In our search for facts about the history of Rush Strong High School, we have consulted the older citizens of our community, the teachers who have taught in the building, the early graduates of the school, and the records which have been left in the files of the school.  We trust that the information, which we are handing on to you, is correct.  We have attempted to be authentic in every detail.  

It was not because of the age of the old school building, nor the condition of it, that created a desire for a new building; it was the crowded condition in the two class rooms.  There was not any person in particular who started the idea of building the brick building which we call Rush Strong High School.  Suddenly, the talk of the building became "the talk of the town."  Everybody was interested.  A meeting was held in the Presbyterian Church, and a school building committee was formed with A. C. Parrott as Chairman and Will Walker as secretary.  Others on the committee were J. P. Gardner, Dr. H. L. Campbell, and Dr. M. N. Dukes.  Later, W. E. Parrott and A. D. Hamilton were added to the committee.

The people of the community donated $11,000 which was matched by $11,000 from the Jefferson County School Board.  Rush Strong, formerly a citizen of Strawberry Plains, but then a resident of Knoxville, had an outstanding offer of $1,000 to any school building in Jefferson which would bear his name.  This offer was taken advantage of, the appropriation was raised to $23,000, and the school has borne the name of Rush Strong ever since.

The land on which the building was erected was obtained for $1,000, and the construction was rushed forward.  The services of H. R. Graff and Son were secured to design the building.  The main carpenter was a Mr. Tarwater, and the main brick mason Muck McMann of Sevierville.  The plumbing work was done by a man in Sevierville whose name we have not ascertained, and the electrician was a Mr. Ruckman.  The corner stone was laid May 30, 1923, by the local order of the Masonic Lodge No. 462.

The original plans of the building called for much the same building that we have today, but, due to the lack of funds and also due to the lack of the need of so large a building, the two wings were left off the original building.   The building as it was built was far in excess of the needs for the first few years of Rush Strong School.

When school was first opened in the fall of 1923 there were only three teachers, and the building was not completed.  Percy Hickson, the principal, taught the seventh and eighth grades and the high school.  Miss Ruby Wagner taught the fourth, fifth, and sixth; while Miss Elsie Wiggins taught the first, second and third.  We have no records of what the enrollment in the elementary school was, but it has been estimated at about 80.  At the beginning of the year there were only two high school students, James Shakleford and Paul Bailey.  Later in the year, Caswell Franklin entered high school, making the high school enrollment for the year 1923-1924 reach the grand total of three students.  The elementary school was larger that year than it had been in the old building, due to the fact that the old Jackson School in the lower bend of the Holston River had been discontinued, and the students came to Rush Strong.

In the following year, the school year of 1924-1925, Bill Gilbert contracted with the county to operate a hack, which furnished free transportation to these students.  The enrollment of the school was increased sufficiently to get an additional teacher, Mrs. Addie Moody being added to the faculty of the previous year.  From that time on, the history of Rush Strong School has been a story of progress.

During the next two years, in which Percie Walker was principal, the school gained three more teachers, being then a seven-teacher school with three teachers in high school and four in elementary school.  A Mr. Morgan was operating a bus, in which he brought the former students of Beaver Creek School and Hodges School to Rush Strong School.  In the following years, 1927-1928 Walter Burris became principal and another teacher was added.   Students were now being hauled from Cedar Grove School in Rocky Valley.   That year, Rush Strong High School was truly a four-year high school, with an enrollment of 42 and a graduating class of seven, who are as follows:  Paul Bailey, James Shakleford, Blon Ely, Pauline Ely, Ruth Galyon, Dellah McCampbell, and Tom Swaggerty.

From that time forward, accurate records have been kept concerning the high school.  These show a general increase in enrollment, and the added number of teachers in the elementary school indicates an increase in enrollment in that part of the school.  The increase in high school enrollment was due in part to the fact that a bus was being operated from Dumplin, which brought to Rush Strong High School the elementary graduates of Dumplin, Cherry Hill, and Piney.

The flag pole in front of the school building was erected in the summer of 1928.  It was given by the local Junior Order, which gave the school a flag at the same time.  The flag, which is used now, however, was presented to our school on November 10, 1934, by the Junior Order of Jefferson City.   The opera chairs for the auditorium were bought with money obtained from the estate of Aunt Emiline Howell, colored, who willed one half of her $600 estate to Rush Strong High School and the other half to Rolling Hills School.

During the early history of Rush Strong School athletics does not seem to have been an important feature.  Until the fall of 1929, when Richard E. Spainhour became principal, tennis was the leading sport.  Soon after Mr. Spainhour's arrival, however, a basket ball court was graded, and a boy's basket ball team was organized.  In the following year, when Wright W. Frost came to our school, he organized a girls' basket ball team.  Rush Strong High School has never boasted of a strong basket ball team; but, ever since its beginning in our school, basket ball has been the leading sport, even though the teams have been handicapped by having to practice on an outdoor court.

During the Administration of Mr. Spainhour, who was principal for five years (1929-1934), the high school enrollment increased from 48 to 65, and the elementary enrollment went above 300.  Two teachers were added, making a total of ten.  By this time, the building had become overcrowded.   The basement rooms, which had been constructed for laboratories and play rooms, had long since been converted into classrooms.  In the fall of 1930, the auditorium was being used for two classrooms, one of them being partitioned off with beaverboard.  The eighth grade teacher, who occupied the auditorium, taught one subject of high school along with one section of the seventh grade.  In the following year, departmental work was started in the upper four grades of elementary school, and it has continued ever since.

The need for an addition to the building was apparent, and there was talk about the prospects of getting it.  In October, 1930, the County Court was asked to appropriate enough money to build a combination gymnasium and auditorium in order that the old auditorium could be properly cut up into classrooms.  This effort failed, as did other appeals to the County Court in July, 1932, and again in 1933; but, in April, 1934, the Court agreed to appropriate $6,000 for materials for an addition to Rush Strong High School on condition that the TERA would furnish the labor.  About the same time, the school board agreed to supplement the amount with $1,500 and later gave an additional $1,000.  The TERA had already been appealed to about a month before.  Arthur J. Jacobs, district engineer for the TERA, who had visited our school and noted the crowded conditions, spoke before the County Court in our behalf.  Proper applications were made out and sent to Nashville to await the approval of Col. Walter L. Simpson, State Supervisor of TERA.  The days of waiting were anxious ones.  Letter after letter was written to high officials in behalf of our project.  On request of Mr. J. B. Calhoun, State School House Planning Director, our Senators and our Congressmen were appealed to.  The students and teachers of Rush Strong School wrote approximately 100 letters.  Weeks went by.  It was not until after the middle of June that the project was approved.

H. R. Graff and Son, the architects of the old building, already had blue prints for the addition.  On June 30th, the ground was staked off, and on July 6th, work actually began.  J. P. Gardner, who had worked so faithfully toward getting the building, was made superintendent of the construction work.  Most of the men were used to get the ground ready for a foundation; but, many were sent to the woods to cut logs which W. E. Parrott, local school board member, donated to the project.  Mack Stallings was employed to saw it [lumber], and some of it was dried in his kiln.  Jim Townshend (sic), who was employed by the county as head carpenter, brought his planer to the grounds where much of the lumber was planed.   Some of the lumber was taken to the manual training shop of the Maury High School at Dandridge to be dressed.  By such managing, about 72,000 feet of lumber was obtained at a very little cost.  Another great savings was effected by borrowing from the Jefferson County Highway Dept. a concrete mixer, air compressor, jack hammer, trucks, and many tools.  The Holston Quarry donated crushed stone, which was hauled in the highway trucks.   Others donated sand from the Holston River, with which to make mortar and plaster.  Without these donations, the building could never have been erected on the amount of money allowed for materials.

When the high school opened on September 3rd, most of the lumber was piled on the campus in front of the building, but the concrete foundation was not yet entirely laid.  It had been decided to postpone the opening of the elementary school until a month later for fear that the little children might get hurt.  High school had been going on only a few days, however, when the work was suspended temporarily.  The elementary school then was opened one week later than the high school.  There was much despair among the people lest the work would never be resumed; but, after about two weeks, work was started again in earnest.  Slowly but surely, the foundation was finished; the sub-floor was laid; bricks were laid; the roof was placed; and, by January 1, 1935, the building was practically completed so far as outside work was concerned.  Work since that date has been taken up largely with inside work and improvement of the campus.  The new part of the building, when completed, will contain a gymnasium, an auditorium, a music room, a kitchen, a sewing room, and three additional classrooms, besides the halls.  The old auditorium will soon be converted into two large classrooms, a hall, and a library room.  

There have been several people in our community who have worked hard toward getting the new building and improving the school.  Among these are Mr.  and Mrs.  W.  E. Parrott, J.  P. Gardner, Wright W. Frost, R. E. Spainhour, Mrs. B. E. Cline, L. E. Bailey, and I. L. Swaggerty.  We would never have gotten it, however, without the help of a number of friends outside the community.  We are indeed indebted to the following agents of the TERA: Arthur J. Jacobs, Dan W. Gardner, Mrs. Fred Harrison, and Mrs. Clyde Walker.  We are grateful also to the following magistrates who voted for the appropriation of money with which to buy materials: Harry Vance, Ben Webb, Hobert Hart, A. E. Fox, F. W. Rankin, Lute Chilton, Y. R. Williams, H. J. Moser, W. A. Hull, W. M. Finchum, J. P. Gardner, I. K. Swaggerty, Flem Arnold, L. C. Mill, T. L. Holbert, and J. H. Burchfield.   Thanks are also due to the Jefferson County School Board, which was so kind to supplement our appropriation, and to Herbert Walters, State Highway Commissioner, who was influential in obtaining additional funds from the TERA.

The school year 1934-1935 has been, perhaps, the most dramatic of them all.  From the very first, we were faced with the proposition of carrying on in spite of the noise and confusion which go with construction work.  At times, the sound of the hammer and saw was so loud that classes could hardly be heard.  Sometimes it was the sound of a planer and tractor or jackhammer.   At times, the students were required to move to one side of the building during a dynamite shot.  At other times, shots were set off without warning.   Workmen paraded our halls while talking, singing, and smoking.  The principal's office, which was already being used as a library, became also the office of the TERA, a store room for explosives and fixtures, and for a while an office for a branch of the TVA.  Yet, through it all, the school went on.

The high school enrollment increased from 65 of last year to 87 for this year.