While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
The new era, that had been so
auspiciously continued for three years, and
gave promise of rapid and substantial
material development, was destined soon to
be interrupted by the experience of three
dark days that occurred, one soon after the
other.
On June 5, 1908, one week after the end
of the term and after three and one half
years of faithful and efficient service as a
matron, the death of Miss Adelia M. Eaton
occurred at the institution.
On the 7th of November following the Boys'
Hall, and most of its contents were consumed
by fire.
In the spring of 1909 Mrs. Flickinger
experienced a serious injury by falling from
the open conveyance while on the way to
Valliant, and, going home for treatment
during the summer was unable to return in
the fall and resume her former duties.
On March 13, 1910, the Girls' Hall, laundry,
smokehouse, wood house and Old Log House,
together with most of their contents,
suddenly disappeared in smoke.
Nothing was then left of this cherished and
promising institution, except the chapel,
temporary hall for the boys, built the
previous year, and a lot of ashes and burned
rubbish, the sight of which suggested the
loss of comforts and working outfit; hopes
and plans indefinitely deferred if not
completely blasted, and the expenditure of a
vast amount of labor and time to replace and
refurnish the buildings destroyed; and the
utter impossibility of any immediate
recovery from the oft-repeated and fatal
checks imposed on the enrollment, ever since
the loss of the Boys' Hall in 1908.
Two rays of light relieved
the darkness of the gloom that followed the
experience of these staggering losses.
(1). All of the lady helpers manifested the
real spirit of missionary heroes. Presuming
they were greatly needed during the period
of reconstruction, instead of running away
when there seemed to be no suitable place
for them, they discovered a readiness to
suggest possible and acceptable arrangements
for their comfort.
(2) There was also available for assistance,
a clever squad of intelligent and trained
student boys, one of whom, having served for
a term as an assistant teacher, was believed
to be capable of serving as a foreman of the
carpenters; thus making it possible to erect
buildings entirely by the aid of colored
workmen and principally by student labor.
The Boll Weevil
In 1903 the Mexican boll weevil in its
northward migration from Brownsville, Texas,
crossed Red river and, during the next seven
years, continued to deprive the farmers in
the country north of that river of all
profit on the cotton, their principal money
crop; and greatly to injure the corn, their
food crop. These long repeated ravages of
the weevil came at a time when the colored
people were by no means prepared to meet
them.
In 1904 and 1905 they had been allotted 40
acres of unimproved timber lands appraised
at $3.23 an acre, or $130. The allotment was
the occasion of many changes in their
location. They were really pioneer settlers,
in their own native country and without
funds to make needed improvements. They were
happy in the possession of a home they could
call their own, and entertained great hopes
for the future. But this new and destructive
pest, year after year for seven years,
completely checked the prosperity they had
so hopefully anticipated. The years came and
went and they had nothing to sell worthy of
mention to bring them money.
In April 1905, at the first meeting of the
Presbytery after the reopening, many of the
colored people voluntarily and
enthusiastically united in making pledges
for the purchase of the land needed for the
buildings and farm at Oak Hill. But of the
many generous hearted friends, who united in
pledging about $300.00 at this time, only
ministers and teachers receiving aid from
the board, and a couple of others ever
became able to pay these pledges.
Parents bringing their children to school,
with only a few or no dollars in hand, would
make pledges of payment during the term. The
amount proposed was $25.00 for boarding a
pupil seven months, about one half the real
cost. When they became convinced they had no
money to send, some would send for their
children during the term, while others would
leave them at the end of the term without
notice, and even make it necessary for the
superintendent to pay their way home.
These disappointing experiences had a
two-fold effect on the school. They meant
the loss, not merely of some expected
income, but almost invariably of the pupil
and patron, and the constant change of the
student body prevents the development of the
higher grades which must be reached by the
students, if the school is to accomplish its
mission, namely the training and development
of Christian teachers.
The term reports of the last eight years
will show that all the full term students
that continued long enough to reach the
higher grades, 7th and 8th, were self
supporting ones, who were either sent to
remain at the academy during the vacation
periods until they completed their course,
or were accorded the opportunity to work out
a part of their expenses at the academy. The
full term students whose boarding was
entirely paid by their parents did not
average a half dozen a term.
Inability to provide for their board, meant
the loss of the brightest and most promising
pupils of the earlier years, about the time
they reached the fifth grade. But a good
boarding school can be developed only where
the conditions are favorable for the
continuance of the pupils from year to year,
until they reach the higher grades. The fact
that the 7th and 8th grades were reached
only during the last two years and then only
by the self-supporting young people is quite
suggestive, not merely of a past
embarrassment, but of that which should be
an important feature in the future
management of the institution, namely, a
constant endeavor to increase the
opportunities for young people to support
themselves by the employment furnished at
the institution.
Statehood Changes
Another embarrassment was experienced as a
result of the changes incident to the
establishment of statehood.
The constitutional convention that met at
Guthrie, the old capital, Jan. 1, 1907,
changed the map of Indian Territory. From
the time the Indians were located in it
until that date the civil divisions
consisted of the general allotments to the
different tribes or nations and Oak Hill was
near the center of the southern part of the
Choctaw nation. In 1907 when the boundaries
of the counties were established Oak Hill
was near the west line of McCurtain County.
The first election of county officers
occurred that fall and they entered upon
their duties on Jan. 1, 1908. It was made
the duty of the county superintendent to
divide the county into school districts so
as to meet the needs of the colored people
as well as the whites and Indians.
On Sabbath, Jan. 20, 1908, the first
superintendent of McCurtain County called at
the academy and left the papers showing the
establishment of Oak Hill district No. 73,
for the colored people of that neighborhood.
The district included the northeast quarter
of section 29, on which the academy is
located and the southeast quarter of the
section adjoining it on the north. The board
of education for this Oak Hill district was
organized on February 20th following, by the
election of Henry Prince, chairman, Rev. R.
E. Flickinger, Secretary; and Malinda A.
Hall, treasurer. All this was done at a
time, when the county superintendent could
not think otherwise, than that the teachers
and work at the academy were in some way
under his jurisdiction. A little later the
Oak Hill district was quietly quashed and
its honorable board of education went into
"innocuous desuetude."
This incident is narrated because it
illustrates what was then taking place all
over McCurtain County, and all the other
counties of the new state. The law provided
that a district and a school might be
established wherever there were six pupils
to attend the school and the people
furnished a building for it. In a short time
three schools for the colored people were
established in the vicinity of the academy,
and parents were made to believe that they
must send their children to these schools or
penalties would be imposed on them. A host
of colored teachers from Texas and other
localities were attracted to the new state
to meet the needs of the public schools, now
for the first time established in the rural
districts.
The mission schools previously established
for many years in the chapels of the
Churches of the Presbytery of Kiamichi
became public schools and the pastors that
continued to teach became public school
teachers. Parents were also for the first
time in their lives, taxed for the support
of their local school. Will they be able and
willing to pay their annual taxes and
additional tuition or board at Oak Hill for
the education of their children.
These important changes, occurring both in
the immediate neighborhood and also in
distant ones that furnished the supply of
students for Oak Hill, were destined to
exert considerable influence on the work of
that institution. What the effect of that
influence would be, was a matter of great
anxiety and constant watchfulness on the
part of the superintendent. The previous
missions of our Freedmen's Board at
Muskogee, Atoka and Caddo were abandoned as
unnecessary as soon as the increasing
population of those towns made adequate
provision for the public education of their
colored children. Shall this be the outcome
of the work at Oak Hill, now that the rural
districts are supplied with public schools
and teachers?
Efficient Service
Required
That these changes would temporarily affect
the enrollment of Oak Hill, even under the
most favorable circumstances was believed to
be inevitable. This problem was all the more
difficult to meet, while undergoing the
experience of repeated checks, that made it
necessary to send pupils home during term
time on three different occasions and twice
to check their incoming on account of "no
room."
The most efficient and faithful service
possible, on the part of the superintendent
and teachers, was believed to be the best
means of meeting this crisis. Parents and
young people must also have a little time
for observation that they might see and be
convinced of the greater value of the work
at the academy.
To visitors at the academy the difference
was very quickly perceived. These were some
of the things that attracted their special
and favorable attention.
The Bible was in the hand of every pupil,
and even the youngest were familiar with
many of its most beautiful and instructive
passages.
Every pupil had all the text books he needed
from the day he entered the school.
All that were old enough were required to
spend an hour each evening, in quiet study
under the helpful and encouraging eye of the
principal, in addition to the forenoon and
afternoon hours.
All were forming the habit of using their
spare moments to advantage, by reading some
good books from the library, a Church paper,
or practicing on some useful musical
instrument.
Their voices were being correctly and
rapidly developed for intelligent use in
song and public address.
In the visible results of their work they
witnessed their skill in the necessary arts
of life, such as farming, stock raising,
carpentry, painting, masonry, cooking,
baking and sewing.
And then it was very unusual for any pupil
to return home at the end of the term,
without having voluntarily become an active
Christian worker in the endeavor meeting and
Sunday school.
During the spring term in 1905 only 34
pupils were enrolled. During the next three
years the increase was very encouraging, the
enrollment reaching the full capacity of the
buildings at 115, May 31, 1908.
The loss of buildings that began with the
opening of the next term compelled a
reduction in the enrollment. For 1909 and
the subsequent years it was 84, 108, 90 and
in 1912, 95.
Inferences
It would seem from the foregoing facts,
that, whatever demand there was for the Oak
Hill Mission as a school for local
elementary instruction in the earlier years
of its history, the conditions of the
country, to which its work must now be
adjusted, have experienced a very great
change. So long as there are families living
in sparsely settled districts that are not
provided with ample school privileges; or
the interest of parents in the welfare of
their children leads them to prefer the
select boarding school, under well-known
Christian influences, to the rural school;
elementary instruction will be needed at Oak
Hill. But the greater need now is for the
higher Christian education that will best
fit the young people to become intelligent
and successful teachers, and for the
industrial training that will fit them for
the performance of the necessary duties of
life.
A comfortable home on a well-tilled farm,
that is every year increasing in value, is
the ideal and happiest place for ambitions
young people. Such a home affords healthful
employment, the greatest freedom and is
usually a very profitable investment.
The young farmer needs not only a knowledge
of soils, their drainage and how to use them
to best advantage, but also a practical
knowledge of carpentry and painting, to
enable him to erect good buildings
economically and to take proper care of them
afterwards.
The teacher needs this knowledge and
training that he may create a constant
demand for his services during the long
summer days when he is not teaching.
Rev. W. H.
Carroll
Sadie B.
McNeill
Mrs. W. H.
Carroll
Lucretia
C. Brown
Everett
Richard
Malinda A.
Hall
Solomon H.
Buchanan
Samuel A.
Folsom
Closing Day, 1912.
Rev. Dr. Baird At Left On The
Porch
The young minister needs
this knowledge more than many others, and a
great deal more than is generally
appreciated, to enable him to give
intelligent counsel to his people, when they
have need to make repairs or build new
Churches and parsonages.
As these higher and special
lines of industrial instruction are
perfected and emphasized, and the facilities
for self-help both during term time and
vacation are gradually increased, the
efficiency and patronage of the academy will
continue to increase with the progress of
the years.
Burdens And Friends
The deficit in the running expenses on June
30, 1911, the last day included in the
annual report of that year was $1,693.95.
This was the largest deficit at the end of
any previous month, and was a big one with
which to commence the improvement work of
our last year. It was due to the fact that
the completion of Elliott Hall with good
materials and workmanship, including
furniture, cost nearly $1,500 more than was
expected, and the appropriation made for it.
We were called upon to experience some
serious losses and bear, for considerable
periods of time unusually great and heavy
burdens. The burden twice became so great,
indeed, as to awaken the fear that another
straw would break the camel's back. Happily
the needed relief came in time to avert that
unhappy experience, or check the aggressive
onward progress of the improvement work.
When the burden became large and a matter of
personal anxiety, it also became the measure
of the valuable and loyal co-operation of
the new friends who came to our assistance,
in addition to our Board of Missions for
Freedmen; which is the first and final
resort for the resources that are necessary
to successfully administer, and gradually
develop the work of this institution.
We deem it appropriate to gratefully record
the names of those who have most signally
aided us in the management of the finances,
so as to keep them locally on a cash basis,
namely, the Security State bank of Rockwell
City, Ia.; 1st National bank of Valliant;
and in succession the following dealers in
Valliant: O'Bannon & Son; A. J. Whitfield
and Planters Trading Co.
Hon. T. P. Gore, United States Senator from
Oklahoma, (blind), has favored this
institution by sending for its library more
than a dozen valuable volumes, among which
are 2 Year Books of the Department of
Agriculture; 2 Handbooks,-I & II,-of the
American Indians; Report of the Commissioner
on Education for 1911, in two volumes;
Report on Industrial Education; Manual of
the United States Senate; Directory of
Congress, and several other smaller volumes.
Special Addresses
During our last term the institution was
favored with encouraging and instructive
addresses from the following distinguished
visitors: Rev. Duncan McRuer of Pauls
Valley, Moderator of the Synod of Oklahoma;
Rev. E. B. Teis of Anadarko, Pastoral
Evangelist for the Presbytery of El Reno;
Rev. Phil C. Baird D. D., Pastor of the
First Presbyterian Church of Oklahoma City;
and by Rev. Wiley Homer, Rev. William
Butler, Rev. W. J. Starks and Rev. T. K.
Bridges, pastors of local Churches, and Rev.
M. L. Bethel, Oklahoma City.
This site
includes some historical materials that may imply negative stereotypes
reflecting the culture or language of a particular period or place. These
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interpreted to mean that the WebMasters in any way endorse the stereotypes
implied .
Choctaw Freedmen and Oak Hill Industrial
Academy, 1914, Robert Elliott Flickinger
