Caldwell County MO Archives History .....SCHOOLING IN THE SIXTIES IN CALDWELL COUNTY ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/mo/mofiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Karen Walker khw4@yahoo.com September 4, 2008, 1:58 pm SCHOOLING IN THE SIXTIES IN CALDWELL COUNTY Narrator: Matt Kennedy, 75, Hamilton, Mo. Mr. Kennedy is of Irish parentage, Thomas and May Kennedy who came from Ireland separately, met and married in America. They came to Caldwell county with most of their children in 1866 and that fall of 1867, Matt started to school to learn his letters and use the old fashioned primer. The Hamilton school at that time was a small building located on the present M.E. parsonage. It was a one room affair under Professor Helm who had come into this county from Ohio (see Adam Ream's paper in the preceding series). The room was full. It was furnished with long benches and desks, each bench holding several children after the manner of a church seat. There was an aisle at the middle, none at side. There was a rostrum which Mr. Kennedy has reason to remember, because the teacher used to compel bad little boys to sit upright on the floor with their feet raised squarely against the rostrum as a penalty. Just try it! While teacher's back was turned, the boys would brace themselves by hands to relieve the strain. He can yet see boys standing in the corner, some wearing the dunce cap, made of paper. The next year, his father moved into the country. There he went to Tylar Adams (later of Hamilton), at the Pleasant Ridge school south east of town. Then the Kennedy family moved into what is now called the Liberty Bell district where they lived many years. AT that time, school houses were four miles apart in the county, and this made it necessary for the Kennedy children to walk for miles to go to school. Now it just happened that there were other children in the district equally far from a school, so one of the neighbor women, Mrs. Steve Cole, who was fairly well schooled, started a subscription school in her own front room, to which the Kennedy children and a few others (about 15 in all) went. The fees were quite small. There were a few benches without backs. This probably awakened public sentiment on the situation, the need of closer schools. Soon there was a ruling for schools to be two miles apart. So the new school was started on the northwest corner of Wm. (Billy) Clampitt's farm. It was made of cottonwood logs, and the pupils when they got older used to call it "Cottonwood College." The work and the logs were donated by the neighbors, the logs were rolled up by some men, while the corner men (whose skill was highly valued) notched and adjusted the logs. Here Mr. Steve Cole, husband of the lady who kept the subscription school was the first teacher. The seats and desks were like those described in the town school. Later teachers were Will Gillett of south of Hamilton and Henry Gee who used to ride out horseback every day from his home west of Hamilton. Women teachers in those early days occasionally boarded round, but not much. This district of "Cottonwood College" is Liberty Bell. Out of old Pleasant Ridge large school district was carved in his memory Liberty Bell and Excelsior. At first, the writing class worked in home made copy books (foolscap) on which the teacher set a new copy when the pupil was ready for it. Later, the pupils bought store copy books from Hamilton. Interview September 1934. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mo/caldwell/history/other/schoolin230gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/mofiles/ File size: 3.9 Kb