Farragut Schools: Early Years

Farragut Schools: Early Years. . In 1902, eight men from the community met to consider the question of establishing a high school in the 10th district of Knox County. Mr. C.H. Stoltzfus, a farmer in the community, was elected president of this group. Mass meetings for all members of the community were called. Among those who participated in these meetings were University of Tennessee President Charles W. Dabney, Professor P.P. Claxton, Mr. J.D. Eggleson of the Southern Education Board, and Executive secretary Wallace Buttrick of the General Education Board.

The community raised $5,000 in case, pledges, and timber. This was matched by an equal amount by the General Education Board. Mr. W.A. Doughty gave 12 acres of land upon which the new school was placed. Mr. Charles E. Koon oversaw the building of the school and was appointed administrator until Amanda Stoltzfus became principal in 1904.

The school opened to pupils in 1904. The original building contained six class rooms and as assembly hall. The University of Tennessee Department of Education was particularly interested in the school, hoping to make it a model for southern rural communities and also an object lesson for the students of the Summer School of the South, held at the University. For two years, the work of the school proceeded satisfactorily, and several hundred books were added to the library which was used by both the school and the community.

On the night of March 15, 1906, the building and its contents were destroyed by a fire. On the morning after the fire, the patrons of the school and other residents of the district held a mass meeting upon the grounds and unanimously agreed that the school must be rebuilt. Temporary quarters were arranged in an abandoned church in the neighborhood, where the year's work was completed.

The new two story brick school boasted two additional buildings, a barn and chicken house and sat on an additional eight acres. The school contained a basement, water system and study hall which would seat 300 people when arranged as an assembly hall. At the juncture of Kingston Pike and Concord Road, a concrete water box for horses and a public drinking fountain were erected. The money for the fountain was subscribed by the pupils, teachers and patrons of the school. On the water box in brass letters were the words: "Erected by the Farragut School and Community, 1910," and the fountain was inscribed "Farragut Drinking Fountain".

In 1915, the school received the silver medal and two certificates at the Panama Pacific International Expo held in San Francisco. Farragut High School received the award for the second best educational exhibit by the rural schools of the United States. When the University of Tennessee's Dr. Philander P. Claxton became the United States Commissioner for education in 1913, his admiration for Farragut led to the publication of Bulletin No. 49, entitled "The Farragut School, A Tennessee Country-Life School." This bulletin may have helped initiate the Smith-Hughes Act of 1917, which provided funds for vocational high schools that would institute agricultural programs. Farragut was named the first Smith-Hughes School in the nation.