Vardy Community School
Encyclopedia
The Vardy Community School was a Presbyterian
mission school established in the Vardy community of Hancock County, Tennessee
, USA in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. At the time of its founding, the school was the only institution providing primary education to Melungeon
children living in the remote mountainous areas along the Tennessee-Virginia
border. Presbyterian missionaries operated the school until 1955, when it became part of the Hancock County public school system. In 1984, the school and the structures associated with the mission community that developed around it were placed on the National Register of Historic Places
as a historic district.
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, dozens of settlement school
s and mission schools were established across rural Appalachia
, and in 1892 the Presbyterian Church decided to build such a school at Vardy, a community located near the heart of Melungeon country amidst the Blackwater Creek Valley. Over the next forty-five years, the mission school community grew to include a three-story frame schoolhouse, a church, a manse
, a library, and several residences. Although the schoolhouse has collapsed, the school's alumni and other historical groups have preserved its ruins and related structures as a historic site. In 2000, the 19th-century log cabin belonging to Melungeon moonshine
r Mahala Mullins was relocated to a site across the street from the Vardy School district.
watershed, stretches for roughly 10 miles (16.1 km) from Mulberry Gap southwest of Vardy to the Blackwater community in Lee County, Virginia
to the northeast. Vardy is still relatively isolated, its primary access being from Sneedville
via State Highway 63, which crosses Newman's Ridge through a series of steep switchbacks before intersecting Vardy Blackwater Road near Mulberry Gap. The Vardy School Community is located along Vardy Blackwater Road about 5 miles (8 km) east of the road's junction with TN-63.
," which prevented them from voting or attending public schools. Such persecution led the Melungeons of Newman's Ridge to become a closed and clannish community.
Presbyterians were active in Vardy by the late 19th century, when itinerant Presbyterian ministers Christopher Humble and H.P. Cory were conducting sporadic services in the Blackwater Valley. In 1892, the Presbyterian Church's Holston Presbytery decided to establish a mission school at Vardy, and the Presbyterian Women's Board of Missions appointed Annie Miller and Maggie Axtell as missionaries to the community. Batey Collins (a grandson of Vardeman) and his wife Cynthia donated several acres of land for the mission school and church, and other locals donated lumber and helped with construction. The Vardy Mission School, which initially held classes in a crude log structure (no longer standing), was the first to offer the state-mandated 1st-grade through 8th-grade curriculum to children living in the valley. The Vardy Presbyterian Church was completed in 1899, and a new frame schoolhouse was completed in 1902.
In 1910, Scottish
missionary and Columbia
graduate Mary Rankin arrived in Vardy, where for over three decades she served as a teacher and nurse. Rankin taught prenatal
and postnatal childcare to local mothers and fought malnutrition
in the valley. Between 1920 and 1952, the Vardy mission thrived under the leadership of Chester F. Leonard and his wife, Josephine. A new three-story schoolhouse, powered by a Delco
generator, was completed in 1929. Upon completion of the new schoolhouse, the Vardy Mission School became known as the Vardy Community School.
A series of interim ministers succeeded Leonard, although the church sold the Vardy school to Hancock County in 1955. Classes continued at the school until 1973, and services continued at the Vardy Presbyterian Church until 1980. In 1984, when the Vardy school, church, and ancillary structures were added to the National Register of Historic Places, Vardy had just eight residents. With a $10,000 grant from the Tennessee Humanities Council, the Vardy Community Historical Society began restoring the Vardy Community School's surviving structures. In 2000, the group restored the Mahala Mullins Cabin and moved it from atop Newman's Ridge to Vardy Blackwater Road, opposite the church.
s and several ancillary structures. The structures all have vernacular
designs, although the school and some residences have bungalow
influences, and the church's bell tower has Gothic
infleunces. Contributing structures include:
, which caused her to gain enormous amounts of weight and led to exaggerations regarding her size. Revenue agents were aware of Mullins' moonshining activities, and often destroyed her stills, but due to her size they were unable to arrest her.
The cabin is a two-story "dogtrot" cabin constructed of hewn
poplar logs with dovetail notching
. Massive chimneys of native stone were built at both ends of the cabin. The dogtrot was filled in to make extra room in the 1920s, but has been restored to its original state. The cabin was originally located on the slopes of Newman's Ridge on the property of Dan and Chris Williams. The Williamses donated the cabin to the Vardy Community Historical Society, and the cabin was relocated and restored in 2000.
Presbyterianism
Presbyterianism refers to a number of Christian churches adhering to the Calvinist theological tradition within Protestantism, which are organized according to a characteristic Presbyterian polity. Presbyterian theology typically emphasizes the sovereignty of God, the authority of the Scriptures,...
mission school established in the Vardy community of Hancock County, Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
, USA in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. At the time of its founding, the school was the only institution providing primary education to Melungeon
Melungeon
Melungeon is a term traditionally applied to one of a number of "tri-racial isolate" groups of the Southeastern United States, mainly in the Cumberland Gap area of central Appalachia, which includes portions of East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, and East Kentucky. Tri-racial describes populations...
children living in the remote mountainous areas along the Tennessee-Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
border. Presbyterian missionaries operated the school until 1955, when it became part of the Hancock County public school system. In 1984, the school and the structures associated with the mission community that developed around it were placed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
as a historic district.
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, dozens of settlement school
Settlement school
Settlement schools are social reform institutions established in rural Appalachia in the early 20th century with the purpose of educating mountain children and improving their isolated rural communities. Settlement schools have played an important role in preserving and promoting the cultural...
s and mission schools were established across rural Appalachia
Appalachia
Appalachia is a term used to describe a cultural region in the eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York state to northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Canada to Cheaha Mountain in the U.S...
, and in 1892 the Presbyterian Church decided to build such a school at Vardy, a community located near the heart of Melungeon country amidst the Blackwater Creek Valley. Over the next forty-five years, the mission school community grew to include a three-story frame schoolhouse, a church, a manse
Manse
A manse is a house inhabited by, or formerly inhabited by, a minister, usually used in the context of a Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist or United Church...
, a library, and several residences. Although the schoolhouse has collapsed, the school's alumni and other historical groups have preserved its ruins and related structures as a historic site. In 2000, the 19th-century log cabin belonging to Melungeon moonshine
Moonshine
Moonshine is an illegally produced distilled beverage...
r Mahala Mullins was relocated to a site across the street from the Vardy School district.
Location
The Vardy community, sometimes called "Vardy Valley," is situated in a narrow valley carved by Blackwater Creek between Newman's Ridge on the south and Powell Mountain on the north. The valley, part of the Clinch RiverClinch River
The Clinch River rises in Southwest Virginia near Tazewell, Virginia and flows southwest through the Great Appalachian Valley, gathering various tributaries including the Powell River before joining the Tennessee River in East Tennessee.-Course:...
watershed, stretches for roughly 10 miles (16.1 km) from Mulberry Gap southwest of Vardy to the Blackwater community in Lee County, Virginia
Lee County, Virginia
According to the census 2009 estimates, there were 25001 people, 11,587 households, and 6,852 families residing in the county. The population density was 54 people per square mile . There were 11,587 housing units at an average density of 25 per square mile...
to the northeast. Vardy is still relatively isolated, its primary access being from Sneedville
Sneedville, Tennessee
Sneedville is a town in Hancock County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 1,387 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Hancock County.- History :...
via State Highway 63, which crosses Newman's Ridge through a series of steep switchbacks before intersecting Vardy Blackwater Road near Mulberry Gap. The Vardy School Community is located along Vardy Blackwater Road about 5 miles (8 km) east of the road's junction with TN-63.
History
In the early 19th century, prominent early Melungeon settler Vardeman "Vardy" Collins (1764–?) received a grant for a large plot of land in the Newman's Ridge area, which included the land on which the Vardy school and church are now located. In subsequent decades his descendants developed his namesake community along Blackwater Creek. In 1834, the Tennessee Constitutional Convention classified Melungeons as "free people of colorPerson of color
Person of color is a term used, primarily in the United States, to describe all people who are not white. The term is meant to be inclusive among non-white groups, emphasizing common experiences of racism...
," which prevented them from voting or attending public schools. Such persecution led the Melungeons of Newman's Ridge to become a closed and clannish community.
Presbyterians were active in Vardy by the late 19th century, when itinerant Presbyterian ministers Christopher Humble and H.P. Cory were conducting sporadic services in the Blackwater Valley. In 1892, the Presbyterian Church's Holston Presbytery decided to establish a mission school at Vardy, and the Presbyterian Women's Board of Missions appointed Annie Miller and Maggie Axtell as missionaries to the community. Batey Collins (a grandson of Vardeman) and his wife Cynthia donated several acres of land for the mission school and church, and other locals donated lumber and helped with construction. The Vardy Mission School, which initially held classes in a crude log structure (no longer standing), was the first to offer the state-mandated 1st-grade through 8th-grade curriculum to children living in the valley. The Vardy Presbyterian Church was completed in 1899, and a new frame schoolhouse was completed in 1902.
In 1910, Scottish
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
missionary and Columbia
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
graduate Mary Rankin arrived in Vardy, where for over three decades she served as a teacher and nurse. Rankin taught prenatal
Prenatal care
Prenatal care refers to the medical and nursing care recommended for women before and during pregnancy. The aim of good prenatal care is to detect any potential problems early, to prevent them if possible , and to direct the woman to appropriate specialists, hospitals, etc...
and postnatal childcare to local mothers and fought malnutrition
Malnutrition
Malnutrition is the condition that results from taking an unbalanced diet in which certain nutrients are lacking, in excess , or in the wrong proportions....
in the valley. Between 1920 and 1952, the Vardy mission thrived under the leadership of Chester F. Leonard and his wife, Josephine. A new three-story schoolhouse, powered by a Delco
Delco Electronics
Delco Electronics Corporation was the automotive electronics design and manufacturing subsidiary of General Motors based in Kokomo, Indiana.The name Delco came from the Dayton Engineering Laboratories Co., founded in Dayton, Ohio by Charles Kettering and Edward A...
generator, was completed in 1929. Upon completion of the new schoolhouse, the Vardy Mission School became known as the Vardy Community School.
A series of interim ministers succeeded Leonard, although the church sold the Vardy school to Hancock County in 1955. Classes continued at the school until 1973, and services continued at the Vardy Presbyterian Church until 1980. In 1984, when the Vardy school, church, and ancillary structures were added to the National Register of Historic Places, Vardy had just eight residents. With a $10,000 grant from the Tennessee Humanities Council, the Vardy Community Historical Society began restoring the Vardy Community School's surviving structures. In 2000, the group restored the Mahala Mullins Cabin and moved it from atop Newman's Ridge to Vardy Blackwater Road, opposite the church.
Vardy School Community Historic District
The Vardy School Community Historic District consists of eight contributing structureContributing property
In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing resource or contributing property is any building, structure, or object which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic district, listed locally or federally, significant...
s and several ancillary structures. The structures all have vernacular
Vernacular architecture
Vernacular architecture is a term used to categorize methods of construction which use locally available resources and traditions to address local needs and circumstances. Vernacular architecture tends to evolve over time to reflect the environmental, cultural and historical context in which it...
designs, although the school and some residences have bungalow
Bungalow
A bungalow is a type of house, with varying meanings across the world. Common features to many of these definitions include being detached, low-rise , and the use of verandahs...
influences, and the church's bell tower has Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
infleunces. Contributing structures include:
- Vardy Community School, a three-story structure built in 1929 and designed by William H. Leonard (father of Chester F. Leonard). The building originally consisted of a frame structure with a gambrelGambrelA gambrel is a usually-symmetrical two-sided roof with two slopes on each side. The upper slope is positioned at a shallow angle, while the lower slope is steep. This design provides the advantages of a sloped roof while maximizing headroom on the building's upper level...
cross-gableGableA gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...
roof and corregated metal siding. The building's 96 windows allowed ample sunlight to enter during cooler months and allowed cross-breezes to cool classrooms during the warmer months. The building collapsed in October 2003, and only the first-story south wall and part of the first-story floor remain intact. The school has five ancillary structures: a frame garage, a limestoneLimestoneLimestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
storehouse, a limestone bath house, a limestone water storage tank, and a frame teacher's cottage.
- Vardy Presbyterian Church, a one-story structure built in 1899 by Morgan Osborne and Miles Watson of nearby Blackwater, Virginia. The church has white frame walls, a pitched tin roof, and a two-story side-gabled roof bell tower. The entrance to the church is via double-leaf door at the base of the bell tower. The church has pointed arch windows on its sides and a tripartite pointed-arch traceryTraceryIn architecture, Tracery is the stonework elements that support the glass in a Gothic window. The term probably derives from the 'tracing floors' on which the complex patterns of late Gothic windows were laid out.-Plate tracery:...
window on its front facade. Heavy swinging double-doors divide the vestibuleVestibule (architecture)A vestibule is a lobby, entrance hall, or passage between the entrance and the interior of a building.The same term can apply to structures in modern or ancient roman architecture. In modern architecture vestibule typically refers to a small room or hall between an entrance and the interior of...
and sanctuarySanctuaryA sanctuary is any place of safety. They may be categorized into human and non-human .- Religious sanctuary :A religious sanctuary can be a sacred place , or a consecrated area of a church or temple around its tabernacle or altar.- Sanctuary as a sacred place :#Sanctuary as a sacred place:#:In...
.
- The Chester F. Leonard Manse, a one-story frame structure built in 1921. This building is a prefabricated structure ordered from an IowaIowaIowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
company, and consists of weatherboard siding and a side-gable roof.
- The Library, a one-story structure built in 1929. The library, located behind the manse, has corrugated metal siding with four windows spanning the front wall.
- The Clinic, a one-story structure consisting of two rooms with an exterior door for each room on the west side, built over a rock cellar circa 1923. Located behind the manse, it has corrugated metal siding with four windows spanning the front wall and two windows on the back side.
- The general store, a one-story frame structure built in 1937.
- The second Vardy Mission School, a -story frame structure built in 1902. This building has clapboardClapboard (architecture)Clapboard, also known as bevel siding or lap siding or weather-board , is a board used typically for exterior horizontal siding that has one edge thicker than the other and where the board above laps over the one below...
siding, a pitched gable roof, and a covered porch. The building replaced a crude log structure that had served as the mission's "first" schoolhouse for nearly a decade. After the completion of the Vardy Community School in 1929, this structure was converted into a residence.
- A -story house built in 1920. The house is a frame structure with side-gabled roof and a covered front porch.
- A one-story house built in 1934. The house is a frame structure with a gable roof and covered porch. The house has two contributing ancillary structures— a two-door limestone-wall garage and a small frame storage shed.
Mahala Mullins Cabin
The Mahala Mullins Cabin was once home to legendary Melungeon moonshiner Mahala Mullins (1824–1898). Mullins was inflicted with elephantiasisElephantiasis
Elephantiasis is a disease that is characterized by the thickening of the skin and underlying tissues, especially in the legs and male genitals. In some cases the disease can cause certain body parts, such as the scrotum, to swell to the size of a softball or basketball. It is caused by...
, which caused her to gain enormous amounts of weight and led to exaggerations regarding her size. Revenue agents were aware of Mullins' moonshining activities, and often destroyed her stills, but due to her size they were unable to arrest her.
The cabin is a two-story "dogtrot" cabin constructed of hewn
Hewing
Hewing is the process of converting sections of a tree stem from its rounded natural form into a form with more or less flat surfaces using primarily, among other tools, an axe or axes...
poplar logs with dovetail notching
Dovetail joint
A dovetail joint or simply dovetail is a joint technique most commonly used in woodworking joinery. Noted for its resistance to being pulled apart , the dovetail joint is commonly used to join the sides of a drawer to the front....
. Massive chimneys of native stone were built at both ends of the cabin. The dogtrot was filled in to make extra room in the 1920s, but has been restored to its original state. The cabin was originally located on the slopes of Newman's Ridge on the property of Dan and Chris Williams. The Williamses donated the cabin to the Vardy Community Historical Society, and the cabin was relocated and restored in 2000.
External links
- Vardy Community Historical Society
- Digital Library of Appalachia — photographs and other materials related to the Vardy Community School