|
EDITED BY John Ely Briggs
| Volume XII |
September 1931 |
No. 9 |
| |
|
|
Copyright 1931 by the State Historical Society of Iowa
(Transcribed by Debbie Clough Gerischer)
Written by N. Tjernagel
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Sheldall School
The Sheldall School in Scott Township was the first public
institution of learning in southern Hamilton County. Pupils came from adjacent
townships and from the northern part of Story County as well. Being the only
public building in the vicinity, it was frequently used for church services,
elections, and other meetings of public character.
The schoolhouse took its name from Lars Sheldall who owned the
site where it was built in 1860. the building was erected by Lars Henryson.
Most of the material used in its construction consisted of native timber
brought from the Skunk River woods. The sills and joists were hewn from oak
logs, and the framework, also of oak, was fashioned in the required dimensions
in Dan McCarthy's sawmill near Story City.
The great majority of the pioneer patrons were Norwegian
immigrants who had come across the sea in sailing ships and thence over the
plains in prairie schooners. Some came as early as 1855. There were also a few
Danes and a sprinkling of English-speaking families most of whom had emigrated
from the eastern States.
All the immigrants were inured to hardships and plain living.
They took hold energetically to establish themselves, but did not always find
it easy to pay the school tax or to supply the children with the necessary books
and clothing. By practicing thrift, however, they saved enough to rig out the
children comfortably and fill their dinner baskets sufficiently to satisfy
healthy appetites.
Kentucky-jean coats and pants, hickory shirts, and heavy top
boots for the boys were much in vogue. Calico dresses for girls had not gone
out of fashion; and may pretty faces peeped out from beneath sunbonnets. The
suits and dresses were made to order at home by hand. Woolen stockings and
mittens were knit by mother.
The dinner basket bulged with layers of bread bountifully
interspersed with butter and molasses. Sometimes there would be egg, meat, or
cheese sandwiches. Pie and cake belonged mostly to the Sunday dinner menu, but
cookies, doughnuts, and kringla were not uncommon.
Usually the pupils were required to eat their dinners quietly in
the school room, but occasionally there would be a rush-and-grab for a slice of
bread, then a huge mouthful taken, enough to choke a dog, and out they would
charge with bat or ball in one hand and a fistful of crumpled bread in the
other, entirely too busy to eat. Though they were forgetful at times, the
children had all been taught never to waste any food. Hence, when a teacher
threw the remnants of his dinner into the fire, the pupils looked on with
horror.
The pioneer teachers were serious minded men and women, and left
as a heritage to their pupils a stamp of character which has helped make them a
useful, upright body of citizens. They were also good disciplinarians, and
where order and system prevail half the battle is won. To impart as well as
received instruction then becomes a pleasure.
To willing workers there was opportunity for advancement then as
now. The courses of study were, perhaps, not so full or as well planned as they
came to be later, but with diligent application under intelligent guidance there
was nothing to hinder the pupils from making good progress.
Seldom have I noticed a more contrasting play of emotions than
were expressed in the sobs and tears, the yells of glee, the howls of pain, the
hard fought games, the funny antics, the sallies of wit, and in the laughter and
very joyousness of living displayed in and about the old Sheldall School.
Sometimes Old Adam would bob up in spite of all vigilance, whence the
application of the stitch. On occasion the offender would be required to go
forth, cut down, trim, and prepare his own rod of punishment. This in itself
was enough to humble almost anybody. Sometimes a mischief-making future bishop
or bank president would be escorted over to the girls' seats and made to sit
between two of these pretties, much to his distress and mortification. At other
times wrongdoers were confined at recess and the miserable culprits would sit
prisoners, sad in soul and spirit, listening to the jubilee outside where all
was freedom and happiness. Often the truant would be stood in front of the
whole school till his legs ached, an abject example of the wages of iniquity.
We used to play Anti-over, Blackman, Drop-the-handkerchief,
Needle's eye, Norwegian ball, yes, even Sock-ball. In Blackman, Needle's eye,
and Drop-the-handkerchief the girls joined, but Sock-ball, which simply
consisted in throwing the ball as hard as possible where it might hurt the most,
was sport only for the bigger boys. It was a foolish, cruel sport. A few of
the boys happened to be hit hard blows in the abdomen, and each had much ado in
regaining his breath, let alone recovering from the pain which would linger for
days. Fortunately for the school, the teacher found us out and peremptorily put
a stop to the rough sport.
Once there came an orgy of coughing and spitting among us,
which kept the whole school in an uproar while it lasted. Every one seemed to
have taken cold very suddenly and all vied to do it now and be rid of it. This
was during school hours, and the teacher, being very wise, decided that such an
epidemic needed drastic treatment and kept us at our books during recess. This
cured us.
A pinching mania assailed us later, spread through the whole
school, and persisted for a considerable length of time. One would steal behind
another and pinch his or her arm with might and main. Though the pain was
maddening, few would let on, but craftily watched their chance to get even. Our
arms were black and blue for weeks and weeks afterward. It was all done so
cleverly that the teacher was only able to note the result, not the cause.
Sometimes we would walk on stilts, but only a few proved to be
expert at it. One of the older boys was long, lanky, and athletic to a degree,
and when, with his enormous stilts, he swung alongside the schoolhouse, shook
hands with the chimney, and sat himself down beside the belfry to eat his lunch,
we thought he was the greatest acrobat ever. He would rise and crow gleefully
like a self-confident rooster when through with his meal, then stride
majestically forward. But on one occasion he was too cocksure in his
movements, causing him to break one of his stilts. The mishap flung him
forward thrice the length of his body before he was properly flattened out on
the ground.
The glorious old game of Norwegian ball remained ever the chief
amusement among us boys. None of us will forget the master hits of a muscular
new pupil, when with his hickory bat he sent the ball soaring to meet the sun,
thus enabling him to make a home run with time to spare before the tantalizing
ball would reach the hands itching to catch i and put him out. One of the boys
wielded his batting-stick so that the ball would hop over his head rearward,
where nobody thought it necessary to be on guard to meet it. He, too, made his
base. Another batter's terrific drives sent the ball hurtling, cannon-like,
straight ahead, and woe to him who got in its way. The skillful hitter loped
along for home in leisurely fashion, smiling all the while as the cut-fielders
hunted frantically for the ball last seen bobbing up and down far beyond the
school yard in the Sheldall meadow. To see one's side lose a game just because
some awkward performer failed to ply his legs in properly measured tempo when
about to touch the base, and then to hear his despairing yell as the ball
unmercifully bored into his flesh and put him out, was trying, to say the least.
Sometimes the teachers would join in the games, and often they acted as
umpires. The better the games, the better the spirit throughout, and as long as
such amusements were not overstressed they were beneficial to the school work in
general.
There was much sociability among the people in the early days,
and this spirit communicated itself to the children at school. They loved to go
a visiting. Sometimes the school would tramp in a body to a neighboring school
just for a friendly call, or to be present at some program. The pupils would
have a royal time getting acquainted, and in combining in one grand aggregation
during a game. Some of the boys, rather new to each other, reminded us of
strange dogs accidentally thrown together that sniff and smell around, hair
bristling and all that, but finally make up and nearly run their legs off in
their eager show of friendliness. When such visits were made during winter we
would pile into bob-sleighs and scud through startled neighborhoods to the
accompaniment of bells and a general vocal hullabaloo.
Though there were difficulties to overcome then as now, the new
country with its promise for the future gave zest to the active and ambitious.
Children and all were imbued with buoyant hopes for the days to come, which
enabled them to enjoy all the more the little pleasures and advantages within
reach. Thus, when the whole family turned out to the school exhibitions, the
air was so saturated with happy joyousness that it was a little difficult to
breathe, especially just before the curtain went up. And I doubt if the Roman
gladiators held their honors in happier esteem than did the hero of the debate
or spelling match. It was worth while exercise for it brought the qualities of
concentration and studiousness into play, and served as a means for social
getting together.
The oratorical outbursts at the debates were at times both lofty
and ludicrous, all according to the occasion or degree of ability. There was,
all in all, however, much common sense expressed, and even considerable display
of skill in discussion. The patrons, teachers, and pupils all took part.
In going to spelling matches in the evenings we would generally
fill up Henry l. Henderson's big sleigh drawn by his powerful mules, and off we
went with a flourish, the champion speller and owner of the outfit at the reins
and his henchmen huddled in a heap behind. The exhilaration of the ride and the
excitement of the contest helped rouse us to action and initiative. Rarely, if
ever, did these spelling matches or debates deteriorate into anything
objectionable. The teachers as well as many of the patrons attended; and the
great majority of the pupils themselves had no desire to utilize the occasion
for any other purpose than good instruction coupled with opportunities for
wholesome recreation.
On one occasion our school had a visitor who had been our
teacher's former companion on mutual trips of adventure in the wilds of the
Dakotas. They spent the afternoon in reminiscent talk, and the children were
allowed their freedom to listen or play as they chose. Being thus fired with
stories of frontier life, of Indian encounters, and other adventure, the boys
had to make a feint of imitating the narrator's deeds. Forthwith followed a
fever for making war-like weapons, especially bows and arrows. The bows were of
a varying pattern and make, but had sufficient elasticity to speed the arrows so
that they were dangerous enough, especially for the eyes and ears. An arrow
sent at random past a corner of the schoolhouse hit an oncoming "red-skin" in
the temple just as he was rounding the very corner and was congratulating
himself upon having escaped a missile in the rear. He promptly fell to the
ground stunned out of his wits, but got up after awhile with a fistlike swelling
northeast of his left eye. It may have been the same fellow who, later with a
wide grin was challenging his opponents in a snowball match and received as
reward for his bravado a perfect hit between extended jaws, gagging him, thus
halting further expression on the subject.
Though there were no bullies or "rough-necks" in our school,
human nature expressed itself there as elsewhere, and "boys be boys". When a
passing spark happened to touch tinder, there would be a sudden rumpus,
unexpected as a bolt from heaven, subsiding, however, almost as quickly as it
had come. The teacher, as a rule, kept an eye out for such performances and, of
course, forbade them. Nether the less the belligerents would forget and get
into trouble again and again. And then how the buttons would fly. The girls
were all regular ladies, of course, but they certainly knew how to scratch.
Occasionally the teachers would delight the children by taking
them to the woods for a holiday. The schoolhouse being so near the timber gave
a fine opportunity for hikes along the "Chicauqua", the Indian name for our
beloved stream, which, having been translated into English, resolved itself into
plain "Skunk". Once we took a half holiday to visit an Indian camp near its
banks. There must have been fully a hundred Indians, men, women, and children
in the band. We watched them make camp, watched them as they roasted their
skunk sirloin over the fire, saw them feed their little ones and put them to
sleep papoose fashion, heard the song of the cry-baby and wondered why he chose
the same refrain as our babies do. We looked till we were tired. The Indians
did not mind us, but went quietly on with their business of doing little or
nothing. They really preferred to remain unnoticed, nor did they appear to be
the least bit curious about us. Nevertheless they saw everything that was going
on without seeming to see anything.
Thus did our teachers instill in us an added interest in our
fellow-beings, in nature, and in the various things surrounding us that would be
apt to broaden our minds. Then as now it was of great benefit to the children
to learn that the art of useful, noble living is of the highest importance and
that our studies, exercises, and games should be directed toward that end.
Quite a large number of the old pupils have taken courses at
higher institutions of learning; some have entered the learned professions,
others have gone into business, but the majority have remained on farms in the
vicinity or taken up farming elsewhere. An overwhelming majority of the girls
have chosen the best of all professions, namely, that of becoming good
housewives and mothers. |
