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 out they could get good land in Missouri. That was before it became a part of
 the [United] States; it was still owned by Louisiana. My ancestors migrated to
 Missouri to get good land on the Missouri River; they did that in 1798. They
 became one of the pioneer families of Missouri. They brought slaves with them.
 A lot of those Missourians, in southern Missouri particularly, came from the
 South. They rode across Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Carolinas, and moved
 there to get land. And they carried those same traditions with them.

 There was less opposition to consolidation in the southern part of Missouri than
 in the northern part of Missouri. I know that. They did away with the
 unnecessary one-teacher schools in the South. They are still operating them in
 the North, states such as ebraska and the Dakotas. They are rapidly being
 eliminated, though, but they were the last to do so. The next thing that
 happened was they consolidated high schools, the small high school where they
 had them. They find it difficult to consolidate now. You can find that difficulty in
 the South as well as the North. But you can consolidate elementary schools
 easily.

C: Do you remember the bond issue in Alachua County and all the problems that
 were centered around that?

J: No, I do not remember much about it. I was involved in a number of counties
 where they were having bond issues for building, and I do not remember one
 county much more than the other. I could probably tell you as much about
 Escambia County as I could this county.

C: So you were not involved in all of those activities here?

J: Nothing, no.

C: Do you remember the Citizens Committee here that was formed in the early
 1950s with Chester Yates? They were studying the [county's educational]
 problems, and they also recommended a bond issue. I read in the newspaper
 that you were an advisor to the school organization committee, and James
 Richardson was the chairman of that. Do you remember that?

J: I remember it, but not much about it, because I served on a number of
 committees like that over the state.

C: Were they all fairly similar?

J: Yes, they were. They served a good purpose.

C: Do you think they helped crystallize public opinion favorably for funding the