PREFACE
Wendell Brinson sparked the idea of preserving information about one-room schools. He had attended a one-room school in Monroe County, and he knew other retired teachers who had either taught in or attended some of the county’s one-room schools. As president of the Monroe County Retired Teachers Association in 1994, he approached the membership with this idea and asked for volunteers to begin gathering information.
Stella Alexander volunteered and Harriet Fulton, Lee Riggs, and Helen Sturbaum offered their help. Stella taught in Honey Creek School when she was a young woman and many years later, she worked for the renovation of the school. She became the coordinator of the Heritage Studies Program and the first full time teacher at the “new” Honey Creek School.
Stella asked for volunteers to collect information and photos from each of the twelve townships. We owe many thanks to the diligent work and contributions of Bob Burkett, Glodene Chambers, Julia Deckard, Maurice and Francis Endwright, Lou Gilliland, Anna Lee Gross, Ruth Libke, Alma Long, Edith Phillips, Ida Mae Taylor, Thelma Whaley, Betty Williams, Martha Bell Young, and Velma Young. As ten years went by, some of these people passed away, and Stella Alexander became unable to continue this endeavor.
When Wendell Brinson realized that the one-room school project was faltering, he challenged the membership to get involved. At each meeting he told us that we should get started before it was too late, as some people were already gone, and we were all growing older! So he and Rachel Christy, and possibly others, called Dorothy Riensch White, the caregiver for Stella Alexander. Dorothy had known Stella for many years and they shared an interest in one-room schools, as she had attended Butcher School for eight years.
Dorothy acquired Stella’s accumulated treasures, and gave them to Anna Lee Gross who passed them on to Frances Weinberg who was president of the Monroe County Retired Teachers Association at that time. We are thankful to Dorothy Riensch White for saving this material.
In the fall of 2003, a group of retired teachers met as a One-Room School Project Committee. The group organized the materials, began acquiring even more and started planning for publication. Some members had attended one-room schools in Monroe County or elsewhere, while others were either not originally from Indiana, or had never been inside a one-room school. Enthusiasm and a growing fascination helped make up for any lack of personal experience.
We decided to include two-room as well as one-room schools. While two-room schools did not have one isolated teacher with all eight grades, they still shared many of the same characteristics, such as the limited facilities and outhouses, and several ages grouped together with one teacher. Some one-room schools suddenly became two-room schools with the aid of a curtain hung in the center to divide the school. In many cases we have indicated how students relocated when their one-room schools closed – first into three or four-room schools, and then into the graded school systems. However our emphasis has been on the original one and two-room schools.
We present this book to document the early history of education in Monroe County, Indiana. As we did our research, we realized the dearth of written material relating to this period of one-room and two-room schools in Monroe County. We are pleased to be able to help fill this void. But equally important is the compilation of personal memories in the primary sources that make up this book. Besides adding information, these stories make these school years come to life.
We are truly indebted to all who have shared their early memories, photographs, and mementos from Monroe County’s early rural schools. In addition to what was originally gathered, we have added information from many former teachers and students. We have recorded and transcribed interviews, received written stories and documents, held many telephone conversations, and have made a serious effort to be accurate in our reporting. We extend many thanks to all who contributed in any way.
While we have made every effort to be accurate, we realize that people’s recollections may vary, names may be misspelled, and some dates may not be correct. We believe, however, that by using individual memoirs, we have been able to capture the atmosphere and the spirit of Monroe County’s one-room and two-room schools. The reader needs to be aware that many interviews and newspaper reports were quoted as is, and we want them to remain in their original form as much as possible. Many of our photographs are excellent, but some are reprints from old newspapers, or are copies of prints stored in boxes for many years. We used them when we felt their intrinsic value outweighed the quality of the prints.
Some townships had little material, while others offered much more. Some schools, especially the ones that remained open through the 1950s and 1960s, supplied many stories from former students and teachers. Some schools from the 1800s are just a location on a map. Other schools have vanished completely. Committee members wrote chapters in their own individual styles, adding to this variety. We are sorry that Wendell Brinson did not live to see and read this book that he helped to get started. His inspiration has kept us going as we wrote and rewrote and rewrote!
We dedicate this book to all the early teachers in Monroe County: to those whose names appear in this book, and to many whose names have been lost. They taught under primitive conditions with meager facilities and few supplies; they had varying amounts of personal education, and little remuneration. Despite all this, these teachers devoted their talents, their energy, and their affection to the children in their little schools. They provided a solid foundation for the educational system in Monroe County, Indiana.
