Keokuk County Iowa IAGenWeb - 1904 School Essay Contest

The Center Hall schoolhouse, situated in the state of Iowa, Keokuk County, Jackson Township, district No. 4, was built in the year 1867.

One hundred and sixty square rods of land were given to the district by Peter Shook. The timber that it took to build the schoolhouse was given to the district by Wm. Rodgers, a good old Methodist minister of that day. The schoolhouse was built by John Harmon, who was at that time the only carpenter around here. Mr. Harmon hewed the timber and prepared it for the building.

Center Hall is not a large building, only 24 x 26; but when it was first built, there were as many as sixty scholars attending. It was the only school for miles around at that time and of course not only the children of our district cam but those of other districts and neighborhoods.

In the days gone by they had a literary society and people for great distances would come to Center Hall to hear the programs. I have heard my father and mother talk about attending literary at Center Hall when they were young.

Many boys and girls who have studied under its roof have become famous. I need not mention but a few of the occupations that the boys and girls of that day are now leading. Some of them are now in the ministry, many of them are successful teachers, one or two of them are in Alaska digging gold, one of the late years served Uncle Sam in U.S. Navy and many of the boys are rich and prosperous farmers.

Our present schoolhouse has stood the storms for thirty-seven years. It is the same one Mr. Harmon built long ago. It has been remodeled only one time that I know of, and I am sure you will not be surprised when I tell you that it is now in a very poor condition but nevertheless it is located in a beautiful and healthy locality having a good clean playground with sixteen large trees on it, thirteen of which are maples and the other three are willows. These furnish plenty of shade in the summer and serve as a good wind break in the winter. The playground is not fenced in front but the other three sides are fenced. The fence belongs to the people who own the land surrounding the school.

There is no well on the school grounds at the present. It was covered up two or three years ago because of did not have good water in it and the curb was not very good. I think it was a good thing that they covered it up for someone might have fallen into it.

Our schoolhouse is painted on the outside with whiter paint having been painted not long ago when it was remodeled. It is painted on the inside with brown paint. The walls used to be whiter but you would doubt it, if you could see them now, for they are smoked till they are nearly black. We have a few decorations on the walls now but they do not look very well on such dirty walls.

The window panes are generally broken out. Last winter one whole sash of glass was broken out at one time and not replaced, so the teacher would change the sash from north to south as the wind changed. This kept us from freezing and kept him busy tending the fires. We have a good blackboard, good desks, and seats and a fairly good stove. There are six windows in the schoolhouse, but only one curtain. We recently had good curtains, but they were destroyed by the children.

We have no globe, charts, maps, or dictionary. We have only four library books and they were brought by one of the teachers who had the pupils sell coupons with which to get money to buy them.

District No. 4 is and independent one and the board meets on the third Monday in March and September each year. It never meets any other time that I know of. The members of the school board or parents never visit the school unless it is by chance when they come to school after their children, so we have very few visitors, and there has never been but one county superintendent who visited our school that I know of and that was the present one.

There are only six scholars coming to school now. Most of them are regular in attendance and are always on time. Some live so far away that they can not always come when the weather is bad.

We have a good teacher now and I hope she thinks as well of us as we do of her. We hope in the future to have as good a teacher as we have now and that we will have a new schoolhouse and other things that are useful in a school, such as a library, globe, charts, and a dictionary. I am sure we would rather go to school then than stay at home.

I imagine the pupils that are now going to school will be more prominent in the future than some have been in the past. Some of them will become great if they study hard. Some of them might be bookkeepers, and other might be successful school teachers, and some might be county superintendents and some might even be the president of the United States.

And I hope in the future more scholars will come to Center Hall for school and that everything will go to make the future of our school better than the past