Early last spring fire consumed Rock Springs Schoolhouse. It was the last relic in Fulton township, Lancaster County, of the five original buildings erected after the enactment of the first public school law June 13, 1836. In 1837 the directors offered at public sale contracts for the erection of five schoolhouses in the western end of Little Britain, now embraced in Fulton township Rock Springs was taken by Henry Carter and James Hanna, at #460. At that time the school directors for this portion of the school district was Thomas Hoopes, father of the present Thomas Hoopes of this township.
The carpenter work was done by Harrison McCardel , the stone work was by a man - Krauss and the brick work by Isreal Miller. At that time bricks were $5 per thousand and boards $8 to $12 per thousand feet. Carpenters wages 75 to 90 cents a day, masons $1 to $1.25 per day and common or unskilled labor 40cents. this was fifty three years ago and strange to say with one exception, that of the contractor - the venerable Henry Carter - no one is living today that had anything to do with its construction. For over half a century this building had served a good purpose. Within its walls hundreds of our citizens received their only schooling. Not less than forty persons who afterwards became teachers received their early preliminary instruction here and the good they have done can neither be measured or calculated.
In the early days in this old school - house a new era of teaching was instituted by a beloved woman Edith Rogers. She demonstrated two facts in the neighborhood , first that a woman was capable of teaching and second that the law of love and kindness was sufficient to govern a school in contra distinction to that of tyranny and the club- as practiced by an Irishman by the name of John Elwood.
On Saturday August 9th the school board met to inspect the new building and to accept it from the contractors provided it accorded with the specifications of the contract. It is needless to say it was taken off their hands without a dissenting vote. It has been erected after a plan adopted by the school board of the township, and for taste , convenience and durability is a model house. The schoolroom is neatly wainscoted, papered and finished with modern desks and a solid slate surface for blackboard work. The workmanship , inside and out reflects great credit on the contractors , Messrs Tollinger and Brogan, who have taken pains to have it complete in all the appointments and in time for the fall term.