Ringgold County Schools

Yearbook Digitization Project

Thanks to grants and generous donations the Ringgold County school yearbooks are being digitized.

Part One is complete and online now and can be viewed at the link below:

http://ringgoldcounty.advantage-preservation.com

County Schools by Township

A note about school names: We have striven to be accurate with the school names listed below. Unfortunately, some of the school names changed overtime. Rural schools were first established in the 1860s as the county's population began to swell and most rural schools were consolidated in the 1940s. Some schools were given unique names that stuck from the beginning. Others received their name from the local landowner (who usually sent a dozen of his kids to the school) or the name of the teacher. Other schools seemed to have never been named and were simply listed as their number.

Most townships contain 36 sections (36 square miles) and as such a rural school could be placed every 2 miles within each township which allowed for 9 schools per township. The exception is the southern tier of townships (Clinton, Middle Fork, Lotts Creek, Riley) which are smaller due to their border with Missouri. These townships would only have 6 or 7 schools. Towns had their own schools and often absorbed the rural school that would have been in their territory. For example, Rice No 4. and Poe No 3. never had rural schools because they were part of the Mount Ayr school. In Athens Township, Kellerton was big enough to elimate 2 schools, No. 1 where Kellerton is located and No. 9 never existed. Still other schools were closed because there were not enough students in a geographic area to support a school or were closed because the building was lost and not rebuilt.

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