Bayou Chicot historian Mabel Thompson's great-grandfather Isaac Griffith states in his handwritten diary "I commenced teaching school in Bayou Chicot on May 16, 1814."  Mr. Griffith also kept an attendance record of the children who attended school there with the names of  the patrons on the top of each page and an account of payments made for tuition. The diary and attendance records were handed down to Ms. Thompson  and she mailed me (in 1981) a copy of the 1814 attendance record which list the patron Joseph Willis. This is the earliest record of a private school in that area. This record has never been published.