OLD SCHOOL OF THE DAY
Orange Township District 2 Old Schoolhouse
Rush County
Milroy, IN 46156
Orange Township is one of twelve townships in Rush County, Indiana. As of the 2010 census, its population was 796 and it contained 299 housing units. The Forsythe Covered Bridge, James F. Harcourt House, Moscow Covered Bridge, and John Wood Farmstead are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Unincorporated towns include Gowdy and Moscow.
OLD SCHOOL OF THE DAY
Dutch Joe School House
Little Snake River Museum
13 CC Rd. 561 N.
Savery, WY 82332
The original log-built Dutch Joe Schoolhouse that was built in the early 1900s, and is now located at Little Snake River Museum, sat alongside the Dutch Joe Creek off of Brown’s Hill between the Gilroy and Shaffer homesteads about one mile south of the Shorty Gilroy homestead. It served first grade through eighth grade. After the burning of the first Dutch Joe Schoolhouse in 1932, local families constructed the white stick-built building that sits on the museum grounds today; it was closer to the Shaffer homestead. The school operated until 1942 when, along with its students, it was moved down to Savery, next to the two story Savery School house in 1940’s. Until 1972, all 1st and 2nd grade Savery students attended classes in the little white building. Savery School District #15 donated the schoolhouse, which now represents all the one-room schoolhouses of the area, including authentic pieces from the schools like the segments of slate blackboard from the old Baggs School. The Dutch Joe School was only one of many one room school houses in the valley. The little white one room Dutch Joe Schoolhouse has found its final resting place located to the south of the museum property in Savery, Wyoming. It holds memories and memorabilia from many of the one room school houses of the valley.
OLD SCHOOL OF THE DAY
Savery School
Little Snake River Museum
13 CC Rd, 561 N.
Savery, WY 82332
Originally, the main Little Snake River Museum building and property belonged to the Savery School. The school encompassed all grades until 1958 when the high school was closed. Elementary students attended the school until 1972, the year the schools were consolidated in Baggs. Carbon County School District 1 donated the building to the community for the creation of the museum and to host different events. Now, the school houses numerous exhibits, with five of the retired classrooms now educating visitors on Snake River history through displays. Everything on display was either donated or is on loan. The efforts of many individuals built the museum into what it is today. The museum also provides event space for a variety of activities. Over the years, numerous historic buildings have joined the museum.
The Jim Baker Cabin, built in 1873, was originally located in Savery just a few miles from where it sits now. The Blair Cabin was built in 1888 by husband and wife with nothing more than their hands and a broadax. The Brown House was donated to the LSR Museum by Jim and Mildred Marshall and originally was located in Baggs, Wyoming. Next to the Brown house is the Dutch Joe Schoolhouse, established in Savery in 1900. In 1993, the Cobb family donated the Stobridge House to the museum, moving it from its original location a mile to the southwest. A mining tank from a local mine, donated by Gilbert Williams, now houses a mining display. The newest editions to the museum are the interactive Homesteader House built by Tom Vernon and the Focus Cabin which will be an exhibit on the guest ranching businesses in the valley. Also, the new Dixon Street building houses several replicated businesses that used to be in Dixon.
OLD SCHOOL OF THE DAY
The Bohannon One-Room Schoolhouse
Central Michigan University
Preston Street and West Campus Drive
Mount Pleasant, Mich. 48859
When the Bohannon School was built in 1901, its first occupants could not have known that their school would still be fulfilling its intended role in education more than 100 years later. With its inkwells, McGuffey readers, and wood-burning stove resting in the corner, the school is reminiscent of a long ago era when the Golden Rule and the three R’s were the mainstays of education. Originally located in Jasper Township, near Midland, Michigan, the school was brought to the Central Michigan University campus in 1970. The Museum of Cultural and Natural History staff and many dedicated friends worked to restore the building to its original state. Donated artifacts helped to make it complete. Dedicated as the Gerald L. Poor Museum, it now stands as a monument to rural education. The schoolhouse is located on the southwest corner of Preston Street and West Campus Drive. The Bohannon One-Room Schoolhouse and the Gerald L. Poor Museum are open to the public on the second Saturday of the month in June, July, August, September and October between the hours of 9:00 am-12:00 pm. Admission is free.
OLD SCHOOL OF THE DAY
Saltese One-Room Schoolhouse
32nd Avenue and Linke Road
Veradale, WA
The Saltese School first opened there in the early 1890s as a simple log building in 1893, and it was rebuilt in 1900 as the white framed structure seen today. The land was donated for a school by early pioneer Daniel Courchaine, who came to the area around 1870. Grades one through eight were educated in this one-room schoolhouse. Most of the students were children of the first settlers of the area and later from farming and logging families. It was one of three one-room schoolhouses built around the same time in the Saltese area in the 1890s. The other two pioneer schools were called Lone Fir and Quinnemosa. C. Meyer was hired to construct the 1900 schoolhouse, according to Valley museum records, to be paid $300 when half done and another $400 when complete. Also in the 1890s, the Lone Fir and Saltese Literary Association used the building for meetings and debates. The school graduated from outhouses to chemical toilets in 1914. Settlers’ children in grades one through eight attended there, and the building served as a school until 1942, when students were moved to Vera School instead. In 1955, George Courchaine sold the schoolhouse for $500 to Greenacres Grange 1055, and the group remained active there for many years until 1996 when it consolidated with the Opportunity Grange. Residents sometimes used it for social events and parties.A Saltese School reunion was held in September 1986, at Greenacres Grange, and drew about 22 former classmates then in their 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s. Since the 1990s, the structure has sat mostly vacant. The building fell into disrepair and didn’t have much life left. Its roof had rotted and was sagging.
New owners John and Alyson McLean, husband-and-wife team of Spokane’s Blue Room Architecture and Design have plans to restore historic aspects of the pioneer school and convert it into a living-work space. McLean said the adaptive-reuse project will retain historic appearances of the schoolhouse’s exterior, prominently facing south near the corner of 32nd Avenue and Linke Road, in Saltese Flats south of Veradale. To the west and north sides, a small L-shaped addition with two bedrooms and kitchen is underway. The old school’s interior will become the residence’s great room. Since restoration began, John McLean said he’s found parts to several school desks buried under the front porch, including a rusty metal leg, along with hymnals from the early 1920s, and the school’s original wood stove. Although the structure is more than a century old, the project’s construction manager Dan Wilson, with Rock n’ D.W. Construction said it was only 1/2-inch out of square when work started. Considering any settling over the years, that’s a testament to the original builders’ skills. It’s on an old stone foundation, not a modern concrete foundation. Hefty nails and large solid wood beams are throughout. Peering into what was the school’s interior, visitors will find original 3/4-inch beadboard tongue-and-groove panels along the walls. A teacher’s desk likely sat to the north facing the front door, with student desks lined up so that children’s backs were to the entrance, and the old wood stove kept heat in a back corner. Someone during the years had moved the front door to one side, so the entrance was moved back to where it originally faced south. A remnant of a bygone pioneer era, the structure will continue to hold a special place in the community. Although it will be a private residence, McLean said neighbors will continue to be welcomed. Today, a large sign in the yard proclaims it is going to become a “Green Single Family Residence.”
OLD SCHOOL OF THE DAY
Brafferton Indian School
105 Jamestown Rd.
Williamsburg, VA 23185
The second oldest building at William & Mary College in Williamsburg, VA, is the Brafferton, constructed southeast of the Wren Building to house William & Mary’s Indian School. The royal charter of 1693 that established W&M stated as one of its goals “that the Christian faith may be propagated amongst the Western Indians, to the glory of Almighty God….” Over thirty years later, William & Mary Statutes reaffirmed the mission to “teach the Indian boys to read, and write, and vulgar Arithmetick…. to teach them thoroughly the Catechism and the Principles of the Christian Religion.” There might not have been an Indian School at William & Mary had it not been for a provision in the will of Sir Robert Boyle, the famous English scientist who died in 1691, two years before W&M was chartered. The first president, James Blair, lined up the funding for this program from the estate of Boyle while he was in England to meet with King William III & Queen Mary II. The mission of the Indian school was delineated in the Royal Charter of William & Mary. Funds from the estate of Boyle were used to endow the Indian School. Boyle’s will provided that £4,000 sterling should be employed for “pious and charitable uses.” Boyle’s executors decided to use the funds to purchase Brafferton Manor in Yorkshire, England, and they designated part of the rents paid by the manor’s tenants to be given annually to support the Indian School at William & Mary, while another part would go to the Indian School at Harvard College in Massachusetts. It was most likely in response to the Boyle bequest that language was added to the Royal Charter to list as one of the William & Mary’s missions.
Royal Governor Francis Nicholson (1698–1705) enthusiastically anticipated that if “any great [Indian] nation will send 3 or 4 of their children thither” they could be trained in British ways and then “sent back to teach the same things to their own people.” In the beginning, classes were held in temporary quarters and later in the College building, now known as the Sir Christopher Wren Building, sharing the Grammar School Classroom in the main center section of the building with gentry grammar school students until the Brafferton was built to house the Indian students in 1723. The Indian boys lived with families in town until the Brafferton – funded by the Boyle estate – was constructed in 1723. Although the name of the builder is not recorded, it is likely that Henry Cary, Jr., who built the President’s House and the chapel wing of the Wren Building a decade later, was responsible. The school continued, frequently with just a handful of students, until the Boyle funds were discontinued at the time of the American Revolution. Enrollment reached a height of 24 students in 1712, but declined to eight in 1754 and stayed at about that level until the school closed. The Indian School at William & Mary cannot be counted a success by the standards of the Englishman since it failed in the goal of Anglicizing and Christianizing the native populace. However, from the Indian perspective, the school may be seen as somewhat more successful as the school’s alumni also proved to be invaluable to their native communities. In the end, the Indian School had the opposite effect to the one intended. Instead of convincing Indians to become good Englishmen, it allowed the Indians to learn enough about British culture to defend their old ways of life.
The Brafferton has two main floors divided by a wide center hall to the west of which there is a single large room and to the east of which are located two smaller rooms. The large room on the first floor was probably used as a classroom, with the two smaller rooms providing an apartment for the Indian Master. The young scholars would have slept in dormitories on the second floor, taking their meals with the rest of William & Mary in the great hall of the Wren Building. Some years after the construction of the building, dormers were added to the roof, making the attic habitable. After the Indian School was discontinued, the Brafferton has been used for a multitude of purposes, serving at various times as a dining hall, faculty residence, dormitory, and classroom building. The only one of the university’s three colonial buildings to have escaped the ravages of fire, the Brafferton nonetheless suffered an almost complete loss of its interior during the Civil War, when the doors and much of the flooring were removed and used for firewood. The window frames and sash are said to have been removed and used in quarters for the Union officers at Fort Magruder. The exterior brick walls of the Brafferton are, however, the most substantially original of the university’s three colonial buildings. The exterior was restored to its colonial appearance in 1932 as part of the Rockefeller Restoration of Williamsburg. In the 1950s and ’60s, the Brafferton provided office space for the Alumni Society and guest rooms for visitors to the university. Today the Brafferton houses the offices of the president and provost of the university. Also, there is a Brafferton Indian School exhibit at the Muscarelle Museum of Art
PARENTS AND CHILDREN
by Richie Thetford
Everything we parents do influences our children. Whether we like it or not, they will become what we have trained them to be. If we are negative, sarcastic, and bitter, there is a better than even chance that our children will be that way too.
If our lives reflect the love of Jesus, our children will get the message. It will be clear because we’ll speak of Him at the supper table, in the car on the way to worship services, on family trips, and anytime the opportunity presents itself. We’ll not only speak of Him, we’ll also live for Him.
The law of Moses required the Israelites to make the commands of God an integral part of family living. They were told in Deuteronomy 6:7, “You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.”
Christianity is not apt to surface in the lives of our children if their only exposure to it is at the church building on Sunday. Furthermore, its not apt to develop if the example set by the parent does not agree with what the parent teaches.
A child needs total exposure to Christian living and Christian teaching in the home because he will most likely become what he sees and hears. There’s a lot of truth in the proverb: “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6).
==========
PARENTS WHO ARE CHRISTIANS
by Irvin Himmel
It is obvious that parents have an obligation to feed, clothe, love, protect, and care for their offspring. A newborn human is about as helpless as any creature could be. Parents who are Christians have responsibilities which extend far beyond temporal provisions. There is an area of spiritual care, training, growth, and development that demands special attention.
Parents who are Christians have an obligation to set a good example before their children. That includes a godly home life—no drugs, no tobacco, no strong drink, no profanity, and no fussing and fighting. A good example means godly living in the home, on the job, while on vacation, during recreational activities, and in all other situations. A good example includes regular attendance at Bible classes and church services. It also includes honesty, fairness, willingness to admit wrong, and readiness to forgive.
Parents who are Christians have the responsibility of disciplining their offspring. Mischievous acts that may be dismissed as “cute” in the little ones can be quite annoying to others. Those “cute” little capers, if unchecked, can establish a pattern that turns into a nightmare by the time the child is a teenager. Discipline must start early. “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6).
Parents who are Christians should teach their children right priorities. Which comes first, your personal interests or the Lord’s work? Which is more important, a child’s solving a math problem or preparing a Bible lesson? The principle taught in Matthew 6:33 is learned quickly by a child who sees that basic truth demonstrated by his mother and father. Your child needs your help in establishing the correct sense of values.
Parents who are Christians are responsible for bringing up their children to be Christians. Put your child in the tiny tots’ class on Sunday morning and teach him to sit still during worship. If you do not train him, who will? Tell him some of the great stories in the Bible. Those historical narratives about Noah, Abraham, Daniel, Moses, and others will do him more good than nursery rhymes and fairy tales. Drill him in Bible facts.
Make him conscious that there is a wealth of material in the Bible. Teach him about God and Jesus Christ. Some fathers leave the spiritual training to the mothers. But the Bible says, “And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4). Daddy cannot shift his responsibility over to mother. The spiritual training of a child calls for the best efforts of both parents. Christians who are parents have much for which to be thankful. Children are “an heritage of the Lord” (Psalms 127:3). But the responsibilities of parenthood are serious. In today’s wicked world, it is not easy to bring up children in the nurture of the Lord. However, it can be done.
OLD SCHOOL OF THE DAY
Walnut Grove Church and School
Little House on the Prairie
Television Show
The original Little House books were a best-selling series of eight autobiographical children’s novels written by Laura Ingalls Wilder and published by Harper and Brothers from 1932 to 1943. They were adapted for use as an American western drama television series, starring Michael Landon, Melissa Gilbert, Karen Grassle, and Melissa Sue Anderson, about a family living on a farm in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, in the 1870s and 1880s. The show was aired from 1974 to 1984. Walnut Grove Church and School is one of the central locations in Walnut Grove, Minnesota. The school was originally taught by Eva Beadle until she and her husband moved away, because her husband couldn’t find work. Alice Garvey and Caroline Ingalls have also taught. One of the teachers later in the show was Eliza Jane Wilder, sister of Almanzo Wilder. Later on Laura Ingalls Wilder becomes the teacher at the school. The final teacher of the school was Miss Plum. Throughout the series, church services were taught by Robert Alden. The building was a central location for many episodes. In 1901 when the townspeople of Walnut Grove blew up the town the church was one of the very few buildings which they did not destroy.
OLD SCHOOL OF THE DAY
Eureka Schoolhouse
470 Charlestown Rd.
Springfield, VT 05156
The Eureka Schoolhouse is a historic school building at 470 Charlestown Road (Vermont Route 11) in the Goulds Mill village of Springfield, Vermont. Believed to have been built around 1785, it is the oldest known surviving schoolhouse and one of the few surviving eighteenth century public buildings in the state. In 1759 construction began on the Crown Point Military Road to connect Fort No. 4 in Charlestown, New Hampshire, on the Connecticut River with the Fort at Crown Point on Lake Champlain. The Military Road was to become a major route for settlement and Springfield, Vermont, was its “southern gateway.” The first village settlement in Springfield was in the northeast section of town, just off the old Military Road. The settlers began construction on a schoolhouse in 1785; however the small building was not completed until 1790. The Schoolhouse is a small square single-story pyramidal hipped roof structure, built out of hand-hewn timbers and covered by a wooden shingle roof. Its walls are sheathed in in rough-cut pine boards scored to simulate “Ashlar” or cut stone blocks. A brick chimney rises from the rear right corner. The front facade, facing south toward the road, is three bays wide, with the entrance in the left bay, and large sash windows in the other two. The Schoolhouse stands between Vermont Route 11 (to the south) and the Black River to the north, in the dispersed rural setting of Goulds Mill, southeast of the Springfield’s main village center. Today the Eureka Schoolhouse is unpainted, but early records report that the building was originally painted a golden yellow with cobalt blue roof.
Tradition says this building was erected through the efforts of four families and constructed by William Bettergneau, an early inhabitant of the area. The unusual name, Eureka, was given to this district of Springfield by the first teacher at the school, David Searle. Upon graduation from Yale College, Searle headed north to the newly settled frontier area. When he reached Fort No. 4, the residents told him of the new building in Springfield and the need for a teacher. Following the Crown Point Military Road, he reached the new settlement, saw the new school and exclaimed “Eureka!” which in Greek means “I have found it.” The name stuck. Originally the one-room schoolhouse was heated by a brick fireplace and lighted by windows on four sides. The windows contained 24 small panes of glass. The wooden desks were lined up facing the fireplace with the teacher’s desk in the right corner. All grades were instructed in the one room with a number of the students going on for further study at Dartmouth and other colleges. About 1837, the building was moved across the road and extensively altered. The old Ashlar siding was covered with clapboards, the hip roof converted to a gable roof, and the 12 over 12 light sash replaced by 6 over 6 light sash. The basic structure remained, however, and the town proudly celebrated the school’s centennial on October 30, 1885.
The building underwent a series of alterations over the 19th century, but as the century progressed, the population in the Eureka District of Springfield dwindled, and the once busy school was closed in 1900. It stood vacant, abandoned, and neglected for many years, until 1958 when its historic and architectural significance was recognized by a local dedicated group of citizens. Spearheaded by Anna Hartness Beardsley, the structure was carefully documented and disassembled by preservationists and stored in 1958 for erection in a new location with greater exposure for visitors. In 1968, it was reassembled to its original configuration, as best it could be determined from extant records, at the present site, which also includes the relocated Baltimore covered bridge. The careful reconstruction was completed in 1968 by the Eureka Schoolhouse Restoration Committee and the Vermont Historic Sites Commission. The building was dedicated to the memory of Mrs. Beardsley who died shortly before the completion of the restoration. Architect Andrew Titcomb planned the restoration and utilized much of the original fabric to restore the building to its original appearance. Many period antiques were donated to appropriately furnish the structure which today reflects its eighteenth century heritage while offering information to visitors. It is the centerpiece of a small historic site operated by the state. The school was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. Today the Eureka Schoolhouse and the Baltimore Covered Bridge are owned by the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation and are operated under a cooperative agreement by the Springfield Chamber of Commerce.
OLD SCHOOL OF THE DAY
Shobonier High School
982 N. 885 Street
Shobonier, Illinois 62885
Shobonier (population approximately 400) is located in southwestern Illinois in the southwestern portion of Fayette County. U.S. Route 51 serves as the eastern border of Shobonier. County Road 23 passes by the south side of town. Shobonier is located about seven miles due south of Vandalia. Shobonier was platted in 1855 along the Illinois Central Railroad. The town is named after a Potawatomie Native American leader who resided in that area in the 1830s. Shobonier once hosted a school that offered high school classes. It is not certain when Shobonier School closed its doors, probably in the late 1940s. The kids of Shobonier attend school in Vandalia today. The old Shobonier school building is now being used as a convenience store.
walkerhomeschoolblog 