The Turnbo Manuscripts

by Silas Claiborne Turnbo
1844-1925


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HIS FIRST EXPERIENCE AT SCHOOL
By S. C. Turnbo

"The first school I ever attended was in Shannon County, Mo. in 1851, when I was 4 years old" said Mr. Robert Morris. "I used the old blue back spelling book but I was too young to take any interest in my book only to soil and wear it out to avoid learning the alphabet. The school was taught on Current river three miles above Rock Spring where we lived. Crider was the name of the teacher and he was bald headed and both his knees were stiff and a member of the methodist church. Mr. Crider taught the school in a double log building with both rooms floored with split pine logs with the split sides hewed. The seats were made of the same material with blocks of wood or stones placed under the ends to raise them off of the floor. The school was taught in one room and the teacher and his family lived in the other room. I remember that the discipline in the schoolroom was slack and we all did nearly as we pleased. He was most too kind to me for he bola me to play in the water if I wanted to which I did and took the chills and fever from the effects of it." Mr. Morris furnished the writer with this where he lived near Jackson Switch in the Indian Territory.

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