The nice image below is of pupils at an elementary school in Coalton KY in southwestern Boyd County. It is highly likely from the 1915 -1916 school year and the teacher is Miss Nora Kirkpatrick. Click on this image for a larger view.
The photograph was purchased by my friend in Ashland KY, Orville Smith, at the estate sale of James “Jim” Powers (1938 – 2020). James Powers was a longtime employee of the Boyd County Public library and toward the end of his career the Director. Jim was very engaged in local history and a collector of local historic artifacts like this photograph.
Note that the photograph indicates the teacher was “Miss Nora Kirk” not Miss Nora Kirkpatrick. I believe the caption on the image is not exactly correct. My friend Curtis Crye, from Boyd County KY, has made an extensive review of Boyd County KY School Board records and has compiled lists of individual Boyd County schools and the teachers at these schools in particular years. There was no “Nora Kirk” that taught at Coalton in any year that could encompass any reasonable dating of this photograph. The only teacher at Coalton with a name close was Nora Kirkpatrick. So I think the citation in the emulsion of the photograph is either a not quite right “after the fact” mistake or possibly an abbreviation for the much longer Kirkpatrick name.
From Curtis’ listings, in the school year 1915 – 1916 (fall of 1915, winter and spring of 1916), Nora Kirkpatrick was teaching at Coalton School. In the 1913 – 1914 school year Nora Kirkpatrick was teaching at nearby Upper Rush School, in 1916 – 1917 at Lower Rush School, and in 1917 – 1918 back at Lower Rush again.Boyd School Board The 1915 Ashland KY City DirectoryAshlandCityDirectory. p399 indicates Miss Nora Kirkpatrick is teaching at Means Elementary School. So in that missing 1914 – 1915 year in the Boyd County listing above, Nora Kirkpatrick was teaching in the nearby Ashland KY school district before returning to the Boyd County School System to teach at Coalton in 1915 -1916.
In the 1910 US Census Nora Kirkpatrick, age about 15, and daughter of William and Maggie Kirkpatrick, was living in the Coalton KY area. A bit more noodlin’ about indicates that Nora Kirkpatrick was born in Sep of 1894 and died at only 26 on 11 Nov 1920 in Fresno CA, and is buried in Ashland Cemetery. Earlier in 1920, the US Census indicated she was living in Fresno with her Mother and sister, and was teaching at a public school. So Nora Kirkpatrick is 21 years old in this Coalton School image. Nora Kirkpatrick likely attended Coalton School before teaching there a few years later.
I cannot identify any others in this image. My own Father, George Richard Coleman (1912 – 1991), attended Coalton School and appears in later group images at the school, but he would have been a bit too young for this 1915 – 1916 image. There is some possibility my aunt, Dad’s sister, Julia Coleman Deerfield (1909 – 2000), might be one of the younger girls in this image.
From my general knowledge of the Coalton area and a quick review of both the 1910 and 1920 US Census for that area, there could be children of the Adkins, Brickley, Bunting, Chaffin, Clere, Cox, Dowdy, Estep, Evans, Falor, Fitch, Gilley, Gullett, Huff, Jauchius, Maverry, Mayberry, McCoy, Morrison, Nunley, Petry, Raybourn, Rigsby, Salyers, Sam, Seasor, Stephens, Stewart, Sweet, Towler, Wells, Whitley, Withrow, and Wolfe families in this image. Have a very close look and you may recognize one of your relatives.
Those same 1910 and 1920 US Census documents also reveal that most of the Father’s of these children are coal miners. The coal mines, first started at Coalton in the 1860’s, are playing out. The number of miners at Coalton compared to earlier decades is diminished.
I have the original photograph now, thanks Orville. The photograph is 5” X 7” in size and likely a direct contact print from the negative. The image is in reasonably good shape but I did do several hours of micro detailed restoration work in Photoshop. Most of the restoration is in the faces of the students, to hopefully aid in identifying them from this web presentation. There was one student’s face that had a bit too much damage for me to restore without risking altering the actual facial attributes. This student is second from image right on the front row. There are also a couple of students that are a bit blurry compared to the sharp focus for most of the image. These students likely moved during the long exposure time required for the camera’s shutter in that era of photography.
You can see the one room Coalton School, very likely the same building used as the backdrop for this 1915 – 1916 photograph, at almost dead center, just behind the train engine at the bridge, of this circa 1877 lithograph image.AshlandLithograph Click on this image for a larger view.
The one room school depicted in the lithograph above and the backdrop for this school group image was replaced or upgraded to a two room school in about 1922.
This two room school building at Coalton is still around. It is currently a residential house. The GPS is 38.369484, -82.760285. It is located at the red teardrop marker in this Google Maps link.
Here is my image from 2015, a century after the group school image above, of the residence formerly used as the two room Coalton School. The school was just the one story part of this structure. I recall being in this school once in about 1956 when I was 5 years old. My aunt, Minnie Tiller Gee (1922 – 1997), was teaching there. My Mother, Frances Tiller Coleman (1921 – 1999), stopped there to talk to her sister Minnie about something. Click on the image for a larger view.
A big thanks to Orville Smith and Curtis Crye for their focused help and attention.
Enjoy! Lon
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