The problem of this study was to trace the development of E. W. Grove High School located in Paris, Henry County, Tennessee. Special emphasis was placed upon the administration, the curriculum, and the finances of the school.

There has been no previous attempt to assemble a complete and orderly historical account of E. W. Grove High School. The few fragments of recorded events have been limited to short resumes and factual data for ceremonial purposes or for inclusion in histories of Henry County. The need, therefore, existed for some means of relating a complete factual history of the secondary school.

The historical method of research was used in this study and involved the use of both primary and secondary sources. All of the data that came directly, written or oral, from a witness to a particular event were considered primary. The data that had an intervening party between the witness at an event and the publication of the event were classified as secondary.

The data were criticized by both external and internal methods. In external criticism of the data, authorship, time, place, and genuineness were established by comparisons with other documents and known events. The internal criticism was concerned with the accuracy and value of the statements composing the data. In order to be as accurate as possible, secondary sources were used only when it was impossible to locate the primary source.

The study was limited to the development, administration, curriculum, and finances of the E. W. Grove High School for the period 1906 until 1958. Thus the junior high school, established in 1958, was not included in the study.

Much of the written material concerning the initial year of E. W. Grove High School was recorded in The Parisian, a-county newspaper. Due to fire and other causes, many issues between 1901 and 1910 were lost, thus creating somewhat of a restriction on the compiling of a complete report, except in instances where the happenings were recalled by persons interviewed or were related in county histories.

Data for this study were of two categories, both written and oral. The written material was taken for the most part from The Parisian, a newspaper of Henry County which has already been mentioned, and from the Minute Books of the Henry County Quarterly Court. Other written information used in the study came from histories of Henry County compiled early in the twentieth century, from the school newspaper and year book, from certain pamphlets published for special events, E. W. Grove High School Board of Trust Minutes, and from files in the offices of E. W. Grove High School and the Henry County Superintendent. Oral accounts were obtained through interviews with interested citizens of the county who had attended E. W. Grove High School as students or had taught in the institution or had other connections with the founders.

There are no other complete studies citing the history and development of E. W. Grove High School. However, a short factual history was written by Miss Mary Sue Dunn in 1950 for inclusion in the report of the evaluative study of the school performed by the Southern Association's Secondary Commission (Visiting Committee, 1950). There are many studies related indirectly in that they have much the same goal as this study and were thus helpful in giving ideas for its conduction and presentation.

Some related historical studies prepared on secondary schools were: Mazie Marie Knight's (1952) "A History of the Secondary Schools of Cocke County." Harold W. Malone's (1955) "A History of Education in Jefferson County, Tennessee," and Pauline Anderson Clark's (1955) "A History of Harrison-Chilhowee Baptist Academy." Also a history of education, but concerning an institution of higher education, was Elmer Inman's (1960) Doctor's dissertation entitled "A History of the Development of the University of Tennessee, Martin Branch."

The statement of the problem, the need for the study, the procedure, the sources of data, the limitations, the related studies, and the organization of chapters have been included in Chapter I.

A background of Dr. Grove's life is found in Chapter II.

Events leading to the establishment of the school, its establishment, and its development have been related in Chapter III.

The administration, with special emphasis on the principals, has been presented in Chapter IV.

The curriculum, with the additions and deletions as they have occurred since the founding of the school, has been cited in Chapter V. Finances are dealt with in Chapter VI.

Finances are dealt with in Chapter VI.

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A History of E. W. Grove High School Home Page

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Last Modified Monday, 12-May-2008 19:18:32 CDT