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Historical Notes
Great Grandfather's AutobiographySubmitted by Sarah Bloomer
School: Buckeye, Kansas Stories: From my great grandfather's autobiography: "The district was legally organized, and the levy made for funds to erect a building and to defray the cost of operation for one year. The amount today would seem trifling, but for our parents it was a venture entailing a burden. The site chosen was an acre of land on the northwest corner of Section 9, just one mile from our home. Here the new building was erected during the summer of 1879. It was built of wood and not too well. It was small and violated about every principle for such a structure. It was about 16' x 24', three big windows on each side and a door without a vestibule in the west end. It opened for school in September. The teacher was an old bachelor named John Harkness. He was a rugged disciplinarian and rule with a rod of hickory. His favorite way of chastising pupils was to beat them over the palms of their hands while he held their fingers bent back to keep the skin taut...Today, as I recall these days and write down these memories, there lies before me a cut steel spike. It was driven into the framework of this first schoolhouse by some workman who has long ago laid down the tools of the builder. It helped to hold the structure together while it served as a schoolhouse about a dozen years. It was then sold at auction to make room for a new and better one. My father [Joseph Porter Cress] purchased it, moved it to our barnyard and converted it into a stable for eight horses with a good sized mow for hay about the stall. It went down in the cyclone that rzed two building and was never rebuilt. Out of the wreckage I secured this old spike. It is something very tangible. But is is not half so real to me, even now, as are those memories of the children who composed our littel group..." [ top of page ] [ more historical notes ]
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