Glen Alpine School System Started?
When was the Glen Alpine School System started and when was the
first building built?
This was the question I asked and we came up with a few answers.
In a pamphlet I have
entitled “Sketches of Burke County” by Cordelia Camp (Supervisor of County
Schools)
dated 1954, she states that “Robert Logan Patton…...in 1876 began teaching at
Table Rock near his old home.
After leaving there he taught at Boonville, The Globe, Amherst, Moravian Falls,
Glen Alpine and Morganton.
In 1891,
Mr. Patton established the famous Patton School in Morganton and ran it until
1912.” As you can see this took place
between 1876 and 1891. I’m not sure this was the Glen Alpine School we
know, but the legislature of 1907 chartered by
special district the Glen Alpine School.
Email from Clyde Ross which was a graduate of GAHS and was a year or so behind us in school. September 07, 2007
~Subscription Schools~
Glen
Alpine’s earliest public and subscription schools had terms of two or three
months. Citizens of the community
wanted better schools with longer terms, so in 1907 they voted to have a special
school district.
In 1912
the first public high school in the county school system was established at Glen
Alpine. Children from other
parts of the county were allowed to attend there. Later a dormitory for
these high school students from other parts
of the county was provided.
From “The Heritage of Burke County, 1981” and published by The
Burke County Historical Society has the above
written and researched by Eleanor Butler.
Found and rewritten by Dewey E. Fox , September 2007
Dewey’s Comments:
These
two above writings of history would match up on the dates and what happened, so
I believe it to be true.
The Patton School of Morganton closed when the first public high school was
established in Glen Alpine in 1912.
Apparently there was school with some sort of teaching before 1912. We could
assume they had school when
teachers were available and the students could attend.
Dewey E. Fox, September 2007
History of Robert Logan Patton IV
Florence Taylor, mother
of Cobb Taylor,
with her 1929 Glen Alpine High School Diploma.
Aunt Florence turned 97 in September of 2007.
So we know that the Glen Alpine School had graduating students in 1929.