Alphabet File page 196
During Prohibition the territory around Kiln was the center of moonshining industry and was known for its quality of whiskey as far north as Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is said one boat alone brought 1,000 sacks of sugar a week here for the manufacture of the famous Kiln "Shinny". Strange tales of giant stills hidden under sawdust piles, and rumored connections of Kiln with Chicago`s Capone Gang still afford interest.
In February, 1930 the mill closed, the railroad torn up and the houses, hotel and hospital eventually disappeared. (Hometown Mississippi by James F. Brieger)
Kiln Consolidated School, Kiln (Ph 48 thru 50, 55)
Kiln Garage, Kiln (Ph 55)
KILN CONSOLIDATED HIGH SCHOOL 1918-19
Dedication: To the Children of Hancock County we dedicate this Our Progress of Nineteen Nineteen
PREFACE. This little volume has been prepared by the teachers and trustees of Kiln School with the hope that it will be of interest to everyone and especially those who stand for better schools. We are trying to place before the public the things we are doing and standing for in our school. Each article pertains to some phase of our work. Perhaps not discussed as you see it but as we have found it by the teacher of experience. The topic of each article is believed to be interesting to every person who desires a better and more efficient life in Mississippi. (KCHS-vault)
John Craft, County Supt. of Education, photo, p. 1
"Some Advantages of School Consolidation in Hancock Co." by
John Craft, County Supt. of Education.
School consolidation in Hancock county has now fairly started and there is every prospect of a brighter future in this line of work. So much has been said about school consolidation and the good effect that it has upon country life, that it would be worth while to deal with this by way of repetition. Every one knows and feels by this time the many good advantages that have been brought home to the country child through school consolidation in late years in Mississippi.
This process of building better schools has given advantages to the child in many respects over that of former years. Every one long felt the necessity of some change that would bring better school advantages of all the people, and while many ways and means were devised it remained for school consolidation to fill properly this much needed demand. The advantages gained are so many and numerous that it would be useless to repeat them. That it is a better school, is apparent on its face to the most casual observer, and is admitted even by those who are less inclined to observe school progress.
Community work is strengthened and the older people gain a vision of life they never dreamed of before. Besides raising the curriculum for the child thus giving advantage for a High School education at home, the social surroundings at the same time are also greatly improved. Perhaps one great advantage that is seldom overlooked is the fact that when we succeed in educating our boys and girls at home we have not only given them that which is due them, but we have done another thing that is going to speak volumes in the future; we have succeeded in holding the good influence and example of that boy and girl at home, where it ought to be held, because we depend upon them, so to speak, to help further the work which is to be the hope and salvation of this country in the years to come.
The cost, when we consider the gain, is trifling, and yet in forming a consolidated district, that is usually one of the first questions that confronts us. We fail sometimes to realize that an increased taxation for better schools means brighter children, better homes, better citizens, better everything that tends to make our country prosperous. Almost every town of any size or note will boast about its splendid High School, and yet it requires an increased taxation to maintain it. If the town people care as msuch for their children, then why should not the country child have the same advantages? They have the same feelings, the same ambition and the same courage if only an opportunity is given.
Let us for a moment consider useless expenditures. The average tobacco user will spend anywhere from $50.000 to $100.000 annually for tobacco in various forms, and yet that is enough to pay an increased taxation in good consolidated school for two or three years. The question is then, are we to proceed in the same ole way that has been handed down to us from generation to generation or are we to throw off the yoke and burden and enlist our efforts in a new way of living for the cause of enlightened humanity?
The answer is hurled back at us from the lips of everyone, that we stand as a whole ready to refute the old in favor of a better nation, better State and better County. Hancock county has enlisted in that crusade and while we have only five consolidated schools at present, there is every indication that the whole County may take up the work in the near future. The people are more interested than ever before because they realize the fact that in those communities where consolidation has been formed there is no comparison whatever between toe hold and the new.
In the old rural school there is no advantage to be gained, the grading is poor even in the hands of the best teacher and often the child receives from eight to ten minutes on recitation. There are no funds to buy school furniture of any kind and the County in many instances can ill afford to pay the salary of the teacher. No wonder that such schools are miserable failures.
On the other hand, let us consider the condition of affairs as exists in the consolidated districts of our County. At Kiln we have a modern two-story frame structure building, said to be largest and best of its kind in the State; steam heated and otherwise electrically equipped. Every room is supplied with adjustable steel sanitary desks, including charts, maps, blackboards and other necessary school apparatus. A domestic science teacher has been employed throughout the session and in addition to this music has been installed. The Course of Study this year takes in the tenth and eleventh grade work. The greatest enrollment since the organization of the school has reached three hundred and fifty. To do this requires only a special levy of one cent on the dollar. No wonder the people of Kiln are proud of their school. At Sellers the latest addition outside of their handsome two-story building is the construction of a teachers' home.
Gulf View district has fallen in line, and soon there will be erected a modern two-story structure to take the place of the old one. There is only a levy of ten mills in this district and already the people feel proud that they have changed from the old to the new. So much for consolidation at present. There will be more to follow. (KCHS-vault)
W.A. Cuevas, President of Kiln Consolidated School Board, 1919. Photo on page 4.
"A Short History of the School," by W.A. Cuevas.
The Kiln School a few years ago was only a one-teacher school, the average attendance being about thirty pupils. The house was a frame structure of the rude type with no equipment worth while. The writer well remembers on one occasions, while court was being held in the school, the seats were so rudely constructed as to fall when several men sat upon them.
The gradual development of a few years has brought about a wonderful change. The school was moved by order of the Board from the old location to a new one just a mile distant, known as Bayou Talla, and for a long time was operated under that name with a faculty of three teachers. Mr. Haas and Mr. Herlihy, who, at that time operated a sawmill and store in the nearby vicinity, were wide-awake business men, and with the assistance of others in the community contributed in a large measure to the success of the school, but school interest did not begin to develop in rapid proportion until the last few years.