The April 2019 meeting of the Clay County Landmarks Commission and Historical Society was held Wednesday, April 10, in the Clay County Library.

Members present were Jerry Stover, Janet Koch, Jannette Douglas, Jim Miller, Lenora Pettit, and Eloise Boggs.

The meeting was called to order by President Jerry Stover. The minutes of the March 2019 meeting were read and approved.

Old Business:

1. Concerning the name of the Lilly 11 School, the question was whether the 11 was the number 11 or the Roman numeral for two. Jerry reported that according to the writings of Dora Adkins Chapman in a Hickory and Lady Slippers issue, the number indicated that it was the Roman numeral designation of a second Lilly School. The question originated with Karen Walker, who is editing Garnie Testa’s manuscript on the history of education in Clay County prior to its publication.
2. Janet gave a more detailed description of the locations of the Blue Knob and the Mt. Zion schools. The comment was made that with the information Janet gave at our March meeting, combined with photographs of Blue Knob School that Jim sent to Karen, her questions have been answered.

New Business:

1. Suggestions have been made that changing our meeting time (currently 1 p.m.) to a later hour would attract more young people, workers, and students to our meetings. This will be given some serious consideration, and a decision will be made at our May meeting. We welcome comments from folks who might be interested in a time change.
2. Plans for our participation in the Apple Festival in September will be a topic for our May meeting.

Our next meeting will be May 1, 2019, at 1 p.m. in the Clay County Library.

Further Comments:

As we were leaving the library after the meeting, we noticed that the finishing touches were being made on the demolition of the house next door, known to us as the Cora Mullins house. Coming from such a meeting, the timely comment was, “Uh-oh, there goes a bit of history.” We would like to know its history. When was the house built, and by whom? Who all lived in it? Seems sad to see “a bit of history” go without some recognition of its years of existence. However, we can truthfully say that whatever its history, it had served its purpose.