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THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN LAKE CHARLES |
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(Transcribed by Leora White, January 2007)
A Thesis
Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College In partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Master if Arts In The Department of Education
By Leila Aline Scarlett B. A., Louisiana State Normal College, 1931
1938
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The writer wishes to express her appreciation to the following persons for their assistance in the preparation of the study: Dean C. A. Ives, for his advice and suggestions during the preparation; and to the following for their aid in furnishing sources of information: Superintendent Ward Anderson of the Lake Charles Schools, Superintendent H. A. Norton of Calcasieu Parish, and A. M. Mayo. Special tribute is paid to her sister, Mrs. W. V. Carman, for her constant assistance in all phases of the work.
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
LIST OF TABLES
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER
I
CHAPTER II
The
Period of Private Education from 1820 to
1890 CHAPTER III Development of Public Education in Lake Charles, 1841-1907
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BIOGRAPHY
LIST OF TABLES
TABLE I Members of the Calcasieu Parish School Board, 1841-1860
TABLE II Public Schools between 1871 and 1875 (white)
TABLE III Enrollment in the Lake Charles Public Schools (white)
TABLE IV Teachers and Schools in Lake Charles (white)
TABLE V Length of School Term (white)
TABLE VI Curriculum of the Lake Charles Schools (white)
TABLE VII Events and Administrative Principles of Lake Charles Schools
TABLE
VIII Monthly Salaries of Teachers in the Lake Charles
Schools ABSTRACT
This study attempts to trace the history of education in Lake Charles, Louisiana, from its earliest beginnings until the city system separated from the parish system in 1907. The data were secured from personal interviews, private letters, scrapbooks, newspapers, school board minutes, and reports of the state superintendent of education. The earliest efforts at education were by the private schools of which there were at least thirty - most of them of short duration - before 1890, when approximately all teacher and pupils were absorbed by the growing public school system. The few public schools before the Civil War were one-teacher schools held in rented rooms. Educational activities practically ceased during the War. After the War, the struggle was to create sentiment for schools adequately supported by the public, which culminated in the erection of the first public school building. Also provision for schools for Negroes became necessary after their emancipation. The real beginning of the school system of Lake Charles was with the election of John McNeese as parish superintendent in 1888. His administration of the city schools was characterized by: the opening of the first high school and an increase of public schools to a total of seven; development of teacher certification and provision for teachers training; a continuous and varied struggle for support, partly solved by the three-mill city levy for schools; and the development of the city board as a separate institution.
INTRODUCTION
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to trace the history of education in Lake Charles from the earliest times to 1907, when the city and parish school systems became separate institutions.
Limitations
The history of the Calcasieu Parish Schools is included only when it pertains to the Lake Charles schools as schools of the parish system. The records of the Negro schools are very inadequate; however, some information was obtained and is presented. The study, therefore, deals principally with the history of Lake Charles schools for white children.
Sources of Data
The data for the study were secured from rare and incomplete records. Missing information has at times been supplied by inference from authentic sources. Several elderly teachers and residents of the parish, through personal interviews, furnished information that was used when it could be verified. Private letter were likewise used. The earliest compiled source was the minutes of the Police Jury of Calcasieu Parish, which were on file in the office of the Police Jury. Files of the Lake Charles Echo and the Calcasieu Gazette from 1860 to 1890 proved very valuable sources of information; they were located in the Mayo Abstract Office. The minutes of the Calcasieu Parish School Board prior to 1887 were found in the Echo which was the official journal of that body; subsequently, they were filed in the office of the board. Minutes of the local school board, from the time of its existence, were filed in the office of the city superintendent of schools. The minutes of both boards furnished much of the data for this study. Another valuable source of information was the scrapbook assembled by Miss Maude Reid during the last fifteen years. The remainder of the data was gathered by a close perusal of the annual reports of the Superintendent of Education of Louisiana and of the Acts of the Louisiana Legislature.
Procedure
An attempt was made to select from the mass of information the facts which present as accurate and orderly account of the development of the educational system in the City of Lake Charles.
For the purpose of presentation the data are
assembled in three chapters. The first chapter is a
treatment of the foundations for the school system of Lake
Charles; the second chapter is devoted to private school
within the city; and the third chapter traces the
development of the public school system. Chapter III is
divided into four periods, set up by historical events
affecting school development or by events within the
educational system. For each period, various factors are
treated; they are discussed under separate headings so
that the steps of development will not [be] lost one among
the other. Related Studies
Several studies which in some way pertained to the school system of Lake Charles have been made and reported, principally as graduate research problems. One of the earliest of the studies is Ferguson’s (1) history of the city, which naturally treated the school system as one of the many phases of the city’s development. Bayne’s (2) study of education in the parish dealt with the Lake Charles system in general as included in the parish system of schools. Ulmer (3) gave brief treatment to the Lake Charles schools as one of the many phases of the history of Calcasieu Parish.
CHAPTER 1
FOUNDATIONS FOR THE SCHOOL SYSTEM OF LAKE CHARLES
Lake Charles is situated in the southwestern part of Louisiana, in Calcasieu Parish. The city is on the Calcasieu River, which in its course to the Gulf of Mexico passes through several lakes. On one of these, Lake Charles lies the city of the same name. Since it is on the east bank, its growth has been eastward necessarily. The city is fifty-five miles from the Gulf of Mexico on the south and thirty miles from the Texas border on the west. Probably the first settler in Calcasieu Parish was Martin LeBleu, who in 1781 established his home on English Bayou about six miles east of Lake Charles. (1) The four-room log house he built there is still standing. Mrs. Joe LeBleu, granddaughter-in-law of Martin LeBleu, likes even now to boast about the time when her family was forced to give something to eat to Frank and Jesse James, desperadoes of those days. She tells the story that one of them stood outside on watch while the other ate. And, as if the famous James brothers were not enough in the history of one family, she further tells of the fact that Jean Lafitte made Lake Charles his headquarters for a number of years. His vessels sailed up the deep rivers or silent bayous into sparsely settled districts, hiding for the eyes of the law, while they discharged cargoes of contraband and stolen slaves. He sold two salves to Joe LeBleu’s father and often stayed in his old log barn, possibly because it was easy to guard. (2) Such is the kind of passing tale told of the parish where Lake Charles stands today. The next real settler was Charles Sallier, for whom the city was finally named. He was the first white man to build a home in what is now the city of Lake Charles. His log cabin was located on the bank of the lake on land which was purchased from the Indians. (3) In 1802 he married Carolyn LeBleu, the daughter of Martin LeBleu. They formed the first permanent family in Lake Charles, and have many descendants there. George Ryan, son of Jacob Ryan, states that in 1846 his father built a small sawmill on the lake at the foot of the present site of Division Street. (4) Immediately it was discovered that sawmills would be most profitable on the lake front. The lake provided an excellent place to catch and anchor the rafts of logs as they came down the Calcasieu River, then called the Rio Hondo, (5) and in addition it provided a fine shipping point for the finished lumber. The surrounding territory was rich in yellow pine and other woods. It is no wonder that Lake Charles was a city built of wood. As the city continued to grow, through the lumber industry particularly, the people became more and more dissatisfied with having to make the long hard journey to Opelousas, the nearest seat of government. As official and other business began to grow with the lumber business, it was felt that a parish seat was [needed] near home. As a consequence, in 1840 the General Assembly granted the request of the citizens of this far southwestern part of the state to establish a parish government of their own. Thus Calcasieu Parish was created by an act signed on March 24, 1840. (6) On the same date the first police jury assembled at the old Arsend [Martin] LeBleu home. For the first parish seat, they selected a place on Comasque Bluff, which they named Marion. (7) In 1852 the parish seat was moved to the settlement on Lake Charles, (8) which by the time had become the largest in the parish. Long before, this site on the lake where Charles Sallier lived had become known at wayfarers as “Charles’s place” and Charlie’s lake.” But during the time the parish seat was at Marion, it was called Charleston. (9) On October 4, 1850, [a] post office had been established for this area under the name of Lake Charles. (10) Therefore, the police jury naturally accepted the name Lake Charles. (11) Soon a little cluster of houses grew up around the courthouse and the Ryan sawmill. Two or three stores were built, and now [and] then a schooner stopped at he little community in the backwoods settlement. The only professional man in the community at the time Lake Charles became the parish seat was Samuel Adam Kirby, who, before 1824, had come from Vermont. He was a man of considerable legal prominence and could sometimes be persuaded to drop his farm work to unravel some problem of law; naturally, be alone held the practice of Calcasieu Parish. In 1855 there came to Lake Charles a man who proved to be one of the most important citizens, Captain Daniel Goos. (12) At the time of his arrival, there were six other families in the settlement; the Salliers, Kirbys, Ryans, Hodges, Pithons, and Bilbo’s. In Lake Charles today there are important streets named for each of these families, and a whole section of the named for Captain Goos. (13) The new settler soon established a sawmill, which sliced the logs into a strip with the bark adhering to the sides. This kind of lumber brought $18.00 in gold per thousand feet. As the only chance to reach the outside world was by water the river and the lake the wise old pioneer naturally extended his activities to schooner building. The Goos fleet of schooners, tugboats, and steamboats soon became large and important. Captain Goos was the most important man in the settlement and he had unbounded energy and interests in this town where he established himself and he worked hard for it until the time of his death in 1898. With the coming of Captain Goos, the industrial life of Lake Charles began. The increasing productions of his sawmill and that of Jacob Ryan caused a considerable trade to spring up between Lake Charles and Galveston about 1858. (14) Schooners were the means of transportation; they carried lumber away and brought back goods to be retailed by the merchants. The freight charges of these cargoes were so low that the merchants of Lake Charles soon gained an advantage over all the communities within the section. People from the backwoods who had been accustomed to making the long trip to Opelousas for their yearly supply of goods now turned to Lake Charles. Thus, during the later fifties, Lake Charles changed from a frontier hamlet to an enterprising village with a population of between three and four hundred people. By 1857 (15) Lake Charles was ready for incorporation. The town seemed to be on the threshold of great prosperity, both on account of its ideal location on an artery of trade and of the rich surrounding territory, which was good for rice, lumber, cattle-raising, and , as was later found, oil. At this period, however, came the call to arms in the War for Southern Independence, and it was not until 1867 (16) that the town was incorporated. By the close of the year 1870 the population of Lake Charles had increased to about seven hundred. The reason for this sudden growth was the revival of interest in the lumber business after the war. The ideal location of the town and the lake was particularly attractive to men of this vocation. The first influx of Northerners and Middle Westerners came at this time, and it was their coming which differentiated Lake Charles from the rest of Southern Louisiana. It became predominantly Middle Western instead of Louisiana French. In the years from 1865 to 1876 the foundation of Lake Charles future prosperity was laid. It was a period characterized by the increasing hum of the sawmills. In 1876 there were in the town twelve sawmills in addition to many logging companies, all of which provided quite a large pay roll. (17) Communication with the outside world was maintained for the most part by the schooners which came in to take the sawmill products away. The stagecoach line was established a short time before 1869. This ran from Niblett’s Bluff, over the Old Spanish Trail, to New Iberia and made an overnight stop in Lake Charles. The government used it for the transportation of the mail. The services must have been unsatisfactory; however, for an item in the local newspaper (18) stated that no mail had been received in seven weeks. Usually the mail for Lake Charles was sent to F. W. Moeling in Galveston, who forwarded it to Lake Charles on the first schooner coming to this port. Such conditions were certainly the first steps in the evolution of railroad transportation for the new town. During the period from 1876 to 1881 the old ox carts gave way to smart carriages for travel and the stagecoach was superseded by the railroad. The comment of the people with respect to the new railroad, which was steadily creeping toward Lake Charles, showed how this means of transportation well satisfied a long-wanted need. The Echo, March 26, 1880, stated: “Everyone feels like shouting! At ten o’clock this morning the gap in the railroad between Lake Charles and Orange was closed. Lake Charles is now connected with Houston and all parts of the world. It is almost too wonderful to be true.” The trip from New Orleans to Houston could then be made in twenty-four hours. (19) On August 31, 1880, the first through train from New Orleans to Houston was run. (20) The railroads gradually absorbed the schooner trade but shipbuilding continued. The excellence of Lake Charles ships had drawn business from far-away places. J. J. Clooney made large contracts with Mexican ship owners, which kept his force busy. (21) The year 1879 brought Leopold Kaufman (22) who proved to be one of the greatest benefactors of the Lake Charles schools. He states that:
By 1879 Lake Charles had started to show some progress, but still retained back woods atmospheres. All of the stores sold anything that a customer might desire. The town had approximately six hundred people. The first National Bank was the only bank in town and its transactions were confined almost entirely to the owners of the lumber mills. The present site of the bank was occupied by a livery stable. Just north of the bank was a large cornfield. Back from Ryan Street, about a hundred feet, stood an old wooden building which was the town’s hotel. There were two or three stores, one of which had a boardwalk extending across the front. The courthouse which stood nearly in its present location was a medium sized frame building. The residential section was centered about Ryan Street and almost in the shadow of the sawmills. These were in what is now the northern part of the city.
The settlement was primitive but L. Kaufman thought he saw signs of promise and he remained. At least, he had enough faith in the place to invest in real estate; soon he became one of the largest property owners of the town. Later, when taxes were to be voted for the maintenance of schools or for improvements of any nature, it was the vote of the Kaufman property that assured an issue. Fortunately for the schools, L. Kaufman was always on their side; not only did his taxes make up the largest part of a bond or tax issue, but he was influential enough to persuade other property owners to his point of view. Thus, it has been that no school tax or bond issue has ever failed to carry in Lake Charles. The period from 1880 to 1890 is largely characterized by what is known as “The Northern Immigration.” Immigrants from Kansas, Nebraska, Vinton and Iowa, they gave the names of the sections from which they came. Lake Charles received a large number of these people, which accounts to an extent for the northern atmosphere in the city today. Always Calcasieu Parish had been emphatically a white man’s parish, the ratio of whites to blacks having been about 7 to 1. After this immigration it was not only white but also northern white. The population of Lake Charles increased more than 400 percent during this period. At the beginning of the decade there were less than 800 inhabitants in the town; at its close there were more than three thousand. (23) No other city in the state grew as fast as this. Perhaps this accounts for the fact that Lake Charles is commonly known as a “new town.” Before the coming of the northerners and the railroad, Lake Charles had been primarily a lumber and sawmill town; afterwards, it soon had a large and varied number of industries which made growth possible despite the deceasing production of sawmills. Rice production and the raising of cattle, fruits, vegetables, and general farm produce were all brought to points of successful development. The best evidence of the profits from rice alone in Calcasieu Parish is from an account in the Echo, “The fact is that for three years past the crop has increased annually one hundred percent - the crop of 1878 doubling that [of] 1877, that of 1879 doubling that of 1878, and that of 1880 doubling that of 1879. The same enormous increase promised the crop of this year.” (24) Also, much of the new growth of the city during this time may be attributed to the influence of an easterner, J. B. Watkins. Through his work and enterprise Lake Charles began to develop into a real city. He began an extensive campaign of advertising, for which special purpose he founded a newspaper in Lake Charles. This paper, the American, was always very florid in its description of the Calcasieu country. In addition to the distribution of many pamphlets, circulars, and other forms of advertising, forty thousand copies of the American were published monthly. These were sent to the middle, western, and northern states and, also, Canada and Europe. (25) It is said that Watkins spent two hundred thousand dollars, (26) at that time in advertising Calcasieu Parish, making Lake Charles the best advertised city in the United States. He invested especially in land, being one of the greatest property owners in the section. Through him the grounds for the Central Grammar School (27) and for the High School (28) buildings were made possible; he sold the land for both places at prices so reduced that it was almost given away. Lake Charles was distinctly on the boom at the close of 1888. In that year the Echo (29) said of the industrial and agricultural resources of the section: The principal industry up to the present time has been that of lumbering. The immense pinery which covers an out about sixty percent of our territory is an almost inexhaustible source of the very best quality of yellow pine timber. The next most important industry is that of stock raising, which is developing rapidly and promises in a few years to rival our lumber interest …. Rice, cotton, corn, peas, potatoes, and cane are the principal field crops while fruit and vegetables of all kinds are raised in abundance. Between 1890 and 1900 Lake Charles passed from its status as a country town to that of a small city. It more than doubled its population and became more than doubly important as the financial, industrial, and agricultural metropolis of an increasing territory. The following is an evaluation of its progress as given in 1890:
Lake Charles is the largest town in Southwest Louisiana. Previous to the war, it was only a village of one or two stores, a crude sort of Court house, and a log jail. New stores were added after the war, and as the superior merits of Calcasieu Lumber became known, it began to assume important [importance] as a business center, and today has a population somewhere between 4,000 and 5,000 people and all are engaged in milling, merchandizing and all other pursuits that men follow in making a living. Northern capital in the last few years had found out that here is a good place to invest its surplus capital, and Lake Charles numbers among her staunches citizens’ today Northern men who were attracted here by the superior location and soil for which this parish is noted. Lake Charles has ten large sawmills, three shingle mills, an ice factory, a rice mill, two shipyards, seven hotels, two banks, one large opera house, two machine shops and about 50 miles tram road of narrow gauge that is used in carrying logs to the lake and the river. All lines of merchandise are represented here. (30)
In March, 1890, the Lake Charles Echo was sold to a stock company. (31) Few papers have played as large a part in the development of a town as this paper has played in the making of Lake Charles. The editor, Captain J. W. Bryan, who had once a private school in Lake Charles, fought strenuously for whatever he believed to be right, and most especially for the public schools of the city. To him alone goes much of the credit for establishing and popularizing the public schools. As will be noted later, the steady growth and development of Lake Charles did not at first include the public schools, for the first public school building for this purpose was not erected until 1890. Such have been the founding, rise, and growth of the City of Lake Charles in the far southwestern part of Louisiana. Founded on lumber, it has grown to rely upon various industries. By location it is part of a state in the Deep South; yet by racial content it is not part of a state in it. Inaccessible for many years, it is yet removed from many other centers. These were the foundations of the school systems of Lake Charles which are treated fully in the following chapters.
CHAPTER II
THE PERIOD OF PRIVATE EDUCATION FROM 1820 TO 1890
Colonization in America by any of the Latin countries of Europe was always attendant with, and in most cases preceded by, the advent of the priests for the purpose of spreading religion, especially, and education, incidentally. In the Louisiana Territory and more particularly that part which retained the name of the whole, it was through the efforts of the French and Spanish priests that any kind of schooling, formal or informal, was brought to the children of the pioneers. Since the desire for education is ever present in all civilized peoples, it is not surprising to find that, in addition to the priests, private teachers soon arrived in Lake Charles. They came from France, Germany, England, and the New England region. Instruction by these “Tutors” and “governesses” as they were termed was given in the home; naturally it was limited to the children of the more affluent families. The next step in this educational development was the cooperation of two or more families in employing a “Master.” The master taught in the home of one of his employers. The contribution of this type of education is not to be underrated; the masters were influential and important people in the small community and their knowledge and education were greatly respected. Out of the privately-employed master system grew the private educational institutions, with stated fees for instruction, for the masters soon began to set up their own schools. They selected their homes or available small buildings for centers and solicited pupils for their privately-owned schools. By 1820 this method of education, which was spreading throughout Louisiana and the surrounding regions, was being reflected in Lake Charles.
Rigmaiden as Master
The first formal school of any kind in Lake Charles was taught about 1819 in the home of the old pioneer, Jacob Ryan. The classes were composed of his children and those of his sons-in-law, Henry Moss and Pierre Vincent. (1) The school was conducted by Thomas Rigmaiden, a young and cultured English gentleman who had come from Virginia to work in the Ryan sawmill. After working at the mill all day, Rigmaiden taught the children their A B C’s and slightly more advanced work at night or in the late afternoons. Life at that time in the new and raw community was so full and hurried with the mere existence and living of the new citizens that not much time could be spent in going to school. Eating and housing had to come before education. (2)
The First School Building
The next school in Lake Charles of which there
is any record was in 1820. Also it appears to be the
first school taught in a separate building. Its
description, as preserved by a citizen of those days, is
as follows: In the 1820’s Samuel Adams Kirby taught in a crude one room building made of logs and floored with the dirt where it was built. It was the task of the children to go to the lake each morning for water with which to sprinkle the floor. After that it was swept. This process made it as hard as concrete, almost. There were fourteen children in all who attended this first school. And this was the entire number in the settlement, who were old enough to go. (3)
This first schoolhouse was built on the property of Samuel Adams Kirby. It was made of squared logs, and the cracks were chinked with mud. The children sat on solid homemade benches. The only textbook of which there is any mention (or memory) was the old blue backed speller. At this time, as well as many years later, a teacher’s ability was measured by his power to maintain discipline, mostly with a good stout birch rod. Discipline was the thing that all parents demanded, and the children usually received it. (4)
Lake Charles Male and Female Academy
Neither the memory of old citizens nor the records extant give any further light on the schools until 1857. However, it is not too much to presume that some system of private schooling persisted, for the Bryan School, which opened in 1857, certainly had a full attendance. J. W. Bryan, who had given instruction in the homes of several parents, had been so successful that in 1857 he opened a school of his own, for boys only. (5)
His school house, rather school room, was the
same building Samuel Adams Kirby taught in on the old
Kirby property just east of what is now the Central Fire
Station. Bryan closed his school in 1861 and organized
the Militia of Calcasieu Parish. When the Civil War ended
he returned home and resumed teaching.
Lake Charles Male and Female Academy
The present session began Monday, September 23, 1867, and will close about the last of July, 1868. Charges in specie or its equivalent in currency, payable monthly. Board and lodging and washing per month for children $8.00. For young men and ladies $9.00. Tuition in English department $2.00. Students furnish their own bedding, lights, soap, table and toilet napkins. Strict attention paid to moral instruction. (6)
The school building was also the owner’s residence and he boarded the pupils who came in from the surrounding country. In September, 1868, he added the word “Private” to the name of the school, (7) and in March, 1869, employed a lady teacher for the girls. (8) In August of the same year, (9) Mrs. Bryan opened a mercantile business which occupied so much of his time that he was compelled to employ a man to do the teaching. However, he continued to act as principal. Thus the school opened September 13, 1859; the change is described as follows:
The instruction of pupils will be conducted exclusively by W. R. Ruthland Esq. but J. W. Bryan (former Principal) will exercise a personal supervision over the system of tuition and discipline of the students and will frequently visit the pupils at the Academy for that purpose. (10)
The academic year was divided into two sessions of five months each, the first to end the last of January, and the second, the last of June. In 1871 Mr. Bryan became editor of the Echo. This newspaper and his mercantile business required all of the time he had, and so he closed the school that year, 1871. (11) Miss Delia K. Singleton, who was the female teacher in the Academy, and J. W. Bryan were married September 9, 1869, (12) and Mrs. Bryan gave up teaching. Her daughter, Miss Lea Bryan, states however, that as soon as her first child was old enough to attend school she began to teach again. She taught all her children and with them the children of other families. At first she taught at her home, but as her children grew older and her class increased, she taught in a small, old unpainted building on the east side of Cole Street near Iris Street. (13) This continued until September, 1888, on which date she opened her school in the Marsh building because the little house on Cole Street would no longer accommodate all the pupils. She continued to teach in this school until the erection of the public school building, at the site of the present Central School, in 1890. The Lake Charles Echo of September 1, 1888, carried the following:
School Notice - I urgently request that scholars meet me in the afternoon sessions to be held two weeks before the regular opening of my school. These sessions are for examining and classing pupils and other preparation which creates the usual delay and confusion at the beginning of school sessions. This work will begin September 3rd and regular opening will take place September 17th. We will occupy the Marsh School House on Ryan Street just below the Baptist Church. Tuition: $2.00 per month. Miss Rose Allen of Orange, Texas, who comes highly recommended, will assist.
Mrs. Dick Gunn states that Mrs. Bryan was very religious and had a wonderful and lasting influence on her pupils. Mrs. Gunn also states that Mrs. Bryan used unique methods to impress ideas. She recalls a device used to eliminate the much used word “can’t.” The teacher lined up all the pupils, marched them out into the yard, and made them walk around a hole dug in the ground. As each pupil passed the hole, he or she pretended to drop something. When all had dropped the imagined object, Mrs. Bryan stooped and filled the hole with dirt. Then she said, “Now we buried “can’t.” Mrs. Gunn says that this word was never used in that school again. (14)
Lake Charles Seminary
The Lake Charles Seminary opened in November 1860, and probably closed in 1861. George Ryan, (15) resident of Lake Charles, stated that he attended this school during the 1860-1861 session. The status of the school is given by the following advertisement in a paper of the parish:
Lake Charles Seminary
The exercises of this Institution commenced on the 1st Monday in November under the sole management of the undersigned, with the assistance of competent Male and Female instruction. Having been a teacher by profession for many years, not only of advanced students by also of beginners in the paths of learning, he believes he can give entire satisfaction to all who may favor him with their patronage.
Courses of Studies
1st Class Reading, writing, spelling, mental arithmetic, per session of five months, $15.00.
2nd Class Reading, writing, practical arithmetic, grammar, geography, history, philosophy, physiology, $20.00
Text Books
McGuffey’s readers, Ray’s arithmetic, Smith or Butler’s grammar, Mitchel’s geography, Worchester’s history, Parker’s philosophy, Miss Swift’s physiology.
3rd Class Reading, writing, practical arithmetic, grammar, ancient geography, ancient history, chemistry, algebra, geometry, trig., surveying practical and theoretical, analytics shades and shadows and perspective, moral and mental philosophy, geology, mineralogy. Also Latin and Greek. $25.00.
Text Books
For Latin, Could Adam’s grammar, Reading books, regular course -Authors immaterial. Greek - Fisk’s grammar, Reading regular courses Authors, Similar everywhere. Sciences-Such as can be most easily obtained as they are taught mostly by lectures. Mathematics - (Davies’ Course), surveying (Grammar) is preferred, geometry (Davies’ Legrende), Moral Philosophy (Poley or Cobe) Mental philosophy (Abercrombie) political economy (Votel), rhetoric (Whatley), logic (Hedge & Whatley), astronomy (Burret’s geography of heavens), botany (Mrs. Lincoln).
Arrangements have been made to board any number of students here that may attend, either male or female. As soon as a class of eight can be formed in music, a music teacher will be employed. Every facility will be had in this school for acquiring a practical knowledge of the sciences and mathematics and the Principal trusts that he will prepare his school with every means of Instruction that his Institution may find a liberal support in the adjoining parishes. Board, washing, and lodging per month (lights and fuel included), $12.50.
Discipline
As schools should cultivate not only the intellectual, but also the moral powers, my system of discipline is to implant in the minds and hearts of my students a high sense of honor, a just appreciation of the intention of all laws and a proper regard for the powers that be. Hence, insubordination has never existed in my schools and confidence reigns between teacher and pupils. Public lectures by the principal will be delivered weekly. Vocal music daily. Composition and declamation strictly regarded.
D. A. Bland, Principal Lake Charles, LA. (16)
George Ryan states that D. A. Bland did not teach reading, writing, and arithmetic to the tune of a hickory stick; he does not recall a single time that any child was corrected. He says that Bland controlled them by making them love him. (17)
Mrs. Harrington’s School
During the Civil War, Mrs. Joe Harrington taught in a building located on the Ryan property at the northeast corner of Broad and Bilbo Streets. George Ryan recalls that he attended this school after the Lake Charles Seminary closed. He further states that, to his knowledge, it was the only school operating during the period 1861 to 1865. (18)
Lake Charles Male and Female Institute
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