Eastern Pennington County Memories -- Schools This information is from "Eastern Pennington County Memories", published by The American Legion Auxilliary, Carrol McDonald Unit, Wall, South Dakota and is uploaded with their kind permission. Pages 259-261 Scan, OCR and editing by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net, 1999. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the SDGENWEB Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/sd/sdfiles.htm Early Day Schools by M. W. Sharp In the fall of 1907 school was held in a newly vacated soddy about a mile and a half south of the Anthony homestead where the road descends to Pino Springs. Miss Violet Mcdonald was the teacher. She had a claim near to that of her brother, Frank Mcdonald, her sister, Lillian and to a married sister, Mrs. Matt Keim (Nellie). Violet Mcdonald's parents had homesteaded very near to the town of Huron in the 1880 and very close to the Campus of the State Normal there; she had the best training available at that time in addition to being a natural born teacher. The sod-house had not had a floor but it had been kept very level and smooth by sprinkling and paddling down hard whenever the surface became dusty. It seemed to be a large room until the huge oval extension table with all leaves added had been placed in the center by way of desks for all. White oilcloth covering further lighted the room for the two small windows set into the thick walls allowed little light to enter and the dark sod walls seemed to absorb what did; the one door was kept open as much as possible both for light and for ventilation. A heating stove and some kegs, boxes, and rough benches completed the furnishings. There were no texts or library books, yet from some source a wonderful array of reading material and all read and memorized, we worked, drew pictures, made designs, planned, and discussed affairs of the world in general! There were children from the Steele, Wiley and Williams family that fall, I remember. What was understood to be the first school in the town of Wall had a man teacher. It was housed in a building apparently made for the purpose of frame construction and was located on the north side of town (N. E. part then and near the old Wall Quinn road). But the desks were not factory made; merely rough lumber hurriedly fashioned into benches capable of holding at least four students but having a slanting back rest. These were placed to face desks made of the same material in a boxlike shape to hold books and supplies and having a lid that could be raised and lowered at will to form a writing surface slanting sharply toward the student as a writing surface. Children from some of the families represented were; Briggs, Marshall, Lewis, Wiley, Babcock, Neilsen. Sometime during the school year the Railroad Depot was given a housewarming before the partitions were put in between the office part and the waiting room. SCHOOLS OF 1911 In 1911 a school house made of frame construction and painted white stood at or near the north west corner of the school section in the Crooked Creek area. A Miss Maud Ballard was the first teacher there and the next to teach there was Miss Gretchen Peterson of Rapid City (Miss Ballard had been a homesteader in the Faith area). Families represented there in days before 1914 were, Roberts; Floyd and Gladys, Villbrandt; Ona, Mable, Charley, Harry, Molly; Bergerson, Arthur, Ing, "Doc"; Gorseth; Bernice and Arthur; Gladys, Roy and Clyde Shull; Vera and George Fuller; Children of Jessie Harris, Makia Monroe (Money), Cynthia Ann, Nellie Nugget, and Jessie Richard Sampson (Sage Creek Sam). SCHOOL OF 1914 (DOWLING ASKREEK AREA) It was still as difficult to reach the Pedro area in 1914 as it had been to reach Crooked Creek in 1906. The added luxury was a stage leaving Wall early in the morning but still drawn by horses. A teacher wishing to reach such a school arrived in Wall Friday afternoon and spent the night there, in order to take the stage north to Perro via Creighton. This was the stop for lunch. The sun would be getting low by the time Pedro could be seen. The fall of 1914 Frank Huss was the school board member assigned the duty of meeting the teacher for the Mix-With-Food Public School, and by being ready to start for his ranch as soon as the stage arrived could get there by Saturday evening. The next day (Sunday was spent in taking the newly arrived teacher to the home of another Board member, Lawrence Wilson, and locating the boarding place for the teacher and the place where the school house was to be found as well as a promise given to attend to whatever the board considered its future duties to the school. At that school the salary was $45 a month, the board and room and a horse to ride to school cost $20 a month. Clothes were such an inexpensive item that it was scarcely worth mentioning them-a fine pair of the high topped button shoes of the day might be bought for about $1. The Mix-With-Food teacher that year of 1914 was Miss Marion Wiley of Wall and the attendance was from the homes of homesteaders one of whom was the King Family were busily constructing a two story house or-split-level. The remembered attendance included Rachel Cook, (Sister of Mrs. Dick Plachart of the Wall area) Bessie King, Nellie King, Sylvia King, Clyde King, and a Bauer boy who spent sometime in the spring (Brother of Mrs. Brainard Poste). Schools of that day were in session for eight months each year. However, each day was a full school day and twenty had to be taught for each month. Actual hours taught were about the same as the present day elementary schools, with a nine month term. Building-dirt-roof log-house. QUINN TABLE SCHOOL OF THE YEAR 1915-1916 A vacant homestead shack was the school house located near the present Earnest Pipal ranch. School board consisted of Frank Pipal, Ball, and John Bell, all homesteaders. Teacher was Marion Wiley and that made it a complete Homestead- Day-School. Simon pure. The difference here was that for the first time there was a student present whose parents had married after those earlier days, Ernest Pipal was five years old then and that was his first school. Others were Mary Stoe, Rose Bell, John McCreig, Alice and Clement Bourquin and a Talty son--believe it was Raymond. The teacher rode horseback from the Wiley Ranch on Crooked Creek daily except in extreme cold weather when a set of deserted buildings have a barn for the horse and its hay were semi-furnished for use should there be too much snow to make the long ride. No cars in either community yet. SCHOOL YEAR OF 1915-1916 LINCOLN SCHOOL What was known as the Johnson School then had two years of use behind it. It was a well built frame building well finished and painted and having, one room, that first year. Inez Lee had taught there, and the year before a man had been teaching. It was extra warm and comfortable; having a Royal Oak heater with a tin heat deflector around about a foot and a half from the body of the stove except for the space needed to attend to fire making and ash removal at the front. This device did not come to the floor and children would gather about it and stick their feet under toward the stove to warm themselves on a cold mornings. The entire yard was fenced and the principal adornment of the front gate area was two of the most gigantic cottonwood stumps ever seen there standing on either side of the walk to the school house door. The teacher was Marion Wiley. Being nearer home by some ten miles a day she rode back and forth a distance of ten miles daily. A barn or shed was provided by the school, for the Johnson children drove to school in a buggy. It was known locally as the Johnson School for by that time they had increased their large acreage to near its greatest size. Geo. Gunn, Marsden and John Slater were school board members and in the years I taught there many changes were made in enlarging and improving the building and equipment. Pupils enrolled during those years were: - Margaret Johnson, Myrtle, Conrad, Theodore, Esther, and later Christine Johnson; Esther and Lester Gunn, who were the two elder children of Geo. Gunn; Ruth Marsden, Hurley Brennan, Lila and Paul Frahn, Vesta Mae Slater, Esther and Ernest Kruckenberg. During those years a telephone line was run along the fences to Wall and very good service had at the home ranch. However it was not extended to the school. A flood on the Cheyenne washed out the remains (if any) of old Postoffice at Dakota City about 1919 and we lived through the shortages of the war years by having a hot lunch program that was enjoyed by all of the parents and pupils alike. 1917 AT SOUTH STAR SCHOOL I would like to also have my readers recall one of the early day teachers in the South Star School of the Crooked Creek community. Miss Gladys Anderson who, like the teachers mentioned before taught there and boarded at the Wiley Ranch. Her home state was Indiana and she retired last year after many successful years in the schools of her home town Hobart Indiana (626 south Main, Apart..5, 46342). It was her first year of teaching and a friend, A Miss Susy Lingren from the same state taught in the Lake Flat schools that year along with others from Ill. The year was 1917,.and any of the students there at that time may wish to let her hear from them. She has been a faithful correspondent in all the years since and always ask about the doings around Wall. She is so glad to hear what crumbs of news I gather so I know she will be overjoyed to hear. The happening that I best recall was the following: She rode, as a green rider, a horse that was considered safest on the ranch and to be depended on not to bolt when well loaded with the books, papers, and lunch box a teacher had to carry night and morning. One evening she forgot some article and returned to the schoolroom to get it. Noticing that there was yet time to do a neglected bit of cleaning she tied the horse with the long picket rope to the leg of the stove in the schoolroom while this was seen to. Old Dick did not understand this new plan and he started home as slowly and sedately as was his habit. He went back and looked in at the window. Then he decided he had better get home for his supper and started home, on what was for him a high lope. Reaching the end of the rope meant nothing to him and the stove started to move out of the building. As it hung up on the door casing he went along, thinking no doubt, that it was an extra heavy cow he was pulling out of a very sticky mud hole! He continued to strain when, suddenly the stove, fire and all exploded into the yard. He had had it! He started home with speed no one knew he had. Bits of that stove were scattered from the NE to the Southwest corners of that school section and none were afterward found in larger pieces than one whole stove leg in the yard. He arrived his usual calm self. Then it was noticed that he was at the ranch and she was not. Someone got ready to rescue her thinking he had thrown her off and she might have been hurt ... Before that rescue could take place she reached the top of the hill and came in rather slower than Old Dick had if that were possible. She had hoped to overtake him and not be kidded about losing her horse. SHE LIKED OLD DICK AND DIDN'T WANT ANOTHER ANY SAFER, if such could be found.. That might not have seemed so funny if all had not remembered a similar event once at a dance at the old Wiley Barn when some one tied the bulldog to a stove leg while Mrs. Chas. Roberts and May Allburn were making coffee in the one room shack that was Harry's home in 1911. He was using an old time Laundry stove by way of a range. The coffee was being made in a washboiler and when it had boiled enough Mae pulled out a cloth sack in which the ground coffee had been tied. Old Bull had been fearful of all the stirring and fuss at the stove and looked out just in time to get a few drops of the scalding hot coffee on his nose. He left. The stove leg left with him. All jumped back enough so that no one was scalded when the stove tipped over atop the boiler. It was a very late supper. The dog had to be found first. He was at the dance but not dancing for he still had the stove leg Somehow the stove and pipe were put in place and the fire built anew, fresh water heated and the whole process of making coffee done again. I neglected to mention to either of the coffee brewers that I was the one to blame. Old Bull would not leave his favored spot beneath that stove; so whenever I had wished to sweep and clean the room that summer I had thrown a bit of water on the stove. The first time this was done Old Bull got scalded before he found out what had happened. After that all I had to do was to throw a bit of water at the stove, hot or cold, and he left like a shot and wouldn't come back till after supper. At any rate Miss Anderson was kidded plenty by the students and neighbors. She came to Rapid to visit us during the early 30 Is but we have not seen each other since. I am sure that she will be happy to get the book and news of her old friends in the Crooked Creek and Lake Flat Area. Miss Lingen was with her when she visited in Rapid. Early School Days In Pennington County by Veona Jensen Flyger I am sure that the educational problem was not uppermost in many of the minds of the early pioneers of Pennington County, as making a living came first. It was hard work and money was scarce. We Jensen children were fortunate in having parents who believed in schools, and as soon as their sixroom house was finished they made arrangements for a teacher. One of the upstairs rooms was set aside for a schoolroom and school began the fall of 1907 with ten pupils registered. Miss Amy Allison was the first teacher. School upstairs was a hardship for Mother since there was no outside stairway and everyone came through the porch, dining room, and kitchen to get upstairs. She had a time keeping the floors clean, especially when the weather was damp. Maybe at times she was glad Pennington County was not blessed with too much rain. Later a small schoolhouse was built and as many as 21 pupils representing all eight grades attended at one time. School was almost a mile from home and once when a horse had fallen on my knee and injured it so badly I could not walk, I had to ride to school. The horse was needed for farm work so each morning I would tie the reins short so he could not graze, slap him on the rump and start him home, where he did his share of the days work. As drought, grasshoppers and perhaps a bit of homesickness increased, many of the settlers pulled stakes and two years later the school was closed for lack of students. My folks decided to have us go to Wasta to school, so they rented a house and Mother moved to town. Several milk cows were brought in and Mother helped pay expenses by milking cows. We children delivered the milk as well as the home-made bread, butter and rolls that Mother sold. Milk sold for 6c a quart to start with, but was raised to 7c later. This increase in price was a big help in paying for the groceries. Two years later the country school opened again and Marth O'Connell was teacher. Marth and Roy Morris were married before the school year was up and Marth quit teaching. Since I was in the 8th grade and had to write an examination in Wall a little later, Marth took me to live with her and Roy until the time school should have been out. She helped me and I got through the 9th grade. There was a family by the name of DeHarty who homesteaded near us, but who later returned to Sioux City. A few years later Mother received a letter from Mrs. DeHarty saying some of her family had not gone on to high school. This puzzled Mother and she said "I cannot imagine children living in town and not going to high school. I wish we lived where you could all stay home and go to high school". By the time I was ready for high school, Wasta school was teaching two years of high school so I rode my pony the five miles to school in the morning and back again at night, fording the Cheyenne River both ways. During the colder months I stayed with Mrs. L. B. Sorensen. One morning in early spring the ice had broken up in the Cheyenne but was not entirely gone so Dad did not want me to go alone. He put a load of hay for my pony in the lumber wagon and took me to school. When we reached the river Dad said, "That doesn't look very good. I wonder if we should try it". I sensed that Dad was worried. The river did not seem to be flowing at all. It was clogged with slush and ice. Dad finally said, "I think we can make it. You go back and lie flat on the hay and hang on tight". The mules balked furiously but by vocal and physical urging, he got them down the steep bank and into the river. Immediately they disappeared and I felt a tremendous lurch as the wagon box hit the slush and then the entire river began to move. The mules came up swimming and luckily the wagon box stayed with the running gears. Terrified minutes later and quite some distance downstream, the mules managed to drag their load out and up the bank on the other side. In memory I can still see those mules, their long ears filled with icy slush as we rubbed them down, then drove on into Wasta. There were a lot of coyotes on the prairies those days and, although I was not afraid of them when I was safely in bed listening to their eerie howling as it broke the stillness of the night, I did not like the thought of meeting them on the prairie. One evening as I was coming home from school, I topped the Cheyenne River breaks and saw what looked to be a huge coyote come out of the breaks a short distance from me. Reining in my horse, I decided to wait until he had gone by and over the next hill, when I saw another and another following him until there were five of them. All the hair-raising wolf stories I had heard came crowding into my memory and I still do not know what I would have done had they turned my way. They did not even bother to look at me, however, but trotted right on past. They were much bigger than a coyote should be, so I know they were wolves. When I was living in Wasta and was ten years old, the heating stove in the living room was the only heat we had in the early mornings. Because of this, I used to come down on cold winter mornings and dress in the living room. One morning I came down in my nightgown and as I came through the stair door, which was opposite the outside door, I looked straight into the face of an Indian buck who was looking in. My screams brought Mother on the run, but when she saw the Indian she calmly opened the door to ask him what he wanted. As she opened the door she saw a large fat squaw directly behind him brandishing a pitchfork. Mother slammed the door shut and, as she was trying to lock it, he forced it open and quickly explained that all he wanted was some hay for his horses. Mother then told them to go to the barn and help themselves. The last we saw of them, the squaw was so loaded down with hay that she looked like a small moving haystack and was meekly following the big Buck who was now carrying the pitchfork. The little country schoolhouse was later moved a couple of miles to another location in order to accommodate more children. Unknown to the movers, it was placed near a rattlesnake den and it must surely have been by the Grace of God that no child, was ever bitten as there were scores of rattlesnakes killed during the few years it stood there. Eventually there were no children to go to the little country school and I am sure it led a lonely and useless life for many years. Finally it became a farmers granary (perhaps an educated granary), and later it was moved to Wall where it is-now a part of a family residence.