Yesterday s schools - our lasting legacy
Do you hear the school bell ringing? It's that time again, isn't it?
Let's go back in time to yesterday's schools. Every school day morning between the 1870s and 1960s, children heard that familiar school bell calling them, rain or shine, to the little white one-room school house down the road.
The Mennonite Heritage Museum in Goessel is hosting the exhibit, "Yesterday's Schools - Our Lasting Legacy," beginning Aug. 1 to the end of 2005. The 16 Goessel area schools included in the exhibit are Antioch, Emmenthal, Good Hope, Gordon, Greenfield, Green Valley, Heimbaugh, Hochfeld, Pleasant Valley, Sand Creek, Springfield, and Steinbach in Marion County plus four schools from McPherson County: Emma Valley, S. Maple Grove, North Bloomfield (Pleasant Valley), and South Bloomfield.
The goal of the exhibit is to document the history of Goessel area one-room schools through photos, artifacts, and interviews. Included in the exhibit are pictures of school buildings, teachers with their pupils at play and in the classroom, examples of class work, interesting facts about each school, and an index of over 600 teachers.
"I first became interested in one-room schools after I found school board treasurer records belonging to my father for the last year of Sand Creek School District #33," said researcher Mayleen Vinson. "Four generations of my family attended this school before it consolidated just a few years before I began school. I realized I knew very little about one-room schools."
Goessel area one-room schools produced many ministers, business and professional leaders and college professors.
Not only were the one-room schoolhouses a place of education for district children, they also served as social outlets for the community. In the early days, Sunday school and choir practices were held there. Community school programs also were important.
Education was important to our forefathers and many sacrifices were made throughout the years to keep the schools functioning.
Vinson said, "This exhibit is an ongoing project. I'd like to include photos from each decade and ideally would like a school group photo for each year of each school. If you have photos I could copy and add to the exhibit, please contact the museum. We'd enjoy hearing your school memories too!"
The Mennonite Heritage Museum, at 200 N. Poplar in Goessel, is open Tuesday through Friday 10 - 4:30 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday 1 - 4:30 p.m. For more information, call (620) 367 - 8200.
