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Farming For A Better Future, page 120
Excerpts of the Census from National Archives and Records Administration via Ancestry.com (Above) Excerpt of the 1940 Census Labeling "Avery Negro Town" in Stevenson (Below) Excerpt of 1930 Census Record Showing Emery E. Buckner Owning a Farm (Bottom) Excerpt of 1930 Census Record Showing George Tally, Willey Grimes, and Lee Harris Owning Farms on Dixie Highway
what is reflected in the various names provided on the 1940s census records.
Stevenson Rosenwald School*
Stevenson had one of three Rosenwald schools in Jackson County. It was located east of downtown between East 2nd Street and Old Mount Carmel Road in Avery/New Town. The Rosenwald School was expanded and renamed J. E. Drake School by 1967. The original building is gone and the present-day Stevenson Elementary School is now in that
location. The school was constructed about 1920 as a two-teacher, two-room schoolhouse. It cost a total of $2,800 - considerably more than the other two Jackson County Rosenwald schools. The African American community contributed $1,350, while the Rosenwald Fund covered $800, and the county paid $650.
Fort Harker
The Union Army occupied Stevenson from 1862 until the end of the war and Fort Harker was designed
and constructed by Union troops to protect the town from Confederate attacks. Located about a half mile southwest of the Stevenson depot, the fort consists mostly of a w all rising about 14 feet on top of a hill. It is roughly square with clay and earth walls and originally had 7 barbettes, a powder magazine, and a so-called bombproof keep. The defensive structure is named for Col. C. G. Harker, Army of the Ohio, 20th Brigade, who was in charge of Stevenson in the Spring of 1862. According to the National Register nomination, Col. Harker “impressed all Negroes - (4648)