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The Farm School
But teaching the trades is but part of the
system of industrial education at Tougaloo. Each boy is
required to work at least one hour a day on the university
farm. For all work over that hour the student receives pay,
the highest allowance being 7c. an hour. The farm is not run
to make money, but to educate. The idea is to make the
operation of the farm an object lesson to the students in
the better methods of agriculture and stock raising. Several
students, enough to take care of the steady and continuous
farm work, are employed all day on the farm and attend the
night school, but the bulk of the farm labor comes from the
students, who give from one to several hours to it outside
of school. Last year the farm was run with but one man
outside of the student help. The boys, while getting their
book learning, tilled eighty-five acres of corn, fifteen
acres of oats, with a second crop of peas, seventeen acres
of cotton, eight acres of peas, three acres of sorghum, two
acres of garden and five acres of berries and orchard. The
stock cared for included 100 head of blooded cattle, forty
sheep and forty swine. The farm furnished the boarding
department 14,000 pounds of beef and pork, 84,476 pounds of
milk, and other products in proportion. The university farm
stock has a reputation State-wide, and the exhibits are
features of the annual fairs held at Jackson. While every
boy in the institution has to do some daily work on the
farm, there is set apart for the ninth grade a special
course of a year in agricultural instruction designed to
make good, practical farmers of those who take it. So much
for the boys.
The girls get their full share of industrial training at
Tougaloo. They have daily instruction in some branch of
household duty, ranging from dish-washing to canning and
preserving. Sewing is taught from the plain darning and
mending to fitting and dressmaking according to the latest
fashion plates. It has come to be well understood that the
Mississippi lady of a house who gets one of the trained
students from Tougaloo has "a perfect treasure."
The Ramona Indian
School
By District Secretary Jos. E. Roy.
This is a department of the University of
New Mexico at Santa Fé, occupying separate
buildings and a separate locality, and
managed by the American Missionary
Association. A recent visit to the school it
may be worth while to report. It is for the
Apache Indians and the youth who are
gathered into it are of the Jicarilla band.
Their reservation is about two hundred miles
west, and is reached by railroad or by pony
transportation. The teachers deem it better
to have the school some distance from the
people so as to make its impression the more
positive, and yet near enough for the
parents to visit their children occasionally
while at school. This keeps up the interest
and prevents the children from being
educated away from their elders. Two good
sized buildings are used. In one there are
the school rooms, the accommodations for the
teachers, and the lodgings for the boys. In
the other, under a matron, there are
lodgings for the girls, work rooms for the
same, and the boarding department for all.
The Indian girls do the cooking for the
establishment. I saw them getting dinner and
I saw many loaves of beautiful white bread
made by them. In their work shop they make
their own clothes. The boys, under the lead
of the principal, Prof. Elmore Chase, work
at cobbling, making ditches and cultivating
the soil, and also do something with
carpenter's tools. The Government pays over
a hundred dollars a year for each student
toward the expense of board, clothes, etc.
The American Missionary Association appoints
the teachers and directs the school. The
scholars, thirty in all, have made very
creditable progress in their studies,
considering the short time the school has
been in operation, from three to four years.
Prof. Whipple, now of Wheaton College, who
for a time was principal of the Ramona,
testifies: "I never saw on an average such
aptness, docility and faithfulness in school
and industrial work." The religious
influence of the school has not been
interfered with by the Government. I heard
the scholars recite with promptness and
evident understanding the Twenty third
Psalm, the Beatitudes, the Commandments, the
Lord's Prayer, and portions of a catechism
introductory to the Westminster Shorter.
Daily worship is maintained among them, the
Sunday-school lesson is thoroughly taught,
while the Bible is freely used in the
school. The Professor thought that several
of the youth gave such evidence of an
experience of grace as would satisfy us
concerning white children. I was permitted
to see half a dozen letters written by the
scholars to be sent to their parents and
brothers and sisters, without the
supervision of their teachers, in which were
many expressions of love for the Savior and
the Bible, and of a desire that their
friends at home should be made acquainted
with the same, and the purpose, when they
should go home, to communicate those good
things.
The following are four of those
letters:
Ramona Indian School, Santa Fé, New Mexico
June 16, 1889.
My Dear Father:
I am very well and happy all the time. I am
very sorry that my step Mother was dead. I
want you to come after me in July. And come
early. I had such a lovely time on our
picnic. I want you to learn about Jesus and
His love. So when you die you will go to
Him. Where you shall be happy evermore.
From your loving daughter, MARY ARMSTRONG.
Ramona School, Santa Fé, New
Mexico
June 10, 1889.
My Dear Father:
I was very glad to get your letter, and I am
going to answer it right away. I am so
anxious to go home this Summer. I love you
all very much, and I love my Father in
Heaven too. I love my Savior very much. He
is your Savior too. Jesus is a Savior of all
the people in this world. I am glad that you
are all working. I am working too but I am
in school now. I am reading in the Third
Reader. Give my love to all of my folks and
Miss Moore and Miss Clegg1.
From your loving daughter, MARY GRIMES.
Santa Fé, New Mexico
June 15, 1889.
My Dear Brother A.G.:
I would like to see you very much. We have a
nice time here. The children are all well
and happy. How is my little cousin? Is he
well and happy? We are all writing a letter
this morning. We are all going home in July,
so you know I am very happy every day. How
are all my brothers. I would like to see
them too. How is my father. Is he well and
happy? I have not seen my father for a long
time. Why don't he come to see me? I wish
you knew about our dear Savior. I wish some
one will come and tell all the people about
Jesus. God is our Father in Heaven who loves
us very much. He loves all the people in the
world. He wants them to love Him. I will
tell you about him when I go home. I wish
you would read the Bible so you would know
about Him. Our corn is beginning to grow.
Some children are going to speak in the
church to-morrow. Please give my love to all
my people. I am going to say good-bye.
From your loving sister, IRENE BANCROFT.
Ramona School, Santa Fé, New
Mexico
April 12, 1889.
Dear Father Monarcha:
I am very glad that you are working; that is
just what I want you to do. You must build a
house for your children, and you will have a
place to stay when the weather gets cold.
And every body must build houses for
themselves; that is just what the Government
wants all of you to do, because that is
right and everybody thinks that it is right,
and they were very much pleased when you do
so. I am very glad that all my folks are
well and happy if all of you are happy then
I am happy too. Your letter pleases me very
much. And you must do just what Mr. Bishop
asks you to do. You must not do like other
men do that don't build houses; they just
run off from the Reservation and go hunting
and sell all the things that the Government
gives them. You must not do that because
that is wrong, not right. Miss Moore will
tell you what I say to you. Write another
letter if you have time, if you don't have
time, why just go on and finish all your
spring work then you come after me when
school is out; if you don't want to come
then you send somebody after me.
Your loving son, JESSE GREENLEAF.
The writer of this letter has attended
school two and a half years, spending
one-half day in school each day and working
half a day. He is now fourteen years old.
1 These were former teachers
at the Ramona, who are now doing mission
work among the Indians. They read these
letters to the parents and in turn write
back for them.
This site includes some historical
materials that may imply negative stereotypes reflecting the culture or
language of a particular period or place. These items are presented as
part of the historical record and should not be interpreted to mean that
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American Missionary Association, 1888-1895
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