DeRossett School

DeRossett School was located on the hill where the Brethren in Christ Church is now located just off Highway 70 East.  C. C. DeRossett and Martha J. DeRossett deeded the land to the School Directors on February 15, 1896.  Later William Hardie and wife Agnes Hardie deeded 2 ½ acres on December 30, 1910.  The building was constructed in the 1890’s. It served the communities of DeRossett, Flatt Rock, Clarktown, and later Stringtown.  In 1954, DeRossett, Bon Air and Ravenscroft were consolidated to create BonDeCroft.

DeRossett School teachers included:

James Anderson – Gussie Baker – Noah Bradley – Mrs. R. E. Brady – Rebecca P. Brady - Ray Brady – Mable Bryant – Kitty Lou Fisk Carson – Henry Carter – Nannie Bohannon Cook – Florence Lewis Cole – Herman Cowden – Lila Meek Cowden – Frances Mitchell Marriott Horn – Ethel Holloway – J. Z. Jones – Wallace Lamb – Mattie McCarrel Martin – Pauline McCarrel – Margaret Mitchell – Maude Mitchell – Willie Ann Officer – Grace Dodson Olexy – Nell Pearson – Edith Holloway Quarles – W. E. Short – Amanda Fisk Smith – Pauline Walker and Elma Lee Welch.

Family names in the DeRossett community were Broom, Poston, Flatt, Stevens, Williams, Welch, Brock, Rice, Bryant, Black, Copley, Green, Holloway, Phifer, Brown, Young, Pippin, Hassler, Moody and Yott.

Trish Graham, who interviewed her grandmother, wrote, “All of the children walked to school before 1938.  There were no buses in White County.  The schoolrooms were heated by a coal-burning potbelly stove.  Light, when needed, was provided by a coal oil (kerosene) lamp.  The water was carried from a neighbor’s house.  The children all drank from a common dipper.  Originally, school lasted five months, but later it was extended to eight months.  There were two recesses of thirty minutes and a lunchtime of one hour.”