1934 School Year.
Music File Is A 1934 Song By Gracie Fields Called "Love Life and Laughter".
 Ah, another nice looking bunch of students and I can remember some of this class. Mr. and Mrs. Clifford Brown had a small farm close to the Jubilee School and Rurel Brown would not have had far to walk. To the best of my recollection, the Brown Homestead was on the right between Pond Run Baptist Church and the Ken Mine haul road. The Cummins family lived in this area also and they would not have had far to walk to school. There was another small farm on the left and across the road from the Browns and Cummins, but I can't recall of being told about the family or families that lived there in this 1934 time frame. Later, and after Jubilee was closed, "Froggy" Devine and his family lived on that farm. The Williams farm was further away and closer to Green River. Now, they would have had a longer trip to school. There were others farms and families in this area. They were scattered over a wide area and most of the Jubilee School Students had a long trip to and from school. In the early forties of the twentieth century, the small "One Room" schools were being phased out and the students were being bussed to school. By now, transportation was beginning to be more reliable and the students from the old one room schools like Echols, Number 19, and Jubilee were bussed to schools at Rockport and Beaver Dam. Even with transportation to and from school, the students life was not an easy one. Some were loaded on busses before daylight and returned home after sundown. Most had chores to do before and after school. This was just the way it was in rural Ohio County. Along came Peabody Coal Company in the late forties and times were in the process of a big change. The farmers and part-time farmers were being offered work at Peabody's Mines and life was beginning to get easier. Some will tell you that "Easier Times" did not necessary mean better times, but this big change had started and was not going to be denied. Not only were the farmers and part-time farmers going to work for Peabody, they were selling their farms and land to this large and expanding coal company. In a period of about twenty-five years, there were only a few farms left in the area and Ken Mine and Homestead Mine were in the process of removing the coal from a large area of Ohio County. This area extended to the Green River on the West and South, to the Prentiss Road on the East, and to the Western Kentucky Parkway on the North. Only memories, some pictures, and a few books are the only reminders of Jubilee School and other schools in this area. May the memories never end. Thanks for looking. :-)) Mouse over picture for message. 
See you...............~jrd~ |