Excerpts from Millie's Pulliam's Letter
(Daughter of George William Pulliam - teacher)

          "About my father in the picture, some of the pupils in the back row were older than he. His older brother Uncle John, when he taught at Pulliam School before this would take "Little Willie"to school with him from the time he was 4 years old. From the start he was a fast learner and in those days after High School a person could take an exam to teach and if passed the exam you received a certificate to qualify. John Odle #1 row 2 wanted to wear my fathers watch so he has it around his neck. The little ones of Uncle John Odle came to school because their mother had died or at least Verbal said they brought the baby.

        I have a good story on Bill Odle and my father he told me himself one time years later at Liberty Church Yard on Memorial Day. This tall lanky man walked over to me and told me who he was and said he wanted to tell me my father was the only man who ever whipped him and that was when he was a boy at Odle School and my father was the teacher. As his story went he said he used to bring his dog and it got so it would run around and distract the other pupils. My fathers solution was to tie a can to it's tail and it took off running and yelping like bloody murder. Bill said he became so enraged at my father he ran up to him and pulled his knife on him. Before he could touch him he took it away from him and gave him a whipping he never forgot. So as to not cause any hard feelings he went home with him and all his sisters for supper with Uncle John. All the girls loved my father and all went well. Verbal said he was called "Bad Bill Odle" and could whip anyone he tangled with.

         Tom McGee who owned a store close to Rural Hill School, (he had a mouthful of gold teeth) and was a director at the school wanted to hire my father because the big boys there had run off  2 or 3 teachers and he knew my father was a live wire. One of Tom McGees sons told me the story at a Memorial Day dinner at Little Springs Church where I had been invited by Anna (Flannigan) Davis a first cousin of my mother. Anyway as the story goes, my father at noon recess went with all these tough boys out to the wooded school yard and started climbing the trees and jumping from one to the other, (like Tarzan) before the tough boys and they would fall and couldn't keep up and hurt themselves enough they never tried to get rid of him.

Note: I saw the importants of this picture from the beginning and with Aunt Millie Pulliams help the names and the storys were added to the faces. I offer it to any who have interest.

Don Carter