Harpersville Part 2

The old General Store in Harpersville eventually became a barn on land once owned by W.D. Gentry. A relative, Mr. Gilbert Gentry, had owned and operated the General Store for years and his daughter, Anna Gentry, began the first telephone exchange from their home in the early 1900s. There was a phone line strung along the fence row into Breckenridge. She had as many as 10 customers on one party line and maintained several party lines like that in the community. One might say that Anna Gentry was the first switchboard operator before there was any formal phone service to that area of the county.

In 1886, the first school was built in Harpersville and was first known as the Double Mountain School. However, it was soon moved to an area known as Pleasant Hill, which was located northeast of Harpersville, on the Old Merryman Road. At that time, there were more families with school-age children in that area. Not too much later, a small cottage was built to accommodate the first and second-grade students and the school was named the Double Mountain School once more. Then in 1892, the school was moved once more and this time it was moved into the town that had emerged as Harpersville and was situated near the Harpersville Cemetery and renamed the Harpersville School. It was a two-story structure with two large rooms downstairs and a large meeting room upstairs for community meetings.

As in most rural communities, the school building doubled as a church on Sunday. Both the Baptists and Methodists congregations took turns conducting services and the preachers rotated their Sunday sermons. Additionally, the second floor was used as a meeting place for the ‘Woodmen of the World,’ which was typically found in most rural communities along with the ‘Odd Fellows.’

Among the teachers of the Double Mountain/Harpersville School, they included Mr. Albert Gentry, Mrs. Frankie (Wragg) Lyles, Squire Brown, Miss Etta Gentry, Mr. McCorkle, John Blackburn, Mr. Basham, Mr. Greer Sawyer, Cyrus Frost and Charley Maxwell of Wayland and Miss Brother of Eastland.

As you peruse this list, one can readily see that there were a majority of male teachers and the reason for that is that single women were not permitted to continue teaching once they married. The exception was if they were widowed, then they could resume teaching.

Unusual to this area was that farms changed hands quite frequently for a variety of reasons, which was not true of most other rural areas in Stephens County. Some may have sold their farm and moved on to another location and purchased more land there. Also, as sons and daughters married, the land was bought and sold to be closer to other family members. For example, Mr. Basham Sr. bought his farm from Mr. Lambert, who had originally bought the land from an early settler, Mr. F.R. LeFevre. Basham’s son, Bert Basham, lived on the old Tom Baker farm, where the soil was very sandy, and he raised an excellent crop of watermelons each year.

Joe Powers moved from working on the Harper farm to purchase land that was later known as the Hittson place, located two miles southwest of the General Store in Harpersville. Powers was the son-in-law of Mr. Frank Bevers, who owned the Charley Hittson place and had a fair-sized family, which included sons Steve, Jeff, Joe, John, Willie and Jimmy and a daughter Elizabeth. Later, when Joe died, Mrs. Powers and two of her remaining children, Jimmy and Elizabeth, sold the farm and moved to Wellington, Tx., where her family lived.

Mr. Jerome Bevers, brother of Frank, owned a farm adjacent to the property where the General Store was located. His children included Josie, Mag, Julia and a son Ross, who lived on the land until he died. Julia Bevers married Walter Harper, brother of John Hayden and James Riley Harper.

Mr. Briden owned a farm about a mile and a half from the General Store in Harpersville and it is still owned by his descendants. His children Ezra, Arthur, Lela, Pearl and Erma all attended school in Harpersville.

Then, there was Mr. Sam Childs who owned land northwest of the store and it extended up to the store itself. His sons included Ira, Roy, Bryant and Standefer and the girls included Lottie, Minnie and Martha. Bryant married the daughter of Mr. W.D. Tucker, who operated the cotton gin in Harpersville. Lottie married B.D. Clack, who was the son of the Rev. Clack. Minnie married Lawrence Adams and they had two sons. Adam’s farm was adjacent and north of the old Concord School.

Many of the young people met and married schoolmates or those who attended the community socials in the area of Harpersville.

More to come on Harpersville. If you have photos or stories, contact Jean Hayworth at office@breckenridgeamerican.com.