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said already, but the material growth of the schools is shown in the following statement:

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I have aimed to sketch only a correct outline of the origin and growth of the school system of this city for eighty years, commencing with two little schools in rented rooms, free only to poor children, progressing at first "with wandering steps and slow," and at last reaching the high American ideal of the public education required to make citizens useful and intelligent enough to maintain our form of government. A subbase of kindergartens for children between the ages of 4 and 6 years, especially for those who unfortunately have little or none of the parental care and training that belongs to a well-ordered home, was the only part of the plan not carried out as designed, and that is still in abeyance.

This sketch would not be complete without some note of the most valuable services rendered to the schools from 1870 to 1885 by the Hon. John Eaton, then the United States Commissioner of Education. His personal interest could hardly have been deeper and more practically effective had the schools by law been placed under his official charge.

In conclusion, if you ask what was the most important factor of all in this work, I answer, unhesitatingly, the corps of teachers; intelligent, progressive, faithful to duty, and loyal to their leaders as ever were the famous "six hundred."

CHAPTER XLII.

EARLY EDUCATIONAL LIFE IN MIDDLE GEORGIA.1

EARLY SOCIETY CONDITIONS.

The influences upon the being of mankind-intellectual, physical, and social-that are exerted by geographical, political, and other accidents are interesting to study. It seemed curious how unlike were the Greeks of Attica to those of Laconia, and how unlike were both these to the Boeotians, all dwelling not remotely apart. Not less unlike were the settlers of the middle to those of the southeastern regions of the State of Georgia. The latter consisted of English, Salzburgers, Vandois, Piedmontese, Portuguese-Hebrews, and considerable numbers from the Hebrides Islands. Among the communities neighboring to Savannah, the mother city, particularly in the county of Liberty, which was settled by the most cultivated among the immigrants, a few reasonably good schools were commenced under the lead of educated masters. Very different from these were the earliest settlers of the region now being considered. Before the war of independence considerable numbers had migrated to this region, beginuing their settlements on Broad River, in the southeastern portion of what is now Elbert County, and extending southward between the Savannah River on the east and the Oconee on the west, through (now) Hancock, where the primary geological formation in the State ends. It had a salubrious climate, and à deep-red, exceedingly fertile soil. Undulating with small hills, extensive tablelands, and narrow valleys, well watered with rapid creeks and rivulets, despite its nearness to the Indians it became as choice an abode as any in the whole South. A region thus early occupied on the border of savage existence must have been unusually attractive. Not unfrequently a forage was made upon the two counties most exposed-Greene and Hancock. These and other dangers were such as only an adventurous, even rather audacious, people had hardihood to encounter.

Those settlers had come, many from North Carolina, but mostly from Virginia. Some were from Maryland, and a few from the Middle States and New England. Among them were almost none very prominent in property holding or mental culture. At the breaking out of the rebellion a few here and there sided with Great Britain, but most of these, called Tories, a name still odious, found it not safe to remain in a community wherein open manifestation of their sentiments was not seldom followed by an improvised hangman's rope and gallows in the open day or a rifle shot through the window under cover of night. Several individuals became noted for specially daring important services during the campaigns in the State, for which they were richly rewarded afterwards.

When the war was over great numbers of new settlers came in, many with considerable and a few with extraordinary gifts of understanding. Then began an astonishingly rapid development of the State's abundant resources. Probably at no period since has that region, less than 100 miles square in extent, had a larger number of men of distinguished ability. It is noteworthy that during a very brief period came the Crawfords, Gilmers, Cobbs, Lumpkins, Campbell's, Doolys, Waltons, Watkins, Nisbets, Lamars, who soon became illustrious in Federal and State politics, and the Mercers, Marshalls, Andrews, and Pierces in the pulpit.

Evolutions in social living were such as must always spring from admixture of classes in such conditions. None were very rich, and none very poor. Fortunately for the peculiar social development so beneficial to the whole State, there were no cities nor large towns, as in the adjoining State of South Carolina. Augusta (itself more convenient of approach to Carolinians than to the inhabitants of this region), on the Savannah River, with its population of four or five thousand, could be reached only after a journey of three or four days over roads the reddest, worse worked, and in winter the muddiest and toughest perhaps in the whole country, South or North.

By Richard Malcolm Johnston

Among those dwelling nearest the western boundary, not one in ten ever saw this town, and interesting were the ideas among simplest country youth of its vastness and importance. Lads whose parents came from Old Virginia were free to admit that Richmond was a greater, but not another, and this was one item of their rivalries with North Carolinians who could tell of nothing to compare with the city on the James.

As in every new community, particularly when thus exposed to dangers from without, patrician rule obtained without question from lower ranks. Instinctive with all was conviction that in a society without ascertained principles of government, the ablest, most thoughtful, and prudent must be leaders. Inferior persons, with few exceptions, not only did not aspire to important offices, but they suppressed aspirations among those of their likes who were tempted to indulge them. Candidates for Congress, even those for the general assembly of the State, were not nominated by conventions. Leading citizens counseled and decided among themselves whom to put forth, and the multitude acquiesced in the selection; not that parties did not exist and contend with each other, often in acrimonious strife, as in after times. From the beginuing opinions were variant upon questions regarding what were then named State sovereignties and States' rights, as opposed to encroachments of the Federal Government, and the lower classes, in full confidence in their leaders, held themselves bound not only to vote but, if necessary, to fight for them on election days. Superadded to variances in political sentiments were rivalries more or less avowed between Virginians and North Carolinians; but those, after lapse of not long time, and mainly through frequent timely intermarriages, subsided. Certain it is that, in the legislature of Georgia from the year 1780 to 1830, the average of talent was notably above what it was afterwards when changed conditions seemed to make the best leadership less exigent.

ADMIXTURE OF CLASSES.

In such circumstances coalescence of the two classes of settlers was indispensable to individual and civil security. Man can not live alone. Even Timon of Athens must occasionally go away from home in order to find an audience to make known the contempt he claimed to feel for mankind. Whatever the degrees of an individual's understanding and culture, if he can not find his equals to associate withal, he will be drawn to his neighbors, however far his inferiors in these gifts. And so from the beginning the two ranks of this rural region coalesced, a fact which, more than any other, contributed to make the State what it became by the period of 1861. In a community so constituted, whatever was marked in individualities must be brought forth in neighborhood intercourse that was untrammeled except by unwritten laws instinctive in all minds. No man ever felt his freedom more heartily than the rustic of middle Georgia a century ago. His cultivated neighbor, away from convenient proximity to his own peers, sought his society, made him his friend, often his confidant and adviser. He learned his speech, and in time loved to speak it. Each imparted and received. Associations of this sort are regulated by influences which it is not well to resist. Among these influences negro slavery exerted its own peculiar. The humblest white man could have no apprehension of falling upon any lower scale, therefore his ambitions, whatever they might be, were unfettered. It was during that early period of fifty years that were developed those numerous striking individualities which afterwards became themes for the character sketching done in that region more than in any other of like extent in the whole South. A section so fecund in elements contributing to prosperous, happy existence, was populated with much rapidity. Seventy years ago the voting population of some of those counties was far above what it is now, counting only the whites. Quick, reckless felling of forests, rushing, appallingly unskillful cultivation of rolling lands led to their speedy exhaustion. Those of the inhabitants most cager for the accumulation of riches, and most adventurons of spirit, disposing of their homesteads for small prices to those content to remain, followed not far behind the Indian, whom they drove farther and farther west.

To one who remembers the conditions and accidents of that former society, it is pleasant to recall the neighborliness, the oft warm affectionateness which, except among mean people (and these are in every community), generally obtained. Men of both ranks, none of whom were very rich, and none abjectly poor, intermingled with little reserve. Not seldom they sat at one another's boards, watched at one another's suffering bedsides, helped to bury one another's dead, when tears and strengthening words were alike grateful and consolatory.

SOCIETY AMONG WOMEN.

It was interesting to remark the relations between women in the two classes. The gentlewoman recognized the approach she might make when in company with the wives and daughters of her husband's humble neighbors, albeit his intimate friends

and advisers; and in general these wives and daughters, with instinctive feminine delicacy, understood the bounds to which they might easily advance, but not seek to overpass. Pleased at the hearty recognition of their husbands and fathers by leading citizens, they knew as well as any that the society of men among themselves was one thing and that of women among themselves was another. Thus the upper women guarded with prudence, yet with kindliness, the gates which their husbands, brothers, and sons, in their exuberance of generosity might sometimes leave too widely open; and the lower recognized and were content with these differing conditions. These two influences, the ardent, impulsive of men, and the conservative of women, made society such as it was, securest and happiest for all. These same women were always first to note among inferiors promise of fitness for higher social position, and, unlike some parvenus and nouveaux riches, were not afraid to admit and encourage it; and thus followed those frequent intermarriages from which have sprung a large majority of the leading minds in the State. As for the dialect, men of all degrees, except in the large towns, were addicted to it with fondness and habitually spoke it, except when in serious public discussion.

EARLY EDUCATIONAL CONDITIONS.

It is probable that not one of these settlers had received education beyond what could be gotten at the country and village schools in the States from which they had emigrated. They were less informed in text-books and other reading than were their parents before the war of independence. These parents of the upper class-at least many of them-had been to universities in the mother country, the colleges of William and Mary and of New Jersey and New England; but their sons, grown up in time of revolution and war, and that of recovery from the losses incurred by them, must be content with what amount was to be had in neighborhood schools. Differences in book knowledge, therefore, among those Georgians were less marked than those in any other particular, and these depended on the habit of vigorous, thoughtful minds, of endeavoring to supplement trifling school acquirements with study of the few standard books within their reach. It was notable what some of these accomplished in law, politics, and the pulpit. Many have not been surpassed, some not equaled by their successors. William Harris Crawford, whose family removed when he was a lad from Amherst, Va., is well known for his career in politics. He was minister to France, and would have succeeded Monroe in the Presidency but for the fact that, just as his nomination was agreed upon, he was stricken with paralysis. Upon John Forsyth President Jackson relied with entire and justified confidence in defending his administration against the assaults of Webster, Clay, and Calhoun. John Dooly, despite his eccentricities, was never surpassed, at least in mental ability, by any judge, although his court, as others in the State at that period, was only of nisi prius. Robert Watkins, so tradition has it, besides being a great lawyer, was a nigh resistless orator. In the case of Col. Benjamin Talliaferro, there is this interesting to say about his efficient administration as judge of the northern circuit in the early part of this century. Several leading lawyers of the circuit had been concerned in the famous Yazoo speculations. The people, who were intensely hostile to a measure believed to be an outrage upon their rights, became prejudiced against the legal profession generally. Crawford, who, with James Jackson,' of Savannah, had been mainly instrumental in the repeal of the Yazoo act, not able to name a lawyer for the bench with whom the people would be content, resorted to Talliaferro, who was a planter, and after considerable difficulty in overcoming his scruples, at length succeeded in obtaining his consent. It was said that he became in time an excellent judge. Ho imparted his name to the county formed in 1825 from the older counties of Wilkes, Greene, Oglethorpe, Hancock, and Warren.

If school keeping in rural districts during colonial and Revolutionary periods was conducted within narrow circumstances, it must be more so in new remote settlements. If there had been entirely competent teachers, boys, even girls, could not be spared from domestic work long enough to give-and that in intervals-more than two or three years' attendance at school, for gentlewomen and their daughters, like the rest, cut and sewed upon garments made of flax, wool, and cotton, produced, spun, and woven at home, while their husbands and sons felled the woods, tended the fields, and harvested the crops. In the most genteel families, along with proper morals, children learned good manners and were encouraged to read in the few choice books brought with them from the old homes. Some could recite from ancient English and Scotch ballads learned by their parents in peaceful and less exigent conditions. But education in schoolbooks was made, using a homely phrase, to

This man resigned his seat in the United States Senate, and had himself elected to the general assembly of Georgia for this purpose. It was said that the argument that prevailed with Talliaferro was Crawford's suggestion to listen carefully to lawyers' arguments, then decide according to his own judgment, and give no reason for his decision. This was before the period of a supremo court for correction of errors in nisi prius courts.

"shift for itself." The ways in which this was done, if described with much circumstantiality, would make a long and somewhat unique record in the annals of Georgia's foretime.

SCHOOLMASTERS.

To an aged middle Georgian the old-field schoolmaster of his childhood, as he now recalls him, seems to have been somewhat of a myth, or at least a relic of a longpast decedent race, never existing except in a few individuals unlike any others of human mold, appearing during periods in rural communities, bringing in a redspotted bandanna handkerchief his household goods, and in his tall, whitish-furred, long-experienced hat a sheet of foolscap, on which was set down what he called his "school articles." A rather reticent man was he to begin with, generally serious, sometimes even sad looking, as if he had been a seeker of things occult and was not content with the results of his quest. Within some months, seldom completing the year, with the same bandanna and hat, noiseless as he had come, he went his way. Generally he was unmarried, or, what was not so very far different, followed by a wife unique looking as himself, if possible some nearer a blank, who had never had the heart to increase the family any further. After his departure came on another, who might be larger and might be smaller, who might be fairer and might be browner, who might be more pronounced in manner and speech and might be less, but who had the distinctive marks that were worn by no other people under the sun. Now the idea that a native-born citizen competent to instruct children would have been content to undertake such a work was not entertained. Somehow, keeping a school was regarded as at the bottom on the list of vocations, fit only for those who were not qualified for any other; who, if thus qualified, would never think of thus degrading themselves, and who, in view of the poverty of repute attending this last resort for the exercise of manly endeavor, deemed it well to go away from the places that knew them, and set up among strangers. As soon as he became well known, it seemed expedient for him, like Joe of "Tom All-Alones" in Dickens's Bleak House, to "move on." Recalling his uncongeniality with the rest of mankind, the writer is reminded somehow of a scene from the Pickwick Papers occurring on the journey from Whitechapel to Ipswich. Mr. Pickwick, Mr. Peter Magnus, Mr. Tony Weller, and his son Sam were together on the old man's coach. Mr. Pickwick had just announced his intention to make note of some highly interesting remarks of Sam and his father touching the intimate connection of poverty with oysters and pickled salmon.

"By this time they had reached the turnpike at Mile End; a profound silence prevailed until they had gotten two or three miles farther on, when Mr. Weller, senior, turning suddenly to Mr. Pickwick, said:

"Wery queer life is a pike keeper, sir.'

"A what?' said Mr. Pickwick.

"A pike keeper.'

"What do you mean by a pike keeper?' said Mr. Peter Magnus.

"The old'un means a turnpike keeper, gen'men,' observed Sam, in explanation. "Oh,' said Mr. Pickwick, I see; yes; very curious, very uncomfortable.'

"They're all of 'em, men as have met with some disappointment in life,' said Mr. Weller, senior.

"Aye! aye!' said Mr. Pickwick.

"Yes; consequence of which they retires from the world and shuts themselves up on pikes, partly with the view of bein' solitary and partly to revenge themselves on mankind by takin' tolls.'

"Dear me! I never knew that before.'

"Fact, sir,' said Mr. Weller; if they was gen'l'men you'd call 'em misanthropes, but as it is they only takes to pike keepin'.'"

If Mr. Weller had known the old-field schoolmaster, his reflections probably would have been on a line with the foregoing. His very name was strange; not exactly foreign, but rather outlandish, suggesting that if the place where he was born could be ascertained it would prove to be far away.

Everybody recognized the necessity of children receiving at least rudimentary instruction. In some sections, as will appear from this extract from White's Historical Collections (p. 591), demands on that score were far from being very exacting. "There was no school in the Goosepond neighborhood on Broad River from its first settlement, in 1784, until 1796. The first teacher was a deserter from the British navy whose only qualification was that he could write. He whipped according to navy practice. On cold mornings, when fire could not be conveniently had, he made the children join hands and run round and round, while he hastened their speed by the free application of the switch."1

1 Teachers in elementary schools in ancient Athens seemed to have been not only poorly paid, but to have been liable to contemptuous, even violent, treatment. In Plutarch's Lives the following about Alcibiades occurs:

"When he was past his childhood he went once to a grammar school and asked the master for one of Homer's books; and he making answer that he had nothing of Homer's, Alcibiades gave him a blow

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