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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