Center School History

Center School, at the southeast corner of section 16, Corinth Township, has stood at that point since 1860 when John Roberts Stewart gave two acres for a new schoolhouse to be built. The name was fiven because the land is “so near as may be” the center of the township.

The children of the Roberts community had an earlier school house, but it burned in 1847. Classes then met in Zion Church until 1860. Turn about was fair play, for the first church burned and religious services were held in the school until a second church was built.

The log schoolhouse built to the east in 1860 was weather boarded twenty years later. In 1914, a modern frame building replaced the old loghouse.

John Roberts Stewart who gave the land for Center School was a grandson and namesake of the first John Roberts of Corinth. His family lived on the ridge from which Bank Lick Creek drained. His brother was the first postmaster of Corinth; his wife Nance, a daughter of Zadock Mitchell. Their son, Sergeant Virgil A. Stewart was one of the soldiers whose letters were so eagerly awaited at Corinth post office in the days of the Civil War.

The Stewarts spring half a mile north of Center School is the source of a small stream that feeds Pond Creek.

Back to the top

(Extracted from Pioneer Folks and Places, Barbara Barr Hubbs, 1939, on sale at the Williamson County Museum)