* Denton School History/Photos

Denton NC School History and Photos - View Denton School Memory Photos Here...............

[photos below] Research by Bert Lanier The first school building ever erected at Denton was built in 1886, on a spacious lot purchased from A. A. Snider. This building, which stood where the high school's parking lot now is, was paid for mainly, if not entirely, by Dr. A. Anderson, Robert Tysinger, Andrew J. Buie, and Jacob Skeen. It was about 22 by 40 feet in size, was built of good pine lumber, complete with belfry and front porch, in the~ style of those days, and was considered a credit to the community. The first schools taught in this building were private undertakings, and no records showing the number of pupils or the length of the various terms are now extant.

In 1894 the county board of education took steps to form a public school district around the schoolhouse, and appointed James Asbury Snider, Alexander A. Snider and William H. Garner as the new district's first committee. The first teacher employed by this committee was a young man from Trinity, in Randolph County, Charles W. Briles, whose work was so satisfactory that the committee was glad to employ him for a second term. Briles subsequently became the first Superintendent of Public Instruction in the State of Oklahoma.

Following Mr. Briles, the next public school at Denton seems to have been taught by B. I. Harrison, who according to local tradition, rendered good service.

In the fall of 1897, the boundaries of the district having been enlarged, a tall sandy-haired schoolmaster, a former resident of Kernersville and a graduate of Oak Ridge Institute, J. A. Stone, came to Denton, taught the public school and a short-term private school at the end of the public term. Stone's work met with such approval that he decided to establish an academy capable of pre- paring young men and women for college. Accordingly, in January, 1898, Stone purchased from Robert Tysinger, then sole owner, all the land included in and known as the school grounds, which lay on both sides of the Salisbury Road, and proceeded to erect what was locally considered a fine "academy," a two-story structure; 40 by 60 feet in size, with porch and portico on the south front, with duplex stairways that led to the auditorium. Painted white and trimmed in yellow, it was almost certainly the finest rural school building in Davidson County, with the exception of the brick building at Yadkin College.

For the first term in the new building, Principal Stone employed as assistant principal a young graduate of Wake Forest College, J. 0. Purnell. He also employed two other teachers, one for music and one for primary work.

Pupils came in from miles around, and several others came from a longer distance and boarded with local families. At the first commencement (or rather exhibition, since there were no graduates to commence), which was held in May, 1899, a long program of recitations and declamations was rendered, and the literary address (according to an old program) was delivered by the Hon. Theodore F. Kluttz, lawyer, orator, and Congressman from Salisbury. The largest crowd ever seen in Denton up to that time was present, there was a brass band to enliven the festivities, dinner on the grounds, and a good time was apparently enjoyed by all present.

The next fall the Institute opened with the same number of teachers, a fairly good enrollment, and during the fall term appeared to be doing good work. A dormitory-and-teacher's home was started and almost completed during 1899-1900, and until sometime after Christmas the outlook for the Institute seemed to be good.

But sometime after Christmas, for some reason, which is now not clear, attendance fell off, and as Mr. Stone was rather heavily in debt for his new buildings, and as some of his creditors were pressing him for payment, he was confronted with a difficult situation. Much worried over the situation, Stone suddenly left the community one day in February, 1900, without telling anyone his destination. When he returned a few weeks later, the school had been closed, his teachers had left, and Stone soon found that he had lost many of his former friends.

The next fall Stone was unable to open his Denton Institute, and there was no more teaching on the high school level at Denton until the fall of 1906, when the Rev. George L. Reynolds took charge of the academic building and founded a private institution known as Denton High School. Subsequently there were two other schools of particular interest that were used before the County bought the Reynolds property and turned it into a County School.

The first was a log building on the south end of the lot where the present Legion hut now stands. The second building was across the street, located where the Terrell Trailer Park now stands. This building had both primary and high school facilities. R. C. Powell later converted it into an attractive private house.

Click on Photos for Larger View View Denton School Memory Photos Here...............

First School Denton NC

First High School Denton NC

No pubic schools existed In Davidson county south of U.S. 64 in 1907. BI Harrison ran for a seat on the Davidson County Board of Education with his platform devoted to bringing a free school to Denton. He won a seat in 1907 and served 3 years on that board, accomplishing his goal of getting a public school in Denton NC. The school did not open until 1912 but the county was obligated to build the school. He chose not to run in 1911, as the trip to Lexington took one and a half days by horse and buggy and he felt that he had done what he had set out to do.

Info by: Jim Harrison , grandson of BI Harrison

First High School Denton NC

First Public School