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Fairview/Thompson's Students and Teacher, c. 1905.

The photo above shows students and teacher at Thompson's School in Chanceford Township about 1905. The slate held by the boy in the middle of the front row, however, says "Fairview School, J. W. Buckingham, Teacher.

One-room schools sometimes went by two names. Often one was descriptive, such as Fairview or Clearview, and the other referred to a nearby family and/or former owner of the school property. I compared this photo with one taken a few years later that had Thompson's School on the slate. There were quite a few of the same children identified on both photos. They were just a bit older on the second one.

Many children received their primary education at Thompson's school until it closed in the 1950s when Chanceford Township consolidated their schools, now in the Red Lion Area School District. A first-ever reunion banquet is being planned for Saturday April 18, 2009. Reservations are due April 1, so if you are interested call Nancy Paley Hetrick at 717-244-4401 before April 1. The committee is also seeking photos and other memorabilia.

The students on the 1905 photo are tentatively identified below. If you have any corrections or additions, please let me know. For example, the photo has 11 boys in the back row, but the list of students names 12. I thought I had solved that by including the boy that can be faintly seen on the left side of the school, but then some of the other boys that have been positively identified from other sources do not line up correctly.

The York Gazette reported that when a favorite teacher was let go, seemingly as a cost-cutting measure, Codorus Township High School students took matters into their own hands.

The teacher didn't let matters rest either, and the case ended up on court. Even then the Codorus Township school board didn't exactly rush to follow the court order.

The article reads:

Welsh's Store in 1902 With Dollar Bible Sign.

I still don't understand why some people get upset when notices are published or signs posted in English and another language, usually Spanish nowadays. They seem to think that English is the only language all of us should use. If public notices hadn't been bilingual in Pennsylvania in the past, the ancestors of a great many of the people complaining wouldn't have known what was going on.

A few months ago I listed the publishers of York newspapers in 1837, with more German than English editions. Click here to read that post.

Below are a few more examples, illustrating the prevalence of the German language in York County for over 150 years.

William Holmes McGuffey (1800-1873) was a professor of languages at Miami University in Ohio when he developed a series of enduring readers for children.

Truman and Smith, a small Cincinnati publishing firm, brought out the First Reader in 1836, followed by the Second Reader in 1837. The Third and Fourth were published in 1837. These volumes were used to teach untold numbers of children the basics of reading, writing, arithmetic, and other subjects up through the end of grammar school. McGuffey's brother Alexander was the compiler of the Fifth Reader (1844) and the Sixth (1855) for students of a higher level.

Among the marriages announced in an April 1837 York newspaper was that of David B. Prince and Elizabeth Sandoe, on April 6th.

The editors remarked that "accompanying this notice was a liberal slice of the most delicious pound cake for the printer. It was the sweetest communication that we have received for many months, and we inserted it with as much pleasure, as we now do the sincere hope that they, who thus remembered the printer, may long enjoy undisturbed and unalloyed connubial felicity."

York County, Pennsylvania wasn’t just about farmers and merchants and trying to win a lottery. Click here for previous post on lotteries.

For example, in 1826 a multi-talented young woman was in town to teach both the French language and the art of dancing.

What kind of relationship do you have with your children's teachers? How about your own school days? What did your parents and your teachers expect of each other, and of you? Do you expect too much or not enough from your children's teachers? The relationship between parents and teachers was a hot topic at the February 1908 meeting of the York Principals' Club.

The Gazette reports the "substance of the discussion" among Principals Fahs, Ebbert, Heilman, Lau, and Rauhouser:

One hundred and ten years ago, most folks, especially in rural areas didn't have telephones. That wonderous invention was only 21 years old in 1897. As far as other media, Heinrich Hertz has only discovered radio waves ten years before and television was way in the future.

The way to keep up with news of your neighbors was to read the newspaper. Each small community had a stringer, and no event was too small to report, especially since those free-lance reporters were reportedly paid according to the length of their column. This practice continued well into the mid-twentieth century. I remember, when I was a child, reading in the Gazette & Daily that my parents, grandparents, and I were entertained by my aunt and uncle for Christmas dinner. (My aunt happened to be the stringer for the New Bridgeville area.)

In early December, 1897 the special correnspondent of the Gazette "Jacobus Notes" column reported that:

One hundred years ago this week the children of the A.M.E. Zion church on East King Street threw a party to celebrate the 72nd birthday of their beloved superintendent of 29 years.

King Street school named for Aquilla Howard

According to the Gazette the children sang and Evelyn Voss, Nellie Page, Norine Berry, and Lacey Johnson all took part in the program.
Refreshments, including a large birthday cake, were served in the Sunday School room, which was decorated with "autumn leaves, chrysanthemums, and fruit."

Superintendent Howard responded with a five-stanza poem that started out:

50 years ago this week, Judith Brown, a 17-year-old senior at Kennard-Dale High School, was declared the winner of York County's apple baking dessert contest. She competed against five other county high school students: Nancy Jones, Spring Grove, runner-up; Pauline Landis, Susquehannock; Harriett Shelley, Northeastern; Georgia Weigle, Central; and (remember--this is 1957) Donald Stambaugh, Northern. Even though he didn't win, Donald should be commended for entering a cooking contest in those more gender-rigid times.