Bridgewater Colored School

The first Bridgwater Colored school was a one-room school located on what is now Grove Street in Bridgewater, one block west of Main Street. This school was built in 1885 and is indicated in Lake's 1885 Atlas of Rockingham County (Map of Bridgewater). In 1898, this house and lot was traded to G. C. Spitzer on a new house to be situated in the northwest part of town on the Dry River Road. The new lot was deeded to the Ashby District School Board by E. K. Dickson on November 23, 1898. The new building was a two-room school with one room on the first floor and a second room on the top floor. The earliest teachers at the Bridgewater Colored school are unknown. The school continued as a two-teacher school until the mid 1920s when declining population reduced the school to a one-teacher school. The Bridgewater Colored School was closed in 1950. Teachers known to have taught at the Bridgewater Colored school are:

 

1898-99 T.C. Edmunds, Etta V. Edmunds

1899-1900 T. C. Edmunds, Vada Roberts

1900-01 T. C. Edmonds, C. O. Gaines

1901-02 Arabella Clay

1902-03 L. O. Wingfield

1903-04 William E. Jefferson

1909-10 Mary Arter, Nora B. Washington

1910-11 T. C. Edmonds, J. B. Arter

1911-12 Rose E. Carter, Mary E. Preston

1912-15 (three sessions) W. C. Banks, Mary Banks

1915-17 (two sessions) James R. Hyde, Bertha Nelson

1917-18 Elsie Lewis

1918-19 Elsie Lewis, Betty Jenkins

1918-19 Nancy Goldsberry, Ida Breams

1919-20 Helen Irvin, Julia Irvin

1920-21 Helen Wells, Julia Irvin

1921-22 Helen Wells, Julia Irvin

1922-23 Mayme L. Curtis

1923-24 Mary Almond, Helen Wells

1924-26 (two sessions) Nettie C. Bagby

1926-28 (two sessions) Willie Mae Jackson

1928-35 (seven sessions) Ruth Hollins

1935-37 (two sessions) Catherine Stratton

1937-39 (two sessions) Veda C. Hicks

1939-43 (four sessions) Mary Frances Wayne

1943-50 (seven sessions) Margaret P. Wright

 


Return to the History of Rockingham County Public Schools or the Rockingham County Public Schools home page .