Remembering
My Times in a
One Room Schoolhouse E.
A. Mackley
(Editors
note: We can across this story while searching for
material on Emmitsburg's history in the old Emmitsburg
high school building . . . and while it address a one
room school house in Thurmont, its gives a good picture
of what one-room school house in Emmitsburg were
like. We enjoyed it and figures you would to!)
Thurmont Md., Nov. 28, 1933
A friend of mind asked me to tell something about my
experiences in the one room schoolhouse.
In the first place they were nothing like what they
are NOW. The desks were long and backed against the
wall, from the teacher's table clear around to the door,
two on each side of the template stove. The benches were
without backs, like some old wash benches, and our backs
were to the teachers, and-when school was to be left out
the teacher would say: "put away your books and
turn around." A one-room house was the only kind I
ever went to.
The first school was a small brick house standing
where Mr. Hammaker's house now is, with a small
playground around it. Miss Anna Scott was the teacher --
first teacher I went to. She was very kind and patient.
On Friday she would have the girls sew quilt patches; I
don't remember what the boys had to do at that time. On
the last day of school she said we all should put on our
Sunday clothes as she had something planned for us in
the afternoon; so she gave us sugar cakes and lemonade,
then we walked up West Main Street; we all thought that
was fine.
There were not many pavements at that time, so every
person just walked where they pleased. One day I
"stumped" my toe very badly so I ran back to
my father's tailor shop for him to tie it up. (The shop
was a small building right in the northwest corner of
the yard where Mr. Ed. Root had lived.) Then I went back
to school again.
The next teach was Mr. Jacob Hesson, Cassandra
Hesson's grandfather. I must have been bad as he gave a
licking, and one other time I was eating popcorn he told
me to sit on the floor and put my feet up on his
platform. Baby like, I told my father what happened and
all the sympathy I got was "Why didn't you behave,
then you wouldn't have gotten it." Well I didn't
ever tell on myself again.
The Catholic church was being built about that time.
I do not know why or when they destroyed the old brick
schoolhouse.
Then the next was the stone one-room school; it was
also an old building. Mr. Ephriam Willhide,
"Bud's" uncle, was a good teacher. The
schoolhouse was just north of the old shed, still
standing, that Mr. James Creager used for keeping his
hearses in. Mr. Willhide used to sing from the maps
against the wall -- that was nice -- he loved to sing.
There were big and little boy and girls all in that
one room. Well we all learned something anyhow. Miss
Esther Ream taught a while, and Mr. Wm. J. (Judge)
Black. Then came Mr. Frederick White. He was a very
cross teacher -- always had the hickory stick in his
hand. He licked Katie Foreman Cassell and me for eating
an apple in school.
Mr. John Landers was the last teacher we went to. His
sister taught for a while, and his brother George. Then
we all went to Mr. John Landers in the Academy, part of
the building where the printing office now is. By that
time there were more people in the town and country, so
they had to build larger schoolhouses and rooms. We
bought our own books and paid the teachers every month
-- that was the way they had to make their living.
We didn't have any high schools then, and no one
graduated -- we all eventually just quit and went to
work.
Have your own memories of
Emmitsburg School's of old?
Send them to us at
history@emmitsburg.net
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