"Restore, Renew, Rediscover Your Historic Neighborhood Schools!"

3rd Annual Preservation Week 2002 Photo-Essay Competition

Upon beginning my research for this project, I found that my hometown, Menifee County, to be such a poor community in it's early years, is very rich in it's historic values today. I soon found the Goosetown School to be one of the oldest schools in Menifee County.

Due to our community being so rural, the lack of transportation posed as a constant problem, as in most areas of the Appalachia in the 1900's. Therefore, public schools operated for only first through eighth grades, and were only in session six months per year. The school year began in July and ended on the first of January. Because the roads and paths were in such poor condition, children were unable to make it to school in the winter months. Through my quest for information I quickly found that our county's mountainous landscape was vastly dotted with small, but very educational, one-room schoolhouses. "Every few miles was a school house," as remembered by Mrs. Norma Williams.

My trip to the Menifee County Board of Education to search through the Menifee County Teacher's Reigsters, Menifee County School Census logs, and an interview with Ms. Vivian DeRossett, revealed that in 1908 there were 32 one-room schoolhouses spread throughout Menifee County alone. There were 31 schools for white students and one school for black students.

One in particular was the Goosetown School located on Indian Creek, near the community formerly known as "Tabor". This education sight fit the same description as most of the schoolhouses in the area. It was constructed of a wooden frame with the front door facing the road or path, consisted of three windows on each side, and a painted blackboard across the back of the classroom. The rows of desks or benches faced the teacher's desk. The schoolhouse was heated by a pot-bellied wood stove. On the warm days, they would raise the windows hoping to catch a cool breeze of wind. The building also contained a water bucket with a dipper inside, which sat in the back of the classroom, and the only restroom facility was an 'outhouse' located behind the building.

My future goal is to one day become an elementary school teacher. And who knows, I could possibly be giving a similar assignment in the near future. And my own students could choose to do a research paper over this same topic, but this will not happen if these educational sights are not reserved today. One way to help preserve this enlightening educational information would be to store literature inside of an existing old one-room schoolhouse that remains standing in Menifee County.

Menifee County education is very important to several people in our hometown, including myself! Primarily because of one very important value that has been passed down through my mother's family for years, "If you're given the opportunity go to school, learn all you can and make the best of what you do learn. Your education is a free gift to you because of who you are and where you were born, and your education is something that no one will ever be able to take from you."

Today, now more than ever, I know that my great grandmother's educational values are true. After researching educational information nearly a century old, it has given me a new appreciation for my educational opportunities today, with hopes that I might help to preserve them for future Menifee County High School students.

So I am asking that if you care as much about our hometown's educational history as myself, and several MCHS students and educators, as an elected local decision making official, I plea to you to start some proposal today to help preserve, or at least offer education acknowledgement for such a valuable historical site, the "Goosetown School."

Please don't take this away, our opportunity for: A MENIFEE COUNTY EDUCATION, Past, Present, and Future.

This essay and photograph(s) are the property of Preservation Kentucky, Inc. and Kentucky Heritage Council and that any use of the photo or essay must be approved by PK and KHC.