Keokuk County Iowa IAGenWeb - 1904 School Essay Contest - Clear Creek Township, School No. 2

Well, the old stone schoolhouse has bee standing there as long as I can remember. The school ground was given by Mr. Paul Peiffer and Mr. Stone. The rocks were quarried by the Wehr Brothers and the lumber was brought in Washington. The schoolhouse was built by the Wehr Brother in 1868. The first roofing was put on by Mr. Stricklen of Talleyrand.
There is no fence around the school grounds which contains 52 ½ square rods. There is plenty of shade. There are 28 trees: black oak, box elder, the fragrant crabapple, and elm. Underneath these trees the grass grows long and green in the summer time making a good place to play. Our yard is bounded on the north and west by a forest, on the east and south by the road. There is no well. There was one in bygone days, but no more.

The schoolhouse is 21 by 24 feet and faces the southeast. From our door we can see the big Catholic Church and some pretty homes and the fine mossy stone quarry with the pretty forest beyond. The schoolhouse is not painted outside but is of the natural stone color. Six windows let in the light and at times too much sunlight, for there are neither blinds nor shutters. The building is whitewashed inside and the woodwork is painted a gray color but needs painting again. The furniture consists of seven desks beside the teacher’s, two long benches and the teacher’s chair, a new stove, four square yards of blackboard, three maps and a box for our library books of which we have nine. They are mostly historical and some of them were written by Edward Eggleson. We have four penmanship instruction charts. Our seats are not good ones. Some of them bear the marks of the boys’ jackknives who thought they were artists I suppose.

The schoolhouse has been repaired several times. Once a new roof was put on by Frank Ackerman, who is now in Germany. And about two years ago a new floor was but in by Peter Engeldinger and George Greiner.

I would like to have a very nice schoolhouse that is painted nicely inside and outside. I would have four windows on one side and on the other side four little windows at the top. Then there would be no cross lights. I would have the school room very nicely decorated in the inside and a nice big library and big blackboards low down so the little children could reach to write their lessons. I would have nice varnished single
seats nailed fast to the floor so they could not be moved. And it would be healthy to have the schoolroom well ventilated; a stove jacket around the stove so we could warm every part of the room and not burn our faces and freeze our backs at the same time. If we could have more maps, more library books, and a big globe of the world, then it would be easier for the children to learn something. It would be nice to have a good coal house close to the schoolhouse so it would be handy to get coal in the winter time when it is cold. I would have a good fence around the schoolground made of the galvanized rods and a good deep well with a good pump in it and a tight platform so nothing could get into it.

In fact, I would like to have a schoolhouse with everything outside and inside as nice as possible for you know we have to spend so much of our time at school when we are young.