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Farming For A Better Future, page 277
(Above) Image of Class in Front of
Beulahland School, Date Unknown (Retro Glances, 1947) (Below) Aerial Photograph of Beulahland School in 1949 (University of Alabama, Historical Map Collection, Online)
The school was built on the Bridgeforth farm in western Limestone County. When the community moved, it sold the schoolhouse and its land. The community of Beulah Land built a new school, completed in 1912, with the $800 from the sale of the old farm and $300 from the Rosenwald Fund. It had three rooms and three teachers. Attendance declined after many families were displaced by the TVA. In 1947, the then one-teacher school was headed by Mrs. Emma B. Harris.
Some sources call the Beulahland School the first Rosenwald School in Alabama, although others give this distinction to the Loachapoka School in Lee County.
Another school for African American children located near Beulah Land was the North Alabama Orphanage and Industrial School. According to a history of schools of Limestone County, the school was promoted in Athens by two men, W.L. Cox and Dr. B.F. Hill who, in 1915, bought 105 acres in south Limestone County from Lucas Ferry Pike, two miles west of Harris Stations.
Big Creek School*
Though there are references to a school in the area of "Big Creek" as early as 1881, Big Creek School began in 1904 when the community created a committee,
chaired by Rev. Henry Fairrer, to collect $5 from each family. The funds went to purchase one acre of land from Mr. Green Hargrove, a local African American farmer who owned land in the area from at least 1900 to 1940.
Mrs. Mary Horton was the first teacher of the one-room schoolhouse. The entire community was involved in the creation of Big Creek School. Mrs. Horton and her students dug a well themselves. Eventually the school expanded to two rooms and two teachers. Some of the teachers who served here were Mrs. Eliza Mann, Mrs. Golds B. Willis, Mrs. Hattie B. Malone, Mrs. Ada Gurley, Mrs. Annie Gurley, and Ms. Celestene Higgins.
In 1947, Mrs. Maxine Pulley and Mrs. Sadie B. Malone were the teachers at Big Creek School. Trustees of the school included Mr. Luther Beddingfield, Mr. Joe Murray, and Mr. Earl Murray. Leroy Murray, an original Tuskegee Airman, attended Big Creek School as a child. The Jones, Horton, and Gilbert families also sent their children to this school.
277 - LIMESTONE
(Below) Excerpt from 1900 Federal Census (Above) Fig 32. Big Creek School Class Photograph, 1940s.
Teachers Maxine Pulley and Sadie B. Malone are at the Left.
(Top) 1936 USGS Topographic Map Showing Big Creek School (Above) 1951 USGS Topographic Map Showing Big Creek School and New Berea Church - (4805)