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.