USA > Alabama > Memorial record of Alabama. A concise account of the state's political, military, professional and industrial progress, together with the personal memoirs of many of its people. Volume I > Part 24
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During the next two or three years there were fluctuations in the attendance at school, but in the year 1883-84 the number increased to 303, 177 of whom were in the normal department. There were nine grad- uates this session, seven of whom commenced teaching as soon as they
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PROGRESS OF EDUCATION.
left school. Much of the success of the normal department was due to assistance rendered from the Peabody fund. Another fund, the Slater fund, for the special benefit of the negroes, had by this time become available, and by its aid an industrial department was added to this school. A carpenter shop was erected for the boys, supplied with work benches, tools, scroll saw and turning tables, and a work room for girls was fitted up with sewing machines, etc. The next session the enroll- ment reached 400, comprising pupils from all parts of the state. This was the last of this school at Marion. Disturbances had arisen between the students and the citizens of the town, which culminated in an act of the general assembly practically abolishing the school, but providing for a similar institution to be located elsewhere and to be called "Alabama Colored Peoples' University." Ten thousand dollars was appropriated for a building and $7,500 a year for the support of the school. A board of trustees was appointed to locate and manage the institution. The school was finally located at the city of Montgomery and was re-opened October 3, 1887, in a church building, with a small number of students, but the enrollment reached 358 before the close of the session. Mean- while the constitutionality of the "act" was contested in the courts- resulting in the decision of the supreme court, rendered in April, 1888, pronouncing the seventh and tenth sections unconstitutional, and the fail- ure of the entire act, because what remained of it was "incapable of full execution." The effect of this decision was to nullify the act referred to, but it revived the law establishing the normal school at Marion. It was not deemed expedient, however, to go back to Marion, and so it remained in Montgomery to await the further action of the legislature. The school was re-opened in September, 1888, with an attendance of 250, subsequently increased to 500 pupils. Two thousand five hundred dollars had been drawn under authority of the act before it was declared inoperative. This sum, by the aid of voluntary contributions, mostly from the colored people, and the credit of the managers was sufficient to carry on the school through the year, incurring an indebtedness of only $4,000. The general assembly, at its next session, provided for rehabili- tating this school on a permanent basis, and the reports for 1891 indicate a remarkable degree of prosperity. Beside the appropriation from the state ($10,500) it received assistance from both the "Peabody" and "Slater" funds. Its income for 1891 was a little more than $12,000, and the disbursements about the same amount, in which were included, how- ever, $3, 447.81 expended on lands and buildings. In tuition fees and inci- dentals the students contributed about $3,500, a good portion of which was paid to teachers. The enrollment for 1891 was 838, of which the preparatory and model school absorbed 385, leaving 453 as the member- ship of the normal department. Instruction in sewing and dressmaking was given daily to 225 girls; seventy-five boys were taught in the car- penter shop and twenty-five in the printing office. The president, Mr.
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MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.
Patterson, is now the only white teacher at the head of a colored school. of any prominence in the state. He is an earnest and progressive man and takes a deep interest in the welfare of the colored people. There are indications, however, that his efforts in their behalf are not as fully appreciated as of yore, and a strong sentiment exists, among colored teachers, at least, that all colored schools should be taught by instructors. of their own color. The president reports a great demand for graduates of the school as teachers. The session for 1891-92 opened with the larg- Est attendance known to its history-the enrollment exceeding 800 pupils.
The general assembly-session 1882-83-made an appropriation of $2,500 each to a flourishing academy at Jacksonville, and another at Liv- ingston, for the purpose of adding normal school departments to those estimable institutions. The school at Jacksonville had twenty-five normal school pupils the first year, and the number has increased from year to year. The year 1890-91, says the report, was one of "earnest, harmoni- ous work on the part of instructors and cheerful obedience and healthful progress on the part of the pupils." The total matriculation was 204; males, 93; females, 111. The number for 1892 was expected to reach 225 before the term concluded. Carlos B. Gibson, M. A., a graduate of the university of Alabama, was, for several years, the able and zealous prin- cipal of the school.
The Livingston normal school is confined exclusively to the instruc- tion of girls. The academy, of which it forms a part, was established more than fifty years ago, and has grown to be one of the most useful and renowned of southern female schools. It has always been fortunate in the selection of principals and teachers, and has now at its head Miss Julia Tutwiler, one of the most cultured and distinguished of southern women. During the year 1892, there were thirty-eight full normal pupils: the entire enrollment, normal and general, was 129. The roll of graduates for the last thirteen years reaches 118; the number of nor- mal graduates is seventy-two, all of whom are now, or have been, engaged in teaching. Besides the usual studies taught in a high grade school for young ladies, instruction is given in stenography and bookkeeping. A "Chautauqua" scientific and literary circle was recently organized, in which teachers and pupils take part, both in private and public meetings, which have awakened much interest. This school is supplied with a fine appa- ratus for illustrating the scientific branches of study, which is not excelled, if equaled, by any similar school in the country.
The school at Tuskegee for colored students was opened on the 4th of July, 1881, and has been a remarkable success from the beginning. The school opened with thirty students and closed the first session with sixty- six. The school building was erected by contributions from the citizens of Tuskegee and by friends in the northern states. It was three stories high, not including the basement, had six recitation rooms, a large chapel,
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PROGRESS OF EDUCATION.
reading room, library, office, dormitories in the third story and a boarding hall in the basement. Belonging to the school is a farm of 100 acres. Industrial work was soon inaugurated. A brick yard was opened on the farm as early as the second year, where boys were employed in making brick for a new and substantial building. The third session closed May 29, 1884, with 169 students and ten officers and teachers. All the pupils were reported as attending the normal school. The course of study was fixed at four years. By aid derived from the "Slater" fund, the industrial department was increased by the addition of a well furnished black- smithy and a carpenter shop. The new brick building is forty-six by seventy-six feet and four stories high. The contributions for this school, outside of the annual appropriation from the state, during the year 1884, were $8,365.90. Nearly all this sum was used for permanent im- provements. From 1884 to 1891 the growth of this school was almost-
marvelous. The attendance increased from 169 in 1884 to 525 in 1888, and 511 in 1891. The average age of students was eighteen and a half years. The number of graduates in 1891 was twenty-three. The total number of graduates from the beginning was 103. Total number receiv- ing instruction, from the opening of the school to the close of 1891, was 2,947. The number of graduates who have become teachers is 150. One of the graduates has become a lawyer, and two have become physicians.
The school in 1891, in addition to a training school for town children and a brick dairy, etc., was putting up a three-story brick building where the principal industries will be grouped. The buildings now owned by the institution are valued at $53,550.00. The industries taught here are carpentry, painting, brick making, brick masonry, plastering, saw-mill work, wheel-wrighting, blacksmithing, harness-making, stove making, turning, printing, mattress-making, farming, dress-making, (in- cluding cutting and sewing), and laundering. The printing office is well equipped, has a large outside patronage and all the work it can do. Fi- nancially, the school is, and has been from the outset, better fixed than any other school for colored children in the state. The total income for 1891 was $36,290.30 --- only $3,000 of which came from the treasury of the state. We are informed that the standard of entrance to the normal depart- ment has been raised and that there is a marked advance of its teacher graduates, both in scholarship and training. This institution supplies a constant demand not for teachers only but for skilled labor in the sev- eral departments of industry. It is doing a good work.
The Normal school of Troy-the last of the so-called normal schools to be established in Alabama-was commenced September 17, 1887. The state appropriation of $3,000 being insufficient to pay the teachers, the city council of Troy came to the rescue and appropriated $1,200 to supplement the state fund. The public-spirited council also paid the con- tingent expenses of the school. A graded public school is kept in con- nection with the normal school. The first year of an enrollment of 439,
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MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.
eighty were classed as normal students. A "model school" was organized in June, 1891. The enrollment in 1891 was 343. The income the same year was $7,800.00. The expenses exceeded that amount, but the city council of Troy promptly made up the deficit. The faculty consists of the president, Edwin R. Eldridge LL. D., six professors, four prin- cipals of model school and two assistant teachers. The school is open to students of both sexes.
CITY AND TOWN SCHOOLS.
A notable feature in the public schools system of Alabama is the number and growth of city and town schools which, while maintaining close connection with the general system, have each distinct peculiarities and are governed by local boards appointed for the purpose. These schools had their origin in the necessity for supplementing the state school fund, which, even now, is comparatively small, to enable the authorities to continue the session long enough to satisfy the demands of their people and be of much practical benefit. The result has been the building up of many excellent schools throughout the state, to the growth of which local pride and emulation have been effective stimulants. Beside the Mobile system, which has been fully described, flourishing schools of the kind mentioned exist in Birmingham, Cullman, Decatur, Eufaula, Faunsdale, Gadsden, Huntsville, Montgomery, Opelika, Prattville, Troy, Selma, Tuscaloosa, Tuscumbia and Uniontown. All these schools, except in Mobile, have been organized since the reconstruction period. Before the war, well conducted private schools and academies abounded in the state, and the public school fund in many of the counties not being sufficient to keep up purely public schools long enough to be of any benefit, was distributed among the teachers of the private schools con- ditional on their continuance one, two or three months, according to the amount of the appropriation, free to all the children of their respective neighborhoods, or at a reduced rate of tuition, in which all had an equal share. Children whose parents were not able to pay tuition fees were generally admitted, for a time, at least, without charge The desolation which marked the close of the war, changed all this, leaving the people in poverty and mostly without heart or hope. When the state was rehabil- itated and the government again in the hands of her own people, hope revived and energy and action came with it. Still, as has been seen, it was several years before the country had recuperated sufficiently to afford to expend large sums from the treasury of the state, even for so important a matter as the education of the children thereof, and thus, as has been said. these locally aided and locally supervised schools were born of the exigency. They were favored by the general assembly, which freely granted charters to all applicants, were permitted to receive their per capita portion of the general school fund, and were under the supervision of the superintendent of public instruction of the state. The bulk of their
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PROGRESS OF EDUCATION.
support, however, generally came from the municipal authorities, who directly supervised them.
The Birmingham schools are now perhaps the largest, and in the char- acter and cost of the school buildings, the most conspicuous of the public. schools in the state. They are under the control of a board of education comprising the mayor and six other citizens chosen by the mayor and aldermen of the city. The board holds office for three years and has authority to build or rent houses for school purposes; to levy an annual tax, not exceeding fifteen cents on each one hundred dollars of assessed value; to elect officers and teachers and fix their salaries; to adopt a plan of instruction and to charge, in the high schools, such fees as are deemed necessary for the proper conduct of said schools. The following interest- ing statistics are gathered from the annual report of the city superin- tendent, Mr. J. H. Phillips, filed with the superintendent of public instruction in November, 1891.
The cash receipts of the board, including a balance of $4, 833,81 brought over from the previous year, were:
From the state.
$10,919.50
From tuition and incidental fees
2,797.90
From city appropriation
87,750.00
Total
$101,467.40
The disbursements same period were:
For teachers
$35,777.27
For sites, buildings and repairs
43,220.25
For apparatus and furniture. 1,959.46
For incidental expenses, etc.
8,249.94
Total expenditure
$89,206.92
Leaving*a balance unexpended of $12,260.57.
The enumeration, same period, shows 5,493 white children of school age and 4,561 colored, total, 10,054. The total enrollment white and colored was 3,706, and the average attendance 2,573, a little over two- thirds of the enrollment and about one-fourth of the enumeration. There were at that time forty-five white and twenty-five colored schools, which were kept up an average of one-hundred and seventy-seven days during the year. The value of school property, belonging to the city and dis- trict, is put down at the large sum of $275,000. This is a remarkable exhibit for a system organized only about eight years before and could only be accomplished in a "magic city" like Birmingham. Some of the school buildings are handsome and costly. The "Powell school," "Henly school" and "Paul Hayne school" for whites, and the Lane and Slater build- ings for colored children are commodious and imposing structures, which would command attention in any city.
The Cullman school was established in 1887. The first year it had an enrollment of 182 pupils; in 1891, the enrollment was 237, but the aver-
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MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.
age attendance was only 100. The school was kept up 180 days at a cost of $1,061.29. The value of school property was $2,500.
The Decatur schools-one white, one colored, were organized in 1887 with an enrollment during the first year of 241 and 170 respectively. The report of the superintendent for 1891, shows a small decrease in the schools both in enrollment and attendance. They were kept up 190 days each, at an expenditure, for sites, buildings and teachers, of $4,504,60. The value of school property belonging to the city and district is $8, 500.
The Eufaula schools were organized in 1887. There are only two schools, one for white, the other for colored children. During their first year, the white school had an enrollment of 102 and the colored school of three hundred and fifty pupils. The report for 1891 shows a large in- crease in the white school. The figures are: enrollment in white school, 251; in colored school, 339. The "average attendance" shows a wide dif- ference between the schools and illustrates the carelessnes or indifference of the colored people to the educational advantages provided for them, while the white school shows an average attendance of 201, or four-fifths of the enrollment, the colored school reports an attendance of 151, or a lit- tle over forty per cent. of the enrollment. The cost of these schools for 1891, was $2,617.60
The Faunsdale school has been but recently established and the re- ports of it to the state superintendent are meager. As the village is small, the school cannot be large. No statistics of the enrollment or at- tendance have been furnished, but the expenditures for 1891 were, for teachers and superintendence, $1,616.65.
The Huntsville schools are two in number, one white, one colored. The enrollment in 1888 was 300 in the white and 222 in the colored school. In 1891 the enrollment in the white school reached 372 and in the colored school, 282. The schools were kept up 160 days each, at a cost for teach- ers, buildings, sites, etc., of $3,942.20. Estimated value of school prop- erty, $5,000.
The public schools of Montgomery were organized in the year 1882, without school buildings, school furniture or apparatus worthy of the name. The "city council" was constituted a board of trustees with full authority to conduct them. Under the skillful supervision of the super- intendent, Professor G. A. Woodward, the schools rapidly developed into a sound and prosperous system, which is known and commended throughout the state. In 1883, there were 300 pupils in attendance in the white schools and 400 in the colored schools. During the next two years, the city came into possession of the building known as the "Swayne college for colored children," and put it to immediate use. The attend- ance of white children increased to 835, distributed among three schools, and of colored children (in two schools) to 895-all taught in comfortable buildings. The expenditure for "sites, buildings and repairs" in 1888, reached the large sum of $17,280, and the superintendent says that Mont-
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PROGRESS OF EDUCATION.
gomery now has "one of the finest school buildings in the south and will have others as the city becomes able to construct them." The report of that officer for 1891, makes the number of schools, 7; the total enumera- tion, 3,907; the enrollment, white pupils, 1,138; colored, 773; average attendance, white, 95 per cent. ; colored, 91 per cent .; average length of schools, 170 days; expenditure during 1891, $22,627.68. Value of school property, $90,000.
The Opelika schools were established under an act of the general assembly approved February 17, 1885. By this act the superintendent of education was authorized to appoint the local board, to consist of seven persons, who were given entire control of the schools and are permitted to charge such incidental and other fees "as may be necessary for the proper conduct of the schools." The Opelika police board were empow- ered, on the request of the school board, to levy a tax, not to exceed one- half of one per cent., for school purposes, but when any tax is levied, the amount derived from the white race must go to the support of the white schools and that from the colored race to the colored schools. The act further provided, however, that the special tax should not be lieved until it was submitted to the people of Opelika and a majority of votes cast at said election should be in favor of the tax. Opposition was made through the courts to the proposed levy and finally the supreme court declared this provision of the act unconstitutional. Resort was then had to tuition charges to supplement the public fund. Two schools were opened in 1887, with an attendance of 100 in the white school, and 189 in the colored school. The superintendent in his report for 1888, alluding to tuition charges, says: "It is remarkable that under this sys- tem, we have a larger attendance of poor white children of the commun- ity than under the old system when tuition was free for a term of three or four months. The people prefer to pay reduced rates in a good school to tuition free in a poor one." The enrollment in the year 1891, was, whites, 113; colored, 127; average attendance, white, 72; colored. 64; average length of schools, 160 days. The cost of the schools in 1891, including furniture and apparatus, was $1,362.70.
The legislature, in 1885, constituted the town of Prattville a separate school district, designating the trustees of the male and female academy a board of commissioners for said district, with similar powers to those conferred on the school authorities of Opelika, including authority to levy a special tax. The decision of the supreme court made that provision inoperative, and no attempt was ever made to levy a tax for the purpose indicated. There were four white and two colored schools in Prattville district in 1888, with a total enrollment of 209 pupils. The report of the superintendent for the year 1891 gives the following statistics: Enroll- ment in white schools, 70; in colored schools, 101. Average attendance, white, 50; colored, 65. Total expenditure for the year, $542.95.
The Selma schools were organized as public schools in 1888. There
.
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MEMORIAL RECORD OF ALABAMA.
were then two schools, one for each race; the white school was called the Dallas academy, the colored was called the Burrell academy. Both were well conducted and prosperous; the former having an enrollment of 571 pupils and an average attendance of 439; the latter, an enrollment of 360, and an average attendance of 170. The Dallas academy, having become too small for the increasing attendance, was removed and a new and handsome brick edifice has taken its place. The corner stone of the new building was laid with appropriate Masonic ceremonies, September 5, 1889. The superintendent's report for 1891 shows the schools to be in a healthy condition. There were two white schools with an enroll- ment of 622 and one colored school in which 127 pupils were enrolled. The average attendance at the white schools was 518; at the colored school, 127. The schools were kept up 160 days at a cost of $10,519.97. The cash receipts, including $356.27-tuition and incidental fees and an appropriation from the city of $12,726.18-were $16,726.18.
The Troy schools are under the control of a local board of four mem- bers, chosen by the city authorities, and the mayor as ex-officio presi- dent. As recorded in the preceding pages, a normal department is attached to this school. The enrollment in all grades in 1889 was 439; in 1891, all schools and grades, 447. The cash receipts $1,250, tuition and incidental fees, and $1,500 appropriated by the city. The total fund for the year was $4,119.35. Total expenditure was $4,490 for pay of teach- ers, and $2,700 paid for sites, buildings, repairs, furniture, apparatus, etc.
The Tuscaloosa schools were organized under authority of an act of the legislature, approved February 17, 1885, constituting the mayor and aldermen of the "City of Oaks," a "board of education," and giving them such additional powers as were necessary to carry into effect the provisions of the act. Animated with the noble purpose of giving the benefits of a substantial education to all the children of the city, this "board" went diligently to work and the results have been even more. satisfactory than they anticipated. A new, commodious and handsome building has recently been erected for the white school, which, in 1889, had an enrollment of 392, and an average attendance of 256 pupils. In the colored school, at the same time, there were enrolled 287 pupils, with an average attendance of 185. The expenditures in 1889, including $8,734.35, paid for "sites, buildings and repairs," were $25,587.19.
The city of Tuscaloosa contributed to the income of the schools, during the year, the large sum of $22,179.20. The white school showed, in 1891, an enrollment of 326, an average attendance of 232, and a duration of 160 days. In the colored school 291 were enrolled, the average attendance was 180 and the duration same as in the white school. The cash receipts of the year included $1,753.75 collected from tuition and incidental fees and $2,807.38 contributed by the city. The value of school property held in the district is estimated at $35,000.
There are now two schools, one white and one colored, in the sepa-
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PROGRESS OF EDUCATION.
rate school district of Tuscumbia. The white school, in 1891, enrolled 186 pupils, the colored school, 172. The average attendance of white pupils was 115; of colored, only 85. Schools were maintained in 1891, 180 days. The expenditures during the year ending September 20, 1891, were $3,556.12.
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