Upon
hearing of this, one of the mothers in the community, Betty
Williams, wife of Ance Williams, began a campaign to keep a
school in the area. Mrs. Williams had seen ten sons and a daughter
learn to read and write at Juniper School, and she had every
intention of seeing that her grandchildren and great-grandchildren
had the same opportunity.
In the year 1923, Mrs. Ance Williams offered Sara Cochrane and
the Presbyterian Church 10 acres of land several miles from
Juniper, near the county line, on which to build the school.
Excited by the prospect of having
a school nearby, two families from Cocke County, the J. D. Williams
and the D. T. Templins gave land on their side of the line.
Perhaps the first decision made concerning the new school
was that it be built right on the county line to better make
use of both county's resources.
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Though classes continued
in early 1923 at Juniper, Sara Cochrane moved up to the new property
almost immediately. She lived in a tent in the fall of that year
while the Teacher's Cottage, the first building on the grounds,
was being erected.
In the summer of 1924, work was
begun on the main building, the Schoolhouse. Classes that year
were held in the Teacher's Cottage, and work progressed in the
basement of the new building.
In the early years, the new school was
called Glenwood. It wasn't till later, in '25 or '26, that a visitor
from the Board of Missions office first used the name Sunset Gap
while watching the evening fade from Glenwood's front porch. It
was in this same period that Juniper School was officially closed.
In agreeing to build Sunset Gap
School, Sara Cochrane responded to a genuine desire among some
of the families in the Wilhite and Bogard Communities to have
formal schooling for their children.
Her conception of the role of the
school in the community was somewhat different from theirs. She
was concerned that the school affect many facets of life in the
community, and not solely the formal educational experience.
These other concerns relating to
health, sanitation, and nutrition were the very ones, which back
at Juniper had labeled her an outsider bringing in new and uncomfortable
ways. |
