Hubert went to school at Pleasant Hill Academy in Pleasant Hill TN, between Sparta, Cookeville, and Crossville.
He rode the train to Pleasant Hill and spent the week there.
The picture above is the 1916 graduating class of Pleasant Hill Academy. From the left, front row, Mitchell
Vance, Hubert Crawford, Mary Lou Cantrell, Vergie Peek, Violet Sevier, Barbee Hengar, and Lucius DuBois. Second row,
from left to right are Margaret Simpson, Nola Crowder, Nadlo Speck, Harlan Huffines, Porter Henager, Ettca Cooley, and Stella
Smith. Third row, Rev. W. E. Wheeler, principal, Ethel O. Young, Stella Booch, Dero Brown and Grant Holman.
Hubert and Dero Brown had the same great grandfather, although I'm pretty sure neither one knew it. Hubert's mother
was a Brown. Dero went on to become the Mayor of Cookeville and Hubert served as Chief of Police under Dero.
Pleasant Hill Academy
1884-1947
Pleasant Hill Academy was created to provide education to rural students on the Cumberland Plateau. The school
was established by the American Missionary Association of the Congregational Christian Church and was a boarding school dedicated
to liberal arts, sciences, agriculture and vocational training. The school was also accredited by the University of Tennessee,
and all graduates were automatically accepted to UT. The school was active until 1946, when the Cumberland County school system
acquired the property for a public school.
From 1917 to 1920, one of Tennessee’s
pioneers in medicine, May C. Wharton, joined her husband Edwin at Pleasant Hill. She received her M.D. from the University of Michigan in 1905, and when her husband
was named principal in 1917, she worked as the school’s physician until the Rev. Wharton died in 1920, including a difficult
year during the 1919 flu epidemic. Dr. Wharton stayed in Pleasant Hill as the community’s doctor and established a hospital
in Pleasant Hill.
Read the story about Dr. Wharton by "History for Kids" at the bottom of this page.
Pleasant Hill Academy with Students
Pleasant Hill Academy Girl's Hall
Pleasant Hill is located at 35°58′37″N,85°12′1″W . Pleasant Hill was first settled by European Americans before 1819.
In 1884 a teacher from the American Missionary Association (AMA) established the Pleasant Hill Academy to provide broad liberal arts education for rural youth, while also giving vocational
training in agriculture and local skills.
Supported by the Congregational Church, the school operated until 1947. (From Wikipedia)
See a longer history by the American Missionary Association at the bottom of the page.
Pioneer Hall, the second Academy building to be constructed, was completed in 1887.
Having served at various times as a dormitory, classrooms, a library, and offices, it stands today to tell the story of the
Pleasant Hill Academy and the community, including the health facilities from which evolved the Cumberland Medical Center.
Exhibits, which represent the lifestyle of early Cumberland County, include a country store, dormitory rooms, the principal's
office, the tools of health care and the arts and crafts of the period.
Pioneer Hall was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
History of the Pleasant Hill Academy written by the American Missionary Association.
In 1883, the American Missionary Association established a one-room day school at Pleasant Hill, Tennessee. Reverend Benjamin
Dodge established a Congregational church in nearby Ponoma the following year. Rev. Dodge relocated the church to Pleasant
Hill and took over the school's operations in 1885. Two years later the school inaugurated a normal department and became
officially known as Pleasant Hill Academy.
Two boarding halls were built in 1889: Pioneer Hall for boys and Wheeler Hall for girls. Two cottages, for use as temporary
boys' residences, were constructed in 1895. Dodge Hall, another boys' dormitory, was built the following year. A primary school
building was completed in 1899, and a domestic science building was built in 1908. By 1907, enrollment had increased to over
400.
The school began offering a full college-preparatory course in 1891. The Rev. Warren E. Wheeler and his wife, Kate Lord
Wheeler, assumed the directorship of the school in 1892. Rev. Dodge passed away in 1897, and Kate Lord Wheeler died in 1903.
Mrs. Dodge donated farmland to Pleasant Hill Academy in 1911, and passed two years later.
The AMA transferred the Pleasant Hill Church to the Congregational Home Missionary Society in 1916. Rev. Edwin R. Wharton
replaced Rev. Wheeler upon his retirement, and emphasized manual arts for boys and home economics for girls. His wife, May
Cravath Wharton began work as a medical missionary for the AMA in 1917. In 1918, the school functions at the Grand View Normal
Institute, also in the Cumberland region were transferred by the AMA to Pleasant Hill Academy in 1918.
Dodge Hall burned down in 1921. Around the same time, repairs to Wheeler Hall were completed and a new barn and temporary
boys' residence were built. During the early 1920s, the school received running water and electricity for the first time,
but by 1922, attendance had fallen to a low of 167.
Principal William H. Trainum resigned, and was replaced by Paul Andrew Wilson. Wilson resigned in 1925, and was succeeded
by Edgar H. Elam. Victor Obenhaus served as the Principal until 1944, when Walter Mueller took the position. In 1945 the AMA
voted to sell the campus site to the Board of Education of Cumberland County, Tennessee, retaining all farmland and establishing
a community center in 1947. William A. Boyce was hired as the Director of the Pleasant Hill Community Center, with Viola W.
Rainey being hired as Business Manager. Mueller became Minister of Education at the First Congregational Church in Los Angeles
later that year.
The 1947-1948 academic year was the last one during which boarding facilities were available. The county and state operated
a twelve-grade consolidated school and the AMA supplied four value-oriented teachers to supplement the county's curriculum.
An arts and crafts building was dedicated at the Pleasant Hill Community Center in 1950. Boyce moved on to take a position
at the Cumberland Medical Clinic in 1954. Dr. Paul Reynolds became the new Director of the Center, as well as the Minister
of the Pleasant Hill Community Church that same year; he later retired after suffering a heart attack in 1957. A new Pleasant
Hill Community Church was completed in 1959.
