By: Lisa Bicknell
Over the past hundred years, thousands of Estill County students have graduated from Eastern Kentucky University.
Many of those graduates attended EKU to learn to become teachers.
In fact, the college, named Eastern Kentucky State Normal School in the beginning, was created to educate one-room school teachers. They, in turn, would venture out into the hills and hollers of Eastern Kentucky to educate students.
Dr. Richard Day, Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Eastern, is seeking to preserve the legacy of the one-room schools that were so instrumental in the developing of the university.
“One-room school teachers put Eastern on the map,” said Day on a recent field trip with Estill County retired teachers to Granny Richardson Springs, a remote area on Barnes Mountain.
The Granny Richardson Springs School was built in 1900 and thirty-one students enrolled. In 1915, oil was discovered on the property and the school prospered as enrollment increased.
After oil production slowed, acid was used to try to float more oil up, and the spring was contaminated, according to an article on EKU’s website. The school closed in 1964.
In the mid-70s, the little school was donated to EKU by the heirs of property owner Eli Sparks. It was taken apart and moved to Eastern’s campus, where it was re-erected near the Hummel planetarium.
In recent years, Professor Day has become passionate about maintaining and improving the school. He’s helped collect artifacts and oral histories and more renovations have been done. Furnishings were donated by the Lee County Board of Education.
Wanda Horn was among a group of retired teachers to make the recent drive out to Granny Richardson Springs. She was the last to teach at the school.
“I haven’t been back here in a long time,” said Wanda. She found the site to look a lot different than she remembered, as the forest moves in to reclaim it.
The once constant racket of the old “hit and miss” engine that propelled an oil pumping “power station” is gone, but an oil derrick still sits on the property. The concrete pad where the old power station was is one of the few relics left there.
All abandoned now, the only sound is birdsong and the breeze in the trees.
Back when Wanda taught, she roomed with Laura Cox during the week. Cox lived behind the Big Springs School, on the other side of Barnes Mountain. Although that school is gone now, the house remains.
Wanda and her students walked to school and back each day.
On weekends, Wanda drove back to her home. She remembers making the trip in the winter. When a snow was on, she’d make a run at Barnes Mountain, and if her car spun out, she’d back up and try it again.
The average number of students Wanda taught was “about 14 students” in grades one through eight, until the latter years, when she only had about seven. She taught them the basics: reading, writing and arithmetic.
There were two outdoor toilets behind the school, one for the boys and one for the girls.
Students brought their own lunches to school, and sometimes they’d swap them if they craved more variety.
The students also learned to be helpful, as they were expected to carry in wood for the heating stove and water from the spring for them to drink.
Jeannette Hughes and Floretta Thorpe were among the group of retired teachers to visit the former site of Granny Richardson Springs School, and they had similar memories of the time when they also taught in one-room schools.
On Sept. 9, 2021, an open house is planned for Granny Richardson Springs School at EKU. The school will be re-opened to self and teacher-guided tours.