COTTON VALLEY, ALA.
BY A TEACHER.
I have been asked to tell something of the work and school in Cotton Valley. Hence I send a little description of it as it appears to a new teacher, just having entered the missionary field.
There are many features about the work here that make it a most interesting one. First, it is situated in a dense black belt, where the people are anxious to improve, and are appreciative of all that is done for them. Next, Cotton Valley is quiet and retired, being forty miles from Montgomery, nine from Union Springs, and thirteen from Tuskegee; so that, while we are enabled to teach without interruptions that break into school life in cities, we are yet not so far removed as to be incommoded when business necessitates our going to a city.
Doubtless Miss Lilla V. Davis, the pioneer, founder, and principal of our school is well known to most of the friends and helpers of the American Missionary Association, but, for the sake of those who are not so well informed, and because hers is a story worthy of being told anew, I will say a word of her whom all Cotton Valley delights to honor. She, ten years ago, left her home in Boston, Mass., and coming down here under the most adverse circumstances, and in the midst of the lowest humanity, established this school. Her teaching in those days was not so much from books, but she went into the homes of the people and made them feel that she was one of them. She talked and read to them, taught them the rules of decency and virtue, and that cleanliness is next to godliness. Thus, step by step has she been leading them on until now, instead of a valley of ignorance, it is "as a city set on a hill, whose light cannot be hid," for instead of a one-room-log-cabin we have a nice, comfortable school building, planned and furnished in modern style. I mean by this, that what we have is up-to-date and not that we have all we need, for our largest room, the one we call and use as our chapel, needs settees, blackboards, maps, and lights; and last but not least, we need a piano, as at present our only musical instrument is a baby organ, which is now so nearly worn out that many of the reeds instead of responding to the touch of the solicitous performer sit in silence, considering themselves too aged to jump up and down, and take part in such active service.
Our school this year is larger than ever, and our students, I think, would compare well with those of more favored schools in cities. The present enrollment is nearly two hundred, and when the weather is good, and all are in, we find the work rather heavy, as there are only three teachers, and we all believe in thorough work.
We have a large and interesting Sunday School to which the parents as well as the children come; also a Christian Endeavor Society, and a Circle of King's Daughters.
Perhaps it would be interesting to say, that the relation of the white people of the settlement to the school is most friendly. They respect Miss Davis to the highest degree, and are willing and glad to show any favors to her or her teachers.
Thus far, I have shown you only the favorable side of the picture, but I would beg my readers to remember that it has also a painful side. Those we are teaching are the children of ancestors who have lived for centuries in darkness and ignorance, with only eleven years of light; and there is still a great work to be done here. We find it necessary to instruct them, not only in books, but along the lines of all the virtues which go to make a man a man, and a woman a woman.