Pella —
Cedar Valley school was a few miles west of Marysville. The name Cedar Valley refers to its location near North Cedar Creek. Old maps show it to be on the southern border of sec. 27 with Cedar Creek to the north, placing it somewhere along the present day road called 168th Place. This school was also known as the “frog pond school” although there was no pond nearby, maybe some puddles left after the creek flooded the valley. Enough for frogs.
A Knoxville Journal of 1891 reports that Lizzie Hall closed school with dinner, dialogues, declamations etc.
In February 1894 the Knoxville Journal says that the school board has bought a flag which floats on a 30 foot pole.
I talked with Halene King about this school which she attended through 6th grade. Her brothers Howard and Harold also attended Cedar Valley. Their father farmed the creek bottom which was often flooded. Although he never had a crop failure, she recalls him wishing for a shower to wash the mud off the corn leaves after the water receded.
Sometimes Cedar Creek flooded the road and students would have to walk home through the fields. “We had school if the teacher could get there,” she said. When the snow was deep father would walk through the pasture to make a path to school.”
Others attending this school in the late 30’s and early 40’s were children of the Ross, Pearson, and Bennett families. The Ross twins, Willa and Wilma, were in her class. Halene especially remembers teachers Echo Hukill because of her unusual name and Stanley Gullion because he was a very young man. Years later he would tell her it was his first teaching job and he didn’t know anything about teaching school. (No one learns more in the classroom of a beginning teacher than the teacher!)
Teachers were John May 1883, Sarah Lyman 1885, Lizzie Hall, Elmer Van Winkle 1891, Miss Cora Batten 1893, Beulah Welch, James Hamilton 1894, Miss Eva Dailey, Chas. Kunkle 1895, Kate Brennen 1897, E. L. Metz 1898, Myrtle Eshom 1899, A. F. Conn, T. L. Vernon, Myrtle Eshom 1900, Myrtle Eshom, Nellie Rogers 1901, Noel T. Shinn 1903, Charles Brenna, Helen McConahey 1904, C. M. Brenman, Vera Witt 1905, Katherine Shinn 1907, W. J. Kincaid, Sue Stone 1908, Eva Marshall 1912, Kathryn Norris, Maude Hughes 1913, Vernon Van Loon, Blanche Meyers 1914, Patrick Kearney, Blanche Burdan 1915, Cora Bridges, Fern McMillen 1916, Agnes Reider 1917, Virgie Beedle 1918, Ferne Davis 1919, Mrs. Snow, Mrs. Rowland 1920, Ferne Davis 1921, Ruth Porter 1922, (no school) 1925, Margaret Kearney 1926, Jennie Evans 1928, (no school) 1930, Kenneth Baker 1936, Kathryn Beary 1937-38, Lora Cristy, Echo Hukill 1939, Stanley Gullion 1941, Phyllis Laird 1942.
– – –
Readers, I need your help in solving a mystery. There is both a north and south branch of Cedar Creek. In a clipping (source unknown) I found a reference to the Egypt school later called Cedar Valley. It includes a 1909 picture of students with teacher Beulah Stuff (Beulah did teach in Marion county). The student surnames are McCombs, Johnson, Boyer, Ellis, Gullion, Van Benthuysen and Wales. The story says Egypt schoolhouse was located near Bussey in Liberty township on the east side of the railroad tracks and the north side of the road near the John Wales home. I have found no other reference to an Egypt school or to a second Cedar Valley school. Can anyone tell me which school this might have been? Has the writer confused school names/locations or both? Contact me at 641-628-4716 or helenboertje@iowatelecom. net
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