The Slate Spring 2013 Newsletter (PDF)

The Michigan One-Room Schoolhouse Association Newsletter

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WHY? Six years ago my wife Jane and I were motoring

up Grand River Avenue (old U.S. 16) between How-ell and Fowlerville when we saw a one room school-house with a state historic marker. We stopped and learned that it was the Fleming School built in 1882, replacing an earlier log school on the same site. It closed in 1957, was restored in 1993 and the state historic marker was awarded in 1994. We could see from the exterior that it was a beautiful restoration. We were soon joined by a woman who introduced herself to us as Cynthia Toomey. She stated that she lived across the road and had gone to school there. She participated with a volunteer group in the resto-ration and now in the maintenance of the school. She took us through the school and we were im-pressed with the fact that it had many of the essen-tials appropriate for a one room schoolhouse of this era. These included a teacher's desk, a recitation bench, a regulator clock, turn-of-the-century desks and school books of that era. She further stated that it was being used by the Howell public schools to offer a one room schoolhouse experience to grade school students.

(Continued on page 2)

President’s Column By Tom M. Johnson

The _

Slate

MORSA To Celebrate 20th Anniversary

at Annual Conference at CMU

By Larry Schlack

Saturday, May 18, is the date. Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant is the place.

The Michigan One-Room Schoolhouse Associa-tion is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. It was founded in 1993 at Eastern Michigan Univer-sity and has held an annual conference every year since 1993.

Focus for the 2013 conference is on the 20 one-room schools still operating in Michigan. All 20 schools are invited to have a teacher and a school board member at the conference. A highlight will be a morning presentation by the teachers at Excel-sior Township School near Kalkaska on the topic “Teaching in a One-Room School in 2013: How We Do It.” In the afternoon there will be time for teachers from all 20 of the schools to get together and talk about common issues.

Another morning session will focus on restored one-room buildings that now offer “A Day in a One-Room School” to classes from nearby school dis-tricts. Mary Hendricks will describe how her 2nd grade students get into the experience at Celery


Fleming School before the fire. The school after the fire.

Vol. XIX, Issue I Spring Conference, 2013


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Back to My Roots By Rochelle Renwick Balkam

How things have changed; how they stay the same! I was surrounded by tales of deeds and mis-deeds in school. My grandparents and father were students in Isabella County’s one-room schools. My father, Jack Renwick, attended the Miller School ( Rolland District # 2) through its last full year in 1925.

My grandfather told tales of “ pranks” he and his fellow students played like the time they tipped over the outhouse with the teacher in it. The boys considered it “good clean fun.” Of course, today, students would be suspended or expelled for such a heinous deed. He also bragged about graduating 4th in his class. What he neglected to tell us was there were only 4 in his class!

When I was a little girl I accompanied my grandmother as she took “school census”. We vis-ited each house in the Blanchard district. Some of those scenes have stuck indelibly in my mind; one house with many children underfoot, the mother filling wash tubs with water, leaking out as fast as it was poured in, another with dogs yelping as we walked to the door. I stood behind her shoulder in the front seat of the ’39 Ford, as we drove those roads of the district.

The schools she interlaced her stories with were the Doxie School, Pony Creek School and Reynolds School. I attended the Oberlin School , Rolland Twp.( two room school) for several days one Fall when our family was between moves. My mother, my Uncle Jim and my Aunt Barbara at-tended Blanchard schools. Aunt Barbara later taught chemistry at the high school after being widowed at age 19 during WWII.

In looking through the pages of Jack West-brook and Sherry Sponseller’s book, Yesterday’s School Kids of Isabella County-A History of One-Room Schools in Isabella County, Michigan, the familiar names leap from the pages. These were

“The Miller School was located in the extreme SE corner of Section 6 at the northwest corner of the intersection of Sherman Road and Walton Road, just south of the South Branch of the Pine River. The school closed in 1935.” ~Yesterday’s School Kids of Isabella County (used by permis-sion)

my grandparents’ friends and neighbors, my par-ents’contemporaries and names so familiar to me. These are families still living in the community and my cousins, now, of course, are still part of the Blanchard school family.

My Grandfather was a Blanchard school board member for many years. ( Rolland Rural Agricultural School District.) I remember the huge log books he would bring home. I believe it was ” in my genes” to become an educator.

Although I have passed the school many times since then, the next I heard of it was in the January 26, 2013 issue of the Lansing State Journal. The headline read Historic schoolhouse a ‘TOTAL LOSS’ and there was a picture of the burned out school with two of its beautiful arched windows remaining. Initially it was thought to be a suspi-cious fire, but now has been classified as arson. The Howell Fire Chief stated that there had been three other suspicious, but small fires in the area that evening.

The next week I went down to the Fleming school and was able talk to Cynthia and her hus-band Don. On behalf of the board of the Michigan One-room Schoolhouse Association I expressed our condolences

WHY? Why? Why would someone feel it necessary or

thrilling to burn down a noted historic structure that was being used to benefit the community? I ma-jored in psychology in college and in medical school had classes and hospital rotations in psy-chiatry. Still I cannot fathom what would drive someone to do something like this. I equate it with the Taliban destroying the beautiful Buddhist monument in Afghanistan or more recently Al Qaeda burning historic scrolls in Timbuktu. What does it accomplish?

I have been told that arson is one of the hardest crimes to solve; however, I hope that they are able to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice. Cynthia told me as much as possible will be sal-vaged from the school by the local volunteer group, the Fleming School Agency. There is serious talk of building a replica school on the present site by the Howell schools, using those portions of the school that are salvageable. The one room school-house in Brighton and our Branch School in Wil-liamstown Township have been offered to Howell Schools so that they may continue the one room schoolhouse experience for their students.

We are all saddened by this loss. We are all angered by this senseless act.

(Continued from page 1)

President’s Column


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By Marilyn Kisly

Associate Editor

The Slate

Michigan one-room schoolhouses were the topic of discussion at a conference held in McKenny Un-ion on the campus of Eastern Michigan University on May 14, 1993. Co-sponsored by the University and The Historical Society of Michigan, the program drew 185 enthusiastic participants.

Coordinated by Jennifer Tucker, graduate student in EMU's Historical Preservation Administration program, the conference featured sessions on past and current experiences in teaching and living in one-room schoolhouses, researching and interpreting these structures, and using them for exhibit or his-torical interpretive educational purposes.

"Registration exceeded our expectations," said Tucker, "and bodes well for the contin-ued success of the statewide movement to preserve and interpret these fascinating struc-tures which were so much a part of the land-scape of the 19th- and early 20th-century Michigan. That 700 have been registered so far with the Society reflects the sheer number of country schools that once stood, as well as the abiding interest that remains among their friends and supporters."

Registrants at the conference were able to tour EMU's own one-room schoolhouse, the Town Hall School, built in 1895, and moved to the campus and restored in 1988. Ac-cording to Dr. Jerry Robbins, dean of EMU's School of Education, the Town Hall School is a symbol of the University's legacy as the oldest teachers' college west of the Al-leghenies.

Before the conference closed, registrants were invited to become charter members of the Michigan One-Room Schoolhouse Asso-ciation, to be administered by The Historical Society of Michigan at its headquarters in Ann Arbor's historic Tuomy House. HSM Executive Director Thomas L. Jones agreed

to serve as the organization's secretary-treasurer. Russell Gregory, Editor Emeritus of the Ionia Sentinel-Standard, agreed to serve as the Association's first president, while Robert Donohue, Director of Rochester (Mich.) Downtown Development Authority, will serve as Vice President. Gregory and Donohue both live in converted one-room schoolhouses.

Lois Porter and Thomas Gwaltney of Ypsi-lanti, Joe Kilpatrick of Grawn, Judy Shehigian of Portage, Robert Dean of Grand Rapids, and Peggy Kurpinski of Kalamazoo agreed to serve with Gregory, Donohue and Jones on the Asso-ciation/s Executive Committee/Board.

The Association/s agenda includes publica-tion of The Slate, a bi-annual newsletter, as well as planning and arranging the 1994 Michi-gan One-Room Schoolhouse Conference, set for May 13, in beautiful downtown Ionia.

The executive committee is also exploring a statewide registry service, a marker program for one-room schools in Michigan, and archival acquisitions.

Membership is. open to all with payment of annual $10 dues. A membership blank is else-where in this issue.

For more information, call The Historical Society of Michigan at: (313) 769-1828.

One-room Schoolhouse Enthusiasts Organize

The year 2013, being the 20th anniversary year

for MORSA, we are republishing the following

article that appeared in the first issue of The

Slate newsletter—15 pages long(!), published in

the spring of 1994. It describes the founding and

very first Michigan One-Room Schoolhouse As-

sociation conference in May of 1993.

The first issue of The Slate, published in the spring of 1994


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Flats school in Portage. Richard Cripe will de-scribe the restoration of Nottawa Stone School near Centreville and how it has hosted area stu-dents for over thirty years. (See picture of Not-tawa School on pg.8) After a scrumptious lunch humorist Warren Law-rence will enlighten participants on “What We Really Learned in the One-Room School.” The annual business meeting will then reveal the win-ner of the third annual Schoolhouse of the Year award. The winner will be chosen from among several outstanding nominees. The business meeting will close with a tribute to the MORSA founders and the foresight they showed in 1993 to establish the new organization. A visit to CMU’s restored Bohannon School led by emeritus professor Allen Quick will be offered in the afternoon in addition to the round-table discussion for the 20 operating one-room schools. All sessions except for the Bohannon School visit well be held in the Park Library Building, 250 E. Preston St. on the CMU campus Conference registration materials will be mailed to MORSA members and may also be found on the MORSA website www.one-roomschool.org.


MORSA To Celebrate 20th Anniversary

The story of a country schoolhouse, a schoolboy, and the world’s longest bridge.

On the rural corner of M89 and 63rd street in

Ganges Township sits the little brick Peachbelt Schoolhouse (ca 1867) named for the peach trees which were the predominate crop along the lakeshore during the late 19th century. In fact, the one-acre par-cel donated for the school was originally part of the Paine Orchards, one of the predominate local peach growers of that time whose homestead is still located just across the road.

It was young Clifford Paine (1887-1983) who at-tended the school from kindergarten through 8th grade, who arrived early in the morning to start the fire in the round oak stove which stood in the center of the school room. “I had the job . . . I got four dol-lars for doing it all winter long. I usually brought my own kindling along so it was easy to start, and then brought the day’s supply into the entry. The season’s supply was back by the shed.”

There wasn’t a well at the school in those days so Clifford with one of his classmates would fetch a pail of water from his house, or the LaDick’s farmhouse across the road. “We were tickled to death to do it!” reminisced Clifford. “We had one common dipper or a tin cup. Everyone would drink out of that dipper. Terrible, but they did.”

Back in those days the four corners was actually a small settlement which included the schoolhouse, the Peachbelt Post Office, Gordon Spencer’s general store, LaDick’s blacksmith shop, an old fashioned


The Peachbelt and the Golden Gate Bridge

By Dawn L. Stafford

Peachbelt School, a wood frame building before it was brick.

Games We Used to Play (from an article by Janet Stevens, “How

Many of These Did You Play?) Do you remember?…

Hop-Scotch

One Little Elephant Went Out to Play

Monkey in the Middle

Mumblety Peg

Jump Rope games:

Playing School

Teddy Bear

Johnny

High Water

Chinese Jump Rope


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Chalk Boards for sale

The Grosse Pointe Woods Michigan Historical Commission has two 4 feet by 6 feet chalk boards it does not need.

The chalk boards are not slate. They were removed from a school that was built in the 1960’s. One is a brown color the other is green (except for a foot square section we tried blackboard paint on).

They are free to anyone who wants to pick them up.

Contact John Parthum at (313) 882-3296

School House Bulletin Board

School House Notes From the Past School House Notes From the Past School House Notes From the Past School House Notes From the Past by Author Cheryl Vatcher-Martin, M.A.

My Notes from the Past is now available in limited edition and will be compiled in book form later on. For information on ordering a copy, please contact me at: [email protected] or via regular mail. Cost to order with shipping will be $20.00. To order Haiku For You: With Some One Room School House History, Please send $32.00 for this book. This in-cludes shipping. There are more historic works in progress for future compilations both in limited edi-tion formats and book form.

Regarding my page Michigan One Room

School Houses on facebook, the growth of this page is tremendous. There are over one hundred likes on this page. Many other visitors stop by too to check it out. Those who check like can receive post and pic-ture updates via their newsfeed on facebook. I post pictures and other commentary, and many others do the same. It truly is a page that records some of the history of one room school houses here in Michigan. This page reaches a national audience which helps to promote MORSA. MORSA's information has been provided on this page as well, where I encourage peo-ple to join this fine organization. You will find links to other school house links on this page as well. The more people of varying ages and professions that join us will help to make MORSA grow.

In the Winter 2013 Romulus Historical Society Newsletter, MORSA’s annual conference is noted, and where it is located too. Two of Romulus Histori-cal Society members attended the very first confer-ence 20 years ago. With this upcoming conference on May 18th, I am hopeful that others who are inter-ested in one room school houses will be attending. It will be a good conference for all to attend.

Schoolhouse Stamps for SALE MORSA continues to offer schoolhouse stamps

for sale. The most recent stamp will be of Bohannon School, located on the campus of Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant, MI. The cost is $20 for a sheet of 20 stamps. Contact Larry Schlack: [email protected] or by phone: (269) 385-1502 or by mail: 2906 Woodgate Lane, Kalamazoo, MI,

Memories to share? Please send them to us at:

[email protected]

or via US mail:

Hannah Geddes Wright,

4209 N. Dearing Rd.

Parma, MI 49269

The One-Room Schoolhouse

of the Year Award. This award is limited to one-room

schoolhouses that have not been converted to other uses, such as homes or businesses. A cash award of $250 and a plaque desig-nating the school as the One-Room Schoolhouse of the Year will be given at the annual meeting in May 2013.

See the application for the One-Room Schoolhouse Award inserted inside this newsletter.

Applications must be received by Feb-ruary1, 2014.


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cider mill and knitting factory. The hill to the east of the school was a popular sledding hill. One student recalls, “On a good day, you could slide all the way onto 63rd street”. There was also an enormous elm tree that stood on the front corner. “It was actually two or three elms grown together” says Clifford. One day around 1898 Clifford’s father, John Crane and Mr. Truax, who were all on the school board, met a building contractor in front of the school to discuss the addition of the Veneclausen Brick veneer “U.S. Crane and I were climbing the big elm tree. U.S. was above me and he called down and said; I bet you wish you were up here! Just then he stepped out on a dead limb and came crashing down, knocking him out. The men hurried, picked him up, gave him mouth to mouth resuscitation, and brought him to.”

Peachbelt had an annual enrollment of 20-30 students and a single teacher taught all grades and subjects. “When I first started school the blackboards weren’t slate, but boards painted black. We used paper, but handed in work on slates sometimes, too” recalls Clifford. “They taught arithmetic, physiology, spelling, authography, civil gov-ernment, history, and elocution, to name a few. I don’t think they overlooked anything. There might have been 6 students in a class and they would assemble in empty seats in the front of the room. Meanwhile, the other students would study. This was a rule. Its hard to see how they [teachers] got through the day with all these classes. They had only six minutes to a class, although not all classes met every day. During class the teacher would present a lesson/assignment, hear recitations, hand in assignments, and an-swer questions. The older students never worked with the younger ones”

The school bell was used just like everyone used their bell in those days. “When I was out in the field [orchard] about ten minutes to noon the dinner bells would ring, and I could tell [by the sound] whose bell was ringing. At school they rang the bell five to ten minutes before [class started].” according to Clifford.

One of Clifford’s favorite teachers at Peachbelt was Nellie LaDick whose family lived across the street from the Paine Farm. “She seemed to have the knack of inspir-ing her students to do their best. “Whatever I did, I thought; I hope Nellie will like this. I hope I’m doing this the way Nellie wants it. My, she was a wonderful teacher. She lived just short of a week of being 100 years old when she passed away. I used to go and see her at Birchwood in Holland right up to her last years. . .”

Sometimes discipline was a problem in a country school. “Up on the hill was Chancy Richard’s place and he had two sons who attended the Peachbelt. In the winter-time those boys were pretty rough. One winter it got so bad they hired a male teacher. Will Hawley by name. He


had to fight these boys . . . it would end up in a fist fight. I saw some of the fights. . . ”

Country schools were the backbone of American education for almost 250 years, and in spite of mixed perceptions of the quality of the education as either too primitive or too ide-alized, Clifford testified that his 8th grade ex-aminations prepared by the State of Michigan were “. . . pretty tough . . . I think they were tougher examinations than the 8th grade stu-dents in the city schools had.”

After graduating from Peachbelt Clifford became an honored alumnus of Hope College, and 1911 graduate of the University of Michi-gan School of Engineering. His first wife Myrtie Johnson died in 1957. He later married a former Peachbelt schoolmate Ethelyn Cole(Crane) who died in 1972. In World War I he served as captain with the Army Corps of En-gineers and was employed by the Navy De-partment early in 1942 to help rebuild facilities in Pearl Harbor. He was associated with the design and construction of a variety of bridges from Boston to Sacramento, and Quebec to New Orleans, but most noteably he supervised the design and construction of the Golden Gate Bridge which was the longest bridge span (one mile) in the world, completed in 1937, con-necting suburban Marin County - the gateway to the scenic Redwoods, to the city of San Francisco. In 1941 he received a citation from U of M reading, “From his creative genius have come new designs and apparatus for lift bridges; devised and built by him, huge struc-tures, sound in principle, and pleasing to the eye from the Potomac to the Golden Gate.” Today the schoolhouse is the only building that remains of the Peachbelt settlement. It oper-ated as a school for 100 years, and is the oldest and best restored one room schoolhouse in Al-


The Peachbelt


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legan County that has never been changed or moved from its original site. In 1977 it was bought by Phil and Miriam Van Eyl and restored into a living space, then sold and used by the Sharrard Family as a summer retirement home for 23 years. In 2003 it was bought by local artist


The Peachbelt Dawn Stafford who has transformed it into her year-round painting studio, and is open to the public every weekend Fri, Sat, and Sun 11-5pm May-October, or by appointment. Phone 269-857-3929 www.peachbeltstudio.com

Sources: C. E. Paine Obituary / Holland Sentinel 7-13-83 Transcript of an Interview by Phil Van Eyl with Mr. Paine on 7-7-1977

Peachbelt schoolgirl’s drawing showing the big elm and the old post office and orchard sledding hill men-tioned in the article

School House Notes From the Past* by Cheryl Vatcher-Martin, M.A.

Revisiting school house ledgers from the 1800's gives me some perspective as to how individual schools were governed back then. Each school house had its own ledger and a certain way of record keep-ing. Even though the notes may have different spell-ing and syntax in them, the meaning for the most part is understandable. I feel this information is important to preserve and share with a diverse audience. I am including some excerpts from Hayti's One Room School House from the 1800's. Here are some notes from Hayti's Record of Pro-ceedings of District School Meeting Dated Sept 3, 1866. This is the second written entry in it as the first is dated from 1865 (spellings are original): On Sept 3, 1866 Anual School Meeting caled to order by the moderator H.M. Stoneburner. Bussness examined The Books found to be all write. Voted to have three monts winter school and to have a Female teacher for the winter term Voted to have three monts summer school and left optional with the Board to hier for four monts Voted to let the wood ten cords to the lowest bider half seasoned and half green to be delivered by the first of December hardwood, taken by Patric McConalogue and James M. Orr at 187 ½...... Here are some exerpts from Hayti's Sept 7, 1868 Annual School Meeting:

Cald to order by the Moderator H.M. Stone-burner school expenses and read and excepted Voted Albert S. Temple elected for Assessor for one year- carried Voted that David Harris acts as Moderator for three years- carried Voted to hier R. Moran to teach 4 monts winter if he can be got on reasonable terms-carried Voted to have 4 monts summer school carried Voted to raise 25 dollars for incidental ex-penses and to repare the school house. Voted to send a committee of three to search the township record to ascertain the indebtness of the district – carried Voted that Mr. Orr receive the libra for one year Voted to have seven coards of hard wood half seasoned and half green maple beach and white ash at 125 cents per cord to Mr. David Harris carried Voted to move the school site- carried Voted to adjourn till Saturday 12 afternoon 6:00 Clock carried Sifting through more research I uncovered an-other ledger from the mid-1800's and ascertained that the unnamed ledger and contents recorded therein truly belong to the Hayti One Room School House in Romulus, Mi. There are plenty of entries in it that contain information on pay-ments to various teachers, and other incidental expenses that were incurred there to support the


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Michigan One-Room

Schoolhouse Association

2012/2013

Officers: Dr. Tom M. Johnson, Chair

Rochelle Balkam Vice-Chair Larry Schlack, Treasurer

Hannah Geddes Wright, Secretary Board Members:

Rochelle Balkam Suzanne Daniel Dana Deimel Tamara Gady Myrna Grove

Dr. Thomas Gwaltney Yvonne Hafner Judy Shehigian

Cheryl Vatcher-Martin The Slate Newsletter:

Hannah Geddes Wright “The Slate” Editor and board member

Membership Dues:

$10 Senior (age 62+) or Student $15 Individual. $25 Organizations. $100

Life web site address:

<http://www.one-roomschool.org

Michigan One-Room Schoolhouse Association c/o Greenmead 20501 Newburgh Road, Livonia, MI 48152-1098 Attention: Suzanne Daniel “...fostering understanding and appreciation for one-room schoolhouses in Michigan

school and those who were involved with the running of the school. Here is a brief excerpt from this historic ledger: James M. Orr- Assessor In account with Teachers Fund Cr March 11, 1870 Paid to Jenette Hepburn Order No 14 given for teaching winter school $56.00 May 30, 1870 Paid to Matthus Swegles order No 15 $42.00 given to Emma Miller for teaching summer school May 31, 1870 Paid to Charles Ganong Interest on Board $20.00

*My Notes from the Past is now available in limited edition and will be compiled in book form later on. For information on or-dering a copy, please contact me at: [email protected] or via regular mail. (For more information on Cheryl’s book and Facebook page, see Schoolhouse Bulletin Board on page 5 of this newsletter)

8th Grade Final Exam: 8th Grade Final Exam: 8th Grade Final Exam: 8th Grade Final Exam: Salina, KSSalina, KSSalina, KSSalina, KS————1895189518951895

U.S. History (Time: 45 minutes) 1. Give the epochs into which

U.S. History is divided. 2. Give an account of the discov-

ery of America by Columbus 3. Relate the causes and results

of the Revolutionary War. 4. Show the territorial growth of

the United States. 5. Tell what you can of the his-

tory of Kansas. 6. Describe three of the most

prominent battles of the Re-bellion.

7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe?

8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, 1865.

~ Taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina, and re-printed by the Salina Journal.

Nottawa Stone School St. Joseph Co., MI

“After operating for 90 years, Nottawa School was slated to be razed in 1968. Luckily, local historians were able to buy the building for $1.” During the 2013, Rich-ard Cripe will describe the restoration of this school.

Photo & text courtesy of Mary Keithan (from Michigan One-Room Schoolhouses)

Documents

The Slate Spring 2013 Newsletter (PDF)