Volunteer School

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The Volunteer School after restoration was completed in 2021.

History

Volunteer School was build in 1900 and operated until 1937. The school is located at the corner of Volunteer Road and Brims Grove Road in Pinnacle, North Carolina.^[1]

“We had four grades; first, second, third and fourth grades,” recalls former student R.J. Bennett. “I went to school here in 1935 and 1936 and then they closed it down.”^[1]. Eventually there were grades one through eight.^[2]

“I think in 1917 there was 48 students here,” said Avolene Badgett, whose mother attended school there. “They learned how to read, write and went out and bought farms with the education they got out of a building like this.”^[3][2]

Restoration

In February of 2021 a house in Pinnacle was up for auction. Mrs. Avolene Badgett felt pressed to bid on the house and won the bid. At the time, she did not know that the property included the old Volunteer School, which everyone assumed had been torn down long ago because the house stood where the school once was. The school had been moved further back on the property.^[1]

On the following Monday, Badgett received an unexpected call from Billy Sisk, a representative of the auction company. “He asked if I knew that I’d bought a piece of Stokes County history,” Badgett said. “I didn’t know what he was talking about. Then he told me that R.J. Bennett (a community resident who had attended Volunteer School) had said I’d bought the old schoolhouse. He said they’d moved the school when the house was built and the old school building was being used as a pack house.” “It was like the unanswered question had been answered,” Badgett continued. “This was my momma’s school house and all her brothers’ and sisters’, I knew I had to bring it back. I just wish she could have lived long enough to have known about all of this.”^[2]

Mrs. Badgett had the school moved closer to the road, had it underpinned with rock and set about to restore the old buildling. The orginal doors and windows were in good shape, but it needed a coat of pain and finished walls on the inside.

She met with R. J. Bennet, a former student of the school, to find out what life was like in the school. She used this information to make the schoolhouse as authentic as possible, including a program from 1917 with the names of 48 students.^[2]

The finished product was impressive. Former students Joe Bill Bennett, Aubey Smith Kirby, and Wayne Smith visitied the schoolhouse after the renovations were complete. They were impressed and said it looked very much like the original.

Known Students

• Bennett, Joe Bill^[2]
• Bennet, R.J.^[2]
• Lynch (Doby), Ada May^[4]
• Lynch, Albert Vance^[4]
• Lynch (Doby), Bessie^[4]
• Lynch, Charlie Clifton Lynch^[4]
• Lynch (Smith), Ethel Marie^[4]
• Lynch, Fauntain "Fount" Tillison^[4]
• Lynch, Jesse James^[4]
• Lynch (Doby), Lillian^[4]
• Lynch (Stewart), Lula Elouise^[4]
• Lynch (Gordon), Ola^[4]
• Lynch, Willie Edgar^[4]
• Smith (Kirby), Audrey^[2]
• Smith, Wayne^[2]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Woman restoring historic Volunteer School in Stokes County, by Chad Tucker for Fox8 WGHP, 19 Aug 2020
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7} Open House will offer glimpse to the past by Dean Palmer, special to The Stokes News, 16 Jun 2021
3. ↑ Stokes County woman saves old schoolhouse and restores it, by Chad Tucker for Fox8 WGHP, 2 Dec 2020
4. ↑ ^{4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10} Personal knowledge of Avolene (Reynolds) Badgett.