The
state had not been able to build schoolhouses in the country
districts, and, as a rule, the schools were taught in churches or
in log cabins. More than once, while on my journeys, I found that
there was no provision made in the house used for school purposes
for heating the building during the winter, and consequently a
fire had to be built in the yard, and teacher and pupils passed
in and out of the house as they got cold or warm. With few
exceptions, I found the teachers in these country schools to be
miserably poor in preparation for their work, and poor in moral
character. The schools were in session from three to five months.
There was practically no apparatus in the schoolhouses, except
that occasionally there was a rough blackboard. I recall that one
day I went into a schoolhouse--or rather into an abandoned log
cabin that was being used as a schoolhouse--and found five pupils
who were studying a lesson from one book. Two of these, on the
front seat, were using the book between them; behind these were
two others peeping over the shoulders of the first two, and
behind the four was a fifth little fellow who was peeping over
the shoulders of all four.
What I have said concerning the character of the schoolhouses and
teachers will also apply quite accurately as a description of the
church buildings and the ministers.
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