Center Point School

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out in Camp County, there's a story that starts not with a school, but with a community. Center Point began as a Freedmen's community, somewhere around 1865 to 1870.

People building something new, from the ground up, on their own terms. The Willie Johnson family were the first settlers, and they didn't stay alone for long. Other families came, and a community took root.

Now, a community needs certain things to survive. It needs people. It needs land.

And if it's going to last, it needs a school. That took a little while longer. It wasn't until 1899 that a man named G.W.

Goulsby opened a one-room school, the first in the settlement. One room. And the first teacher to stand at the front of it was Pete Griffin.

You think about what that one room held, not just desks and a chalkboard, but the whole future of that community sitting in those chairs. And the future, it turns out, had ambitions. By 1916, they built a new five-room school.

Five rooms where there had been one. Then, in later years, the campus kept growing. Partly funded by the Julius Rosenwald Fund, Center Point added a teacherage, a library, dormitories, a cafeteria, and a gymnasium.

Students didn't just study there, they worked the land too. They maintained a farm and a garden, and they operated a cannery. That school wasn't just teachin' lessons from books.

It was teachin' everything a person needs to know. Center Point School closed in 1952. That's the last line of the marker, short and plain, and it carries its own weight.

But the story of what was built there, starting with one family, one room, one teacher, that part doesn't close quite so easy.

What the marker says

Center Point began as a Freedmen's community about 1865-70. The Willie Johnson family were the first settlers and were soon joined by other families. In 1899 G.W. Goulsby opened a one-room school, the first in the settlement; Pete Griffin was the first teacher. In 1916 a new five-room school was built. In later years campus additions, partly funded by the Julius Rosenwald Fund, included a teacherage, library, dormitories, cafeteria, and gymnasium. Students maintained a farm and garden and operated a cannery. Center Point School was closed in 1952. (1996)