October 30 Edition

"Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me." --- Psalm 119:133

Birthdays this week include: Calvin Warner, Ken Simmons and Betty Warner - Oct. 26, Jamie Weeks - Oct. 27, Don Langford - Oct. 29, Alice Watkins - Oct. 31, Amy Pilkington - Nov. 1. Happy belated birthday to Ted Langford - Oct. 23.

Here we are coming in on November already and the weather is right on schedule.
New Edinburg Community Center is hosting a benefit dinner for Larry Briant November 7 from 5-7:30pm. BBQ pork plates will be sold for $10, and the famous Brothers 189 Band will play. All proceeds go to Larry and his wife Becky as Larry recently had to have a foot amputated due to diabetes.
West Saline Community Center is holding its annual Spook House in the school building on Saturday, October 31st from 7pm until midnight. Admission is a one time charge of $2. For the little kids who might not be quite ready for the unspeakable horrors therein, WSCC will have games and candy for them from 2pm to 4pm.
West Saline Community Center is holding its annual Spook House in the school building on Saturday, October 31st from 7pm until midnight. Admission is a one time charge of $2. For the little kids who might not be quite ready for the unspeakable horrors therein, WSCC will have games and candy for them from 2pm to 4pm.

New Edinburg Fire Department will host a Trunk-or-Treat at the fire station on Halloween from 4pm to 6pm with candy for the kids.

At age 92, Clyde Moseley was laid to rest at Shady Grove Cemetery last Thursday.

Last Sunday was the last Sunday for Bro. Billy Wilson and his wife Glenda at Macedonia Free Will Baptist Church, as the Wilsons will be moving to Bella Vista. Bro. Billy has preached there for ten years, but told me he felt it was time to move on. The New Edinburg area is losing one of its best ministers as is Macedonia, and we will all miss him. Thank you, Bro. Billy for everything you have done for our little town.

With our string of articles on the schools of the New Edinburg area, we close out with the main school itself and its long history. I will not copy from Schools of Cleveland County, but rather tell the story from my own research: the first school building in the town was built in 1860 on the site where the post office now sits. Ten years later, to accommodate the rising population, a new school was built directly across the road where Leslie Stewart's house now sits.

In 1904, again to handle the rising population, the Attwood family donated a 13 area pasture as a site for a new and better school building. A frame two story building was constructed with additions such as a cafeteria were added over the next decade. In 1930, it was decided to build a new, brick building on the spot; the frame building was torn down (its lumber was used to build an agri building... yeah, the agri building was THAT old). The brick school served until 1936 when it was destroyed by fire. Curiously, that school, Kingsland School, and Rison School all burned within a year or so of each other and all three were replaced with WPA projects built by government money. Draw your own conclusions there.  Some time in the 1930s, an old Presbyterian church building was acquired, moved to the school grounds, and converted into a Home Economics building which stood until after the school closed.

In 1947, the old gymnasium (which had a second story used by the Free Masons and the Odd Fellows as a lodge) burned, and a new one was constructed which still stands today. That gymnasium also had the first indoor restrooms on that campus.

In January 1957, the WPA school burned due to a wood heater left burning all night. At that time, there was a push to consolidate the school district with Kingsland, but wiser heads prevailed. The Superintendent at that time, Sam King,  journeyed to Little Rock and apparently had some pull with the State Board of Education because he returned with a check big enough to build a new brick structure... the one that stands today, and built according to his architectural plans.

It was a space age school for its time with modern architecture, tiled floors, indoor restrooms, a kitchen, and an air-conditioned cafeteria that doubled as an auditorium. It was also short one room on each wing, so the math classes floated on the high school side while the elementary side built two metal buildings on the play ground... one for the 6th grade and one for the elementary remedial reading room.

The new NES desegregated in 1967. Before that, black elementary students attended St. John's School next door, while the black high school students bused to Fordyce. It was controversial, to say the least, with many prominent white citizens taking it badly. I have been told by some older blacks in this area of fights and other harassment of the black students by some white students, but it should also be said that many white students went out of their way to make the black students feel welcome. It should be noted, and this a typical of desegregation in the South, that the only black teacher from St. John's to be hired by NEW was Mr. Brice Clay who served almost twenty years as the Elementary remedial reading teacher as well as the coach for many pick up games of softball and kickball on the playground.

In 1976, due to new state policies, NES was forced to institute a Kindergarten program. Many of us still alive today never went to Kindergarten; rather the First Grade was a combination Kindergarten/First Grade. The school district moved the old St. John school on to the playground and renovated it to have a new Superintendent's office and a Kindergarten while moving the First and Second Grades there. This freed up considerable space in the main building.

Staff changed. Teachers came and went and new policies affected the school district in a bad way making it tough for the school board to keep the place open. The town's population was dwindling as families moved elsewhere to find decent jobs. The school's enrollment dropped considerably, and the last graduating class had eight graduates. That was in 1985 and the axe finally fell. NES could no longer meet state requirements. The district merged with Kingsland School district  that year.

The original plan, as I recall, was for both high schools to merge in Kingsland, while both elementaries would merge in New Edinburg. The outcry among Kingsland residents about having their children bused to New Edinburg prevented the second half of the plan from happening, and that's ironic since it was the Redland vote that prevented Kingsland Schools from suffering the same fate at New Edinburg the following year. New Edinburg Elementary met for two more years before it too folded into Kingsland.

A wise man once told me that when you lose your school, you lose your community, and I think that's true. After the shut down of the schools, New Edinburg as a community has limped along since then not only due to the loss of its most precious resource... the raising and molding of its children... but due to the lack of commerce as stores up and down the street finally disappeared. Any present or future attempts to revitalize this town will, in my opinion, succeed only if they look to the future and not try to hang on too tightly to the past. And you might want to think about a school, lest you find yourself spinning your wheels...

But let's do keep in mind the long litany of local people who taught at the school, not necessarily for the paycheck, but because they thought the children were worth it: Joann Hall, Kay Childress, Joe Daniel, Marvin King, Betty King, Bernice Parham, Odell Wolfe, Nolan Brown, Iva Hicks, Gene Franklin, Lorraine Taylor, Jonalyn Reep, Deb Jones, Anita Knowles, and a host of others with many names lost to history.

And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is a wrap for me and this column. In the words of my generation: it's been real, it's been fun, but it hasn't been real fun.  Go Eagles.

October 23 Edition

"Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit." --- Psalm 51:12

Birthdays this week include: Delaina Splawn -  Oct. 18, Frankie Hall, Nell Reaves and Kay Garlington - Oct. 20, Barbie Jones - Oct. 24. Happy Anniversary to Ollie & Herbert Moring - Oct. 18, and Debbie & Randy Sanders - Oct. 19.

Emmaus Baptist Church is holding its Fall Festival this Saturday from 5-7pm with carnival games, food, and a photo booth. Everyone is invited.

New Edinburg Community Center is hosting a benefit dinner for Larry Briant November 7 from 5-7:30pm. BBQ pork plates will be sold for $10, and the famous Brothers 189 Band will play. All proceeds go to Larry and his wife Becky as Larry recently had to have a foot amputated due to diabetes. Family members tell me he's doing well.

Tyler Attwood of Ottawa Canada and his wife Erin announce the birth of their daughter Rose Ellon Attwood. Rose made her entrance last Friday afternoon. Let the sleepless nights begin...

Clyde Moseley passed away this past Monday at age 92.

A woodland fire on the Tolefree Road, one week after a house fire on that same road, took out about eight acres and required both the New Edinburg Fire Department and the local Forestry Service to subdue.
West Saline Community Center is holding its annual Spook House in the school building on Saturday, October 31st from 7pm until midnight. Admission is a one time charge of $2. For the little kids who might not be quite ready for the unspeakable horrors therein, WSCC will have games and candy for them from 2pm to 4pm.

Greenland Baptist Church's Food Pantry will be open next Tuesday, Oct. 27, from 11am till noon.

I won't do a "old school history from back when the dinosaurs" this week, but it will be back next week.

Please share local information, birthdays, anniversaries, and other events if you would like to see them in this column. If you, for some unfathomable reason, DON'T want to see it in this column, then just don't share and keep it to yourself because you're being selfish. Go Eagles.

October 10 Edition

"Wherefore thou art great, O Lord God: for there is none like thee, neither is there any God beside thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears." --- Samuel 7:22 KJV

Birthdays this week include: Wilma Rawls - Oct. 12, Regina Huddleston & Bill Perry - Oct. 15, Sandie Lynn - Oct. 16, Marshall Parker - Oct. 17, Delaina Ashcraft Splawn - Oct. 18.

For you out-of-towners, we caught some rain last Friday, just enough to settle the dust. We're still hurting for it here.

As of this writing, Clyde Moseley is in the Heart Hospital in Little Rock and in a bad way. Please keep him and Miss Bobbie in your thoughts and prayers.

Fall festivities are here: Macedonia Church will have its Fall this Saturday. Games start at 2pm, a silent auction starts at 3pm and will continue through the events, a cookie walk starting at 3:30pm and dinner will be at 5pm. Trunk or Treat will be at 6pm with a movie from 6:30 to 8pm.

West Saline Community Center is holding its annual Spook House in the school building on Saturday, October 31st from 7pm until midnight. Admission is a one time charge of $2. For the little kids who might not be quite ready for the unspeakable horrors therein, WSCC will have games and candy for them from 2pm to 4pm.

We're starting to wind down our tour of past schools in the New Edinburg area. Schools of Cleveland County tells us about another relic of the past, Gravestown School: "Gravestown School was in operation before the Civil War. The school was constructed of logs and was placed on a mound on the north side of Mt. Elba Cut-off Road just before the Ode Grice home. It had windows, but they may have been glass or they may have been shutters. The building was heated by a fireplace. It was the first Methodist church in the Hebron community and was just pas the Graves tanyard north of the Mt. Elba Cut-off road. Bob Tucker, who had lost a leg in the Civil War and married Elmyra Hall, taught there shortly after the war. One time while Mr. Tucker was teaching at the school, the kids were playing “fox and hounds” at recess. When he rang his hand-bell at the end of recess, as he commonly did, some of the boys playing were far enough into the woods they did not hear him. Jack Knowles, who did hear, returned to the school.  Mr. Tucker, after he learned what happened, took off running after the boys. Despite his peg-leg, he ran so fast that he caught the boys. They returned to the school together, and Mr. Tucker gave those boys a good whipping."

Go Eagles.

October 5 Edition

" Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."  --- James 5:16 KJV

Birthdays this week: Kathy Norris Spence - Oct. 5, Barbara Word Milburn - Oct. 7, Sue Gibson - Oct. 9, Wilma Rawls - Oct. 12.

I hope everyone enjoyed the cooler weather we experienced this past weekend.

New Edinburg Community Center is having a BBQ this Saturday, October 10 starting at 5pm. Pork plates will be sold at $10.00 a plate. There will be a Dutch Oven demonstration there starting at noon.

West Saline Community Center will have its annual Haunted House on Oct. 31 from 7pm until Midnight in the school buidling. They are looking for volunteers to help out. If interested, contact Nikki Warner.

Two more from the Geneological Society's book Schools of Cleveland County:The Martin School was located between the homes of Corbett Murrell and Harold Raymer now located on the Corbett Murrell Road. When the school was constructed the site was owned by the heirs of Dr. Rufus Martin.

Carter Special School was near Emmaus church on Highway 189 south, and John P. Norman was teacher there in the early 1900s. Mr. Norman had the equivalent of two years of college work due to special examinations, home study, and correspondence course from Arkansas State Teachers College and the University of Arkansas. In the fall on 1928 teachers at Carter Special were Frank Rowland as principal and Miss Mary Helen Catlett as primary teacher. At that time it had a budget of $322.14. The New Edinburg Band was invited to provide music for the closing exercises at Carter School in August 1929. Following the exercises, cake and ice cream were served by teachers Miss Louise Ellise and Miss Idella Childress. They remained there for the 1929 winter term. In 1930, Carter district had an enrollment of 65 students. The summer 1930 term was taught by A. M. Carter as principal and Mrs. Caroline Thompson as assistant. A. M. Carter was the teacher for the fall and winter term of 1930-31. It was later annexed by New Edinburg School.

Fall is here. Enjoy it. Go Eagles.

September 29 Edition

"Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness." --- Proverbs 30:20

Birthdays this week include: Debbie Sanders and Dakotah Moring (Sept. 29), Travis Hopper (Oct. 1), Teresa Lynn (Oct. 2).

Mrs. Norma McCoy reports back from a 5 day cruise through the Gulf of Mexico with her sister Martha Cook and her cousin Pam Peterson. They departed from New Orleans and visited Cozumel and Progreso in Mexico. All three had an excellent time. Poor Tully stayed behind with complications of a broken collar bone suffered a few weeks ago, but is reported to be doing fine.

ReNew Edinburg strikes again by cleaning the fence row next to the First Baptist Church of trees and brush that have accumulated there. The fence surrounds the lot that is currently held by Ronnie McManus and once held the Methodist parsonage.

Bow hunters are among us. They should be hunting hogs instead.

Yet another entry from Schools of Cleveland County: St. Paul School was the name of the school for African Americans in New Edinburg and was located near the Farm to Market Road just east of New Edinburg. In the 1930s the building was much like a shotgun house with a front and back porch and two rooms between. Grades one through three were in one room while grades four to six were in the other room. In 1930 St. Paul had an enrollment of 115 pupils. Mrs. Leola Broughton Gandy recalled walking about a mile from her home in the Broughton settlement to New Edinburg. Mittie Dupree taught there in 1934-1936. In 1938 St. Paul had 138 students. During the 1938-1939 school year the school had an enrollment of 126 students and int eh 1940-1941 year it had 116 students. Cornice Marks Hampton taught there from 1944 to 1953. Black students in grades seven to twelve were bused first to Warren and then between 1952 and 1960 to Wallace Training School in Fordyce. The school was closed in 1967 when New Edinburg was totally integrated. The last teachers at St. Paul were Mr. Cross, principal, Mittie Dupree and Brice Clay (editor's note: Mr. Clay was the only faculty member to come over to the main school once St. Paul closed, and taught remedial reading to the elementary until New Edinburg School closed in 1985. As far as I know, he was the only African American teacher at New Edinburg—JCB). Other St. Paul teachers remembered were Clarence Johnson, Doris Jean Crain, Carolyn Wayne, Billie Rainey, Mattie Pearl Mitchell, Mable Tidwell, Kanice Marks, Mrs. Counselor and Mr. Wright, another principal. David Washington was the Smith-Hughes (agriculture) teacher at St. Paul. Marion Mitchell of near Kingsland made a school bus from a truck that he used to haul pupils to New Edinburg from Hamilton Bottoms and St. Francis schools.

To that I add that the building sat vacant for years. I remember the local Jaycees staging a Halloween carnival or two there in the early 70s. In 1976, the building was moved behind the school and completely renovated into a Superintendent's office, Kindergarten, and First and Second grades, thus freeing up needed space in the main building. It was burned in 2009 because it was falling in and was a danger to the community.

Go Eagles.