Keokuk County Iowa IAGenWeb - 1904 School Essay Contest

The history of the Pleasant View School is a very interesting one. A small tract of land containing about sixty square rods was purchased of Row Clemens and chosen as a schoolhouse site.

In order to raise money to build the schoolhouse, an assessment was made and about six hundred dollars was raised, but this being insufficient, the late Reuben Davis, who was then treasurer of the district, was authorized to loan the money. Sometime afterwards another assessment was made and this together with the first was enough to build the schoolhouse. But Mr. Clemens to whom the money had been loaned was unable to return it. However, as he owned a sawmill, he proposed to saw enough lumber for the building and in this way pay back the money. The proposal was accepted and in 1869, the first schoolhouse in the district No. 4 was erected.

It was a rude structure with equipment and seats of wooden slabs. Several years later new seats were purchased and this made the pupils more comfortable in one respect at least.

Here, Marion Garret, Garley Headlee, Mrs. Fred Procrantz, Mrs. Charley Sanders and many others received their first education.

One of their teachers, Miss Mary Kendell, decided to have an exhibition on the evening of the last day of her school and careful preparations were made. As the school building was a very small one, it was thought impossible for all who wished to attend to gain admittance, so Will Clemens invited them to hold the entertainment in his newly built barn. The invitation was accepted and on the appointed night a very large number of their parents, neighbors, and friends gathered there and heard the well rendered program.

Fifteen years later it was decided to build a larger and more substantial schoolhouse and the old one was sold to Harrison Covey and soon enshrined in memories of the past.

The new building which took its place still stands and could it speak, it would no doubt have many an interesting tale to tell of the boys and girls who assembled there, many of whom are now men and women of prominence possessing beautiful homes of their own, others are teaching in the public schools and some have been laid to rest in the silent grave.

The present school was built in 1884. It has a healthy location and also a beautiful one for it is situated on the main road leading to Delta, Sigourney, and What Cheer. On either side are large farm houses, to the northwest we can see a large part of What Cheer and to the northeast the tall spire of the German church several miles distant.

The schoolgrounds is almost level and is surrounded by thirty-one trees, two rows on the north and one row on the other three sides. The trees are beautiful, tall maples, but the recent storm has broken many of the large limbs and it will be sometime before they will be as large again as they were.

We have four flower beds consisting or roses, lilies, bluebells, and Bouncing Betty and also a strawberry bed. The yard is not enclosed with a tasty and substantial fence for on one side there is a board fence, on two sides wire fences and along the road hitch racks. Neither do we have a well with a pump in it on the schoolground.

The schoolhouse is of a rectangular shape, being twenty-four feet long and eighteen feet wide and built on a rock foundation. It stands facing the west with a board walk extending from the door to the road and has three windows on the north and three on the south.

The school building is painted white on the outside and blue on the inside. Its walls are decorated with pictures of children, fruit, and flowers. On the blackboard is a border of red carnations and a picture of the martyred Presidents.

We have twelve good desks and double seats, two blackboards, one in the front and the other in the back of the schoolroom, but they are not in very good condition. The stove is old and almost worn out. There is a large bell on the schoolhouse and on these cold winter mornings its clear mellow chimes can be heard for quite a distance. The library books, forty-one in number, are not kept at the schoolhouse but are left with the secretary of the school board.

I have only attended school here a few terms and we have usually had about twelve pupils enrolled but this winter owing to sickness and other reasons we have had but five. My classmate, Leona Coupling and I are the only ones coming regularly and being punctual in attendance.

We have nine visitors this term, one visit was made by the president of the school board and one by my mother. With the exception of school and telephone meetings, no other remarkable meetings have been held in the schoolhouse.

We have no maps, charts, or globes to make our work more successful and interesting. But I hope improvement will follow improvement so that we shall soon have a large, well ventilated schoolroom; the windows so arranged that the light will not fall directly on our eyes and have window curtains to exclude the light at our will; also well
supplied with maps, charts, globes, and solid slate blackboards, adjustable and single seats; the walls of the schoolroom neatly painted and decorated; the yard enclosed by a good, substantial fence and made so pleasant and comfortable that our school shall become a second home.

But while we are waiting for these things, let us wisely improve the present by studying diligently and ever bear in mind the quotation, we have committed this term: “Labor for learning before you are old, for knowledge is better than silver or gold; Gold if you had it, would soon fade away, but learning once gotten will never decay.”

And may we so live that we shall grow up to be useful men and women and when life’s school is ended and the last roll is called, may each one of us be there and hear the welcome works of the Master: “Welcome, thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joys of thy Lord.”