This writer has been most fortunate to receive a copy of “Elbert Hubbard’s Scrapbook” which was published in 1923 and is a vast collection of assorted articles and phrases that upon occasion Mr. Hubbard sought to use. As a publisher you will understand his need for information! Additionally Mr. Hubbard and wife were aboard the “Titanic” when it went down and his son had the collection published in a book form. Not to dwell on Elbert Hubbard, one of the phrases in this marvelous publication was a quotation by Margaret Fuller-1810-50 (she would be classified in this modern age as the first woman activist for woman’s rights. Her quotation is “If you have knowledge, let others light their candles at it.”
Relevant to the education of all young students, whether it is from the one-room districts school or the modern sprawling schools of the twenty-first century. With this in mind it will give all thought, that if they themselves, be it teachers, lawyers, doctors, all professional persons, that the knowledge they teach and have access to be passed on through the generations to maintain our precious heritage.
This writer, will at this time, acknowledge the information credit of this district school to Marian Poole and to the former historian. Joy Barber, for sharing it with me for these articles relevant to the Lincklaen schools. Mrs. Poole wrote in her documentation of “Early Days in Lincklaen” that the school she knew best of was the Pond School, as four generations of her family had attended. The first school house in this district was a log cabin in what (at the time she wrote) in Art Brown’s pasture on the east side of the road near the top of the knoll. This cabin would be used till about 1885. Her father she wrote began school there at the age of five, being born in 1879. His recollections were of sitting on a bench at the front of the room without a desk.
He was happy if someone was absent as the he could use their seat. As has been documented time and time again, these long benches in the front of the schoolrooms were “the recitation benches.” Scholars of one grade would come and sit and the teacher would hear their lessons and instruct them in new work, all the while keeping watch of the balance of the students at their desks who were supposed to be studying.
Later another school building erected on the knoll north of the old log cabin and was located among the trees on the same side of the road. There are large maples still standing, they being planted in 1890 by Alpheus Hendge, Charles Darling, Asa Swan and Orlando Poole. The new schoolhouse was a neat white building, as was the custom of that time, and had a belfry and bell on the peak of the roof. It was an honor to be allowed to pull the rope and ring that bell, calling students, “it’s time for lessons.”
At the time of erection, this was a very nice building as it had a partition in it. The hall (or entrance) served as a woodhouse and a shelf was included to hold the water pail and dipper. Each day children were sent to the neighbor’s house or spring to bring drinking water. There were no worries on those days of germs, lead or asbestos in those days, and all twenty to thirty children drank from the same dipper. A note in included here, shades of horror, parents and teachers will throw up their hands in horror today. Additionally the traditional wash basin and towel were provided for washing hands. All were warned not to waste the water and it was a rare occasion that we washed when we ate our lunch.
Upon arrival at the schoolhouse in the morning, the teacher would unlock the door and their first job was to start the fire in the pot-bellied stove. During the winter time one of the older boys was paid $1 a week to come early and build the fire, so that the room would be warm when the rest of the students arrived. However, if you stood by the stove, you burned on one side and froze on the other there was no happy medium in those days. Sitting at your desk, especially if you were by a window you would need a sweater. On Friday nights the teacher would sweep the room and the floor of the school was oiled once a year to keep the dust down. Mrs. Poole did relate that if they were early for school and it was either raining or snowing, they would crawl under the front steps.
A few years later a new road was built which had a big culvert in front of the school, this provided protection from the elements of the weather.
This school was furnished with factory-made desks and seats; additionally a bookcase was attached to the wall, full of books, which seldom were taken out. Mrs. Poole went on to relate the school contained a wheezy old organ, never played and the photographs of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln at the front of the room and she well remembered a picture of the child and kitten named “Can’t you Talk”! There were no lights and the flag hung in one corner for morning exercises.
The photo with this article shows the location of this school and since has been moved and now is located at the Butch Brown farm on the Union Valley Road, which is located partially if I am correct in Chenango County and partially in Cortland County.
With this partial history we will close again state “to be continued.”