Bob, Thank you for sharing your experiences as a boy in an Iowa country school - and all the others who have written, too. Reading these messages, and writing some, has made for a lively and enjoyable week here on the Iowa List - let's keep it going. Post your questions, query's, or suggestions for topics of discussion. C'mon folks we have something special here! Blessings, Kate ----- Original Message ----- From: Fergsbks@aol.com To: kate@comm1net.net Cc: Iowa@Rootsweb.com ; Fergsbks@aol.com ; dkferg@yahoo.com Sent: Friday, March 06, 2009 5:18 PM Subject: Re: [IOWA] Why couldn't teachers marry? Sorry this is so long. I started out to comment on teachers in one room schools but things kept coming to mind. Please excuse the rambling on. Bob in Iowa My Country School, Booth Township #8 I saw the same public tv program and recorded it. It brought back a lot of memories as I attended a country school, Booth township #8, until the start of the 8th grade and then our area was consolidated into the Lauren's, Iowa school. I thought it was strange we were going to the town school in Laurens which is in Pocahontas County while I lived in Palo Alta County. Distances made the difference as I was only 5 miles from the Laurens school while I was 9 miles from the next nearest school. In regard to women teachers not being able to be married, it was due to the lack of available jobs. If a woman teacher married it was assumed that her husband had a job and could support her while if a man was the teacher, seldom in later years, he was the person supporting his wife if he had one. My mother was a teacher until she married my father in the middle twenties. She attended college in Cedar Falls, Iowa. She had worked for a neighbor helping with the housework and caring for the children. In the late 1880s there was a school built 2 miles north of Laurens and named after my ggrandfather called the Ferguson School. He had moved his family from Guthrie County, Iowa to 4 miles north of Laurens to farms he and his oldest son had bought. The farms are still in the family and farmed by his great and ggreat grandson, my first cousin and his son. Now back to the Ferguson school. My ancestors walked two miles to school until there was a new school built in the section next to the farms where they then went to school. The first teacher of the school was a man by the name of Gilchrist who later became a lawyer and then went on to serve in the countries legislature. Our country school was relatively modern compared to a lot of the older country schools. The original country school was bought by my grandfather or my father and moved across the road or maybe was built there and they just bought the school house since usually the land was donated. Any way at on time we lived in the former schoolhouse after we moved back home from Nebraska as my dad owned the farm. The new schoolhouse was square with a porch on the entry and just inside were restroom s called cloak rooms to hang your coats, overshoes and any thing else. There also was a chemical toilet in each boy's and girl's cloak room so we did not have to go to an outhouse. We still had one at home., In fact I never had an indoor bath and restroom facility until I was drafted into the Army in 1953We were farmers and poor but we ate well and my folks were able to provide most of the necessities.. I started working when I was 12 years old shockinf oats for threshing. I was expected to work about as much as an adult. My own perception. Our school had an addition on the South side of the boy's cloak room where the teacher kept supplies and also a bucket of water with a dipper for drinking water when you were thirsty. We also had a basement with a furnace where we also played when it was bitterly cold and windy although we often went outside to play anyway. Our teacher had to bank the coal furnace every night before going home so there would be red coals left in the morning to start the coal burning again. It was banked by covering it with ashes to keep it from burning all of the and the dying. Our furnace was an updraft one with a large grate in the middle where we stand when coming in from the cold outdoors. Our desks faced south with windows all along the East side and the cloak rooms and store room on the West side to help protect from the cold west wind. We went to the front of the school for recitation which also was where the blackboards were located and the pull down mans. We also hand an upright record player which we called a Victrola or phonograph. It played the old wax 78 rpm records and used a steel needle. It was also a wind-up player and would often have to be wound up. We did have a hand pump in front of the steps and the older boys had to take turns getting the water for the day whenever needed. We also all had to take turns dusting the erasers by pounding them together outside of the school. We had 10 minute recesses every hour and an hour, I believe, for lunch. we also had a flag which the teacher put and took down every day. We also had one other distinctive feature. In the storeroom was a table and a hotplate for cooking. Most days our teacher made hot soup for us to eat. This was really a radical innovation way ahead of it's time. This occurred the last few years we attended the school. shortly after the consolidation of the area the school was sold to a farmer about a mile and one-half north of the school. He then moved it to his farm and attached it to his small house where it still exists today. Bob Ferguson in Iowa Researching Ferguson-Moore-Grice-Gates-Benna-Johnson-Wenell ************** A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. 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