Ref: The Hearthstone Town and Country Pennsburg, Montgomery County, PA Thursday - March 20, 2003 WARNER'S SCHOOL HOUSE The Littlest Red School House Upper Hanover Township 1856-1948 PART 1 of 5 Editor's note: This is the first 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. Each week for the next four weeks we will publish a portion of the school's history in this section of the paper. When it opened in November 1856, Warner's School House was the tenth and smallest of 10 schools in the Upper Hanover Township School District. The Upper Hanover District was responsible for educating all school-age children in the area between Hereford Township on the west and Marlborough Township on the east. From 1854 to 1966, the district covered a small part of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, about 35 miles northwest of Philadelphia. In 1854 and 1855, the school district built nine school houses in and around Greenville, Pennsburg and Red Hill, villages in Upper Hanover Township. Most of the schools were a standard 25 feet wide and 33 feet long. Several had bell towers. In 1856, when it came time to build School No. 10 on the road above Greenville to Kraussdale, the school board seemed less eager to proceed. For the children of the farms along the two branches of Macoby Creek, the board decided to build a smaller school, 24 feet square. The school had one room and no bell tower. This was Warner's School House. For $30, Henry Y. SCHULTZ and his wife, Elizabeth, sold the school district a quarter acre of their farm for Warner's School. (A year later, Henry SCHULTZ would died when he was thrown from a horse). The school house cost $492.78 to erect. From September to November 1856, the structure was built near the house of Jesse YEAKEL. YEAKEL, 36, was part of a family who had lived in Upper Hanover for generations. First Called Yeakel's - In its first year, the Warner's School House was called Yeakel's School House. Its first blackboard was a wooden board painted black. Amos KRAUSS was its first teacher. Like the teachers in the nine other Upper Hanover schools, KRAUSS taught students from first through eighth grade. As the school year began in November 1856, the Upper Hanover School Board resolved that the same books be continued in the schools that have heretofore been used, and that the Testament also be used in addition. On November 7, 1857, the school board minutes say, "One year after building, Warner's needs a new privy." That was the board's first official reference to the school as Warner's. Warner, The Distiller - Nearby, the house of Jesse YEAKEL apparently had become the home of William and Margaret (ARNER) WARNER, who moved their family from Phillipsburg, New Jersey. William WARNER, 44 head distiller at a Phillipsburg whiskey distillery, would build or expand his family farmhouse about 450 feet northwest of the school house. Theodore WARNER, William's son, might have attended the Warner's School House from 1857 to 1862, roughly fourth through eighth grades. His older brother Jesse and younger sister Martha might have gone to the school, too. They spoke, read and wrote English at school, but also spoke German. They spoke Pennsylvania German and English at home. Imagine Theodore's mother stirring him from his sleep on a school morning "Weck uff," Theodore, she might say. "Rischt dich fer in die Schul geh. Draame kumme net waahr wann du net uffweckscht." (Wake up, Theodore! Prepare yourself for school. Dreams can't come true if you never wake up). In 1857, the school year began on November 9 for a four-and-a-half-month school term. At the Warner's School House, Theodore would have had these teachers: John K. HOUCK, 1857-58; Daniel K. KEPNER, 1858-59; John K. HOUCK, 1859-60; Benjamin F. DOTTS, 1860-61; and M.S. KEEL, 1861-62. Each teacher's salary was about $30 for a 22-day month. At the end of 1857, Theodore's 3-year-old sister, Ellen, and infant brother, Edward, became seriously ill, possibly suffering from a common contagious disease for which 19th-century medicine was ineffective. Baby Edward died December 16. Ellen died eight days later. In 1859, the Upper Hanover School Board ordered that teachers use these books; Spelling Books, Comly's n Bonsalis Edition; Reading Books, Saunders Series; Arithmetic, Stoddard's Mental, Stoddart & Davis; Geography, Mitchel's and Atlas; Grammar, Smith and Brown's; Mensuration (weights and measures), Bonnycastles; German Books, A.B.C. and Spelling Book; Psalter (Book of Psalms) and New Testament. The five Saunders' Readers included popular poetry and short stories of the 1850s, and rules on the elementary sounds of the letters. The books' many stories taught moral lessons in honesty, generosity, democracy and hard work. The readings told stories of Columbus, Hiawatha, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and the marquis de Lafayette, Abraham Lincoln, not yet a president, was not mentioned. Saunders' Fourth Reader had a Bible legend about a Revolutionary War patriot named WARNER. In this story, a pro-British Tory's life is spared when WARNER's little daughter opens a Bible and points to the passage, Love your enemies. On November 5, 1859, the school board bought a new stove for Warner's School House. On December 1, 1860, Theodore WARNER's oldest sister, Catharine, got married to Vincent REUBERT in Phillipsburg, New Jersey. In 1861, the Upper Hanover District built another school house near the New Goshenhoppen Church. It was called the Church School, and because it was at the edge of a swamp, it also was called Bullfrog Academy. On August 9, 1861, Theodore WARNER's oldest brother, Reuben, was back in Phillipsburg, New Jersey, on August 26, 1862, to marry Anna BEERS. In the meantime, Theodore probably quit school to work full-time on the farm. Picture - Warner's school house as it appeared after it was sold in 1948. Shortly after it was sold, the bell tower was removed. The building still stands and is currently a residence. Picture - The above map shows the locations of the school houses located in Upper Hanover Township, as well as those located in the three towns.