Calhoun Agricultural High School ~ Derma

Submitted by James “Jim” Young.

1929-1930 Derma Agricultural High School Home Science Class

Front Row:

1. Earline Arnold, 2. Margaret Gaston, 3. Beatrice Stewart 4. Lillian Edington 5. Wynette Logan
6. Mytrice Vanlandingham 7. Christine Smith 8. Luther Nell Spence 9. Elinor Troy
10. Louise Landreth 11. Gladys Howard 12. ?? Hollaway 13. Flora Hollis

Middle Row:

1. Lucille Arnold 2. Ila McQuare 3. Annie Baker 4. Charlsie Morgan 5. Rhenna Mae Harrelson
6. Elizabeth Waller 7. Charline Taylor 8. Nora Edington 9. Ruth Mabry 10. Anna Lois Hardin
11. Zenoba Parker 12. Wayne Crowson 13. Whynetta Brantley 14. Jettie Mae Starks
15. Lavera Rhodes 16. Flournoi Simpson 17. Annie Wilma Wells 18. Ordean Stewart

Back Row:

1. Iris “Dick” Hawkins 2. Louise Dorrah 3. Unknown 4. Nettie Ree Head 5. Helen Wade
6. Idell Barker 7. Nell Mabry 8. Madelin Mitchel 9. Lois Vanlandingham 10. Loda Harris
11. Allene Taylor 12. Glydle Hodge 13. Margaret Few (Teacher) 14. Monette Morgan
15. Pauline Barker 16. Carnell Alexander 17. Vivan Evans 18. Vira Philpot 19. Irma Brannon

My Freshman Year at the Calhoun County Agricultural High School,

Derma, Mississippi

by Monette Morgan Young

I graduated from the 8th grade at Reid. Plans were being made by my Vanlandingham relatives that, if Mother would consent, they would rent an apartment in Derma for me and their two high school age children, and Mother would stay with and supervise us while we attended the Calhoun County Agricultural High School (CCAHS). Myrtice and Eltis Vanlandingham were my first cousins. Their mother, Ruby, was Mother’s sister, and their father, Andrew, was the brother of Marvin Vanlandingham who had a store in Calhoun City. An older Vanlandingham daughter, Clara, was in Blue Mountain College; and by that time, an older son, Claxton, may have been married. He was married at a very young age to Lillian Parker, who was a half sister of my Aunt Leila Parker’s husband’s father, Arch Parker.

Mother agreed to this, and the apartment we moved into that fall in Derma was an upstairs one in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Strong. That house was still there when I last passed through Derma, at least, I think so.

The Strongs were the parents of Mrs. (Dr.) Allen Hardin, whom I would come to know real well in later years in Calhoun City. She would be very much loved by all of us who worked in the Dr. Wayne Crocker hospital there.

The Strongs were also the parents of several more very lovely women in their young middle years. All were pretty, petite brunettes. Mrs. Hardin was perhaps one of the prettiest. I cannot recall any of their names now except one whose given name was China. Another had married a Parker man and they had a son that they named Strong Parker.

Years later when I was working in Dr. Levy’s office in Memphis, Strong Parker came into the office with friends who had brought a sick child. He and I had a good time reminiscing about his family. He may have been only a very small child when I was in Derma. I could not remember him at all then but knew later that one of the Strong daughters had a son whom she gave her family name.

For some forgotten reason we moved across the street before that first semester ended. I cannot recall why, maybe for more space. I do know there was no dissention at the home of the Strongs. In retrospect it seems that one of the Strong daughters may have lost her husband and had needed to move back to her parents’ home. I do remember seeing one there who had been recently widowed. And I believe I am correct in writing that the Dr. Hardins still lived in the “Dr. Hardin House”. It stood then on the southwest corner of the main east-west highway through town [Highway 8] and the small main street which led south through the little business area of Derma.

At Christmas things changed. I believe a bus started running to CCAHS from near where the Vanlandinghams lived in the old Shirley Ridge area, and I think that my Vanlandingham cousins started coming to school by bus. I moved into the girls' dormitory.

Mr. Jobe was the school principal and Mrs. Jobe was the matron of the girls’ dorm and they lived there in the dorm. They had an adolescent daughter named Mary Alice and two sons, one named Louis. A Jobe man, maybe Louis, has been high in academic circles in Mississippi. I think he was one of those Jobe sons.

CCAHS was considered one of the best schools in the north central section of the state. Students came from all over and certainly from all over the county. Many Reid folks attended there, some stayed for the full four years and graduated. Even though Slate Springs had a high school, many Slate Springs children attended CCAHS. Young people from Calhoun City and from over toward the Schoona River area, so many, came too. Pittsboro also had a high school, but a bus ran from north of Pittsboro to Derma and it was filled as it traveled the graveled highway.

The house we moved in ‘across the street’ was a large two-story house which stood for many years (and may still be there) on the northwest corner of the east-west highway [Mississippi Highway 8] through town and a street running north. That street went to the school and to some churches and some residences.

The boys’ dorm was on the north side of the campus. Ours was on the south side. The school building itself was on the east edge of the campus. A concrete walkway led from the street to the school steps. That walkway was the dividing line between the boys and the girls, no gender crossing.

Mr. and Mrs. Joe Taylor lived in and supervised the boys’ dorm. Joe Taylor was a brother of my Uncle Walter Murphree’s wife Lula. Mrs. Joe Taylor was a Blue. I cannot recall her name. She was a daughter of Bob and Lee Blue from the Ellzey community. Mrs. Lee Blue had been a Ferguson; I presume one of the early Ellzey Fergusons. Bob was a son of Jonathan Blue, brother of Sarah Blue Young.

We ate in the girls’ dorm and the boys ate there too. They were herded across the campus by Mr. Taylor and Coach Bob Davis. I don't know what Davis family he was from. He had married Ollie Flannagan that school year. She was closely related, maybe an older sister, to Wylie Flannagan who married Mary Alice Herring, the daughter of Mrs. Mary and Mr. Peen Herring. The Davis couple lived in the boys’ dormitory, too.

Edward Blue, son of the Bob Blues was a teacher at CCAHS that year. Miss Tellie Murff, one of the Murffs from Reid, was also teaching there. Moss Davis, a daughter of Terrell and Martha Jane Patterson Davis, was teaching there. Another Miss Davis was there also from ‘off somewhere’. She was a thin blonde. She was so delighted with her blonde locks. I can hear her now walking around in the dorm, saying, “You know the Spanish were originally blonde.” She said it often. Those unmarried female teachers stayed in that dorm.

While Mother was still in Derma during the fall, she renewed acquaintance with Mrs. Jenny Enochs Hamilton whom she had known in their younger years at Pittsboro and she was associated with Mrs. Maude Davis Hollis, another of the Davis girls. She had married a Mr. Hollis. I do not know if he was any relation to the Hollis' at Hollis Switch. (A railroad track switch was located just to the South of the old Hollis home at the intersection of the Derma-to-Vardaman highway and a north-south road leading to the New Liberty area. There was once a store there, I think. Aunt Belle Young’s brother and family lived there. That is why that small intersection was called Hollis Switch.)

There were some small houses at the edge of the campus, near the boys’ dorm. Truett McPhail, from Slate Springs had been married quite young to Hattie Walls from south of the [Yalobusha] river over in the Calhoun City area, and they lived in one of the houses. I recall seeing him walk across the campus with their small child on his shoulders. He studied medicine and later became a prominent physician in Forrest City, Arkansas.

Dr. Wayne Crocker, who later had the little hospital in Calhoun City where I worked, went to school there. He may have been married his senior year. I can't remember him, but I knew so few of the students in any of the higher grades.

Marguerite Gaston, later Marguerite Gaston Harvey, was one of the seniors. I recall how cute she was. Her brother Bill was probably there in a grade above me but I never heard of him. Her brother Charles was in my class. That was a big freshman class, over 50 of us. I recall a class party where we were served candle salad. There was a lettuce leaf, a slice of pineapple, an upright piece of banana to resemble a candle, a dab of mayonnaise to resemble candle wax, and a cherry on top of that for the flame. We had the party upstairs and Charles almost lost his cherry out of an open window. He said, “I’ll be dove out that window after it”. Charles made a career of the military, and he was killed in an automobile accident while I later lived at Calhoun City while I was working with Marguerite. She was crushed. They were the children of Charles Foster Gaston and Maggie Gaston. Mrs. Gaston was a sister of Mrs. Maurine Pryor.

I am puzzled over which years I went to the schools at Derma and Vardaman. It has to be that I was in Derma for the 1929-1930 session, but I recall hearing so much of the bank failures after I started school at Vardaman the next year and I know the ‘crash’ occurred in 1929.

My roommate in the dorm at Derma was Alma King. She was from Kosciusko. I never did hear any more about her. We got along fine but never wrote afterward.

Almost all the dorm girls were from well-to-do families and dressed well. The board was $15.00 a month. I don’t know how my parents paid it. At that time I resented being so plainly dressed. Oh, for today’s uniform wardrobe of jeans! But that was an era of dressiness. The others had to be pretty well off to be in the dorm. Poor parents such as mine usually kept their children at home when they had finished the eighth grade in their rural school.

I had neat nice dresses in Reid and in Derma. But our 11, 12 and 13-year-old group wore ribbed cotton stockings and heavy oxfords in Reid. In Derma, the girls all wore silk, or shiny rayon stockings, which were more prone to runs than silk. To buy my hose was a terrible strain on my parents. My clothes had probably looked better than anyone’s in Reid (everyone wore homemade things there, and Mother was a wonderful seamstress.) Now among those that were better off, I thought my clothes were a disaster.

One or two ‘south of the river’ girls were in the dorm. 'south of the river' meant communities such as Hardintown and Mallie Hardin and maybe some other small communities.

As you came into Derma from the east, sitting in a grove to the north of highway was a very large rambling house with an upper and lower porch, both railed. (That second house that we moved into had similar porches.) This was the Courtney house. I wish I could know something of that family. I never remember seeing any of them. I seem to recall that the elder Courtneys were still there at the time. I remember vaguely hearing stories that he had coffins made for his family, or one for himself, or that he may have already been dead, and that one or more coffins were in some upstairs room still.

Calhoun City was a capitol of glamour, we thought. Mary and Charlene Lawrence were the reigning young glamour queens. They were the daughters of Oscar Lawrence and, I think that Mrs. Oscar Lawrence was a sister of Attorney Abb Patterson. One girl won beauty contests and was given fantastic wardrobes by merchant sponsors in Calhoun City to enter more contests. I think it was Charlene who was the beauty contest winner. Mary married Reginald Chandler. I never saw either of them when I was in Derma. They went to school in Calhoun City. I saw Mary when I worked in the hospital there later. I saw Charlene some years later when she was older.

There was a [movie] theatre in Calhoun City and talkies had come in. One Saturday after­noon several teachers escorted the dormitory girls to the matinee at Calhoun City. We walked over there. “Madame X” was showing.

We were required to attend church, chaperoned heavily. I went willingly to get out somewhere, but I never really listened very hard to the sermons. I don’t think we were taken to Sunday school. Sunday school teaching at Poplar Springs Baptist Church in Reid had been meaningful. We, each class, got off in an area of the sanctuary and had our classes. Miss Winnie Davis had been one of the Sunday school teachers and she taught well. She had a large figure but I thought her so pretty. Cousin Mattie Morgan, Walter’s wife, was another Sunday school teacher. She had milk white skin and wore white or pastels. She never cut her hair but swooped it attractively. And she was such an innocent person. God’s love was so uppermost in her world. She never saw or dreamed of any wrongdoing. She tried so hard to get that across to us.

Miss Winnie gave us a party one valentine day. We were adolescents and some boys were in the class. Daddy must have walked me to Grandmother Morgan’s and I must have walked on to the party with my Cousin Lois to Miss Winnie’s home in Reid, for I can recall the walk back along the old roads. I recall she served us some kind of delightful fruit concoction. It may have been ambrosia. I recall, as we walked home, a few snow­ flakes fell. And we hoped for more.

Our old Home Science (Home Economics) classes in Derma school are of most prominent memory. Miss Margaret Few was the teacher. She died just recently. She lived out in town in those days, I think.

Mother was most distressed at, for that time, the expensive material that Miss Few required that we buy to do our sewing on. Mother was disturbed, I mean, by Miss Few’s request for expensive fabric. Our first project was a sewing bag which was to hold our sewing items for the coming school year. The sewing bag had to be of the finest natural color linen. We also had to buy finest batiste for the nightgowns we had to make. Mother contended, and rightly so, that we should have been required to buy unbleached muslin ‘yaller domestic’, and the cheaper lawns etc.

But Miss Few was a great teacher. Still today, I had rather sew on my fingers than any sewing machine. We sewed all the year by hand. We had to ‘take two short stitches and a backstitch’. It had better not be three. We had to take out messy looking work. That hand sewing held as well as machine work.

I've given my granddaughters Paige and Dawn the second thing I made in that class.

We were taught cooking. All of the stoves used kerosene except for one old wood-burning cook stove. Ruth Mabry was my cooking partner. Miss Few always started the old wood stove early, and Ruth and I were always assigned to it. We always finished last. One day the class cooked an elaborate breakfast and we had to serve and eat it. I was appointed hostess. Part of the grading was on manners. One rule was that a hostess must eat as long as the guests. We had cooked omelets and we had biscuits and butter and jam. I don’t recall what else. Christine Smith ate and ate and ate. I finally could eat no more and got a poor grade because I quit before she did.

Christine and Bernice Smith came to school each day from Pittsboro. They were Sheriff Sam Smith’s daughters. They must have caught the north-of-Schoona bus as it came through Pittsboro. There must have been a north-of-Schoona bus because so many people from that area came to Derma to school. I know that the Smith girls were not in the dormitory.

I had a sort of a boy friend. He was Joe Wilt Scrivener. He occasionally left me candy bars in my desk. I think his father was postmaster. His mother was a Baldwin. Some of her family had lived in that old area where I grew up. There were several grown Scrivener children. There were the daughters Etna and Bert. She lives in Bruce and is mother of Colonel Sonny Johnson. One sister had married a Ramsey and they had a drug store. In looking back, there may have been two drug stores in Derma, for Maude Davis Hollis’ husband had one there, I think. There were quite a few businesses in Derma then and Joe Wilt helped his brother-in-law in his store. After school was out and I was back home in Reid, we corresponded some. One day a letter came from him and he told me how tired he was, that his brother-in-law’s store had burned, and that they had all fought the fire. I recall seeing in the “50 Years Ago” items in the Monitor Herald that so-and-so Ramsey’s store in Derma burned. I guess I saw that item about five years ago. I saw Joe Wilt at the fair the following autumn after I started school at Vardaman but not again.

About the Author: Monette Morgan was born on July 5, 1915, at her parents' farmhouse east of Reid, Mississippi, on the "old" road to Houlka. She was the daughter of Albert Hosea Morgan and Eula Barbara Murphree Morgan. Her paternal grandparents were Reuben Reese Morgan and Dove Christian Swindle Morgan; and her maternal grandparents were Jefferson Murphree and Gilla Hasseltine Hardin Murphree.

She attended various rural schools, usually where her mother was teaching at the time, as well as high schools in Derma and Vardaman, Mississippi.

She and Thomas Wilson Young (Tom) met at Vardaman High School and were married and made their home in Vardaman where their three children were born.

After Tom Young died unexpectedly in 1946, she moved to Calhoun City where she worked in Dr. Wayne Crocker's clinic as a nursing aide and eventually became a licensed practical nurse. She moved to Memphis, Tennessee, in 1956, where she worked as an office nurse for Dr. Gilbert Levy.

Monette died on February 18, 2000, at St. Dominic's Hospital in Jackson, due to complications from multiple myeloma. Her funeral was held in Vardaman and she was buried in Hillcrest Cemetery, Vardaman, next to Tom.

In addition to the historical/genealogical book, The Cherry Hill - Poplar Springs - Reid Community in Calhoun County, Mississippi, she wrote numerous articles and poems which were published. She was an avid reader and loved histories and true crime stories.