Rush Strong School

After the loss of Strawberry Plains College a one-room frame school building was constructed on the same spot. It was used until around 1900. The school then moved to the old Presbyterian Church until 1923. A building committee composed of A.C. Parrott, Will Walker, J.P. Gardner, Drs. H.L. Campbell and M.N. Dukes, W.E. Hamilton, and A.D. Hamilton was formed to look at the possibility of constructing a new school due to overcrowded conditions. The community raised $11,000 which was matched by the Jefferson County School Board to build a new school in Strawberry Plains. On May 1923 a large brick school was built.

It was named Rush Strong School after a resident of Knoxville, Benjamin Rush Strong, a former president of Strawberry Plains College and postmaster of Strawberry Plains, who offered $1,000 to any community that would name a school in his honor. Six schools in East Tennessee took him up on his offer, but Rush Strong School in Strawberry Plains is the only one still in existence.

Leon Rhines climbed the flagpole to release it after it became stuck.

When the school opened in 1923 there were only three teachers and the building was not completed. The principal, Mr. Pervy Hickson, taught grades 7-8 and the high school classes (there were only three high school students). Miss Ruby Wagner taught grades 4-6, and Miss Elsie Wiggins taught grades 1-3. Enrollment was estimated at nearly 80 students. The elementary classes were larger since Jackson School in the lower bend of the Holston River had been closed and the students sent to Rush Strong. Bill Gilbert contracted with the county to operate a hack to furnish free transportation to students in 1924-1925. That year the enrollment had increased and a new teacher, Mrs. Addie Moody.

During 1925-1927 Percie Walker served as principal and the school added three more teachers making three teachers in the high school and four in the elementary section. Mr. Morgan bused student of Beaver Creek and Hodges School to Rush Strong. Walter Buris became principal in 1927 and another teacher was added. Cedar Grove students were now bussed to Rush Strong from Rocky Valley. Rush Strong High School was now a four-year school with 42 students and seven graduates. The enrollment continued to increase due to the fact that elementary students from Dumplin, Cherry Hill, and Piney were sent to Rush Strong as they entered high school.

In 1926 the flagpole was erected given by the Junior Order. The opera chairs in the auditorium were purchased through an endowment from the estate of Aunt Emiline Howell, an African-American, who willed half of her $600 estate to Rush Strong and the other half to Rolling Hill School.

In the early years athletics did not have an important role in the students lives. In the fall of 1929 Richard E. Spainhour became principal and an outdoor basketball court was added and a team organized (before then tennis was the favorite sport). In the next year a girl’s basketball team was formed.

1939 Football team Left-right: Donnie Riddle, J. P. Kerr, Kenneth Frazier, Clayton Cook, Sam Finchum

Left-right top row: Wilma McCampbell, Viola Trent, Kathleen Wilson, Bertha Lawson, Evelyn Eley, Pearl Trent

Bottom row: Minnie Alice Wolfe, Ruth Wolfe, Ella Mia Witt

Standing: Eugene Burnette, J.P. Kerr, Donald Riddle, Kenneth Frazier, Raymond Hickman

Seated: Clarence Wilson, A.D. Hamilton, Jr., Amos Simpson, and Robert Jones

Mr. Spainhour served as principal from 1929-1934. The high school enrollment increased from 48 to 65 and the elementary school had more than 300 students. Again the building became overcrowded. From 1929-34 the basement rooms at Rush Strong, which had been constructed for bathrooms, and playrooms had to be turned into classrooms. Soon everyone realized the need for an addition to the school building.

By the fall of 1930 the auditorium was being used for two classrooms. In 1934 the County Court agreed to appropriate money for materials to add a gymnasium and auditorium if labor for the project could be provided by TERA. The additions were constructed by TERA labor after much letter writing on behalf of the project. These wings were in the original plans but were dropped due to lack of funds. The work on the new additions began on July 6, 1934. The cost of materials ran about $10,000.

Construction takes place on the new auditorium. Notice the elevated floor. The children were playing on the floor just moments before they were asked to pose for this picture.

In 1934 the school year began in the midst of the confusion that goes with onsite construction. Classes were conducted in spite of hammer of saw interruptions and students were at times asked to move to another side of the building during a dynamite shot. The principal’s office became the office of the TERA and a storeroom for explosives and fixtures. Through it all school went on with the high school enrollment increasing from 50 to 87 students.

1935 Rush Strong School with two new wings

Dynamite was used to remove rock for boiler heating unit.

When the circus came to Knoxville some performing animals visited Rush Strong.

Folk dancing on the new outdoor basketball court.

Students were divided into clubs based on the area in which they lived.