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West Clay Agricultural High School renovation start soon |
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Thursday, 06 March 2008 |
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 Staff photo By Tammy Langley
Daily Times Leader
At one time children ran through the halls of the school. The West Clay Agricultural High School was very vibrant, with basketball games, clubs of all kinds. All three brick buildings from that time are still standing in Pheba, just waiting for the time the doors open again.
With a recent grant awarded to Clay County it is a great possibility now that the grounds around the building were recently cleaned and advertisement for bids on renovation to start soon.
Back when the school was bustling, most children could only go to the eighth grade. Most children were sent off for grade 9 — 12.
Children came from all over to receive a higher education, including Aberdeen and Maben, with the trip seeming like an eternity back when most traveling was done on foot or on horses.
Between 1956 and 1957, the school consolidated with Montpelier. The Pheba community disliked the consolidation so much the sheriff took a trip to Jackson to try to prevent it from happening. His efforts didn’t help. It was said to have been a political decision made by the supervisors and the building were just left standing.
Monte Glove leased the buildings and operated out of them. As the times changed, so did factories. Monte Glove moved leaving the buildings behind again.
At one time, the community would gather and have meetings there, but over years of wear the buildings started to deteriorate and became dangerous to enter.
A concerned community and two women, Mary Joe Washington and Catherine Brown, became very interested in the buildings. They were successful in getting them recognized by Mississippi Department of Archives and History and were awarded a grant to preserve the historic structure.
Earl Thompson of Pheba was a 1939 graduate of the school and is excited about the possibilities of the school being renovated.
Thompson was in the first senior class to have a high school annual, which was called a “memory book.” It was the “Memories of Pheba Hi”.
With a faculty of 10, covering primary grades, agriculture, science, history, home economics, commerce and English, they had it well by comparison at the time.
The class of 1939 had 12 students, which grown was an increase from the year before, only having 10 graduates.
After completion of renovation, the Pheba community has high hopes of a community meeting place, maybe computers with access to the internet for students who live in their community and some of the ladies may form a quilting bee. |
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Last Updated ( Friday, 07 March 2008 )
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