How St. James Day School Came to Be
from Essays Upon the History of St. James Church
by former Headmaster, the late J. Bettis Lawrence

In Texarkana, the leadership for this movement (religious education) was provided by the Reverend Thomas H. Carson, Rector of St. James Episcopal Church in 1948. His interest was supported and strengthened by that of Mrs. Carson, Mrs. John Morriss, St., Mrs. John W. Holman, and Arthur Temple, Sr. The first meeting of this group - along with some other interested people - took place in Mrs. Morriss's house at #4 Oak Hill Place.

There was little to start with. It is true that people of substance were supporters of the idea of establishing a St. James Day School; but the only facilities available were in the "Old Parish House," a structure scarcely suitable for a school.

Mrs. Carson, a teacher of considerable experience and of thorough understanding of the concept, was named Director, with Fr. Carson as Rector. The School began with kindergarten classes for four and five-year-olds and a first grade class.

The School was envisioned as a Parish Day School - that is, strictly parochial, the educational arm of the local Church. Subject to the Rector, a Board was established, classically a sub-committee of the Vestry of St. James Parish. This is the way parish schools were supposed to be - strictly as much a part of the Parish as were parochial schools of the Roman Catholics.

Unfortunately for that concept, it soon became evident that the School must have broader community support if it were to expand or, perhaps, survive. The parish families were far from unanimous in their support. (Some thought the school a threat to the public schools,some thought it was snobbish, some thought it was too expensive - $17.00 a month for first grade.) And although some people, like Mrs. Carson, were teaching full time for $100.00 per month, the expenses of such an operation began to mount, as anybody who has ever been connected with a school knows. In addition, even if every family in St. James Parish had sent their children to the School, there were too few children available, and St. James Church, a rather poor parish at that time, could offer no financial help from its own resources.

So one of those momentous and necessary decisions was made. The School was incorporated, separate from the Church structure, and powerful people who were not Episcopalians were brought into the Board. The Episcopalians under the new charter were to make up a majority of the Board, and Methodist, Presbyterians, Baptist, and others were invited to become members. Kenneth Dickey, arch Smith, and Josh Morriss became active in the School's affairs.

Meanwhile, the School continued to expand its number of grades. By 1952, just four years after its founding, it was offering classes from the three-and-a-half-year-olds through sixth grade, complete with daily Chapel services and religion classes. The grades were moved to the Seegar property on North State Line (current site). This expansion, as was the later growth through the ninth grade, was often more a tribute to hope for increased enrollments in the future than a very present response to a clamor for admission. Such was the case with the opening in 1953 of the seventh grade with seven students (Buzz Arnold, Carolyn Eason, Judy Stewart, John Baldridge, Jessica Bemis, Haydon Fuller, and Libby Gooch), and, at the same time, an eighth grade with three students (John Carson, the Rector's son, and the Murphy Twins, Dick and Dan).

. . . to be continued next week