Milford Twp school building was, at this time, a very new facility as it had been completed and occupied since March of 1924 and this was the end of December.
Three things stand out in this article about this incident-
1) The superintendent did not live at the school site as was the custom in the `40s and `50s. The custodian was the occupant of the cottage on-site, just to the north of school. (The house on the southeast corner of the school property, that most remember as the Janitor's house, was placed there in 1946.) The superintendent lived at the Christy's, a half mile to the north on the east side of the road. Later, in the late `20s, Superintendent Weyrauch lived in Ames and Janitor Mann lived on-site during the `30s.
2) There was good telephone service to the north to Christy's and to Nevada.
3) There was school being held during the Christmas holiday “vacation”.
Less than two months later, there appeared an ad in the Nevada paper announcing the upcoming auction of the generator plant and 56 batteries. No mention is made of the condition of the plant but the ad mentioned that it could be used to power a farm's electrical needs.
This ad, to dispose of the electric generator, seems to question the accepted concept that the electric line to Milford Twp School from Nevada was completed in the summer of 1925. (Electric lines were put in place to the School in 1925.) However, one explanation could be that the insurance company was quick to make a settlement and that the damage was corrected or another unit may have been purchased and this unit was used to light the school until the summer of 1925. No ad was found to indicate the sale of a second unit but perhaps this unit would not have sold until much later and it served as a backup for power to the school for years. It was not in place, however, in the late `40s.
Furthermore, if a fire were to have burned for the time that it would be imagined that it took Gill and Christy to get to the school to assist in smothering the flames, it speaks well of the fireproofness of the structure.
If school were to be held that very day, 31 Dec. 1924, the question of water supply for the school is brought to mind and how, without electricity, was the well operated? One could imagine that no lights in the rooms would be an inconvenience, but not disabilitating to operations; but, no water, that's another problem.
On a pleasant spring day in 1949 Supt Harnack smiles for the camera at the southeast corner of the School. In the background is sixth grader Dave Allen `55. This informal shot is a great study in the school fashions of the time with the `wide legged' style of pants on Supt Harnack and Dave in the horizontal striped `T' shirt with accompanying red corduroy ear flap hat. Also, in the background right, are two unidentified boys playing marbles. At this time there were three `authorized' marble arenas down along the east side of the School behind those student damaged bushes. Note both lads dressed in their bib overalls.
Ol' Milford Farmer find: Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start today and make a brand new ending.