Class _LCM51, 
Book_^BrLJfc 
folPgliiN" 



rgEBiiGin' deposik 



Piney Woods 

and 
Its Story 




Laurence C. Jones, Principal, and Capt. Asa Turner, Chairman 
Board of Trustees. 



PINEY WOODS 

AND 

ITS STORY 



By 
LAURENCE C. JONES 

Principal of the Piney Woods Country Life School. 

With an Introduction by 
S. S. McCLURE 




New York Chicago 

Fleming H. Revell Company 

London and Edinburgh 



Copyright, 1922, hj 
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 



s^^ 









©Ci.A696774 



New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave. 
London: 21 Paternoster Sqiiarc 
Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street 



MAR iOF;23 



•^V 



IlSrTRODUCTION 

THIS is the story, told by himself, of a 
Negro of education, intelligence and sen- 
sitiveness, who turned his back upon every- 
thing that usually makes life worth living for peo- 
ple of his kind and went, without money or influ- 
ence, or even an invitation, among the poorest and 
most ignorant of his race, for the sole purpose of 
helping them in every way within his power. 

He has told it persuasively and sincerely. It is 
a valuable human document ; a paragraph in a vital 
chapter of American history. I was glad to pub- 
lish in McClures Magazine the first record of his 
inspiring work. It is difficult to believe that there 
is any good citizen in this country, white or black, 
of whatever shade of belief in regard to the larger 
aspects of the " Negro question," who will not be 
glad to join with me in wishing God-speed to its 
author and the remarkable school he has built. 

S. S. McClure. 

\i W ^ nU'K. 



FOREWOED 

IT was during the lingering dusk of a never-to- 
be-forgotten evening, and the twilight im- 
parted a perfect serenity. In the west the 
sun had left in its trail a shimmer of red and gold, 
and only the evening hymns of birds obtruded on 
the silence. Finally Mrs. Harris, the dear wife of 
our constant friend, Dr. D. J. Harris, resumed the 
conversation and spoke of the increasing faith 
which her husband had in the work at Piney 
Woods and of the ultimate benefit that he felt 
would accrue from it for those for whom it was 
maintained; and she also remarked the interest 
with which he had read and re-read my little story, 
" Up Through Difficulties." Then, departing for 
the moment from her reminiscent mood, she said, 
speaking for herself : " It is a story, Mr. Jones, 
everyone should know. Piney Woods and its his- 
tory has taken itself out of the realm of mere 
friendly individual claim and praise, and now be- 
longs to the public. You not only owe it to the 
public, but to yourself as well, to gather and com- 
pile the sketches which from time to time you have 

T 



8 FOREWORD 

written, and, blending them with * Up Through 
Difficulties,' to issue the whole in form for the 
many rather than the few." 

Last summer also, during mj speaking tour on 
the Redpath Chautauqua Circuit, after each lec- 
ture I was asked by many people if I had pub- 
lished anything relative to my work in book form. 
And so, there you are, dear reader, and I trust, 
good friend. But I beg you not to think of this 
little book as the story of my life. It is much more 
than that; it is the story of that which to me is 
more than my life. It is the story of the lighting 
of a torch — a torch indeed, but one blazing like the 
sun, one which shall furnish a new and compelling 
inspiration to the children of many generations, 
each striving to perform his or her part in making 
brighter the home, the race, the community, the 
nation, and the world. 

And should not I, " Piney Woods " Jones, ac- 
knowledge my appreciation of the time and thought 
which my teacher. Miss Mary Grove Chawner, of 
college days and since, has given to the work? 
Should I not also remember with deep thankfulness 
Mr. Harvey Ingham, Mr. J. E. Reizenstein, Mr. 
Frank Hartman, Miss Inez C. Parker, Mr. F. A. 
Moscrip, Mr. Fred. Lazell, ard Mr. J. L. Waite, 
wh;, with their trenchant pens have stood loyally 



FOREWORD 9 

behind the school from the beginning ? I must also 
thank Miss Alice French, Rev. Benjamin Brawlej, 
and Col. Robert T. Kerlin for their kindness in 
reading the manuscript. For the effort of these 
friends, and for the kindness of all the others who 
are mentioned in these pages, who can tell mv 
gratitude ? From the bottom of my heart I thank 
them ; I thank them all to-day. 

Laurence C. Jones. 
Braxton, Miss. 



Contents 

I. My Own Beginnings . . . .15 

II. School-Days 33 

III. Pine-Knots and the Blue Sky . . 52 

IV. Log Cabin Days 77 

V. " Messages of Hope " .... 89 

VI. Widening Influences . . . .117 

VII. Ten Years After 130 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Winter and the Woodpile 
First Corn of the Season 



OPPOSITS VXQB 

Laurence C. Jones, Principal, and Capt. Asa 

Turner, Chairman Board of Trustees Title 

The Old Cabin 20 

Made into a School Building . . . .20 

At the Spring. Mr. Ed Taylor, who gave first 
$50 and land for the school, at left; Capt. 
Asa Turner in middle . . . .28 

. 46 

. 46 

First Graduating Class . . . . .62 

Faculty in Early Days . . . . .74 

Mrs. Laurence C. Jones . . . .86 

Girls in Boarding Department . . .96 

Mothers' Club 102 

Harris Hall, Dormitory that Burned . . 110 
Boys Living in Tents Afterwards . . . 110 

Young America ...... 120 

Class Making Baskets of Pine Straw . . 120 

Mrs. William Larrabee, of Iowa . . . 124 

Dulany Hall : Hon. James B. Weaver, of Iowa, 

standing in front 132 

Goodwill Hall: The Present School Building, 

1922 136 

Commencement, 1922 146 



I 

MY OWN BEGINNINGS 

WOODED hills, a shimmering river, and 
nigged cedar bluffs give St. Joseph a 
picturesque setting; mills and locomo- 
tives and steamboats keep it busy with travel and 
trade; while magnificent churches and schools, 
hotels and parks, give it civic pride and make it 
what it is — a pretty city, the busiest and richest of 
its size in the state of Missouri. 

Here I was bom and raised ; and as I think now 
of the many notable features of the town, if I were 
asked to name the single one that in point of beauty 
or interest surpasses all others, my reply would be 
hesitant and doubtful, but in the days when I was 
a little boy I should have answered promptly and 
even with a challenge : " The Pacific Hotel of 
course." 

The " Pacific " was not only one of the most 

popular hotels in the West; from front to rear, 

from cellar floor to the top of the tallest chimney, 

it was everything that makes a hotel equal to the 

demands of wealth and culture. Every good and 

16 



16 PINEY WOODS 

perfect pleasure seemed crowded within its walls- 
music and bloom and color, warmth when the days 
were cold, coolness when the days were hot, luxury 
and life and beauty in every form. But what 
above all else made the Pacific such a joy to my 
childish heart was the fact that it belonged to my 
father. Truth I Was he not the porter there ? It 
was his hotel and I, a frequent visitor, made much 
of by those about, was one small lad who surveyed 
vast possessions. 

Everybody had a word for " John." It was 
" Well, John, I^m back again " — a handshake, a 
slap on the shoulder, and my father's big laugh 
booming out. " Ko, no, John, just keep the 
change." " Well, by all that's good and bad, John, 
are you here yet? Can't they get rid of you at 
all? Ha! ha! ha!" "Well, good-bye, John, be 
good to yourself." " Hello, John." " Howdy do, 
John." "Oh, John." "Oh, Jo— ohn!" There 
were all sorts of voices, inflections, and accents, 
with laughs, growls, jokes, requests, and orders. 

All tones fell lightly upon my ear. Then, al- 
most without fail, I would hear one of the voices, 
a heavy, rumbling, bass one, say, " Your boy, 
John ? " as a white hand descended upon my head. 
" Want to get rid of him, give him away, hire him 
out or something? Better let me take him along; 



MY OWN BEGINNINGS 17 

I need a boj just like that." There was always 
somebody claiming to want me and trying to make 
a bargain with my Dad for possession; and it took 
me a long time to learn that they were only joking. 
One day when a big man was gravely making ar- 
rangements for me to go North and be a lumber- 
jack, I answered the usual question as to how that 
would suit me by rudely piping, '^ Eats ! '^ and the 
deal came to a sudden stop. Then, while my 
would-be employer went on his way, his broad 
shoulders shaking with amusement, I myself sat 
aghast, my little world in ruins. From my father, 
however, came the word of speedy retribution: 
'^ Son, you drivin' mos' too big a team to-day. 
Show-off is a bad boss. Can't have him 'roun' this 
hotel a-tall — nope, not a-tall. Run along home, 
son, an' tell your mother 'bout it." 

My father, plain, strict, and practical, was a val- 
orous, verbal supporter of the rod. I can hear him 
now, placidly advising my mother, ^^ Put the bud 
to him; jus' tan his jacket." Yet he himself was 
never known to put his preaching into practice. 
My mother, however, theoretically opposed to such 
doctrine, could somehow get her hands on a long, 
keen switch, peel the leaves off it, and apply it as 
it was most needed, more quickly than anybody else 
I knew. 



1« PINEY WOODS 

One great and special treat of those days was to 
accompany my father when he went to ^' make " 
the trains and watch him " git the business," as 
he termed it. His, it seemed to me, was a capti- 
vating way of raising his hand to his cap, with a 
deferential yet crisp half-query, half-statement, 
" Hotel ? Pacific Hotel," as the passengers came 
down the steps. Next his erect figure moved away, 
a grip in each of his hands, while I, trying to walk 
just like him, strode alongside, looking forward to 
the time when I, too, should be a man — and a 
porter. 

Yes, I would be a porter, and I would have a 
stubby pipe and lots of fat cigars, which the drum- 
mers and other big men would give me ; and on my 
Sunday afternoons off I would sit by the fire, or, in 
warm weather, on the little front porch at home, 
and smoke, and smoke, and smoke. My eyes would 
look gladder and kinder than ever while I blew 
rings and watched them curl and fade away, and 
the way Vd puff would be a wonder. Yet long be- 
fore, I had almost proved myself a prodigy by 
appearing on a program and declaiming: 

"m never use tobacco, no! 
It is a filthy weed; 
I'll never put it in my mouth, 
Said little Robert Reed." 



MY OWN BEGINNINGS 19 

One day, as I was sunning outside the building, 
at peace, so far as I knew, with all the world, a 
storm-cloud, in the person of Egg-eye, one of the 
neighborhood's little terrors, rose on the horizon 
and blew briskly down the walk in my direction. 
So far all right. His face was very innocent and 
his eyes fixed straight ahead, and this was all right 
also. Just as he came abreast of me, however, his 
feet gave a funny little shuffle; his shoulder, the 
one nearest me, hunched up ; and his elbow flew out 
like a rigid wing and disturbed his progress by 
jabbing against me. Indignant, surprised, he 
wheeled about and halted. " Oh, it's Mister 
Jones," he crowed ; " come pretty near knocking 
me down. Better run over me next time and be 
done with it." He jerked his hat more to one side, 
rolled his eyes around to make sure there were no 
onlookers, drew nearer and belligerently lowered 
his voice : " Think you own dis here hotel, don't 
you? Think yo' pa owns it. Well, you git that 
out o' yo' fool head or I'll knock it out. And 
you " — his scornful eye scanned my white blouse 
and tight little velvet trousers — " stylish, ain't you ? 
Got on yo' Sunday clothes ! Huh ! don't you cheep. 
Don't you call me liar." 

Egg-eye knew I had not tried to cheep. Around 
the hotel, however, I was bound to be on my best 



20 PINEY WOODS 

behavior. To be involved in a noisy quarrel or 
fight would have been disastrous to me; moreover, 
Egg-eye wsls much larger than I. Dov^^n in my 
heart raged the desire to call him several choice 
names that I knew of and had not yet dared to 
utter — ^names that would have annihilated him at 
once. My father was somewhere about, however, 
and might hear me; so I backed away gradually, 
gradually, hoping to get near enough to the door 
before the enemy suspected to get inside with some 
degree of dignity. It seemed that I should never 
reach that door. Meanwhile Egg-eye had thrust 
forward his jaw and gone through with all the 
preliminaries, and the next thing would have 
been the actual attack. But the blows were never 
dealt; the enemy saw someone approaching and 
vanished. 

When my father heard my version of the affair 
he seemed to enjoy it immensely. After a while, 
however, he said reflectively, " So that's the big 
question, is it? Do I own this hotel? Well, son, 
I own my part of it an' you can always count on 
your or Dad ownin' his part of anything good 
that's round about him." Having thus restored my 
happiness he added to it by giving me a penny and 
a nickel — the penny, according to established cus- 
tom, to be spent for candy or chewing gum, while 




The Old Cabin 
]\lade into a School Building 



MY OWN BEGINNINGS 21 

the nickel was to go into the iron pig on the shelf 
at home to be used at some distant day when I 
might be starting out for college, or when I might 
want to be an expressman and buy a big span of 
Missouri mules. 

To my father anything out of the ordinary was 
"big." There were "big guns," "big colonels," 
and even " big drummers." But what most quickly 
claimed my interest was to hear my father say that 
it was going to be a " big day " down town and 
remark to my mother that she had better get the 
boy ready rather early so that he might reach the 
hotel before the streets were too crowded. 

Perhaps the occasipn would be a circus, and of 
course the parade would pass the " Pacific " — they 
all did; or it might be a political demonstration of 
some sort. In course of time I had come to be a 
vociferous supporter of many movements and plat- 
forms. One among the spectators crowding the 
windows and balconies of the hotel, I would wave 
a flag or banner and shrilly cheer, rooting for some- 
thing or somebody just as suited whoever had 
charge of me at the moment. Not all the glitter 
of bright-hued trappings, of elephants and Shetland 
ponies, of monkeys and clowns, thrilled me as did 
austere columns of men marching along, timed by 
the splendid blare of brass horns and of the mutter 



22 PINEY WOODS 

of drums and the squealing of fifes. I loved it 
all — almost too intensely, it seemed, for there was 
something about it that overwhelmed and vaguely 
hurt me, and that to the heart of childhood was a 
great and infinite mystery. 

As for Old Glory, as my father always called a 
large flag, I can never see it lift its colors on the 
breeze without poignantly recalling one day — the 
awesome day on which for the first time I saw my 
father cry, the first time I ever saw him ^^ break 
plumb down and make a fool of himself '' — that 
being his way of speaking of the occasion the one 
time that I heard him mention it. 

He and I were on our way downtown one morn- 
ing — I do not remember what the day was, whether 
it was Washington's or Lincoln's birthday or what 
— but anyway on the front of a building abutting 
upon the walk before us a large flag hung drooping 
and inert in the chill morning mist. The papers 
the night before had told of a most revolting in- 
stance of mob violence, and as my father spoke of 
it at breakfast his face looked hard and set, and 
the steady, steely look in his eyes somehow made 
him seem almost a stranger. I wondered if that 
was the way he used to look when he was a sol- 
dier — " United States Army, ol' Company K, '67 
to '76, hon'able discharge." He had spoken to me 



MY OWN BEGINNINGS 23 

but once since we left the house, and then in a dull 
heavy voice that was as unfamiliar as the expres- 
sion on his face. Childlike I felt its mood and was 
in its shadow, and that short trip might have been 
remembered even without further distinction; but 
terror stalked that morning — tragedy was abroad. 

We came abreast of the flag-decked front, and 
just then obeying a caprice of the wind the banner 
lifted in the grand way it has and streamed out 
just above us, its silken breadth spreading out with 
a rush and rustle that would have lured me, mo- 
mentarily at least, from my woe, only as it reached 
its greatest expanse it seemed to fling from its folds 
a terrible cry. Stentorian, wild, sad, defiant, the 
sound seemed to fill all the air and to die away 
in a tremolo that left the soul full of chill and 
shudders. That cry, I somehow realized to my 
heart-sickening, paralyzing terror, had been uttered 
by my father — by my father ! Why ? 

Ur-r-r-r-r-ee-woo-oo-aoo ! The awful sound again ! 
My father had come to an abrupt standstill, his 
eyes gazing unseeingly upon the banner and far 
beyond it as though he were addressing in that 
queer language some invisible and distant throng. 
" Oo hoo-oo ! Stan' by 01' Glory ! No difference 
if dey lynches a black man every day for forty 
years! We kin stand it — us black folks — we kin 



24 PINEY WOODS 

stand it agin de day of reckonin' ! " In his excite- 
ment my Dad had gone back to the native manner 
of speech which he so carefully tried to avoid in 
calmer moments. ^^ OF Glory's still a-vs^avin' ! 
Reckon she's gwine a be de shelter and de kiverin 
for a cussed thing like that f o'ever ? 'No, no ! by 
— — I" His clenched fist struck my shoulder a 
blow that spun me around and I should have fallen 
had it not been for the support of the wall. A 
harsh, heavy sob choked his utterance, and watch- 
ing him, my own face wet with the copious tears 
of childish excitement and sympathy, I saw big 
tears roll down his cheeks. By the time we reached 
the hotel, however, the sun had come out, my Dad 
was himself again, and all was well. 

As I grew older I learned more and more to 
appreciate my father's homely wisdom, his droll 
sayings, and his sturdy way of facing life. He 
seemed to take things as they came, but whenever 
it was in his power to do so he saw to it that they 
came his way. He was ambitious for me, but 
sometimes expressed himself in such a manner that 
one not knowing him might have thought he had 
queer ideas as to an occupation for me. About my 
childhood's savings bank, for instance, he always 
said that the money in it was to help me start to 
college or to help me buy a span of mules. What 



MY OWN BEGINNINGS 25 

he really meant was that if I should happen to fail 
to get to college I should he prepared to do some- 
thing else to make myself useful. It might even 
develop that I should have to he a drayman as he 
was when he first started out for himself; and if 
that happened he at least wanted me to have a good 
team and not have to hegin with a pair of goats 
as he did. I should in any case he that much 
ahead of the old generation. 

It was very interesting to hear him talk of his 
youthful days down in Alahama, also of his life 
in the army ; and it seemed almost wonderful, how 
through so many hardships and temptations he de- 
veloped the personality that made him a general 
favorite, the ahility that made him a great reader, 
and the character that earned for him the title 
'' Honest John." 

As for his attainments in life, he seemed to feel 
that in heing ahle to hold down the joh at the hotel 
as he did, he had traveled far and achieved much. 
Holding the idea that he was '^ cut out " for a 
porter, he considered himself fortunate in having 
found his niche. No douht there were higher posi- 
tions, hut he did not covet them. " To he the right 
man in the right place," he would say, " was a good 
enough job for anybody." Such was the spirit in 
which for all those years he did his work, and every 



26 PINEY WOODS 

now and then, coming across some old book of my 
boyhood, I am as proud of the import of the mis- 
spelled inscription scrawled on the fly-leaf as I was 
when I first wrote it: 

" Laurence Jones, Sun of Onest John Jones use 
to be a solger, Potah at ^ Pacific ' Hotel. Old Com- 
puny K 'Onnabel dischage. St. josef Mussura." 

Such easy-going philosophy as my father's had 
little place in my mother's conception of life, either 
as it was then or as it was to be in the years ahead. 
That one should be supinely content in whatever 
place he chanced to fall was something that she 
simply could not understand. In her creed, un- 
consciously and unfalteringly held, to do well ac- 
cording to one's strength was not ambition but a 
plain, unvarnished duty. It was what we were 
here for — to do the very best we could, and only 
in that way could we show our appreciation of life 
and its possibilities. This creed was not only a 
part of her belief, but its golden thread was woven 
and interwoven in her nature; so that aside from 
the sweetness of her personality, there was a 
strength, an irresistible something about her, that 
made her very presence a power for good. In her 
heart a light was ever glowing, diffusing radiance, 
courage, and enthusiasm upon all around. No 



MY OWN BEGINNINGS 27 

towering pine in her native Wisconsin forests ever 
pointed upward more naturally than did she in her 
ideals of life. 

A fragile little woman my mother was, all tem- 
perament and dreams — in reality an idealist, yet 
possessing that intense practical industry so often 
demonstrated by the women of her race, who dream 
most splendid dreams and bravely strive, through 
the humble mediums within their reach, to make 
their dreams come true. To such a one the wash- 
tub and ironing-board, the cook-stove, the needle, 
and the scrubbing-brush, are all but homely tools 
to be most diligently used. The average unskilled 
colored man, hardworking and steady though he be, 
earns hardly more than enough to provide for his 
family a meagre livelihood, and further than that 
his earnings can not reach. The simple luxuries, 
the daintier necessities and comforts, the little 
touches of beauty here and there, must come from 
another hand. Some one else provides the pretty 
walls and hangings, the new dress for a special oc- 
casion, perhaps even a piano or a porch or an addi- 
tional room on the house; some one else may even 
send the son or daughter away to college. And 
who has not seen it — the colored woman at her 
work, infusing faith into her drudgery, toiling 
day after day, year after year, while slowly but 



28 PINEY WOODS 

surely her surroundings begin to assume tlie color 
of her dreams? 

Such a home-maker was my mother; and yet her 
work was such that she was away from home much 
of the time. She was an excellent seamstress and 
often went out to sew by the day, and she also 
served sometimes at ladies' clubs in the evening. 
Meanwhile we children — my sister and myself — 
often found ourselves and the house in the care of 
" Aunt '' 'Liza, an aged woman of the neighborhood 
who made her living by helping out in different 
homes, and who, as my mother and everybody else 
said, was as good an old soul as ever lived. 

Aunt 'Liza was a noted character in the church 
to which she belonged, a class-meeting priestess of 
unique distinction. She had a great store of max- 
ims — " Bible-teachings," she called them, '' good 
for the healing of the soul," and these she drew 
upon as time and occasion demanded. " Thou 
shellt not steal," she said, '^ neither sugar, ner 
jelly, ner nothin' else;" " Thou shellt not tell lies 
an' b'ar false witness agins' thy neighbor, little 
sister ner brother ner nobody ;" '^ When somebody 
fetch you a clip on one o' yo' cheeks, turn de ether 
one, an' ef he fetch you a clip on dat one, den de 
Lawd be wid de righteous ;" " Honor yo' pappy and 
yo' mammy, an' don't be sassin an' talkin' back. 



y 



MY OWN BEGINNINGS 29 

kase cliillun should be seed an' not hjeard." There 
were many others of these garbled sayings, but the 
one most often used was : '' Chillun should be seed 
an' not hyeard." 

Sometimes late in the night I would awake and 
hear Aunt 'Liza '^ agonizin' in pra'er," tearfully be- 
seeching blessings and forgiveness of sins, for her- 
self, her church, her friends and neighbors, and the 
whole, round world. Sometimes she would be sing- 
ing softly, reflectively, rocking back and forth in 
her low chair beside the fire — not a rocking-chair 
but a straight-back, splint-bottomed chair that she 
always brought in from the kitchen. The room 
would be dim, for even when she was knitting she 
wanted the lights low when it was late. If the 
night was wild or dreary the hymn never failed to 
end in tremulous query — mournful, haunting, 
weird beyond description: 

An-nd am I a-bomed to-oo die, 
To-oo a-la-ay this a-body down? 

On another night without prelude or warning 
the song would ring out rapturously : 

Jes look a-yander a-what I see — 
Hise de window, let de dove come in; 

A ban' of angels a-comin' for me — 

Oh! hise de window, let de dove come in. 

When the song was over, however, I was likely 



30 PINEY WOODS 

to hear something like this : ^^ Laurence, honey, is 
you wake? You's young chiP an' souple in de 
jints; wisht you'd git up an' fetch my pieces an* 
things; I been off a-jubilatin' in my soul an' dat 
ornery cat done ketched my basket — quilt pieces, 
knittin' an' all, an' tuck 'em way back under 
de bed." 

My mother always demanded a full report of our 
behavior during her absence, and if we had been 
good there were rewards ensuing, the greatest being 
one of the wonderful stories that my mother herself 
would tell in her wonderful way. Who could ever 
forget such hours as those when I with my sisters 
listened to those gripping tales? Sometimes we 
were on a bench in the kitchen; on summer even- 
ings out on the little front porch in the moonlight; 
but best of all were the winter evenings in the front 
room by the fire. 

As I was the only boy in the family, all the 
hopes and ambitions that the maternal heart cher- 
ishes were centered upon me. I was expected to 
possess all the commendable traits of my ancestors. 
Also it seemed to be expected that I should emu- 
late all the men of my race who had come into 
prominence since the founding of America. Mean- 
while, to all else, it was understood that I should 
add something of my own individuality. In the 



MY OWN BEGINNINGS 31 

family it was fondly hoped that I might be " cut 
out " for a lawyer, a doctor, an editor, a minister, 
a ^^ big " business man, a professor ; I might get 
into Congress; and — what seemed to my childish 
mind most impossible of all — I had to be a gentle- 
man. Last, but not least among the responsibilities 
awaiting me when I grew up, I was to be a man — 
the one decision that had my own fervent approval. 
In this I should be like my father, so often admir- 
ingly described as a " man f and also like my 
mother's kinsmen, of whom she often talked — all 
" men/' 

On one of these kinsmen, strange prophecy of 
the future, my mind somehow lingers to-day. My 
great-grandfather was born in Virginia, but while 
yet a young man purchased his freedom and re- 
moved to Pennsylvania. There Robert Foster, my 
mother's father, was bom. This grandfather of 
mine, I have learned, was wholly or largely re- 
sponsible for the founding of an educational insti- 
tution in Michigan in 1848. At that time colored 
people were not admitted to the public schools of 
Ohio; and Robert Foster and some of his brothers 
and friends decided to establish a school for their 
children, which they did after going to Michigan. 
The institution thus founded was open to all ^' re- 
gardless of color, sex, or religious affiliation," and 



32 PINEY WOODS 

once a year Foster would go East to look for stu- 
dents and solicit funds. So on my frequent pil- 
grimages upon a similar mission I have to remem- 
ber that, after all, I have come by my inheritance 
justly ; after all I am simply ^' taking after " my 
grandfather. 



II 

SCHOOLDAYS 

I WELL remember my first day at school. 
First my mother kissed me and said good- 
bye, and after I got to the building Miss 
Sadie gave me a seat, and then everything seemed 
to grow dim and lonely. Within a few minutes a 
big tear rolled down my burning cheek; others fol- 
lowed, and still more when I looked around to find 
everybody gazing at me. Miss Sadie called me to 
her desk and asked what was the matter, and be- 
tween sobs I told her that I was tired, sleepy, and 
hungry, and that my mother needed me at home. 
She said that any little boy with all those things 
the matter with him surely ought to be excused for 
a little while. So my mother had been home only 
a few minutes when she saw me coming into the 
yard astride the shoulders of a larger boy who had 
volunteered to carry me back. 

After the first day, however, the schoolroom be- 
came more attractive, and within the next few years 

I passed through the different grades of the gram- 

33 



34 PINEY WOODS 

mar department. Mj first outside work was that of 
shining shoes; somewhat later I helped the porter 
shine shoes in Billj Rhodes' barber shop, the larg- 
est in the town at the time. Then in one memor- 
able autumn I entered the high school. Here I 
found that I was not very enthusiastic about Latin 
and similar studies. I had found that the more 
boots I blacked the better I could get along, and I 
wanted something that would be a help in the 
future. 

Another thing that made me want a more prac- 
tical education was a famous old book that had 
been sent to me from Rock Island by my Aunt 
Sally. This was ^^ Robinson Crusoe," the first book, 
after the Bible, that made any deep impression 
upon me. I read it on an average of once a 
month, and spent my spare time trying to find an- 
other book just like it. The story of the free, un- 
trarameled life of the hero, making his own civil- 
ization, overcoming physical obstacles by his re- 
sourcefulness and building and making things with 
his hands to meet his needs, impressed me greatly. 
In comparison with such a life the things that I 
was studying in the high school seemed vain and 
futile, and by the close of my first half-year my 
work in the St. Joseph High School had become 
unendurable. 



SCHOOLDAYS 35 

I have no doubt that this book and the con- 
structive stories told in the Bible led my mind and 
hands into constructive play when not at v^ork. I 
had the best backyard garden in the neighborhood, 
and our chickens always looked the best and pro- 
duced the most eggs. I also kept the loft of our 
barn filled with pigeons, and I had them of every 
description, size, and color. 

I was generally leading our " gang " into some 
new enterprise. Once it was a two-ringed circus, 
with a parade, clowns, the necessary monkey, and 
red lemonade. Another incident that I remember, 
and one that brought down the ire of my mother, 
was a game that I invented in the backyard. I 
never had much luck shooting marbles, so I worked 
out a scheme to get my share. I cut out the tops 
of several tomato cans, obtained some red paint and 
painted some round spots of the same size all over 
a board which had sides and a back; this board I 
placed against the bam about two feet higher than 
the ground. The game was three of the tomato 
can tops for a " crockey " or seven for a " flint " — 
that is, anyone who could stand back at the required 
distance and cover up one of the spots by pitching 
his tins would receive so many marbles reward. 
The news soon spread over the neighborhood, and 
within a few hours there were half a hundred boys 



36 PINEY WOODS 

of every size and color on hand. I was just in 
the midst of my triumph and had accumulated 
three or four hoxes of marbles when my mother, 
seeing the swarming crowd, appeared, and in less 
time than it takes to tell it, there was not a boy 
in sight, my board was reduced to kindling wood, 
and the marbles were flying after the scurrying 
boys. 

Some of my most interesting experiences in these 
early years happened in the days when I was a 
" newsie " — the first and only colored boy at the 
time on a route. This I had been able to purchase 
with money I had saved from the sale of rabbits 
and pigeons. It did not cost much, this route, but 
the experience it brought me — surpassing the lure 
and benefit of gold, shriving and fitting me for the 
arena of human action and struggle where no quar- 
ter is asked or given — can not be measured in 
dollars or cents. The paper was The Press, and 
the various boys handling the route had one by one 
got out of it all they could and then dropped it. 
The circulation manager, put to it, had picked up 
boys here and there as he could get them and thus 
the paper would often fail of delivery for days at 
a time. Sometimes, too, the boys would carry but 
a portion of the route, hiding the remainder of 
their papers under a bridge or even throwing them 



SCHOOLDAYS 37 

away. I made it a point to be on time each even- 
ing to obtain my papers, for it was fail and dark- 
ness came early. My father had taught me always 
to '' be at the right place at the right time," and I 
realized that because of my race, to succeed I 
should be compelled to exhibit greater industry, 
eihciency, and intelligence than the white boys who 
had worked before me. I knew a boy who had a 
whistle made out of a piece of wood and 1 traded 
him a pigeon for it, and each evening when I threw 
the paper on a porch i would blow the whistle. 
Never an evening did I miss, regardless of cold or 
rain or snow, and never an evening did i fail to 
go to the end of my route, althougn tiie last mile 
had but two subscribers. Within a month 1 had 
sixty-four customers, and in the second month one 
hundred and twenty-eight, so that I was compelled 
to secure help to carry the papers part of the way. 

It was about the time my route had grown to its 
greatest extent that one of the most pointed lessons 
of my life came to me. The paper, delivered, cost 
ten cents a week, and my customers were all of the 
working class; they largely did their business in 
units of nickels and dimes, and all planned to have 
their dimes ready on Saturday night. One bitterly 
cold Saturday night I had started unusually early 
to cover my route as there was to be an entertain- 



38 PINEY WOODS 

ment and festival at our churcli, and I was to meet 
mj parents and sisters there. At the house next 
to the last the lady handed me a quarter. I reached 
in my pocket for the change, but to my great 
chagrin I could not find a cent. Eor a moment I 
was dumb. I searched again and in one of my 
pockets found a hole almost large enough for a 
quarter to go through, and I realized that I had 
left a trail of nickels and dimes behind me. I 
handed the quarter back to the lady saying I would 
collect for two weeks the coming Saturday night, 
and on my way to the last house a conflict raged in 
my mind as to what 1 should do. Against the lure 
of a trail of shiny nickels and dimes lost somewhere 
was that of the church gathering with the concert, 
the merry crowd, and the good things to eat. By 
the time I reached the house, however, my mind 
was made up : I must find that money, only a part 
of which belonged to me. I told the man in the 
house of my trouble and obtained from him the 
loan of a lantern, telling him to keep his dime in 
payment for his kindness. He said that were he 
I he would let the search go until morning; but 
he spoke to no avail. I knew the alleys, crosscuts, 
and yards through which I always went; I could 
trace them in the dark. After reaching the spot 
where the money had started filtering through my 



SCHOOLDAYS 39 

pocket I had found every nickel and dime less 
fifty-five cents, which I was sure people passing 
had picked up, the gaps in the silver trail being 
under the arc-lights. I had lost something — much 
to a struggling Negro boy pursued by suspicion; 
but I had also gained something — something far 
more valuable than gold and silver, and that has 
sustained my faith and strengthened my will 
tlirough many dark days in life's problems. 

It was shortly after this that I applied to Mr. 
Luther Perry, a colored man who ran a mattress 
factory a short distance from our home, for a job 
shaking out bales of excelsior. Mr. Perry was a 
good, clean man, a Sunday School superintendent, 
and he did not allow any swearing, smoking, or 
roughness of any kind about the place. I called 
for a bale and one was assigned to me. The bales 
weighed about ^ve hundred pounds and were made 
of long strands of shavings tightly pressed together. 
The job was to pull the flakes apart and shake them 
out until no lumps remained. I worked faithfully 
that first evening, yet succeeded in getting only 
about one-third done. And what a pile it made, 
with two-thirds of the bale still before me! Worst 
of all, when I went back it looked as if someone 
had added about two-thirds more. Of course I was 
the laughing-stock of the place until my unenviable 



40 PINEY WOODS 

prominence was taken bj another newcomer; but 
I soon became accustomed to tbe work and never 
again did I have to work a whole week for thirty 
cents. 

I rejoice when I think of the fact that in old 
Missouri, a former slave state, the public library 
was open to all who had a mind to read ; and there 
I spent many an hour that filled me with inspiration. 
I had also heard my mother speak of Boston and its 
wonderful schools and colleges. I felt that it must 
be the greatest place in the world — that all one had 
to do was to get there and all good and desirable 
things would be as free as the water of the rivers. 
The people there, it seemed, were standing ready 
and waiting to provide an education for all who 
knocked at their doors; there also all troubles 
would be over. One day I talked the matter over 
with myself and secretly decided to go there. I 
had eighteen dollars saved from shoe-shining and 
selling papers. I put this amount in my pocket, 
hid my books under the railroad bridge, and set 
out. My fare was paid to Eock Island; there I 
planned to stop and tell my Aunt Sally and Uncle 
Charley good-bye. When I got there, however, I 
found that my father and mother, suspecting my 
destination, had wired them to look out for me. I 
did not get to Boston at this time, and in general 



SCHOOLDAYS 41 

my visits in these years were divided between this 
home and that of my Aunt Dot and Uncle Bill, 
who lived not far away at Cedar Eapids. Aunt 
Dot was prone to make a real pet out of any 
child about her, and it is likely that I should have 
grown lazy enough had it not been for one thing. 
Uncle Bill was an engineer and worked in all sorts 
of fascinating places ; he was engineer and foreman 
at the electric light plant and fireman at Averill's 
Wagon Plant, the son and the daughter of the 
owner of which place are now very loyal supporters 
of the Piney Woods School. Uncle Bill was a 
jovial man and liked to talk; he permitted me to 
go with him to his work, and the way he always 
explained the machinery to me made me love it 
and also taught me to realize how wonderful a 
thing a machine can be. After a while he went to 
Marshalltown, Iowa, and that is how it happened 
that I entered the high school in this place. I was 
encouraged to go also by the fact that I learned 
that there was a restaurant there kept by a colored 
man with whom I might find work. I found 
" BoVs Place," as I had expected, and there 
I worked for a couple of years ; but the red demon 
whiskey got the better of Bob, his place became a 
little rowdy and business declined, and so I sought 
and found work at the Pilgrim Hotel. 



42 PINEY WOODS 

It was during my high-school days in Marshall- 
town that my first realization of the work yonng 
white men were doing came to me. One young 
man who was a hell-boy in the hotel where I 
worked for my room and board, was promoted to 
the position of night clerk. 'No one knew whence 
he had come and he had not even finished the gram- 
mar school. At that time the position of night 
clerk in the Pilgrim Hotel looked pretty big to me, 
and I wondered if I could hope for such a promo- 
tion after I finished my course. My own regular 
work was to help the girls in the dining-room. I 
assisted at breakfast until 8.50, then hastened to 
school; came back at noon and worked until 1.10, 
and then helped with supper in the evening. At 
night I was on the lookout for an opportunity to 
make a little extra money for my expenses, and 
because of this I worked at nearly everything about 
the hotel. Wlien a bell-boy, porter, fireman, dish- 
washer, or bootblack wanted an evening off or was 
ill, I usually worked in his place. Quite often I 
was called out to serve parties in the town, and I 
also had the job of swinging the front door for the 
members of the Twentieth Century Club at their 
monthly meetings, for which I received a dollar an 
evening, and, best of all, a chance to hear the 
programs. 



SCHOOLDAYS 43 

The coming of two young men, Ellis U. Graff, 
as principal of the high school, and William I. 
Crane, as superintendent of schools, gave me a new 
knowledge of what young white men were doing. 
We had heard a great deal of how Mr. Crane had 
built up the schools in another place; he gave a 
series of lectures at the court house which, alto- 
gether, made us look upon him very much as the 
people did the schoolmaster in " The Deserted Vil- 
lage,'' and wonder how '' one small head could 
carry all he knew." Mr. Graff brought youth, en- 
thusiasm, and an unusual sympathy. I remember 
once carrying to him a clipping of the Socialist 
platform and asking him to explain it to me. He 
took it and told me to come in after school was 
over; when I did he had carefully written out an 
explanation of each article. I marveled that he 
should give so much time and attention to me, for 
previous principals that I had known were rather 
rough and unsympathetic. Later, having heard 
that Dr. Crossland, of St. Joseph, had been ap- 
pointed Minister to Liberia, I wondered, not being 
acquainted with the game of politics, whether I 
could become his secretary, as I had once been a 
collector for him. I told Mr. Graff of my aspira- 
tion; he encouraged me and said that my applica- 
tion could not do any harm, and that at least I 



44 PINEY WOODS 

should gain by writing it. Of course I received an 
answer that the appointment had been made. 

On Mr. Graff's recommendation I was asked to 
be grammar grade editor of the Quill, our little 
high-school paper. This necessitated my visiting 
the grade schools and explaining that we wanted to 
have them represented with monthly notes. At one 
school the principal asked me to explain the matter 
to three or four of the higher classes. Thus I made 
my first speeches. 

Por my share of the Commencement program at 
the end of the course I was assigned the pleasant 
task of writing the class song. While I was wait- 
ing for the Muse to inspire me the others of the 
class began to get nervous, and some even went to 
the principal to lay the matter before him. The 
next day one of the boys asked me about the song 
and told me that they were a little worried and had 
consulted Mr. Graff about what to do. I asked 
what he had said, and was informed that he had 
laughed and remarked, " Oh ! Jones will come up 
with it all right." This was a revelation to me. 
For the first time I realized that someone had con- 
fidence in me. I can not explain the new lease 
of life I took. I should have written that song or 
died in the attempt, and the next morning I had it 
ready. When the diplomas were being given out 



SCHOOLDAYS 45 

at Commencement and it came my turn to walk 
across the stage and receive mine, the opera house 
burst into applause and I nearly fainted with 
fright. That night in my little room in the base- 
ment of the hotel it dawned upon me that as I was 
the first colored graduate of the Marshalltown 
High School the people had their eyes upon me, 
and I felt that I must now make good in one way 
or another. That was in 1903. 

While in Marshalltown I always looked forward 
to Sunday with a special degree of pleasure; first, 
because the day meant the coming of several of 
the townspeople to dinner and that meant extra 
tips, and, second, because there were the afternoon 
meetings at the Y. M. C. A. In St. Joseph the 
color of my skin had been a bar against joining 
or visiting the Young Men's Christian Association. 
Aside from the churches there was no place to 
which to go on Sunday afternoons except the ball 
games, amusement parks, or on railway excursions. 
In Iowa everything was different. The doors of 
the Y. M. C. A. swung wide open for any young 
man who would live in a clean, wholesome atmos- 
phere. I soon became a member, and the swim- 
ming pool, the reading-room, and the gymnasium 
allured me at all idle times. Here for the first 
time on Sunday afternoons I heard big, strong 



46 PINEY WOODS 

young men under the leadership of our boyish hero, 
S. W. Fellingham, stand up and in no uncertain 
terms acknowledge the fatherhood of God and the 
leadership of Jesus Christ. How I enjoyed and 
received strength from those Sunday afternoon 
meetings ! 

I had graduated from the high school, but I 
realized that I knew but little, so I determined to 
enter a business college while deciding how I 
should continue my regular school work. Accord- 
ingly, at the Central Iowa Business College I se- 
cured a job as janitor which would pay for my tui- 
tion while I could still work for my room and 
board at the hotel. Here I met the principal, Mr. 
W. H. Gilbert, a young man who was running a 
large business college in a businesslike way, but 
who was never too busy to explain any difficulty. 
During the summer, while I was waiting at table 
one noon, Mr. Graff and a number of men were 
seated at my table. As they were getting up Mr. 
Graif introduced me to a Mr. Chesney from the 
State University. Mr. Chesney smiled, acknowl- 
edged the introduction, and told me that the Uni- 
versity was just the place at which I should finish 
my education, and said that he had no doubt that 
as I worked my way tuition would be remitted. 
Later I had a conference with Mr. Graff and came 




m ^ #"" 







Winter and the Woodpile 
First Com of the Season 



SCHOOLDAYS 47 

to tlie decision to enter the institution in the fall. 
I was further encouraged in this decision by Mrs. 
Richard Lane, now of Davenport, who gave me a 
letter to a member of the Beta Theta Pi Fraternity 
which secured for me there a place where I could 
work for my room and board. Accordingly, after 
the county superintendent, Miss Hostettler, had 
signed certain papers necessary for having my tui- 
tion remitted, I set out for Iowa City. I soon be- 
came a real freshman; and my desire for eleva- 
tion in the mental world was reinforced from a 
physical standpoint, for my room at the club house 
was in one comer of the attic, and I was now 
higher above the ground than I had been below the 
ground at Marshalltown, and could but smile at my 
good fortune. During my sophomore year I met 
in class a young man, Mr. Frederick E. Cooper, 
whom I soon grew to like because of his friendli- 
ness and our interest in the same things, and for 
my last two years in Iowa City I worked at his 
fraternity, the Delta Tau Delta. My university 
day usually started at 4.30 in the morning, when 
I would build a fire in the furnace, and I could 
hardly reach my room at night before nine o^clock ; 
then I would be busy with the preparation of my 
work for the next day until eleven or twelve 
o'clock. 



48 PINEY WOODS 

During my sophomore year I heard our Presi- 
dent, Dr. George E. MacLean, use the phrase, 
" JSToblesse Oblige/' and one day in the botany 
class Professor Thomas H. MacBride explained to 
me its meaning. More than ever I realized that 
because of the superior advantages for schooling 
that had been mine, I was morally obligated to pass 
the opportunity on to those less fortunate than my- 
self. I believe I had always had a subconscious 
desire to be a school teacher, but I had also cher- 
ished a desire to engage in the poultry business. 
One of my fondest dreams was to realize money 
enough from this business some day to cross the 
ocean and see the countries of the Old World. 
" IToblesse Oblige," however, taught me that my 
duty was down in the black belt among the less for- 
tunate of my people. 

This conviction came to me strongly in my 
junior year through the " Industrial Art " class 
work of Professor Clark Fisher Ansley. It was 
seminar work, and during the latter half of the 
year I was assigned the task of developing a theme 
on the work of Dr. Booker T. Washington. I pro- 
ceeded to read and re-read this leader's books and 
to look up every magazine article listed in the 
various indexes. The result was that I got to- 
gether an interesting amount of material and for 



SCHOOLDAYS 49 

the first time realized the meaning of the poet's 
phrase, '*^ Our echoes roll from soul to soul/' when 
I learned that Mark Hopkins taught General S. C. 
Armstrong, and that General Armstrong taught 
and inspired Booker T. Washington. Most of the 
class members had been given an hour each to the 
topics assigned, but I was so full of my subject 
that I was given six hours. A member of the class 
who was on the staff of the city papers gave a re- 
view of each lecture to the various papers. I called 
the attention of the class to the fact that the Negro 
race had many other great men, distinguished in 
various lines, who simply happened not to be so 
well known as Dr. Washington. One of the high- 
est expressions of Negro life and achievement, I 
said, was to be found in the life, personality, and 
writings of Dr. W. E. B. DuBois. From indus- 
trial training to the scholarship of Dr. DuBois 
seemed a long step, but it showed the possibilities 
of the Negro. I further said that Dr. DuBois was 
not opposing industrial education but that his great 
contention was that there was not so much a 
" Negro Problem " as a " Human Problem," as 
Frederick Douglass once said, and that industrial 
education was no more a means for the complete 
development of the Negro than any other kind of 
education. I also read some passages from the 



50 PINEY WOODS 

beautiful and fascinating ^' Souls of Black Folk," 
which book so impressed me that I decided to pur- 
chase a copy and present it to my English teacher, 
Miss Mary G. Chawner, in appreciation of the in- 
terest and help she had given me in my courses. 

A short while after this another of my teachers, 
Miss Leona Call, who was president of the Eirst 
Baptist Church Missionary Society, asked me to 
talk on the condition of my people in the South. 
The day of the meeting I met a young colored 
woman. Miss Grace M. Allen, who was in town in 
the interest of an industrial school in the South. 
I asked her to attend the meeting and contribute 
something from her experience. So she did, and 
I thought her the brightest and most enthusiastic 
little woman of my race that I had ever met. I 
saw in her my ideal and felt sure that we should 
meet again some day — and we did. 

During my last two summers in Iowa City I 
realized my Pilgrim Hotel ambition by becoming 
a night clerk at one of the local hotels. Several 
of the guests registered their prejudice by going to 
the landlord, but he told them that he was running 
the hotel, and I went on with my work. One 
evening at the close of my senior year — commence- 
ment week, 1907 — while I was waiting at table, a 
gold watch was presented to me by the members 



SCHOOLDAYS 51 

of the Delta Tau Delta Fraternity; and next to 
the ovation given me in Marshalltown this was the 
greatest surprise of my life. Then came com- 
mencement day and with it the Secretary of War, 
William Howard Taft, who delivered the gradua- 
tion address. Once more I had completed a pre- 
scribed course of study. Once more I looked out 
upon the world and realized how little I really 
knew. 



Ill 

PllN-E-KlSrOTS AND THE BLUE SKY 

WHY in the world did you ever go 
South ? " is the common query when 
I journey ^N'orth. To most of my 
friends the North is still the land of opportunity 
as well as freedom, and they hardly see how one 
can exist elsewhere. Almost unconsciously, how- 
ever, I had decided to go South. Perhaps this was 
my modernized version of ^' Go West, young man," 
yet as the years have passed I have come to see 
in it more clearly the hand of God who had heard 
the cries of my people in the woods for the oppor- 
tunities of education which were being denied them. 
At any rate I packed my trunk, and without notify- 
ing relatives or friends, I set out. I first went to 
Arkansas to become used to the Southern climate. 
Here I found a job looking after a horse and car- 
riage and milking a cow. Meanwhile I was in cor- 
respondence with Dr. Booker T. Washington's 
great Tuskegee Institute and was in line for a 
place there, but decided to go to a little school in 

52 



PINE-KNOTS AND THE BLUE SKY 53 

Hinds county, 'Mississippi, an outgrowth of Tuske- 
gee. The salary was smaller, but somehow it 
seemed that greater good could be done there. 

Christmas of the second year I spent at the 
plantation home of one of my students, who was 
from the Piney Woods of Mississippi near Brax- 
ton, which is in that part of the state between Jack- 
son and Gulfport, on the Gulf and Ship Island 
Eailway. 

And what a holiday season it was! As else- 
where in the South, " taking Christmas " was one 
continuous round of fireworks, frolicking, feasting, 
and preaching services that sometimes lasted 
throughout the day and that were interrupted 
only by the calls to the well-laden tables just out- 
side the church. At the time of my visit a district 
Sunday School convention was in session, and I 
was asked to speak each day. I learned that the 
convention had been organized twenty-five years 
before and that its aim was to build a high school. 
By this was meant a school that would carry the 
boys and girls to what in the North are termed the 
seventh and eighth grades. The little rural schools 
were many miles apart, and the teachers were not 
paid over an average of $18.00 a month, and 
hardly measured up to Northern boys and girls in 
the fifth and sixth grades. One teacher often had 



54 PINEY WOODS 

as many as sixty or seventy pupils. The school- 
houses were unceiled, black with soot, without glass 
windows, and with no blackboards. A high school 
had been a forlorn hope; no one seemed to know 
just what to do, and the mites brought together 
from time to time rarely amounted to more than 
twelve dollars. The sincerity of the people, how- 
ever, and their regular meetings from year to year, 
with the steady gaze upon the star of hope, im- 
pressed me greatly. 

The evening of the first Christmas that I spent 
in the Piney Woods strengthened my desire to cast 
my lot there. Through the great dark woods by 
the light of a pine torch we were taken to a frolic. 
In a close room, filled with tobacco smoke and reek- 
ing with the odor of whiskey, a crowd of men, 
wumen, and children, laughing and joking, jostled 
and danced to the music of an old guitar until 
early morning. Occasionally someone would step 
outside and with a succession of shots satisfy him- 
self as to how quickly he could pull the trigger. 
This program continued for a week at one place 
and then the crowd moved on to the next cabin. 

I cornered the men in one room when they came 
out for a rest and talked ^' school," but was an- 
swered by the remark that their convention had 
been trying to build a school for twenty years, but 



PINE-KNOTS AND THE BLUE SKY 55 

tliat the boll-weevil was on hand, so ^^ it wouldn't 
be much use trying." The children seemed to 
enjoy the frolic quite as much as the older people. 
They swore just as wickedly, and even the boys and 
girls nine years of age used quantities of snufP and 
tobacco. Their parents thought that anything, 
even liquor, if used by themselves, was all right 
for the children; so it was only necessary to ask 
^^ Pa '' for what was wanted. In general, however, 
I found the moral condition of the people much 
higher than I had expected to find it. Those who 
respected the bonds of matrimony were greatly in 
the majority and looked with disfavor upon im- 
proper conduct of any kind. On my last night I 
sat among a group of these people and in the soft 
glow of a great pine-knot fire I told them of how 
the people farmed and lived in Iowa, of how the 
boys and girls were educated, how they celebrated 
Christmas ; and I promised that later I would come 
back and see if in any way I could help them. 

In May, after the closing of school in Hinds 
county, I set out again for the Piney Woods. My 
two years in the South had earned $490 and my 
living. I had been able to make the $90 do for 
expenses and had invested the $400 in land, almost 
the last money I had being paid on this. I had 
enough left to pay my way to Jackson^ and there 



56 PINEY WOODS 

I pawned my watch for $2.50. My fare to Brax- 
ton was 85 cents; so when I arrived I had only 
$1.65 in cash with which to begin work. The hos- 
pitable people were glad to see me, however, and 
made me welcome. 

I went to work immediately, visiting in the 
homes, in the churches, in neighborhood meetings, 
and under the trees at noontime — anywhere I could 
get a few together. I saw that the future of the 
majority of the people must be as country-folk, 
and that to make them a better country-folk was 
the task of their helper. It was clear that the base 
of operation must be in the kitchen, the household, 
the garden, and the farm. So I talked diversified 
farming and around the firesides at night we fig- 
ured out the cost of raising ten-cent cotton and 
buying fifteen-cent bacon and ninety-cent corn 
from the meat-houses and corncribs of the North. 
I showed the folly of saving the worst land for 
the corn crop, from which they must derive their 
living, and of going to the crib in the spring and 
picking up anything left for seed corn, instead of 
selecting their seed in the field. Better stock and 
poultry, and everything pertaining to better farm- 
ing, was talked of and illustrated with a Wallace s 
Farmer, Successful Farming, and such Southern 
farm papers as I could get hold of. Meanwhile in 



PINE-KNOTS AND THE BLUE SKY 57 

tlie homes I told the women about sanitary cooking 
and whitewash, and sometimes I applied the white- 
wash myself. 

In this way I traveled all over Rankin county 
and a part of Simpson, sometimes astride a mule, 
sometimes in an ox-wagon, but more often afoot, 
sometimes walking eighteen or twenty miles a day. 
I had been in one place, Taylor Hill community, 
only a few days when I found it necessary late one 
afternoon to see a man who lived in another settle- 
ment. The pleased-looking old man of whom I 
asked the way told me that it was out Big Woods 
way " a liT piece yon side de creek.'' I could not 
miss it, he said. '^ Go dis way, turn on dis ban' 
side," indicating which hand ; " keep on like dat 
twell you come to de forks o' de road, take de dis 
ban' form," again indicating which hand he meant, 
" an' follow on twell you come to de creek. Dar 
you'll fin' a foot bridge. Cross over. Take out 
thoo de woods an' keep de path twell you come to 
anothern on dis ban' side; turn off an' follow on 
twell fus thing you knows you's dar." 

Trying to remember his instructions I managed 
to reach the creek. Night had already come 
among the deep woods all around, but against the 
dim gleam of the water I made out the darker 
silhouette of the " bridge," once a conveniently sit- 



58 PINEY WOODS 

uated tree whicli had fallen so as to reach from 
bank to bank. The bridge looked long, and oh ! 
how narrow; and the water beneath it looked as 
tiiough it might be mysteriously and dangerously 
deep, full of hidden depths and holes and quick- 
sands. Gladly would I have turned back, but I 
did not dare, for while my directions had brought 
me thus far forward I could not think of where 
they might lead me should I reverse and try to 
work them backwards; and it was certain that I 
could not stay where I was all night. So I started 
across, and the farther I went the narrower seemed 
the bridge, until when I was about halfway the 
only way I could find room for my feet was by 
keeping them close one behind the other. Once 
my hand touched something cold and clammy, but 
whatever it was — frog or lizard or something else 
— so rapidly was I advancing that it is likely the 
force of our collision stunned it for life. " Take 
out thoo de woods an' keep de path twell you come 
to anothern on dis han' side. Take dat an' follow 
on twell all at once you's dar." After crossing the 
bridge I followed or thought I followed the direc- 
tions, but after quite a tramp I found myself at 
another creek. I turned back, tramped further and 
came to another. This happened again and again 
until it was borne upon my excited mind that all 



PINE-KNOTS AND THE BLUE SKY 59 

these were not different creeks but just one creek, 
a mysterious one indeed, running in the shape of 
a perfect letter 0, and I by a terrible mistake had 
got on the island in its center; and there was no 
way out. Panic seized me. I tore through brush 
and tangle, stumbling and panting, not knowing 
whither I fled. Heavy darkness enfolded me and 
all the terrors of the woods surrounded me. The 
place seemed fairly to breathe with horrors, and 
then the low weird sighing night wind that sprung 
up and the chill that came with it took from me 
the last vestige of reason and strength. I realized 
that I was doomed and dropped down from sheer 
exhaustion. But I would not give up. I started 
out again; for hours I hunted a way out, and then 
I dropped down exhausted again, for how long a 
time I do not know. And then I heard a bird 
singing, not screeching or groaning, but singing. 
A grayness stole through the woods; almost before 
I knew it all the glory of dawn was in the sky. 
Vanishing with the darkness went all my fears and 
confusion. I realized that the creek was not shaped 
like an 0, but that I had been traveling in a circle 
myself and had been coming back to the same spot 
all the time. 

At that period of my existence, when I was still 
not long out of college, I was great on musing and 



60 PINEY WOODS 

moralizing, and just a few days later I used this 
incident in a speech to illustrate how my people 
were in the darkness of ignorance with all its super- 
stition and fears, and how they needed light, and 
how the light was sure to come. Another time I 
lost my way and wandered into a part of Smith 
county where there were no colored people. I 
walked all day hoping that I should come to a 
settlement. I had nothing to eat with me, and not 
knowing what fate might overtake a strange Negro 
if he stopped to ask questions I journeyed on drink- 
ing from the brooks and eating such berries as I 
could find in the woods. It was long after dark 
before I saw the first cabin in a colored settlement, 
the firelight shining between the cracks in the logs. 
To my ^' Hello ^' the familiar ^' Who datT' told 
me that I had reached a haven of rest, and that 
the next night I should have those about me to tell 
about the high school that they were to help 
build. 

Thus I studied the people and the country, and 
the entire summer was spent in this way. In the 
fall I found that I was no better off financially 
than when I first entered the Piney Woods. On 
Sundays at their meetings the people would take 
up an after collection for the " Fesser " — ^generally 
eighty or ninety cents, but often only fifteen or 



PINE-KNOTS AND THE BLUE SKY 61 

twenty cents, and with this I met the few current 
expenses I had. 

About the first of October, having covered con- 
siderable territory and worn out the only shoes and 
clothing I had, I found myself back at Braxton, 
determined to begin the operation of a school. 
Although I was full of enthusiasm and had stirred 
up some degree of interest among both the white 
and the colored people, I realized the difficulty of 
making a start; but I had burned my bridges be- 
hind me and was determined to do or be found 
trying. 

It had been the poorest crop season in the his- 
tory of the country, with rain, rain, rain. The 
merchants had put out money for provisions and 
clothing for the colored people, as is the custom 
in the South, and it looked as if there would be 
no cotton with which to pay because of the con- 
tinuous rains. I talked the matter over with Mr. 
Mangum, the cashier of the Braxton Bank, who 
is now our treasurer, and in his kindly, sympa- 
thetic way he said, " Well, Jones, the outlook is 
rather gloomy; it looks like the rain has the best 
of us; my money's out, the darkies are all blue, 
and I'm blue, so that we're about one color; but 
go ahead and do what you can and I'll help you a 
little later." Another local white man, Mr. J. E. 



62 PINEY WOODS 

Webster, I found at his mill checking up lumber. 
He said that an industrial school for the colored 
people was a fine thing and that he would give 
some lumber when it got started. He also allowed 
me the use of his typewriter. 

I had some interesting experiences with the local 
Church Association, Sunday School Convention, 
and such organizations. For the meetings of these 
bodies the people sometimes drive forty or fifty 
miles, coming in wagons or buggies or on mules 
to the great event of the year. Those who can not 
find places to stay near the church camp out in the 
open. There are tables and counters and vendors 
out under the trees, where are sold hot fish, 
oranges, apples, soda water, crackers, and anything 
else the appetite might call for. In the church and 
around the doors and windows are the older people. 
Next is a circle of young people walking to and 
fro. It is their great social time of the year; 
every girl must have a new calico dress for the oc- 
casion and every boy a new suit, and many a court- 
ship that ends in marriage begins at the " Associa- 
tion." On the edge of the crowd are the tables 
and stands, while surrounding all is the circle of 
wagons and buggies and mules. The buggies fur- 
nish convenient places for the young people to sit 
and court. Beyond all else are the camp followers, 



\ 




First Graduating Class 



PINE-KNOTS AND THE BLUE SKY 63 

horse traders and the fellows with a little " blind 
tiger '' whiskey. It seems impossible to keep them 
away, and often there are as many white men as 
colored in this gang. 

During the month of August the Spring Hill 
Association was to have its annual meeting, each 
church being represented by two delegates and 
four dollars in money, with instructions as to the 
division of this money between the funds for Edu- 
cation, Home Missions, Foreign Missions, and 
Superannuated Ministers. My friends were all in 
a great state of preparation for the gathering, and 
several advised that I should go by all means. It 
was a hot, dusty August day when we started upon 
our twenty-mile journey over a narrow, rugged 
road, with roots and stumps and gullies and 
washed-out places at frequent intervals. I did not 
know that the young man with me had taken the 
old plug we were driving right off the pasture, that 
he had hitched him up without sufficient feed 
or water, or that he was old. At any rate 
his debilitated condition brought on colic and 
he died the day after we arrived at the 
Association. This was only the beginning of 
trouble. The members of the Association could 
not exactly understand my mission among them, 
and those who were at the head of affairs were as 



64 PINEY WOODS 

jealous of their positions as if they had been rulers 
of principalities. They did not know but that I 
was a preacher in disguise, they did not permit me 
to come before the body or take any part in the 
proceedings, and I found myseK completely 
" frozen out " on a sizzling August day. When 
the meeting was over and the tents were being 
taken down and the stands knocked to pieces, every- 
body seemed in a hurry to leave. Buggies and 
wagons were soon hitched up and the people 
climbed in and rumbled off down the roads in 
clouds of dust but not one seemed going in my 
direction. Wearily I turned back toward my set- 
tlement with a twenty-mile walk before me. When 
I arrived I found that the news of the death of the 
old horse was already there. The young man had 
not returned with me. "Not relishing the idea of 
facing his people without the horse, he had decided 
to visit a few days before returning, so that the 
death of old Doc was entirely upon my own shoul- 
ders although I was only a guest and had not in 
any way assumed the responsibility of driving the 
horse. My stock dropped to zero, things were dark 
and ominious, and failure stared me in the face. 
Then I remembered hearing some of my Univer- 
sity teachers tell about Mark Twain and Walter 
Scott, who had been connected with companies that 



PINE-KNOTS AND THE BLUE SKY 65 

failed and who while they were not under any re- 
sponsibility from a purely business standpoint to 
stand for the losses of the others in the company, 
nevertheless because of the moral consideration 
paid back every dollar their defunct companies 
owed. I felt I should do the same, for I did not 
want to fail in my object of educating these people. 
I did not want to leave with this odium upon me 
and I certainly would not climb to success over the 
misfortune of the lowliest in the Black Belt. As 
the owner and I could not agree on the value of 
the plug, we each selected a man, and the two 
selected a third who would act with them as a com- 
mittee to fix the value of the animal. The verdict 
was for $125, which amount was really $75 more 
than the horse was worth. I said I would pay 
the sum with the first money I could earn. 'My 
good friend, Mr. Taylor, however, who had been 
my nominee, came to the rescue and loaned the 
money upon my word, without security of any 
kind. My stock again rose rapidly, and I have 
never regretted the decision to do more than I was 
morally responsible for. I had helped to build up 
my credit not only in Braxton, but in Jackson as 
well; and some of the very people who looked 
askance now came around and said that I had been 
overcharged. Since then the owner of the horse 



66 PINEY WOODS 

has moved to Louisiana, and for two years lie sent 
his youngest son back to the Piney Woods School. 
In 1919 the young man was graduated as the vale- 
dictorian of his class, and he married one of the 
graduates of 1918. 

Another organization in the county known as the 
St. John's Semi-Annual Convention, the president 
of which had first invited me down, was my next 
hope of getting a start. This would not budge. 
The president was accused of bringing down a 
" f uriner " to take away their convention from 
them, and a new president was elected. The treas- 
urer was opposed to any forward movement be- 
cause he had used up the $75 or $80 in the treas- 
ury and was not in a position to replace this. Still 
another of the leaders had some boys who had been 
sent away to school and who were now rural teach- 
ers, and he was not willing to boost anything of 
which they could not be the head. In general the 
opinion was, " We have been laboring for twenty 
years to build a high school, and if we go ahead 
and let Fesser Jones build one under our authority 
he'll get the praise." A little later I attended a 
smaller convention. Here one of the leading lights 
remarked, " I wish that feller 'ud go on away from 
here; he's got too much sense. I know he'd never 
come away down here with his sense fer any good 



PINE-KNOTS AND THE BLUE SKY 67 

to us.'' It must be remembered that I bad friends 
in all of tbese meetings wbo were willing to do 
for me anytbing tbej could, but tbe moderators 
and otber officers bad a sort of interlocking di- 
rectorate and tbej did not want it disturbed, scbool 
or no scbool. Tbe more I tbougbt of tbe matter 
tbe more certain was I tbat I ougbt to be able to 
do sometbing for tbese people out in tbe great 
Piney Woods, and I finally came to tbe conclusion 
tbat tbe start must be made in some otber way. 
I bad been accustomed to go to a spring on an old 
farm about two miles from wbere I was staying 
to read and write under a large cedar tree. One 
afternoon wbile I was at tbis place day-dreaming 
tbere came to my mind tbe saying tbat Mark 
Hopkins on one end of a log and a student on tbe 
otber would constitute a university, and I tbougbt 
tbat surely I ougbt to be able to teacb tbese illiter- 
ate boys and girls witbout tbe formality of build- 
ings and desks and blackboards. So tbe inspiration 
came to me to open scbool under tbe old cedar tree, 
in God's out-of-doors, with His vast blue dome for 
our scboolbouse, and I set out to notify tbe farmers 
around tbat scbool would open on tbe next Mon- 
day morning at tbe cedar tree on tbe old Mordecai^ 
Harris place. 

Many of tbem bad already laugbed at me for 



68 PINEY WOODS 

sitting around the old place and now they laughed 
anew. The very idea of starting a high school 
under a tree — impossible! This only strengthened 
my determination, however. On 'Monday morning 
three boys met me, and a few of the old brethren. 
We assembled imder the tree on some pine logs, 
and after singing " Praise God from whom all 
blessings flow," reading lessons from the Bible, and 
offering prayer, declared school open. 

The next day I had a few more students, and 
the number grew until there were some twenty- 
nine. Each new addition meant more pine logs for 
seats. After a few weeks two of the students, a 
young man and a young woman whom I had taught 
before coming to the Piney Woods, joined one, and 
several more insisted upon coming though I had 
no place for them to stay. The young man was a 
very good carpenter and the young woman fairly 
well advanced in her studies. They became my 
efficient assistants. It was now November and the 
days were a little chilly. We would each build 
a bonfire and roll our logs around and thus hear 
the classes. In the meantime the recess period was 
spent in hewing out benches. !N'ear by our open-air 
school was an old tumble-down cabin in which a 
drove of sheep took shelter. It was also inhabited 
by lizards, snakes, and owls, and was almost hid- 



PINE-KNOTS AND THE BLUE SKY 69 

den bj the weeds that had grown np around it. I 
made some inquiries and found that it, as well as 
the land we were on, belonged to an aged colored 
man by the name of Taylor, who the people said 
was the only one among them who could do any- 
thing, but who was mean and stingy so that it 
would be useless to see him. I asked where he 
lived and started out to find him, and I met him 
out in a field plowing with an old mule. I hailed 
him and introduced myself. He said that he had 
heard of me, that it looked as though I meant busi- 
ness, and that if I would wait a few minutes he 
would " take out '' and talk. This I did, and then 
we went to his cabin. He explained that he had 
let everything run down as he was planning to 
leave the country and go West, and did not want 
to leave anything behind. He had had interesting 
experiences. He had gone with Major Pahner 
after the war to Rockford, 111., and had obtained 
three terms of schooling at the little red school- 
house near Cherry Valley, and later had lived in 
Keokuk, Iowa, where he worked as a barber. Then 
he had returned to his old state of Mississippi and 
by virtue of the education he had received had been 
able to buy several hundred acres of land and save 
a little money. We talked until three o'clock in 
the morning, and he decided to give forty acres of 



70 PINEY WOODS 

land and fifty dollars in money toward the sub- 
stantial beginning of the school. The next day we 
went down and looked over the forty acres, and the 
following Saturday he went to town and deeded 
the property to the trustees of the Piney Woods 
Industrial School and gave a check for fiity 
dollars. 

Here was a man different from any colored man 
I had yet met in the Piney Woods. The following 
Sunday he and I visited the local church to an- 
nounce the gift and to see what we could do to stir 
up some enthusiasm. After the meeting, being 
given an opportunity to speak, I announced the 
great gift of Mr. Taylor, whereupon one of the 
deacons jumped up and said, " I ain't goin' to have 
nothin' to do with it. There's some trick about it; 
Taylor never would have done that if it wasn't a 
trick." This outburst considerably dampened the 
feeling. Mr. Taylor had been so good and kind to 
me, however, that my fighting blood had been 
aroused, and I declared that he and I were more 
determined than ever to build a school and that we 
intended to proceed with the work even if we had 
to go forward alone. Mr. Taylor then stood up 
and emphasized what I had said, and the meeting 
closed in a blaze of enthusiasm. 

Next day I rode around through the settlement 



PINE-KNOTS AND THE BLUE SKY 71 

to find out what each would do. Some pledged a 
little money, the highest amount being the $15 of 
Hector McClaurin, one of the most substantial 
farmers. Others said they would help haul the 
lumber, some said they would help in the building, 
while still others said they would help " rive out 
de bods.'' I did not know just what that had to 
do with building a school but thought if it would 
help any I should be glad to see it done. 

I was now happier than I had ever been before 
in my life. We set to work, floored the old cabin, 
put a dirt and stick chimney at each end, and 
whitewashed it inside and outside. The result was 
that the people said it looked better than it had 
ever looked before in the half -century of its exist- 
ence. In one side the young man, Yancy, and 
myself fixed our living quarters, and the other side 
became the schoolhouse. It was seven rooms in 
one, serving as chapel, study hall, recitation room, 
office, sewing room, carpenter shop and basket- 
making shop as occasion required. 

One day a friend, Tom Dixon, came to me and 
said, " Mr. Jones, we are due a little schooling 
from the county, and if you could get that you 
would have a little something to help you." I 
made inquiry and found that the county had been 
accustomed to granting a three or four months 



72 PINEY WOODS 

school, the length of the term and the salary (gen- 
erally $15 or $18 a month) being dependent upon 
the pleasure of the superintendent. To get charge 
of the school would require two things, permission 
from the local trustees and then from the super- 
intendent. For several days I wrestled with the 
three trustees; one evening one would assent and 
as soon as I left him he changed his mind. Said 
one: " Fesser, suppose de projuct youse gitting up 
busts; den we'll be widout our school case it'll be 
part of youall's projuct, an' I'll be ter blame by 
de peoples." The next morning I once more had 
this one in the mood to go, but I was careful not 
to leave him again. We hitched up a mule and 
started by the home of one of the other men. This 
man we had to " get fixed " again ; then it took 
him another hour to hitch up his mule and tie the 
harness together. At last, however, we were off to 
Brandon, seventeen miles away. We arrived just 
as the board was about to convene, and we happily 
succeeded in our errand. 

We next called a great meeting of the people. 
Some eleven hundred came afoot, on horseback, 
in ox-wagons and vehicles of every description. 
Among them were the best white people from Brax- 
ton, three miles away. I remember Hon. R. F. 
Everett, president of the Braxton Bank, and some 



PINE-KNOTS AND THE BLUE SKY 73 

twenty-five others. The result of the meeting was 
a subscription list headed by the $50 of the ex- 
slave^ Taylor, liberal gifts from the white friends, 
and the mites of the farmer folk, some of whom 
were able to give only a few pennies. Altogether 
we had enough to start a building. Then followed 
gifts of all sorts. Mr. Webster gave the lumber 
promised and we set a day to begin work; one 
good old woman brought two geese across the coun- 
try. iSuch was the spirit in which the little school 
in the Piney Woods was started. 

On the appointed day, after Scripture reading 
and prayer, some started to haul lumber while 
others got the ground ready for the foundation. 
In my overalls I helped swing the axes and pull 
the crosscut saw that felled the first tree. Erom 
day to day the farmers' wives would come at noon 
and bring baskets of food, and we would all rest 
in the shade of the trees until time to go back to 
work. During the rest period I would conduct a 
farmers' experience meeting. At night, after the 
others had gone back to their homes, Yancy and I 
would continue to work until dark. Then we would 
go to our cabin and prepare supper. 

We progressed rapidly with the building, and 
soon had the framing up and the weather-boarding 
on. Then one night a terrible gulf-storm blew 



74 PINEY WOODS 

across the state, uprooting trees, destroying houses 
and livestock, and leaving death and destruction in 
its wake. As we lay on our cots in the old cahin, 
praying that our lives might be saved, we could 
hear the snapping of the gigantic pines and the 
crashing of timber and buildings blown about the 
country. The flashes of lightning were dazzling 
and the thunder was deafening, and the cabin 
groaned and trembled beneath the shock of the 
trees and timber blown against it. "When we saw 
the wreckage the next morning the fact that we 
were alive and the cabin still standing was to me 
a manifestation of the power of prayer. The top 
of our cedar tree had been blovra off and every- 
where the pines were in a broken tangle, and our 
building, while not blown down, was off its founda- 
tion and almost wrecked. 

This misfortune nearly disheartened me. It was 
the most discouraging thing that had yet come into 
my life. I walked around the building several 
times trying to realize whether I was awake or 
dreaming. It all proved to be no dream; so we 
borrowed some jacks from the mills and railroad 
company and set to work to put the whole back in 
shape. After the farmers had straightened up 
their fences they flocked to help us; even the 
women came and helped to clear away the debris. 




Faculty in Early Days 



PINE-KNOTS AND THE BLUE SKY 75 

After days of toil and sleepless nights we finally 
succeeded in getting the building together and back 
on its original foundation, and everyone declared 
that it looked as well as before, if not better. We 
worked on and finally were able to move into our 
new building, which was dedicated and named 
" Taylor Hall," in honor of the man who had given 
the first money toward its erection. The old cabin 
now served only for sleeping quarters and the 
office. 

We closed the year free from debt and had an 
average of eighty-five students. We had taught 
common English branches and sewing, basketry, 
broom-making and woodwork. There was also a 
beginning in flower gardening. Our closing exer- 
cises consisted of essays on housekeeping, cooking, 
sewing, gardening, and manual training. 

There was no money for salaries and what dona- 
tions we could get were used for the building up 
of the school. After school was out I succeeded in 
getting enough money together to send out a thou- 
sand circular letters. From all of them I received 
but one response. It was as follows : " Although 
I am helping all of the schools I can and do not 
want to take on any new obligations, your litera- 
ture and story appeals to me in a special way. En- 
closed, etc. — Emily Howland." This contribution 



76 PINEY WOODS 

I felt was providential for it strengthened our 
faith that friends would come to our rescue and 
that we only needed to stay on the firing line. Dur- 
ing the vacation we worked on, trying to make a 
little crop with our hands, for we had not a single 
animal to use for working the soil. Again we sent 
out a thousand circular letters, this time mostly 
to Iowa. Again among the thousand we found 
only one response. We opened a letter one morn- 
ing and found in it a little pink check and these 
words : "I like what you are doing in your comer 
of the vineyard. May the Lord give you the der 
sire of your heart. Enclosed, etc. — Asa Turner." 
Since then we have heard from this friend many 
times and have found him the kindest, most lov- 
able man in all the world. Like the iMaster before 
him he goes about the world doing good. But who 
that knows anything about the history of Iowa does 
not know of Father Turner? 



IVi 

LOG CABIN DAYS 

I AM not sure just what we should call the first 
stage of the growth of the Piney Woods 
School, but I do know that the second stage 
might well be termed " Log Cabin Days." 

When we had finished our first year of work it 
was more than ever necessary for us to try to place 
our effort before the public. I shall never forget 
my first days in Keokuk, where I was soliciting for 
the first time in my life. I arrived on Saturday 
afternoon, and on my way up from the depot I 
passed a broom factory. After I deposited my 
luggage at my rooming-place I returned to this 
factory to see what I could learn in the course of 
the afternoon about making brooms. I also learned 
that a set of broom machinery was not in use and 
would be sold reasonably. This I considered for- 
tunate, for I wanted to install broom-making and 
I should now have something tangible to work for. 
On Sunday I visited several churches. At one I 

was allowed to tell my story before a large Bible 

77 



78 PINEY WOODS 

class though no collection was permitted. After 
the class was dismissed, however, one man who was 
interested came around and slipped a dollar into 
mj hand and gave me the names of some others 
upon whom I might call the next day. The next 
morning I went first to see Mr. Lee Hammill, 
whom I was told that I must by all means visit 
if I expected to have any luck in Keokuk. I 
found him busy at his desk in the midst of a dozen 
busy clerks. He gave me a sympathetic hearing, 
remembered " Uncle Ed Taylor," who had bar- 
bered there with an old Frenchman, and told me 
that he had always felt compassion for the colored 
people and was pleased to help, but that I must 
first see a Mr. Huiskamp and whatever this man 
did he would do also. I spent the rest of the day 
trying to find Mr. Huiskamp and finally saw him 
in his factory. He listened to me patiently and 
then said that he had about " given out," and that 
he now felt that for a while it was his first duty 
to provide for his family. That evening I went 
supperless to bed, but I could not rest. At last I 
set my teeth and with a new determination got up 
and dressed, and then I went out and looked up 
the location of Mr. Huiskamp's residence. The 
door was opened by the gentleman himself with a 
paper in his hand. When he saw who I was and 



LOG CABIN DAYS 79 

I had begun talking about the school he said, " But 
I told jou to-daj that I could not do anything just 
now." I do not know what I said, or whether it 
was the haunting, determined look I had, but at 
last he told me to come back to his office the next 
day and he would do something. The next day I 
was up and at it again. 1 met another good friend 
in the person of Mr. G. Walter Barr, who encour- 
aged me to go forward by declaring that I could 
not fail if I persisted. It took me nearly a week 
to raise the $35 to purchase the broom-making 
machinery which soon afterwards was on its way 
to the Piney Woods. The friendship thus formed 
for the school by Mr. Hammill and Mr. Barr has 
continued to grow and we have had the pleasure of 
thanking them many times for favors received. 

From Keokuk I journeyed on to Des Moines, 
where my friend and fellow alumnus. Attorney S. 
Joe Brown, had arranged a meeting for me in the 
church of Dr. Howland Hanson, one of the largest 
in the city. Very few attended, but I raised a 
little money, secured some pledges, and, best of all, 
succeeded in getting my friend Brown to tell me 
of the mistakes I made. He emphasized the fact 
that the best part of my lecture was my own per- 
sonal story of my work, and I have since found 
that he was entirely correct. While in Des Moines 



80 PINEY WOODS 

I also met a young man, Louis Watson, wlio had 
attended the high school, but who had not been able 
to find anything other than the work of a porter 
to do. He was happy to cast his lot with us, and 
without a promise of salary began preparations to 
leave, despite the unfavorable comment of friends 
concerning the 'South. 

We opened in the fall with five teachers. The 
young man who had been with us the first term 
had married during the summer and he brought 
his wife. She was to be a teacher for the extension 
work through the co-operation of the Anna T. 
Jeanes Fund. We enrolled over a hundred stu- 
dents and added a training kitchen for the girls. 
The money sent by Miss Howland we applied 
toward a little hand press and some type, and at 
the suggestion of this kind lady we began to print 
a little paper which we called The Pine Torch. 
Mr. Watson taught in the Academic Department 
and was also our official bookkeeper. He was one 
of the most faithful and conscientious young men 
it has ever been my good fortune to know. Often 
after teaching all day he would be bending over 
the books until after midnight. While we did not 
have a great deal of money to handle, we kept the 
work time of the students and also a careful record 
of their marks. 



LOG CABIN DAYS 81 

As Christmas time approaclied and the pitifully 
poor condition of the people began to impress itself 
upon Watson, he began to make plans for a real 
ChristmaS; such as he had been accustomed to see 
the children enjoy in the North. He sent to his 
mother for little candles and other decorations for 
a tree, and he set about making little Christmas 
boxes out of pasteboard and tissue paper, and 
painting motto cards for each of our students and 
for many of their parents. Time after time I re- 
monstrated with him for working so steadily and 
keeping indoors so much, but he would only smile 
and answer that he wanted to let these poor boys 
and girls have a real Christmas for once in their 
lives, even if it was the last thing, he ever did. So 
he worked on until late in the night, doing his 
regular work and painting the cards, and he was 
an excellent artist; and in the meantime the teach- 
ers prepared for a concert. The custom had been 
to have a great frolic to the accompaniment of an 
old guitar, with plenty to drink, fireworks and the 
shooting of pistols. This time we had a sermon 
in the afternoon, a sacred concert at night, and a 
Christmas tree gaily decorated and brilliant with 
dozens of candles. This was the first real Christ- 
mas the Piney Woods folk had ever witnessed, and 
how they enjoyed it, young and old! Not a gun 



82 PINEY WOODS 

was fired, not an unpleasant incident marred tlie 
blessed holiday ; and how the eyes of the little boys 
and girls sparkled as they feasted upon the tree 
and as the names of the different ones were called 
for the boxes of nuts and candy! But alas for 
poor Watson! He had overworked himself, and 
the overwork, together with the poor food — for we 
subsisted mostly on cowpeas and cornbread — had 
taken all his strength. Within two weeks after 
Christmas, with a smile on his face, he went out, 
and the saddest thing I have ever had to do in 
life was to wire his mother about the return of 
her boy. His life was an inspiration for all of us, 
a benediction upon our work. We dedicated our- 
selves anew to the unfinished task that stretched 
before us and zealously turned again toward 
the sun. 

Each day the students had worked half a day 
and gone to school half a day, and in this way we 
had cleared up a few acres of land, but we needed 
something to help with the plowing. A mule 
would cost $150, and the most we could raise was 
$20; so we bought a donkey that had been trained 
to plow, and though it was a rather slow proposi- 
tion we set out to make a little crop. One day 
Mr. Taylor, returning from a trip to Jackson, told 
us about an old-style piano that he had seen for 



LOG CABIN DAYS 83 

sale at $30. This was just $30 more than we had 
and the spring is a poor time for raising money in 
the South. But we needed music, and this piano 
was of just the kind and price for us. Finally one 
of our enthusiastic farmers, Amon Gipson, came 
to our rescue. He said he had been holding a bale 
of cotton and that he would sell it and go and get 
the piano for us, as he liked music and wanted 
to do something for the school each year. Accord- 
ingly we set out early one morning for Jackson, 
twenty-four miles away, with the bale of cotton, 
and returned with the piano, which has been of 
immeasurable help to us. Best of all, some eight 
months afterwards Mr. Gipson said to me : ^' Fes- 
ser Jones, I ain't never regretted I bought dat 
planner fur de school. Od cose I only got fifty 
dollars fur my cotton, but I thought I'd manage 
to get along somehow, an' it seems dat since I done 
dat money has come to me an' I'se been able to get 
hold ob money dat I wouldn't have seen if I hadn't 
done dat. Yep, I'se powerful glad I done it." 

The end of the school year came all too soon. 
Because the people are poor and do not use modern 
machinery everybody must work, and for this 
reason we set the closing date for the first week in 
May. Instead of a long series of essays and ora- 
tions for our closing exercises, we attempted to 



84 PINEY WOODS 

show the people just what the students had been 
learning to try to make better their home-life. 
Mr. W. P. Mangum, the cashier of the Braxton 
Bank, had offered a gold medal to the girl who 
made the most progress in cooking, and as a part 
of the program the two girls who had made the 
highest marks in class cooked and served a meal 
before the audience. In judging the results the 
person of the girl, her care of the table, the floor, 
and the stove as well as the food were all taken 
into consideration. Another girl cut out and made 
a garment while the audience watched her. An- 
other boy and girl set up in type some instructions 
to the farmers, and these another boy ran off on 
the little press. Still another boy had a pig that 
he exhibited to the audience, and he pointed out 
the difference between a good hog and the " razor- 
back, Piney Woods rooter." Both our white visit- 
ors and our own people were exceedingly happy 
and enthusiastic over this commencement program. 
We closed school again out of debt, l^ot any of 
us had drawn salaries, but we had received a living 
and had the satisfaction of knowing that we had 
tried to do a little good. 

Our summer program was then made out. Two 
of the teachers were to stay, and with the help of 
a few students make a little farm and garden. An- 



LOG CABIN DAYS 85 

other I asked to spend the summer back in the 
forest among the people organizing rural school im- 
provement associations, cooking classes, com clubs, 
and poultry clubs. For each of these movements 
I made out the literature and we felt that if they 
were once established some good would come of 
them. This teacher spent the entire summer in 
the work ; sometimes she was twenty or even thirty 
miles from a railroad. 

I myself was to go North again and try to in- 
terest the people in Iowa in what we were trying 
to do. I had planned a little picture story of our 
work and had talked it over with the other teach- 
ers, but there was no extra money for having it 
done. I had asked the teachers especially to re- 
member this need in their prayers for especially 
since the storm I had unbounded faith in the power 
of prayer. One morning the mail brought just one 
letter. It was from Mr. Arthur Cox, and con- 
tained a draft which enabled us to have the neces- 
sary cuts made and a little story of the work put 
into booklet form. Then I started upon my 
journey. 

Two of the most important incidents of this 
summer occurred in Des Moines. Captain Asa 
Turner pledged a hundred dollars if the colored 
people in the city would subscribe the same amount. 



86 PINEY WOODS 

This they readily did. The other helping hand 
was stretched out by the Des Moines Register and 
Leader, which made a feature story of the work. 
This was written by Mr. F. W. Beckman, now a 
teacher in the Iowa State College, and occupied 
the entire front page of the Sunday magazine 
section. 

On the third Monday in October, 1911, we 
opened our third year with S.ve teachers who were 
all young colored people under thirty years of age 
and who were determined to make their lives dur- 
ing the year count more than in any previous year 
of their history. On the opening day each boy 
and girl and each teacher stood up and told of the 
summer's work. One boy told of how with his 
knowledge of carpentry gained at the school he had 
built a little shed for his father. Another told of 
selecting seed corn and raising ten more bushels 
of corn on an acre than his father and neighbors 
had ever raised. A girl told of how she had gath- 
ered a neighbor's children together in a little school 
and taught them for nine weeks. Everybody, it 
seemed, had tried to do something for someone else 
during the summer and all pledged their faith 
anew to strive as never before to build up them- 
selves and the little school in the Piney Woods. 
Miss Emily Howland, our good friend who had 



\ 



"■^^"^ 


^^Wl ^ ■■ 'I 


. Jgk ^ ' VH 




^^^^^^^Vi jflli^^^^^^^^^H 



Mrs. Laurence C. Jones 



LOG CABIN DAYS 87 

given us the money with which we had purchased 
our little press, sent for a report of the work, and 
being pleased with it, sent money with which to 
buy a larger press and more equipment so that we 
could publish The Fine Torch regularly each 
month and keep our friends informed of our prog- 
ress. This was a great step forward. 

About Christmas time I had another evidence of 
the power of prayer. We needed a typewriter and 
had not the means to get one. I had asked the 
Master to open the way and had thought it was 
to be by buying on the installment plan. On the 
morning on which I went to the post-office to buy 
a money order for the first payment I was handed 
a letter from the '' Maple Leaf Farm." I eagerly 
tore it open to see what message of good cheer 
'^ Uncle Asa " was sending. To my surprise it 
contained an express bill for a modern typewriter 
that was on the road, a Christmas gift from him- 
self, Hon. Henry Wallace, and others. Another 
desire had been fulfilled; another straw had demon- 
strated that the wind was blowing in our favor. 

One other matter I must mention. It will be 
recalled that in my junior year in college I had 
been assisted at a meeting by a young woman who 
had had some experience in educational work. 
This -was Miss Grace M. Allen, a graduate of the 



88 PINEY WOODS 

Burlington Higli School, who, after conducting for 
three years a school of her own, traveled in the 
interest of the Eckstein-lJ^orton School in Ken- 
tucky until this was merged with Berea, and who 
then studied for two years in the Department of 
Public Speaking at the Chicago Conservatory of 
Music. We were married soon after the close of 
my third year at Piney Woods, while I was on my 
trip Korth in interest of the school. ^' My little 
partner " has the faith that removes mountains, 
and it is largely by reason of her energy and skill, 
her devotion and enthusiasm, that we have been 
able to accomplish more within the last few years 
than in any previous years in the history of the 
school. 



" MESSAGES OE HOPE " 

FOE some time Taylor Hall and tlie log 
cabin had served for school building, chapel, 
dormitories, printing-office, and domestic 
science department. The good white people of 
Braxton, seeing our effort and desiring to show 
their appreciation, decided to build a girls' dormi- 
tory. Mr. J. E. Webster gave the framing and 
Messrs. W. P. Mangum, E. F. Everett and J. P. 
Cox furnished most of the means for finishing the 
structure, which we christened "Braxton Hall." 
This building is two stories high and accommodates 
about forty girls. 

With the scraps that were left we were able to 
build a little one-room shop for manual training. 
The woods and a group of our farmer friends soon 
gave us another little log cabin shop for simple 
work in blacksmithing and broom-making. The 
two smaller buildings occupied the space to the 
right and left of the walk between Braxton Hall 
and Taylor Hall, while just to the southeast of 



90 PINEY WOODS 

Taylor Hall stood the old cedar tree and the 
original log cabin. Across the road, on a dight 
elevation, we have erected a large barn with money 
sent us by our friend Mr. Arthur Cox, and here 
some of the boys stay when they can not find room 
elsewhere. These buildings are all neatly white- 
washed and give the place the appearance of an 
institution. 

I shall never forget the beginning of our fifth 
year. Mrs. Jones had told the people that I should 
be back for the opening day and there they were, 
hundreds of them, young and old, and some from 
far back in the woods, to greet me. In my talk I 
said to them, among other things : " To-day marks 
the beginning of the fifth year of this little school 
in the Piney Woods. In the glow of a bonfire five 
years ago, before we had adequate shelter, I saw 
many of your faces light up with a new under- 
standing of the meaning of education as we studied 
our books and practised our manual training. 
* * * A song you have just finished typifies 
the spirit of this institution more than anything 
else I know of. Well may you sing ' Keep Inchin' 
Along; Jesus Will Come By and By,' composed by 
our foreparents in the dark days of slavery, for 
even to-day we need such a sentiment to guide us 
over the rough and rugged road we must travel if 



^'MESSAGES OF HOPE" 91 

we are to reach the sunlight of success. After the 
singing of this melody we want to hear from these 
parents and friends who have come out to-day to 
welcome us hack; and I can say that although I 
have been away, many miles away, my mind has 
always been in the Piney Woods.'' 

Then different ones of our friends spoke. We 
can give only the keynotes. Said Eease Berry: 
" Well, sir, us colored folks been starting up pro- 
jects of one kind or another ever since de war, 
schools, cotton gins, and I don't know what all, but 
we'd always fall out and bust it up 'cause eve'y 
feller wanted to be de leader. But this school pro- 
ject jest beats eve'ything." Said Oscar Cox: " I'm 
glad we's spared to meet in this appointed place 
again. This year we's got a chance to do a whole 
lot better than ever before. I wants my chillen, 
an' dese other chillen, to do a whole lot better an' 
pay attention an' learn a heap an' obey dese teach- 
ers, 'cause Fesser sure has brought in a fine crop 
of teachers." Said Jems McLaurin : " I have but 
few thoughts. I remember when these school 
grounds was just a woods and an old field, but the 
power of education has changed it. I'm only sorry 
dat I haven't taken more advantage of it myself, 
though I have given my children the chance." 
Then Rhodes Donald, who lives fourteen miles 



92 PINEY WOODS 

back in the woods from the school, said : " IVe 
been settin' here listenin' to the people of this com- 
munitj speaking up for this school and I am well 
pleased to know that the community is pleased with 
it — something we seldom see, at least among our 
folks ; there's always someone to throw a stumbling- 
block in the way. But I'm glad to stand before 
you once more in life and say that quite an im- 
provement has come over us colored folks. * * * 
I want to tell you what my boy done. His 
grandma gave him nine joints of cane an' told him 
to plant them an' see what he could do. Well, the 
first year he got seven stalks of cane and saved the 
eyes and kept on planting an' selling until he's 
been able to buy him a yoke of oxen from those 
nine joints. I hope I can get him in with you all 
and that this school will keep on going up." 
Mrs. Taylor, the wife of Uncle Ed Taylor, who 
gave the first forty acres of land, then asked to be 
permitted to say a few words. Among other things 
she said: ''I have been praying for the school all 
the time, and I want Mr. Jones to know that he 
has a real helper in Mrs. Jones; she has just con- 
ducted things this summer as they were never car- 
ried out before." Then -Mrs. Janie Barber said: 
" I am too full to say much, but I just wanted to 
let you know I'm praying for you all, and I prays 



'' MESSAGES OF HOPE » 93 

for that good white woman who gave that printing- 
press, and for Uncle Asa Turner, and for all of 
those who have done so much to help.'' Then 
Please Williams, a great giant of a man with a 
laugh that is infectious, brought his typical humor 
as well as his appreciation into the meeting. Said 
he: "Excuse me, but I'm jest too full to spress 
myself. Many times I have got on my knees and 
talked to God about helping this place to go on. 
Say, I jest can't say anything; I'm too full. Others 
have fixed it up an' if I go on in my ignorant way 
you will forget all o' the good things they have 
said. I'm goin' to let well enough alone; it's too 
good a work to fool with." Mrs. Magee followed, 
saying : " I just want to testify, but like the 
brother who just spoke I'm so full I hardly know 
what to say. I appreciate the good works that are 
going on here. It was ^yq years ago I first heard 
of this school. I was living way back in the coun- 
try, forty or fifty miles from here, and one of the 
teachers came by and told me of it. Well, I didn't 
see how we could ever get to it as we are poor and 
have a large family, but I went down the knee way, 
trusted God, prayed He would help me to obtain 
the blessing of a school for my children; and now, 
praise the Lord, we are right in the neighborhood 
of it. That's why I trust in God. I want to tell 



94 PINEY WOODS 

jou God must be in this place; His works are re- 
vealed. My ! but I'm happy ; the Lord has pro- 
vided a way for my children. I want you all to 
pray for me and send me messages of hope." So 
sincere was this good woman in her appreciation 
of the school and her trust in the Lord that one 
aged woman whose early days had been spent in 
slavery talked and sang and shouted as if she had 
been at a revival, and others were visibly affected. 
I then announced that the school had a chaplain 
for the year who would preach every Sunday morn- 
ing at eleven o'clock ; but before we could introduce 
him Mrs. Taylor arose and said : ^^ Please excuse 
me, Professor, but I'm aroused. You have done 
my heart good. The Lord has answered my pray- 
ers. The nearest church being only once a month, 
I've had to go so far every Sunday to hear the word 
of the Lord that I have prayed for a better oppor- 
tunity. The Lord being my helper, I'll be here 
every Sunday morning." 

In the autumn of this fifth year the little school 
had become so widely known and the responsibility 
of its management was becoming so much greater 
each day that it was decided that the time was ripe 
foi applying for a charter. One was accordingly 
drawn up and submitted to the Attorney-General 
of the State of Mississippi. I think that in all the 



''MESSAGES OF HOPE'' 95 

world there has never been a group of braver men 
than those who were formally behind this effort in 
our development. Mr. W. P. Mangnm, our treas- 
urer and the cashier of the Braxton Bank, is one 
of the most progressive joung white men in the 
State of Mississippi. Hon. R. F. Everett, who is 
president of the Braxton Bank, is one of the oldest 
pioneers in the Pinej Woods and a veritable 
patriarch in the country round about. Major R. 
W. Millsaps, who was in the " Army of the Lost 
Cause," was one of the foremost men in Missis- 
sippi in financial affairs and the most beloved man 
in the state because of his great philanthropic 
heart. Captain Asa Turner, well known farmer 
and pioneer booster, because of his great humanity, 
loving heart, and Christian association with young 
men, had become the most beloved man in Iowa. 
Dr. D. J. Harris, brother of the late well known 
IlT. W. Harris, of the Harris Trust and Savings 
Company of Chicago, is of a family whose business 
ability, integrity, and helpfulness are known 
throughout the West. E. IST. Taylor, ex-slave, a 
man of level head and keen business instinct, had 
become one of the most successful men of the race 
in Mississippi. Amon Gipson, a staunch man, 
represents the masses of the people, and Rev. H. L. 
McClaurin is a farmer and local minister. These 



96 PINEY WOODS 

men, together with the principal and his wife, were 
those who signed the charter which was submitted 
to the Governor of the State, and to whom on May 
17, 1913, was formally granted the charter of 
" The Piney Woods Country Life School." These 
men form the basis of our Trustee Board, and we 
also have a special committee for the handling and 
investment of any special gifts or endowment. 
This committee is composed of Dr. D. J. Harris, 
chairman; Mr. W. P. Mangum, and Captain Asa 
Turner. Perhaps the most interesting article in 
the charter which we acquired is that which reads: 
" The cost of education shall, as far as practicable, 
be reduced to the lowest point consistent with the 
efficient operation of said school and every reason- 
able effort shall be made to bring education for 
country life within the ability of the poorer classes 
of the Black Belt." 

These were days of rough pioneering, and yet 
I love them because of the kindly disposition of 
most of the white people in our vicinity, and the 
sweet simplicity and devotion of the children of 
the soil. And they were dream days as well. 
Coming in from the field during the heat of the 
day one would sit in the shadows near our quaint 
vine-harbored little spring or at evening look across 
the moon-washed fields into the great dark woods 



*' MESSAGES OF HOPE" 97 

and dream such dreams as those of which my 
former teacher, Miss Mary Grove Chawner, wrote 
from dear Iowa. Said she: '^ The name Piney 
Woods still appeals to me, as from the first, with 
the suggestion of beauty in the picture of the tall, 
straight trees of natural, unhindered, perfect 
growth. The idea of vigor is there too, in the 
wholesome, resinous odor, and the wind among the 
high branches breathing the music of true and 
good thoughts born above in the sunlight which 
filters down dimly but gloriously to the listener 
below. So to me there is the suggestion of poetry 
and aspiration in The Piney Woods which makes 
it a right name for such a school as yours. Then 
there is practical suggestion no less appropriate. 
When the forest is gone to serve its purpose in the 
world of men, there is the soil, thick-carpeted with 
pine-needles, the gathered humus of years ready to 
serve mankind in its way. The name of your 
paper is no less than an inspiration — The Pine 
Torch — for its instant suggestion of light and its 
symbolism of the several pieces that must be used 
together to keep the torch alight." 

From the very beginning of the work we had 
visitors who brought us words of good cheer. 
After the work had become known beyond our im- 
mediate locality we were able to have as speakers 



98 PINEY WOODS 

and visitors at various times such prominent white 
men of the South as Major Patrick Henrj, Bishop 
Theodore DuBose Bratton, Eev. G. Gordon Sneade, 
Hon. B. W. Griffith, president of the First E'a- 
tional Bank of Vicksburg; Mr. Thad B. Lampton, 
vice-president of the Capitol I^ational Bank of 
Jackson; Col. R. H. Henry, Mr. R. H. Green, 
Rev. Marcellus Green, Prof. W. S. Bond, State 
Superintendent of Education; Hon. Bura Hilburn, 
Mrs. Marjorie C. McGehee, Mr. Bolton Smith, 
Mr. Frederick Sullens, Hon. George R. James, and 
we counted among our supporters Mr. W. E. 
Lampton, Mr. T. J. Thomas, Capt. J. W. John- 
son of Pantherburn, Mrs. Grace Jones Stewart, 
and Dr. J. H. Dillard of the Jeanes and Slater 
Funds. Within recent years one of our best friends 
also has been Mrs. Annie M. Malone, of St. Louis, 
a representative and successful business woman of 
my own race. 

Our first visitor from the North was one fre- 
quently mentioned in these pages — one affection- 
ately known everywhere as " Uncle " Asa Turner, 
but by those who want to be formal as Col. Asa 
Turner. He came to our first Farmers' Confer- 
ence, and such an impression did he make that the 
simple folk of the Piney Woods began to ask 
immediat^y after his departure, "Reckon Cap. 



*' MESSAGES OF HOPE'' 99 

Turner ever come back ? " or ^' When is Uncle Asie 
comin' again ? " Then came the late Prof. Laenas 
G. Weld, formerly head of the Department of 
Mathematics and later Dean of the College of Lib- 
eral Arts of the State University of Iowa, and 
afterwards president and builder of the three mil- 
lion dollar technical school provided for in the will 
of the late George Mortimer Pullman. He it was 
who delivered the dedication address of the dormi- 
tory which we called Braxton Hall. In writing 
of his visit in the university Alumnus he said: 
" There are at the Piney Woods Institute no shops 
or laboratories or other equipment that are not, 
from the standpoint of the university man, pitiably 
inadequate; but there is a definiteness and a 
strength of purpose, and adaptation of simple 
means to practical ends, an enthusiasm on the part 
of pupils and teachers, and certainty of reasonable 
success in their work, which even the most favored 
of our colleges and technical schools could afford 
to sacrifice much to secure." We were also fa- 
vored in this period by a visit from Rev. Ernest C. 
Smith, of Chicago. He spent several days with us 
looking over the plant and meeting the white citi- 
zens of Braxton. In recording his impressions he 
said : " The work is inspired by a high ideal, but 
is intensely practical and broadly sane. It not 



100 PINEY WOODS 

only fits teachers for rural schools and gives indus- 
trial training; it is also a center of extension work, 
carrying the gospel of better farming, better liv- 
ing, and better schools and churches, throughout a 
wide area." Among other visitors were Mr. K-oger 
F. Etz, of Boston, Mass., and Rev. J. B. Lehman, 
a splendid Christian gentleman who has labored 
faithfully for twenty-five years at the head of a 
school maintained for my people by the Christian 
Church. He met the citizens of Braxton and made 
a careful study of the community and the school, 
and later said : " The people were hungry for the 
truth and it was a delight to speak to them the 
great truths of God's word, which are the way to 
all human progress." Dr. G. S. Dickerman, who 
has been interested in IsTegro education for many 
years, and who has traveled extensively in the in- 
terest of the Slater Fund for l^egro Schools, wrote 
concerning our work as follows : '^ I had never 
heard of the Piney Woods country as offering un- 
usual attractions for a colored school. It was sup- 
posed to be a sort of white man's country, but 
actually in the two counties for which this school 
was started the colored children were nearly as 
numerous as the white. Certainly the founder 
made no mistake in breaking into the Piney Woods 
country, for he found a large number of neglected 



^'MESSAGES OF HOPE" 101 

people eager to welcome him to his undertaking 
and a great many white neighbors ready to join in 
the welcome and to assist his efforts." In Novem- 
ber, 1913, another friend whose business was en- 
tirely different from that of these other friends, 
came by to see us. In writing of the school to his 
home paper, The Evanston News-Index, Dr. D. J. 
Harris said : " l^ot a little in the way of extension 
work is being done in the surrounding country, and 
already the results are apparent in more diversi- 
fied farming, better tillage, and more tidy homes. 
Everything is severely plain, not to say crude, but 
the great Abraham Lincoln acquired much of his 
training by the light of pine knots in a log cabin, 
and I know of no work where a dollar will go far- 
ther in effecting an uplift of a people, white and 
black, than in this work that is being done at the 
Piney Woods School." Other friends who came in 
these early years were Mr. and Mrs. W. 0. Fink- 
bine, Miss Dorothy Finkbine, Miss Charlotte Flem- 
ing, Miss Beulah Pack of New Jersey, Mr. and 
Mrs. E. H. Sunderland of Minnesota, Mr. and 
Mrs. Arthur Cox, Mrs. Dixie C. Gebhardt, a 
prominent D. A. E., and Mr. W. C. Harbach. A 
little later we had the honor of a visit from Hon. 
James B. Weaver, Rev. Edmund March Vittum, 
Hon. J. Q. McPherrin, Dr. James Madison Stifler, 



102 PINEY WOODS 

Mr. and Mrs, Horace Hollingsworth, Mr. W. G. 
Olinger, Hon. W. S. Shirley, and Mr. and Mrs. 
De Laittre of Minnesota. 

After the first five years of anxiety and struggle, 
often to the extent of physical suffering, the school 
was beginning to be known in distant parts, and so 
fascinating has the work been that several white 
people from various parts of our country, North 
and South, have felt constrained to come and help 
us. One Southern man came and operated our 
printing office just for the good he could do. Rev. 
Frank T. Lea and his wife, of Sandy Springs, Md., 
who had spent several years in Africa as mis- 
sionaries, visited Piney Woods, and though offered 
a salary by another industrial school in the state, 
decided to cast their lot with us and were planning 
to return when Mr. Lea, who had been working in 
a shipyard in Philadelphia, accidentally lost his 
life. But the most interesting and romantic story 
is that of Mrs. Nellie F. Brooks. 

Down in the Piney Woods we had become used 
to surprises, both great and small, pleasant and 
otherwise; but when the news came that Mrs. Nel- 
lie F. Brooks was coming to help on our teaching 
force and that, too, free of charge, it was almost 
more than we could grasp. It was not so much 
the great kindness or nobility of her deed that sur- 



" MESSAGES OF HOPE '^ 103 

prised us, for we knew she was noble and kind; 
but, accustomed as we were to the spirit and the 
reality ol' sacritice, we stiil found it diihcult to 
realize the breadth of the spirit that could cause 
one to leave surroundings such as hers and come 
to make her dwelling, even for a little while, in a 
place like ours. To be sure, at that time Pinej 
Woods was quite an improvement on what it had 
been in the hrst few years. We were now using 
cooking-stoves in the kitchens instead of camp- 
hres, and the roofs in the sleeping rooms were in 
such order that we did not see quite so many stars 
as formerly; moreover, everybody now had a sleep- 
ing place, and nearly everybody had nearly enough 
covering for the chill autumn nights, or hopes of 
it before the real winter set in. Furthermore, we 
were all getting enough to eat now and not so fre- 
quently did we casually " drop in " on our friends 
in the community about meal time and gracefully, 
though protestingly, accept the unfailing invitation 
to "set up " to the table. But how would such 
comfort and affluence as this impress Mrs. Brooks ? 
All of our teachers had been used to better living 
than they were getting, but Mrs. Brooks had been 
used to the best. There was her beautiful home in 
the city of Waterloo, there was her splendid church 
and her position there as organist, also the Sunday 



104 PINEY WOODS 

School in which she had been a teacher for more 
than twenty years; there were her friends and as- 
sociates and all the pleasant influences that belong 
to a life and position such as hers; and Piney 
Woods had nothing to offer in the way of reward. 
But Mrs. Brooks was a D. A. E., a Past Eegent 
of the Mary Melrose Chapter, and so with the un- 
daunted spirit of valor and sacrifice that was her 
heritage she put on the armor and came to Piney 
Woods to help us fight the good fight of faith. In 
deep thankfulness we made ready for her coming. 
Everybody planned, suggested, worked. Hospital- 
ity was in the air. Everything was gone over, 
brushed, scrubbed, and shined. J^ew coats of 
whitewash were put on here and there; lawns were 
trimmed; walks were freshly spread with sandy 
gravel from the shallows of the creek bed. Mean- 
while the " Brooks Addition " was going up. This 
structure, built of fragrant logs from the near-by 
forest, and boards, some of which were " rived " 
on the place, was to be the new teacher's home. It 
was built with all the care we were able to bestow 
upon it, and when it was finished we hoped that 
at least as a snug little shelter in the Piney Woods 
it would do. Inside it was neat and trim and spot- 
less; outside the walls were beyond reproach in 
their two velvety coats of whitewash. Then Mrs. 



^'MESSAGES OF HOPE" 105 

Brooks came, and was delighted. She took posses- 
sion of the humble dwelling very much as I 
imagine a queen would take possession of a throne, 
and with the magic that was hers she soon trans- 
formed it into a home. How she accomplished it 
I know not. She did not bring much luggage with 
her — just a trunk and a few medium-sized, ordi- 
nary-looking boxes; but it seemed that into them 
she had packed all the essentials for a dainty 
and appealing little home. Bits of drapery, gay 
chintzes and cretonnes, a bright cushion or two, 
filmy lace curtains at the windows, a painting and 
etching here and there, a few books, a shining tea- 
kettle, a brass lamp with a shade like a big silken 
rose, a pair of andirons, two or three little statu- 
ettes and groups in marble or bronze, some delicate 
china cups and saucers, some teaspoons that rang 
like deep-toned little bells, a rug or two that sof- 
tened the footsteps like thick woodland — it all made 
a veritable wonder-house; and the children there- 
about, crude little beauty-worshippers that they 
were, fought and schemed for the privilege of work- 
ing there, whether to wash dishes, run errands, or 
sweep the yard. They were simply fascinated by 
the place and its owner ; and they brought her ferns 
and flowers, they, too, began to tidy up with their 
small abilities, and they, too, took on many little 



106 PINEY WOODS 

ways of politeness and neatness. One mother said 
that her little boy was " might nigh " ten years old, 
and the first time he was ever known to volunteer 
to wash his face was one day when he was going 
to work for " Mis' Brooks." And from day to day 
this valiant worker presided over all like a high 
priestess. She could not express her enjoyment; 
everything delighted and interested her, from the 
fat brown little children to the knotty problems of 
school finances and management. She loved the 
birds, the air, the flowers, and the big pine woods 
filling the winds with their resinous fragrance ; she 
loved the duties that confronted her from day 
to day, and she fairly radiated interest and en- 
thusiasm. 

Then one night it rained, dismally, coldly, and 
long. We heard it, my wife and I, but our roofs 
being generally rainproof after many patchings we 
thought little about it, and we thought that all 
were comfortable for the night. The next morn- 
ing, however, Mrs. Brooks told us how she had 
been awakened by a little stream of icy water 
falling on her face, and how after a while the roof 
was leaking everywhere and the water settling , over 
the floor in little pools. She joked about it all the 
next day, and we tried to be a little comical too, 
but in our hearts we were very sorry. 



*' MESSAGES OF HOPE'' 107 

Brave, noble Mrs. Brooks! The two years that 
she spent in the Piney Woods will always be re- 
membered by those who were there then; and their 
influence will be known and felt for generations to 
come, for as one small seed sometimes produces a 
mighty tree, that in turn produces thousands of 
seeds and other trees, just so a noble deed produces 
other conditions and influences that in turn go 
widening on and on until they reach eternity. 

Miss Doris James is another member of the 
white race who since the time of Mrs. Brooks has 
come to share her light with those not so favored 
as herself. In the office she is doing much that we 
had not been able to do ourselves. Always cheer- 
ful, when our means have been exhausted she has 
braved the ice and snow of winter to tell our 
friends in the North personally of our urgent 
needs. Assisting her at the school is Miss Mable 
Watson, another member of her race and a most 
faithful worker. 

While these friends and workers were coming to 
us, I myself continued my efforts for the school by 
trips to the North, especially in the summer. I 
had various experiences in seeking lodging in some 
of the towns in Iowa and Minnesota. Sometimes 
I slept in depots, once I stayed over night in a box- 
car, and after one particularly trying experience 



108 PINEY WOODS 

with two young policemen, a kindly niglit captain 
in a police station permitted me to stay until 
morning on a bunk in a cell. On one occasion, 
however, I met Mr. Abraham Slimmer, a member 
of the Jewish race and one of the eminent philan- 
thropists of Iowa. When he found that I had had 
difficulty in getting lodging, he offered me a place 
in his home. To-day among the most enthusiastic 
friends and loyal supporters of Piney Woods are 
such people of his race as Mrs. Babette Frankel, 
Mr. J. L. Sheuerman, Mr. i^ate Prankel, and Mr. 
M. Mendelsohn. Among other friends whose prac- 
tical Christianity strengthened us was Mr. Merrit 
Greene, a descendant of Nathaniel Greene of Revo- 
lutionai-y fame. At a critical period in our de- 
velopment I received an invitation to speak at sev- 
eral meetings in Marshalltown that Mr. and Mrs. 
Greene had arranged for us. Mrs. Jones was to 
give some readings and I was to tell of the school. 
Never before had the opportunity to meet so many 
of the best people in one place come to us. We 
spoke at the First Congregational Church, the 
High School, a Public School Mothers' Club, the 
colored Baptist Church, before the veterans of the 
Soldiers' Home, and especially at a joint session 
of two chapters of the Daughters of the American 
Eevolution in the colonial living-room of " Edge- 



*' MESSAGES OF HOPE" 109 

worth," the beautiful home of Mr. and Mrs. 
Greene. 

One of the greatest blessings we have ever re- 
ceived came when Mr. W. 0. Finkbine and his 
brother, Mr. E. C. Finkbine, of Des Moines, 
turned over to us more than eight hundred acres of 
their cut-over timber holdings which adjoined our 
school land. This most desirable gift not only gave 
us assurance of plenty of space in which to enlarge 
but also provided our supply of fuel, to say nothing 
of the lumber that can be had when our saw-mill 
dreams become a reality. Parts of this land are 
level and can be cleared and farmed, while the steep 
slopes of other portions will for years to come yield 
their harvest of stove-wood. 

Among the friends who have helped us with their 
pens are Mr. and Mrs. Paul Lee Ellerbe, two suc- 
cessful writers who in the course of their work 
have secured for our school splendid publicity in 
Collier's, McClures, and other periodicals. We 
first met these friends on the Eedpath-Vawter 
Chautauqua circuit, when we were thrown with 
them and the Williams Singers, an excellent group 
of colored musicians, on the third day of the pro- 
gram. At first they had the extreme Southern 
viewpoint with reference to ourselves and our 
work, but later a visit of a week to our struggling 



110 PINEY WOODS 

institution proved to them its merits and they 
went home to bend their energies toward its up- 
building. 

Perhaps more shadowy tales do not at first seem 
to belong with " Messages of Hope," and yet it is 
a fact that each misfortune has only served to 
strengthen our faith in our friends and in God. 
One morning just after breakfast we looked up and 
saw our large school barn in flames. The building 
was not only a bam but the home of some of the 
larger boys, who found quarters in the loft. Some 
years later, on a cold Saturday night, Harris Hall, 
the dormitory that accommodated more than fifty 
boys, went up in smoke; this was our best build- 
ing at the time, and in the fire some of our teach- 
ers lost all their possessions. Another blow came 
with the cyclone that totally destroyed the town of 
Braxton, three miles from the school. Braxton 
was our business and banking center, and because 
the people of the town were so much worse off than 
ourselves, not only did we have to stand consider- 
able loss on account of the destruction of the bank, 
but it was absolutely necessary for us to render all 
the practical aid we could at a time when ordi- 
narily our boys would have been planting our crops 
for the year. ISTot a year has passed without some 
crisis in which only faith could point the way. 




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Harris Hall. Dormitory that Burned 
Boys Living in Tents Afterwards 



'' MESSAGES OF HOPE " 111 

Each year the increasing needs of the school make 
$25,000 an absolute necessity, yet again and again 
we have faced the future without any definite 
promise of a penny of this amount. 

In the South, as may be imagined, I had various 
experiences, and some are written upon my mind 
in letters of flame. Of them all I feel that I must 
tell the story of one, not only because it was the 
most fearful of all, but also because it reveals the 
gleam of hope that sometimes lurks beneath the 
surface even with those whom we consider hostile. 
Just before we entered the World War a friend of 
mine who was a minister in a state west of the 
Mississippi asked me to come and help him in a 
revival, saying that while I was not a preacher 
he thought that I might still be able to help him. 
On the third night I happened to use various words 
and phrases drawn from military life and opera- 
tions, telling the people that life itself was a battle, 
that we must stay on the firing-line, and battle 
against ignorance, superstition, poverty, and all 
the evil elements of earth and air. Some white 
boys who happened to be riding near the church 
stopped and listened a few minutes and then has- 
tened away to their settlements spreading the news 
that I was urging the IN'egroes to "rise up and 
fight the white people." The next day about noon 



112 PINEY WOODS 

half a hundred men rode up to the church door and 
called for me. The people in the church with 
blanched faces looked toward me, and fear such as 
I never before saw on human faces looked piteously 
out of their eyes. I went to the door and said to 
the men, " I guess I'm the one you're looking for." 
The leader in a harsh voice ordered me to get in the 
center. The others closed around me; one threw 
a rope over my head and drew the noose, and down 
the road we went. The rest is a nightmare through 
which somehow sing strains of old Negro melodies. 
We went to a place rather free from trees, save 
one with a stout, jagged branch reaching out from 
it. Under this branch had been piled wood, 
branches, and fagots, and around the pile was a 
sea of stem faces, while riders on horses and mules 
kept coming in an unending stream. A horrible 
yell rent the air and two or three young boys 
climbed the tree ready to catch the rope. I was 
picked up bodily and thrown on the top of the pile 
of wood, while another roar of noise went up from 
every throat. Meanwhile I could hear the cocking 
and priming of guns and revolvers, and from vari- 
ous parts of the crowd random shots had begun to 
be fired. Then a Strange thing happened. One 
man jumped to the side of the log heap and, wav- 
ing his hat for silence, demanded that I make a 



'' MESSAGES OF HOPE " 113 

speech. And I did speak; I spoke as I had never 
spoken before about the life in our Southland and 
of what we should all do to make it better. I told 
stories that made the crowd laugh, I explained 
what I had really said the night before, I referred 
to different white men in the South with whom I 
had had helpful dealing, naming such men as Hon. 
E. F. Everett, Major Patrick Henry, Hon. W. P. 
Mangum, and Major E. W. Millsaps, and I finally 
said that I knew there was no man standing there 
who wanted to go to God with the blood of an inno- 
cent man on his hands. At times the laughter and 
hand-clapping were deafening. Then at last an aged 
man with a Confederate button in his coat pushed 
his way through the crowd and grasped my hand. 
" Come on down, boy," he said, as he pulled me 
to him and took the rope from around my neck, 
and then others also reached out and shook hands 
with me. I could hear some muttering from those 
on the edge of the crowd who felt that they had 
been cheated out of their fun, but the majority 
seemed to be with me. Then someone shouted, 
" Let's take up a collection for the Parson ;" and 
several began passing hats. Some actually threw 
money at me. Some asked, " When are you going 
to preach again, Parson? We want to be there." 
The collection fijially amounted to fifty dollars. 



114 PINEY WOODS 

Then one man let me have the use of his horse, he 
took another, and together we rode back to the 
church. 

As we drew near the church it seemed deserted, 
but as we approached the door we could hear a 
mellow voice in prayer. We learned that in their 
fright the people had scattered to their homes, all 
save half a dozen of the older men, who had been 
down on their knees all the time I had been gone 
asking God to perform a miracle as He did with 
Daniel in the lions' den and with the three Hebrew 
children in the fiery furnace. But although they 
had been praying for my return they could hardly 
believe it and as they looked at me were frightened 
enough to run. Then my companion said, '' This 
ain't no ghost j it's the same teacher we took away. 
It's all a mistake and he's all right; I mean to 
come out and hear him myself. He's done us more 
good to-day than he's done you all ever since he's 
been here. Next time you have a meeting I'll be 
out and tell you about it." Then he departed, 
leaving me with my own; and those dear old men, 
bent with years of toil and struggle, always long- 
ing and hoping for the better day that never came, 
hugged me and cried and sang and prayed, and as 
we came out of the church the west was aglow with 
a wonderful sunset, the most wonderful I had ever 



^'MESSAGES OF HOPE" 115 

seen. The stillness was enchanting, and far across 
the pine trees the fading light brought a feeling 
of relief and contentment. 

After the evening meal was over we sat in a 
circle, father, mother, grandfather, children, and 
a few neighbors, and with eager faces they listened 
to the story as I told it. Then I went to my rest, 
and in my dreams I seemed to be standing on a 
huge pile of fagots with the red flames licking the 
air about me. Then I thought of our struggle in 
the Piney Woods, of the battle from day to day, 
of the new strides forward, of the " inching along " 
to higher ideals and nobler living. I also remem- 
bered the softening of the hearts of the men in that 
terrible crowd and the strange turn of events in 
a situation that seemed utterly hopeless ; and in the 
largest possible way I had hope not only for my 
own people, but also for the Southern white people 
with whom we live. 

I am confirmed in my feeling by a great sheaf 
of letters from white men in Mississippi — men 
who have been in contact with the Negro ever since 
they were born, who have grown to manhood on the 
plantations and farms, who have supervised the 
ISTegro's work and weighed his cotton and sold it 
for him. The letters are from every part of the 
state, but most of them are from the rural districts 



116 PINEY WOODS 

where the masses of the ISTegroes live. Some are 
from bankers, and if there is any man in the world 
who is capable of judging his fellow-men it is the 
banker, and all the more able is he when he grows 
up among the people he is judging. The kindly 
sentiments of these men tell us that after all we 
have more friends among the Southern white peo- 
ple than we dreamed of, and the number is grow- 
ing rapidly. And that is why we are willing to 
stay here in spite of everything and sing in our 
hearts : 

" Let me but do my work from day to day, 
In field or forest, at the desk or loom, 
In roaring marketplace or tranquil room; 
Let me but find it in my heart to say, 
When vagrant wishes beckon me astray, 
'This is my work — my blessing, not my doom; 
Of all who live, I am the one by whom 
This work can best be done, in the right way.* 
Then shall I see it not too great or small 
To suit my spirit and to prove my powers; 
Then shall I cheerful greet the laboring hours, 
And cheerful turn, when the long shadows fall 
At eventide, to play and love and rest, 
Because I know 'for me my work is best." 



yi 

WIDENING mFLUENCES 

IK the course of tlie struggle to establish our 
school in the Piney Woods two matters of the 
utmost importance to the Negro were being 
recorded in the history of the state. In 1909 oc- 
curred the death of Bishop Charles B. Galloway 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, one of 
the most saintly and broad-minded men the com- 
monwealth ever produced, one of those whose 
eloquence has thrilled thousands of people through- 
out the world, but whose sense of honor and love 
of justice were of peculiar interest to the E'egro, 
for whom he was ever ready to take up his pen or 
raise his voice. It meant a great deal to a strug- 
gling race to have a man of such eminence not 
afraid to stand forth and say : ^' I have studied, 
with no small degree of pains, the records of the 
graduates of most of the leading colored institu- 
tions of learning in this country, and I am gratified 
with the result. I have been unable to find a 
single graduate from any representative Christian 

institution that has been convicted of any infa- 

117 



118 PINEY WOODS 

mous crime. Education elevates all people, and I 
deny with all the emphasis of my being the charge 
that education does not elevate and make better the 
black man." 

The other matter was the heated senatorial cam- 
paign of ex-Governor James K. Vardaman. Al- 
ready while governor of the state this official had 
abolished the only Negro normal school for the 
training of public school teachers; and while the 
Jackson Daily News, the organ of the more con- 
servative white people, waged an unyielding fight 
against him, he went to the United States Senate 
by a large majority. This critical era naturally 
affected Piney Woods as it did all other Negro 
schools, but as the darkest hour always seems to be 
just before the dawn, it is pleasant to record that 
ever since then we have had governors who have 
not used the Negro as campaign thunder and that 
conditions have seemed to grow better. 

The total population of Mississippi is 1,797,114. 
Of this number 1,009,487, or 56.2 per cent, are 
Negroes; 95,357 of this number are classed as 
urban while 914,130, or 90 per cent, live in the 
rural districts. The percentage of illiteracy among 
Negroes is 35.6 per cent, which is fairly good, if 
we remember that nearly 100 per cent were illit- 
erate fifty years ago and that the school facilities 



WIDENING INFLUENCES 119 

which obtain to-day are altogether inadequate. As 
regards the physical characteristics of the state, 
there are many people, especially in the North, who 
think of all the land as swampy. Only the north- 
western section, known as the Delta region, is so, 
and because of the inundation of the Mississippi 
and its tributaries, this contains the richest soil in 
the United States. The northeast quarter of the 
state is the prairie section, a great grain-growing 
region that fed the Confederacy in the Civil War. 
The southern half of the state is known as the hill 
section, and it is here in Rankin county, near the 
line of Simpson, that the Piney Woods Country 
Life School is located. One of the inspiring move- 
ments in South Mississippi has been the building 
of the Gulf and Ship Island Railway and the de- 
velopment of Gulfport as a winter resort and 
a deep-water harbor by the late Captain J. T. 
Jones, which enterprise is now being carried for- 
ward by his daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. 
W. T. Stewart. The success of this tremendous 
undertaking inspires other enterprises to push for- 
ward and the future of South Mississippi grows 
brighter day by day. 

Our county of Rankin contains 791 square miles 
and Simpson 575. The Piney Woods School, being 
located near the line, serves both counties as the 



120 PINEY WOODS 

only graded industrial high school. In a total 
population of 23,944, Eankin county has 14,294 
Negroes; Simpson has 5,969 ISTegroes, and Scott 
and Smith, that adjoin Rankin on the east, contain 
9,795 more. Thus we have in our immediate 
vicinity over 30,000 people, more than 50 per cent 
of whom are illiterate. In the next tier of coun- 
ties surrounding us — Newton, Jasper, Jones, Cov- 
ington, and Lawrence — are 36,751 more Negroes 
without an industrial or agricultural school. It 
should also be remembered that this is an entirely 
rural section of the state, there being only two 
towns of any size in it, Hattiesburg, with a popula- 
tion of 11,743, and Laurel, the Magic City of the 
state, with a population of 15,000. The wide- 
awake spirit of Laurel is due to the energy and 
fine spirit of the late Mr. S. W. Gardiner, and is 
being carried forward by Mr. Philip Gardiner and 
Mr. Arthur Cox. The dense ignorance and super- 
stition of the rural Negroes is due to the lack of 
effective educational facilities. For over a million 
Negroes the state furnishes but one Agricultural 
College, and within the last year this received an 
appropriation of only $63,000. 

It is not to be wondered at, then, that all of the 
workers at Piney Woods find abundant opportunity 
for service beyond the immediate bounds of the 




Young America 
Class Making Baskets of Pine Straw 



WIDENING INFLUENCES 121 

school. Writing letters, reading letters from sons 
who have " gone off on the railroad/^ explaining 
passages of Scripture, settling family quarrels, act- 
ing as judge in neighborhood quarrels, occasionally 
copying some document for the white people who 
live near us — these, with the raising of twenty-five 
thousand dollars a year to carry on the work, are 
some of my own duties. Once far off in the woods 
I happened upon a funeral. No preacher being 
near, the people were preparing to lower the corpse 
in a rough pine box into the grave without any 
service when I got off my horse and read some pas- 
sages of Scripture. At another time a young white 
man attempted to save the life of an aged colored 
woman who was trying to cross some railroad 
tradis before an incoming passenger train. After 
reading of the deed and making careful inquiry 
at Jackson, where it happened, we wrote to the 
Carnegie Hero Fund Commission and are glad to 
say that the young man received a reward. 

During one of our state fairs Piney Woods had 
on exhibit a large display of live stock. One morn- 
ing I had donned my overalls and was down help- 
ing the boys with the feeding when I received a 
summons from Hon. Calvin Wells to come to the 
court house as a witness before the Farm Loan 
Board, which was traveling about looking up loca- 



122 PINEY WOODS 

tions for the Farm Loan Banks. I tried mj best 
to impress the members of the board with the ad- 
visability of locating a bank in Mississippi; but 
for the rest of the story it might be best for me to 
refer to Capt. Frederick Sullens, editor of the 
Jackson Daily News, who wrote in his paper as 
follows : " One of the most interesting features of 
the sitting of the Farm Loan Bank Board in this 
city was the testimony of several prominent INegro 
leaders, who told of conditions existing among 
members of their race and the efforts being made 
by the Negro for agricultural advancement. These 
Negro leaders made decidedly favorable impres- 
sions among members of the board. They obtained 
a glimpse of the Negro Problem from a new angle, 
and when they left Jackson many of their former 
impressions concerning relations between the whites 
and blacks in the South had been very much re- 
vised. A rather amusing incident was the testi- 
mony of Laurence C. Jones, principal of the Piney 
Woods Country Life School, and the impression it 
made on Herbert Quick, a member of the board. 
Quick is one of the foremost scholars and writers 
in America. He resigned a position at $20,000 as 
one of the editors of the Saturday Evening Post 
to accept a place on the Farm Loan Bank Board, 
which shows tolerably well what sort of a person 



WIDENING INFLUENCES 123 

he is. When Laurence Jones appeared before the 
board he commenced quoting Socrates, the first 
crack out of the box, so to speak. Quick looked at 
him a bit startled. He was not looking for Soc- 
rates from such a source. Jones was telling about 
the idle Negroes in Mississippi, and quoting the 
ancient philosopher he remarked, ' Not only is he 
idle who does nothing, but he is also idle who might 
be better employed.' Mr. Quick stared at the wit- 
ness like an entomologist who has discovered some 
rare bug, but the testimony that came from Jones 
a few minutes later quickly convinced him that the 
Negro was not a ' bug ' but a level-headed, pro- 
gressive, and wide-awake member of his race, who 
is doing a real and substantial work for the ad- 
vancement of the Negroes in Mississippi." 

In 1916, through the kindness of a friend of 
Piney Woods, I was given a few weeks' vacation, 
the first since the founding of the school. Another 
friend, our own Dr. D. J. Harris, gave Mrs. Jones 
a trip to Hot Springs to help her recover from a 
recent siege of illness. I also spent my time at 
Hot Springs, but was called back to the school be- 
fore I had been away two weeks. During that 
time, however, I had delivered several addresses, 
one being at a mass meeting at the Langston High 
School. The Hot Springs school board was present 



124 PINEY WOODS 

and the chairman of the board, Hon. Hamp Wil- 
liams, a prominent business man and a former 
member of the state legislature, kindly wrote me 
a letter of appreciation a few months afterwards. 

To us in the Pinej Woods the World War 
brought new responsibilities and obligations just as 
it did to everyone else. At the very beginning 
there loomed before me the Officers' Training Camp 
at Des Moines, to which many of my friends were 
going. This meant getting into the game early and 
greater honor; on the other hand there was the 
family — my wife, mother, two little boys — and 
then there was the school. Meanwhile I was under 
a Chautauqua contract to visit some eighty odd 
towns, and I was also under contract with the State 
Department of Education for my second term as 
director of a summer normal school for some three 
hundred J^egro teachers. I turned to my wife and 
dearest friends for advice, and their conviction was 
that I should follow out the duties nearest me. 
When I came to the county seat in the second regis- 
tration, moreover, and fulfilled the requirements of 
the Government, my name was officially placed in 
Class 4A. It was galling to me to think that I 
was in Class 4, when I had determined that in 
everything I should be in Class 1; but I resolved 
that if I could not be in Class 1 on the firing line 




Mrs. William Larrabee, of Iowa 



WIDENING INFLUENCES 125 

in France I would be in Class 1 on the firing line 
in America, and so I plunged into war work, and 
in every address I delivered that summer I put 
every ounce of energy and enthusiasm. I was 
State and County speaker for the Liberty Loan 
Campaign, being engaged in five drives ; was chair- 
man of the Colored Eed Cross workers in two coun- 
ties, wherein I conducted two drives; and was 
speaker in the Thrift Stamp Campaigns ; but it was 
in the First United War Work Drive that I per- 
haps found my greatest usefulness. In this I was 
the only member of my race to hold any kind of 
executive office. Of our boys and the men who 
were teachers in Piney Woods School more than 
half a hundred answered the roll-call, and some 
made the supreme sacrifice for their country. The 
homes they came from were often the most humble 
log cabins far away from the main traveled roads, 
and in them the only books visible were the Bible 
and perhaps a Sears Roebuck or Montgomery Ward 
catalogue. 

Among the people who live in these homes even 
yet there is superstition as well as ignorance, and 
the " conjure man " and the ^' hoodoo woman " are 
still to be reckoned with. One day about noon a 
typical " Uncle Tom " came up just as I was com- 
ing out of my garden. Gray dust covered his shoes 



126 PINEY WOODS 

and clothing, and his eyes moved about with a 
hunted expression. '^ Fesser, I'se in trouble/' were 
his first words. I grasped his hand and suggested 
that we sit down under the old cedar tree. " Why, 
you knows me/' he continued, ^' sholy you do, Fes- 
ser; I's sit an' listened to you speak many a time 
at Enos Grove Church." ^^ Where do you live ? " 
I asked. " Up here 'twixt Florence an' Plain, 
'bout fifteen miles from here." I knew then that 
something surely troubled him. " Fesser," he con- 
tinued, " my wife's runned away ; dat's my trouble 
an' I'se come to you 'cause I knows you can help 
me. Yistidday mornin' I had to go to Jackson, 
an' Hattie, dat's my wife, said, ^ I spec' I's goin' 
up to Spring Hill to de Missionary dis afternoon.' 
Well, when I got back dat evenin' 'bout first dark 
an' walked in an' looked 'round, knowin' she orter 
been dere, I wondered. I made a little fire in de 
fireplace an' set down an' rested my head on my 
bands, tryin' to think. I guess I waited 'bout an 
hour, yet she hadn't come; then it begin to bother 
me awful bad. I pushed up de fire an' set till 
late supper; yit she hadn't come. I neber seed 
her act dat way before. I jest set dere, didn't 
know what ter do. I went out to de front gate 
an' stood with my hands on it 'mos' an hour. Den 
I went back an' sot by de fire, an' I laid down 



WIDENING INFLUENCES 127 

'cross de bed, but I couldn't sleep an' I ain't slept 
none since; an' mj heart just kept beatin' and 
jumpin'. Fesser, dat 'oman never jes' went off; 
she's been runned off by some dev'lish conjure busi- 
ness. I's been livin' wid her nigh thirty years an' 
if you ain't never had nary one to do dat way you 
doesn't know. Look like my heart nigh bust ou:;, 
jes' jumpin' all de time. You know she didn't 
jest go off, case she lef 'bout twenty-five jars of 
fruit, and her garden done planted, de English 
peas up dis high, an' she lef a fine little pig, an' 
thirty-nine young chickens and twenty-five grown 
hens in de yard; oh, yes, an' anoder thing, a big 
trunk in de corner 'bout dat high an' heavy. I 
don' know what she got in it ; I could hardly raise 
up de corner; she got de key. What you s'pose 
she done dat for? 'Sides dis, I got a whole lot 
of ground bedded for corn, an' now it's nobody to 
plant it. She's a good 'oman; it ain't none o' her 
doin's at all. It's dis way; a old widow 'oman 
lived on de place where we is, an' she moved away 
an' we 'greed to work de place dis year, an' den 
she'd 'cided to come back, an' case de man what 
owns de place refused to knock out our 'greement 
she's mad an' now she's gone an' put a spell on 
Hattie. Poor Hattie! she jes' don't know whar 
she is or what she's doin'. Fesser, plenty o' people 



128 PINEY WOODS 

don' belieb it, but dere's gophers an' conjurers in 
!N'ew Cleans ain't neber been here an' could tell 
you all you got bere, an' dey could tear all your 
mind up in less 'an a week. De low-down rascals, 
dey ought to be hung. Some o' dem gits it from 
de high ones, way back in de far parts o' Yir- 
ginny; it's called a jack; an' de debils can go to 
your house while you an' you' wife is sleepin' an' 
sprinkle some powder on de door step, er plant 
something dere, an' de nex' mornin' you steps over 
it an' dey's jest as good as got you as a dollar — 
* * * No, sir, I ain't hungry a bit; couldn't 
eat if I had to. I jes' got to keep walkin'. But 
you can help me, Fesser, you's got de sense; you 
can work it so dat she'll come back and never 
leave." 

He was very tired, and finally at my repeated 
urging he sat down to rest, almost inmaediately 
falling asleep. The late afternoon shadows were 
falling across the road when he awoke refreshed 
and in almost jubilant mood. " I knowed it," he 
cried, looking at me reverently, " I knowed you 
could make your ban' work if you would. I neber 
will git through thankin' you, Fesser. I's goin' 
home an' I knows I'll fin' Hattie dere." 

The next Christmas he suddenly appeared with 
a choice offering from his hog-killing. " You she 



WIDENING INFLUENCES 129 

deserve dis present," lie said, "fer when I got home 
Hattie was dar, big as life, an' mad as a wet hen 
case I been out to hunt fer her. She call me a big 
fool an' ask' me if I was goin' to hunt fer her 
why didn't I come to de Missionary whar she toF 
me she was goin' 'stead o' runnin' askin' 'bout her 
at eberj do' lak she was some critter strayed off an' 
lost. Don' you tell her nothin' 'bout my gittin' 
you ter use yo' ban', Fesser, case she'd be madder 
'n ever. Women is mighty funny folks, some- 
times." 



VII 

TEN YEAES AFTEH 

OF the larger buildings at Piney Woods I 
have told of Braxton Hall, given by the 
white citizens of Braxton for a girls' 
dormitory, and Taylor Hall, which is used as a 
school building, and which also accommodates a 
few girls. These buildings served well for some 
years, but as they came in a day when we could 
build only temporary structures with cheap pine 
lumber, we kept living on in the hope that they 
would be replaced by more substantial and endur- 
ing buildings. And just as most of the good things 
which have come to Piney Woods have been unex- 
pected, so we received a happy surprise one day 
when a young man up in Iowa said, " I will give 
you $500 in memory of Aunt Lunky, a faithful old 
mammy who served our family for many years." 
It was a beautiful thought and a splendid gift. 
Very soon our boys and even our girls were helping 
to dig the foundation for a new girls' dormitory, 

and with the $500 we purchased enough cement to 
130 



TEN YEARS AFTER 131 

put down a solid foundation. Then came the war 
with curtaihnent in every department of our work. 
One day, however, while looking for Pinej Woods 
friends in Des Moines with dear Uncle Asa Tur- 
ner, someone told us that Mr. George W. Dulany, 
the young man who had given us the $500, was 
captain of Battery T, encamped at the Coliseum. 
A successful search through the throng of khaki- 
clad soldiers finally brought us to Captain Dulany, 
and as he shook hands with Captain Turner, — the 
one in the full bloom of strong forward-looking 
young manhood, the other with his wise head of 
gray telling of the days that had come and gone — 
I thought of what a beautiful thing life can be, and 
of what a great thing it is to be an American 
and to aim to leave the world better than one 
found it. 

The next time we heard of Battery F it was in 
a final training camp in New Mexico, and our 
friend was now Major Dulany. After the war 
other checks came from him, and finally one for 
$3,000, the largest we ever received, to finish the 
building, which we dedicated at commencement, 
1921, as Dulany Hall. It was our first permanent 
building, and within it hangs a picture of Aunt 
Lunky, whose serene face has the beauty of truth 
and service. 



182 PINEY WOODS 

And now as I write this chapter I can see tlie 
boys of the school mixing and pouring cement, and 
I can hear them at work as the walls go upward 
for our new school building, Goodwill Hall, so- 
called because of the friends who are giving toward 
its construction. And there is yet to be built a 
boys' dormitory to take the place of one lost by 
fire in 1921, also a domestic science building, a 
small hospital, a chapel, a boys' industrial building, 
a girls' industrial building, a dairy barn, a power 
house, a laundry, and cottages for the married 
teachers. As all other things have come, some day 
in God's own time these things also will come. 

In the school everything moves by clock and bell. 
All rise at 5 and breakfast at 6. By 7 everybody 
must either be at work or in school. At 4 in the 
afternoon all classroom work is over, and all lights 
go out at 9.45. Within less than ten years, on hills 
that were once the abode of stray sheep and rab- 
bits and lizards, there has sprung up a bee-hive 
of three hundred students, and where there was 
once but an old log near a cedar tree we have now 
begun to see buildings of cement and stone. In- 
stead of one cow there are now forty head of cat- 
tle, 1,500 acres of land instead of forty, and where 
there was once but one teacher there are now eigh- 
teen faithful workers. I think it was Dr. Charles 



TEN YEARS AFTER 133 

E. Barker, formerly physical adviser to President 
Taft, who exclaimed as he stood in the midst of 
the Piney Woods, " What hath God wrought I " 

In 1921-22 we enrolled in our boarding depart- 
ment over two hundred boys and girls. These came 
from thirty-eight counties in Mississippi, and from 
Florida, Louisiana, and Iowa. To as many more 
who applied for admission wu could only sadly 
reply that we did not have room for even one more. 
The boarding students are in two groups. There 
are those who come to us with all their worldly 
possessions in a basket or tied up in a red bandana 
handkerchief, and whose greatest asset is a desire 
for an education and a willingness to work for it. 
Such are known as '^ work students ; " they labor 
through the day and attend school two hours at 
night. Once on my travels I passed by a large 
briar patch. I stopped and peered through the 
thicket, but all I could discern was two large eyes 
fastened on me. In response to my inquiry the 
owner of the eyes said, " My name's Willie Buck ; 
I's fo'teen. No sah, I ain't done no kind of work 
but plow and hoe." In 1922, however, Willie 
Buck was graduated, and for his commencement 
part he explained some of the simple and practical 
uses of electricity, and he spoke in good, clear Eng- 
lish. He also knows something of gasoline engine 



134 PINEY WOODS 

wizardry and has done much of the school's plumb- 
ing. " Pa Collins/' as he was known by the boys, 
came and brought his entire family — wife, seven 
children, father, and mother; all attend school on 
the credit gained from their work. Another group 
of students who are able to pay eight or ten dollars 
a month in cash, work half a day and go to school 
the other half of the day. All students must be at 
least twelve years of age to be admitted to the 
boarding department, but we have even had one 
who was not sure of his age, but who was more 
than forty and in the fourth grade. Meanwhile 
community children from the age of six up to the 
number of more than a hundred walk daily an 
average of six or eight miles. One little girl whose 
mother is dead cooks and sews for five younger 
children, walks a distance of seven miles, stays 
through the week with relatives about three miles 
from the campus, and walks home on Friday even- 
ing to put her house in order for the next week. 

The following correspondence will reveal some- 
thing of the class of students who come to us. 
Here is a letter from one boy who went to France 
when the call came : '' Jackson, Miss., E. F. D. 4, 
good morning professor, how is all, I is well and 
all of the family is well, your most welcome letter 
was received a few days ago glad was I to hear 



TEN YEARS AFTER 135 

of the ofer you made, now father were expecting 
to help me by selling a cow but the cow eat so 
many acorns She died So father say he can let you 
have some molasses if they will be al rite for pay. 
if they cont do then i will hafter come and be a 
work boy as we aint got no money and i sure 
does want to edicate. Kite me al about it cause 
I will work at anything, and the boy that are com- 
ing with me are going to let you have a young 
heifer for his scholing. yours truly, Doc Bryant." 
A girl by the name of Georgie Lee Myers heard 
of the school, and, being without parents and with- 
out money, told her friends of her longing for an 
education. For railroad fare and suitable cloth- 
ing they helped her as follows (and the outline is 
given just as she told it to us) : Aunt Hester 
Robinson gave a pound of butter and a dime, 
Grandma Willis a chicken, Aunt Lucy McCornell 
" four bits " (fifty cents), Sarah Pernell a chicken, 
Effie McCoy a cake and five cents, Sam McCoy 
five cents, James Buckner ^^ two bits," Mrs. Church 
seven cents, Meal Kyle '' two bits," Mollice Pernell 
a few things, Chlora Pernell a dime, Bessie Har- 
vey one of her dresses, Washington Lincoln John- 
son two pecks of meal, Mandy Willis a dozen eggs. 
Concerning this girl her aunt wrote the next fall: 
" I am glad to write to you and tell you about the 



136 PINEY WOODS 

improvement you has made in Georgia, she is bet- 
ter in the washtub and in the fields and in the 
kitchen and in the house. She is better every- 
where I puts her then she was. She has work so 
faithful sence she came home I wants to send her 
back and I wants to pay enough for hir to go to 
school in the day now if she work in the morning 
and in the evening after school is out then what 
will you charge me for hir going to school. Well 
she says she wants to come if she hafter do like 
she did last year but I ames to do all I can for 
her and I wants you and your dear wife to do the 
same well you write as soon as you get this and 
let me here so I will no what to do. oh yes there 
is some boys here who wants to work for their 
schoolen by so doing git an education by worken 
a half day and going to school the other half well 
I am going to send you Georgia's nephew and twoo 
more I gess they are coming. But you look for 
Georgia and hir brother first of next month just 
as soon as you reply to this letter.'' Georgia did 
indeed return and we shall hear more of her as 
one of our graduates. 

The academic work of the school is intended to 
give a good common education and to apply arith- 
metic, geography, and theoretical agriculture in a 
practical way. It is our constant endeavor to 



TEN YEARS AFTER 137 

teacli these boys and girls in the terms of their 
everyday life, and classes are taken out of doors 
to the objects measured and studied. We do away 
with any educational frill and harness the theoret- 
ical to the practical life of Mississippi. Arith- 
metic is applied in determining the cost of making 
cotton as against the cost of growing corn, in esti- 
mating the value of a cow by testing the milk she 
gives, and in determining the relative value of a 
Piney Woods " rooter " and a Berkshire. Chem- 
istry is used to show that it has something to do 
with curing the hams of this Berkshire, with 
home sanitation, with the preserving of fruits and 
vegetables, with the making of molasses, and with 
the testing of seed com. It is all a training de- 
signed to meet conditions as they are and not an 
effort to force upon the pupil such education as 
he would need were he to become President of the 
United States. Some of the students remain to 
finish only the eighth grade, and then they must 
end their school days and go out into the world; 
but they were perhaps already eighteen or nineteen 
when they came to Piney Woods and entered the 
third or fourth grade. Some climb upward in spite 
of the handicap, and for those who have been most 
fortunate in getting an early start in life our prac- 
tical teachers' training course in the Normal De- 
partment looks forward to a larger life of service. 



138 PINEY WOODS 

As for the industrial work, for the boys we 
have carpentry, blacksmithing, broom-making, shoe 
mending, printing, and farming;, for the girls we 
have laundering, cooking, housekeeping, sewing, 
gardening, and poultry raising. Some of the girls 
also work at shoe mending and broom-making, and 
every student works for half of each day in some 
industrial department. Everybody must have at 
least two years in the agricultural department, and 
every girl must earn a certificate in the laundry 
and training kitchen before taking up basketry, 
and other branches of domestic science and handi- 
craft. Many students stay through the summer in 
order to earn enough credit to take them through 
the winter term. In the course of the summer one 
such girl in order to pay for the following winter's 
schooling cut brush and small sapling pines, planted 
com, dug potatoes, worked in the garden, picked 
wild blackberries and put them up for the school, 
set type, washed and ironed, helped in the kitchen 
at meal times, milked two cows every morning; 
and when she went home for a few days' vacation 
she picked cotton, stripped sugar cane, showed her 
mother the use of wild blackberries learned at 
school, and also made practical use of her knowl- 
edge of sewing. In the industrial and agricultural 
department as well as in all other departments of 



TEN YEARS AFTER 139 

the school there is one ideal we ever hold before 
the student body, and that is of the dignity of all 
labor. It is best expressed in a motto that I once 
saw in the main hall of " Apple Trees/' the home 
of our friend, Mrs. C. E. Perkins : " Don't forget 
that you ennoble your work ; it never degrades you. 
The only disgraceful thing about toil of any kind 
is the half doing of it." 

While the school is undenominational the spir- 
itual side of the work is not neglected. Indeed the 
watchword of the institute is, " Seek ye first the 
kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these 
things shall be added unto you." The first period 
of each morning is devoted to the study of the 
Bible. Every Sunday morning at nine our wide- 
awake Sunday School meets. When we can get a 
minister it is followed by a preaching service; 
otherwise we have an hour of morning prayer. At 
one o'clock the Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. as- 
semble, in the afternoon at three comes the Chris- 
tian Endeavor meeting, and there are evening 
chapel services at seven. Every student and teacher 
on the campus is to be found at these meetings, 
and it is uplifting to see the lines of gi^ay-clad 
girls and stalwart young men marching to the dif- 
ferent services. 

Besides the training in books, industries, and 



140 PINEY WOODS 

religion, our students also have a chance to take 
part in the more spontaneous exercises of clubs and 
literary societies. The older boys and girls of the 
school have two agricultural clubs, the Henry Wal- 
lace Club and the D. J. Harris Club. These meet 
on Saturday nights with a program and a joint de- 
bate on agricultural topics. The Asa Turner So- 
ciety is made up of the members of the highest 
two classes who have for their motto the motto of 
our Uncle Asa Turner, " To be good, to do good, 
and to make some money." Then there is the 
Emily Howland Practical Life Society, made up 
mainly of girls from the printing and shoe-mending 
departments. These clubs fulfil a valuable purpose 
in that they have not only given splendid training 
to the boys and girls, but also because they give 
them an opportunity for self-expression. 

The teachers who come to us are generally se- 
lected with regard to their ability to teach not only 
books but some industrial subject, so that they are 
found in the shops or field when not in the school- 
room. Piney Woods will always be grateful for 
the good work done by Mr. and Mrs. Yancy. Mr. 
Yancy had been taught carpentry by his father 
and grandfather, and helped especially in the erec- 
tion of the first buildings. Mr. Keden was a young 
man in Iowa whom for two years I urged to come 
South. He served in our academic department, 



TEN YEARS AFTER 141 

later married one of our teachers, Miss Mary E. 
Martin, who also had worked faithfully for a num- 
ber of years, and now he and his wife are in public 
school work in Sunflower county, and, by virtue of 
their experience in Piney Woods, where we instruct 
teachers and pupils always to do that which will 
bring about a better understanding between the 
races, have succeeded in getting the school authori- 
ties in their section to do more for public education 
than they ever did before. Mr. McGilberry, Mrs. 
W. C. Dixon, and Rev. E. J. Penney and Mrs. 
Penney are also among those whom we remember 
with most gratitude. Mr. McGilberry has a 
natural gift for mechanical work and the spirit of a 
true missionary. Rev. Mr. Penney was our faith- 
ful chaplain for two years, and his instruction in 
the Bible will never be forgotten. To-day eighteen 
teachers altogether are laboring faithfully for the 
upbuilding of the work and the elevation of the 
surrounding country, and they are working more 
for the good that they can do than for any financial 
consideration. In connection with them we re- 
member also the interest of two of our local trus- 
tees, Mr. Amon Gipson and Mr. Hector McLaurin. 
These men have been almost weekly visitors on the 
campus and have always been at the service of the 
school night or day, whenever we have called them. 



142 PINEY WOODS 

As tlie years have gone by naturally our field of 
service has become more extended. All through 
the year the teachers do extension work in person, 
sometimes in a single home, again in a neighbor- 
hood meeting or in a country church, sometimes 
simply in an outdoor meeting called for the forma- 
tion of an improvement club. We found some of 
the people working on ^' halves/' that is, they gave 
half of what they made for their provisions during 
the year; some rented or leased, but in any case 
their debts at the end of the year covered all that 
they made, l^ow the spirit of buying land pos- 
sesses many; they desire to be independent small 
farmers, consuming with economy, so that they 
might get ahead. Many are still living in old log 
cabins built before the war, but for the most part 
the homes are whitewashed or painted, and some 
have even built new houses. In some places glass 
windows have appeared where there were only 
wooden shutters before, and in many other ways 
signs of progress are discernible. Indirectly or 
directly our workers thus influence for good more 
than nine thousand people each year. 

Each year we hold at the school a Farmers' Con- 
ference, and in this meeting experiences are ex- 
changed. We always endeavor to have at these 
gatherings a good speaker who will inspire the 
farmers to better living as well as better systems 



TEN YEAES AFTER 143 

of working their land. On these occasions such 
men as Captain Turner and Prof. P. G. Holden 
have met face to face six hundred earnest peasant 
folk from two states and nineteen different settle- 
ments. During the ten years that these confer- 
ences have been meeting more than six thousand 
acres of land have been purchased bj colored farm- 
ers in the vicinity of the school, which is more 
than was purchased in the previous twenty years. 

Although the school is but ten years old, the 
records of our ex-students and graduates are ample 
evidence of the good of the work and constitute a 
perpetual reward and incentive. It Tvas just four 
years ago, in May, 1918, that Piney Woods sent 
out from the Normal Department its first class. 
Ah, that first class, the class of 1918 ! How they 
worked ! How they loved Piney Woods ! Of that 
class those who are still connected with the school 
in one way or another are Charles M. Shed, 
who is in charge of the printing ofiice and the as- 
sistant treasurer; Miss Eva L. Spell, the school's 
accountant; Miss Ella Carter, who worked four 
years in a private family in Cedar Falls, Iowa, in 
order better to prepare herself to take charge of 
our academic and musical departments; and Miss 
Pauline Williams, who also attended the Iowa State 
Teachers College, has endured many hardships as 



144 PINEY WOODS 

financial agent of the school, and is now in charge 
of the physical training of the girls. Another of 
our young men, R. D. Otis, we sent to Three Oaks, 
Michigan, to learn practical methods of farming. 
He succeeded in building up the dairy business 
and in graduating after four years from the Three 
Oaks High School with a little over a thousand 
dollars in cash and a recommendation from every 
business man and banker in town. He is now in 
his second year at the Iowa State Agricultural Col- 
lege. Of the class of 1919, two members were ac- 
tively engaged in educational work with head- 
quarters at the school for two years — ^Miss Georgia 
L. Myers, who as county industrial supervisor for 
Simpson county had under her charge twenty- 
three schools and three thousand children, and Miss 
Gerthie Polk, who as county industrial supervisor 
for Rankin county had in charge fifty-three schools 
and Rve thousand children. Responding to a 
Macedonian call from Georgia Lee Myers one day, 
I journeyed back from the main-traveled roads and 
found her teaching in a little country school and 
trying to carry out what she had learned at Piney 
Woods. 'No one had ever before undertaken such 
work as hers in the community where she was, and 
she had to work against opposition and indiffer- 
ences as well as general inconvenience and poverty. 



TEN YEARS AFTER 145 

However, she had taken charge of the little dilapi- 
dated school, helped whitewash it inside and out- 
side, had put in two glass windows, huilt a fence 
around the yard, and set out some trees. After I 
had spoken to the people one of the most progres- 
sive men of the community came to me and said: 
" Fesser, we ain't never had no teacher in here like 
Miss Georgia, an' we wants to keep her all de time ; 
but she says she wants to go hack to youall's school, 
so if we hah to git another one we wants one jest 
like her." Somewhat more recently, after a year 
of trouble and trials of every kind, with help from 
Mr. Julius Rosenwald's l^egro Educational Fund, 
Georgia Lee Myers has succeeded in raising enough 
money to put up a modern rural school building 
where she and Miss J^ancy Young, of the class of 
1921, are now teaching. The splendid work of 
Miss Gerthie Polk in bringing about a change at 
the Green Hill School needs little comment. I only 
wish, however, I could bring home to my readers 
what it means to raise six or seven hundred dollars 
among a people who really want the better things 
of life but whose ignorance and superstition liter- 
ally sow with stumbling-blocks the path of one 
who essays to help them better their situation. In 
the class of 1920 one strong young man, DeWitt 
Talmage Mason, reversed the usual order of things 



146 PINEY WOODS 

bj going back to the farm while bis f atber went to 
town to work. His modern, ideals of farming and 
bis general knowledge of carpentry and blacksmitb- 
ing bave revolutionized tbe old farm, and be and 
bis wife, wbo is also from Piney Woods, command 
tbe respect and admiration of botb white and col- 
ored people. 

Miss Estella Otis, of tbe class of 1920, first took 
up stenography under the tutelage of Mrs. Brooks. 
After her graduation a friend of the school helped 
her to complete the course of her choice at Des 
Moines College, and she is now busy from day to 
day sending out the Pine Torch and carrying for- 
ward tbe correspondence of the institution. Thus 
out of a total of thirty-eight graduates, five are 
still connected with tbe institution and the others 
are engaged in teaching, farming, buying homes, 
attending higher institutions of learning, or follow- 
ing other useful pursuits. 



The other day my wife and I went out for one 
of our occasional tours of inspection. In the in- 
dustrial shops we found boys at work blacksmitb- 
ing, one making a pair of binges for a farm gate, 
one shoeing an unruly mule, and another filing 
a wheel. In the carpentry shop two boys were at 
work, one at tbe turning lathe, tbe other repairing 



TEN YEAKS AFTER 147 

a table. Across the road several boys were making 
brooms out of straw that tbej bad helped to grow, 
and others were mending shoes. Then we went to 
the piggery, where we smiled at the thoroughbred 
hogs that had taken the place of the razor-backs 
we started with. Several boys were spraying them 
with creosote dip, while another boy was filling a 
trough with water piped down from a hillside 
spring. To our right geese and ducks were diving 
and paddling in a large pond. 

We v/ent over the hill and saw the lambs at play 
and the wise-looking goats browsing upon the 
shrubs; and then looked over an experimental 
patch of alfalfa on the Harris farm, the first 
grown in these parts. Then we climbed over a 
five-foot woven wire fence that had taken the place 
of a rail fence, and, crossing a field of oats, went 
around by the grist mill, where the boys were 
grinding into grits and meal for the school's com- 
missary the corn they had raised the previous 
summer. Here also was the large cane mill, which 
our friends gave us last summer, and there was 
the big twelve horsepower gasoline engine sent us 
by our good friend, Captain Turner. We thought 
of the first letter he had written : " I like what 
you are doing in your corner of the vineyard;" 
and we passed on by some boys with two double- 



148 PINEY WOODS 

mule teams turning over the earth. Farther on 
we saw another team at work and a boy planting 
potatoes and another setting out onions. 

At the barn we found several boys hauling out 
fertilizer, another putting the evening rations in 
the troughs for the cows and mules, while another 
was currying Capt. ^^ Jersey Jinks." We passed 
the poultry plant and saw the Plymouth Rocks 
and journeyed on over the hill to the laundry 
where a dozen girls were at work in order that they 
might " plant their feet on higher ground." We 
passed the domestic science room and saw the cooks 
in their neat white aprons and caps, and then came 
to the printing office where we heard the steady 
beating of the gasoline engine pulling our new 
press, made possible by such generous friends as 
Mr. George A. Joslyn and Mr. Joseph R.. !N"oel. 
A crippled young man of the class of 1918, who 
had come to us a few years before, was running 
off the Pine Torch, while several girls were at work 
folding and addressing and wrapping the papers. 
We passed on to the girls* industrial shop where 
we found some girls sewing, others making baskets 
out of pine straw, some weaving rag carpets, others 
mending shoes, just as steadily as when Mrs. Jones 
left them. We went on to the school building and 
heard the hum of the primary tots, and in the 
library a Bible class was in session. 



TEN YEAKS AFTER 149 

We went into the office and looked out of the 
window toward the barrel room where we keep for 
distribution to needy students the boxes and bar- 
rels of clothing from the !!^orth, and we thought 
of the lives that had been saved for service by such 
means as these. We looked around in the office 
at the table upon which this typewriter stands, that 
is telling the story, a gift from the loving hands of 
Mrs. Charles E. Perkins, and in the other corner 
we noted the desk from the home of our early 
friend, Mrs. James G. Berryhill, at which the little 
woman writes, often until late in the night. Then 
we looked at the letter files that contain the hun- 
dreds of cheering messages to ^' strive on '' that 
have come to us like good words from another 
world and have brought the spray for our human 
orchard. 

I wish I might tell you that Piney Woods is sua. 
ideal school, that it holds out to all who would 
enter the torch of learning and opportunity; but 
we are still in the throes of those growing years 
when our boys are quartered in temporary bar- 
racks and often in tents, and when our girls, to 
make room for one more, often sleep four in a bed. 
Every month in the year we refuse boys and girls 
who would willingly work for the most meager 
opportunity of education. 



150 PINEY WOODS 

Many of our dreams are jet unfulfilled. To-day, 
in a shabby half-log but, our girls do tbe washing 
for the two hundred boarding students on boards 
that are often home-made. 'No church building has 
as yet made possible the gathering in of the hun- 
dreds of our people about the community for in- 
telligent divine worship on the Sabbath day. No 
teachers' or faculty living quarters have as yet 
been provided, and often our splendid workers have 
been crowded together in a fashion hardly less 
rough than that of our students, more than one of 
them sharing the tents and barracks. 

Other departments are still limping toward the 
perfection to which Piney Woods aspires; yet we 
can but think of the time ten years ago when we 
had only the desire to serve and when this was an 
abandoned haunt of the owl and the bat, with only 
a shelter for wandering sheep. And we think, my 
wife and I, of our two little boys and of the host 
of other boys and girls who have come and gone, 
and we lift up our hearts in thanks to God for the 
kind friends who have made possible all that we 
see about us in Piney Woods to-day. Then we 
ask that we may be spared to see the future lives 
of the boys and girls as they go out to carry the 
pine torch of Christian service to the many still 
in darkness. 



TEN YEARS AFTER 151 

For " the desire of our hearts/' as Captain 
Turner puts it, is not to build up a great school 
as the world considers greatness, but a simple little 
country life school that will carry the gospel of 
better farming, better living, better schools and 
churches, to those who live back from the main- 
traveled roads. Just to reach this corner of the 
vineyard, to teach that Christianity is to be used 
seven days in the week, to show those whom we 
serve how to make two blades of grass grow where 
only one grew before, and, above all, to realize and 
practice Noblesse Oblige so that those who receive 
the blessings will pass them on to the darker cor- 
ners of the vineyard, this is our endeavor here in 
the Piney Woods. 



Printed in United States of America 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



iilllllii 

019 631 470 2