Page 25 - Jefferson County AR 1889 History (Goodspeed)

A- u A

I HISTORY O F ARKANSAS. p

FOne has but to glance at these fignrea, giving payable in scrip instead of currency made a falling I I'
off in fnuds, the directors arranged to build a
the nnmber of teachers employed in the State of sBcyhotohleatfranlcl tnofre1th87at1wthoenldprbeeseannt.hfoinoerhtioghthescchiotyo.l
tAhrekagnroamwthinosfupoocpesusliavreeydeuacrast,ioton ginaiannay fpaairtidoefathoef

State: I n 1869 there were 1,335; in 1870, 2,502; bnilding was finished by Iessrs. Bell k Bocage.

in 1871, 2,128; in 1872, 2,035; in 1873, 1,481; in I t is of brick, and three stories, 64x68 feet, with a

1874-75, no reports; in 1876, 461; in 1877-78, no tower of 88 feet. Its eart was $18,000, which was

reports; in 1879, 1,458; in 1880, 1,872; in 1881, paid by 1876. At the name time they bought, at a

2.169; in 1882, 2,501; in 1883, 2,462; in 1884, total cost of $8,000, the bnilding of the American

2,899; in 1885, 3,582; in 1886, 3,691; in 1887, Missionary Association for the colored people.

4,167; in 1888, 4,684. I t will readily be seen Both buildings have since been so well fitted up

that the greatest care and activity have been shown that there is now abundant room for both white

in the years of the present decade, and the most and colored children, who have equal advantages.

firm and permanent improvement in the laat few Miss Rnth McBride, who has had charge of the

years. city schoolsfor some years, has been a great factor

The old school system was not a success, for the in their progress, and the schools have graduated

common who01 idea did not become popular until several classes of good grade. The high sohool

within the last twenty years, and the public school enrolling over 300, with five teachers, and Pine

lands were. by the state of public sentiment, al. Street school, enrolling over 200, with fonr teachers,

lowed to amount to almost nothing in the shape of are white achools; while the Normal, enrolling over

revenue. I t was largely the wealthy who could 160, with three teachers; Merrill school, enrolling

educate, and they hired private tutors to fit their over 200, with fonr teachers; Second Avenue, en-

children for foreign colleges and academies; or i rolling over 180, with three teachers; and Cockrill

Ian occasional professional teacher would open 6 school, enrolling over eighty, with one teacher, are

soh001 I.prepare 8tndent.s for higher schools, colored. Annunciation Academy. enrolling over
Education was a lnxury which poor whites could ! 170, with eight teachers; Prewett's Commercial

not have, and, a. for the uegro, the idea was not ; College, enrolling over seventy, with three ternhers;

entertained. Education, too, was purely literary, Jordan's Academy, enrolling over fifty, with two

such as it was in many other parts of the mnotry. teachers; Miss Chinn's school, enrolling over

The practical and industrial phasea of it are jnst twenty-five, with one teacher, are private white

beginning to be fally appreciated; the realization schoola, while the colored are Prof. Cmmp's

gains ground that industrial and practical educa- school, enrolling over forty, with two teachers, and

tion, not the literary alone, is a key to all success. the Presbyterian Academy, enrolling over 140, with

ful permanent progress. None in all the Sonth three teachers.

have been qnicker to adopt such progressive ideas The branch Normal school of the State Uni-

and put them in practice than the leaders in the versity was secured to Pine Blnff largely through

edncational movements of Jefferson Connty. the efforts of ex-Senator N. T. White. A trwt of

I t waa Pine Bluff which 16d in the vigorous twenty acres in the west part of the city was

organization of the public sohool system in 1868, mured, and a fine brick strnctnre, trimmed with

and the county generally soon followed. A tax Alabama granite, was erected in 1882 at a oost of

was levied in 1868, and the election of school $10,000. I t hae four rooms and an assembly hall,

directors reanltad in the choice of Meanre. R. W. and all the appurtenanaea of a first-class sohool.

Trimble, W. P. Graoe, Cf. Meyer, S. McAlmont, I t has been from the first in charge of Prof. J. 0.

J. T. J. Havis, and Ira McL. Barton. They be- I Corbin, whose thorongh mmprehenaion of the

*3 gan with a fund of about $10,000, and, although needs of the colored people for teachers, the object t,
4-
the decision of the Supreme Court making thelevy for which the institution was founded, has made 1

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