Oral History with Mrs. Mose Allison

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Interviewee: Mrs. Mose Allison
Interviewer: William Tribble
Date: July 17, 1980
WT: This is William Tribble. Today is July 17, 1980. We are interviewing Mrs. Mose Allison.
Mrs. Allison has been a resident for Tippo for several years. Mrs. Allison can you tell us
something about your teaching in the early schools of Tippo, Mississippi?
MA: Well I came to Tippo. My whole life has been determined by a typographical error. I
came to Tippo to teach because when the contract was offered, I mean when this job was
offered the salary was listed as higher than the other schools. I took it for that reason. When the
contract was signed, it turned out that that was a typographical error. Had it not been for that I
would have never come to the delta. It is ironical to me that my whole life has been determined
by a typographical error.
WT: What was the amount of salary that you were suppose to get?
MA: One- hundred and fifty, but actually it was only one hundred dollars a month, which was
good then.
WT: What year was this Mrs. Allison?
MA: It was 1926. 1 had graduated from MSCW. It was MSCW then. I was only 20. 1 came
down here. I came on the railroad and got off at Greenwood. The superintendent here was F.
O. Martin. He met me at Greenwood. The first thing he said was " you look like a little of kid,
you hadn't 21 years old?" I said, " I will be 21 in December before the year is out." So at that
time, there was a high school here. Now, when just previous to my coming to Tippo that was in
1926, just previous to my coming to Tippo this high school hadn't been here long. It was a high
school then. Before that, the schools in the county had been small neighborhood kind of
schools. There was a small school up in Tandy, which is where the Chris house is now. There
was another small school at Needmore, where the Needmore Cemetery is now, which is almost
an Allison cemetery. There was a church and a small school there. There is another small
school up in Disdo where Canagra Fish Farm is now. These usually served just the white
children of people who lived in this area. Now, at Needmore where my husband's parents lived
they went to this little school. They went in a buggy. The teacher stayed with Papa Allison,
John Allison. His two younger children went to Needmore school in the buggy with the
teacher, who was Stewart Clark's sister, Mrs. Burnet. She drove the buggy with the children to
school at Needmore. Water got up and the roads were bad here. This was hard to get to these