Schoolhouse · Meeting house · Church
Lower SmyrnaChristian Union
A hand-hewn log house raised by its neighbors in the spring of 1877, still standing in the Smyrna community of Madison County, Arkansas.
Our story
Built for worship, opened as a school
The Smyrna school district was set up on October 1, 1875, after W. M. Fritts and his neighbors petitioned the county. Its boundaries took in Sections 21 and 17 of Township 17 North, Range 26 West.
In the spring of 1877, Grove Bolin Cannaday and others raised the log building that still stands here. They meant it to be a Baptist church. Before it was finished, the builders decided the community needed a school more, and the house opened with split-log benches and Miss Polly Phillips as its first teacher, for a three-month term.
Like most country schoolhouses of the time, it quickly became the center of Smyrna life. It held Sunday school and preaching, spelling matches and debates. On some evenings it held the "Kangaroo Court," a mock trial where a neighbor sat as judge and handed out playful sentences to members of the community, usually young couples.
Today the building is the home of the Lower Smyrna Christian Union. The benches, blackboards and attendance board inside still carry the marks of both lives the house has lived.
Timeline
Through the school years
Smyrna school district established on October 1, on the petition of W. M. Fritts and others.
Grove Bolin Cannaday and neighbors build the log house. Planned as a Baptist church, it opens as a school with Miss Polly Phillips teaching.
S. B. Cannaday's enumeration counts 31 students in the district.
Enrollment grows to 59, with $62.54 from the common school fund. The county mistakenly levies a 5-mill tax on the district; after a complaint by John R. Simpson and other patrons, County Judge Lucas rescinds it on July 3.
Enrollment falls to 46 and the district receives $49.85, not enough for a three-month term, so the district took up the 5-mill levy that had been struck from the tax books two years before.
More than forty teachers keep the Smyrna school running, the last of them Dixie Barker Holland.
The house serves the Lower Smyrna Christian Union and stands as one of the county's surviving log schoolhouses.
Inside today
Hewn walls, wooden benches, the old blackboards
The register
Teachers of the Smyrna school
The schoolmasters and schoolmistresses recorded for the twentieth century, from 1900 until the school's last listed term.
- 1900H. M. Fritts
- 1901J. Reynolds
- 1902H. A. Reynolds
- 1903Zella Miller
- 1904J. E. Price
- 1905Walter Bohannon
- 1906Emma Brown
- 1907M. L. Bohannon
- 1908–09J. C. McQuerry
- 1910Jess McCoy
- 1911–12Pearl Carlock
- 1913Fred Sanders
- 1914Mary Hayes
- 1915Everett Hinds
- 1916Joe Rice
- 1917J. C. Boatright
- 1918Albert King
- 1919Ethel Sanders
- 1920–21Ava Phillips
- 1922Georgie Phillips
- 1923–24Effie Boyd
- 1925–26Frank Cannaday
- 1928Ana Harris
- 1929Zula Calico
- 1930Margaret Miller
- 1931–33Pete Miller
- 1933–34Donna Simpson
- 1935Elsie Brown
- 1936Lilly Seals
- 1937Herman Skaggs
- 1938Anne Smith
- 1939Wilma Rhodes
- 1940Anne Smith
- 1941Fred Reed
- 1942–43Ruby Warren
- 1944Lorene Yarbrough
- 1945–47Dixie Barker Holland
Is your family on this list? We would love to hear their stories.
Source
The history on this page comes from "Madison County Schools," published in Musings, Fall 2000, page 135, by the Madison County Historical Society. Corrections and additions from families and historians are welcome.
Keep the doors open
Help us care for a house built in 1877
The roof, the porch and the old logs all need tending. Every gift goes toward keeping this building standing for the next generation.
