MORSA Board Member Shows That
“Back to the Future” Is Possible

MORSA member Hannah Geddes Wright has done something that few if any members could do. She had a “back to the future” moment last December at the restored Geddes Town Hall School on the campus of Eastern Michigan University.

Hannah attended grade school in that building, which was then located on Morgan Road near Ann Arbor. Hers was the 4th eneration of Geddes children to attend that school. She’s pictured here sitting at a desk approximately where she sat as a third-grader back in 954. Also shown is a photo of Hannah with classmates in that 1954 classroom. She’s in the second seat, third row from the left.

Built in 1895 to replace an older schoolhouse on her great-great grandfather William Geddes Farm, the school was moved to the EMU campus in 1987. It’s been restored inside and out and is used now as a repository and showcase for the history of teaching.

Installing the desks was one of the last steps in the restoration. Here’s how Hannah tells it: It had been my dream for over 20 years ever since the school was moved to its current location the EMU campus, to have the schoolroom restored to its original appearance with the old-fashioned desks. That is how it looked when I began attending there. Unfortunately the original desks had been destroyed when the school was closed in 1957.

But I had written the history of the school and published it in 1996. So with proceeds collected from the sale of the book, and a generous donation from the Michigan One-Room schoolhouse Association, I was able to purchase 25 desks from a fellow MORSA board member, Dr. Tom Johnson. I had them repaired and restored to their original condition, and then donated them to the school.”

Hannah further says, “When I now enter the school I attended as a youngster, I feel like I have entered a time-machine. To sit where I sat then, and to remember how this schoolhouse came from my great-great grandfather’s farm — it is truly a dream come true!”

White Schoolhouse
By Douglas Malloch

When memory wanders, as memory will,
The little white schoolhouse up there on the hill
Comes back like a picture, a painting of old
That time has re-tinted, and bordered with gold.
I know that it never seemed beautiful then,
But time is an artist, retouching again
The scenes of our childhood, the days of our youth;
And sometimes I wonder which picture the truth?
The picture is fairer than ever before,
The curve of the pathway, the line of the door.
The oak has a splendor; the grass has a green,
We know in our childhood we never had seen.
How merry the playground, how happy the sky,
And who is mistaken, the painter or I?
Is time but a trickster, a mortal a fool
Deceived by a vision, a little white school?
Perhaps it was never as fair as it seems,
The little white schoolhouse, when colored with dreams,
Yet something within me, the wisdom of years,
The new understanding that comes with our tears,
Says time is the painter who tells us the truth,
Revealing the beauty unnoticed in youth.
We know, when we see it in visions again,
The little white school was as beautiful then.

(Compiled by Carrie Wellfare) Used by permission, Ionia County Genealogical Society, September, 2009, Vol..3, No.1, pg.9

Chairman's Column

This column was submitted to The Slate by Bill Winglar just prior to his death in February 2010. In ithe reviewed the latest happenings in the Michigan One-Room Schoolhouse Association from the Chairman’s point of view.

Our web and survey have been effective tools to reach out to the community. An individual on the east side of the state purchased a school bell at an auction that apparently was from a one-room school building. The survey provided some useful information to help him research the history of the bell.

The Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates requested any information on Benton School that was
built in Benton Harbor in 1868. They located a chooner that sank while going to Benton Harbor to deliver school furniture to Benton School. It would be interesting to see some of this cargo if it is still intact.

The Zeeland Historical Society which is restoring the New Groningen two-room school has located theoriginal school bell and is installing it in the renovated bell tower. The school was built in 1881 and closed in 1951. It is of brick construction with Veneklasen brick which is a distintive brick construction use in Ottawa County.

The Wing Lake School in Bloomfield Township is nstalling a belfry that is reminiscent of the one that was on the school in the 1870's. A celebration on completion of this project will be held in May or June. This stone school building was built in 1859. (information supplied by Larry Schlack)

We continually get requests to make presentations
on one-room schools. In March of 2009 I made a presentation to the Grandville Jenison Ambucs. I know that Sue Daniel and possibly others also made presentations recently.

Alex and Penny Harrison of Petoskey donated a map rack to Eastern Michigan University for use in the restoration of the one-room school on that campus, Geddes Town Hall School.

Schools of Yesteryear, Vol.I

The Schools of Yesteryear, Vol.I
contains comprehensive study and the documentation of students memories from the oneroom schools of Sand Beach and Sherman Townships in Huron County, Michigan.

Contact Janis Stein at:lakeshoreguardian@aol.com.

Country School Teacher Reminisces
By R.C. Gregory

Country school teacher, the late Edith Baker Harwood, after attending Ionia County Normal, a one-year, intensive
preparation of teachers, primarily for rural schools, she began her teaching career at Steele School, a few miles south of her family home in the fall of 1921. Edith also taught at Badder, LeValley and County Farm rural schools.

She wrote of her memories of her early teaching years: “As a country school teacher, you were your own janitor, sweeping and mopping the splintered wood floors, for modern floor coverings were unknown. You tried to burn the fuel which the school board provided, always hoping to have some kindling and not green wood or coal dust.

“Often you started the fire on Sunday and then banked it at night so there would be a semblance of fire and heat the next day. Even with long underwear, wool socks and high top shoes, your feet were always cold and the end result was chilblains...I lived within walking or driving distance from my school, so I could live at home. The first two years I walked the two miles except in bad weather. Then a brother took me in an old inherited family phaeton (top buggy)…

“Being three miles from Badder School, I rode horseback. I stabled the horse next door in a barn which my parents owned. Several times the last half mile was so drifted that the horse was left at that point and I waded in through the drifts.” Edith continued her education at Central Michigan University and she received a bachelor’s degree from Western Michigan University.

~ Edith Harwood was the mother of MORSA board member, Judy Shehigian.

My book, “Haiku For You: With Some One Room School House History,” will be available at our annual conference on May 22, 2010. If you’d like to order it directly from me, the cost is $30.00 which includes postage and shipping.

Please send your check to:
Cheryl Vatcher-Martin, M.A.
P.O. Box 871692
Canton, Michigan

You can call me at: 734-397-1616,
or e-mail me at: peroinc5@comcast.net.

In my book you’ll find a few one-room school houses that are in Michigan, and some 1800’s sepia tone pictures that depict some one room school houses, one of which is the tiniest one-room school house picture I’ve ever seen. This schoolhouse was located in northern
Michigan.

If you stop by Borders Express in Westland, Southgate, etc. there are copies available there. You can also order it through online retailers, and, at Borders or Barnes & Noble book sellers.

Here is the ISBN: 9781438945828 for “Haiku For You: With Some One Room School House History.”

2010 Spring Conference at Meridian Historical Village
Saturday, May 22, 2010.

A day of fun and food and learning and reminiscing was on Saturday, May 22 for the annual conference at the historic village.

Location of the conference is Meridian Historical Village, 5113 Marsh Rd. in Okemos, Michigan (near East Lansing). The village has many restored buildings including a one-room schoolhouse, a Tailgate Tollhouse, and an Inn and Tavern. All will be open for the conference.

A session titled “Researching Your Schoolhouse History” conducted by Dave Votta who is Local History Reference Librarian/ Archivist at Capital Area District Library in Lansing.

Another session titled “Doing an Oral History” which will be conducted by Geneva Wiskeman, retired Chief Archivist for the State of Michigan.

MORSA board member Tom Gwaltney talks about “Influences of the McGuffey Readers” on the thinking of many 19th-century and 20th-century leaders, including Henry Ford.

Cost is $30 and reservation materials were mailed to members in April 2010.

Site of the Annual Conference 2010

A good lunch and time to reminisce and ask questions
follow a walking tour of Meridian Historical Village.

back to top

back to top

Michigan One-Room Schoolhouse Association

Larry Schlack, Treasurer

Hannah Geddes Wright, Secretary

Rochelle Balkam

Linda Chapman

Suzanne Daniel

Dana Deimel

Tamara Gady

Thomas Gwaltney

Yvonne Hafner

Tom Johnson

Judy Shehigian

Cheryl Vatcher-Martin

Hannah Geddes Wright
"The Slate" Editor and board member

$10 Senior (age 62+) or Student

$15 Individual. $25 Organizations. $100 Life