We’ve been looking at the long-gone schools of the Fork, the Knox County lands between the French Broad and Holston rivers, and here are a few more of the more than two dozen I know once existed in this slice of the county. They are probably within memory of many former pupils still living in the area today.

On Thorn Grove Pike, Sinking Springs School, which was renamed Marbledale in 1949, still stands and is now owned and utilized by the Church of God. Taylor Burkhart donated the land for Sinking Springs in 1905. Joe Ore was an early 1917 principal there at Sinking Springs, where a well had been drilled for it in 1915. Those were different times at our rural schools, where “jitney suppers” sold food by the scoop for a nickel (called a jitney) to raise money for improvements.

The old two-room, frame structure burned in 1934, when sparks from the flue set the roof on fire, as teachers A. Sam Kennedy and Hester Weems had the children calmly carry out desks and chairs. Classes were held in Marbledale Baptist Church while a new six-room brick structure was being built. It was where 7-year-old McDonald Burkhart attended in 1937, when he was fatally struck by a quarry truck at dusk while driving cows home from the family field. He had stayed late at school to help classmates decorate a tree for the Christmas pageant.

During those days of the Great Depression, students at Sinking Springs were fed lunch at a neighboring home for 10 cents a meal through federal relief funds. It was also provided books by the Lawson McGhee Library bookmobile that visited other Fork schools, stores and homes as well. It, along with other disbanded schools in the Fork, was used by community clubs before being sold by Knox County in the mid 1960s.

The first Ramsey Elementary, on the end of Strawberry Plains Pike near Boyd’s Bridge, was built in 1908; its bell was installed in the newer building in 1932. It provided summer recreational and library programs in the 1950s and was enlarged in 1967 with six new classrooms, an auditorium and a cafeteria but closed in 1985.

In the heart of the Fork in 1920, Riverdale School began to be provided water that was pumped from the spring. The classrooms held about 100 students, some of whom were brought to school by Bain Cate, who drove a hack pulled by a black and gray mule that traveled Huckleberry Springs, Flint Gap and Campbell roads to Thorn Grove Pike. To get more students to school, Dr. Drinnen later purchased a bus that was driven by his son Bryan. When the building became overcrowded, a subscription school was established over the Riverdale store, and Lucy Schnicke was the teacher. Later, the new brick Riverdale Elementary, which was planned as a New Deal project in 1936 by renowned architects Barber and McMurry, was built on the land donated by Dr. Drinnen. It was completed in 1938, and Reeford Cate was appointed principal.

In the late 1950s, Riverdale became the first Knox County school whose teachers all had degrees. However, it closed to students, due to low enrollment and the need for major repairs to the building, but continued to be used as a community center. Because of its rich history and significant architecture, it is listed on the National and Tennessee Registers of Historic Places. After 101 years of service as a school, Riverdale closed in 1986, and its young students were moved to Sunnyview Elementary.

Jan Loveday Dickens is an educator, historian, and author of Forgotten in the Fork, a book about the Knox County lands between the French Broad and Holston Rivers, obtainable by emailing ForgottenInTheFork@gmail.com.

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