason that a lot of the pupils were not kids any more they were young adults before they got out of school. That sure made it hard on the teacher, because these pupils didn't take to disciplining very well. Some times they would get so out of hand that the teacher would just have to send them home early. But most of the time when that happened they wouldn't go home they would just go down the road a short way and wait for school to be out making fun about the whole thing . Then they would go home with the rest of the kids. They knew that if they went home early they would just have to go to work on the farm because there was always something to be done there. The County had a meeting with the people of the Porter school district about a new building. It was agreed that the county would furnish the money to buy the materials but the local people would have to do the work to build the new school house. Well the people didn't want to have to go through this very often, so they agreed to build it out of rock. Since Cecil's Uncle Herman (s/o Alex, s/o AJP) owned the rocky hill side in front of the site, and being the canny person he was, when it came to him getting something for nothing, said he would donate all the rock they needed to build a rock school house. All they had to do was to go up on the hill and start the rocks rolling down the hill. They would roll all the way to the bottom of the hill. Then they could go along with a wagon and load up the rocks and haul them to the building site. They got the rocks they needed for the building, and Herman got his field cleared of the rocks, free. JC Porter yesterday They built a rectangle building about forty by sixty feet, running East to West. The ceiling was very high, about sixteen feet. There was a set of five steps up to a small landing held up by two corner post. The sides were open. The front door was facing West in the North West corner, facing the North South road. The door opened to a short hall way with another door at the other end to the main room. It was made this way to help keep out the cold air in the winter. There was a coat room on the same end of the building. It was a long room with a door on each end of the room open to the main room. On the other end of the room there was a door that went into a room that was used to store the supply of coal for the winter months. There was a big pot bellied stove in the center of the main room for the building heat. On the South side of the building at the East corner was an exit door to the outside. It could be used in case of fire or for fresh air in the warm weather. This door was also used to go to the out house that was out behind the school house. There were two small windows up high close to the ceiling in the South wall. There was big ten foot high windows covering the entire North wall for light. The only lighting for the entire building came in through these windows. On stormy days it could get pretty dark inside the room. The floor was made of white pine tongue and grooved lumber that was oiled down with linseed oil to preserve the wood and to help keep down the dust. The building had a tin roof, and it could make you sleepy when it got dark and stormy, with the sound of the rain on the tin roof. There was a black board that covered the length of the south wall. There was another black board that covered the length of the east wall.
Jenny Frazier Jul 29, 08 Thanks for posting the pic of the Porter School. I remember being there with my dad, Ed Mundy, when he would show movies for Aunt Kathleen to raise money for the school. My dad would use the movie projector from the National Guard armory where he was a full-time employee. Does anyone remember those movies?
Jerri Holbrook Jul 30, 08 I LOVED THAT SCHOOL HOUSE. WHEN MY MOTHER AND HER PARENTS (EARCEL PORTER, S/O VIOLA PORTER BEGO) MOVED FROM OLIVE HILL TO PORTER CREEK THEY RENTED THE OLD SCHOOL HOUSE. THIS WAS IN 1957 MY DAD CARL HOLBROOK S/O EVA, D/O WINT LIVED JUST DOWN THE ROAD. THIS IS HOW THEY MET. THEY WERE MARRIED IN 1959. I HAVE HAD SEVERAL AUNTS AND UNCLES RENT THE HOUSE FROM VENICE AND OPAL EVERMAN. WHEN YOU WENT IN THE FRONT DOOR THERE WAS ONE BIG ROOM, A CENTER ROOM AND THE BACK ROOM. THEY HAD PUT THE KITCHEN IN THE BACK. THERE WAS AN OLD HAND PUMP OUT IN THE YARD. THE WATER WAS NASTY IT WAS PURE SULFUR BUT IT WAS ICE COLD. WHEN THEY HAD CHURCH AT THE PORTER CREEK CHURCH WHICH WAS THE DRIVE TO THE OLD SCHOOL HOUSE. THE KIDS ME INCLUDED WOULD SLIP OFF FROM SERVICE AND SIT ON THE OLD SCHOOL HOUSE PORCH. WHEN I WAS AROUND 7 YEARS OLD MY AUNT LORENE D/O EARCEL, S/O VIOLA WENT TO VISIT LUCY PORTER SHE LIVED AT THE SCHOOL HOUSE AT THAT TIME. SHE WAS SHOWING US A JEWEL ENCRUSTED POWDER BOX. WE LOOKED AT THE POWDER BOX THEN LEFT. LATER IN THE DAY WE WERE PLAYING IN THE CHURCH YARD AND LUCY YELLED AT US AND ACCUSED US OF STEALING THE POWDER BOX. GRANNY HOLBROOK (EVA) WHICH LIVED JUST ACROSS THE ROAD, HEARD THE YELLING. SHE WALKED OVER THERE AND ASKED WHAT WAS GOING ON. LUCY WAS YELLING SAYING WE STOLE THE POWDER BOX. ONE THING LEAD TO ANOTHER AND GRANNY SLAPPED THE FACE OFF LUCY. SHE PROCEEDED TO SHOW LUCY THE BOX THAT WAS SITTING BEHIND THE CHAIR ON HER FRONT PORCH. GRANNY AND LUCY NEVER HIT IT OFF AFTER THAT DAY. BEING THE MEAN LITTLE GIRL THAT I WAS AS WE WERE WALKING AWAY WITH GRANNY I TURNED AROUND AND STUCK MY TONGUE OUT AT LUCY. I WILL NEVER FORGET THAT DAY.