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Pisgah Historic Schoolhouse Brief History - 1923 to 1964 As Alma Owens Tibbals, author of A History of Pulaski County Kentucky, wrote: it is impossible to separate the early history of the Somerset Presbyterian Church from that of the Pisgah Church and the Pisgah Schoolhouse. Pisgah's roots go back to 1806, when a congregation was formed in Wayne County near Monticello. They struggled there until around 1828 when they moved the congregation to its present location. Many descendents of Pisgah's founding fathers remain in the Somerset area. Some familiar names are Newell, Cooper, Beaty, Prather, Gilmore, Owens, Goggin, Cowan, Brown and many more. Around the middle of the 1800's, Pisgah Church members living in "town" would hold church in Somerset on occasion and finally a church was built in Somerset, as the distance out to Pisgah, particularly in bad weather, was considered far. There have been stories of children coming to Pisgah that walked to school and they tell of conditions on Hwy 27 after a rain when the mud on the road "sucked" the shoes or boots right off a person. What takes ten minutes in our cars today would have taken over an hour to make the trip either by horseback or in wagons. Even though there were two churches, they shared a pastor until around the 1930's or so. We have no clear record of a date when the first Pisgah Schoolhouse was built, however, a recollection by folks connected to the Church were that in the 1850's the pastor at Pisgah Presbyterian Church was also the school teacher at Pisgah School. Education was of the utmost importance to the Presbyterian Church and many of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and our constitution were of the Presbyterian faith. I think it would be safe to conclude that some sort of school was in place since the beginning of Pisgah Church. In the early 1920's, the Board of Education set out to replace one room schools with larger two room schoolhouses. In 1922 or 23, the Pisgah one room school building was moved across Pisgah Church Road and used to house share croppers and their families working for Dumont Stigall. Pete Stigall, in repeating stories told by his father and grandfather, told how they used a team of 12 mules to move this building across the road, rolling it on pine logs to its new location. Sharecropper families lived in the old one room school until around 1950. It is gone now and Pisgah Church Road is over the site where it stood. In 1923, the new two room schoolhouse was built. A few years later, during the Great Depression in the 30's, the WPA was assigned to the school and a cafeteria was built. One half of one cloakroom was removed and a stairway was constructed. They dug out a basement and put sturdy cedar logs up as braces and made a kitchen and eating area. Today we have a coal cook stove (not working) and the original tables where the children sat to eat their lunch. It was the job of the older boys to carry water from the spring to use for cooking and washing dishes and it was the job of the older girls to wash the dishes. A cook was employed and according to Pete Stigall, who attended school at Pisgan for eight years, the food was delicious. The children brought jars of canned vegetables and potatoes and canned meat was supplied by the state. It is believed that this is the first school cafeteria in rural Kentucky. Pisgah School was considered a bit "elite" at the time and I remember a story by a fellow who attended Slate Branch School and they walked to Pisgah to play ball and the fellow telling the story said they were all so impressed because the kids at Pisgah had real balls and bats whereas they were using their own wound string balls and sticks for bats. Fire was a real danger of the old schools as they were all wood construction and either coal or wood in potbellied stoves was used for heat. Additionally, twice a year old motor oil was poured on the floor to keep the wood from splintering. Pete tells about how they used to run and slide in the oil when they were putting it down to spread it around. The school was closed in 1964 and the children were bussed into Somerset to attend school. At that time, Ralph Stigall, a school teacher himself and the son of Dumont Stigall and early teacher at Pisgah, purchased the old school from the board of Education. For almost 40 years he used the building for storage of machines, hay and just odds and ends. At one time it is said that animals were housed in the building. After Ralph passed away, the building began to deteriorate with the roof leaking, windows broken and fell into general disrepair. We live in nearby Wedgewood and often we would walk our dog over to the old church and visit the cemetery reading the headstones and as we walked by the old building we would shake our heads and say "someone should restore this building". Purchase and Restoration - 1998 - 2003 As Beulah Stigall, wife of Ralph, began sorting out her belongings and making her arrangements she offered the sale of the schoolhouse to the Church where she had been a member for over 50 years. The church accepted her offer as the land could be used to extend the cemetery. There was much debate as to what to do about the old schoolhouse as it was in terrible disrepair. Meetings were held and the options were; call the fire department and have them burn it down or try to do something with it. A review of the building was made and it was determined that it was salvageable but at what cost? Then there was the question of whether to restore the building or renovate it and a bigger question was where would the money come from? It was finally agreed that the building would be restored to as close to its original beginnings as possible and the money would come "somehow". The Church contributed $10,000 to begin the restoration, Colonel Zook, a long time church member, contributed $10,000 for the repair ofthe foundation and Ward Correll contributed $10,000. That was the beginning. Church members contributed to have a window replaced with their name on it or a metal panel for the roof; then the entire community jumped on board to save the old schoolhouse. Fundraisers were held, donations were made by individuals and businesses and progress began. There were issues on how to maintain the integrity of the school and yet have a functional building with kitchen and bathrooms. Handicap accessible was very important and it all needed to be done without looking like it was there. We used the largest cloakroom for the kitchen and Hahn Woodworking designed a kitchen that would fit in the cloakroom and yet be functional as a kitchen. Businesses around the area donated the appliances. The kitchen is very efficient and yet the integrity of the cloak room remains. The bathroom was a bigger problem. If we had a men's bathroom and a women's bathroom, they would not be large enough to handle handicap accessible. It was elected to combine the bathroom and have one large "handicap accessible" bathroom. It worked. The sidewalk and porch is handicap accessible. We are very proud that we were able to accomplish this and maintain the old charm of the original design. Holland Hall and Carl Skaggs were in charge of the restoration. The amazing part of this project was the level of participation and support that poured in from the community. Eldon Simpson of Simpson's paint donated paint and then found painters who donated their time. I remember a couple of fellows that came out during a real hot spell and scraped and painted the entire outside of the school. We got their photograph but lost track of their names. A firm in Somerset, New Jersey analyzed the fact that there was lead paint on the inside and they provided a special paint to seal it all off. Again, painters came, donated their time and painted the inside. We started looking for wooden school desks and so many were donated we finally had to stop accepting them. One young fellow, around 12 years old, found one at a garage sale and insisted his mother buy it for the school. One day the Burton family stopped by and asked if we wanted the original bell from the schoolyard. After the school closed in 1964, vandals came and broke the bell into pieces. The Burtons rescued the pieces, welded them together and it has been in their yard for the past 40 years. They wanted the bell to be returned where it belonged. Another fellow stopped in one day and asked if we could use an old pot bellied stove from an old schoolhouse in eastern Kentucky. We had been looking for one but hadn't found one and if we did they were too expensive. These stories could go on and on. In 1913, the Church had been destroyed by what they called a cyclone. The only thing left standing was the pulpit with the Church bible on it. Times were bad then and the elders didn't know if they would be able to rebuild. The members of the community jumped in to the rescue and within the year the church was back on its original foundation. At that time a letter was written and placed in the archives stating that this church would always be open to the needs of the community. Again, in the 1930's and 40's, the community joined in and helped with the construction of our Community Building which at that time became the center of the Pisgah Community. Our goal is to be a good neighbor and to share our good fortune with our community. It is this sense of community spirit that has kept Pisgah Presbyterian Church going for over 200 years. In 2003, during a trip to Port Townsend, W A, a Victorian seaport near Seattle, for our daughter's wedding, we attended a concert in the park. The band was seated in a replica of an early 1900' s bandstand. We knew right then that Pisgah "needed" a bandstand! The idea was presented to the Church and they were all onboard. In less than two years we had enough money to buy the materials to construct our own bandstand and a group of carpenters volunteered their talents to build it. After working all day on their job, they came to Pisgah in the evening during the heat of July and August and built the bandstand for Somerset. Several outdoor weddings and numerous concerts have been held in the bandstand since 2005 and we are looking forward to many many more. Current Community Use and Benefits • Weddings Concerts
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©2008 PISGAH PICKIN' JAM |
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