Pocahontas star herald., 1924-06-13

and bad whiskey and predicted the
end and have hardly ever missed my
guess and as | expect this TO he my
last rendition for publication because
of my poor health | want 10 plead win
the young people, possibly the last
admOnitiOn | shall ever give, beware
beware of immoral and bad company
1t will surely ruin you as it has mil
lions of others, in the name Of all
that's good and great and for all that
is near and dear to you, father, mother
and friends, heed Brainard's solemn
warning as his last on earth. The
moose and cap were adjusted, he plac-
ed the knot at the proper place with
his own hand and in clear voice
said farewell, vain world" as the trig-
ger sprang and they swung off into
eternity.
Well, we were beginning TO progress
slowly and in three or four years be-
gan to try tofstart a few scattering
public schools with the poorest equip
ment and teachers you can imagine
Early in 1876 my father exchanged
places and secured n farm ON upper
Fourche just in Ripley county. 80 l
next year they began to organize
schools up there with no better equip
ment there. S25 to S33 1-3 was the
average price paid teachers and often
girl teachers would teach for $50. l
still had to work The old farm that
father had gotten was an old run
down farm, two little pole cabins about
GO yards, apart for habitations, punch
con floors, one the boards were nailed
on, weight poles TO hold the other one
The old bottom field was splendid land
and old Uncle Elijah Dalton told TO
his own knowledge that field had been
in cultivation exclusively in corn for
60 years. / made 800 bushels of corn
on 10 acres of land that year and it
has produced well ever since. 1t is
now 120 years old. After my crop
was finished | helped my father build
a water mill on Fourche known as the
Johnston mill, later the Keel mill. l
helped father build houses and barns,
logs of course, and then / married.
We began TO organize a school and
built log school house and John Pull
liam and j put a roof on IL and had
a three months summer school. The
house burned down and we built anoth-
er one and had more schools. Now !
can't refrain from relating some per-
sonal experiences just here. We were
ahead of other communities as we had
a school house and school three months
in the year. But just north of us,
on Fourche, a splendid old man, a
who had lost leg in the war,
took up a little subscription school
and had a little bunch that was not
large enough to work. Then they stud
led aloud and the pupils would trot
up TO the teacher holding his finger TO
a word for the teacher TO tell him how
TO spell il. So a little urchin went be-
fore the teacher holding his finger
hard by a word. The old teacher look
ID at il and said gill" The little |
Garner skipped his finger down TO the
next. There ii was again, gill" The |
I'D teacher pondered In his mind
minute and said, "Well, just leave out
me Of them out as there is no use in
spelling il twice" Another case, |
vas grown and married and had been
Elevated to school director, a position
If which l was keenly proud. 1t was
getting time to secure teacher for
,ur school. The county then had a
.ounty trustee who licensed the teach
,rs. Usually the directors would get |
Ogether and recommend To the county |
rustee n certain person to he licensed |
o teach our school One of the direc-
ers c5gld not read or write and we
,thce two could do little better. Bye |
nd hyc a splendid old preacher came
q see mo after he had got the consent |
II the other two and wanted me to
lcquiesce. So acting ON my own in
tiative. / constituted myself into an
board and proceeded TO
lsk him some pertinent questions about |
,edigogy to which he replied that he
vas a pretty good reader and when he
vas young he wrote pretty good hand
md was a fairly good speller. | then
lsk him how he was I'm grammar and |
He said when he was in
ichool he had been way over in frac-
ions but guessed he would he little |
'usty now and stopped. | then told |
lin that we had some pupils, young |
aides who had come from the north, |
who would want TO study grammar.
Well" said he'll never studied ii a |
lay in my life but you know one can
AXE the book and teach 1t like geogra-
lhy." The result was that our fellow
ownsman. W. II. Johnston, taught our
next school and | must say to his
,redit that il was the first real one
room school ever taught at JOhnston's
Chapel. as ii is now known. Those
Did would-be teachers, We're Of the very
best citizens. loved and honored by all
and many of their pOsterity are scat
tered all over the country and we all
love them and appreciate them. | do
not mention these incidents TO reflect
or criticize their noble and honest
efforts in the least, but with great re-
spect for their efforts in doing what
they could to help conditions.
had settled little farm and had
this same little log cabin before de-
scribed. | had a good old neighbor
who lid not work. lie had il done.
He liked to talk and argue. ! did not
have time to do the former nor sense
and information 10 do the latter hut
he would come over and follow me
around and talk while ! worked. In
speaking of the wonderful progress.
and inventions that had
been accomplished he said they had