A History of the Simpson High School, Vernon Parish Louisiana Submitted by Chere Lee Date: November 1, 2013 ************************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************** A Brief History of the Simpson High School By Josiah Peavy First Principal of the School This short history of the Simpson High School was written during the month of February, 1964. Let us imagine that we see the Simpson Community as it appeared eighty or ninety years ago. At that time the community had not been named Simpson. Why the community was Simpson will be explained on another page in this booklet. Almost the whole community was covered with longleaf pine trees, the most valuable lumber tree in this section of the United States. The longleaf pine was the natural habitat of the horned owl. At night his who-who-who was good music for the citizens. This owl is now almost extinct. Wild game, such as deer, turkeys, and squirrels, was abundant. People did not have to hunt the squirrels, because the forests were alive with them. There were multitudes turkeys, raccoons, opossums, foxes, rabbits, and snakes. The citizens lived in rude log houses. These houses had chimneys made of clay. Cooking was done in pots, in the fireplace. In some families the cooking, eating, and sleeping were all done in one room. Most of the wood used was pineknots. They made a hot fire and plenty of black smoke and soot. Mr. John DENNIS (brother of George DENNIS) lived where Mr. Almon WALTERS lives now, and he built the first lumber house that was ever built in Simpson Community. He dressed his lumber by hand and built a really nice house. He painted it white. The house has since been remodeled and is the home of Mr. Almon WALTERS. Everybody was poor. Some one may say that they are still poor. No, they are not still poor. They are rich. They have everything they need. Let us compare our present living condition with the living condition eighty years ago. Children worked hard in the fields. The mothers had a hard time. In addition to working in the fields and doing the cooking, they carded the ginned cotton into rolls about one inch in diameter, then spun the rolls into thread with the spinning jenny, they wove the thread into cloth with the loom. The cloth was then made into clothing for the family. Since there were no sewing machines, all the sewing was done by hand. Many mothers and their daughters carded and spun till bedtime. Most of the children got only one pair of shoes each year. When the farmer sold his cotton in the fall, he bought shoes for the family to wear during the winter. Some of the young ladies got a pair of "Sunday shoes" occasionally, and these shoes were given the best of care. Some of the girls carried their shoes in their hands till they were near the church, then they put them on and wore them to church. When they started back home, and were a short distance from the church, they pulled off their shoes and carried them in their hands. At home they either went barefoof or wore an old ragged pair of shoes. Knowing how to work, and how to obey, and how to be saving are some of the finest character builders in the world. We should not be surprised that our ancestors were such wonderful people. In those days there were no roads such as we have now. Hauling was done with wagons drawn by oxen. The wagons beat out a rough path among the tall pines. When a tree fell across the road, a road was made round it. Some of the larger creeks had bridges made of slabs split from large oak trees. Some of the creeks and almost all the branches had fords instead of bridges. Many of the streams had footlogs to walk across on. Some people could not walk a footlog, so they crawled across on their hands and knees. They called this "cooning the log," because that is the way a raccoon crosses on a log. Usually a narrow trail led from one home to another. By about the year 1870, two churches had been organized in what is now Simpson Community, namely, a Methodist Church and a Christian Church. The Methodist meeting house was a small log house in the big piney wood near Pine Island Cemetery. The Christian Church had a little log meeting house at Mt. Pleasant Cemetery. Books were very scarce. Many families did not have even a Bible. But books would not have been of much value, because not many people could read. Newspapers were almost unknown. The majority of the citizens did not get any mail. About 1870 a post office was established at Walnut Hill, about twelve miles from Simpson. Then the few Simpson people who got mail could get it at Walnut Hill. On September 29, 1891, a post office was established at Simpson. Mr. Bill JACKSON was the first postmaster, and he named the new office Simpson, in honor of Mr. SIMPSON, who had lived in the community several years before. The community was not known as Simpson before September 1891. Prior to that time it had no name. The Simpson people could now get their mail at Simpson post office, instead of having to go to Walnut Hill for it. Mr. Elijah WILLIAMSON was the first man who carried the mail from Simpson to Walnut Hill, and brought back the Simpson mail. He made the trip every Saturday. The Simpson people were glad to get mail so often every Saturday. Within a short time mail began to come every Tuesday and every Saturday. Sometime after this, mail began to come every day, except Sunday and holidays. Now, the mail comes three times each day. It has already been stated that during the early days of the Simpson Community, money was very scarce at Simpson, and not many of the citizens had any. When schools were first organized, some pupils did not have all the books they needed, and they did not have the money with which to buy them. Sometimes two pupils would use the same book, both looking at the lesson at the same time. This was a poor way to learn a lesson, but it was the best they could do. Free textbooks had never been thought of. What a blessing free books would have been! About 1892 Mr. Martin CRAGER lived at Simpson, and had a cotton field right where the school buildings are now. When his cotton was ready to be picked, he hired me to help pick it. When he paid me, I walked to Walnut Hill and bought a history of the United States, paying one dollar for it. I had been needing this book a long time. I was so happy! This precious old book is still in my library. When I pass Simpson School, I think of the time when I picked cotton right where the big school buildings are standing. When I was a boy, I was a pupil in three of the one-room schools in Simpson Community. Those three schools were Pine Island, Mt. Pleasant, and Glade Spring. In those days pupils did not have such good, wholesome food as they have now. I went to school many days when I had nothing for dinner but cornbread. One afternoon as I walked home from school with one of my schoolmates, as we were passing Pine Island Cemetery, he said to me, "Ain't tater and milk good, though?" We had been talking about good things to eat. I mention some of these things to show that the Simpson people have not always been rich. Let us be thankful that now we have plenty of everything we need,; plenty of good food, plenty of money, fine homes, elegant furniture, fine cars to drive over paved roads, etc. Some of the small schools used branch water. Sometimes the branch dried up into holes of water, and these holes had a scum over them. I shall never forget that we boys would carry the bucket to the branch, brush back the scum, dip up a bucket of yellow water, carry it to the house and set it on a little table. The thirsty pupils gathered round it, and drank greedily, all using the same drinking cup. Most of the schools were in session during the summer months only. If the school did not close before cool weather, we used a heater. We used pineknots for wood. We boys would go a short distance from the school-house and bring back all the pineknots we could hold in our arms, and throw them down on the floor by the heater. These pineknots made a quick, hot fire. Sometimes the stovepot got so hot that it fell down. Then the black smoke the ashes, and soot covered all of us. The fire had to be extinguished as quickly as possible, the pipe put back, and another fire built. I am sure that we all appreciate the fine school that we have now, but if we could spend one year in such schools as we had in pioneer days, we would appreciate our school still more, regardless of the fact that we estimate it very highly. The teachers who taught our schools seventy years ago were not educated, but they were well qualified to teach such schools as we had at that time. They were like everybody else; they had nothing to do with. Maps, charts, globes, libraries, and other helps had never been heard of. During the time of the small schools, pupils did not say, "I am in the second grade." They said, "I am in the second reader." "I am in the third reader." They did not say, "I am in the fourth grade." They said, "I am in the fourth reader." The teachers never did give any help on the next lesson. They just said, "Get the next lesson." They never gave the help that was necessary in order to "get the next lesson." Pupils were poorly graded. When I was "in the fourth reader," I had to learn to spell such words as gubernatorial, eleemosynary, hyperchondriacal, belleslettres, phantasmagorian, tintinnabulation. See McGuffey's Eclectric Speller, pages 130- 143. I am thankful that fourth-grade pupils are not required to learn to spell college words. A few years ago, I carried two small oaks to Simpson School and planted them by the front fence. They both grew well, but one of them was destroyed. The other one is now a beautiful oak. By the year 1904 several small schools had been organized in what is now the Simpson Community. These schools were Pine Island, Boswell, Glade Spring, Mt. Vernon, Welcome, Mt. Pleasant, Friendship, Lone Oak, Sillystine, and Possum Trot. School buses had never been heard of, so all the puils must walk to school regardless of the distance. These small schools were able to operate from one and half to five months each year. The length of the session was according to the number of pupils a school had. The more pupils a school had, the money it had, and the more money it had, the longer the term of school. In 1893, Pine Island had enough pupils to get nine months school, paying the teacher thirty dollars a month. Miss Lula GANDY was the teacher. In 1898 Possum Trot had only a few pupils, and had a term of one and half months school. I was the teacher and my salary was twenty-five dollars per month. I earned $37.50 that year. In 1899 this same school had more pupils, and had school three months. During that year I earned $75 by teaching. In this little school were some very fine pupils. Charles Hunt studied well and learned very fast. He soon began to teach in the small schools, then he entered Louisiana College, and finally became professor of mathmematics in that college. I regret that dear Charles died young. By the year 1904 some of the small schools had as many as six or seven grades, but only one teacher. One teacher cannot teach so many grades, and give the help the pupils deserve. In that same year I began to talk consolidation of the smaller schools. A consolidated school would not have any more grades, but it would have more teachers. A one-room school might have seven grades, but only one teacher; whereas a consolidated school might have seven grades, but it might have three teachers. Three teachers can teach seven grades better than one teacher can. The idea of consolidation was so new that at first the citizens were not interested in it. I well remember that several men met at Welcome school one day and talked about consolidating some of the small schools. After having discussed the matter, it was decided that a large school with two or more teachers would have so many disadvantages that it would be better to keep the small schools. Some of the people reasoned that a large school would have so many daily recitations, that the teachers could not know when all the classes had recited, and that some of the pupils might go home without having recited all their lessons. Those good people should not be blamed for thinking as they did. They were sincere and honest, and they did what they thought was best for the community. When the citizens decided not to consolidate, the schools, I went to Provencal to teach and never thought much more about the matter. One day early in 1905 I received a letter from the people, stating that they had decided to consolidate some of the smaller schools, and had decided to build a two-room school-house. They asked me to draw a plan for the building. This letter pleased me very much, and I sent them twenty dollars with which to buy building material. This was enough to buy 2,000 feet of good lumber. Mr. WARD (Winfred WARD's father) said this twenty dollars was the beginning of Simpson School so far as money concerned. This two-room house was the very beginning of what is now the Simpson High School. When the community did decide to build a two-room house, it seemed that interest mounted higher and higher till the whole community was ready to unite in doing the work. We are reminded of how the children of Israel cooperated and worked so hard to build the tabernacle of Moses. When people are united, and all pull in the same direction, they can do wonders; but when theyare divided, and all pull against one another, they ruin the whole community. We should learn to live for others, and not for self alone. By August 1905 the new two-room house was ready for the school to begin. The whole neighborhood was delighted. The good news had reached other communities, and young ladies and young gentlemen came from those communities to attend the school. Those who came from Stille were Miss Ella INGALLS, Mr. George BOSWELL, and Mr. David GORDY. Mr. Willie DOWDEN came from Kisatchie. Those from Hicks were Mr. Joe MAYO, Mr. James MAYO, Mr. John MAYO, and Mr. Pink COOLEY. Several pupils in the Simpson community, who had dropped out of the small schools, came back to school and were a great help to the school. Professor W.L. Ford, Parish Superintendent of Schools, was a great friend of the Simpson School, and did much to give the school a good beginning. Professor Ford was a real school man. I was the first principal of the school, and I regret that I was far from being qualified. The school would have made much better progress if I had known how to conduct it. It embarrasses me to think of the silly blunders I made. I hope I have been forgiven. Miss Maud HUSBANDS was the assistant teacher. She had just graduated from the college in Natchitoches. She was an excellent teacher, and everybody liked her. She was a great help to the school. The 1905-6 session of seven months began in August. The session of 1906-7 was seven months. The principals of the Simpson School from the beginning of the school to the present time have been Joshua PEAVY, Maud HUSBANDS, Edmon WISE, Luther JORDAN, J.F. WATTS, W.H. JOHNSON, Steve ARNOLD, E.E. PARKER, and Floyd JACKSON, Jr., the present principal. Every one of these principals (I am not including myself) was most excellent. They were well qualified, and did work that was indeed commendable. I think of them all, and I wish I could see them at least once more, and ask them to forgive me. Their efforts made Simpson High School one of the best high schools in Louisiana. The School Board Members from the beginning of the school in 1905 to the present time have been Nathan GRANT, George BOSWELL, Bill GORDY, Joe MILLER, Lemmie JACKSON, and Hermon PARKER, the present member. All these men were fine board members, and did all they could to help Simpson School. We have been most fortunate in having such good men to represent us I must say that Mr. Hermon PARKER is the right man in the right place. I am bound to say that Mr. Hermon PARKER is the right man in the right place. I bestow much honor upon those good citizens who were living in the Simpson Community at the beginning of the Simpson High School, and did so much to get the school started. I feel sure that a community of a better people could not have been found. As the Bible says, "They had a mind to work." I like to honor such names as BENNETT, BURNS, BOOKER, BRINKLEY, BROWN, COOLEY, DENNIS, GORDY, HARVILLE, HICKS, HOLTON, JACKSON, LEWIS, MAYO, OWENS, PARKER, PAXTON, TEMPLE, TROTTI, WARD, WILLIAMSON, and others. These good men and women should be dear in the minds of all of us. During the first few years of the Simpson School, the pupils walked to school. There were no school transfers in those days. Some of the small schools continued to operate because they were so far away the children could not walk to Simpson. If we had school transfers, all the small schools would have come to Simpson the first year. The schools that were not in walking distance had to remain oen till they could get a transfer. The first school that Simpson had were wagons drawn by horses. When those big transfer wagons began to operate, other little schools were discontinued, and the pupils transferred to Simpson. In this way all the small schools were finally discontinued and the puils were transferred to Simpson. At first pupils who lived within two miles of the school had to walk to school, while those who lived over two miles from school were allowed to ride in the big wagon. In a short time the horse-drawn wagon was supplanted by the motor-driven bus. Then everybody was allowed to ride to school, regardless of the distance. Now big buses carry children many miles to Simpson School. Here are the names of the pupils who were enrolled in the Simpson School during the first two terms of school: Don BENNETT, Ollie HOLTON, Willie DOWDEN, Eva HOLTON, Jasper JACKSON, Dona WARD, Lemmie JACKSON, Winfred WARD, Odie JACKSON, Arthur WARD, Ezra JACKSON, Sebelle BENNETT, Archie JACKSON, Annie BENNETT, Oliver PARKER, Seola LEWIS, Effie WILLIAMSON, Lillie PAXTON, Crecy LEWIS, Susan JACKSON, Victoria COOLEY, Ida MOORE, Delilah COOLEY, Felder COOLEY, Gertie BOOKER, James PEAVY, Beulah JACKSON, Pink COOLEY, Della TEMPLE, Mary DENNIS, Bertie Owens, Pearl BENNETT, Bertha PARKER, Rosa JACKSON, Lydia PARKER, Belle JACKSON, Esther PARKER, Lula TEMPLE, Isabel TIPPIT, Lula BENNETT, Leah PARKER, Elvie BENNETT, Edna PARKER, Willie BENNETT, Sallie BROWN, Joe WILLIAMSON, Rebecca WILLIAMSON, George WILLIAMSON, Alva LEWIS, Rufus WILLIAMSON, Vallie PARKER, Homer JACKSON, Lizzie JACKSON, Calvin JACKSON, Ada HOLTON, Levi JACKSON, Hattie TEMPLE, Luther OWENS, Tom TEMPLE, Willie BROWN, Gertie BOOKER, Pat BROWN, Ella INGALLS, Bob PARKER, Wesley LEWIS, Ed TEMPLE, Joe MAYO, James MAYO, John MAYO, George BOSWELL, Edgar JACKSON, David JACKSON, Grover PARKER, Willie BOOKER, Ester HAMBY, Arthur BRINKLEY, Roscoe HICKS, Elijah JOWERS, Joe DENNIS, David GORDY, Allen JACKSON, Irvin TEMPLE, and Arthur PARKER. Annie Bennett was the first one of the pupils to die. She passed away August 26, 1906 at five o'clock in the afternoon. I still have a clear mental picture of her as she walked the narrow trail among the little pines, on her way home from school. I stood in the door and watched her as she walked away. Those tall pines in the school yard were at that time about three feet tall. Annie was sick only a few days. She was one of the best little girls I ever saw. I was standing by her bed when she passed away. Her father, Mr. Armstrong BENNETT, was in another room. I went to him and told him Annie had passed away. We both wept. One Sunday several years ago, I was at church at Simpson and watched a little baby crawl about on the rostrum. He was having plenty of fun but he crawled too near the edge of the rostrum, and fell to the floor. Fortunately the fall was only a few inches, so the baby was not hurt. Would you like to know who this baby was? Well, he turned out to be Professor Earl PARKER, one of our very best teachers and principals. I certainly admire this young man who has done so much to make the Simpson School a success. Once there was in the Simpson School a little girl named Lydia PARKER. I always loved Lydia's smiles. An old proverb says, "If you meet some one who does not know how to smile, show him how it is done." When I think of Lydia, I think of her friendly smiles. When she was a little girl, we often sang a song at church, which said, "Scatter bright smiles all around you, more precious than treasures of gold; they lighten the burdens of others, they cheer up the young and the old." One day during a geography recitation, I asked, "What is Ohio noted for?" Lydia wanted to be first to answer, so she spoke quickly, "Sheep and wheat." She smiled, and I made a picture of her, and that picture is still in my mind. "Sheep and wheat" was the correct answer. There was in the same school a little boy named Floyd JACKSON. Floyd was always a fine boy. He had no undesirable habits. I used to work on the farm for his father, and this gave me an opportunity to be with Floyd. The Bible tells us to bring up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Floyd and Lydia have proved to us that teh Bible is right. Their son, Russell is our assistant Parish Superintendent of Schools; and Floyd, Jr. is the principal of the Simson High School. I often think of the family, and I appreciate them very much. I wish I had space to write a real eulogy to each teacher, but in order to do that, I should have to write a book. I think our faculty is as good as could be found anywhere. Our teachers have made the Simpson High School one of the best in Louisiana, and I am sure that I am not the only one who apreciates this fact. All the good people whose children attend this school are due much honor for their cooperation in so many ways. They have certainly done a commendable part in making the school what it is. I also wish to make honorable mention of the janitors, the transfer drivers, and the lunchroom employees. I feel that a better selection could not have been made. Our school session for 1963-1964 is sure to be the best we have ever had. This does not mean that the previous years have not been good, for they were most excellent. But the school grows better each year; therefore, this year will be the best one we have ever had: and next year will be still better. The Simpson School began in 1905 in a two-room building. In a short time another was added to the house. Mr. John CARVER built it. Then we had a three-room school-house, which we thought would be all we should need for many long years. But we soon saw that we must have a still larger school-house, so in 1915 we built a two-story house having six class rooms. Then we felt sure that we had plenty of room for a long, long time to come. But soon our six-room house was too small, and in 1924 we built a modern three-story brick building containing eighteen class rooms. Then we knew that we had all the school-house we should ever need, but in 1938 we needed we saw that we needed more house room, so the high school building and the gymnasium were erected. In addition to these buildings, we now have a modern lunchroom, a music room, an auditorium, and an agriculture building. Thank the Lord for all these good things. **** Joshua A. Peavy March 7, 1878 / November 7, 1967 Vernon Parish Louisiana