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This community was originally settled as Blue Ridge prior to 1850. Thomas McKissick Garrett donated land (two miles northeast) for the establishment of a school, church, and Garrett Cemetery. With the estate settlement following his death in 1862, the property was removed from public use. This location was donated by David Barclay and two grandsons of Thomas Garrett, James Franklin Erskine and Thomas Jasper Erskine. The name Stranger was suggested by a visiting Frenchman about 1870. Buildings for a Methodist-Presbyterian Union Church and a Baptist church were conducted in July 1869. The first school classes were conducted in the new sanctuaries. By 1877 the Union Academy and Union School had become public free schools. A separate schoolhouse (1/4 mile northeast) was constructed in 1902. Stranger once had a cotton gin, stock dipping vat, doctors, general stores, blacksmith shop, stagecoach inn, and mills, but only the cemetery and church buildings remain. The sanctuaries, where services were conducted until 1960, are now used for the biannual homecoming activities. (1980) |
