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SCHOOLS WERE BUILT BEFORE THE COURT HOUSE In 1920-21, our Brantley County forefathers were concerned about
education. Neighborhood communities had constructed a total of 38 schools to
satisfy their needs; 38 instructional facilities nestled among the breeze swept
pines and southern palmettos! Sounds Good?
Another view reveals 38 schools with a one-room capacity, plotted on one
acre lots in wilderness-like communities, and disbursed all over the county.
Insulated buildings and central heat were scarce in the early 1920’s.
All ages/grades were crowded into these single, poorly equipped rooms, which
claimed the convenience of “out-house privies” located down a woodsy path
about 50 yards behind the main building. Electric lighting had not reached the
early community settlements of Brantley County, and certainly not in the rural
areas of these one-room schools. Illumination was available through the windows;
some had glass! Most others were
constructed of rough-sawed lumber, similar to small doors swinging from hinges at waist high
level. . More important than the quality of educational facilities was the issue
of grade level standardizing, and the ability for state and local government
level enforcement. GIVE US WISDOM AND THE ABILITY TO REASON It should be pointed out that the quality of these educational
facilities was not too uncommon for the time period in rural Georgia. Many of
the homes were not much better than the schools. Regardless, the pioneer leaders
in the early Brantley County made decisions which resulted in a proclamation;
“Give Us Wisdom and Ability to Reason and We’ll be Successful People.” Eight years after Brantley County was created, "The Atlanta
Georgian" had some positive things to say about the educational
achievements in Brantley County. The front page column called “People and
Things” plays up the actions of Brantley County in its early days of infancy.
The title of the article was “Education First” and “Brantley Places
Education Ahead of Court House.” The article is re-produced below: “One of
Georgia’s baby counties, and one of the poorest in this world’s goods, is
“leading the way,” not only for Georgia, but for the entire South in
Education. Formed just short of ten years ago, Brantley is still without a Court
House and the usual county accouterments, but it has schools, six or eight of
the finest in the state.”
“We put our schools first,” said Judge Ivey Dowling, who will become
Ordinary of the County January 1, 1929. “We haven’t even got a Court House
at Nahunta, the county seat, but next year we are going to build a court house.
Our first aim, though, was to build schools. We felt we needed them and we
sacrificed everything to get them. There’s
not a town in Brantley County hardly bigger than a “cross roads settlement,”
and yet every one of them has a consolidated junior high school, with modern
equipment, beautiful in architecture, built for the peculiar needs of schools.
Every school has its individual lighting plant and adequate heating
arrangements.” "The largest school of
the county,” continued Judge Dowling, “is at Nahunta. Being one of the
Trustees of the Hickox District, I naturally feel that we (Hickox) have the best
school in the county, and I honestly believe we don’t have to look up to
anybody. We have six teachers, with Miss Melville Doughty, of Augusta, as
Principal. The work that has been done in this school during the past couple of
years has been nothing short of remarkable.”
“We have no roads to speak of in the county. We need them, goodness
knows, and we need a court house, but we needed the schools worse, so we built
them first. We are going to build a court house next year, not a big towering
affair, for we have plenty of land and we are going to let it spread out.
It will be a one-story building, but it’s going to be good.” The Atlanta Georgian continues, “So there you are, the thing is
unbelievable, a county that builds its School House before it builds its Court
House! Illiteracy has always been high in that section of the state, probably
the majority of the voters in the county can no more than read and write. Many
of them can’t do that. But
I’ll venture to say,” went on the Judge, “that with such a shining example
as Brantley County is setting, it won’t be long now before illiteracy will be
just a memory.” The Atlanta Georgian
continues; “Other wealthier counties probably have more extensive school
plants and systems; but after all, they are incidental. In Brantley they have
come first. That’s a big thing,
bigger than you can grasp at first. Think it over! Georgia
needs more citizens like Judge Dowling and his associates who have blazed the
way, men with vision and who can face facts and forget politics which in so many
deplorable instances put schools far down the list of things 'to be built.'
All Georgia should turn and bow in respect and give three loud cheers for
Brantley County.” |
