Now that Santa Claus has delivered all his presents and returned to the North Pole for a well-earned rest and Ma in her nightgown and Pa in his night cap have settled down for a long winter’s nap it is time to return to the one-room school history of the Town of Afton.
Now it is timely to do all the reading that that the majority of us never seem to find time for. Again returning to Afton we take a look at another two of the district schools for which we have very limited historical information. All historians dream of complete documentation regarding history, but that is just a dream as very seldom is complete information available.

DISTRICT #19 - EAST AFTON
If you are not familiar with “where in the world is East Afton” this school was located on the East Afton Road between Bennettsville and North Sanford (Broome County). There was a Methodist church within the district, just south of the schoolhouse which is now a private home. You will note from the enclosed photo the similarity of the traditional one-room school house style of architecture. The Broad or East Afton Cemetery is up in a field nearby.
This school was brought into the Bainbridge school system after Bainbridge High School was centralized in the early 1930’s.
Thus we complete this brief documentation of a school which served the Afton District for a number of years. Again we reiterate that the cost of the school, how long it was in existence as an educational institution, who built the school, all of these facts remain unknown. As has been the case numerous times in the research of this educational history, when the school buildings were no longer used, the school records were often left for the next owner. At times these records were kept, only to be scattered, or in the horrifying case, if the building was torn down, the records were often burned. During this previous historical period of our educational history, it was not considered important to keep these records.

DISTRICT #26 - LASHURE OR MEEK DISTRICT
This district school was located at the corner of Hunt Road and Oxbow Road. The building had been sold and converted into a private residence. While Mrs. Dopp, mother-in-law of Dennis Stevens was living there the former schoolhouse was destroyed by fire. A modem home has now been built on the site.
In the photo of this school you will note the little girl trudging through the very deep snow to attend her class for the day. Somewhat different than the modern transportation furnished to our students today! It was not uncommon for students to walk a mile or mile and one-half for their education.
Documented history furnished by Charles Decker gives us the information that the following were teaching at this school, Bernice Decker, Ruth Decker, Edith Buman and Mary Christie Tobey to name a few.
In her account, Mary Tobey mentions the extreme poverty of the families of the district. As a Roman Catholic, she feared the Ku Klux Klan which was very active in this area in the 1920’s.
It will be noted that the account of Mary Tobey written in 1997 by Ann Christie Tobey will be given at a future time.
Again with this brief history we close yet another segment of Afton School history with the usual request that if anyone wishes to share their “school day’s memories’ please forward this information via e-mail to news@evesun.com. If e-mail is not available, mail to Jeff Genung, The Evening Sun, PO Box 151, Norwich NY 13815.