No. 6, Sec. 23NE; Cover school; Voting place 1958-1990; used as Moorhead LHHA gift shop & etc.
~Source: The Loess Hills Visitor Center in Moorhead has a binder of info on country schools of the area.
Willow No. 6 School
Written by Merry (Hime) Cordes
Edith Hime, of Turin, taught at this school in approximately 1950, when it sat out in the country. Some of her students were Navrudes, Yashems, and Wimers.
She was hired by W. K. Price, then the county superintendent. One of the families whose children attended the school was the Navrudes.
Part of her responsibility was to be sure the furnace was started on cold mornings and chasing the cows out of the school yard. She took a group of the children to the circus in Sioux City and introduced them to such gourmet delights as foot long hot dogs.
Thomas Cover biography -- Willow No. 6, Cover School
COVER SCHOOL VISITOR
Cover Country School House was honored with a visitor from the past, Donna Gaughan Fester.
When asked by her host Elaine Staley of Charter Oak, “Would you like to go see the Cover School House?” Fester replied, “Oh, could we?”
Fester is a delight to visit with and is active in her church activities in Vista, California. “One thing I do is help the elderly into the church and help seat them,” reported the 85 year old lady. This reporter asked how old the elderly are and she said, “Oh, one lady is 104 years old.”
Fester, was pleased with the saving of the school house. “I went there in 1920 when I was six years old,” she said. “We lived down where Boes own land now, then they built a school house for us.” She remembers riding a horse, double behind her older sister, to school. “Water was carried to school from down by Gorhams, I think. The school didn’t have a bell, the teacher had the bell,” she recalled. When asked about the merry go round, she said, “yes, it did have one.”
She recalled that other students were:
Beulah Brace
Wilton McDole
Marilla McDole
Joseph Gaughan
Anastasia Gaughan
Donna Gaughan
Lawrence Johnson
Kenneth Pettit
Twins, Pearl and Earl Weber
Roger or? Kenneth Gorham
"Edna Fox was our teacher.”
Fester promised to “write down” more of her memories when she returns home and mail them to us.
Submitted by Ruth Pickle, written about 2000:
Note: Donna Gaughan, b. 22 Oct 1913; married at Dennison, Iowa, Edward Fester on 28 Jun 1935; she died 29 May 2008.
