Monroe County Article written by Thomas V. Bodine, Paris

The public schools at Paris were organized in 1867, and the Paris high school in 1873, the latter by B. F. Newland, a German scholar and a graduate of Heidelberg, still lovingly remembered. W. P. Christian has been its superintendent since 1886, a period of twenty-six years, and the school has been notable in the character of men and women it has sent out into the world. Prior to the public schools the old-time academy for boys and seminary for girls constituted the town’s educational plant, as they did in most southern communities of that day. The Paris Female Seminary, which stood on Locust street, the town’s main residence thoroughfare, was noted in its time, and the young ladies educated there possessed all the graces and just as few of the essentials as it was necessary to get along without. Just prior to the war S. S. Bassett, recently returned from Bethany college, opened up an academy for boys in the hill east of town, and it flourished for a season, most of its pupils casting aside book and rule to respond to the call of bugle and tap of drum.

    The Paris National Bank, the town’s oldest financial institution, was first organized in 1871, being preceded by the old Monroe County Savings Association, organized in 1865, the moving spirit in both being the late David H. Moss. It has continued, with one reorganization, under practically the same management until the death of Judge Moss in 1907. Associated with him all these years was W. F. Buckner, who -retired in 1912. The latter’s son, A. D. Buckner, a member of the executive committee of the American Bankers’ Association, is now at the head of the institution.

    The Paris Savings Bank was organized in 1885, and W. M. Farrell has been cashier practically all the time since, his son, J. F. Farrell of the Ft. Dearborn Bank at Chicago, being associated with him as assistant for several year.