Business: Natchitoches Parish Public School Complaint, 1874, Natchitoches
Parish La
Submitted by: Suzanne Shoemaker

Many Thanks to the Natchitoches Times for allowing the LaGenWeb to use this
article



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Natchitoches Times 
August 20, 1999
WHAT'S YOUR LINE?
A column written by members of the Natchitoches Genealogy and Historical
Association
By Carol Wells


     In the Natchitoches Parish public schools 125 years ago, "teachers are
examined and passed, who were totally incompetent, scarcely knowing how to
read or write."  This complaint was published in The Natchitoches
Vindicator in 1874.
     Teacher pay was also an issue.  Teachers were paid 50 cents on the
dollar because "there was no money in the treasury."  When the treasurer was
called upon to know how the funds had been disbursed, he informed the
committee that he had not drawn any from the Collector, as owing to the
policy adopted by the Board, he had no use for them.  Teacher pay warrants
were brought up by members of the Board, and their full face value paid to
such members.
     And we thing we have troubles?
     Every family historian needs to know what was going on in the place
where ancestors lived.  History books tell the great issues of society, but
where better to learn the day to day problems that worried our ancestors than
from the pages of local newspapers?