FINK SCHOOL BARELY STANDING - Wanda Bailey Recalled A Different Time

(12/30/2023)

Wanda Jett Bailey recalls one room school days (2002)

Fink School barely standing (2002)

School has now crumbled (2009)

By Bob Weaver 2002

Calhoun had at least 104 one room schools during the last century, with few of the structures barely standing today. The Fink School on the road between Minnora and Milo has been closed since 1950, and is still used for a barn to store hay.

One of the last students to attend the school is Wanda Jett Bailey, who said about 25 kids walked across the small bridge to to the building. "William Crawford was the last teacher, but Opal Bailey taught there for many years," she said.

Ms. Bailey said she walked from Beech Road, and other kids came from up and down the creek.

The school was named for Calhoun legend Mike Fink, not the Mike Fink who is often written about in American history. Calhoun's Mike Fink and a native American Indian allegedly killed one another on a hill between Minnora and Milo sometime before 1800. The Mike Fink tale and the Bett's Ghost are Calhoun's two biggest legends.

Ms. Bailey said some of her family and other kids not old enough to attend school would come and sit in the back. "My sister came, and rarely spoke," she said.

"It was a much different time," she concluded.

Fireplace remains from nearby log cabin used by school