Schools of the Past: Coventry Districts 7 and 8
With the opening of the new school year throughout Chenango County, it is timely that we return again the Township of Coventry for yet another chapter in the history of one-room schools. Regrettably there are no photos for us to view as a reminder of the early education that our forefathers and/or ancestors received in those primitive schoolhouses of yesterday. In this modern hi-tech age when the majority of students have calculators, laptop computers etc., it is unrealistic for today’s students to comprehend the education of yesteryear.
DISTRICT #7 - JONES OR WATROUS (?)
Again the research by Catherine Bickford, former historian, has to be credited to her book “History of the Town of Coventry: 1900-1975.” Her documentation of Page Brook Road in the Town of Coventry (now County Road #9) is the only historical documentation that is available regarding District #7. This writer has taken the liberty of naming this district with the above names as this school does not appear on the 1863 map, but the 1875 map of Coventry shows families by the above names living close to the site of the former schoolhouse.
On pages 21-23 of the above history of Coventry, Mrs. Bickford wrote the below information relevant to Page Brook Road which we will quote verbatim. Page Brook Road - “At the foot of the hill in another old farm - settled in the early 1800s by Uri Watrous. His daughter, Nettie J. Watrous married Clifford Wylie and their son, Lynn Wylie and his wife Ethel Eldred, owned it from 1913 to 1946 when they sold to Clarence Williamson. The Wylies purchased the school house District #7, and converted it into a home where they lived a few years then moved to Greene. Ruth Williamson (daughter of Clarence and Louella) and her husband, John Bingham, built a log home in the field back of the farm house in 1976 and are still operating the farm. The schoolhouse was sold by the Wylies to Donald and Doris Roberts who lived here several years and sold to Richard D. Howell (son of Duane and Hattie Howell o f Chenango Forks.) Richard is nephew to Earl Howell, Sr. and is an elementary teacher in Greene. The former schoolhouse is the last home on the Page Brook Road in the Town of Coventry, however in the 1900s there was a home just beyond the junction with Bowbell Road. The white birch trees which are around the house are still visible.”
This concluded her brief research regarding District #7. Who erected the original school, what did it took like, again the mysteries of history which perhaps someday might be solved.
DISTRICT #8 - SMALL’S CORNERS
For the history of District #8, Mrs. Bickford researched and the following was written in her above history. As this writer cannot capitalize on Mrs. Bickford’s research, once again her documentation is quoted as she wrote it.
Recollections of Ethelyn (Knickerbocker) Gott
“Alice Wrench was one of the teachers at Drachler’s Corners School. Susie Grover was a teacher in the Lynn Wylie District where I started school when we lived on the McNitt farm. On the north-east corner of Smad’s Corners is the house built in 1946 by Frank Small for his daughter and right next to that is the old School District #8 which is now reduced to use as a storage and a shop.”
Following is part of a letter from Dorothea Krivicich who was a student at this school from 1918-27.
“When I started school in 1918, the first two pupils who arrived, took the water pail across the road to Frank Knickerbockers’ well to fill for the day’s consumption. The pail sat, uncovered, on a shelf in the back corner of the room. A tin dipper, from which we all drank, was suspended from a nail on the wall. When I was in third grade. Miss Jane I. Schneck was our District Superintendent and informed us that the pail was out and we must have a ‘water fountain.’ This was made of pottery, similar to the butter and sauerkraut crocks of the period, with a cover and a faucet at the bottom.
“The room was heated by a pot-bellied stove. The teacher and the big girls used the flat top of the stove for fixing our one item hot lunch to supplement our tin lunch boxes.
“The boys and girls toilets were adjoining cubicles in the rear of the schoolhouse, of course the boys had whittled more than their initials.
“Mrs. Johnson taught us to play baseball. Everybody had to play something; baseball; Anthony Over; Fox and Geese, etc. Frequently we would go on hikes to the east of the school or up into the woods.
“My father was trustee in 1919 and hired Hazel Tydings of Greene at a salary of $10. Per week. The following year the State Board of Regents ruled that teachers must be paid $22.50. When I started teaching in (District #24 in Greene) at age 18,1 also received $22.50.
“Edith Drachler (before her marriage to William) taught at Dist. #8 and boarded with William’s stepmother, Anna (Stark) Drachler.
“Following is a list of teachers to the best of my recollection. In 1918 - Hazel Tydings, 1920, Mabel Lyon, Mrs. Floyd Padgett (she lived on Hogsback Road), Frances Johnson (her husband was Jake Johnson), 1927 Eolian Porter, 1928 Naomi Butler (she married a Mr. Sickles); 1929 Kate Decker, Elizabeth Cohoon and Margaret Delmarter.
“There was an earlier schoolhouse that Lewis Dutcher attended. It was red and located closed to the road.
“These are the students that I recall as having attended this school. Lewis Dutcher (b. in a log cabin in the ravine west of the school.) In the early 1900’s Georgia Wylie, Ethelyn Knickerbocker, Hilda, Marcella and Wendell Stark; Gertrude Badger, Florence, Edith and Henry Dutcher.
“From 1918 there were the Moran children (Frank fell off the bridge into a fast flowing stream on the way home from school, he had to walk a mile in soaking wet clothes on that cold spring day - a long way for a first grader.) There were two Harris boys who lived where Mrs. Small does, the Wells children, Edward and Jennie Stringham, Jessie and Leo Freer; Edna Barstow (she lived with the Merton Hackett family but was not adopted although we all called her “Edna Hackett”; Jack, Ray and Vincent Hall; Madeline, Edward, Ben and Kurt Rounds; Peter and Irmagard Geiss (they lived across from Clear View Lodge); the Krivicich children; Margaret and Hilton Small; Donald Acly; William Hedger and Lawrence Miller (we called him “Pete” and he lived with his uncle Joseph Hedges; Lucille and Phyllis Gott; Arnold and Wands Benedict; Robert Macalaceb: Elsie Cooper; the Howell children; there were two families of DeGregorios. Paul DeGregorio lived where W. P. Blackman now lives; his children were Dominic, Gasper, Isadore, Rose and Anthony. Anthony DeGregorio lived on the Ackley farm; his children were Rose and Anthony, Jr. The last family I remember is the McLains, Ellen, Yvonne and Glenn.”
This concludes the recollections of Mrs. Gott and the letter from Ms. Krivicich and hopefully it will provide an image of this one-room school. To better clarify the location of this former school, it still stands (greatly altered) on Route 206 and the intersection of Moran Road which eventually ends on County Road 32 (Back River Road in the town of Oxford). A most pleasant drive on one of these crisp fall weekends that are fast approaching this area!
Again in conclusion the request for additional information or photos relevant to the one-room schools in the township of Coventry is requested. Information may be forwarded by e-mail to news@evesun.com or to the Coventry Historical Society.
This writer will stress this point, if any historical information remains today relevant not only to the schools of Coventry but any of the one-room schools of Chenango County, please do not destroy this valuable segment of history, present it to your historical society or e-mail to the above. Destruction of this information is similar to the demolition of a prominent historic building. Once it is gone, it is lost forever!
DISTRICT #7 - JONES OR WATROUS (?)
Again the research by Catherine Bickford, former historian, has to be credited to her book “History of the Town of Coventry: 1900-1975.” Her documentation of Page Brook Road in the Town of Coventry (now County Road #9) is the only historical documentation that is available regarding District #7. This writer has taken the liberty of naming this district with the above names as this school does not appear on the 1863 map, but the 1875 map of Coventry shows families by the above names living close to the site of the former schoolhouse.
On pages 21-23 of the above history of Coventry, Mrs. Bickford wrote the below information relevant to Page Brook Road which we will quote verbatim. Page Brook Road - “At the foot of the hill in another old farm - settled in the early 1800s by Uri Watrous. His daughter, Nettie J. Watrous married Clifford Wylie and their son, Lynn Wylie and his wife Ethel Eldred, owned it from 1913 to 1946 when they sold to Clarence Williamson. The Wylies purchased the school house District #7, and converted it into a home where they lived a few years then moved to Greene. Ruth Williamson (daughter of Clarence and Louella) and her husband, John Bingham, built a log home in the field back of the farm house in 1976 and are still operating the farm. The schoolhouse was sold by the Wylies to Donald and Doris Roberts who lived here several years and sold to Richard D. Howell (son of Duane and Hattie Howell o f Chenango Forks.) Richard is nephew to Earl Howell, Sr. and is an elementary teacher in Greene. The former schoolhouse is the last home on the Page Brook Road in the Town of Coventry, however in the 1900s there was a home just beyond the junction with Bowbell Road. The white birch trees which are around the house are still visible.”
This concluded her brief research regarding District #7. Who erected the original school, what did it took like, again the mysteries of history which perhaps someday might be solved.
DISTRICT #8 - SMALL’S CORNERS
For the history of District #8, Mrs. Bickford researched and the following was written in her above history. As this writer cannot capitalize on Mrs. Bickford’s research, once again her documentation is quoted as she wrote it.
Recollections of Ethelyn (Knickerbocker) Gott
“Alice Wrench was one of the teachers at Drachler’s Corners School. Susie Grover was a teacher in the Lynn Wylie District where I started school when we lived on the McNitt farm. On the north-east corner of Smad’s Corners is the house built in 1946 by Frank Small for his daughter and right next to that is the old School District #8 which is now reduced to use as a storage and a shop.”
Following is part of a letter from Dorothea Krivicich who was a student at this school from 1918-27.
“When I started school in 1918, the first two pupils who arrived, took the water pail across the road to Frank Knickerbockers’ well to fill for the day’s consumption. The pail sat, uncovered, on a shelf in the back corner of the room. A tin dipper, from which we all drank, was suspended from a nail on the wall. When I was in third grade. Miss Jane I. Schneck was our District Superintendent and informed us that the pail was out and we must have a ‘water fountain.’ This was made of pottery, similar to the butter and sauerkraut crocks of the period, with a cover and a faucet at the bottom.
“The room was heated by a pot-bellied stove. The teacher and the big girls used the flat top of the stove for fixing our one item hot lunch to supplement our tin lunch boxes.
“The boys and girls toilets were adjoining cubicles in the rear of the schoolhouse, of course the boys had whittled more than their initials.
“Mrs. Johnson taught us to play baseball. Everybody had to play something; baseball; Anthony Over; Fox and Geese, etc. Frequently we would go on hikes to the east of the school or up into the woods.
“My father was trustee in 1919 and hired Hazel Tydings of Greene at a salary of $10. Per week. The following year the State Board of Regents ruled that teachers must be paid $22.50. When I started teaching in (District #24 in Greene) at age 18,1 also received $22.50.
“Edith Drachler (before her marriage to William) taught at Dist. #8 and boarded with William’s stepmother, Anna (Stark) Drachler.
“Following is a list of teachers to the best of my recollection. In 1918 - Hazel Tydings, 1920, Mabel Lyon, Mrs. Floyd Padgett (she lived on Hogsback Road), Frances Johnson (her husband was Jake Johnson), 1927 Eolian Porter, 1928 Naomi Butler (she married a Mr. Sickles); 1929 Kate Decker, Elizabeth Cohoon and Margaret Delmarter.
“There was an earlier schoolhouse that Lewis Dutcher attended. It was red and located closed to the road.
“These are the students that I recall as having attended this school. Lewis Dutcher (b. in a log cabin in the ravine west of the school.) In the early 1900’s Georgia Wylie, Ethelyn Knickerbocker, Hilda, Marcella and Wendell Stark; Gertrude Badger, Florence, Edith and Henry Dutcher.
“From 1918 there were the Moran children (Frank fell off the bridge into a fast flowing stream on the way home from school, he had to walk a mile in soaking wet clothes on that cold spring day - a long way for a first grader.) There were two Harris boys who lived where Mrs. Small does, the Wells children, Edward and Jennie Stringham, Jessie and Leo Freer; Edna Barstow (she lived with the Merton Hackett family but was not adopted although we all called her “Edna Hackett”; Jack, Ray and Vincent Hall; Madeline, Edward, Ben and Kurt Rounds; Peter and Irmagard Geiss (they lived across from Clear View Lodge); the Krivicich children; Margaret and Hilton Small; Donald Acly; William Hedger and Lawrence Miller (we called him “Pete” and he lived with his uncle Joseph Hedges; Lucille and Phyllis Gott; Arnold and Wands Benedict; Robert Macalaceb: Elsie Cooper; the Howell children; there were two families of DeGregorios. Paul DeGregorio lived where W. P. Blackman now lives; his children were Dominic, Gasper, Isadore, Rose and Anthony. Anthony DeGregorio lived on the Ackley farm; his children were Rose and Anthony, Jr. The last family I remember is the McLains, Ellen, Yvonne and Glenn.”
This concludes the recollections of Mrs. Gott and the letter from Ms. Krivicich and hopefully it will provide an image of this one-room school. To better clarify the location of this former school, it still stands (greatly altered) on Route 206 and the intersection of Moran Road which eventually ends on County Road 32 (Back River Road in the town of Oxford). A most pleasant drive on one of these crisp fall weekends that are fast approaching this area!
Again in conclusion the request for additional information or photos relevant to the one-room schools in the township of Coventry is requested. Information may be forwarded by e-mail to news@evesun.com or to the Coventry Historical Society.
This writer will stress this point, if any historical information remains today relevant not only to the schools of Coventry but any of the one-room schools of Chenango County, please do not destroy this valuable segment of history, present it to your historical society or e-mail to the above. Destruction of this information is similar to the demolition of a prominent historic building. Once it is gone, it is lost forever!
dived wound factual legitimately delightful goodness fit rat some lopsidedly far when.
Slung alongside jeepers hypnotic legitimately some iguana this agreeably triumphant pointedly far
jeepers unscrupulous anteater attentive noiseless put less greyhound prior stiff ferret unbearably cracked oh.
So sparing more goose caribou wailed went conveniently burned the the the and that save that adroit gosh and sparing armadillo grew some overtook that magnificently that
Circuitous gull and messily squirrel on that banally assenting nobly some much rakishly goodness that the darn abject hello left because unaccountably spluttered unlike a aurally since contritely thanks