Timeline for Education in Madison County Area

1793-1832 – Old Buncombe County “Old Field Schools,”1 Madison County Area
(Log school buildings erected in worn-out farm fields)

1833 – Yancey County Established, included Madison County Area

1840-1850 – Buncombe/Yancey County “Common Schools,” including Madison.
(NC statewide free public schools for whites)2

1851 – Madison County Established

1856-1859 – French Broad Institute/Mars Hill College3

1860s – Madison County “Subscription Schools”
(Parents subscribed to pay teacher with corn, wheat, or ham)

1870s – Peabody Schools in Madison County
(Grantville, Forks of Ivy; Pleasant Hill, Mars Hill; Laurel Branch)4

1874 – Free Public Schools in Madison County
(20 white schools and 1 black school)5

1887-1909 – Northern Presbyterian Schools in Madison County6

1900s-1920s – Secondary Education in Madison County
Marshall High School; Hot Springs High School; Walnut High School; Laurel High School; Spring Creek High School; Ebbs Chapel High School; Beech Glen High School; Mars Hill High School

1965 – Integration of Madison County Schools7

1974-1975 – Madison County High School8

  1. Miller, Education in Buncombe County; 2. Hunter, Education in Yancey County; 3. McLeod, From These Stones:
  2. NC Annual Report… pp. 54-57; 5. Ibid. NC Annual…, p. 101; . 6 Underwood, This Is Madison County, Opposite p. 43;
  3. MHARS “Our Story, This Place,” pp. 25, 56; 8 Willa Wyatt, M.C. School Teacher, Interview, 2020.