HISTORY OF TALMAGE SCHOOL
Compiled by Lucille Vogel, former teacher
In the 1880‘s Talmage, located just three miles east of Afton, was one of the small towns generated by the railroads. By 1900, Talmage consisted of five grocery stores [which also sold hardware and dry goods], a post office, creamery, hotel and school. There was also a depot, coal shutes and a water tower to service trains. The town had been platted and streets were laid out and named.
The school and Kilgore‘s store was located east of the railroad track, on the north side of a dirt road that was known as Main Street. About 1920, Main Street became a gravel road. At that time there was no bridge over the railroad track, on the north side and the area was level. In the early 1920‘s Highway 34 became a concrete road. A large bridge was built over the railroad, a change that also affected the school as it now became lower than the road that passed in front of the door.
The original one room school which had been built in the early 1880‘s became too small to meet the needs of the community as the population of the little town spurted, due to the railroads. In 1913 an east wing was added. It became known as the "little room" and housed kindergarten through third grades. The original room was known as the "big room" and grades five through eight attended there. Fourth grade held classes in whichever room happened to have fewer students enrolled in a give year.
At the peak of enrollment in the school about sixty students attended. There was no water supply on the grounds so older children took turns going to the pump outside Kilgore Store to get a bucket of water which was poured into the stone water cooler. On the way to the pump they "skinned the cat" over the pipe fence that extended from the school to the store. In season, blossoms from the Kilgore lilac bush found their way to the teacher‘s desk.
There was never a church in Talmage but services were held in the school and the minister lived in a parsonage just across the road from the school.
With the coming of the auto, the railroad had less business, so fewer workers were needed at Talmage. Many people moved away. By 1941 the post office closed. Even before that all the stores except Kilgore‹s had closed. Enrollment at the school dropped off. For several years the few students left had classes in just one of the rooms. At last, in 1960, the school closed. In 1969 a final reunion was held at the school for the "old timers‘ of Talmage, prior to the building being razed in 1970 when Highway 34 was widened.
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