When she attended Doe Creek School, Sue Maness, 73, remembers eating beans and cornbread for lunch, and waiting excitedly for recess. She also attended Sunday services in the one-room schoolhouse, which doubled as Doe Creek Church. Last week, Maness stood outside the building that once looked so large to her. She stared at its rusted metal roof and buckled wood floors. And she shared her hope that the Doe Creek Restoration Committee can bring the building back to its original glory.

To do so will cost around $93,000, committee members have said, But inmates from a nearby prison in Clifton will provide the labor. That leaves the committee with out-of-pocket costs of $20,000 for materials and lunch for the inmates. Residents of this community, near Scotts Hill on the Henderson-Decatur county line, attended Doe Creek School and Church from 1865 to 1956. The 24 by 30-foot log building still stands next to the cemetery on Doe Creek Road, though with out its original doors and windows.

Weather permitting, work on the Creek School will begin Feb. 20. Workers will dismantle the original and reuse the salvagable materials to rebuild it. If all goes as planned, they could complete the first phase of restora­tion by late summer. The co-ed school taught first through eighth-graders. Maness, who walked nearly a mile to get to the School each day, considers it her home.

We didn't have snow days, the only holiday we had off was Christmas and we toted water up to the school. I have good memo­ries here," Maness said as she walked her stomping grounds. She pointed out where the dirt basket­ball court, outhouses and cook­e house used to be. To keep the building standing, volunteers have placed support beams at its weak areas. Families also have been working to main­tain the cemetery where their relatives are buried.

The seven members of the restoration committee, most of whom have an ancestral connection to the building, have been raising funds to restore it. They also have completed a registration form to have the school/church and cemetery added to the National Register of Historic Places. The registry currently recognizes 2,500 historic places Committee members refer to, Doe Creek School as the only one­room schoolhouse in the state, but according to the Website SeeTennessee.com, East Tennessee is home to the state's oldest one-room log schoolhouse known as the Sam Houston Schoolhouse.

Scotts Hill Mayor Carey Johnson believes restoring Doe Creek School will be an advantage for the area. "The Board of Aldermen went on record supporting the restoration entirely," said Johnson, whose father had been a guest minister at Doe Creek Church. The group hopes the distinction of being placed on a national reg­istry will drum up tourism and support for the city, which has about 900 residents. Freddie Kennedy lives next door to the Doe Creek School and Cemetery and supports restoring it. "Our goal is to restore it and make people more knowledgeable about what it was like for people back then," Kennedy said. "Back in the '70s, some people tried to restore it, but vandals messed it up.

Committee members want the buidling to look almost exactly the way it did when students and church-goers filled its seats. But they also plan to include an iron fence and bright lighting, said Gale Swift, a member of the com­nittee who has relatives buried in the cemetery. Betty Hughes, another commitee member, has devoted herself to the restoration project in memory of her father, who attended school there. "I've known about Doe Creek all my life," Hughes said. "I have a love of history, and if my father was here, he'd be involved in this." Tracy Averett will donate his labor in honor of his great-grandfather, Elmer Duck, who was the head of the school for several years and taught Hughes' father. "We need a lot of help out here, and any kind of help will be appre­ciated," Averett said.

Listed below are the people you can contact
if you want to give of your services, time or money.

Freddie Kennedy 2420 Doe Creek Rd. Sardis TN 38371 (731-549-9698) J. Wayne Stanfill 20 Hughes Rd. Scotts Hill TN 38374 (731-549-3350) Jerry Taylor 4541 Hwy 100 W. Decaturville TN 38329 (731-549-9644)

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