Growing Beyond Their Dreams

The new school did not mean the end of the country school. Not by any measure. Only the children who lived in town and those very close to town attended the community school. Those in the country still attended the country school closest to where they lived.

Louisa Gellhorn, who grew up on a farm northwest of Steamboat Rock, wrote of some of her school experiences in the country around the same time the new school was occupied in town. “I think about our schools in those late 1870’s. Three months in the summer we had a lady teacher and three months (later four) in the winter, a man teacher. They needed a man to handle the big bad boys who went to school in the winter. And they were bad! Once Fred Manning and Charlie Hoyt got into a fight and Charlie drew a jackknife to stab Fred but was checked by the teacher. Both boys were dismissed from school for a week but were reinstated and became very good friends.”

“The first two men teachers I had were regular bears, Mr. Burdock, and Mr. Milton. I don’t know which was the worst. They would twist the boys ears, kick them, and when they whipped them with a big hickory stick the whole school would turn pale with fright. Two other men teachers we had were Dan Leah and Will Stout. They were darlings and we loved them.”

“I can’t remember that any of the older children went to school after I was nine years old except Martha who was my guardian. (The younger children had a guardian, usually an older sibling or other older student to help them in school). One day I was in the outhouse when the bell rang, so I rushed into the schoolhouse buttoning up my panties, and was Martha ashamed of me.”

“All community social affairs were held at the schoolhouse–singing school, spelling school, lyceum, at which affirmative sides would debate such questions as, “Do you get the most pleasure out of pursuit or pleasure?” I was too young to understand it all, but the singing and speaking were my part and I was always in them. We Gellhorns always sang at these gatherings. Father took great interest in all these things and wanted us to learn and work for an education. He was always teaching us at home.”

“I excelled in spelling and nearly always spelled the school down. Some other school would send us an invitation to a match and it was fun to pack about twenty into a bobsled with sleigh bells jingling, and ride back about midnight.”