WPA PROJECT 1937
[Emma A. Clay and Edmond J. Giering wrote the following report in February and March of 1937.]
The first attempt to establish a system of public or common schools proved futile in the early days of the state and counties. The following Acts of the Legislature did not bear fruit until a much later date.
“By a special act passed in 1848 the office of county superintendent of education was created in four counties, viz., Hinds, Jefferson, Wilkinson, and Amite. No general provision was made for the office of county superintendent of education until the constitution of 1868, which provided for such an officer in each county, to be appointed by the state board of education, by and with the advice and consent of the senate. The legislature, however, was vested with power to make the office of county superintendent elective, as were other county officers. The term of office of the county superintendent was made two years, and his compensation and duties were to be prescribed by law” (Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society, Centenary Series. Vol. III, p. 39)
The Laws of Mississippi of 1871 gives the following: “There shall be a superintendent of public education in each county, who shall be appointed by the board of education by and with the advice and consent of the senate, whose term of office shall be two years” (Laws of Mississippi, 1871, p. 71, sec. 4).
The first county superintendent of education in Hancock County was appointed in 1870 and the term of office set for two years. In 1890 this term was extended to four years.
Board of Police records show:
J. J. Bradford was elected in 1870 for a two-year term. He failed to remain in office the entire time and was succeeded by Thomas Berry who served out the unexpired term.
In 1872 Frank Heiderhoff took office and served in 1872 and 1873. He was succeeded by J. F. Davidson, but the only record we find is that he held office from 1874 to 1875, and was succeeded by E. S. Bernard who finished out from 1875 to and in 1876. A. M. Slaydon came and served through 1877. J. J. Moore was then appointed and held office 1878-1882.
W. H. Stocker1882-1884
A. G. Stevenson 1884-1888
J. S. Otis1888-1890
George M. Holcomb1890-1892
A. G. Stevenson1892-1900
W. W. Stockstill1900-1908
John Craft1908-1920
T. E. Kellar1920-1928
D. J. Everett1928-1932
A. S. McQueen1932-1936
K. W. McCarthy1936-
There is nothing authentic to show the achievements of these early superintendents, but minutes of Police Court 1866-1878 say that the salary of county superintendents was fixed at $600.00 per year. A later record says that Mr. George M. Holcomb received a salary of $500.00 per year. The amount of salaries paid increased and in 1908 was $1,000.00 and in 1916 $1,500.00, and in 1918 it reached $2,500.00, but at present [1937] it is $2,000.00, the present incumbent receiving $2,000.00.
The first outstanding accomplishments for the cause of education of which we have record is from a personal interview with Mr. George M. Holcomb. Mr. Holcomb said that when he came into office there were seven one-teacher schools along the coast and he began measures to consolidate these schools. There was, of course, no provision made for the type of consolidation we have today, but Mr. Holcomb’s idea was rather a centralization than a consolidation of these small one-teacher schools. This move met great opposition, and one great argument against it was that some teachers would be out of employment. He said that the Hon. Eaton J. Bowers, who had recently moved to Bay St. Louis, aided him in his undertaking, and he succeeded in putting one school at Waveland and one at Bay St. Louis, retaining the entire teaching force and doubling their salaries. “Don’t exclaim,” he said, “the teachers were only paid $15.00 per month at that time.” Thus, the first step towards consolidation of schools was taken.
From the minutes of the Board of Supervisors we have:
“Ordered by the board that the report of Asa G. Stevenson, esq., Superintendent of schools of Hancock county be approved this 7th. day of July, 1884, has this day presented to the board a communication showing that a meeting of the Free Public School teachers of Hancock County was held in the town of Gainsville on the 28th. of June, 1884, for the purpose of adopting a uniform series of textbooks to be used in the free schools of said county.
The following books were adopted to wit:
McGuffey’s Spellers
McGuffey’s Readers 1-2-3-4-5
Davies Arithmetic
Harvey’s Grammar
Eclectic Geography
Swinton’s History
Bryant & Straton Science
Spencerian Penmanship
and the Board of Supervisors having examined the series of textbooks adopted aforesaid of said teachers at said meeting. It is therefore ordered by the Board that the action of said teachers be approved and said textbooks adopted shall be the textbooks of the free schools of the county and shall not be changed for five years after the date of their adoption by said teachers.
All members voting for said approval with the exception of Louis J. Piernas (Col.) who voted no (Minutes of Board of Supervisors, May term 1884)
In Mr. Stevenson’s later eight years in office the “County Institute” was inaugurated. The teachers met for one week of instruction in Nicholson, Mississippi. Here they gathered ideas of teaching from a trained instructor, and in this way the old 3-R type of teaching was replaced by more modern methods of teaching.
During these eight years of Mr. Stevenson’s regime, there were something over forty one-teacher schools, white and colored, throughout the rural section.
In an interview with Mr. Stockstill [1900-1908] we have this statement: “About 1902 I secured and held the first four weeks summer normal, the only four weeks summer normal school ever held in the county. In 1904-05 after about two years campaigning, I secured a special tax levy by the Board of Supervisors to extend the school term from four to six months.
“Prior to my term pupils were seated on straight benches in log house, and for the purpose of improving these conditions, I made several trips throughout the county and circularized the people. This resulted in better buildings and equipment. I recall going to Flat Top School on one occasion and asking the trustees to meet me there and arrange for a meeting. A collection was taken to purchase seats and desks, and these seats and desks were in the school house within 60 days thereafter. This was done in a few other schools.
“There was no consolidation in the county, in fact none in the state, during my administration, but I held down the creation of new school districts. The tendency at that time was to establish a number of very small schools. In 1903 at Vicksburg, I made the first speech that was ever made on consolidation in the state. In gathering the material for that speech, I sent out questionnaires to county superintendents throughout the state. Out of the thirty-seven replies received only five county superintendents had ever heard of the subject before.
“A consolidated school was established at Flat Top in 1913 but only lived for one year. The first permanent consolidated school was in 1916, thirteen years after I made my speech. I also organized the first County Teachers’ Association in 1903, which is still active [in 1937].
“Not much attention was paid to sanitation during my administration. The Rockefellar Foundation was in1916, and my term expired in 1908.
“The salary of the superintendent during my administration was $480.00 per year. When I retired, it was $1,000.00, the increase coming through the Acts of the Legislature fixing the salary from a percentage of a school fund.
“About 1907 I established small libraries in several schools in the county. A library commission was selected to make a list of the books, and the county was authorized to donate $10.00 to each school. There was a library at Carriere and Nicholson and one or two other schools which I do not remember (W. W. Stockstill, Bay St. Louis. Personal interview)
NOTE: Impossible to secure a statement from Mr. Keller because of his illness. Mr. Everett and Mr. McQueen out of town and have not replied to letters (Clay and Giering, authors of the WPA report) [Later interviews were conducted and appear at the end of the report.].
Early records of Shieldsborough show a school fund dating back to 1858, but we find no record of free schools at that time. At the first meeting of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen of the City of Shieldsborough provision was made by taxation of real and personal property for the school fund for the year 1858-1859. At this time the board had $900.00 in the school fund for which they had no immediate need. $600.00 was borrowed from that fund for two years at eight percent. All road taxes and two-thirds of the real and personal taxes were pledged for the extinction of this debt.
The Public School system of Hancock County saw its beginning in 1870, and from the following laws we find how they were financed.
Governor Brown in 1846 attempted through legislation to provide funds for the maintenance of public schools, but this went the way of other measures for schools. In 1870 during Governor Alcorn’s administration, the following laws were passed:
“There shall be a county superintendent who shall have general supervision of county schools, make an annual report embracing certain information required by the State Superintendent regarding the number of educable children, the amount of school fund, etc.
“Boards of school directors, consisting of six members—these were appointed by the Board of supervisors, and each held office for six years. The county superintendent was ex-officio president of the board, and the clerk of the Circuit Court was ex-officio secretary. They were to meet quarterly, to make all needful by-laws, to divide school districts into subdivisions where necessary, and to secure school grounds, establish graded schools, etc.
“A Board of Supervisors—to levy a special tax as estimated by the County School Board, provided it was not more than fifteen mills.
“Management of sixteenth section land by county Board and the appropriation of proceeds to school purposes.
“All fines, forfeitures, and monies for licenses, as well as gifts for school purposes, to be placed in the hands of the State Board” (Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society. Centenary Series. Vol. III, p. 42)
At present [1937] poll taxes constitute part of the school fund and are retained in the county where collected and pro rated among county schools and municipal districts on the per capita basis of educable children in each.
The State levy is to maintain the schools for the constitutional period of four months and then a special levy to maintain the schools after the expiration of the four months financed by the State Board.
There are no rural separate districts in this county. Separate municipalities of Bay St. Louis and Waveland each levy taxes for their schools. There are several consolidated districts. The Board of Supervisors levies taxes on the property in that district for that school.
The Sixteenth Section Fund is controlled by the Board of Supervisors. They appoint three township trustees (not school trustees) who recommend how that fund should be used. It is sometimes used to supplement school term, supplement teachers’ salaries, or for buildings or equipment.
SUMMARY: Schools are financed by four separate funds: poll taxes, state levy (for four months terms), special levy (Board of Supervisors to extend the term longer than four months). The equalization fund is a new fund which is an appropriation by the State Legislature and is apportioned to each county according to need and demand.
There are three rural high schools in the county and one city high school located in Bay St. Louis.
In addition to this Bay St. Louis has two primary ward schools, and the town of Waveland has one grammar school—that is the work is carried through the eighth grade.
Bay St. Louis has one colored high school, and Waveland has one colored grammar school.
The county in addition to its three high schools (two of which are agricultural high schools) has ten grammar grade schools, two of which are one-teacher schools, and seven colored grammar grade schools.
Provision was made by law for an Indian school in 1884 near the Indian settlement at Bayou LaCroix. This school was operating as late as 1895, but there is no trace of it today because the Indians have intermarried and moved nearer civilization and attend white schools.
As far as can be ascertained the first attempt toward “Adult Education” was under the E. R. A. in 1932, and ten schools were opened throughout the county. Three additional schools grew out of this first move making a total of thirteen. In a visit to one of the local units, I found these groups divided into a youth and adult group, the former being taught along the lines of mathematics, English, etc., and the adult group starting out in primary work as young children learning to read and write. This work is continued under the W. P. A. with a far reaching curriculum. The subjects taught include general education, vocational training, workers education, forum, and home economics. Today there are five white and one colored schools operating in the county, the sessions being continuous throughout the year. All persons who are sixteen years of age and older not attending school anywhere else are eligible to take this work.
Teachers receive a monthly salary of $42.00. Mrs. Ethel Hart is county supervisor of this work.
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Before 1908 the county maintained about fifty small schools white and colored, but through consolidation by transportation funds have been centralized, and this has provided better housing, better equipment, wider scope of teaching, and better trained teachers.
Through the work of the county agent and with aid from the Smith-Hughes bill, two of our schools are agricultural high schools, students having some one objective such as raising a bale of cotton, an acre of corn, etc., for the year’s work besides instructions contained in the text.
Through the medium of the home demonstration agent, home economics departments have been possible for four of the high schools. During the “days of depression” these departments were not very active in the rural schools owing to the fact that pupils could not afford materials for sewing or for cooking.
The county has no Junior Colleges.
We have the following schools in Hancock County today. [1937]
Bay High School, a senior high school located in Bay St. Louis at Carroll Avenue and Second Street, is a brick building erected in 1926 at a cost of $70,000.00. Besides the regular equipment of modern seating, lighting and sanitation, the school has a well-stocked library, a home economics department equipped for sewing and cooking, a chemical laboratory, and an auditorium with a seating capacity of twenty-five hundred. At present a new gym is in the course of construction at a cost of $50,000.00.
Pupils living outside of the city limits when beyond the grade carried in ward schools are transported to and from school by buses. These buses are individually owned, and drivers are paid by the county. Pupils living in rural sections where no high schools are maintained are also transported by bus. A large number of pupils have private transportation.
This is a senior high school with classes from primary through a four-year high school course. Courses are offered in home science, vocal and instrumental music, physical culture, shorthand, typing, and bookkeeping. There is a debating club, a 4-H club, boys and girls scouts with playground activities such as hand ball, basketball, etc.
There are two ward schools, one the Webb School located in Ward 3 on Citizen and Third Street. This is a wooden structure erected and equipped in 1912 at a cost of $2,500.00. The curriculum extends through the fifth grade and employs two teachers. The Taylor School is located in Ward 1 on Leonard Avenue, a modern building erected in 1916 at a cost of $1,000.00. This is a one-teacher school equipped with modern seating and sanitation and classes through the 5th grade.
Bay St. Louis has a colored school, a large two story building erected in 1906 at a cost of $4,000.00. It has an auditorium and is furnished with modern furniture, lighting, and sanitation. Instruction extends through the eighth grade, and basketball is only a playground activity. It employs four teachers.
Waveland Public School is a brick building located on Coleman Avenue in Waveland. It was erected at a cost of $12,000.00. This school is an accredited grammar school and employs five teachers, and all classes through the eighth grade are taught. It is equipped with modern seating, lighting, and heating and has a large well-lighted auditorium with a seating capacity of two hundred. Music is taught under the W. P. A., and basketball is a playground activity. This school has a small library, a branch of the W. P. A. county library. It has classes in domestic science, and music and nature are taught under W. P. A. There is also a 4-H club.
Waveland has a small one-teacher school for colored children. This is a wooden structure located on Waveland Avenue, the building costing $300.00. Instruction is given through the grammar grades.
The Edwardsville School is located in Beat V, three and one-half miles from Bay St. Louis on Bayou Choctaw. It is a one-room wooden structure costing $1,000.00. It is comfor-
tably furnished though the furniture is home made. A live branch library is maintained in the community under the W. P. A., but there is none in the school. Work is carried through the grammar grades, and a small basketball court furnished playground activity.
The Gulfview School, located at Lakeshore in Beat V one mile north of the seawall, is a wooden structure costing $4,000.00. It is furnished throughout with modern furniture, but is heated by stoves. In addition to the twenty-four volumes owned by the school, the W. P. A. county library furnishes books to this school library. Instruction is given from primary through the eighth grades. Music is taught under the W. P. A., and basketball is a playground activity.
The Logtown School is located in the town of Logtown in Beat 1. It is a two-story building built of wood at a cost of $4,000.00. This is a consolidation of the Pearlington and Westonia Schools, and pupils are transported by bus. It is equipped with modern seating and lighting and has running water and sanitary fixtures. This school does not maintain a school library. Instruction is offered from primary through grammar grades, and athletics is taught on a small scale. There is a 4-H club.
In the northern part of Beat 1 is located what is known as “The Point,” the colored grammar grade school. It is a wooden structure which cost $1,000.00. It is fairly well and modernly furnished but has no sanitary fixtures. Work extends through the eighth grade.
In the southern end of Beat 1 in Pearlington is another colored school. It is a large two story wooden building which cost $800.00. This school has rather modern equipment but no sanitary fixtures. Work is carried from primary to eighth grades, but nothing is offered other than the regular courses.
Gainesville School is located at Gainesville in Beat 1. The building is a one-room building with a small stage at the back which cost $400.00. The seats are homemade, but comfortable. A library is maintained, the books being furnished by the W. P. A. county library. Nothing but the regular courses through the grammar grades is offered other than the nature study under the W. P. A.
There is also a small one-teacher colored school in Gainesville. The cost of the building is estimated at $200.00. It has practically no furniture, only long straight back benches which serve as desks as well. Instruction is given through the grammar grades, but no extra work is offered.
The Aaron Academy School is located in Beat 2 at the intersection of Highways 11 and 90. It is a new concrete block building just completed with W. P. A. funds at a cost of $10,000.00. It is furnished throughout with modern furniture and has a large auditorium and artesian water. This school being a consolidation of Turtle Skin, Dead Tiger, and Gravel Pit Schools, transportation by bus is provided. The twenty-four books provided by the school as a beginning of a library has been supplemented with twenty volumes from the W. P. A. county library. This is an accredited grammar grade school with work offered in all subjects required in grammar grades. There is a 4-H club, and nature study is offered through the medium of the W. P. A. Training is given in basketball, and many match games are played with other schools.
The Clermont Harbor School is located in Beat 5 at Clermont Harbor, half-way between the seawall and the railroad. It is a small wooden building erected in 1935 at a cost of $500.00. It is not consolidated but carries work through the eighth grade. The required courses are taught. This school employs one teacher.
The Leetown School is a wooden structure located in the northern part of Beat 3, built at a cost of $1000,00. It is fairly well furnished, but has mostly home made furniture. This school has no library. Bus transportation is furnished the pupils. This is a small consolidated school employing only three teachers. Basketball is played only as a playground activity. There is a 4-H club here.
The Caesar High School is a line school, being located partly in Pearl River County and partly in Hancock County, in Beat 3. It is a large wooden building which cost $3,000.00 and is equipped throughout with modern furniture, sanitary fixtures, etc. Bus transportation is furnished by both counties. It is a senior high school, but part of the work comes under the work of Pearl River County. Courses are offered in the regular courses from primary through a four year high school course. Athletics are offered on a small scale, being more of a playground activity than a course.
The Catahoula School, located in Beat 3 between Leetown and Kiln, is a very attractive wooden building which cost $6,000.00. It is equipped throughout with all modern furniture and has a library, a branch of the W. P. A. county library. Bus transportation is furnished throughout the county. This is a grammar school. Work is carried on through the entire grammar grade course. The school has an active 4-H club.
The Kiln Vocational High School is located in Beat 3 at Kiln, Mississippi. It is a large two story building erected in 1916 at a cost of $40,000.00, including a “Teachers’ Home.” At present an addition is being built at a cost of $15,000.00. This is being built with funds allotted through the W. P. A. It is furnished throughout with modern furniture, running water, and sanitary fixtures and maintains a good library, books being furnished by the W. P. A. county library. Pupils are transported by bus. This is a senior high school, and instruction is offered in home science, music, and athletics, a professional coach being employed for training the students in both basketball and football. Made possible by the Smith-Hughes Bill, agriculture is taught here. Each boy in addition to the textbook work has an objective such as raising a bale of cotton, an acre of corn, etc. There is also a 4-H club.
The Sellers Vocational High School is located on the northern line between Harrison County and Hancock County in Beat 4. This school is built of wood at a cost of $40,000.00. It has a teachers’ home and a domestic science department. It also offers courses in agriculture. It is furnished throughout with modern seating and lighting and has sanitary fixtures throughout the school and teachery—an addition is being built now under the W. P. A.
Another Consolidated Vocational Senior High School is the Dedeaux School, is the Dedeaux School, also on the line between Harrison County and Hancock County in Beat 4 several miles south of the Sellers School. It is a two-story cement block building built in 1932 with funds furnished by the P. W. A. [WPA?] and local subscriptions at a cost of $25,000.00 including teachers’ home. It was stuccoed under the C. W. A. in 1933. It is well furnished and modernly equipped and has all modern conveniences. It has a domestic science department, and agriculture is taught here.
The Fenton colored school is located at Fenton in Beat 4. This is a small wooden building costing $400.00. This is a grammar grade school.
At Catahoula in Beat 4 is the Catahoula Colored School. This is a small wooden building costing $600.00 and gives instruction through the grammar grades.
The Jourdan River colored school is located at Kiln, Mississippi, in Beat 4. It is a large rambling wooden building which cost $1,500.00, and the work is carried on through the grammar grades. It has fairly good homemade furniture.
The Bagget School for colored children is located in Beat 4 between Catahoula settlement and Catahoula. It is a small one-room poorly furnished wooden building which cost $350.00. Classes are taught through the grammar grades.
4-H clubs have been organized in the Bay High, Waveland, Logtown, Aaron Academy, Flat Top, Leetown, Catahoula, Kiln, and Sellers Schools. These have been organized under the county agent, Mr. John Bozeman, and they are very active.
The Bay St. Louis High School has a very active P. T. A. and the Taylor, Waveland, and Logtown Schools each maintains a small P. T. A. Some of the other schools have small mothers’ clubs, but these are not part of the P. T. A.
In the Bay St. Louis City School system, a regular monthly faculty meeting is held, but this is not a custom throughout the county.
Bay St. Louis, Sellers, Kiln, and Dedeaux are equipped for cafeterias, but with the financial conditions of patrons, lunches have been provided by the government, and cafeterias have not been active other than a place for these free lunches to be prepared.
Living conditions for teachers throughout the rural section are much improved. Many of the schools have a teachers’ home where teachers live on a “pool expenses” basis. Under the work of the health department and home science department, homes are more comfortable and sanitary. Then, too, a great many of the teachers are home people which shows an advancement along the lines of education.
All grade teachers must have two years of college work before they are accepted as teachers, and three-fourths of the high school teachers must have a college degree, or the high school is not credited. Great stress is laid on background, youth, personal appearance, and personality as well as educational preparation.
The county boasts of no private schools other than the two Catholic schools for boys and girls written up in “Schools of Yesterday.” There are no senior or junior colleges, no commercial schools, and no private kindergartens.
OMISSION FROM “SCHOOLS OF TODAY” – an interview with Mr. John Craft.
“I was born in ______________[unreadable], Mississippi in Hancock County, August 27, 1885. I am the oldest son of Mr. And Mrs. S. J. Craft. I attended the public schools of the county at that time, and in 1902 was graduated from the Poplarville High School in Pearl river County. I afterwards attended a short course at the South Mississippi College at Hattiesburg. After teaching a few terms in the schools of the county, I was subsequently elected principal of the Waveland Public School, and in the summer of 1907 was elected county superintendent of education. My term of office began in January 1908 and [I] served three terms until 1920 after which time I became connected with the Railway Mail Service with headquarters in New Orleans, LA. Some of the principal outstanding events during my regime from 1908 to 1920 dealing with educational work of the county may be mentioned as follows: the re-organization of the Hancock County Teachers’ Association, the establishment of rural libraries, the introduction of the club work, re-districting the school districts, the consolidation of the rural schools. In the early part of the summer of 1912, much interest was evinced among the people of the county in regard to increased production of crops, due to the fast approaching effects of the World War [WW I]. This led to the organization of the first county fair, which was held at Bay St. Louis, the county seat, in the early fall of 1915. A wonderful display of farm products was made, and there was every evidence that the people of the county as a whole were thoroughly aroused over the necessity of increased production and proved that the soil of the county was well adapted to the production of varied crops. So much enthusiasm in this feature of the work was shown that accordingly the Board of supervisors voted increased donation to employ a county farm agent to carry forward the work and to make permanent the organization of the county fair.
“While all these improvements meant for the betterment of the county, the most outstanding, however, during this period from 1908 to 1920 was the consolidation of the rural schools. Up until this time no definite districts of the schools of the county had ever been made. Accordingly the county school board of education, composed at that time of men selected for their ability and general knowledge of county affairs, in open session passed an order authorizing a new map to be made of the schools of the county and set about the task of redistricting and locating the schools thereon. The board was composed at that time in the personnel of Asa S. Weston of Logtown, Beat 1; Wiley Smith, Picayune, Beat 2; Price W. Lee, Caesar, Beat 3; W. A. Cuevas, Genton, Beat 4; and George Hicks Edwards, bay St. Louis, Beat 5. At that time of redistricting the schools of the county, much agitation was being made throughout the state in behalf of consolidation, many counties being already organized along these lines. Pearl river County on the north had already organized many schools of this kind as well as Harrison County on the east. It was soon evident that Hancock County would eventually fall in line if she was to keep pace with the rapidly developing educational activity that was taking place throughout the state. To those most interested in the work at the time, at least three features in the consolidation of forty-four one-teacher schools in Hancock County stood out in bold relief as some of the results that would bring better and improved conditions to the schools of the county. Aside from joining in the educational progress of the state, the most noted conditions under the head of improvement were better health conditions, rural life activity, and the trained rural teacher. Under the old system, none of this could be had, but it was evident under the head of better health conditions more comfortable furniture could be had, water coolers, individual drinking cups, and in general all around sanitation. It meant also a better knowledge of beautifying the school grounds; …[it meant] the introduction of conveniences in the home so as to make life in rural school communities more attractive; but last, but not least, in consolidation meant the introduction of trained teachers. These and many other features could be had only by means of consolidation. When the campaign was put on the work [???], much opposition was met on the part of many, the chief objection being increased taxation, but after much effort on the part of the county superintendent and others, this objection was overcome and the Sellers School was formed out of the Crane Creek, the Cap Ladnier, and parts of Stanford schools, in the fall of 1914 and was officially designated The Sellers Consolidated School. The year later, 1915, the Dedeaux Line was formed out of Dedeaux, Sand Hill, Orphan Creek, and Standard. 1916 saw the beginning of the Kiln Consolidated School which embraces a large taxing unit and is composed of Kiln, Necaise, Fenton, Faye, and part of Sand Hill Schools, making one of the largest of the kind in the state and pronounced by the state superintendent of education as one of the outstanding units of consolidation. The enrollment in the first session was over 400pupils, and the school proper was dedicated in the fall of 1916, and the Hon. H. E. Blakeslie of Jackson delivered the dedication address. Two years later, 1918, the Lakeshore School was formed out of Clermont Harbor, Ansley, and Lakeshore areas. Thus, the number of one-teacher schools in the county had been reduced to more than one half by the close of 1919.
“Since that time some improvement has been added from time to time with no material change, and [it] must be admitted that more constructive work and measures [?] were inaugurated and carried forward during these administrations than at any period during the history of Hancock County’s school work. Gradually opposition gave away, and everyone came to realize the schools faced a new era in a more prosperous way. At that time[sic] [Prior to that time] with few exceptions, the county furnished no teachers and children had a poor opportunity in which to complete a high school course. Today that has been changed, and many deserving boys and girls have been enabled to complete a high school course that otherwise would not have done so had it not been for consolidation. It has inspired new ideas and ambition in country life and has unquestionably carried town and city opportunities to the country child for an education. Today with good school advantages in every community there is hardly an excuse for any boy or girl not receiving at least a high school course. The idea of consolidation in Mississippi has been logical as it has been the only means of carrying the best school advantages to all the people.”
SUPPLEMENT TO WPA PROJECT 1937
Mr. T. E. Kellar held the office of county superintendent in Hancock County from 1919 to 1927. Mr. Kellar was a native of Hancock County. He received his early education at Aaron Academy and his college training at Clark Memorial College and Mississippi Normal College.
During his administration several small schools were abolished and pupils transported by bus to one school. Mr. Kellar was also responsible for the introduction of field day, county fair, corn clubs, pig clubs, and sewing circles.
During his term of office bonds were issued for the building of the Dedeaux School. Also the Sellers main building was rebuilt, having been destroyed by fire, and home economics and teachers’ home were built.
Mr. Kellar’s salary was $1800 per year, and this was increased to $2500.
Mr. Everett [D. J. Everett] served as county superintendent of education from 1928 to 1932. He served during the “fat years” and took advantage of the opportunity for improvement. During his term of office the length of term of rural schools was extended from seven to eight months, and teachers’ salaries were increased.
Lakeshore and Aaron Academy schools installed libraries, and playground equipment was provided in many schools through his influence. Schools throughout the county were completely equipped with new modern equipment, and athletics were made a part of school work. Modern sanitary toilets were installed in the Lakeshore, Logtown, and Dedeaux schools, and outdoor toilets were installed in Aaron Academy, Catahoula, and Leetown schools.
In an interview with Mr. Albert McQueen on March 3 [1937], he said “I was born in Louisiana, but when quite a small boy, my parents moved to Hancock County to the Aaron Academy community and lived here ever since.
“My early education through grammar grades was secured at the Aaron Academy school which was typical of the country schools of that day. I attended the Pearl River County A. H. S., Clark Memorial College at Newton, Mississippi, and State Teachers’ College at Hattiesburg. After finishing my education, I taught for several years at Lakeshore, Mississippi, and later at Waveland. In 1931 I was elected to the office of county superintendent of education and served one four year term from 1932-1936.
“I held office during a very trying time when ‘The Depression’ was at its peak and funds were low. Teachers’ salaries had been reduced, and even then they were not being paid regularly. In the face of all this, I was able to do some very worthwhile work.
“During my term of office federal aid was secured under the C. W. A. At Catahoula the school building was painted, grounds were cleared and filled, and some shrubbery planted.
“[unreadable] the school in a line school, the building was remodeled and an extra classroom added.
“When I went into office, there were one Class B school and two Class C schools in the county, and during the four years I raised this standard to six Class B (Dedeaux, Sellers, Kiln, Logtown, Lakeshore, and Catahoula) and four Class C schools. At that time there were sixteen teachers who were high school graduates or below, and when I retired, there were only three teachers with less than two years of college work.
“Methods of transportation were very much improved. Old buses were replaced by new ones, and [the] number of buses increased.
“Dead Tiger and Gravel Pit [schools] were abolished, and these children attended Aaron Academy school. The Bayou Lacients School was abolished, these pupils attending Bay St. Louis, and Bayou LaCroix and Cameron special [were] abolished, and [the] pupils [were] sent to Lakeshore School. The Dedeaux School was given an extra heavy coat of stucco, and this was paid for by district funds.
“A new school building was erected at Flat Top, Beat 2, at a cost of $2,500. This was built with common school fund money.
“I consider the building of the Teachers’ Home at Catahoula my most outstanding achievement. This is a five-room house erected at a cost of $2,500, under the P. W. A.[W.P. A.?]. The building is equipped for running water and lighting, but this has not been installed.
“The Clermont Harbor School was built at the request of the people of the community. It is a one-room building erected at a cost of $500, the patrons providing the funds.”