James Newton Warner Union Parish, Louisiana Contributed by Greggory E. Davies ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ James Newton Warner James Newton Warner, late superintendent of the Union Parish schools, has forty years of work as a school man to his credit. With one exception his record as a parish school superintendent makes him the oldest superintendent in the state from the standpoint of years of service. His work as superintendent has been in two parishes, Grant and Union. Mr. Warner closed his long service as a school man in July, 1925, at that time entering other lines of business. He was born near Gaars Mill, in Winn Parish, Louisiana, April 17, 1866, son of George and Rosana Coker Warner. His father was born in Mississippi, came to Louisiana when a boy and while not educated, possessed good judgment and a firm mind and made himself a man of influence in every community. In the war between the states he was a soldier in Company B of the 20th Louisiana Infantry, and while on picket duty at Cocodra Bayou his jugular vein was partly severed by a gunshot. His comrades stopping the flow of blood with mud and eventually he recovered. He possessed a wonderful constitution and lvied a life of rectitude. His wife was a native of Alabama and was an orphan when brought to Louisiana. Hers was a well rounded and most lovable character. From Winn Parish the family moved to Caldwell Parish in December, 1879, where George Warner acquired a farm and when he retired he moved to Grayson, where he died when past eighty-one years of age. His widow survived him and died at the age of eighty-eight years and seven months. Both were members of the Methodist Protestant Church, and he always voted as a democrat. In the family were twelve children. The mother wove cloth and made practically all the clothes for these children during their early years. There were three teachers in the family. The daughter Rosa was educated at Demopolis, Alabama, and in Meridian Female College, and is now the wife of A. Mixon, a merchant at Grayson. The son, Alson, who also was a teacher, finished his education in Arcadia College. James Newton Warner attended his first schools at Gaars Mill in Winn Parish, also rural schools in Caldwell Parish. He accepted the opportunity to teach a term of school at Liddieville in Winn Parish (error, Liddieville is in Franklin Parish of which Winnsboro is the parish seat). He regarded this primarily as a means of earning some money, but soon was fascinated with teaching as a profession and determined to make it his life work. When he taught his first term of school his stock of clothing consisted of two shirts and a pair of striped trousers, all made by his mother. Realizing how incompetent he was in education and training for the tasks of a teacher, he began planning for advance training and from his earnings in 1891 entered Mississippi College. He came home to earn more money, and during the winter of 1892-93, took a two-room school at Little Star in Caldwell Parish. He was back in Mississippi College for the session of 1893-94, and during 1894-95, taught a two-room school at Summerville in LaSalle Parish (LaSalle Parish was not created until after 1900, carved from a portion of Catahoula). Again he resumed his work at Mississippi College in 1895-96. He was principal of the two-room school at Columbia in 1897-99, and in 1900 became principal at Pollock (Grant Parish), where two hundred students were enrolled and when he left there four years later the enrollment had increased to five hundred. Mr. Warner in 1904 became superintendent of schools of Grant Parish and filled that office continuously for ten years. While at Pollock, he met Miss Sallie E. Torry, daughter of Kirk Torry. They taught three years at Pollock and were married at Benton, Arkansas, in December, 1903. Mrs. Warner was educated in Mount Zion (Wheeling, Winn Parish), and Colfax, and was a very successful and popular teacher. Mr. and Mrs. Warner had four children. The daughter Corrine graduated from the Pollock High School, passed the examination and received the first grade teacher's certificate, taught two years, taught two years in Union Parish, and is now attending the State Normal College at Natchitoches and expects to qualify as a physical instructor at Battle Creek, Michigan. The son Boykin graduated from the Farmerville High School in 1924 and is a student in Louisiana College at Pineville. The two younger children are Kirk, attending the eighth, and George, in the sixth grade. The Warners are members of the Episcopal Church, South. Mr. Warner has been associated with the State Teachers's Association since its membership was less than one hundred. On July 1, 1921 he took up his duties as parish superintendent of Union Parish schools. At that time the parish school debt amounted to twenty-three thousand dollars, and when he went out of office in July, 1925, this debt was cleared up. At the same time the school terms have been lengthened, the average in 1923-24 being 8.5, and brick schools have been erected, one at a cost of sixty thousand dollars at Marion and one of similar value in Farmerville, while a number of rural schools have been provided. Mr. Warner during the seventeen years he was superintendent of schools in Grant Parish accomplished an even more notable record. He worked in close cooperation there with J. H. McNeely, president of the parish school board. The average period of the school term was increased from three months to eight and nine months, though the tax rate of two and a half mills was not increased. The entire seventeen years were spent in constructive activity, including the building of fine brick schools at Verda, Montgomery, Colfax, and Pollock, and a frame high school at Georgetown. There was not a high school in the parish when he went there, and when he left, there were five in operation and bonds had been sold for the sixth. Mr. Warner is a school man whose heart has been in his work, and in former years he kept in personal touch with his schools regardless of roads and weather. He has been paid many compliments over Louisiana for his financial ability and school transactions. Much of his success is due to a splendid physical constitution and vitality. As a boy he could outrun and out jump most of his schoolmates, and he still has the springy step of youth and vigor. ----------------------------------------------------------- (The above was extracted from "A History of Louisiana", by Henry E. Chambers, published 1925. Submitted by Greggory Ellis Davies, Winnfield, Winn Parish, La.) # # #