Schools of the Past: Greene District #8 Spring Valley Part II
To continue the history of the above district, last week’s article referenced in detail the building of the new schoolhouse in the year 1844. As was previously written, however, this district school was much older than 1844 having its beginning in 1822 and with continuous operation until the year 1940. The schoolhouses that were Spring Valley lasted a total of one hundred and eighteen years. To all the trustees and scholars who attended this early educational institution, as has been said about certain aspects of history, it is nothing to be sneezed at!
When Mrs. Folsom wrote her detailed history of the Greene township district schools, her reference to the location of District #8 was a one line – apparently Amos Hotchkiss owned the land on which the original school was to be located as her reference reads “Amos Hotchkiss – between Smithville and Greene.” As written last week, this location is at the corner of Spring Valley Road and New York State #41 - between Greene and Smithville Flats. A change in the district lines, and this was very, very common in the township of Greene, occurred in 1841 when Lot #51 in #8 (listed as Smithville) known as the Rathbone and Hunt farm was reassigned to District #1. Again in 1841 the farm of Hiram Jones was transferred from District #8 to District #4 and again in 1850 Lots #41 and #42 known as the Juhel Tract of Richard Tremaine, Harley, Levi, and Edmund Beardsley, Henry Manwarring and C. P. Blakesley was transferred from District #8 to District #18. With all of these changes one may at times wonder, well where do I send my children for their education?!
As previously written this school came into existence in 1822 with Russell Horton, Cyrus Thornton and Nathaniel Dodge being the trustees of this new district school. Other gentlemen’s names who appear in the history included Greene, Horton, Foulds, Avery, Davis, Straight, Campbell, Marvin with the average scholar population ranging from a high of 80 in 1852 to a low of 33 by 1887. After this year, no scholars were listed in Mrs. Folsom’s history.
In the tax list and warrant for District 8 in the year 1869, and we will quote what was written verbatim: “List of taxes apportioned by the trustee of District No. 8, in the town of Greene, county of Chenango, in accordance with the provisions of article seven title seven of the general school law of the State of New York, for the purpose of raising the sum of $69 laid and charged on the said district according law; viz: $62.24 for teachers wages, $1.76 for incidental expenses and $5.00 for fuel.” Appearing on this taxable list were the following names, Baldwin, Bates, Burgher, Courser, Campbell, Cummings, Dunelty, Cook, Horton, Hotchkiss, Jamison, Mattison, Marvin, McEnaney, David Sherwood (he would be the builder of the Fahy Funeral Home in Norwich and originally from Guilford), Tillotson, Wedge, Waugh, Walls, and Warner. The average number of acres taxed for this purpose ranged from 235 to as small as seven acres with the actual tax levied ranging from a high of $10.55 to a low of $.96 with the total monies raised $69.
Concluding this tax list and warrant the following statement concluded this early historical documentation. “To the collector of District No. 8 in the town of Greene, county of Chenango: You are hereby commanded to receive from each of the taxable inhabitants names in the forgoing list, and of the owners of the real estate described there, the several sums mentioned in the last column of the said list, opposite the persons so names, or so much thereof as may be voluntarily paid to you, for two successive weeks after the delivery to you of this warrant, together with one cent on each dollar thereof for your fees, and after the expiration of the time above mentioned, to proceed forthwith to collect the residue of the sums not so paid in as aforesaid, with five cents on each dollar thereof, for your fees, and in case any person upon whom such tax is imposed shall neglect, or refuse, to pay the same, you are to levy the same by distress, and sale, of the goods and chattels of the person so taxes, in the same manner as on warrant issued by the board of supervisors, to the collectors of taxes in towns; and you are to make and return of this warrant within thirty days after the delivery thereof to you. All moneys received, or collected, by you by virtue of this warrant, you are to keep safely, and to pay out the same on the written order of the trustee. Given under my hand this 29th day of May in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine. George W. Tillotson, Trustee Dist. No 8.”
The safekeeping of this historic document is a true testament of the history and if, by chance, if it had been lost, this information would have been lost forever.
In the existing financial report which is dated August 20, 1884 (the year the new school was erected) the total receipts for that year were $622.95 and the total expense the same. An example of the expenses incurred were $119 paid for the teachers’ salaries, somewhat smaller than the salaries of this twenty-first century, but then education was much less complicated that it is today! In this report the teachers listed were C. P. Betts licensed by J. E. Bartoo for the winter term and Mary C. Cline for the spring term.
In this year above the following parents and children were listed with the ages succeeding each child’s name. Homage is due to these parents and scholars listed below: G. W. Tillotson - George H. (13) - Raymond (6), Lydia M. Baldwin - Minnie Winston (19) - Wilbur Baldwin (12), Viola Northrup - M. Northrup (18) -Albert Northrup (15), John Lucas - Ralph (14) - Ray (5), Samuel Lucas-Jennie (18)- Timothy Leary-Timothy (17), Oliver Hotchkiss- Minnie (13), William Marvin - Herman (11) - Charles (10) - unreadable name (7), George W. Dunelty - Mary Baldwin (15) - Josephine Duntley (15) - Eloise (17) - Wm. (18) - E. Thompson (15), Chancey Simmons - (Hubert (15) - Julian (10), Thomas L Hammond - Allisha (16) - Dwight (14) - Morrell (12), Harvey Lenderson - Mabel (10), Robert Waugh -John (18), Peter Cline - Charles (17), Dwight C. Lyman -Susan Campbell (5), Thomas Martin - Margaret (14) -Wm. (18) - Jennie (10), (unreadable first initial) H. Walls-James (20) - Lydia (18), and finally Eugene Thompson - Emmett Waters (15). This above information stylizes the idea of the age of the students and in some instances the guardians (this was not uncommon both in Greene and other districts throughout the county,) Research had given more of the school registers and parents and scholars however space does not permit this research to be printed with this article.
As this district entered in to the twentieth century the teachers who were employed by District #8 included: Jennie Brown, Hazel Rich, Florence Gage, Myrtle Lyman, Effie Comfort, Margaret Pearsall (Small), Dorothy Adams, Geraldine Palmer (Harrington), Bertha Ford, Christina Pate (Woodland), Mrs. Robert Steers, and finally Melda Happick (Standish).
Thus we conclude this history of District #8 and will return again for yet another history of the Town of Greene’s one-room schools. Finally, the request is repeated, if you have historical information of no use to you, please do not destroy, place it in a repository so that is may be accessed by those interested at a future time.
When Mrs. Folsom wrote her detailed history of the Greene township district schools, her reference to the location of District #8 was a one line – apparently Amos Hotchkiss owned the land on which the original school was to be located as her reference reads “Amos Hotchkiss – between Smithville and Greene.” As written last week, this location is at the corner of Spring Valley Road and New York State #41 - between Greene and Smithville Flats. A change in the district lines, and this was very, very common in the township of Greene, occurred in 1841 when Lot #51 in #8 (listed as Smithville) known as the Rathbone and Hunt farm was reassigned to District #1. Again in 1841 the farm of Hiram Jones was transferred from District #8 to District #4 and again in 1850 Lots #41 and #42 known as the Juhel Tract of Richard Tremaine, Harley, Levi, and Edmund Beardsley, Henry Manwarring and C. P. Blakesley was transferred from District #8 to District #18. With all of these changes one may at times wonder, well where do I send my children for their education?!
As previously written this school came into existence in 1822 with Russell Horton, Cyrus Thornton and Nathaniel Dodge being the trustees of this new district school. Other gentlemen’s names who appear in the history included Greene, Horton, Foulds, Avery, Davis, Straight, Campbell, Marvin with the average scholar population ranging from a high of 80 in 1852 to a low of 33 by 1887. After this year, no scholars were listed in Mrs. Folsom’s history.
In the tax list and warrant for District 8 in the year 1869, and we will quote what was written verbatim: “List of taxes apportioned by the trustee of District No. 8, in the town of Greene, county of Chenango, in accordance with the provisions of article seven title seven of the general school law of the State of New York, for the purpose of raising the sum of $69 laid and charged on the said district according law; viz: $62.24 for teachers wages, $1.76 for incidental expenses and $5.00 for fuel.” Appearing on this taxable list were the following names, Baldwin, Bates, Burgher, Courser, Campbell, Cummings, Dunelty, Cook, Horton, Hotchkiss, Jamison, Mattison, Marvin, McEnaney, David Sherwood (he would be the builder of the Fahy Funeral Home in Norwich and originally from Guilford), Tillotson, Wedge, Waugh, Walls, and Warner. The average number of acres taxed for this purpose ranged from 235 to as small as seven acres with the actual tax levied ranging from a high of $10.55 to a low of $.96 with the total monies raised $69.
Concluding this tax list and warrant the following statement concluded this early historical documentation. “To the collector of District No. 8 in the town of Greene, county of Chenango: You are hereby commanded to receive from each of the taxable inhabitants names in the forgoing list, and of the owners of the real estate described there, the several sums mentioned in the last column of the said list, opposite the persons so names, or so much thereof as may be voluntarily paid to you, for two successive weeks after the delivery to you of this warrant, together with one cent on each dollar thereof for your fees, and after the expiration of the time above mentioned, to proceed forthwith to collect the residue of the sums not so paid in as aforesaid, with five cents on each dollar thereof, for your fees, and in case any person upon whom such tax is imposed shall neglect, or refuse, to pay the same, you are to levy the same by distress, and sale, of the goods and chattels of the person so taxes, in the same manner as on warrant issued by the board of supervisors, to the collectors of taxes in towns; and you are to make and return of this warrant within thirty days after the delivery thereof to you. All moneys received, or collected, by you by virtue of this warrant, you are to keep safely, and to pay out the same on the written order of the trustee. Given under my hand this 29th day of May in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine. George W. Tillotson, Trustee Dist. No 8.”
The safekeeping of this historic document is a true testament of the history and if, by chance, if it had been lost, this information would have been lost forever.
In the existing financial report which is dated August 20, 1884 (the year the new school was erected) the total receipts for that year were $622.95 and the total expense the same. An example of the expenses incurred were $119 paid for the teachers’ salaries, somewhat smaller than the salaries of this twenty-first century, but then education was much less complicated that it is today! In this report the teachers listed were C. P. Betts licensed by J. E. Bartoo for the winter term and Mary C. Cline for the spring term.
In this year above the following parents and children were listed with the ages succeeding each child’s name. Homage is due to these parents and scholars listed below: G. W. Tillotson - George H. (13) - Raymond (6), Lydia M. Baldwin - Minnie Winston (19) - Wilbur Baldwin (12), Viola Northrup - M. Northrup (18) -Albert Northrup (15), John Lucas - Ralph (14) - Ray (5), Samuel Lucas-Jennie (18)- Timothy Leary-Timothy (17), Oliver Hotchkiss- Minnie (13), William Marvin - Herman (11) - Charles (10) - unreadable name (7), George W. Dunelty - Mary Baldwin (15) - Josephine Duntley (15) - Eloise (17) - Wm. (18) - E. Thompson (15), Chancey Simmons - (Hubert (15) - Julian (10), Thomas L Hammond - Allisha (16) - Dwight (14) - Morrell (12), Harvey Lenderson - Mabel (10), Robert Waugh -John (18), Peter Cline - Charles (17), Dwight C. Lyman -Susan Campbell (5), Thomas Martin - Margaret (14) -Wm. (18) - Jennie (10), (unreadable first initial) H. Walls-James (20) - Lydia (18), and finally Eugene Thompson - Emmett Waters (15). This above information stylizes the idea of the age of the students and in some instances the guardians (this was not uncommon both in Greene and other districts throughout the county,) Research had given more of the school registers and parents and scholars however space does not permit this research to be printed with this article.
As this district entered in to the twentieth century the teachers who were employed by District #8 included: Jennie Brown, Hazel Rich, Florence Gage, Myrtle Lyman, Effie Comfort, Margaret Pearsall (Small), Dorothy Adams, Geraldine Palmer (Harrington), Bertha Ford, Christina Pate (Woodland), Mrs. Robert Steers, and finally Melda Happick (Standish).
Thus we conclude this history of District #8 and will return again for yet another history of the Town of Greene’s one-room schools. Finally, the request is repeated, if you have historical information of no use to you, please do not destroy, place it in a repository so that is may be accessed by those interested at a future time.
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