The never ending quest for historical information may be compared to a “bottomless well” as all historians will attest, “You never know what you will find.” Such is the case with the Kirk District #14 in the Town of Plymouth. While researching another subject the attendance register for this district Nov. 3, 1873 - February 21, 1874 was located and provided information relevant to students that is the basis for this article.
No photo exists of the pupils that attended District #14 in the above time period; however in the extensive documentation that the Plymouth historian provided was the photo taken about 1928 showing teacher and students. We regret that the names of the students were not documented however the three boys in the first row are the George boys who lived in the area for a great many years. The only other documentation was the girl on the bottom row on the right of the photo was identified as Martha (Frink) Miles. However, let us return to the 1873-74 school records.
The teacher for the time period above was listed at Adelbert Newton with a roster of twenty-four students in the one-room school and the ages of the students ranged from five years to seventeen. The children attending this early school were Mary, Selden, Duane, Frankie, and Mertie Newton (this was two different), Matie, Freddie, Ernest, Charles, Elmer, Sherman, Eddie and Nettie Steward, Dwight Moody, I.J. Wilmark, Morton, Chester, and Harley Frink, Alice Henry, Matie Levee, Orville Westcott, DeVer Ames and Willie Maynard.
For the four month summer school May 11 - August 14,1874 Nettie Barber was hired as a teacher. Again the students attending this summer session would number twenty-four. Part of the students of the winter term returned for the summer, but in addition the names of Addie, and Flora Newton, Carrie Wells, Ina and Mary Cobb, Mary and Eddie Steward, Linn Newton, Clarence Bowers, Harley and Morton Frink, Amasa Henry, and Philla and Loretty Nye appeared in the attendance records.
At the time of the attendance records were documented the visitors to the school were also written. Many names were the parents of the children, who visited for one reason or another. This practice still continues today in a different format with the “Parents Night” and if there is a problem with students, parents still visit the assorted schools in the county.
Stewards, Aldrich, Newton, Babcock, Boyden, Browning, Stewart, Huntley, Buell, Crain, Davis, Evans, Hunt, Hung, Willmarth, Ludington, Sackett, Nightengale, Levee, Fox, White, Backus, Moody and Brown all appeared in the records. These names, many of which their descendants still live in the Plymouth township were the early residents that sent their children to “schools of the past.”
With this we close yet another chapter of Plymouth township school history and again the book is closed but if new research provides additional information, new pages will be added. Finally the request for “memories” is asked to be forwarded either by mail or e-mail to news@evesun.com.