Smyrna times., 1931-12-30
SMYRNA FIFTY YEARS AGO AS
REVAMPED FROM OUR FILES
ITEMS ABOUT SMYRNA FROM
SMYRNA TIMES, DEC. %, 1881
Notes of Marriages, Deaths, Real
Estate Deals and Matters of In
terest of Half Century Ago

Estate Deals and Matters of In
terest of Half Century Ago
(The Smyrna Times has started
TO look back over its files and tell
what happened around the correspond
ing date of this issue. a half century
ago. We hope to make this a regular
weekly feature. If it does nothing else,
II will call to mind people and events
OF that day that should be interesting
TO the present generation. We hope
our readers will find it interesting and
that it will make the Times more eag-
erly sought and read-Editor.l
Our Public Schools. - The pro
gress of our public schools is a
matter that interests all our peo-
pie, though but few take the time
to personally attend the exercises
in the school room. Thursday and
Friday last were set aside for
special examination in all the de-
partments, and in a personal at
tendance we found the several
rooms in good working order. The
first entered was the primary,
taught by Miss Lizzie Mcdowell,
There is very much in any object
or enterprise in starting right, and
If we are any judge, this school
has the proper termination. They
start right at the root principal,
and grow in the most proper and
natural way on to graduation. In
a manner of tender regard coupled
with authority so well regulated
that it regulates itself, the little
ones, whose first lessons are in
s'object teaching" soon learn the
natural sound of the letters the
aspirants, the labiants, etc, Just as
they occur in speaking or pro
nouncing word. They are
brought up in classes of fifteen to
twenty at time and taught from
a Phonetic chart and words writ
ten on the blackboard. With
class of seventy or eighty untutor-
ed minds no other method could be
used successfully. a child that is
not utterly obtuse can scarcely
fail to become interested in the
object before it and learn, whether
it has any purpose in so doing or
not. Every child has slate which
employs its time when not reciting.
They commence to form the let
tiers, figures and words on states
simultaneously with teaching them
on the chart, and thus spelling,
reading, and writing are all learn
ed at the same time and by the
same mental process. This root"
work serves the double purpose of
keeping them out of mischief while
they are laying the best founda-
ton for the building of an English
education. The third and fourth
departments are also in the same
house, the first taught by Miss
Annie Doughten and the second by
Miss Emma Hough. Miss Dough-
tens class in Geography had just
finished and the class in that thry-
ing study to initial mathematians,
mental arithmetic, were sum-
moned before their teacher and in
the main got through the puzzling
questions promptly. Miss Hough's
classes in spelling, weights and
measure and mental arithmetic
gave evidence of precision and
readiness, especially in the two
first studies. The order in these
two rooms was beautiful if we may
use a ladies word-every move
ment is by the tap Of the bell and
with the regulation of the clock. |
The departments at No. 3 school
house, the second, fifth and sixth,
are taught respectively by Mrs. NJ.
f. Smithers, Miss Lizzie Parrot
and Levin Irving Handy, Principal,
who has an oversight over the
while. Mrs. Smither's room, in
which a class was heard in spell
ing. is not adapted to the needs of
so many scholars in any way, and
no one can visit it without being
impressed with the Importance of
a consolidated school house where
the scholars can have comfortable
quarters and all can De more OIL
rectiy under the care of the prime
ipal. Miss Lizzie PARROTS room,
which is in order next to the grad
uating one, presented bright class
es in grammar and mental arithe-
rnetic, but as in the other depart
ments, this latter subject of alb
stract thought was not helped in
individual solution by the presence
of critical spectators. The second
day her pupils did both themselves
and teacher credit in some good
reading and defamation. Mr..
Handy's room is occupied with
those mostly well on in their teens,
in such studies as history, geomet-
ry, higher arithmetic, algebra, lat
in, etc. In the last named study
there is a class of about a dozen.
Until the consolidation of the
schools this last and some of the
other studies were not in the cur
riculum, the consequence being the
resumption of school by a number
80 -f,,Iay,4e ,1rano.,road fnicLaJ Of