Don't know if this will be of interest to you but here it is...

I lived in Carroll County from 1942 to 1949 or '50. I went to school in Carrollton. We lived in a one room log cabin on a hill near Jennie Elmore's place. She lived on the road, we lived in the woods. Jennie was our nearest neighbor and dearest friend. She died in Alpena in 1956. Our place was supposed to be the site of the oldest log cabin in the area. The old cabin was only a base of stone when we got there. Our cabin was supposed to be 70 years old when we lived in it. Seemed like it. its gone now, just fell down a number of years ago.

The school that I originally went to was a huge grand old building, with many tall windows. A center hall and a big cupola on top that housed the huge old bell. My Father, Claude S. Savage, contracted to tear the old building down when it was decided to build a new school. His life was threatened that he would be killed if he touched the old building. I remember when the day came to start destruction, he spent half the day in the tower with his rifle waiting for someone to shoot at him. No one did, we proceeded to dismantle the building. It took most all summer and my mother, I and younger sister had the job of pulling out all the nails from the boards. They were all old square ones. we worked under a tree that used to be there. I don't know what happened to all the lumber and nails. My father found hidden in the walls a most beautiful American flag with a gold eagle on top and gold fringe. Also 3 old journals of some kind. I don't know how many stars were on the flag or what the journals were about. He speculated that they were hidden from raiders before the civil war, but I'm not sure the building was that old. I don't know. I do know that the things he found were taken to the president of the school board who lived on the hill just beyond the bridge over the creek, but I can't remember his name right now. I'll know it if I hear it, I'm sure. I don't know what happened to those treasures after he got them.

We also helped build the school that presently sits in Carrollton. I even cut and placed a few of the native stones that are in the walls. A man named Windy Bill Smith was the stone mason. Along with many other people built the school. The old bell from the other building hangs in the porch attic and is rung by a rope through the ceiling. There is a small coat room, 2 class rooms and a small kitchen. And a book room. There used to be a swinging bridge across the creek and my dad swung a pipe across the creek to get the water from the spring to the school side so it wouldn't be so hard to get water.

The kids I went to school with were the Travis's, Pete and Wanda. Their mother Angie was a hunchback from being thrown off a horse at 16 and was my mother's closest friend. There was a younger girl at school and a older girl too, Verma and Verla Hutchinson. Kenneth Hawkins and sister. Althena Pence and her sister whose last name was Shrum. Eugene, Johnny, and Ruth Donaldson. The Donaldson's had eight kids. There is an old grave site in one of their fields. Some of the family names that I remember being there were: Smith, Donaldson, Hawkins, Frank Morris, Floyd Fultz, Elmore, Phillips, and Theinny Collier, who was a wonderful old lady, had been a missionary in China and had many wonderful things and stories. I know there are more but as I age things keep getting lost more each day.

Hope this is some interest, I do have some old pictures and things. I would like to see all the old history kept. Thanks so much for doing that.

Sincerly, Claudia Savage Stewart

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