The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-09-24
II q la

recent sketches in the News and OBJ.
server relating the experiences anC
observations of your correspondents ir
/ the cause of education. These interest
| ing sketches have awakened in my
mind the dormant memories of my
boyhood reaching back for more thar
half a century When / was a mere
lad of five or six years old, one OF
| those old-time teachers (Thos f. An
thony) taught school in a log cabin
near my home in DaVie county The
house was "chinked and daubed," COW
cred with boards and fastened down
with weight balls The fireplace was
about eight feet wide with stick and
dirt chimney. The benches consisted
of logs split in halves, set upon pegs
The house was built on an elevated
| spot near a cool spring about one mile
| from my fathers. The teacher board
ed with us and was employed to teach
| for a term OF twelve months. There
was a long window on the side of the
house, and long wide plank spanning
the window on which we learned to
write. The teacher sat in one corner
behind a table with a bunch of hick-
orys over his head which he used
freely on our backs. The house was
full of boys and girls. The old Blue
Back speller, English reader, Pike S
arithmetic and Mitchells geography,
and for those further advanced Muir
RVS English grammar were our text
books. Our highest ambition was to
spell, read, write and cipher and
those that reached the Single Rule
of Three were to be enved. During
school hours, the babel of noise, spell
ing and reading aloud, and now and
then, the voice of the master" call
ing out, Mind your books" could be
heard far out in the grove. The mas
ter kept sharp knife to make our
pens of goose quilts. Our paper on
which we learned to write, was ruled
off in lines with a pencil. The teacher
would carry me on his back to school
on a cold morning and then whip me
for some mischief, and as he said, to
scare the others On every Friday
evening he would arrange two long
lines of the pupils out in the yard to
spell by heart" not being room in the
house.
There was a captain on each side,
and first choice was gained by throw
ing up crops and pile" with a pocket
knife, and the selection was continued
till all the school were chosen The
spelling was from the old Blue Back,
and the excitement ran high, as one
would miss, and the other side spell
the word. Column after column was
given out by the master, till
all but one on each side were down.
And then came the try of war" till
finally one side or the other gained
the victory, amid the shouts of tho
pupils, when school was dismissed. The
master would read the rules of the
school every Monday morning and
woe be to the boy or girl who dared
break the rules. | remember one
of the rules was Rise at five in the
morning, wash your face, comb your
hair and repair to school; loiter not
by the way, and speak politely to all
you meet on the roads, etc. There was
always a jolly time at Xmas, to turn
the master out, and force him to give
holiday. and treat on cider and ginger
cake. During play hours the boys
enjoyed much sport in foot racing,
jumping, Bull PEN "Round Cat"
and Leap Frog. and the girls in
jumping the rope, "Old Sister Phere'
and "Chicky my Granny Co. But as
primitive and strange as these things
may seem now there went out from
these old-field schools men and women
who adorned and enriched the pages
of North Carolina history Marshal
Ney).
But, if your readers are Interested
in this desultry sketch, | will relate
the most important epoch in my school
life, by stating that in the years
1878 | was a pupil of the celebrated
Peter S. Ney and as l shall prove be-
yond a doubt, he was Napoleon's great
Marshal of France. 1t was while he
was teaching in Iredell county on
Hunting Creek and when l was some
ten or twelve years of age. This school
was then patronized by the Youn9s,
the Houstons, Allisons, Cartons
Gathers, and many of the most prom
inent men of the county, many of
whose sons afterwards filled the high
est positions in social, political and
religious life. NO section OF the Old
North State can show a better record
in the way % educating her sons and
daughters at an early period than can
Iredell, Davie, Rowan. and cthcr coun-
ties lying along the east side of the
Blue Ridge. Colleges and high schools
We're not accessible, as they are now,
but as heads of families procured the
best of teachers for the log cabin
schools their children were often bet
ter educated than many in the high
grades are now. p. S. Ney was one.
of the most noted of these old-time
teachers. 1t was during the year 1916
he first appeared in South Carolina,
Carolina where he followed teaching.
The parents and pupils without sim
gle exception, firmly believed that he
was the celebrated Marshal Ney, Ma
poleon's "Bravest of the Brave" who
according to all history, was CON-
demned to die for high treason, was
shot on the seventh day of Decem-
Der, 1915, in the garden of Luxem-
burg. He died in Rowan county and
was buried at Third Creek church and
over his grave is a marble slab, bear
ing the following inscriptions
I'm memory OF
Peter Stuart Ney,
One of Napoleon Bonaparte's marshals
and a soldier in the French Revolu-
ton, who died November 18TH 1916
aged II years
The first day l entered the school
l was forcibly struck with the appear
ance of the teacher at his desk. lie
turned in his seat and cailed me ID
him, and in his broken FfCncn brogue
asked me my name. Somewhat awed
at his stern and commanding mlen,
told him my name was Henry James
Foote. Placing one arm around me
as I stood at his desk, he replied,
your name is James Henry Foote, F."