An Intimate History of the Early Days
of the School of Organic Education

L.J. Newcomb Comings

[An unpublished essay written by the author in 1938]

Today memory carries me back over 35 years to February 1903, where Mr. Comings and I first visited Fairhope. During the month we spent here we met practically everybody, for the community was small, and it was much like a large family, but I have no recollection of Mr. & Mrs. Johnson who had proceeded us by a few months. Although we must have met we made no impression upon each other and lured by the prospect of an industrial school were, we hoped to be useful. We went on to Tampa, Florida, convinced by October of that year that the project would never be even begun, we decided to return to Fairhope.

Then our real acquaintance with Mrs. Johnson began. They had come south for her health, and after nearly a year in this mild climate, (they had been living in Minnesota) she had sufficiently recovered to be able to take charge of the public school here. We had an apartment in what was later known as The Gables, quite near the building on Section St. where she was teaching. Learning that she was not able to get to her boarding place -- she was with the Swifts on the Bay front, at noon, on account of the distance, we invited her to have dinner with us every day and it proved most enjoyable. We discussed educational methods from every standpoint and all were confirmed in the feeling that a complete change was imperative. At the end of the school year Mr. Comings and I went to Glen Ellyn, near Chicago, to help Dr. Ger. McKay Miller in his is industrial School, but the climate, even in May, proved too severe for Mr. Comings and the Dr. advised us to return south. We were soon delightfully located in a suburb of Atlanta, helping with a Lecture Bureau and Library scheme, with an Industrial school looming in the future. We soon saw that this school was but another "will o the wisp" and we decided to return to Fairhope. We were anxious to be settled somewhere. We liked Fairhope, and although there were apparently no educational prospects, we came, bought the house afterward known as The Gables, and decided this should be our home.

In the meantime Mr. & Mrs. Johnson had located in Mississippi. One summer we called her back and had a quite successful summer school but nothing permanent came of it.

Time passed rapidly, and in 1907 Mr. Comings and I decided to spend the summer in Michigan. Soon after our arrival there we had a letter from Mrs. Johnson saying conditions in Mississippi were very unsatisfactory and they had decided they must make a change, but had no definite plans. I said to Mr. Comings, as soon as we had read the letter: "We have talked a great deal, now lets do something. Let's ask Mrs. Johnson to return to Fairhope and open a kindergarten for two hours each morning and make it financially possible for her do it; Fairhope needs a kindergarten and this will give her an opportunity to work out some of the problems which so interest us." Mr. Comings was not quite as optimistic as I, but consented. Mrs. Johnson accepted our offer at once and in October, we returned and in November, Mrs. Johnson followed, bringing with her two children from New York and the school was opened. We passed through deep waters at first, for in November, Mrs. Johnson's younger boy Franklin -- passed on, and in December Mr. Comings was taken, but Mrs. Johnson, undaunted, stood by her little group of children and the work went on.

Early in 1908, Mr. Johnson bought the home on Magnolia Avenue where they lived so many years, and the school was moved from the cottage on Church St. opposite Mr. Berglins. Later we moved in a building an Fairhope Ave., long since demolished and when the public school closed at the end of the school year we occupied that building for a few weeks.

In January of that year the Colony Council made an appropriation of $25 a month for an indefinite period. In March Mr. Joseph Fels made his annual visit to Fairhope and, finding us really doing something, gave us $1,000.00. For the next school year we rented a cottage on Fairhope Ave. just across from the present school grounds. We called Miss Helen Taggart from Rockford, Illinois to assist Mrs. Johnson, and we had a very successful school year, with a constant increase in numbers and enthusiasm.

Right here I want to pay this tribute to Mrs. Johnson, with older people she was an inspirational speaker and teacher, but with the children she was marvelous. I can never forget the eagerness and rapt attention of those children sitting on the floor in a circle about her. I doubt if we had chairs enough at that time for all as she talked to them and in all these years I have never known Mrs. Johnson to ask anything of a pupil where there was not instant response. The year passed without any special incident, except Mr. Fels second visit. Seeing we were really in earnest, and that we had made good use of his first donation, he gave us $5,000 outright and $1,000.00 a year for five years.

At that time there was a slight controversy between the town and colony councils. If I remember rightly the town had just been incorporated, the school house belonged to the Colony. The Town Council thought the building should be turned over to them without cost. The Colony Council wanted them to pay for it. We settled the natter by buying the school building, what is now known as the Main building, the one with, the bell tower. We also bought the main tract adjoining on the West, with its one lone building, now known as the Junior High Building.

We were now property owners, and incorporation had become necessary. Six women were the incorporators, Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. Clara M. Gaston, Mrs. Minnie H. Brown, Mrs. L.A. Powell, Mrs. D. K. Bancroft and myself. Mrs. Bancroft was selected Secretary, Mrs. Gaston Treasurer, and I became President and Business Manager which office I held until I resigned in favor of Doctor C. A. Gaston and I was made Honorary President.

Mrs. Johnson suggested that the school of called "The Comings Memorial college of Organic Education" and we were so incorporated. Later Mr. Fels objected to the word "College" and it was legally changed to School. We found the full name somewhat cumbersome and by common consent "Comings Memorial" was dropped. Later, Mr. Raybold thought the change should be made legal and it was done, leaving the name, "The School of Organic Education."

That, summer we built the High School building and began clearing away the brambles and briars which covered the Western side. In the Fall we opened the school with a good attendance. I have no data as to the exact number of pupils, and a full staff of teachers. In the Summer of 1910, Mrs. Johnson was in the North lecturing and seeking funds for the support of the school. I had several tentative engagements for lectures in Cleveland and other big cities and one very definite one at a Food Show in Madison Square Garden, in Mew York City, under the auspices of a National Society, the exact name of which I cannot recall - which I considered very important. At the last moment, I found it difficult to get away so I wrote to Mrs. Johnson that if she would go on to New York and fill my appointment I would bear the additional expense. She consented readily, and made her first trip to New York. It was on this trip that she met Mr. Hoggson of Greenwich who proved such a loyal supporter of the school, through whom the Greenwich School was later started.

From then on the success of the school was assured. One by one the buildings have been added until the school was as see it now. You all know of the struggle to finance the school but Mrs. Johnson never wavered in her search for better educational methods that would leave the child free and help him develop his threefold nature - physical, mental and spiritual.

The memory of the School of Organic Education will ever remain in the minds and hearts of her followers as a memorial to the Educational Work of Marietta Johnson.