School Days: Concord School, early 1890’s

Concord School was among the numerous small schoolhouses in the Armuchee Valley area. It was situated towards the northern end of Concord Road, just across from Concord Church.

Previous Jordan’s Journey contributor Rhonda Locke recently sent me an excellent “new” photo.

Rhonda describes the image:

I was excited to find this 8×10 photo tucked away at my mother’s house and I wanted to share it. It’s a print done from an original. (Sadly, I have no idea who has the original photo.) On the back, in my mother’s handwriting, it says “(Ola) Viola Beatrice Keown, (known as Doma to family). 2nd from right on 2nd row. Made at school house.”

Ola Keown was my great-grandmother. She was the eldest living child of James Wiley Hegwood and his first wife Chlorinda Katie Thornton and was born October 9, 1877. She could be anywhere from 13 to 17 in this photo, which would make it 1890 to 1894, give or take a year. I tend to lean towards the later date. I believe it is of Concord School. I’ve included a version with each person numbered, in hopes of identifying more people in it. There are probably some more Hegwoods as they were a large family. I suspect 7, 17 and 18 as being Hegwood brothers and possibly number 29 also.

Other things of interest: the boy numbered 28 has an “x” mark inside a circle faintly visible on his clothes. I believe it was on the original photo. Also, there are letters at the bottom of the page (Z, L & J) probably referring to boys on the bottom row. (Unlike the “x” over Ola’s head which seems to be on my actual copy, I can’t tell if they are written on my print or on the original.) There are what look like a couple of pairs of sisters wearing similar dresses. And I love the trio of the boy, #10, and two girls, #22 & #23, who look like they are holding him in place. He looks like he’d rather be anywhere else. Kids don’t seem to change much, no matter what decade they hail from.

It would be terrific if we could put names to more of the people in the photo. There are probably Keowns (possibly even my great-grandfather Warren J. Keown, son of William Newton Keown and Chloe Adcock) who married Ola and of whom we have no known pictures; he wasn’t around much, according to his son, my grandfather), Tates, Puryears, Raineys, McClures and any number of other names who were also associated with Concord Methodist Church in Villanow. Any comments are welcome. If nothing else, it’s great to have a forum like Jordan’s Journey on which to put this piece of Walker County history.

I agree with Rhonda’s assessment that this photo is from Concord School. I have compared it to a couple of other pictures of the school, and it looks like the same building.

To accompany the photo and Rhonda’s text, I’m posting some papers compiled by Evelyn Morgan Shahan, another Villanow-area historian from a previous generation. These lists are of Concord School students from 1876-1902, including the range 1890-1894 of the above photo, as estimated by Locke. Note that many of the family names Locke mentions are on these lists.

Does the photo paired with these documents help us uncover new information? Have you seen this photo before? Do you have any other images of or related to Concord School?

If you have any comments, please let us know below!