Crowville School, Franklin Parish, LA Submitted by Thomas Moore July 2001 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm **********************************************   Crowville High School was established in 1916 and accredited in 1919. It was the third public high school in Franklin Parish. Crowville students who lived at a distance were brought to school after 1911 by Mr. Ashbury Pylant, Mr. Albert Bradley, and Mr. E.F. Hodge in the first conveyance--mule wagons. Cordil Hodge drove for two sessions 1913-14 after the death of his uncle E.F. Hodge. The first girls basketball team was organized in 1912,and by 1913 the school was teaching classes through the tenth grade. If a student wished to enter college, he took an entrance examination or went elsewhere to finish his high school education. Miss Kate Mathes finished the tenth grade at Crowville School in the spring of 1914. She recalled: "I took a state test that allowed me to teach, but we had to go to college in the summer. I taught at Crowville that fall. There were three of us. The other two were my sister, Miss Ruth, and a Mr. Miller. He didn't stay but one year, though. He was from up north--Chicago I believe, and he didn't get along with the southern people." Mr. R.P. Parker moved his family back to Crowville in 1913 and started his children in school. As Miss Ruth Parker told it: "I was in the third grade when we moved back to Crowville. Mamma always complained about the dust at the school. Oh, it was dustyu! Mamma said our eyes looked like moons the way they shined because our faces were covered so badly with dust. One day as Mamma and Papa were riding around in the buggy, they passed where the school is now. Mamma said, "There it is." Papa said, "What?" Mamma said, "The place for the school." Papa said, "That land belongs to Mr. Crow. He won't sell it." Mamma said, "You can ask him anyway." When Mamma made her mind up, that was the way it was going to be. So Papa went to Mr. Crow and asked him. Mr. Crow told Papa he would donate the land. That was the fall of 1914 and Mr. G.W. Crow gave, by verbal aggreement, one acre of land to the Franklin Parish School Board. From the books in the Clerk of Court Office, this transaction was not recorded until October 3, 1925. An additional 3.89 acres of land was purchased from Mr. G.W. Crow "for expansion of school grounds" April 2, 1916. The price paid for this land was $97.50, "cash in hand and paid in full." Mr. H.W. Womble was the first president of the school board at this time. A bond issue in Ward 4 was passed January 3,1916, in the amount of $15,000 "to erect school building and for repairs at Waverly and Crowville Schools." On the same day a building committee in Ward 4 was appointed by the Franklin Parish School Board. Appointed to this committee were R.E. Pickett, school board member; W.I. Hair; G.W. Crow; Jacob Poole; and R.F. Parker. The function of this committee was to aid in the planning of a new school building. The "old three-room school" at the crossroads, the fifth school and the first school was located on the third of the school sites; and in the fall of 1916 the students moved the first high school in Crowville Community. The new building was to serve as a grammer school/high school until the fall of 1929 and was located on the site of the present elementary building. This building was still in use as elementary classrooms until it burned April 7, 1960. Work for getting a school in Crowville was sponsored by Superintendent of Education of Franklin Parish, John L. McDuff, and Mr. J.B. Evans. Mr. J.B. evans wame to the parish from Bienville Parish and received his bachelor of Industry Degree from Louisiana Industrial Institute in 1905. Mr Evans was selected to be the first principal of the new school, with three teachers to assist him. These teachers were Miss Ruth Mathes, Miss Kate Mathes, and Miss Zuleika Cordill. Miss Cordill's salary was not paid by the school board; the community paid her salary with donations. The first year in the new building, there were 115 elementary students and 25 high school students. Crowville High School was accredited in 1919. The class of 1920 is given credit as being the first graduating class. In the first 15 years of the high schools existence, 1920 to 1935, there were 280 graduates. The first years enrollment was 25 but it doubled in 1920. By 1925 enrollment had grown to 105. With the increase in the enrollment, expanded facilities were needed. A Domestic Science (Home Economics) course was added to the curriculum in 1918; and in 1920 the present home economics building, with four rooms and a hall was constructed and served as part of the high school. Domestic Science classes, taught by Miss Mattie Anderson; the science department; the library; and a classroom were located in this building. During the next few years, mathmatics, taught by Miss Mary Lou Harris; a combination third and fourth grade, taught by Miss Georgia Hill; and Domestic Science were taught in this building. A building committee was apointed. Appointed to this committee were Mrs. Ceillia J. Sisson, Chairman; Mr. W.H. Franklin; Mr. J.R. Hammons; Mr. R.A. Gibson; Mr. G.A. Newcomer; and Mr. John L. McDuff, Superintendent of Education. Mr. J.M. Salley was named the contractor with Mr. R.H. Stassen, the foreman, and Mr. John W. Baker, the architect. The present high school brick building was constructed in 1928-29. A principal's home was added in the summer of 1932. This house was formerly a two rommed school, located at Hill Ridge. Mr. Bob Stassen tore it down and moved it from Hill Ridge, rebuilding it on the northwest corner of the campus for $300.00. The school board furnished additional materials, such as ceiling, walls, etc., to furnish the building into a home. Enrollment in elementary and high school continued to increase, and buildings were added to the facility to accommondate this growth. A second piece of land amounting to 2.15 acres was purchased Dec. 12, 1938, for $100.00 "cash in hand paid in full from Mr. George W. Crow." This purchase made a total of 7,04 acres of land for te school. A frame building with six classrooms and two restrooms was erected in 1938. The contractor for this building was Mr. J.A. Harper of Crowville. This building was among the first of his contracts. It was used for the first and second grades and the Agriculture Department. This building eventually housed the vocal music department and the sixth and seventh grades. The Gymnasium was added in 1938. The Canning Center and Agriculture Building was added in 1941. The building was remodeled and additions were added in 1950. In the summer of 1949, the Home Economics building was moved west about 100 feet to make room for the cafeteria which was built in 1949-50. A two-roomed frame building was added just north of the old elementary building in 1950 for two sections of the fifth grade. In 1949-50 school session, business courses were offered at Crowville High School for the first time. Mrs. Grace Beall was the first business teacher. At the beginningof this session, these courses were taught in the northwest corner of the room of the Home Economics department. In 1949 a vacated two-roomed school building was brought to the campus from Philadelphia school and placed between the Home Economics building and the six-roomed frame elementary building. This building was the first one on the campus to be heated with gas. In 1950 the school board added a room to the back of this building to accommodate the larger enrollment in these courses. On November 15, 1951, approximately 20 acres of land north of the Baskin-Crowville road, Highway 577, was purchased from Edwin Chambers Dotson, Jr., a minor, represented by Mrs. Bernice Singleton Dotson. The amount paid for this purchase was $5,000.00 "cash in hand before signing." This land was purchased for a football field. In 1952 a frame canteen was built on the west end of this land. Band was added to the curriculum in 1947, and by 1952 it had out grown the stages of the auditorium and the gymnasium. In 1952 a two-roomed frame building which had been vacated at Ward 3 was brought to the campus and placed on the southeast corner. Band was discontinued in 1973. The original Crowville School was destroyed by fire April 7, 1960. December 11, 1960, Crowville held open house in the new elementary building. The two-roomed frame building which was built in 1950 had to be moved to make room for the new brick elementary building, which was constructed in 1960 on the site of the first Crowville School. The two-roomed frame building which was built in 1950 was relocated on its present site between the gymnasium and the high school auditorium and is now used as the science department. In 1961 a field house, a canteen, ticket booth, and rest rooms were built in the football stadium area. Crowville High School although Ward 4, has for many years served as the high school for Wards 3 and 4 in Franklin Parish and for Ward 8 of Madison Parish, where grades 1 through 8 were taught. All students living in ward 8 now attend school in Crowville. The Extra Ordinary Session of the Louisiana State Legislature of 1969, passed an integration law, modeled after one used in New York State. Franklin Parish was one of the few parishes in the state that had not integrated its public schools. On May 8, 1970, the Franklin Parish School Board was issued a Federal Court Order from the United States Justice Department. The order stated that Franklin Parish schools must integrate. The School Board of Franklin Parish desided to be the first public school system in Louisiana to test the new law passed by the Louisiana Legislature in the Extra Ordinary Session. In essence, the New York law states that a school board can deside how its schools are to be integrated. Governor McKeithen pledged state money and legal advisors to aid the Franklin Parish School Board in this battle. In the fall of 1970, the doors of Crowville High School were opened to both white and black students, as well as a faculty and staff of black and white. In the spring on 1974, Central High School in Ward 5 was closed; and the students attending that school were then redistricted so that part of the Ward 5 children would attend school at Baskin in Ward 6 and the others would attend school at Crowville in Ward 4.