Peabody School used to be called the Union School. Mrs.
Stephens has the first report of the school dated 1869. It gives the
names of the directors and all. J.H. Benford was one of the Northern
teachers. Anna Ware and Louise Coffman and Miss Henley were teachers
too.
"Mrs. Stephens is the oldest colored teacher in Little Rock. The A-B-C
children didn't want the old men to teach us. So they would teach
'Lottie'--she was only twelve years old then--and she would hear our
lessons. Then at recess time, we would all get out and play together.
She was my play mama. Her father, William Wallace Andrews, the first
pastor of Wesley Chapel M.E. Church, was the head teacher and Mr. Gray
was the other. They were teaching in Wesley Chapel Church. It was then
on Eighth and Broadway. This was before Benford's time. It was just
after peace had been declared. I don't know where Andrews come from nor
how much learning he had. Most of the people then got their learning
from white children. But I don't know where he got his.
"Wesley was his first church as far as I know. Before the War all the
churches were in with the white people. After freedom, they drew out.
Whether Wesley was his first church or not, he was Wesley's first
pastor. I got a history of the church."
"They had a real Sunday-school in those days.
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