Ref: The Hearthstone Town and Country Pennsburg, Montgomery County, PA Thursday - April 17, 2003 WARNER'S SCHOOL HOUSE The Littlest Red School House Upper Hanover Township 1856-1948 PART 5a OF 5 Editors note: This is the final installment of a five-part story on the history of Warner's School House written by a great-great-grandson of the farmer whom the school house was named. Horse and Sleigh - In winter 1937, the snow was so deep even automobiles could not get through. On a Sunday, Miss SCHWENK's father took her to the school house in his horse and sleigh to start the stove fire for Monday. In 1937, sixth-grader John NOVOMESKY studied John Greenleaf WHITTER's poem "Snow Bound" in Miss SCHWENK's class. John would go on to study at Harvard University. In 1947, he would graduate with generals-to-be Alexander HAIG and Brent SCOWCROFT from the West Point Military Academy. John joined the Air Force and later worked for IBM. From 1937 to 1944, Bertha (ERDMAN) HUNSBERGER SMITH taught at the Warner's School House. In the summer of 1938, a stray Irish setter slipped through a tiny open window into the crawl space under the school. The dog was pregnant, and soon she had at least six puppies. Children from the MILLER farm fed bread to the dogs. They also adopted one of the puppies. But not long after, a farmer from the other side of the school shot and killed the puppies' mother. He said she was killing his chickens. That same summer, a woman in her 90s got out of a car at the MILLER farm. She said she was a WARNER. She told the MILLERs her father built the MILLER farmhouse. The woman probably was Maria (WARNER) MILLER, 96, of Allentown. Maria MILLER's appearance probably was related to a Warner's School and Literary Society reunion, Warner's School House graduates, teachers and their families were invited, first to the school house, then to a picnic at New Goshenhoppen Church Park. At the reunion, Oliver DERR, who owned a machine shop in East Greenville, was elected president of the Literary Society. Anna (WASSER) LONG, wife of Melvin LONG on Wasser Road and member of the East Greenville High Class of '29, was elected secretary, succeeding Clinton S. SCHOENLY of Old Quakertown Road, a mile east of Pennsburg. SCHOENLY was father of LeRoy, Paul, Herbert, Verna, Alma, Myrtle and Carl SCHOENLY. James TAGGERT, a farmer on Bank Street, was made treasurer. Speaking at the reunion were Jonas SEIBERT of Glenside; the Rev. H.H. KRAUSS, pastor of St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Red Hill; and the Rev. H. Morris SCHOFER of Aristes, Columbia County, former Warner's School House teacher. "The meeting was largely attended," the Town and Country newspaper reported. Frank Snyder WARNER and his teenage sons Lawrence and Thomas were at the reunion, as was Arline HARTMAN, Larry's future wife. Frank S. WARNER, 53, a Lehigh Valley Railroad engineer, was a son of former Warner's student Theodore WARNER, who had died in 1921. Many of the guests spoke Pennsylvania German. When the gathering moved from the school to the picnic, someone said, "It'll be Dutch treat." Lawrence and Thomas WARNER remember an old great aunt at the reunion, Maria (WARNER) MILLER and she herself spoke mostly Pennsylvania German. Thomas recalls her boasting she would make it to 100 years old. She died the next year. In the winter of 1943, during a lunch break, students sledded down a humpy hill behind Warner's School House. Eva NESTER's sled flew from a bump and crashed into fellow sixth-grader Vivian ALBITZ, knocking the wind out of Vivian. Mrs. Miller Returns - On August 3, 1944, Warner's teacher Bertha (ERDMAN) SMITH asked for a leave of absence. Lydia (SCHMIDT) MILLER, who had taught at the school from 1920 to 1922, was hired as a substitute. At the time, her older son Charles Harry MILLER was a gunner in the Army Air Corps, fighting the Japanese in the Philippines. On September 20, 1945, after teachers throughout the Upper Hanover District demanded electric lights, the school board paid Longacre Electric Service of Bally $525 to wire all the schools for lights. In late 1946, second-grader Robert NESTER walked into the Warner's School entrance hall to hang up his coat and, not noticing the open trap door, plunged 6 feet into the cellar. He wasn't hurt. In 1947, the Pennsylvania Legislature declared it would no longer fund any school serving fewer than 30 students. In 1948, the Warner's School House had only 19 or 20 pupils in grades 1-8, so it was closed. Its last teacher was Lydia MILLER, 61 years old when her last pupils went home. Bell Upside Down - Students remember Mrs. MILLER ringing the school bell to call them back from recess and from "dinner," their lunch break. As a prank in 1947 and 1948, one or two older boys occasionally turned the bell upside down to give the schoolchildren a longer lunch. While Mrs. MILLER was home eating, they would pull the rope just enough to flip the bell. In the bell tower, the counterweight hung down, where the bell was meant to be. When Mrs. MILLER returned and pulled the rope, the bell made no sound. The clapper rested silently as the topsy-turvy bell rocked, mouth upward. Mrs. MILLER had to get her husband, Charles, to climb up and flip the bell back into place. In early 1948, mischievous students threw crayons into the hot stove, setting off fumes that drove everyone outdoors.