LOSS OF SCHOOL PROPERTY IN MISSISSIPPI by Mrs. H. W. Pierce

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 21, 1906

LOSS OF SCHOOL PROPERTY IN MISSISSIPPI

By Mrs. H. W. Pierce

SOME of the readers of the REVIEW know already of the beginning of a school founded over three years ago on the principles of Christian education in Eschol, Miss. About one hundred and sixty acres of wild land from which all the good timber had been cut, was donated by the Mississippi Lumber Company. It is located about five miles from Quitman, Clark County. Nearly three hundred dollars was also given by the citizens aside from our own people. This seemed to be the outgrowth of presenting the subject of Christian education in a local camp-meeting held in Quitman.

By these donations we were encouraged to believe that the Lord would have a school started here. So, in harmony with the advice of the conference president and other brethren, Mr. Pierce built a very neat schoolhouse, well ventilated and heated. Brother and Sister Atwood connected with the work at this time, but remained less than a year. It became the conference school in the fall of 1903, but from lack of funds the conference could do but little to build it up.

My husband had built a small house for ourselves, but there was no place to accommodate pupils whom we hoped would come in from a distance. At this time we had given us for the work one hundred dollars from our brother in the West, and other donations came in later, and a good-sized house was erected for a farmhouse and students’ home. A barn was built before this, and a small shop.

After Brother and Sister Atwood left, the work of teaching fell mostly to me, and never in my public-school work did I enjoy so much of the blessing of the Lord, and realize the presence of his good Spirit in the schoolroom. The Bible lesson was the first one in every day’s work, and an influence for good was plainly discerned.

In the meantime a peach orchard and grape vineyard have begun to produce their luscious fruit, and over thirty acres of land is under cultivation. The land has been cultivated by a friend who came here that his children might have the advantages of the school.

Doubtless some noticed in the newspapers an account of a cyclone the night of March 2, which destroyed a portion of the city of Meridian, Miss., the loss of property being many thousand dollars. At nearly the same time we experienced what some of us had never known before, the power of a cyclone coming in its fury with terrific roar, uprooting trees, and taking buildings in its path. Our dwelling was spared, also another small building on our lot that served as a house. Had these been taken, three families would have been without shelter, for Brother and Sister Atwood came back to help us last fall.

It was but a moment, and while amid the sound of thunder and rain, we were thanking the Lord for our preservation, the sound of cries from children fell on our ears, and the family who occupied the larger house came in. Nearly all were slightly hurt, and the father’s head and face were covered with blood, and he was otherwise injured. The house was shattered, the furniture blown to pieces, and could not be found. Some things were afterward picked up miles away. Surely it was God’s love and mercy that spared the lives of eight persons in that one house, amid the breaking timbers and the terrible crash. The dear white schoolhouse in which we loved to worship, the barn, and the shop, all were gone. People came from miles away to see the desolation. This was but a small destruction compared with the recent earthquake on the Pacific Coast, but it affects a few as that has many. Surely these calamities should lead us to realize that our time to work is short, and that the work of warning the world must be finished amid many difficulties. Let us pray that God will use these calamities which are permitted to cause loss even to his own work, that they may also produce an awakening of all his people to the solemn crisis before us,—a time of conflict and of glorious victory to the faithful. MRS. H. W. PIERCE.