history of Magnola School - Montgomery InGenWeb Project

On May 30, 1838 Elijah Clark entered from the U. S. Government the SW 1/4 of the SW 1/4 of the 1/2 section 30, Township 18, range 5, containing 38.35 acres in Ripley Township.  He also entered the NE 1/4 of the SE 1/4 Section 36 Township 18 Range 6, containing 40 acres in Ripley Township.  Elijah came from Virginia around 1837-1838 and settled on the land described above, about two miles south of Alamo along Sugar Creek.

Elijah erected the famous Magnola Mills on Sugar Creek.  The framswork was massive and was forty feet by sixty feet and four stories high.  Nothing but choice timbers was used in the construction of the mill.  The mill was built in 1853 and was operated by Elijah until 1857.  Products of the mill were shipped by flat boat to New Orleans and by the Wabash Canal through the Great Lakes to Buffalo and New York City.

When the Magnola Mill was running at its full height it employed several men.  There was a little settlement where the employees and their families lived near the mill.  In 1886-87, a Mr. Campbell of New York City owned the mill and a terrible storm came through the valley and destroyed the mill.  Rev. Guy E. Tremaine wrote a short history of the Magnola Mill entitled "The Legend of Thunder Valley".

The creek that ran the mill was referred to as the calm and peaceful "Sinnissippi", meaning "Rock River" so named because og its high cliffs of stone.  Today it is knoen as Sugar Creek.

On January 6, 1881 William and Mary Bell gave .375 acre of land to George W. Bowers, the Ripley Township trustee, for use as the sight of a common free school.  A school was built in 1881 but there is no record of when it closed.  It is believed that a flood destroyed it in 1886.  (Could have been the same time that the mill was destroyed)

Some of the students were Rosa Pickett Rush, Mary Selby Rush, Laura Ammerman.  Jim Rush attended part of the year and then went to Old Hickory School in Brown Township.