Clement Elementary School turns 100 this year, with a strong sense of community carried across decades and generations, those in the community have noted.
In the summer of 1926, Orange Wrench, Welcome and Clement — schools that had only two or three teachers each — elected to combine their students and staff. Clement School opened its doors in Autryville on Sept. 30, 1926.
Clement is recognized as one of the oldest schools in Sampson County. When it began, the school had 375 students and 11 teachers. Originally, it consisted of 11 grades, with the school’s first class of seniors graduating in 1928.
“We had to consolidate the grades,” Weldon Faircloth explained during an interview about the school from which he graduated. “Sometimes it was three grades in one classroom.”
Faircloth started at Clement as a student in 1948. He spoke last Thursday about his time as a Clement student and eventual teacher.
“Of course, times were a lot different back then than they are now,” Faircloth acknowledged.
Faircloth recalled growing up during a time when Clement students would get out of school early to work in the fields.
“There were times … when school would let out at two o’clock for kids to come home and work in the fall. They had tobacco, cotton, and corn … that was probably a month at the beginning of school,” he reminisced.
Faircloth graduated from Clement in 1961. In 1965, he returned as the school’s agriculture teacher.
“The strength of Clement School in those early days,” he noted, “was the leadership and teachers … and the community support was outstanding … There was such a spirit of cooperation in the parents.”
Faircloth described himself as “a hands-on teacher,” teaching shop work and taking students on trips across the country to FFA conventions.
During his interview, Faircloth presented two historical items: an original handbell that belonged to Clement’s first principals and a copy of the first issue of “Clement Memories,” a school newsletter published May 20, 1929.
According to the newsletter, Clement “had no lights, science equipment, auditorium chairs, maps, (and) no library” when the school first opened. Those and other amenities were added in the years that followed. The first volume of “Clement Memories” does mention, however, “a piano that sounded more like a tin pan” during that first school year.
Faircloth, now in his 90s, said he hasn’t been involved with the school as much in recent years, though he recalled a time when he would visit Clement dressed as Santa Claus every year.
Linda Williams served at Clement Elementary for her entire educational career, retiring as its principal. She is the only principal to date in Clement’s history who also attended the school as a student from first through 12th grade.
Near the end of August, Williams sat down at her home to recount her own history and that of Clement.
“I started out as teacher assistant in kindergarten and wound up going on to be the principal,” she recalled.
Williams taught several grades before becoming principal. She led kindergarten classes for around 16 years before moving on to second and third grades. She also worked at the school for a time as a guidance counselor.
Williams noted that when she became principal, “I knew what (the teachers) were going through, so we got along real good. They worked hard, and I tried to as well.”
Williams was also the first female coach at Clement, coaching seventh-grade, eighth-grade and high school girls basketball and softball teams.
“We had a really old gym — we called it The Barn,” Williams recalled. “The gym that’s there now is the same gym they built around 1974.”
She noted that the current Clement school building was constructed in 2001 after most of the original school was demolished.
“They built a whole new school — cafeteria and everything — and left the gym,” Williams remembered.
The kindergarten building was also left in place when the new school was constructed.“They kept that building because it was in real good shape,” the retired principal noted. Now, she says, “you can’t tell (the older) from the newer part.”
Williams was Clement’s principal during that time of transition.
“It was chaos,” Williams’ husband, Dwight, added during the interview. “She had a lot more on her than any other principal ever had, to finish up one school and go to a new one … she had a load on her.”
Williams said she tried to preserve pieces of the original school wherever she could, including radiators, banisters and columns.
“We saved those columns — the inside ones — and we made a table inside the office area; it’s still there.”
She also said she made a bench from some of the old school’s banisters.
“It’s just tactfully put in there where it’s a little bit of the old still left, but lots of new, too. The community helped out with that … we did plaques where you could donate money … that money was used to fix the columns and make the tables,” Williams explained.
“That was a way to involve the community … What makes Clement a unique place is that it welcomes you like a home,” she added.
“Mrs. Linda really worked hard at creating that when she was here. She just made it all about the community,” retired teacher Pamela Godwin stressed.
Godwin has been teaching at Clement for 19 years.
“I went to school here from 1st grade to 12th grade,” she explained last Thursday at Clement Elementary.
Godwin moved away for about 25 years before returning to Clement. As a teacher there, she has taught fourth and fifth grades.
Godwin also pointed to “a real sense of community” at the school.“The support of the parents and community … there’s nowhere else like it,” she said, “and I’ve taught a lot of other places.”
Godwin reminisced, “What was really neat when I first started teaching here was that a lot people I was in school with — I was teaching their grandchildren — and I know a lot of people in the community, so that’s been nice.”
One tradition that has carried over from Godwin’s days as a student is Clement’s fall festival.
“When I was a teenager, they had a lot of games, booths, and things like that. They had a king and queen — and they still have continued to do that,” she added.
Today, Clement Elementary School serves students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. Students who once would have continued their education at Clement School now attend Midway Middle School and Midway High School.
Clement’s mission statement states: “Building the future by providing the best education possible through a partnership of community, home, and school.”
In January 2027, on the 100th day of school, Clement Elementary students and staff will hold a celebration during the school day. In spring 2027, a banquet will be held for Clement alumni, including former students, teachers and principals.
Historical details were drawn from “Clement Memories,” written by Brady Autry and published May 20, 1929.