Tate Town Church Photo & History

TATE TOWN CHURCH

The Hunt Cemetery is near the Tate Town Church. This building is another of the old school buildings that was built out of heart pine lumber. From John P. O'Nale's 18 Historical Happenings of Scott County we learn that Tate Town is a "community located on State Highway 80 between Union Hill and Blue Ball, where Pollard Branch empties into Dutch Creek in the Southwest 1/4 of the Northeast 1/4 of Section 3, Township 3 North, Range 26 West.

Daniel Hunt was one of, if not the very first settler in this community, claiming a homestead on 11 March 1851. The very large Hunt family arrived in Scott County from South Carolina by way of North Carolina, Kentucky and Indiana. Hunt Township, in which Tate Town is situated, and Hunt Cemetery is named for this family.

Henry Tate, from Virginia by way of Alabama with his sons Jacob, William and Henry Jr., arrived about 1858. This family provided the name for Tate Town.

Luther Frederick Pollard arrived in Scott County from Virginia after a stop in Missouri. He first settled in Tomlinson Township about 1848 or 49. Luther was a school teacher. The Pollards moved to the Tate Town community, settling on land in Section 34, Township 4 North, Range 28 West where the homesteads of Luther's wife Mary and son Frederick W. were situated astride a creek, thus giving name to Pollard Branch Creek that we know today.

The first public school in this area was School District #3 and was called "Dutch Creek." It's area was defined by the County Court in 1882. A part of the district was lost when School District #61, "Union Hill," was formed on 6 April 1886, then again when School District #74, "Rocky Point," (Blue Ball) was formed about 1887 - 1889.

School District #3 began to be known as Tate Town about the time Rocky Point was formed. The school teaching Pollards continued this profession in the person of Ethel Pollard, daughter of William O. and Elzora McGaugh Pollard. Ethel married Newton H. Black in 1918. Newt was also a teacher. Other teachers at the Tate Town School were Minnie Beatrice McNutt Pitts, Rufus Hale, John M. Millard and Glenn Abbott." Contributed by Barbara Hale Reynolds.