Looking back at the one room school

By Helen Boertje

From the Knoxville Journal of February, 1888 we learn that the first division is studying natural philosophy, civil government, physiology, history, grammar, higher arithmetic, and algebra. The top student is Florence Teter. Nellie Amos is the top student in the second division which is studying arithmetic, physiology, history, geography, reading and spelling. The top student in the third division is Robert Blain. This group is studying mental arithmetic, primary geography, primary grammar, reading and spelling. The article also names John Swalm and Con Amos as the the top primary students but does not say what they are studying.

The Knoxville Express reported that on Feb. 13, 1930 there was a birthday party for Reese Rinehart, son of Mr. and Mrs. E. B. Rinehart. The party given by his mother at home from 3 to 5 pm featured games and a two course lunch. Teacher Etha Moon and school mates Helen Martin, Floyd Teter, Chas. Pool, Maxine Monroe, G. W. Heaberlin, Billy and Wilma Rinehart and Neva Teter attended. They had place cards bearing pictures of Tarzan and funny paper caps. One day when I was working at the Marion County Historical Museum the Knowles sisters, Claudia and Jane, came in to see if we had any pictures of the Blaine School which could be copied and send to them. We did. They had attended Blaine School in the 1950’s and had many fond memories to share. They liked the fact that teacher Wanda Jones wore pants to school and let them jump on her back when they were sledding. The discarded hood of an old car served as one of their improvised sleds. They remembered kids standing on the roofs of the outhouses and hurling corn cobs at each other . Some of the boys wore capes as they attempted to” fly “off the roof of the outhouse. The most unusual outhouse story concerned the time that the younger of the two girls had left the classroom to use the outhouse. When she did not return in a reasonable time, the teacher sent her older sister to bring her back. However, the little sister was not in the outhouse. Soon the teacher sent everyone out to look in the surrounding fields for her and fearing the worst, she probed the toilet with a long pole to make sure she hadn’t fallen in. The story ended happily when the girl was discovered safe at home. She hadn’t made it to the outhouse on time and had wet her pants so she just walked home without telling anyone.

Donna Betterton send an e-mail telling of the older students, during the time of consolidation, being sent to Knoxville from the Blaine school in the middle of the year. “Very traumatic for a country girl to be uprooted in the middle of the year and sent to a “foreign” place! But we survived.” Blaine school sat at the top of Daubenspeck hill which was quite steep and great for winter sledding. “Also in the winter time we’d take a hot dog for our lunch wrapped in aluminum foil and put it on top the oil stove so it was hot for lunch (usually quite over cooked!). Occasionally we’d hear a loud BANG when one of the hot dogs exploded.” Donna’s father, Loyd Karr and his siblings also attended Blaine.

The Blaine School was about 5 miles north of Knoxville near Hwy 14. After closing it was moved about a mile south and remodeled into a two story house located at 1238 Illinois Drive. Teachers at the Blaine school included: J. A. Steves 1872, T. W. Teter 1888-89, Miss Lettie Duncan 1892, Myrtle Moore 1898, Mable Reynolds 1899, Fannie G. Eberhardt, Ida Staggs 1900, Ida Staggs, Pearl Monroe 1901, Mattie Lemmon, Jessie Inskeep 1902, Edith Davidson, Bernice Rolfe 1903, Walter Bone, F. N. Parker, Bertha Clingan 1904, Bertha Clingan, Amanda Brown 1905, Clarles W. Wren, Bertha Clingan 1906, Maude Welch 1907, Mayme Murphy 1908, Ida Freeman, Mrs. Nellie Ruchman 1909, Eva Worstell, Beulah Stuff 1910, Alta Hanley, Anna King, Georgia Totten 1911, Anna King 1912, Anna King, Georgia Totten 1913, Beulah Worstell 1914, Adah Frazier 1915, Beulah Worstell, Eva Rinehart 1916, Martha Leuty 1917, Ethel Jones 1919, Ethel Jones, Jennie Leuty 1920, Beatrice White 1922, Virgie Anderson 1925, Mrs. Abe Cronkite 1926, Miss Hyiatt 1928, Etha Moon 1930, Ruby Seaman 1933, Alberta Core 1937, Mildred Maddy 1938, Miss Wilma Rinehart 1939-42, Inez Stittsworth, Hallie Shera 1945, Florence O’Melia 1947, Betty M. Hollingshead 1948-49, Pauline Stittsworth 1950-52 Dorothy Forgy 1953, Wanda Jones 1954, Gertrude McCullough 1956.

The next school article will be about West Pella in Perry township. Phone 641-628-4716 or e-mail helenboertje@iowatelecom.net with information or pictures.

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