Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, Volume 6, Number 3, September 1996 Page: 155
[56] p. : ill., maps ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Documents, Letters, Reminiscences, Etc.
I awoke, there I beheld that mother, that patient
angelic mother, ready to attend to any want,
ready to console me. On the 6th day of Sept
1858, that mother departed this life. Strickened
with fevor she lingered but few days with us,
then at the master's call she joined the angelic
host in heaven. My darling children if you wish
to meat your grandma Holt, you must live
Christian lives, do all the good you can in this
world and you will be sure to meet her in
heaven. She left three daughters by Mr Tooke,
Francis, Callie & Kate, all very pretty children,
and who were very fortunate in getting a good
step mother-a Miss Cummings
With my mother's death my days under Mr
Tooke's roof terminated. I lived first with sister
Emily then with with sister Martha. But let me
tell you next about my school days, and then
about my soldier life about school teaching,
farming, your mother &c &c
My School days
began at Haynesville Ga when I was about six
years old, under Lunsford Pitts, who married
my fathers sister Sarah. As a teacher I reccollect
he had an ill temper, thrashed a great many
pupils every day and shaked his fist at a great
many more. Under him I learned my a. b. c.
The letters I & E were the first that I mastered.
I do not remember how long I went to him. My
next teacher was a Yankee, who wore spec-
tacles, he taught in the same house uncle Pitts
taught in. My progress was slow as he gave
most of his attention to the avanced classes. I
should have mentioned that his name was Jen-
nings. The third school I attended was in Co-
lumbus Texas. The teacher's name was Richard
Holt. He was a batchelor, and as well as I can
remember a very competent man. He thought a
great deal of sister Martha, made her a nice
present when she left his school.
The fourth school was near where Oakland
stands, in a small log house. Split logs with pins
driven into holes at each end for legs constitutedthe seats. The teachers name was Flemings. He
was a small old man, and either near sighted or
nearly blind, for I remember he held his book
very close to his eyes when he wished to read.
The large boys & girls had no respect for him
and therefore I judge he must have been unfit for
the position. Daniel Rhodes taught the fifth
school. He was a great Methodist and most of
his time he appeared to be smiling or praying.
As a teacher he did not distinguish himself. John
Iley was the sixth school and a brotherinlaw of
Daniel Rhodes.
I think he taught only four weeks. He was
no account. Elbert Lewis was the seventh
teacher. He was quite a good looking man, neat
in his dress, and fully competent as a teacher.
His stay with us was quite brief. He moved to
Gonzales, studies law, and while I am writing
these lines is filling the office of Dist. Judge in
this state. I went two or three days to a little red
headed yankee and will therefore call it the eight
school. James E. Tooke, (nick named "Shib)
taught the ninth school. He was well educated
and when he desired could impart instruction to
his pupils as well as any teacher I have ever met.
Like his relations he was overbearing and ruled
his pupils with an iron rod. Notwithstanding this
was my ninth school, I had been kept back in
Websters Elementary Speller. I could not write
my name, could not add a column of figures,
had never studied geography, or grammar, in
short nothing but the speller and knew but very
little of that.
Tooke introduced a new departure. He
required me to study geography, arithmetic,
grammar and penmanship. Had his interest in
the well fare of the children, his industry to-
wards the details of the school-room been equal
to his intellectual attainments, I should have
learned rapidly at this school. He measured off
long lessons for us and promised us a flogging
if we did not know them when we were called
on-this promise he invariably complied with.
I was poorly prepaired to begin so many new155
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Nesbitt Memorial Library. Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, Volume 6, Number 3, September 1996, periodical, September 1996; Columbus, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth151398/m1/43/?q=nesbitt%20memorial%20library%20journal: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Nesbitt Memorial Library.