NORTH FORK NO. 1 SCHOOL IS RECALLED BY H. G. TRENKAMP

"This school, North Fork District No. 1, is what I was waiting for," said Henry G. Trenkamp of New Vienna, in a long letter recalling school days at the rural school which was pictured in last week's D-R.

"I believe the main upkeep for it was social doings -- mainly box socials. On one occasion I well remember, one lady's box went up to twenty dollars. The said part was the girl refused to eat with him, so he said, "Don't worry, I will get rid of it." He went back where there were some (boys) that didn't get one, and he passed it out to them.

"On these parties they had to have an auctioneer, a prominent farmer three miles south, John Ketchen, got the job, and the teacher was clerk.

"On many of these socials they netted around a hundred dollars which in those days the people in this district thought was a lot of money.
"The pupils in this school were for a few years half Methodist and the other half Catholics, but it seemed as though none even thought anything about that-- no vice segregation in this district."

Mr. Trenkamp said two pupils had to get the water every morning from the Charles Nichols farm to the south, now the Albert Deutmeyer farm.

The fuel, he said, "was mainly wood brought over in pole or cord wood length. The some neighbor who had a saw rig would cut it in stove lengths. The stove in my days was a round heating stove five feet high and two feet in diameter. The fist ones that were there in the morning started it, and the wood was cut generally in the fall. There was a good size wood shed south. During recess, the pupils piled it full for the winter and generally kept a few days supply in the entrance in school. Those are days I won't forget too easily. It was lots of fun. Nobody knew what evil was."

Mr. Trenkamp said, "I knew this school since I was born in 1901. It was attended by the Mr. and Mrs. Henry Trenkamp family. The school was on the northwest corner of their property."

Teachers he remembered were: Charles Harvey, Mary Callahan from Dyersville, Pauline Parmenter, Anna Mahulka and Theresa Wuchter. Of the later, he said, "She walked the four miles every morning and afternoon; sometimes someone took her along for a ride.

Families he listed as attending the school were his father and mother and whole family, Anton Meyers, Lawrence Whiting, Clem Wilhein, Fred Binning, Joseph Cooksley, Otto K. Flacher, Anton Recker, Fredinand Tholes, Martin Arens, Henry Timmer, Albang, Gerhard, Tagaier, Frank Schlichmann, Nick Elenz and Joseph Becker.