The Press., 1910-08-31


 pupils were made of oak boards with out backs. about foot or IA inches wide, of suitable height for the desks, and for writing the pupils must throw their feet ovsr che bench in order to face tho desk
 The seats for the small children were made with straight board back | and long enough for five or six chil. dren to sit on. and were called the low benches. and the backs of these were sometimes used for a foot rest for those behind them. This descrip- tion of the Glass Factory schoolhouse will fairly represents all of the schools of the town at the time of which I write.
 The sanitary condition of the school houses was anything but good and fortunate was the school that was To- cated within short walking distance of neighboring farmers About 1854 the Glass Factory district bought a
 lot of the late J B. Whitford and
 b1!lt 8 new schoolh with the I uEHU 0OAO 1OOOAA SOAOOA uO6AS ehOA just coming into use.
 The first teacher in the new build l ing was Miss Anna Whitford, oldest
 daughter of Dea. H G. Whitford.
 On assuming the school she introduced
 some new rules regarding the absence
 of pupils, requiring a written excuse
 from the parent. One or two families
 objected and refused to comply with
 the rule. I was appealed to as the
 committe. and I upheld the teacher.
 the Baptist church and the town
 school visitor, was appealed to and
 he advised that the rule be rescinded, and his action caused 8 coldness on
 the part of the teachers family that
 paused Mir. Walker to hand to the
 church his resignation as pastor in
 the summer of 1857.
 Of the early history of the school
 house on the Hill have no definit
 knowledge. From a story of the
 early settlement of Wilmington we
 learn that the first pastor, Rev. Daniel
 Fuller. was ordained in September. I1728, and that some time later a small
 meeting house was built 30 by 40 feet, with few windows and rough benches
 for seats and no means of warm
 ing, and as in the early settlements
 the church and schoolhouse usually went together, take 1t for granted
 that there was school ouse on the : Hill very early, and very probably was built of logs, as l presume many
 of the settlers houses were. Some ] years ago, on one of my visits to my
 couain in Missouri, he showed me 8
 log s,hoolhouse where he had taught
 school when he first went there about 1866, then almost 8 new country
 schoolhouse on the Hill has stood where I suppose the old schoolhouse
 stands teddy, if the contractors for the new have not had occasion to use it in the construction of the new. I,
 has been a landmark that we, tht
 natives of the dear old town, like to
 recognize on our visits home. have no means of knowing when the old } lschoolhouse was built, but from the
 construction of it and the Glass Fac tory schoolhouse credit their build } ing to the same person. don't know that Capt Robert Sharp built these Ihouses, but to me they bsar evidence
 of Capt Sharp's handy work.
 The school on the Hill was alway s
 recognized as the model school of the
 town and we'll it might be, for they
 had for many years model teacher : in the person of the late Orland Glazier MT Glazier is the only teacher that recall. unless possibly earlier, for time. the school was un-
 der the late Royal 0. Eldridge. My only connection with the school was for part of two terms, one in the } winter of 1843-4, when boarded
 with Jonathan Weston, working for my board caring for his horse and , cutting his summers 8 wood from birch 5 poles from lot of his toward the F Hollow.
 l My other connection with the school ) was in the spring of 1845, short term of select school taught by Ed ward Mclean, brother of Mrs. pr. Dickeneon At that term I boarded , with Dea. and Mrs. Asa Taylor. The days were quite long and could, after an early breakfast, go down in , his pasture and cut wood for two full ; hours and about the same at night, l and at nineteen considered myself a
 pretty good wood chopper Of the members of that select school I think that alone am left Only three or four of them can remember by } name.
 | In looking back over life of S4 years and comparing the present with
 the past, I am sometimes led to ask
 are the present days so much better } than the former days. These days l have been and probably were the days ! of small things. But it is not we'll ] to despise the day of small things. , These "reminiscences here on the shore of the beautiful Lake Minne- tonka at the Baptist assembly. where.
 with my daughter. I am spending g few weeks in quiet rest and recreation for her especial benefit.
 J. Merrick Baptist Assembly, Minn. Aug. 19.