The Gazette
January 18, 1939
The Gazette has received from George C. Everett of Baton Rouge the following letter, which may be of interest to someone in this parish and for that reason we pass it along to the public.
“Dear Mr. Lee:”
“A few days ago, a lady brought in to me a copy of the Tri-Weekly Advocate published on June 1, 1870. It has a very interesting article concerning the closing exercises of what it calls, “Our Educational Institutions.”
“In this article it mentions Mr. S. C. McCormick of Union Parish, a remarkable young gentleman in whom the interest of the audience mainly centered, led the van with a most able essay on “Art and Science”. The highest encomium ever offered to pupils by a teacher was pronounced upon this student by the superintendent when he said: “We regard him as the ripest scholar for age in the South.”
“Subsequently when Mr. McCornick was handed his diploma, Col. Boyd read a dispatch he had received a few minutes before, announcing that Mr. McCormick was called to the presidency of one of the most flourishing institutions of North Louisiana. This announcement was greeted by the entire audience with a burst of hearty applause, while those who were in the immediate vicinity of the stand crowded around the young graduate to offer their congratulations upon his good fortune as unexpected as it was deserved.”
“I am sending you this little note, for it is a bit of history in which, as a Union Parish man, I was interested.”
Shiloh to Canaan 