Clem
School
1911 - 1957
Welcome to the homepage of Clem
Public School. It is our hope that through this page one will get a glance of
another time and place. This site is dedicated to all the students and others that
had a part in the history of this place. I hope you enjoy what we have done and
maybe learn alittle about the lifes and times of the students that once lived and learned
here.
The school was located about 10
miles north east of Prentiss, Mississippi in Jefferson Davis County. If one
was to pass by now all that could be seen is a simple monument
to what was "CLEM SCHOOL".
This picture was made in the
winter of 1973 just before the old building was to be sold and torn down. Note that
I said the building, not the school, because the school will last as long as we keep the
memory alive.
This place holds fond memories
for many people and it's here we wish to share some of those times. We want to turn
the hands of time back and take a look at life at a country school as the world was
changing. Maybe go into classroom that cold Monday morning, December 8, 1941
and try to get a sense of that sad day. How many young men left school to join the
Service to fight that week? How many never came home? These are the things we
hope to examine.
The old school made it through
two World Wars, the great Depression, and the Conflict call Korea, but in 1957 when the
class walked through the doors that summer the doors closed forever. The sound of
children would never be heard again in it's halls. Clem could not stand the test of time.
Life at Clem was
not an easy one for the students or the parents. Students would have to miss class
to help in the fields. Not only was this the main source of income, but it was also
the main source of food. Jobs were few and the pay wasn't much.
Granddad worked in a cotton gin was paid very little for a days work. Others worked
in the cotton fields where they were paid only a $1 or so for 100 pounds of cotton
picked. Cotton that was picked by hand... while pulling the cotton sack down the
rows.
I
remember as a young boy, my Grandpa Roberts taking me over to the old school and
looking around. After being closed
for a number of years the classrooms were still pretty much intact. The old desk,
with ink wells, still sat facing the teachers desk waiting for the students.
The old maps still hung over the board. All is quiet there now..... only the sound
of nesting birds can heard in the spring.
So one must look
beyond the ruins of this old building. One must look at the heart and soul of the
people who built this school. They understood the need of education... they
wanted their children to have a better life, an easier life I think.
The public record
shows that on October 7, 1911, Mr. and Mrs. H. D. Booth understood this need and
gave the land on which the school was to be built.
This is only the
starting point of what I hope will be a look back in the past to find our future.
In closing I would like to say a very
special 'Thank You' to Rev. Harold Wilson for his work
on compiling the list of students.
The music is from
Aladdin 'A Whole New World'..... That's what this school did for so many.... It opened a
new world for them.
*********
Where is this place?
Pictures
on the Map...
Just an idea of a different way of posting some special pictures
of places that are now gone
or in danger of disappearing.
Click on the picture to see a larger picture and also a Google map of where
the building is or
once stood.
*************
2008 REUNION
Info
The Clem
Reunion will be 8-30-2008 at Prentiss at Country Fishermen.
You Pay when you go for what you want.
Time from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM .
Terry Roberts
*********
|
 ***
Side Note *** |
I never dreamed this site would generate so
much interest. The response over the past few months has been
great. Granted, the interest has been in local people, but the search
for information as started. People are beginning to search for their
beginning, their heritage. I owe a big debt to my Mom, Juanita Roberts
Lee and Aunt Patsy Roberts Dyess, for all my life they have always been
there telling me I can and could do anything. March
30, 2002
|
(Dear Clem Students... I have gotten some very moving
E-mail. The plan is to make this E-mail public so the world can read about the life
and times at Clem. So, if you have a story about your school days or just want to
share what it was like to grow up in and around Clem, please drop me a E-mail, the
address is below. Also please tell me that it's ok to post it on the World Wide
Web... else I want. One other thing... if you have old pictures you would like to
share... E-mail me and I'll send you an address where you can send them and I promise I'll
get them back to you...
I know that there were many students that didn't get to graduate... they too should be
listed, but here again I need your help... Send me those students and I'll create a page
for them.
Thank you'll so much for letting me a part of this in some small way... May God Bless each
one of you....
What remains?
Clem School, like the students that went to school there, will
not go easy into the night. A little of her building still remains.
Even thro covered with weeds and vines, we can still see a small part of her
once beauty on this summer morning.
Clem
Reunion 2008 Pictures
Clem
Reunion Pictures 2007
*********
“CLEM”
BY: RUFUS F. STEPHENSON
I WAS A STRANGER AT THIS SCHOOL,
MY FIRST DAY IN THE FALL,
THE YEAR AND DATE THAT I BEGAN
CAN EASILY BE RECALLED!
THE MONTH WAS NINE, THE DAY ELEVEN,
THE YEAR WAS FIFTY-ONE,
FROM VICKSBURG I HAD LEFT MY SCHOOL
ALONG WITH FRIENDS AND FUN!
THE FOLKS I KNEW MOST ALL MY LIFE
WOULD NOW BE LEFT BEHIND
AND I BEGAN A DIFFERENT LIFE
WITH SAD THOUGHTS ON MY MIND!
A DISTANCE OF ONLY NINETY MILES
BUT SEEMED SO FAR AWAY,
TO TRAVEL BACK TO MY HOME TOWN
WAS SELDOM IN THOSE DAYS!
MY FAMILY SIZE INCREASED A LOT
WITH FOUR MORE KIDS IT GREW,
SIX BROTHERS AND TWO SISTERS NOW
BUT NO ONE ELSE I KNEW.
MY MOM HAD SAID HER VOWS THAT YEAR
AND GAVE US KIDS A DAD,
ON SEPTEMBER NINTH OF FIFTY-ONE
SOME THOUGHTS I HAD WERE SAD.
ON A SHARECROP FARM, WE SETTLED DOWN
RALPH RAMSEY OWNED THE PLACE,
WE MOVED INTO AN OLD FARM HOUSE
FOR ME LIFE CHANGED ITS PACE.
WITH FIVE KIDS IN MY FAMILY,
FOUR MORE WOULD JOIN THAT DAY,
WE THEN BECAME THE HEGGINS CLAN
A NEW LIFE CAME OUR WAY!
CLEM WAS SEVERAL MILES AWAY
BUT TAUGHT US ALL THE GRADES,
WITH SOME OF US IN JUNIOR HIGH,
US KIDS ALL HAD IT MADE.
FIFTEEN KIDS, OUR BUS WOULD HOLD,
BERNICE ROBERTS DROVE FOR US,
HE WORKED A JOB BUT DROVE PART TIME
AND PICKED US KIDS ALL UP!
THE FIRST DAY THAT THE BUS ARRIVED
FROM OUR HOUSE, SEVEN GOT ON,
SECOND IN LINE TO GET PICKED UP
BUT STOPPED AT TWO MORE HOMES!
TWO ATWOOD KIDS WOULD GET ON FIRST,
THE HEGGINS CLAN WOULD FOLLOW,
THIRD WOULD BE THE THREE POLK KIDS
THAT LIVED ACROSS THE HOLLOW.
BERNICE CONTINUED ON HIS BUS ROUTE
THEN PICKED UP THREE MAGEE’S,
REGGIE, GEORGE AND MARTHA JANE
OUR BUS NOW FILLED TO THE TEE.
WE DROVE AWAY FROM OUR LAST STOP
NOT FAR FROM CLEM HIGH SCHOOL,
US BOYS WOULD SETTLE DOWN AGAIN
FROM ACTING LIKE SILLY FOOLS!
BERNICE ROBERTS WAS A CARING MAN
AND ALWAYS JOKED A LOT,
WE ALL ENJOYED OUR RIDE TO SCHOOL
ON A BUS THAT MADE 4 STOPS.
THE DAYS AND WEEKS WOULD GO BY FAST
BUT FRIENDS, I SOON WOULD MAKE,
THE FUN I HAD WOULD HELP ME SMILE
AND TAKE AWAY MY ACHE.
THE KIDS AT SCHOOL WERE KIND TO ME,
MY TEACHERS WERE THE SAME,
MRS. FANNY MAE RAMSEY WAS TOPS FOR ME
ON MY FAVORITE LIST OF NAMES!
OVER THE YEARS OUR SCHOOL SAW CHANGE
FROM OUTHOUSES TO OTHER THINGS!
THE FINEST GYMNASIUM WOULD SOON BE BUILT
THIS WAS EACH SCHOOL KIDS DREAM.
CLEM WAS BLESSED FOR MANY YEARS
WHERE HUNDREDS WOULD ATTEND
THIS FINE OLD SCHOOL IN JEFF DAVIS COUNTY
BUT TEACHING ONE DAY WOULD END.
MEMORIES WERE MADE THROUGHOUT THOSE YEARS
GREAT TIMES WOULD COME AND GO,
THOSE YEARS BROUGHT SMILES AND MANY TEARS
THE DAY CLEM CLOSED ITS DOOR!
MANY YOUNG KIDS WERE SURELY BLESSED
WITH HAPPY DAYS AT CLEM,
SO PLEASE DON’T LOSE YOUR MEMORIES,
HOLD TIGHT AND CHERISH THEM.
WRITTEN BY:
RUFUS F. STEPHENSON 5-28-1985
“THE HEGGINS CLAN”
--------------------------
ROOSEVELT HEGGINS
HIAWATHA HEGGINS
WILLIE MARGIE HEGGINS
JAMES KENNIE STEPHENSON
RUFUS FRANKLIN STEPHENSON
EULA MAE STEPHENSON
ALTON RAY STEPHENSON
IN 1951 TWO BOYS IN OUR FAMILY WERE NOT SCHOOL AGE.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
JOSEPH MARSHALL STEPHENSON
JOHNNIE CECIL HEGGINS
OUR MOM AND STEP MOM
-----------------------------------
LOUISE ELIZABETH HEGGINS
OUR DAD AND STEPDAD
--------------------------------
MONROE LEVELLE HEGGINS
OTHER
KIDS THAT RODE OUR SCHOOL BUS
--------------------------------------------------
HILLARY ATWOOD
NELL ATWOOD
JOANN POLK
SHIRLEY POLK
PETE POLK
REGGIE MAGEE
GEORGE MAGEE
MARTHA JANE MAGEE
THIS MEMORY I WRITE ABOUT BEGAN
IN 1951 WHEN I WAS 13 YEARS OLD. A BIG CHANGE TOOK PLACE FOR ALL US KIDS BUT WE
ADJUSTED TO EACH OTHER, AND LIKE SO MANY OTHER FAMILIES, WE EXPERIENCED MANY
HARD TIMES BUT BECAME A CLOSE FAMILY THAT LOVED EACH OTHER AND WORKED THE FARM
TOGETHER. THOSE YEARS TAUGHT ME MUCH ABOUT LIFE AND I’VE ALWAYS BEEN THANKFUL TO
GOD FOR THAT PERIOD OF TIME. STARTING JUNIOR HIGH AT CLEM IN 1951 WAS A BIG
CHANGE FOR ME BUT LIKE SO MANY OTHER HAPPENINGS IN MY CHILDHOOD YEARS, I
ADJUSTED VERY WELL AND MANY GOOD TIMES WERE SHARED WITH MY NEW FAMILY ALONG WITH
MANY KIDS AT CLEM SCHOOL. I HAVE SO MUCH TO BE THANKFUL FOR AND I'M VERY HAPPY
TO HAVE MADE SO MANY GREAT MEMORIES IN THE CLEM SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY DURING MY
TEEN-AGE YEARS. EACH PERSON THAT CROSSED MY PATH ARE MORE APPRECIATED THAN
YOU’LL EVER KNOW AND I THANK YOU FOR ALL THE MEMORIES AND MAY GOD BLESS EACH OF
YOU THAT PLAYED A ROLE IN MY LIFE SO MANY YEARS AGO.
RUFUS F. STEPHENSON
CLASS OF 57
*********
Links to Clem's Past
Clem's Graduating Class'
1942 Class
Picture
1956 Class Picture
Picture of Monument to Clem School
Pictures of Clem's Past
Pictures of Students and Teachers
Clem Students Remember
(Former Clem Students write about
their times at Clem)
Clem's Other Students
( Students that went to Clem, but
did not get to graduate... please send the names of students to the E-mail address below
so we can post them also)
Class Reunion Sept 2, 2000
List of those that where there...
Class Reunion Pictures 2000
A few pictures of this years
Reunion.. more to come
Pictures
of Pass Class Reunions
Because of the number of
pictures... it may take a few extra seconds for this page to load..
If you have time and
would like to see pictures of my small part of the world, please go to
If you would like to
send us Email.. just click on the pen & ink
clem_school@yahoo.com
Please sign our Guestbook
,
we would like to know where you are from and your feeling about this site.
If you would like read the comments of others, please feel free to
View
Our Guestbook.
Thank you for
your time, and please visit again. Over time we hope to have more pictures and updates
about this old school and it's students.
We have had
visits to our site
since Jan. 3,1999.
Date and Time Last Updated:
Saturday, February 14, 2009 02:52 PM
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