Educational Work in the Southern Union Conference
By J. E. Tenney
The Southern Training-School
This institution located at Graysville, Tenn., is the only school for the training of laborers for the white people of this union conference, embracing nine States and more than fifteen millions of people, counting both white and colored people. This institution has been compelled, ever since its establishment, to contend with many difficulties unknown to schools located in those sections of the country where there are many who are interested in the school, and who are able and willing to support it. The young people whom this school is designed to help are widely scattered, and the parents of many of them are scarcely able to afford their children the benefits of a training in this school. In the face of these disadvantages, of which the one just mentioned is not the greatest, it has been our privilege during the past six years to see this school steadily advance. Each year the courses of study have been improved, needed facilities added, and a higher grade of students has been enrolled. On Wednesday, the nineteenth of September, the school opened with a larger attendance than ever before at the beginning of a year. These young people are of an excellent class, and the prospects are bright for a very successful year. The intermediate school of the Tennessee River Conference is located at Hazel, Ky. This school is in charge of Brother Thos. Rowe, who, with his wife, has recently returned from Florida to take up this responsible work. A new school building and dormitory have been erected, and the school has just opened with bright prospects. A good attendance of students from different parts of the conference is reported. The School at Alpharetta, Ga.
This intermediate school is in charge of Brother Clarence Boyd. The great drawback to this school is that there is very little land in connection with it, and hence but little manual work to offer the pupils. The school, however, is in an excellent condition, and we confidently expect it to be a constantly increasing blessing to the young people of the Georgia Conference. The intermediate school at this place is owned and conducted by Brother J. W. Beach. The fact that it is not owned by the conference in no way interferes with the benefits that the conference will continue to derive from it. The school is located in a beautiful and healthful part of the State, and its circle of influence and usefulness is widening. Through the untiring efforts of Elder H. W. Pierce and his wife, assisted by others, a very encouraging start has been made toward the establishing of an intermediate school at this place. A neat school building had been erected and used for a year or more when a severe wind-storm, the latter part of February of this year, completely wrecked not only the school building, but the school home. This was a great loss, which only those who experienced the labor and sacrifice in this pioneer work can appreciate. Not discouraged, however, the school is still continued in a barn, which escaped the fury of the storm, and which has been, in a measure, made suitable for class work. We believe that the patience and self-denial of those engaged in this work will be rewarded, and Mississippi's intermediate school will yet accomplish great good. In the Cumberland Conference
The large number of young people who live at Graysville make it necessary to carry on both intermediate and primary grades of work in connection with the training-school. The first five grades form the normal department of the school, and the sixth, seventh, and eighth years of work form the intermediate department, and are kept as separate as possible from the higher grades of the school. It will thus be seen that five out of the nine conferences in the Southern Union have intermediate schools in a greater or less degree of completion and proficiency. Church and Mission Schools
These primary schools are constantly increasing in number and excellence. More than fifty different schools of this class were conducted during a portion of the past year, and the prospects for the school year upon which we are just entering are very encouraging. A considerable increase in salary is being offered our teachers over that of previous years. This indicates a higher appreciation of our schools, and insures a better grade of work. Throughout this union conference our schools lack that uniformity which is essential to the highest degree of success. A special effort will be made during the coming year to systematize our work more perfectly, and thus economize time and effort.