Glady is in Upper (as opposed to Lower) Hominy Township up NC 151 on the scenic drive to Mount Pisgah. It’s roughly 3.5 miles from Jugtown, Luther, or Turnpike! Yes, there are many communities in the Hominy Townships.
The first news article about Glady that I found was from February 1886. Mr. J.E. McElrath placed an advertisement reporting that his blind, grey mare was stolen from the stables of Banner Warehouse (a tobacco business) in the active downtown business district of Asheville. If anyone had any information about his horse they could contact him at Glady, P.O., Buncombe co. (sic).
Enoch J. Morgan was the first postmaster when the post office was established in October of 1883. The post office served the community until October of 1905 when it was closed and delivery of the mail was transferred to the Candler Post Office.
Searching newspaper articles using the keyword Glady was rife with linotypists’ errors. Gladly or Gladys were frequently misspelled as Glady resulting in a lot of hits! Thankfully, Glady showed up correctly in property transfer descriptions and headlines featuring Glady School were plentiful.
The first Glady Branch School was founded around 1877. Not surprisingly it was in Glady Branch Church. In 1914 the citizens of Upper Hominy voted to levy a tax for “modern two room school buildings” to be erected. By 1916 the “new” Glady Branch School opened.
Glady School held a box supper in February of 1917 and raised $17.20 to be used for school purposes. There was also a spelling bee and an “entertaining and amusing program was much enjoyed.” Also noted was a recent victory over the Candler High School “quintet” in basketball.
In the next couple of years the Spanish Influenza pandemic was on everyone’s mind in North Carolina. This alarming headline appeared in the Asheville Citizen on October 15, 1919.
Articles about Glady School PTA meetings, Boy Scout Troops, and sport teams continued to appear in the newspaper well into the 1940’s. By the early 1950’s a modern, brick school was built a couple of miles up the road to serve Upper Hominy students as Pisgah Elementary. Little white school buildings like Stony Fork, Glady, and Laurel Hill became a thing of the past.
The “new” Glady School building still stands today. And like its predecessor Glady Branch School it is a church. The photo of the side of the building reveals the original classroom windows.
If you drive further up 151 past Pisgah Elementary you will see another white school building from roughly the same era: Stony Fork School.
As a reminder, this post is a part of our 52 Weeks, 52 Communities Series. In this series, we are covering a different Buncombe County community each week. Do you have materials related to Glady or some other Buncombe County community you’d like to let us know about? Do you, your parents or grandparents have a good story to tell? Please let us know! We want to hear from you! The North Carolina Room is Buncombe County’s Public Archive, we want to help preserve and make accessible the history and culture of Asheville and Buncombe County for all its residents.
This post was written by Terry Taylor, Friends of the North Carolina Room board member. And a resident of Lower Hominy Township!
