I was started to school when I was four in the one room and coat-hall schoolhouse on the southwest corner of the section in which we lived (Section 5, Richland Township). I had only about ½ mile to walk to school, and three hills to go down and up which seemed large to me then, but now seem so small viewed through an adult's eye. It was fun coasting down them on my sled in the winter and I could coast down the last one right into the schoolyard.
Families having children attending were the Will Godbersens, John Millers, Joe Roeders, Adam Roeders, John Wagners and John Curries. The teacher for that year was a very young high school graduate in her first teaching year and entirely unsuited to handle the many older teenaged boys who attended during the winter. During the spring and fall seasons their fathers kept them out of school to help with the farm work, and I suppose school was regarded by them as a really secondary occupation, and a kind of picnic. Anyway, they ran out of school during "school time," threw the bell out the door, colored on the round oak stove in the center of the room, pestered the smaller children (including me) and generally made life miserable.
Finally, one day, when one boy had thrown a dill pickle down my back, I decided I'd had enough and ran home. I didn't go back (I was only 4 at the time and could wait) until they got another teacher, an experienced one and capable of handling the big boys. The new teacher also had the backing of the new director, who appeared in school the first day, promising that if Miss Magnuson had trouble, he'd come and personally give the guilty ones a thrashing. This had its effect, as Col. Teaquist, the director, was a man to be respected.
I enjoyed school and learned fast so that I took 2 grades in one year (I can't remember which ones) but my parents didn't want me graduating from school too young, so I took it over. A younger student could learn much from listening to the older classes recite. One raised one finger for permission to get a drink from the earthenware water cooler in the back hall (filled by couples taking turns at noon-hour or recess to a nearby farm house, carrying a pail between them.) Later when teachers drove cars, they'd bring it in cream cans. One raised 2 or 3 fingers to "leave the room" to go out to the outhouses behind the school house, one labeled "boys", the other "girls." One could shorten a weary period between recesses by "leaving the room", but teachers were suspicious of too many requests. Nor could there be more than one gone at a time.
There were the classic desks and fold-up seats of different sizes, which were tried for fit at the beginning of the year. Other furnishings were the glass-door bookcase (some of whose contents would now be choice antiques) the dictionary shelf, and the globe hanging by a pulley arrangement near the teacher's desk. Blackboards covered the walls behind the teacher's desk. The lower windowpanes usually had the signs of the current season such as tulips or pussy-willows cut from construction paper during a Friday art period. These times were looked forward to very much, and before Christmas, gifts for parents would be worked on during this time.
The 15 minutes at the beginning of the school period was "opening exercises" and sometimes there was general singing, with pupils choosing songs from "the Golden Book." Some of these songs dated back to the Revolutionary and Civil wars. Sometimes the teacher would read a portion from a book, continuing it each day, or if Christmas were approaching, practice for the program would be held.
These programs were really great, as each person had a "piece" to say, or had a part in a small play or sang. Everyone would be dressed in their best and there was a very festive and anticipatory feeling in the air. After the program had been presented, with stage "hands" pulling the stage curtains made of sheets on wires, came the time for distributing the presents under the tree. Sometimes Santa was even present with the vaguely familiar voice of a friend of the teacher's, joshing the people and "ho ho ho" ing. "Teacher" had a nice gift for each pupil and each pupil had a nice gift for "Teacher." Names had been exchanged between pupils for giving of gifts to one another as well. Lunch was sometimes served, and if there was a kerosene stove in the back hall, coffee could be cooked, and sometimes there were cake-walks.
Favorite games at recess were "Pum-pum Pullaway", "Prisoner's Base", "Andy-Over" (throwing a ball over the schoolhouse), "Red Light", "Hide and Go Seek", and in the winter, "Fox and Goose." Also, baseball was played and in the spring, the boys played marbles and "Mumbledepeg", a game involving flipping a pocketknife into the earth in different ways. There was usually a swing too, for which one took turns.
In the winter we enjoyed coasting on our sleds down the nearby hills. One of the boys, an only child, was much admired, because he had a wonderful long "flier" on which his favored girlfriends might ride. One of a family of three boys was able to construct a small "bob" sled which he triumphantly brought to school and he became the hero of the hour as it was even more fun to ride on his sled and there was room for more to ride. Those who had wet overalls and stockings were allowed to sit near the stove or furnace when the school bell rang again, and they studied there.
My teachers were Miss Magnuson (later Mrs. Wilcox), Miss Ranghild Carlson, Miss Sadie Teaquist and Miss Ellen Pearson, all good teachers. Arithmetic and especially fractions were never my favorite subjects and Sadie wouldn't give me easy help, but would say, "Think! Think!" Ellen Pearson, having a bird viewing contest one spring, started my interest in birds, as the grove around our farm was a wonderful place for many kinds of warblers, turtledoves, robins, orioles and the like.
I remember running across meadowlark nests in the tall grasses of the pastures when I would perform my nightly chore of "getting the cows home" for milking. It seems to me now that there were many more birds then than now and surely there must have been as there were no pesticides or artificial fertilizers to poison them. Also there were more trees, the frenzy for utilizing every little bit of land had not yet gripped the farming community.
I should mention that airplanes were then such a novelty, only appearing at State Fairs and County Fairs, and when one happened to hear the drone of a plane overhead while in school, the teacher would excuse everyone so they could go out and look at the wonderful man-made bird.
On 8th grade graduation day those who had "passed" the exams sent out from the county superintendent's office gathered at the Chautauqua Building in the Sac City Fair grounds. To prepare for this event questions of past years were studied and the whole 8th grade year was an intensive review year. Great was the relief when one received the news in the mail that one had "passed" and grades in percentages where enclosed. At the graduation exercises different awards were made and probably there was a speaker, I can't remember.
During the school years it was the county superintendent's duty to go around and visit each school and observe for needed improvements or comment on good teaching. He came without warning so a solemn hush fell upon us all upon seeing the teacher usher the superintendent in and everyone applied himself to his books. The visits of the county nurse were more appreciated and she examined eyes, throat, ears, and teeth and one was given a dental card to take to the dentist and have signed upon completion of his work. She also recommended helps for poor eyesight or hearing and visits to the doctor for inspection of tonsils.
Most teachers had little housekeeping chores for the pupils to do, of which they took turns doing, such as bringing in coal and cobs, washing the blackboard and dusting the blackboard erasers by clapping them together out on the front stoop, dusting and sweeping and various small chores.
Now almost all the country schoolhouses have been torn down and the yards incorporated into fields. Where are the lady slippers that grew on the yard now? Many houses have also been moved into towns and remodeled into living houses and some have become country residences right where they stand.
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