Keokuk County Iowa IAGenWeb - 1904 School Essay Contest

In securing facts necessary for anything like a connected history of the early school life of District No. 2, East Lancaster Township, I have been greatly hindered by the fact that all of the parents of those early days are dead, and very few of the pupils who then attended school are yet living in the neighborhood. Time has effaced many things from their memories. However, I have been enabled to secure some rather disconnected items of history. The first schoolhouse was located something more than a mile east of Lancaster on the creek bank southeast from where Louis Follman now lives. It was a small log building with a clapboard roof held on by weight poles. The floor was made of roughly hewn boards laid loose on the sleepers. The house being situated on a hillside, one end of the floor was some distance from the ground. Mischievous boys would creep under and after school had taken up, they would play dog fight, howling and barking and otherwise distracting the attention of the school and even raising boards and producing great consternation. Uncle James Gilliland of Lancaster might ever remember such an instance.

On one side of the room a log had been cut out and space filled with eight by ten inch window panes. Slab seats were used, which were arranged around the fire place. The teacher occupied the space just in front of the fire thus insuring his own comfort, at least. Of the teachers, I can learn the name of but one, Orin White, or “Orange” as the scholars called him. His appearance would cause one to think that he was a direct descendant of Ichabod Crane.

The water was obtained from the creek and at one place where the ice had been cut away, it was quite deep and while one of the boys was making a verdant effort at gallantry toward on the large girls, a little rascal slipped up from behind and send him head long into the icy water. It cooled him some.

This school accommodated a large section of the country, even Lancaster, the county seat, sent her pupils here.

The next school house was located about one hundred-and-fifty-yards northeast of the Doggett Cemetery. It was a small frame building, built by Presley Doggett for a cheese house and donated by him for school purposes. The first teacher was a pioneer teacher, a woman of virtue and of energy with a good mind and a love for her work. She was a superior teacher with plenty of physical courage and she did not hesitate to chastise anyone who needed punishment and largest scholars always knew after the fracas who had been “licked.”

Among the duties the scholars at that time had to perform was to write compositions on subjects given them by the teachers. At one time a boy was asked to write a composition about the “The Ox” and this is what he wrote, “The ox is a very useful animal, its milk is good for them that like it.”

The building was burned during a term of school taught by Mathias Williams. Then another schoolhouse was built one half mile south of the Doggett Cemetery on land supposed to belong to Andrew Doggett. Jacob Shumaker and Mr. Stokes had the contract to build the schoolhouse. The shingles were purchased from Mr. Hutton, who owned a shingle mill across the South Skunk River. The house was built in 1863, while Benjamine Crabb, who was living four-and-one-half miles east of Lancaster and William H. Walker living west of Hayesville, were the directors. At that time there were but three directors in each township, Mr. Joseph Reynold, who lived east of Lancaster, was treasurer for the township.

After the schoolhouse was built a road was established and it was found to be on land now belonging to S.A. Gilliland and partially in the roadway and it remained so as long as it was fit to be occupied. Some of the popular teachers were: Elijah Brolliar, John Swearingen, and Frank Harris.

The yard around the house was covered with thorn and hazel bushes. A north hillside made a capital place for coasting and one day when some of the Lancaster boys came visiting, the paid too much attention to the big girls, so the No. 2 boys thought. It had been thawing most of the day and water had collected at the foot of the hill. The visitors were enticed to get on a couple of long boards with an experienced pilot for each. Away they went like a streak, but as the water was reached, the guides rolled off and made haste to reach the schoolhouse. The visitors were mad, but did not fell like facing the girls and so went home for repairs.

The room was heated by old cannon stove, the top of which was a place for soot and dust to collect and it afforded some of the boys’ great amusement to accidentally(?) blow soot in the teacher’s face.

The pipe was frequently filled with soot and one evening when one of the boys, Sam Walker was fixing the fire for the night; a couple of boys, Sam Gilliland and Alva Harris, who had been hunting came along and said, “Oh, we’ll blow the soot out for you”, and wrapping a large quantity of powder in a newspaper, put it in the stove. After settling a bucket of coal on the top of the stove and touching a match to the paper, they quickly made their exit. A loud report was heard and the boys rushing into the house found coat, soot, and stove doors strewn over the room. The pipe also was blown to pieces but no one reported to the teacher the cause of the catastrophe.

The benches were homemade and furnished by the parents. The blackboard consisted of boards painted and hung on the wall. It was generally too slick to write on but is served as an excellent place for the boys to stick their knives.

The building was finally sold to Louis Foilman and it now serves him the purpose of a granary. A larger house was then built on land bought of S.A. Gilliland. It was erected in 1893 at a cost of $800. The schoolground consists of half an acre of ground with several shade trees and enclosed by a substantial woven wire fence.

The building is neatly painted inside and out. It contains thirteen square yards of blackboard covered with slating. The decorations inside consist of several pictures of noted men and famous paintings.

The district at one time furnished the school with a globe but the boys used it for a football and it did not last long. The school is supplied with a chart, also a large map of the United States. The library of thirty-four books consists of biographical, geographical, historical, philosophical, poetical, and juvenile literature. These books were selected by the school board.

There are enough seats for thirty scholars but only twenty-one are enrolled. The average attendance for January 1904, was eighteen and the punctuality as 95 ½ per cent.

“Parents Won’t Visit the School” is an appropriated song for District No. 2. The very efficient teacher of the present time is Miss Sophia H. Strohman, much loved by her students.

Among the students who attended school at District No. 2 and afterwards entered a profession are Dr. S.A. Walker, Dr. J.B. Keaster, and Frank Harris, a graduate of pharmacy.

As to the future of the school, I can only give my ideas as to what the school should be. I hope to see a large schoolhouse heated by furnace so that all parts of the house may be equally warm and furnished with all necessary apparatus needed for thorough teaching of all branches taught in the country schools. There should be an extensive library of choice literature and the room tastefully decorated with pictures and potted plants and seated with adjustable and single seats.

The school should be supplied with pure water, wash basins, and a sink connected with sewer pipes. A cloak room is also a necessary adjunct.

The schoolyard should consist of an acre or more of ground which should be kept neat and clean with nicely arranged flower gardens, some shrubbery of the easiest grown varieties and plenty of shade trees. In short, the school and its surroundings should be made as beautiful as possible for “A Thing of Beauty is a Joy Forever