Schools: Old Harmony, New Harmony, Couley, etal., Winn Parish, LA. Submitted by Greggory E. Davies, 120 Ted Price Lane, Winnfield, LA 71483 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** From: September 2, 1987 Winn Parish Enterprise News-American Photo caption: 1924 New Harmony School Francis Martin, Ida Martin (Briley), Sarah Franks (Roberts), Willie Franks (Walls), Bertice Martin (Kelley), Flossie Bonnette (Wess), Alice Martin (Kelley), Asa Martin, Ottyce Martin (Sullivan), Reginald "Buck" Bonnette, Miss Lillie Matthews (Smith, Vickers), teacher. Photo caption: 1924 Couley School Vida Rikard (Shaw), Edwin Kelley, Carroll Keiffer, Irma Lee Hood, Vernie Kieffer (Blair), Lester Kieffer, Bryan Kelley, Oren Kelley, Edward Kelley, Wilmer Rikard, Denman Kieffer. Old Harmony School In the late 1800s and into the early 1900s, there was a number of community schools within a radius of six to eight miles of the present residence of Edwin M. and Bertice Martin Kelley on postal RFD Route 3, just off Highway 84 West in what is presently known as the Couley Community. These schools were named Old Harmony, New Harmony, Hobson, Gum Springs, New Hope, Couley, and Blue Springs. Hobson School was formerly located on a site on what during World War II became the Bombing Range while Blue Springs School was located off the old Atlanta Road just off and to the left of the present Atlanta Calvin Road (Gum Springs Road) which crosses 84 west. Children ____ the Teddlies, Carsons, Bundricks, Kennedys, and other families attended the Old Harmony School. Mrs. Bertice Kelley recently acquired from Mrs. Mildred Abel Martin a portion of the memoirs of Mrs. Martin's late father, the well known Winn Parish native, Perry K. Abel. We quote herewith the undated portion of Mr. Abel's interesting documentation of the history of the Old Harmony School, plus a paragraph dealing with schools in general and a currently proposed plan for financing schools, as follows: "I have attended many wedding occasions with my father where he officiated, but one I remember in particular is the marriage of David Kieffer to Miss Jodie Martin in December, 1887. We rode on horseback through a heavy snow, 12 miles to the home of the bride's father, E. P. Martin, where the marriage was to be celebrated. After the wedding and the bounteous wedding dinner was over, the male members of the community who were in attendance at the wedding, got together and made up a subscription school of 30 pupils at one dollar per pupil, a handsome salary for that day, and employed me to teach it. I started the school in the early part of the next year in one end of a double pen log house, the Kieffer's old home on Kieffer's Prairie, and David and Jodie, our newlyweds, lived the other end of the house. A new school building was erected about a mile from this prairie home, in the piney woods, known afterward as New harmony School, where the subscription school was finished and immediately followed by a two month's public school. Forty years ago when my father became a member of the Winn Parish School Board, the office was appointive. He was appointed to that office by Governor Murphy J. Foster, one of the great governors of Louisiana, during whose administration the Louisiana State Lottery, one of the most gigantic gambling schemes in the nation, was destroyed by an act of legislation, for which all the citizens of Louisiana today owe gratitude and thanks to the sterling integrity of Governor Foster. J. Matt McCain, a member from Winn Parish of the House of Reprensentatives, and others who could not be bought by the corrupt bunch who were using all the money and means at their command to defeat the bill and keep the lottery in operation." (Note: Enoch Pierce "Tess" Martin was the grandfather of Mrs. Bertice Martin Kelley. His first wife, Mary Zilpha Bolton Martin, was the great aunt of Margaret Horton Simmons.)