#ChattoogaCountyHistory | AM 1180 Radio

October 19, 2026

From Nine Early School Districts To Two School Systems

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Cloudland School in the 1950s. Photo Credit: Jimmy Holbrook family photos

Today, Chattooga County is served by two public school systems — the Chattooga County School District and the Trion City School District. But more than 150 years ago, education in the county looked considerably different, with small community schools scattered throughout the countryside and nine original school districts.

The history of organized public education in Chattooga County dates to February 7, 1871, when the county’s first Board of Education held its inaugural meeting.

The county was divided into nine school districts: Summerville, Trion, Teloga, Alpine (Menlo), Dirtseller, Seminole, Coldwater, Dirttown and Haywood. These were local divisions of the county school system rather than nine independent school systems.

Before public education became established, many children attended private academies, church-supported schools or small neighborhood schools. Some families hired private tutors, while children from families with limited financial resources attended what were known as poor schools.

As public education expanded, schools were established throughout Chattooga County, often serving relatively small geographic areas.

Among the many schools that once operated in the county were Cloudland, Teloga, Chelsea, Pine Grove, Menlo, Lyerly, Holland, Gore, Bethel, Subligna, Pennville, Myers, Hanson and Summerville.

Teloga School. Photo Credit: Chattooga County Historical Society

Other important schools included the Chattooga Training School at Holland, Summerville Colored School, which later became A.C. Carter School, and West Side School in Trion. These institutions served Black students during the era of segregated public education.

Many of the small rural schools served as gathering places for their communities. School programs, holiday celebrations, sporting events and graduation exercises often brought together families from throughout the surrounding area.

Historical records show that by 1900, Chattooga County had 37 schools for white students and 12 schools for Black students. Five years later, consolidation had reduced those numbers to 26 white schools and 11 Black schools.

A.C. Carter School. Photo Credit: Locationshub.com

The financial challenges facing early schools were considerable. The county Board of Education sometimes borrowed money from banks, private citizens and churches to continue operating.

By April 1921, the financial situation had become so serious that school board members discussed the possibility of suspending county school operations.

As transportation improved, many of the smaller community schools were gradually consolidated into larger facilities.

One of the earliest important educational institutions was Bethel Academy in the Gore community, which helped establish secondary education in Chattooga County. Bethel School eventually consolidated into Gore School.

Gore High School became an important educational center for families in the eastern portion of the county. In 1921, residents of that area decided to establish a consolidated high school to serve several communities.

Subligna also developed a consolidated school during the 1920s, eventually offering a full four-year high school program.

The consolidation process continued through the middle of the twentieth century.

In 1959, Subligna High School merged with Summerville High School, a decision that drew objections from some residents who wanted to preserve their community school.

A major turning point came in the fall of 1961, when Chattooga High School began operating as a consolidated high school serving students from across the county. The school’s first graduating class received its diplomas in 1962.

According to Gene McGinnis of the Chattooga County Historical Society, the consolidation process was not without controversy. Communities such as Lyerly and Menlo resisted losing their local high schools, with opposition particularly strong in Menlo.

McGinnis says the smaller schools faced difficulties meeting state educational standards, including requirements involving school facilities. Those concerns helped drive the movement toward consolidation.

The creation of Chattooga High School represented a major change in the county’s educational system, bringing students from communities that had previously maintained their own high schools into a single county high school.

School desegregation brought additional changes during the 1960s.

McGinnis recalls that the Chattooga County school system began a voluntary integration program in 1965, when students were allowed to choose which school they would attend.

He was an eighth-grade student at the time and remembers approximately seven or eight Black students enrolling at Summerville Junior High School, while several others attended Chattooga High School.

The voluntary program marked an early stage in the integration of the county’s public schools.

Trion’s West Side School was also integrated into the independent Trion school system in 1965.

Trion West Side School. Photo Credit: African American Culture, Inc. Facebook page

McGinnis also recalls another development from the 1960s that could have significantly changed the future of public education in Chattooga County.

For a brief period, the Chattooga County and Trion City school systems considered the possibility of merging into a single school system.

The proposal never resulted in a merger, and the two systems continued operating independently.

Over time, many of the old community school buildings were demolished, converted to other uses or simply disappeared.

Today, only two public high schools remain in Chattooga County — Chattooga High School and Trion High School — operating under two separate school systems.

But the history of education in Chattooga County is much larger than those two schools.

For generations of local residents, schools in places like Teloga, Cloudland, Gore, Subligna, Holland, Pennville and the other rural communities were important parts of everyday life.

Their names remain part of Chattooga County’s history, recalling a time when children often attended school within walking distance of home and the local schoolhouse was one of the centers of community life.

Thanks to Gene McGinnis with the Chattooga County Historical Society for helping us with accuracy and input on this feature story.

October 12, 2026

by Jimmy Holbrook

When Cotton Was King In Chattooga County And Cotton Gins Were A Way Of Life

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There was a time when the arrival of autumn in Chattooga County meant more than cooler weather and changing leaves. It meant cotton-picking season, when farmers worked long hours bringing in a crop that was once the backbone of the county’s agricultural economy.

From the early days of Chattooga County in the 1800s through much of the first half of the 20th century, cotton was one of the most important sources of income for local farm families.

According to research by the Chattooga County Historical Society, cotton dominated local agriculture from the time the county was established in 1838. By the early 1900s, agricultural agents were encouraging farmers to diversify their crops rather than depend so heavily on cotton.

October 5, 2026

by Jimmy Holbrook

A Bloodhound, A Bank Robbery And A Sheriff’s Bill From 1914

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A handwritten receipt shared last week on social media by the Chattooga County Historical Society provides a fascinating glimpse into law enforcement in Chattooga County more than a century ago — and connects with one of the county’s most dramatic crimes of the era.

The document is a sheriff’s voucher from 1914 associated with Chattooga County Sheriff M.W. Wimpee. Among the expenses listed is the cost of keeping and maintaining a bloodhound dog from June 17 through August 17, 1914.

The county was charged 25 cents per day for 62 days, bringing the total bill for keeping the dog to $15.50.

The bloodhound is an especially interesting part of the record because tracking dogs had played an important role earlier that year in the investigation of the Bank of Lyerly robbery.

September 28, 2026

by Jimmy Holbrook

When The Railroad Redrew The Map Of Chattooga County

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The communities we know today as Summerville, Lyerly and Menlo might look very different had railroad tracks been laid just a few miles in another direction.

When railroads finally arrived in Chattooga County during the late 1800s, they did much more than provide transportation. They determined where businesses opened, where people settled, which communities grew and, in some cases, which communities disappeared.

And at one point, the railroad nearly bypassed Summerville altogether.

September 21, 2026

by Jimmy Holbrook

From Lamplight To Long Distance: How Electricity And Telephones Changed Chattooga County

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Telephone operators at the Summerville Telephone Company on the final day of operator-assisted telephone service in 1960. Direct dialing began the following day. (Photo courtesy of Ben Bridges/Chattooga Photo History)

For people living in Chattooga County today, flipping a light switch or making a telephone call is so ordinary that little thought is given to either one.

But a little more than a century ago, both represented technologies that were beginning to fundamentally change everyday life.

There was a time when darkness meant lighting an oil lamp, when many homes drew their water from wells, and when making a long-distance telephone call in Chattooga County meant traveling into Summerville and going inside a local store.

The arrival of electricity and the telephone didn’t happen everywhere at once. The technologies spread gradually through mills, businesses and towns before becoming commonplace in homes throughout the county.

And when it came to electricity, Trion was among the first places in Chattooga County to enter the electrical age.

September 14, 2026

by Jimmy Holbrook

From Iron Ore To Coal — Chattooga County’s Mining Past

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Long before manufacturing became a major part of Chattooga County’s economy, people looked to the mountains and ridges surrounding the county for another source of economic development — minerals buried beneath the ground.

September 7, 2026

by Jimmy Holbrook

When Labor Unrest Turned Deadly In Trion: The Textile Strike Of 1934

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For generations of Chattooga County families, the textile mill at Trion was more than a place to work.

It was at the center of a community.

Families depended on the mill for their livelihoods. Generations worked there, and the history of Trion itself became inseparable from the history of textile manufacturing.

But during the depths of the Great Depression, tensions between textile workers and mill management were growing throughout the South.

In September 1934, those tensions reached Trion.

And on September 5, they turned deadly.

Two men — Deputy Sheriff W. M. “Milton” Hix and strike sympathizer J. B. Blalock — were fatally shot during a confrontation outside the Trion Cotton Mill.

The events in Trion were part of a much larger labor uprising that became known as the General Textile Strike of 1934, one of the largest labor disputes in American history and the largest labor protest the South had seen.

August 31, 2026

by Jimmy Holbrook

South Carolina In Chattooga County? The History Behind An Unusual Local Name

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Motorists traveling Georgia Highway 100 between Summerville and the Floyd County line pass a place whose unusual name reaches deep into Chattooga County’s earliest history.

South Carolina Campground sits near the southern end of Taylor’s Ridge in the High Point area. To someone unfamiliar with the community, the name might seem out of place. After all, the South Carolina state line is many miles away.

But the name is a reminder of the families who settled this portion of Chattooga County during the 1800s — and of a time when a rural campground could serve not only as a place of worship, but as a school, meeting place, cemetery and center of community life.

Records indicate the history of South Carolina Campground stretches back to the 1840s, only a few years after Chattooga County itself was created in 1838.

August 24, 2026

by Jimmy Holbrook

Whatever Happened To Sprite, Georgia?

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Long before GPS, interstate highways and modern road signs, the map of Chattooga County was dotted with small communities whose names were familiar to generations of local residents.

Some survived. Others changed names or gradually disappeared.

One of the more unusual was Sprite, Georgia.