Looking Back: Stony Point and Pink Hill Schools

by Marcia Napier, Grain Valley Historical Society

Excluding the “resort towns” of Lake Lotawana and Lake Tapawingo, Grain Valley is the youngest town in Jackson County. The mostly straight-line railroad tracks built by the Chicago and Alton Railroad to connect Oak Grove (Lickskillet) and Blue Springs by-passed the villages of Pink Hill to the north and Stony Point to the south.

Pink Hill was placed on the map by the United States Post Office in 1854, and in the same year the first school was built. George Love and Asbury Neer plated a town of 40 lots on 10 acres where present day Pink Hill and Kirby roads intersect northeast of Grain Valley. Lot 19 was reserved for the school.

On August 25, 1863, Union General Thomas Ewing, Jr. issued Order Number 11. Union troops marched through Pink Hill burning homes, businesses and the school.

Residents were forced to leave their homes, many moving to Lafayette County. Some returned after the Civil War.

The 1877 Jackson County atlas listed a population of 482 men and 484 women in the village of Pink Hill and the map indicated a school replacing the one that had been burned.

At the Grain Valley Historical Society there are old photographs of Pink Hill students beginning in 1912. There is also one showing that the school existed in the mid-1940s. I have not found any documentation for the exact date when the Pink Hill School closed, and the students came into Grain Valley for their formal education.

Jacob Franklin Gregg was born at Stony Point, March 22, 1844. In his biography, it states that he received his education at the Stony Point School. Little has been written about the school so exact dates of operation are vague.

In 1870, James H. Cannon came from Virginia by way of Pennsylvania (his mother’s home) teach at Stony Point. After only one year he became Postmaster at Stony Point and proprietor of the mercantile.

Although the town disappeared when Mr. Cannon moved his store to the railroad in 1878, the Stony Point school continued to provide an education to the children in the area. In 1931, Erma (Baumgartner) Doty was a 12-year old student at Stony Point when she wrote an essay titled the “History of Stony Point.” A copy of her story is on display at the Grain Valley Historical Society. Again, documentation for the exact date of the school closing is unknown, but some old-timers believe it closed at the beginning of the United States involvement in World War I.

Next Week: Learn about Oak Hill School.

Students from Pink Hill School pose for a class photo in 1917. Photo credit: Grain Valley Historical Society

The Grain Valley Historical Society Museum, located at 510 Main Street, is open Wednesdays from 10am—3pm and by appointment. Visit the Historical Society’s website, www.grainvalleyhistory.com, and follow the Society on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (@grainvalleyhistory).