To all the interested parties who may remember my past article relevant to the historic churches of Chenango County, the photo for which credit is due to the later Mert Brownell in his documentary Unadilla Valley 1788-1976, the photo which accompanies this article not only is a photo or the “Old Union Church” erected in 1819, but in the right hand corner is the photo of the school which will be related below. The erection of the many school houses in this county at times were erected adjacent or nearby the many historic churches of this county.
For the written history of what is available regarding District #5, this writer will quote verbatim what Mr. Brownell documented in his book above. “The school was 300 ft. north of the church, and was built of log in 1807 (note: this would document that is was one of the oldest in the township and in the county as a whole) and in 1826 was rebuilt into a frame schoolhouse, which burned in 1836 and was rebuilt the same year. This was a large one-room school with an entrance hall across the front. I attended school there in 1901 for two years. The larger boys carried the drinking water from a spring across the road in front of the school. The pail was placed n a low stand against the wall with a tin dipper hanging on a nail above it. If you held up one finger, a nod from the teacher you could walk forward, take the dipper from the nail, dip out some water and what you didn’t want, dump back into the pail, hang up the dipper and return to your seat. Two fingers and a returning nod, issued you a pass outdoor to the ‘perfume factory.’ which was a small two-room building, with the Girls entrance on the north and the Boys, on the south. It contained seats of different heights. The partition between the two sides had several board patches nailed over the peek-holes that the girls had cut with their jackknives from their side. The school is still standing and is used as a home by Mrs. Elsie Walker (1976).”
This concludes what Mr. Brownell documented regarding his knowledge and memories of attending this early educational institution.
This writer will note at this time in the ongoing research of the history of Chenango County’s numerous one-room schools the history related above is true in many instances of all of the County’s schools. A statement at this time: My how times have changed!

DISTRICT #6: HIGHBRIDGE OR HERDICA HILL
There are a numerous time in the research and documentation of history, that literally you have to go through the back door to come out the front door! Such is the case with District #6 of which we have almost absolutely no information.
The 1875 map of Chenango County shows the location of District #6 as being either on or quite close to what is now known as The High Bridge Road. Where in the world is the High Bridge Road? So named for the high trestle that was once a part of the Ontario & Western Road line between East Guilford and Edmeston. For all who want to explore this location, travel to Route 8 below the hamlet of Rockwell’s Mills and a right hand turn will be “High Bridge Road.” So that you are not lost, this dirt road leads eventually to the Phillips-Odell Road another right turn will take you to County Road #37 either to Guilford (west) or Mt. Upton (east). Returning to the starting point, you will see a bend in the road and then an open field and a sign for the Rod & Gun Club. At this site was the school above.
This school was also known as Herdica so named for Sam Herdica which this writer will assume was a rather prominent landowner in the vicinity.
With this scant information we will again close another chapter in the history of the township of Guilford’s numerous one-room schools. With the usual request, if you do have any historical information relevant to schools, do not destroy donate it to a repository where it will be accessible for future generations for research.