Flat Creek

[ community & school site (May 1, 1911) ]

Lyman Hendry lived in the Flat Creek area and his children went to school there.

Gracie Wentworth taught at Flat Creek, Rose Creek, Salem and Pisgah. She later married W. T. Cash.

A book entitled Flat Creek & Rockville Communities, by Howard Whitfield - Howard states the Flat Creek community was the home of approximately twenty (20) families spanning three generations. The community was an area about three miles square; located approximately 3 miles east of Boyd, Florida in Taylor County.

The community thrived until around the end of World War II, when families began to relocate to more populated areas to obtain electrical power. It is of interest to note that many of these families located within three miles of each other north of Perry.

Alton Wentworth, Teacher 1913

When I learned that i had passed the Teachers' Examination which was held in the Court Room of the Court House, I contacted the County Superintendent of Schools about a likely place to begin. Mr. F. S. Jackson the superintendent, suggested that I contact the Trustees of Flat Creek School, a school which was located about three miles east of Boyd. The Trustees were W. B. Hendry, J. O. Agner and B. P. Poppell, and I approached each of them in their homes.

They agreed to give me the opportunity of beginning my career as teacher there. W. B. Hendry did express reservations about a person who had just passed his sixteenth birthday being entirely ready. The session began the last week in June 1913, and continued for five months.

In that session of Flat Creek School the following partons sent children as follows:

W. B. Hendry family: Jerusha, Roosevelt, Ruberta, Maude, Vernice and Edna

John H. Sessions family: Naomi and Kizzie Lou

Lyman Hendry family: Ruth

John Holden family: Lomie, Mellie, Annabel and Mae

B. Pope Poppell family: Samuel and Nora

Zack Simpson family: Emma, Jesse, Mattie and Minnie

Ab Murphy family: Hoyt, Floyd and Coly

Campbell Pridgeon family: Charlie and Evie

J. O. Agner family: Missouri (Servier was not old enough to attend)

During this school I boarded at the J. O. Agner home. They were faithful members of New Life Methodist Church at Boyd. My uncle, James M. Hendry, was the pastor. It was early in this term that I decided that a teacher should be a person who had made commitment to the church and to the principles of life which it upheld. My association with people of this community and my respect for the good man who pastored their church made my decision easy to finalize. Accordingly I became a member of New Life Church and was baptized in Rocky Creek where it flows near the church.

On the last day of school we had the customary dinner on the ground and program. At the conclusion of the program Mr. Ab Murphy offered a motion that Alton Wentworth be invited to teach for them again the next term. The motion was carried unanimously.

Thus began what was to be about fifty years in the career of Education.