Hunter's Chapel School

Located West of Senatobia

From WPA Records

Hunter's Chapel School was located about the center of a triangle from between the three springs that were owned by the brothers by the name of Singleton.

It was organized by the Singletons and others in the year of 1870. Some of the first teachers were: Dr. J. W. Thomason, Mr. Daniel Thomason, Mr. Donald Smith, and Annie Echols.

Some of the first pupils were: Mr. Ira G. Allen; Robert C. Smith, (who was later Circuit Clerk of Tate County); James, William and Samuel Presley; John and Ebb Tate; Olive Coppedge; C. F. Pace; who was later Tax Accessor and Circuit Clerk in this community and later practiced law for a short time; James Pace; Simpson Stovall, who was later Treasurer of Mississippi; James Stovall, who practiced medicine in Sardis, MS.

Mr. E. J. Lipsey, County Superintendent of Education, visited this school on day and asked a student of the eighth grade to Parse (?) "He was the Cicero of his age". Mr. Lipsey was the first Superintendent he had ever seen and he became so frightened that he could not Parse (?) the sentence at all. Ira G. Allen was the student and he served as Supt. of Education of Tate County for sixteen years and he said he always sympathised with the children when he visited the schools during that period.

Hunter's Chapel School building was a typical one of that time, log structure with wooden shutters on the windows and a stick and dirt chimney. The benches were made of split logs and put together with wooden pegs.

In 1884 the school was moved to land on which the Hunter's Chapel Methodist Church stood in 1936. Mr. Ira G. Allen was one of the first teachers here.

About the year 1904 the school was moved one mile further northwest near the C. P. House residence because this location was nearer the center of the school district. This school was consolidated with the Crockett School in the year 1918.

(Source of information Frank Dean)

Updated February 29, 2012