From Heritage Minor Hill: A History of the Community and School 

Published by the Minor Hill Homecoming '86 Committees,  July 1986.

Compiled by the Heritage Committee: Sue Davis, Estelle Cosby, Evelyn Felker, Albert Jackson, Diane Wilsford, and Henrietta Word.

 

The map of 1870 shows a school on the Florence Road, now called Cow Street or Puncheon Road about where Mary Elizabeth Corder's house is and a school across the road from the Bob Taylor White/El Dawes house. Since I have not been able to find anything on these two schools, I have to go to 1890 and 1895 to the first school known on top of Minor Hill in an old store building which stood at the top of Minor Hill across from the Jim Coffman place, which is now owned by Neal Williams. Here Bill Daughterty taught what was known as a "subscription school". About the year 1895 this school was discontinued because most of the children in the village enrolled in the Coffman School, which was two miles north of Minor Hill at the foot of Coffman Hollow, now Cosby Lane. 

In 1897 another effort was made to locate a school at Minor Hill. On January 12, 1897, W. R. Jones deeded to the school directors, H. T. Zeigler, A. J. Black, and G. W. White, two acres of land. The deed stated that no money passed between the parties and the house erected on this land was to be used for a school only. This land faced the main road through the village, known as Lamb's Ferry Road, and is still part of the present school campus. Here a one-room frame building was constructed and ready for use by the 1898 school term. Dave Coffman was the first teacher. Between the years 1903 and 1907 two rooms were added to the original building, and the school became a three-teacher school. 

In 1907 Minor Hill was made a secondary school. Mac G. Ingram was elected principal by the Giles County Board of Education. Subjects beyond the eighth grade were taught. Between the years 1907 and 1919 other principals were Sam Abernathy, James T. Cox, J. M. Abernathy, E.C. Coffman, J.T. Clark, and James Elam. 

A movement to establish a high school at Minor Hill began in 1919. The Giles County Board of Education appropriated money for a new school and paid J. S. McGill $440 for seven acres of land needed for future building sites and an athletic field. They elected Edd Ingram to be principal of the school. He quickly identified himself with the community in its efforts to build a high school. The new building was completed in the fall of 1920. It was large enough to accommodate both high school and elementary. In the spring of 1921 Minor Hill High School had its first graduation exercises. This was a class of two-the Jackson twins, Elvin and Evans. Elvin and Evans went on to become dentists of Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. Elvin started out at Minor Hill in a sideroom to Taylor Crabb's garage with a dental chair and a foot-powered drill, as there was no electricity in Minor Hill. 

During these first years of high school only academic subjects were offered; however, the school authorities realized the need of vocational subjects in a rural high school. Consequently, home economics was added to the curriculum in 1923. In 1925 agriculture was added for the boys. Later, in 1935 agriculture was replaced with manual arts for the boys. A commercial department offering typing, shorthand, and bookkeeping was added around 1938. Every high school student had an opportunity to take some vocational subjects. 

 The building program shows the growth of the school. In 1927 the county appropriated money to construct a four-room frame building for the elementary school. To meet the needs of the school's athletic program in 1934 the Giles County Board voted $1000 for a gymnasium at Minor Hill High School. With this amount, free materials and labor donated by interested patrons of the school, the gymnasium was ready for use by the fall of 1935.

In 1951 the county constructed a two-room annex to the first elementary building. Previously, however, the county appropriated money for a new high school building, which was completed in the early part of 1940. In 1957 Brownlow Construction Company erected a home economics building north of the main high school building. This was destroyed by fire in January of 1963. In 1964 the Board of Education agreed to build a new home economics building and a modern cafeteria, all of which was completed for the 1964-65 school term. 

Several factors have contributed to the growth of Minor Hill School. First, one might say that consolidation was the main factor. There were four elementary schools in the district, namely Oxford, Powell, Puncheon, and Liberty Hill. By 1954 all these schools had consolidated with Minor Hill, the contributing factors being improvement of roads and better transportation. The second contributing factor to the growth is that the school had had only four changes in administration during its forty nine years-Edd Ingram 1919-1943, J. B. Edwards 1943-1958, Malcom Moore 1958-1967, Elvy Bass 1967-1969. 

On the night of January 9, 1969, fire destroyed the entire school, except the cafeteria and home economics section, which was fireproof. For the remainder of the 1968-69 school term only grades 9-12 remained at Minor Hill, meeting classes in the unburned part of the building. Grades 1-6 were transported to Pulaski Elementary School, and grades 7 and 8 went to Prospect. 

State Commissioner of Education Howard J. Warf refused to permit the building of a high school at Minor Hill, but he approved the erection of a building for grades 1-9. Construction began in January 1970 and was completed the following fall. 

 There was no school at Minor Hill during the 1969-70 school term. Students attended school in Pulaski, and Prospect. The teachers were assigned to those schools for that term.  

Jim Stewart assumed the duties of principal in September 1970, when the new school opened. In the fall of 1976 Mr. Stewart decided to try his hand at dairy farming, and the English teacher, Mr. Willard Davis, assumed the duties as principal. 

Since the time of this publication, Minor Hill School has been fortunate to have many more outstanding principals: Mr. Terry Clark, Mrs. Lisa Stogner, Dr. Vickie M. Beard, Mr. Randy Hamilton, and Mr. Lance Evans.