MEMORIES OF OTTO SCHOOL BY JUDY WICKERT
It was a one room school house and as you walked in the door there was a mud
room where we hung our jackets, took off our boots and got a drink of water.
There was a big water cooler with a spigot and a lid that the teacher had to go
to the well and fill every day with a bucket (no running water). Our toilet was
a outdoor privy. We held up our hand to go out. We had different hand signals
by holding up one finger or two. (you can use your imagination for that).
When
you walked on in the big front door, there were several rows of seats and desks
all hooked together in a row and a bench at the front of the room directly in
front of the teachers desk, where we recited our lessons. All 8 grades had
their turn up in front with the teacher. The same teacher taught all 8 grades
and we heard everyone's lessons instead of just our own, made it hard to study.
Directly behind the teachers desk was the blackboard that covered the entire
back wall. There was a pull down map of all the countries and states when we
were studying Geography. Our lessons were, Reading, Writing, Arithmetic,
English and Geography. I believe Science was introduced to us in our 8th grade
year.
On the left hand side of the teachers desk was a huge coal furnace that
the teacher had to stoke every day and night, take out the clinkers and bring in
the coal from the coal shed outdoors. The floor was some type of hardwood that
the teacher cleaned every day with some smelly oil and a dust mop. The students
dusted the erasers every day after class. We had 2 recesses a day and a lunch
hour. We had to bring our own lunches.
Our playground consisted of
teeter-totters, swings, and a ball field. We used to play other schools ball
games throughout the season. Other games we played was red rover, races, tag,
and drop the handkerchief. We also had a cave out in front of the school in
case it would storm or have tornado warnings. I don't remember ever having to
go into it, but we did check it out. It was dark, dreary and small. We played
king of the mountain on it the outside hill of the cave.
There were community
clubs every month. Our mother played a big part in arranging the club
get-togethers. They would have monthly potlucks and the women had a ragtime
band. Our mother was famous for her chicken and noodles and her mayonnaise
cakes. She even sold them at special events and they went fast. The
instruments were kazoos, piano, pie pans banged together for cymbals, beating on
a washtub for the drum, little tin horns and I don't know what all. Every one
had a wonderful time. They used to have box lunches that the girls were
supposed to have made and then people would bid on them and then get to eat with
the person that made them. (We were sure the girls themselves did not make
them). During Christmas time we had Christmas programs with the students
singing Christmas Carols, putting on skits and reciting poems. There were
parties put on throughout the year for special occasions.
A lot of happy
memories were spent by our community at Otto School and I'm sure the entire
community enjoyed it.
My recollection of my school years at Mt. Pleasant,
when Mrs. Copeland was the teacher--
Written by Margaret Niederer, March
17, 2007
Marie Copeland was my teacher for my first six years of
grade school at Mt. Pleasant School in Liverpool Township, Fulton County. As
there was no kindergarten, I started first grade in 1936 (I do not know if she
taught there prior to my entering first grade.). Her last year at Mt.
Pleasant was when I was in sixth grade, which ended in the spring of 1942. I
thought that my school life was over when she decided to resign as I did not
know how I could go to school without her.
Mrs. Copeland was an amazing, energetic and
talented teacher. She and her husband, Charles, had one daughter, Onalee, who
was a talented musician. Each morning her husband brought her to Mt.
Pleasant on his way to a coal mine--he had some position in administration at a
mine located somewhere between Mt. Pleasant and Peoria. He helped her fire
the furnace that was in the back of the school room. It was not a stove, but a
round coal furnace that one might have in a basement.
During cold days, she had to go to the coal bin (a room
off of the classroom) and get a scoop or two of coal more than once a day and
put it in the furnace; then she had to open and shut the draft of the furnace
and stir the coals as necessary throughout the day.
In the fall and winter, students would bring vegetables
and meat and she would fix soup for lunch. Several children's parents qualified
for the WPA and received free beans and other foods which they brought for the
soup. My dad many times furnished the meat--pork or beef. I can still vividly
see Mrs. Copeland preparing the vegetables and stirring the soup as she taught
classes. I recall that she stirred with one hand and had a book in the other
hand. The students came to the back of the room and sat in front of the soup
table for their lessons.
Mrs. Copeland utilized peer tutoring to help students
learn. Most of the time, an older student was tutoring a younger student in the
back of the room. Mrs. Copeland also was a musician and played the piano for
the students to sing songs each morning after the Pledge of Allegiance, which
did not include the words, "under God" in it. We learned many songs,
including all the stanzas of "The Star Spangled Banner" and "Illinois,
Illinois," the State song.
She organized the games at recess and noon and somehow
taught us to include everyone. When choosing up sides, we chose the students
with the lesser skills in that game as one of the first students chosen. We
would not have wanted to embarrass anyone who had not achieved a skill level to
win the game. The first graders felt as included as anyone else.
Mrs. Copeland found time to read to us after lunch, even
though she was teaching all eight grades. This included the required
subjects for each grade. There were multiple lessons in reading, language,
writing, arithmetic, geography, history, health and spelling. And still this
was not all--we learned parts for plays throughout the year and tried different
crafts, such as weaving, embroidery, splatter painting, pen and ink drawings,
etc.
The school year was from September until about the third
week of April. School was dismissed early in the spring so that the students
could help in the fields.
We had minimum of school supplies, and only two shelves of
library books in a metal cabinet. It did not take long to read all the books.
The school nurse came about twice a year. The nurse wore a navy blue cape over
a starched navy blue uniform with a starched white collar and cuffs. This was
a visit of great dignity and importance.
The school building was old and not in good repair; it
had cracked plaster and old lamp holders for kerosene lamps on the walls and
some of the kerosene lamps, even though we did not use them after we got
electricity Liverpool Township was wired for electricity when I was eight
years old, just old enough to carry the kerosene lamp by myself. My dad, Grover
Post, recruited the farmers to join the REA in Liverpool Township but he
was not successful with everyone. Some people did not believe they
needed electricity in 1937.
The school building was not insulated and the wind
whistled through the building many days.The building not only was drafty but
cold on some days--if you sat near the furnace you were hot. The floors were
oiled and had not been sanded. There were large splinters in the floors. One
day a student got a large splinter about twelve inches long caught in a hole in
the sole of her shoe. Many students were too poor to have their shoes
resoled. After that, we more careful about getting splinters in our shoes. We
never ran in the school building because no one would want to fall down on that
floor. It was black, oily, rough, ugly and dangerous.
Mrs. Copeland was also the custodian, having to sweep the
floor each day after school. She did recruit the students to help, one of which
was my sister, Alice Post. My sister always recited her lessons by herself, if
she wasn't working in a workbook about an inch thick as she was advanced for
her level of classwork. The second year after Mrs. Copeland left, the teacher
had Alice skip the sixth grade so that she did not have to deal with Alice's
having her work done and nothing to do. Because Alice had free time, Mrs.
Copeland had her complete many tasks, from cleaning the chalkboard to tutoring
students. Alice most often was requested to go to the outside toilets to see
why the younger kids did not return. According to Alice, most of the time, they
were hanging over the fence watching the cows in the pasture next to the school.
Mrs. Copeland always decorated the school room as if it
were the finest school room in the State. She used crepe paper and other
paper decorations. I especially remember the creative crepe paper decorations
on the east windows: browns, yellows and orange for fall; red, white and blue
for patriotic days; red and green for Christmas; lavender, light blue and pink
for spring; green and white for St. Patrick's day; etc. The crepe paper was
twisted across the windows in various designs and secured with crepe paper
pom-poms.
About the first of December, we had our work completed
for the first half of the year and were able to spent that month, singing and
learning parts for the Christmas program given in an evening for parents a few
days before Christmas. It was a secular Christmas program, not religious. We
sang songs such as "A Merry American Christmas, that's what we're wishing
you--" The Christmas program was not a hodge-podge of different sayings and
songs, but some type of simple operetta for children that had a theme. At other
times during the year, we had parties, such as Valentine's Day, when we all
exchanged Valentines. Our mother, Fannie Post, always made a sour cream cake
with a boiled icing as a gift for Mrs. Copeland; it was beautifully decorated
in white and red. This was a special occasion as our mother did not make cakes
for us, only for company.
Toward the first of April, again, we had finished our work
for the second semester. We then began to spend almost full time preparing a
huge display of crafts and notebooks made for school projects for our "exhibit"
held the last day of school. Boards were laid across our school desks for the
student displays. Our parents and others in the community came to the
exhibit which included a potluck lunch. On that day, we received awards for
good attendance. One year, I received a plastic chain necklace that had about
six plastic balls stuffed with blue feathers as baubles, about the size of
gumballs, on it. To me, it was beautiful.
When I think about what all Mrs. Copeland did for the
students of Mt. Pleasant, I often think that there should be a statue in Fulton
county to commemorate such teachers as Mrs. Copeland who had an
extra-ordinary commitment to students. Not only did we learn our lessons
to excel on the tests but we learned leadership skills, crafts, citizenship,
music, art, public speaking, etc.
The semester tests were sent in a sealed container from
the County Superintendent's office, that were opened the morning of the
tests--there were two days of tests. No one could say that the teacher taught
to the tests because they were a complete surprise to everyone. The tests
tested one's memory and not application of the lessons learned. There were no
writing requirements. I will always remember trying to learn the primary
products of the South American countries for these tests. Was it beef, oil and
coffee, or coffee, oil and cocoa?
I loved school so much that the days Mt. Pleasant school
was closed during the school year, I visited other country one room schools, if
I could find a ride to those schools. About the first of August, I could not
wait for school to start. When it started, I insisted on being there an hour
early as I wanted to get a seat that would fit me. All the desks were too small
and the fathers had to heighten the desks by putting them on 2 by 4's so there
would be leg room.
There are many more stories about what we did at this
school before and during World War II. More interestingly, it would Interesting
to know what impact this school had on the lives of students who attended .
Most of the students, I believe, excelled in high school, attended college and
several graduated. How many of these students became teachers?
For my class, Shirley Clark married Bud Weaver
(deceased) of Lewistown and lives in LaHarpe. Shirley is a retired teacher.
Annabelle Berry (deceased) married Fred Locke and they
were divorced; she remarried a gentleman whose name I cannot recall. Annabelle
taught home economics in Canton, Illinois.
Margaret Niederer is a retired teacher and State Board
of Education administrator. She lives in Springfield with her husband, Edward
Niederer.
Alice Post is a retired school teacher (taught music in
Lewistown and North Chicago, Illinois) and administrator of the State Depository
for the Visually Impaired. She lives in Springfield.
Since Mt. Pleasant has not existed for some time, the same
as the other rural one-room schools, most often there has been no contact among
the former students nor reunions of students from these schools. These
schools have essentially disappeared from sight and in a few years, they will
be gone from memory as there will be no one to tell about the one room school
experience.
Please email me if you have memories of
Mt. Pleasant School that you'd like to share--Margaret
Niederer.