This letter was written early in the life of the school, and makes one of the few references I've seen to the term "'skins."

"A BAND BOY TO HIS FATHER

Concert Review from THE MORNING STAR
Vol. VI, #8, page 11.

"There was an entertainment held at the opera house last night and they wanted our band to play for them, so we went to town and played for them. There were two bands besides our band. One band was going to play one piece but we played the piece before they got ready so after they heard us play, they got vexed at our band and didn't play any. The other band played two times, then after they got through we played so that band got mad at our band and they called us the 'skin' band, but we played until the band went home, then we came home too. Our band can play better than those white boys in the town."