R.M. PATTON SCHOOL Located near what is now the Dr. Hicks Boulevard entrance to teh Florence Cemetery, was the first school erected by the new Board of Trustees (later the City Board of Education.) This three-story brick school was named for former Governor Robert Miller Patton of the Sweetwater Plantation east of Florence. Patton, while serving in the Alabama Legislature, was instrumental in the passage of the Public School Act of 1854. Two or three miles east of the city limits on Hough Road was another Patton School. This one was carved from land owned by Governor Patton. It was located in a small triangle of three acres between the Sweetwater Plantation and teh farm belonging to William Wesley Carter and his wife Nancy Jane Ramsey Carter. Mrs. Ben Fuqua andMiss Myrtle White were early teachers. Excerpt of "A Walk Through The Past"