(Editor’s note from Ralph Terry:  Brown Ranch School appears to have been created out of a slightly earlier school district known as Lefevre School District #30.)

Adam T. Brown owned a large ranch near what is now Fisk.  He gave land for a school about the turn of the century and it was named for him and his ranch.  A one-room school was built at first and two more rooms were added later.  It was known as Common School District #30.

A new brick school building was built in 1918.  It had four large classrooms and a library.  Each room had a long cloak room through which students marched each time they left the room or returned to it.  Lunch pails were left there along with coats and sweaters.  Each student had a hook assigned to him for that purpose.  There were large coal stoves in each room.  Two walls in each room were covered with black boards.  A coal house was north of the school and a water well for drinking water.  Hitching posts were provided for the horses ridden by students.  Two outhouses completed the school facilities.

About 1930 the library was made into a classroom making it a five-teacher school with eleven grades.  Sports were always big and the school participated in baseball, volleyball, tennis and basketball and many times claimed county championships.

In the 1935 - 1936 school year the high school consolidated with other south county schools and all high school students went to Mozelle.  Several years later the junior high school was moved to Mozelle.  The last year school was held at Brown Ranch was in 1947 - 1948.  In 1948 - 1949 all children went to Mozelle for school.

A teacherage was north of the school.  Across the road south of the school was a small store.  The peak enrollment for the school was over one hundred and sixty students.  Those known to have been teachers during the forty-five years there was a school at Brown Ranch were Annie L. Nelson, Lera Bouds, Lee Hartsfield, Miss Lester Patton, Mary Mclver, Aleta Walker, Elizabeth Weatherred, Olive Griffis, Mrs. R. R. Shields, Hallie Shamblin, C. A. Womack, Florence Womack, Mrs. R. C. Terry, C. H. Miller, Mrs. C. H. Miller, I. A. Farrell, Willie B. Scarborough, Annie Anderson, Lewis Stuckey, Nettie Landrum, Zula Landrum, Karin Ragsdale, Alice Perry, Cleo Biggs, Louis Love, Mary Lou Smith, Freda Beason, Fannie Anderson, Cecil Freeman, Mary Middlebrook, Reginald Owens, Mr. and Mrs. O. C. Cook, Maggie Simonton, Eugenia Pauley, Gladys Taylor, Mrs. E. B. Bludworth, Helen Anderson, Jettie Kirkpatrick, Mrs. R. D. Kirkpatrick, D. H. Grounds, Sue Smith, Amelia Hands, Althea Self, Raney Duggins, Mr. and Mrs. W. H. McDowell, Mary Couch, Liz Couch, Mrs. Bob Lambert, Mae Throgmorton, Hellen Hays, Edna Buckingham and Edwina Murring.

Brown Ranch School Group - about 1927

(Image from Stan Metts ... "I am pretty sure my mom Roseleen Ballard, and my Uncle Courtney Ballard are in the crowd, but not sure which.")

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