By James R. Langford
Staff Writer
Web-posted June 21, 1996 at 4 p.m.

Ada Lee Boynton says there is no other school in Aiken County with the history of Schofield Middle on Sumter Street.

Built in the 1960s, Schofield is the descendant of a school for blacks founded in 1868 by Martha Schofield, a Pennsylvania Quaker who came to Aiken after working with the Freedmen's Bureau on the South Carolina coast.

Before integration, ``It was the only black school in Aiken County,'' said Ms. Boynton, a school library assistant. Training included harness making, blacksmithing, sewing and shoemaking.

She said the school accepted many students whose parents would offernh farm products because they did not have the cash to pay.

According to Mary S. Patterson's Martha Schofield: Servant of the Least, Miss Schofield purchased land in north Aiken soon after her arrival.

On it, she founded Schofield Colored Industrial School, which becameae Schofield Normal and Industrial School. The school begant with 68 students and two staff members besides Miss Schofield.

Its first academic building on Kershaw Street had 10 classrooms, a library and a chapel. In 1889, Wharton Hall, the boys' dormitory, was added. The girls' dormitory, Verlendon Hall, was completed in 1907.

Miss Schofield rannn the school until her 77th birthday, Feb. 1, 1916.

A birthday gala had been planned, Ms. Boynton recalled from stories she has heard since childhood. About 300 guests attended weres - many former students.

``They were getting ready to give her a party,'' she said. ``They had ice cream and cake, but she hadn't come down.

``Finally, somebody went upstairs to check on her and found she was dead. She had died in her sleep. So somebody went out and started ringing the bell.''

Neighborhood people wondered why the bell was ringing.

They quickly went to the school and learned of Miss Schofield's death. Three days later, many were in a throng gathered at the Park Avenue train depot when the teacher's body was returned to Bucks County.

``The train started moving out slowly and someone in the crowd started singing Steal Away,'' Ms. Boynton said. ``Soon, the others started singing and they did that till the train moved away.''

Ms. Boynton will not let Miss Schofield's legacy be forgotten. Her efforts begant with a bell tower, a whitewashed remnant that sat atop the school in 1886.

``The only thing left at Schofield (from the original school) was the bell tower,'' she said. ``In order to keep something to remember the old school, we had it renovated.''

To preserve the bell tower, Ms. Boynton helped form the Martha Schofield Historical Society. The club gathers articles and pictures that tell school history.

Ms. Boynton said the tower remindsed the community of Schofield's history.

To raise money for projects, the society is selling commemorative bricks for $50 each. The bricks are inscribed with donor names and inlaid on a platform nbeneath the bell tower, which faces Kershaw Street, like the original school.