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Office BR F and AL
Lewisville Lafayette Co Ark
March 28" 1868

Rev Wm M Colby
Supt of Education
Sir
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 20th inst.
You say that "you learn from an unofficial source, but one which ought to be reliable, that the number of children who would attend school at Lewisville can not exceed 25." This is a something that cannot possibly be asscertained until a school is opened. There are double that number of children in this place and many on plantations near here I presume that you allude to Maj Burton who is one of the principal planters in the County. He is working two plantations eight miles from here. Several of his employees have told me that they would send the children here part of the year- boarding them in town- if a school was started. The success of a school depends entirely upon the success of the crops, lest I not believe that a school could be sustained I would not have recommended the building of a house. The probable average attendance during the entire year- say from July 68 to July 69 would not exceed forty scholars. After that date I think it would
The following is the price of labor & building material in this place