The first church at Shady Grove was established back in the beginning of the settlement by a congregation of Missionary Baptists. They erected a building and continued to meet for some time. Later, some evangelists of the Church of Christ held revival meetings here and a congregation was established. The Baptists sold their building to them and disbanded. A Primitive Baptist Church was established at Paint Rock with Jeff Stringer as minister. Later F. M. Satterwhite served this church. A Missionary Baptist Church was organized and a building put up at Myrtle Springs, just west of Shady Grove. Before the World War, the fourth Sunday in each month was spent in singing and preaching. Lunch was spread at noon, and the afternoon was spent in singing. This custom had been kept up for years, but as flour and sugar and other foods were scarce, these meetings were discontinued. After the war, conditions had changed so much it was impossible to restore the old order. Now the fourth Sunday in June is Home Coming Day. Schools In the latter part of the 1880’s, some of the citizens of Shady Grove were sending their boys away to school. This was inconvenient and expensive, so they decided it would be better to build a school at home. Accordingly, in 1889, a number of the leading citizens organized a board of directors, erected a new building, hired a competent teacher, and opened up a high school to run eight months in the year. The first teacher was C. B. Reader from Add-Ran Christian University, then located at Thorp Springs. When the school opened up in the fall of 1889, there was a number of local boys and girls in attendance. Prof. Reader only taught one year. He was followed by Prof. A. F. Shepperd, who also held a degree from the Christian University. The board of directors made all rules and regulations governing the school. The rules were strict and well enforced. Miss Mittie Warren from Gilmer taught piano music in connection with the school, and while Mr, Shepperd was principal, they had a brass band. The school did a fine work, and sent out a number of young teachers. In a few years, however, the board of directors disorganized and turned the management of the school over to the local trustees. Soon after this the district voted bonds and erected a nice two-story school building and equipped it in the modern way. It soon proved to be too small to meet the requirements of the school, so it was torn down and a larger one put up in 1935. This building had fine class rooms, a large auditorium and stage, two halls, cloak rooms, and library and store rooms. The school had electric lights and running water. It was destroyed by fire in 1943. The present building was ready for use in 1943. Business Activities