| Sources |
- [S104] Cocke County, Tennessee, and its People, Cocke County Heritage Book Committee, (Walsworth Publishing, 1992), 105, 106.
- [S24] The Newport Plain Talk, (http://www.newportplaintalk.com), 30 Jan 2014.
School Days 2!
Where There’s a Will
While earning her tuition at Washington College, Nora McGaha worked in the school library. This pictured was featured in the school’s publicity brochure in the 1920s.
BY FONDA FREEMAN WILLIAMSON
Before she had finished first grade at Bogard School, with Amos Butler as her teacher, Nora McGaha had determined to become a teacher herself. Nothing about the endeavor was easy, but she made it happen. Her love of learning evolved into a corresponding love for teaching.
Born in 1902 on Cosby in the Smokies, she was the oldest of 16 children. She was to live into her 92nd year and spent 31 of her adult years teaching and 31 in retirement.
By passing a proficiency test in 1919 at age 17, she was assigned to Webb’s, a one-room school on Roostertown Road, Cosby, on a rise near the present-day Smith Cemetery. She was related to nearly all the students. It was arguably the happiest time of her life, a dream realized.
She boarded nearby with a relative who was an excellent cook, Loretta Ramsey. She taught with vigor and firmness, being strict, but with her students’ best interests at heart. She did not stop with academics. She taught them health, hygiene, ethics and religion, morals and manners. Zelma Williamson Jenkins, a first-grader that year, told me in 2012, “Your mother taught me so much besides books, things I’ve used all my life.”
In the 1920s, Nora moved with her family to Chestnut Hill and taught at several small Jefferson County schools as well as finishing two years of high school, all the community offered. She was unhappy to be at a dead-end, seemingly, when she heard of Washington College, a self-help boarding school. It was an answer to prayer for her. She applied, recommended by her friend, A. J. Bush, founder of Bush Brothers Canning Company. At last, in August, 1924, she was on her way, traveling by train to Washington County.
She took easily to the life and expectations of the school, working and learning in a motivated Christian atmosphere. She graduated in 1926 and returned to her home county to continue teaching, more mature and better qualified. In 1929, she and a fellow teacher and friend, Edith Manley, were offered a two-room school in Cocke County, New Prospect, in the Gulf section. They took it and boarded with the Dave Harris family nearby. This led to her meeting and marrying Wilbur Freeman in 1930. Mother was a born teacher and had learned well the ways of children by having 15 younger siblings as she grew up. She thrived on trial and adversity, never hesitant to prove her mettle. She and Miss Manley well managed the academic areas for their students but recess became a problem. There was nowhere to play and no equipment to play with.
My parents actually met at New Prospect School.
The school’s set-up was for grades 1-4 to be taught in the Little Room and grades 5-8 taught in the Big Room. The building sat on a narrow plot between the road and Big Creek. My father had a contract with the county to furnish firewood to the school and early in the school year showed up to discuss details—how much wood, where to unload it, and so on.
My dad commiserated and made a suggestion. He could make a play space. So late one Friday afternoon he drove up with a charge of dynamite, blew out a rock bluff behind the school house and voila! A playground! One problem—the explosion had blown out every window in the building.
Saying not a word to anyone, he and Mother rose early the next morning and rode into town for new window glass, returned, and discreetly replaced the panes, and in due time, the two young women bought balls, basketballs, goals, and jump ropes for their students, all at their own expense and on 1929 paychecks.
He and the new teacher immediately fell for each other and were married in July, 1930., leaving Miss Manley to return to her home county. Politics intervened and she did not get her school back but taught again in Jefferson County for one term in 1930. However, she remained in the community for 12 years, she and Daddy living with his parents and sister Martha for five years, then building their own house and living in it until I was school age and my brother in sixth grade.
The rest of her career was spent in Cocke County at New Prospect, Raven’s Branch, Grassy Fork, and Gulf Schools until 1943 when a move to Newport prompted her to retire. She was done, through, finished. She would be a stay-at-home mom! This lasted for six months at which time Edgemont needed a first-grade teacher to finish out the year. They approached Nora Freeman and she agreed to teach six weeks. She taught for 18 more years.
After retiring again in 1959, she busied herself with interests she had had little time for earlier. She taught an adult Bible class at Newport’s First United Methodist Church for several year and began writing a newspaper column at age 89. She gardened and enjoyed friends and family and especially former students who stayed in touch.
- [S112] Census, 1940.
Name: Nora A Fruman
Titles and Terms:
Event Type: Census
Event Date: 1940
Event Place: Civil District 10, Cocke, Tennessee, United States
Gender: Female
Age: 37
Marital Status: Married
Race (Original): White
Race: White
Relationship to Head of Household (Original): Wife
Relationship to Head of Household: Wife
Birthplace: Tennessee
Birth Year (Estimated): 1903
Last Place of Residence: Same House
District: 15-21
Family Number: 179
Sheet Number and Letter: 12A
Line Number: 30
Affiliate Publication Number: T627
Affiliate Film Number: 3881
Digital Folder Number: 005461287
Image Number: 00638
Household Gender Age Birthplace
Head Wilber J Fruman M 35 Tennessee
Wife Nora A Fruman F 37 Tennessee
Son James T Fruman M 8 Tennessee
Daughter D Tonda Fruman F 2 Tennessee
- [S147] Find a Grave, (Memorial: 49900267).
- [S58] Marriage Certificate.
Name: Wilbur Freeman
Titles and Terms:
Event Type: Marriage
Event Date: 12 Jul 1930
Event Place: Cocke, Tennessee, United States
Age: 24
Birth Year (Estimated): 1906
Father's Name:
Father's Titles and Terms:
Mother's Name:
Mother's Titles and Terms:
Spouse's Name: Nora Mcgaha
Spouse's Titles and Terms:
Spouse's Age: 27
Spouse's Birth Year (Estimated): 1903
Spouse's Father's Name:
Spouse's Father's Titles and Terms:
Spouse's Mother's Name:
Spouse's Mother's Titles and Terms:
Reference ID: 187
GS Film number: 1928648
Digital Folder Number: 004485963
Image Number: 00464
|
Search | Advanced Search
1902 - 1994 (91 years)
: Address
: Location
: City/Town
: County/Shire
: State/Province
: Country
: Not Set
= Link to Google Maps