Crunk's Hill
On 6 November 1878, the Stevens County Commissioners designated public school district #17 for the establishment of the school on Crunk's Hill using the old "fort" building. Miss Mary Cook commenced teaching the first term of the school on 2 December 1878. She taught one additional term in the building before is blew down in a wind storm. This before Spokane was recreated by the legislature in 1879.
Indian Mound: At one time in the early pioneer days of this region an Indian scare caused the settlers to collect on a hill about one mile northeast of here above the farm house of J.W. MacIntosh and dig a trench for a kind of fortification. Nothing came of the threatened attack, but the remnant of the trench remains. Kinnikinick 1920 pg 39-40
Crunk Hill, Section 12, Township 23n, Range 41e
George W. Crunk was born in northwestern Tennessee about 1833. The 1850 census shows George living on a farm with his father, Jacob and four siblings in Christian County, Kentucky.
Between 1861 and 1865, George was a Union soldier with the 20th Regiment, Kentucky Infantry, Company C. He was a Private.
In 1868, George married Annah (last name unknown) who was born in May of 1841 in Ohio. George and Annah Crunk were living in lower Stevens County [Spokane County] in the Four Lakes district on the census of 23 June 1878. They couple had an 8 year-old son, George W. Jr., a 5-year-old daughter, Gertrude, and a 2-year-old daughter, Fannie. George's occupation was listed as farmer. Later, another daughter, named Myrtle was born.
The fall of 1878 a band of renegade Indians commenced killing sheepherders and isolated settler in Walla Walla country. Therefore, a great many people came from that district to the Four Lakes country, as an escape. The families of the community congregated at the Covert ranch, and stayed for several days until the danger cloud cleared away. From this event came the decision that we must have a fort. Under the direction of old soldiers, may father being one of them, breastworks were thrown up, and a log structure erected, known by the early settlers as Fort Cronk[Crunk]. This was to serve a two-fold purpose, but fortunately, there were no more Indian scares, so the building was used for a school and purposes.
It was on December 2, 1878, that I began teaching in this building. It has been suggested that this was the first or second school founded in Spokane County, but I think that is a mistake. However, it was perhaps the second school taught in the county. *
On 20 January 1883, George W. Crunk sold his 160-acre farm in Section 12, Township 23n, Range 41e to early land investors William Bigham, John Payne, William Bishop, and Robert Rankin.
November 7, 1884, William Bigham and his wife, Mr. Bishop, and Mr. Rankin sold the land to Ann E. Payne. Ann sold the land to Joseph McKnight on 16 June 1888. The next year, on 18 April 1889, Mr. McKnight sold the land to real estate developers John I. Booge and Daniel McIntosh. Mr. Booge sold out his interest to Mr. McIntosh 22 October 1891. The land was later sold to J.W. McIntosh, who was the owner of the land in 1912. Since that time the land has been owned by the Colyar's, Greins, Montagues, and Simpsons. David Simpson sold the land to the Cheney School District in 2009.
Returning to George W. Crunk and his wife, Annah, the 1900 census shows them living in Enchanted Prairie, Coos County, Oregon with their daughter Myrtle Crunk Fish and her husband, William. Also living with them were George Jr, age 30, Fannie, age 26, and a grandson.
George W. Crunk died in Coos County, Oregon sometime after 1920.
*An except from Pioneer Schools, 1915, a talk given to the Normal School senior class by Mrs. Frank (Mary Cook) Spangle. Kinnikinick, May 1915.
References: Ancestry.com, Spokane County records, Cheney Historical Museum, 1912 Plat map. Research assistance by Joan Mamanakis
Written by Ann Fisher Heehn 29 July 2010.