Schools: Keiffer/New Harmony School, 1888, Winn Parish, LA
Submitted by Greggory E. Davies, 120 Ted Price Lane, Winnfield, LA 71483


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From: May 2, 1947 Winnfield News-American

P. K. Abel, Judge Moss, Taught "Bad Boys" at Keiffer's

(Editor's Note: The writer of the historical sketch printed below believes
that recollections by oldtimers of Winn Parish should be interesting to every
resident of this community.  The News-American welcomes any such comment from
its readers.)

By Louis Wood

In the spring of 1888, P. K. Abel started his public career as schoolmaster at
the Keiffer farm in Ward 8.  Indians had left this section not too long
before, and signs of their villages were still fresh.  Fish and game were
plentiful and the original growth of longleaf pines was yet uncut.  

Keiffer's Prize Acreage

David Keiffer was considered one of the best cotton growers in the parish. He
had taken first prize for the largest yield per acre of any farmer
whereabouts.  His farm house, large and roomy, was the logical location for
the community school.  So "Mr. P. K.," with most of his possessions on his
back, walked up the road leading to the Keiffer homestead, took a look around,
and said to himself, "Well, this is it!"

Mr. Abel taught that spring and recalls that David Keiffer warned him about
the bad boys, especially his own, in the neighborhood.  However, when I talked
with Mr. P. K. the other day, he told me that he had never taught a finer
bunch of boys.

By 1892, the school, having no room to expand, was moved one and one-half
miles west near what is now Saline Lake.  It was called New Harmony and the
new school master was Judge Cass Moss.

Judge Moss taught the so-called bad boys in 1892 and 1893.  The Judge says he
didn't have any trouble because David Keiffer didn't draw the line when it
came to unruly boys.  He had just as soon apply the rod to his neighbors
offspring as his own.  In 1894-95 Judge Moss taught at Sanders Church.  In
March, 1897 he was married and in the following year he went off to law school
at Tulane.

First Horse-Drawn Gin

He recalls the first horse-drawn gin that was built on Keiffer farm in 1890. 
One can still see the lightered pine posts that braced the gin.  They are as
solid as they day they were placed in the ground.  Oaks have grown up between,
but the weathered posts seem to stand out against the new growth.  To me they
represent two of Winn Parish's most solid citizens, P. K. Abel and Judge Cas
Moss.

(Note: Keiffer farm, now known as Keiffer Prairie, was purchased by C. R. Wood
in 1915 from the Bodcow Lumber Company.  As far as anyone knows, the open
prairies have always been there.  Timber surrounds the beautiful open land and
each spring wild flowers bloom and prairie grass greens two weeks earlier than
anywhere else in the hills of North Louisiana.  Some say it is because of lime
deposits in the black soil.  Others say it is from marine formations when it
was once the Gulf of Mexico.  Still others say that, come spring, it is Mr. P.
K.'s and the Judge's hickory switches still warming the countryside.