HARRISON SCHOOL                                                    

                                                     By Charles Hemschemeyer

Harrison School was a one room school located at the corner of County Trunk EH and Jung Road.  At the most, there were 20 students grades one through eight.  Since it was located about half way between Elkhart Lake and Kiel, some went to Kiel High School and some to Elkhart Lake High School.  I think we all learned the basic skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic.  Probably the only subject I was poor at was spelling. 

There was no running water so we had a hand pump.  There was a furnace in the basement and the older boys had to put wood or coal in it to keep the fire going.  There also were toilets in the basement, the type with a holding tank under them.  You could smell that.

There were many fun events during the school year.   We had a Christmas program for our parents, and an end of the year picnic for the students and their parents.  We had a Halloween party where the younger kids were taken downstrairs, blindfolded, and had to taste and feel things like the witch's heart, etc.  We would all go sled riding when the snow came.  There was a hill across the road to go down.  We also went in the woods down among the trees.  Snow stayed in the woods longer so we had a place to go almost into spring.  When spring did come, we had baseball games. Sometimes we had a game against another school like Rhine Center or Ada.

I think most of us had a great time at school.

 

                                                            HOLY TRINITY SCHOOL

                                                  by Sharleen Sharenbroch Schmahl

HolyTrinity was two rooms of the Sisters' living quarters - the "Little Room" (Grades 1-4) and the "Big Room" (Grades 5-8).  We had 3 nuns (2 teachers/1 cook) but later only one sister for the whole school.  I still remember going to school for one day of pre-school and then I was in First Grade.  Each grade was put in a row and there were 5-7 in each grade.  In my row were Daniel Kirsh, Lambert Steffen, Dale Bennin and LeRoy Schmitz.

In the "Little Room" we would go to the front to read with Sister near the heating grate.  If you were done with your work, Sister had prized coloring sheets to make a colored mosaic flower picture.  In the "Big Room" Sister  would teach a math concept once and then we had to practice on our own as no talking was allowed.  Misbehave and punishment was a knuckle slap with the ruler or the dreaded writing 100 times "I will not...." which you tried to accomplish by writing with 2 pencils at a time.

Friday afternoons, we got goiter pills and then sometimes the whole school had a "Music Class" to learn new hymns for mass; or we would practice for Christmas plays; or sometimes we would clean the church, dusting the pews and polishing the sanctuary; or maybe watch a really enjoyable "safety" movie.  Christmas plays for our parents were the last afternoon before Christmas vacation.  We picked the play from a book and did it all ourselves. 

"Cook Sister's" lunches were mostly soup daily and on Friday, burnt cooked rice.  Otherwise, lunch was brought from home and eaten at our desks.  Lunch boxes and outerwear were stored in the cloakroom on our own hooks. 

There were 3 recesses (morning, noon, afternoon) with no supervision.  Games we played were 7 Steps, Tag, Red Rover, Annie Annie Over, House, and Baseball.  Inclement days we played Checkers, Jacks or card games, especially Sheepshead.  At the end of recess, we lined up at the steps by grade, girls on one side, boys on the other.

We usually walked or rode our bikes to school.  On really bad snow days we got a car ride home. 

The building now houses the Parish priest with the "Big Room" being his garage.

 

                                                       KIEL PUBLIC GRADE SCHOOL

                                                                 By Tom Dedering

The Kiel Public School originated in the early 1870's with the construction of a one room, wood frame elementary school on the northeast corner of First and Paine Streets.  A series of renovations and additions continued on this site until in 1928 a larger combined grade school and high scholl was erected across from the City Park on Paine Street.  This is the building in which we attended Kindergarten through Third Grade.  A separate elementary school building was opened in 1952, in which we attended grades four through eight.

At the time we began school there were two Kindergarten classes, one in the morning for four year olds, and one in the afternoon for the five year olds.  Both were taught by Gary Moritz's mother.  The classes included children that would  be attending the Kiel parochial grade school, whom we would later rejoin in high school.  The morning session was mostly games and singing songs, and the afternoon included watercolor and finger painting, letter recognition, and lots of projects involving white school paste.  Barbara Hanke Heinen's older brother was our safety cadet, and we all recited a safety poem together just before leaving for home.  I still remember it: "Stop, look and listen before you cross the street.  Use your eyes and ears before you use you feet." ("feet" was shouted, accompanied by everyone stomping their feet for a few seconds).

Each school year was an adventure with a new grade classroom, teacher, and subjects to learn.  Some of the items that remained a constant from year to year were the nasty iodine pills to prevent goiter, a mid-morning milk break, and saving stamp books.  Many of our study guides and tests were prepared using a spirit duplicator or "ditto" machine.  These always reeked of alcohol when freshly printed.  Everyone learned cursive writing using the Palmer method and fountain pens.  Some of our learning also came via the FM radio over the intercom system. 

Recess was always enjoyed, with many games of Red Rover, King on the Hill, and class snowball fights.  In seventh and eighth grades we had formal physical education classes involving a gym and athletic fields.

Our cultural education was provided by music and art classes, with separate teachers for these subjects.  In later years a Junior Band was formed by the High School Band director and it provided many of us with our first "serious" exposure to music.

There were also special annual events like the grade school operetta which was a big production involving weeks of rehearsals and costumes made by our mothers.  The end-of-year grade picnic was always exciting, involving a trip by bus to some place educational, with homemade lunches.

It was a time of growth, laughter, tears, and the world opening before us.

 

                                                        LOUIS CORNERS SCHOOL

                                                               by Dennis Salzman

The Louis Corners School was located one mile east of Louis Corners on the southeast corner of the intersection of Cty Hwy XX and Cedar Lake Road.  The building is still standing and the exterior still looks the same as it was back in the 1950s.  KHS Class of 1961 classmates Janice Wise, Gail Lynch, and myself constituted the first grade class in August of 1949.  Gail departed for Kiel Schools sometime in either first or second grade, and Janice soon followed so that from third grade on through the eighth grade I was alone. 

Christmas programs, picnics, and baseball games with other schools were annual events.  Older students also had chores.  Mine from fourth grade on was to fill the stoker with coal and remove clinkers from the furnace every day.  I even ended up doing those chores on weekends and continued doing the weekends during the high school years.  The county sponsored spelling bees which were broadcast over a Manitowac radio station.  One year a student from our school won the spelling bee.  The next year was my turn which meant I had to forego recess and lunch times to practice spelling words with the teacher.  The day of the broadcast, Marilyn Schnell from Rockville School and I were the last ones left.  I was given the word "chronicle" to spell but I elected to spell it "chronical".  Marilyn won the contest by spelling "smokestack"!  My teacher had heated words with the county superintendent after the contest!  That was the second encouter I had with the county.  In one of the earlier grades I had submitted a penmanship entry for the county fair.  I did not receive a ribbon because the judges said the sample was "to perfect".

I have never felt that I did not receive a sound elementary school education because I went to a one room country school with 30 to 35 other students in all eight grades.  I had an excellent teacher!. 

 

                                                       MAPLE CORNER SCHOOL

                                                                  By Karen Te Winkel Kelly

Maple Corner was part of the Manitowoc County School System and served the Millhome area.  The county coordinated field trips, forensic competitions, the honor society, spelling bees, County Fair projects and the eighth grade graduation for all the county rural schools.

Ours was a one room school house located on a NW corner of Highway 32 at South Cedar Lake Road.  The school yard was filled with stately, beautiful maple trees.  In fall, the students would jump into the piles of leaves they had made.  We would also stick the leaves in the openings of the chainlink fence.  A long metal pipe hung between 2 trees served as a monkey bar.

The school had 8 grades with one teacher.  We could hear all the lessons of the day and could learn what the upper classes were studying.  Older students also acted as helpers for younger students.  Some art and music instruction was provided by Wisconsin Public Radio, which we listened to every week.

No janitor was provided so each student was given a chore which changed weekly.  We kept the room clean by dry mopping the floor, dusting the windowsills, cleaning the blackboards, wiping the desks, putting up and taking down the American flag.  We "prepared hot lunch" by filling big pots with water to heat on hot plates.  The students would bring their mason jars of homemade soup and place them in the pots for a warm meal on cold winter days.

In winter, we played "King of the Hill" on the huge snow drifts.  Our jackets and mittens would be covered in snow so we would hang them over benches next to the gigantic furnace to dry before the next recess.

The highlight  of our school year was preparing for our Christmas program.  Everyone particpated by memorizing songs, poems, recitations, and skits.  We gathered costumes, furniture and props from home.  A week before the program, the school board would build a stage at one end of the school room and hang curtains on a wire across the room.  Benches were brought in for the audience.  We would practice all day. every day for that week.  The night of the program there was standing room only.  After the program, we and the audience would sing Christmas songs.  When the students took their final bow, there would be a banging at the door. With jingle bells ringing and a loud "Ho-Ho-Ho",  there would be Santa.  He brought us each a bag filled with nuts, popcorn balls, apples, oranges, and Christmas candy.

Dennis Dexheimmer, Bill Klich, Ann Schultz and I were the four students who graduated from Maple Corner School in 1957 and became members of the KHS Class of 1961.

 

                                                       MINERAL SPRINGS SCHOOL

                                               by Janice Meise Schneider (KHS 1960)

Mineral Springs School, which is no longer standing, was located on the corner of what is now County Road XX and Mineral Springs Road.  It was a one room school with a full basement which contained the furnace and a bathroom style sink.  The chemical toilets, classroom and a bubbler  were on the main level.  Blackboards covered the front and the side walls with the alphabet displayed below them.  There were also large windows on three sides of the building.  Classes were held at a large but low table with small chairs at the front of the room.  The desks were in rows facing the blackboard with the smaller ones to the teacher's right and graduating sizes to her left.  At the back of the room was a large upright piano, a radio, and library shelves along one entire wall.

Classes started the last week of August and ended in early May.  Most of us came from farm families and helped on the farms during the summer and had chores to do after school.  Some of us had chores to do before school, too.

Our day started with the Pledge of Allegiance followed by a health check.  We had to sit with our hands flat on the desktop and some one would come around and check if our fingernails were clean and if we had a clean hankie.  Once a week we were given "goiter pills", iodine pills given to prevent goiters.

The teacher would call the first and second graders to the table and they would have their class.  During this time the rest of the children were to study.  Then the next group would be called to the front of the class, etc.  Classes included reading, writing, arithmetic, spelling, sciences, geography, and history.  Certain days of the week we had music and would sometimes get to listen to Professor Gordon on the radio broadcast from Madison.  He would lead us in singing and teach us various things about music.  We had special music books with the songs in them.  Certain days we would have art classes.  Sometimes we would have a period where we could work on our hobbies, and I would bring my embroidery to work on.  We had a Talent Day.  Each child could perform or read something.  I especially remember one of the boys singing 'Wenn Meine Frau Nicht Danzen Will' (If my wife doesn't want to dance) in German.

We had recess mid-morning, lunch at noon, and another recess in the afternoon.  Everyone brought their own lunch.  If weather permitted, we would go outside and play Buffalo, Red Rover, softball, or play on the swings and merry go round or teeter tooter.  If it was too nasty out, we could sit inside and play card games at the table in the front of the room.  Depending on who was on the school board, we sometimes were allowed to play sheepshead and sometimes it was forbidden.  We also played Detour, Rook, and Pit.

We usually had between 17 and 23 kids in the school.  Wayne Olm attended Mineral Springs School.

 

                                                       PIGEON RIVER SCHOOL

                                                                  By Ed Garlieb

Pigeon River School was a one room building located on the banks of the Pigeon River in the Town of Meeme (means pigeons in the Chippewa tongue).  There was a well with a hand pump in the front of the building.  The water was brought into the school by bucket and we all used the same ladle to drink.  In a corner of the room was a large wood furnace and the wood shed was in back of the school so the kids made a line to pass the wood from person to person.  Pictures of George Washington and Abe Lincoln were on the wall with 2 blackboards.  The outhouses were behind the wood shed, one for the girls and one for the boys.There were large yellow and black spiders in back of the outhouse, and the boys would feed them grasshoppers and crickets so they would grow bigger yet..

The subjects taught were reading, writing, and arithmetic; some history, geography, and music and singing.  We had Halloween parties, Christmas programs, and Valentine parties in which we exchanged Valentine cards.  Over the 8 years, we had 5 teachers, and there were a total of 20-25 children in grades 1-8.

We always had fun at recess playing softball, Anty-Anty Over, cops and robbers, and Fox and Goose.  Whoever were the cops took the kids they caught to the wood shed for their crime.  You had to sit on a muskrat trap which really smarted when it got hold of your skin.  In the winter we would build huge forts in the snow and have spirited snowball fights.

Clothes worn by the boys were flannel shirts, bib overalls, and corduroy pants.  Clothes worn by the girls were gingham skirts and dresses, and warmer pants in winter.  We also wore sippelmitts (stocking caps) in winter and rubber boots with buckles.

I lived about 2 miles from school, and my brother and I usually got a ride to school in the morning and in bad weather; otherwise we had to walk.  There was a large bull in the pasture on the way home that would scare the bejeebers out of us.  But we survived!

It was a different time and I would not trade it for anything.

 

                                             RHINE CENTER SCHOOL

                                                   By Sandra Boeldt Schneider

Located in the tiny community of Rhine Center in Sheboygan County on County Road MM about 2 miles from Highway 57, this attractive woodframe one room school house with a bell tower was fairly modern.  Growing up in Rhine Center, I attended all eight grades here.  It has now been converted into a home after closing in 1961.

To enter our school,  we climbed a few stairs onto a porch area which led to the hallway with a water bubbler and the rope for the school bell.  Students took turns ringing the bell, and raising and lowering the flag.  To the right of the hallway was the boy's cloakroom and restroom, and to the left was the girls.  We entered the bright schoolroom with large windows through the cloakrooms. The basement housed the furnace and served as a play area in winter.  We had the latest technology which consisted of a radio, a record player, a filmstrip projector, a hectograph, and a Nesco roaster for heating lunches.

There were 20-30 students each year.  I had 2 classmates in first and second grades, and 1 classmate in eighth grade.  Otherwise, I was the only person in my grade and could work at my own pace, never falling behind if I missed school.  There were 3 teachers in eight years.  It is hard to imagine the daunting task the teachers faced having to teach all subjects including penmanship, arithmetic, social studies, etc. to all grades.  At some point we must have studied agriculture because I still remember the names of some commonly raised hogs.  We also listened to some instructional radio programs.  Our learning was reinforced every year because we heard what the teacher was teaching the other grades.  When we finished our schoolwork, we had time to read.  Our small library was supplemented by a traveling library box which we received every 1-2 months.  This contained books covering a variety of reading levels and subjects.  Those who loved to read often read almost everything in the box.

No matter what the season, we found multiple recess activities.  A sidewalk in front of the school was used for hopscotch, jump rope and jacks.  We played many tag-type games, and had swings and monkey bars.  After the school day, our parents drove us to other area schools to play very competitive baseball.  The older students played but the younger kids were sometimes used as base runners so everyone was involved.  In winter we made a course of trails in the snow to play Fox and Goose.  When it was too cold we played indoors, sometimes double solitaire in the schoolroom or other more active games in the basement including square dancing.  The school grounds were used all year long by Rhine Center children .

We celebrated some of the major holidays, like making a box for Valentines or gifts for Mother's Day; but the highlight of the year was the Christmas program featuring songs and skits.  Memorial Day marked the end of the school year.  We commemorated the day with a patriotic program at the Town Hall and a community picnic after.

My elementary school experience prepared me well for high school.

 

                                                      ROCKVILLE SCHOOL

                                                     By Marilyn Schnell Smet

As a nervous six year old farm girl, I clung to my sister as I walked into the one room school for first grade.  There were about twenty student desks with the little desks in the back of the rows, then gradually becoming larger toward the front.  The grades went from first to eighth starting from the teacher's left.  Classes started at 8:00 AM and ended at 4:00 PM with a 15 minute recess at 10:00 AM and a lunch hour at noon.  The day always started with the Pledge of Allegiance after which we took a chocolate flavored goiter pill because our food did not have enough iodine.

A flagpole stood near the front of the school.  A well behaved student had the privilege of putting the flag up at the beginning of the school day and taking it down at the end of the school day.  The flag could never, ever touch the ground.  A blackboard with the alphabet written along the top stretched across an entire side of the  schoolroom.  In one corner of the room was an old upright piano and in another corner was a library.  We had basic music classes as well as classes in reading, writing, arithmetic, science, spelling, geography, art, civics, and history.  We also were graded for deportment.  The library books came in handy for me in seventh or eighth grade for my project on clouds.  I received a good grade and my project was entered into competition at the Manitowoc County Fair.  All the schools in the county participated in a spelling bee held in Manitowoc.  Most of my clothes were made by my grandmother but I got a new pink dress and shoes from the store.  I did not win, but we stopped for ice cream, a morale booster.  We were fortunate to have indoor plumbing and were allowed to go to the water cooler or restroom anytime, only one student at a time, by putting our intiials on the board.

The teacher had many duties besides teaching like keeping the school clean and starting the fire in the coal furnace.  She would take the cinders out of the furnace putting them in a galvanized pail, and when they were completely cold, an older student carried the pail to a corner in the schoolyard.  Tasks were delegated to students in the upper grades.

Ask any kid what was best about attending a country school and you would likely hear recess!  Country schools had little playground equipment, maybe a teeter-totter and a couple of swings.  We played softball, dodge ball, "Kick the Can", "Ring Around the Rosy", "Hide and Seek", "Red Rover", "Musical Chairs" and "London Bridge".  Voting day was always fun as voting was in the school basement and there were always plenty of cars to hide behind

Holidays were fun.  For Halloween the seventh and eighth graders decorated the basement with spooky stuff, and we always bobbed for apples and had apple cider with our snacks.Our grandmother sewed my sister's and my costumes.  My favorite was a cat costume for seventh grade that covered me from head to toe and included a long tail.  The highlight was the Christmas program which we started practicing for after Thanksgiving because we had a lot to memorize for plays, poems, and songs.  The program concluded with Santa coming to hand out bags of candy, nuts, and gifts from under the Christmas tree. The school picnic was another highlight because it was the only time we got prizes for playing games.  Then we walked about half a mile to the river to eat our lunch.

In spring and fall my sister, my brother and I would walk about two miles to and from school because our dad was busy with field work.  We didn't mind walking except past one neighbor.  Their dog barked loudly and came close to the road, but he never hurt us.

I have fond memories of my life in the country school.  It is now the passing of an era, the closing of a page of history.  Now, only many memories for former students who walked the dusty roads, sat in the hard desks, recited, read, studied, listened, helped each other to read and write and do long division, helping each other learn.

Rockville School closed in 1962.  Sometime later it was torn down, and a new town hall and town garage were built.

 

                                                       ST. FIDELIS SCHOOL

                                                     By Charlene Bennin Lulloff

The school district of Kiel consisted of many rural elementary schools, small in size and student number.  These historical markers were either privately owned or government funded institutions.  They sadly are no longer in existence.  As the rural population grew and the socioeconomic environment changed, schools were consolidated and/or closed to be replaced by larger institutions.  These new schools were built to accomodate a greater population of the district.  This was the demise of St. Fidelis School, a rural catholic school affiliated witht the St Fidelis Catholic Parish.  This is the school that I attended from grades one through eight.

St. Fidelis was located in the southern part of the Town of Meeme, Manitowoc County.  It consisted of two separate classrooms, each holding four grades, first through fourth and fifth through eighth.  The Bay Settlement Franciscan Sisters provided the teachers and a sister as the manager of their living quarters (a housekeeper).  A total was documented of fifty students in the school in 1950.

The first parish church was built in 1856 by German settlers and referred to as the "log church".  The church was named in honor of St Fidelis Sigmaringer, a Capuchin priest who died a "martyr's death" in the 1600s.  A new church was constructed in 1875 and enlarged in 1916.  It is believed that the first school was built in 1858.  The second school was constructed in 1880.  The second construction added an addition to the two classrooms, the living quarters for the Sisters of St. Francis, Bay Settlement, Green Bay.

My most memorable teacher taught grades fifth through eighth and was responsible for all subjects.  She would move from one subject to another for all four grades in one day.  Each class knew and had to be prepared for their lesson time.  The others would need to tune out and focus on their own studies.  There was no interference with  electronics as there were none.  The classroom was noisy yet we managed to use our time wisely.  The values taught in academics, faith and self-discipline proved to be essential in joggling the many demands of life.  What appears to be unique to that time was the freedom to:  be responsible for my work; organize outdoor recess games as baseball; failure; learn how to be responsible without my parents making those decisions as, "whose parents had time??" 

In 1957 the Bishop of the Green Bay Catholic Dioceses ordered that the church and school be closed.  It was a daramatic, emotional time for the parish families.  The parish priest at the time was a kind and gentle man.  I remember the meetings, and the hurtful words being directed at him in an attempt to save the parish.  As will happen, the diocese removed him and sent a "military experienced" priest.  I remember him standing in the church basement, tall and confident, addressing the parish families saying it was not the decision of the families to close the church and school, but the decisions rested with the Bishop.  In 1960, the last Mass was read and the church and school were  officially closed.  The parishioners and remaining students were merged with St. Isidore's Church and School in Osman.  The buildings were razed and what remains is the St. Fidelis cemetary.  From a distance one can see the cross on the top of the hill, a symbol of a past community that brought security, values and education to many rural chuildren.

Bernice Schwartz Olm and Luann Seigel Stein also attended St Fidelis School.

 

                                                       ST. WENDEL SCHOOL

                                                      By Mary Ann Freis Schnur

St. Wendel  School was located near Cleveland, just east of the current I-43.  The parish was founded in 1855 by German settlers, and in 1865 the original log church became the first school.  In 1880 a new one story brick building plus a home for the teacher's was built.  By 1956 the campus included the church, the rectory, the convent, and two school buildings after a new four room school was built.  Yet another school addition took place in 1962.  A new public Sheboygan County school was built in 1971 and St. Wendel School was then closed. 

St Wendel had eight grades with 15-20 kids in each grade and were taught by the Franciscan nuns from Silver Lake near Manitowoc.  In the beginning, two grades were together, like first and second, with four classrooms.  Later there were eight classrooms in the school building, and the basement was used as a classroom for the eighth graders.  My grade school days were much like St Fidelis and Holy Trinity Schools.  Curriculum, games, holidays were much like the other country schools.  After redistricting of the county schools, I was the only one from my eighth grade class to go to Kiel High School.

There are some special things I remember about St. Wendel.  One year a classmate's father who owned the local radio store got the first television in our area, and during the World Series, he brought the TV and placed it on the stage in the church basement so everyone could watch a portion of the game during the afternoon recess.  All the parents came at least a half hour early to pick up their children from school so they could watch the baseball game.

Our nuns were educated, athletic, fun loving women, although we didn't know it at the time.  They instilled in us a love of school and playing baseball.  They would get the whole school to do square dancing in the parking lot with music blaring from a 45 record player in the window of the nun's house.  One nun even came to our farm and went horseback riding, switching her habit for trousers so she wouldn't get the habit dirty.  We were sworn to secrecy.

Little did I know as I got on the bus for the first time for the 17 mile ride to Kiel that all of us, the Class of 1961, were coming from all over the district.  Such a mixture of people and places had never occurred before in high school education, and I think most of us were oblivious to that fact.  My parents just said you are going to Kiel and the bus will pick you up at the end of the driveway (a 1/4 mile walk or a fast run if I was late for the bus).

As we got to know each other, it was like a patchwork quilt or a tapestry, each of us contributing to the whole that became "Our Class".  From the vantage part of being out of school more than fifty years, I am so appreciative of all our class members and at each reunion we still learn something new about each other.

 

                                                       SPRING VALLEY SCHOOL

                                                        By Charlene Bennin Lulloff

The Village of Spring Valley, so named for the many natural springs that are found in the valley, was and still is an unincorporated community in Manitowoc County.  Pioneer Road is the main and only road defining the village, and Spring Valley School is located on Pioneer Road a quarter mile south of the village.  The school was organized about 1850 but there are no written records of the school district before 1900.  Historical facts were obtained through county records and story-telling.

There were a total of three building structures for Spring Valley School.  The location of the first school is not known.  The second structure was built is 1871 and "it was 24 X 30 feet with a little storm shed attached at the entrance".  The school population is not recorded, albeit, one would surmise the number to be considerably small.  In 1902, an addition to the building gave it about 16 feet more in length with two outdoor toilets.  Eventually the school was abandoned and torn down and a third school was built in 1920.  This building was constructed of brick and had all the necessary amenities of a comfortable, learning environment.  History describes it:  "Two doors open into the large classroom furnished with single desks, sand table, steel filing case, a piano, radio, maps, globes, and adequate blackboards and bulletin boards.  An open alcove library addition on the west houses the hundreds of library and text books.  A well equipped kitchen is a part of the building in a small room next to the library.  Running water is available throughtout the building, making 'Spring Valley School' one of the modern schools in Manitowoc County."

The documented enrollment changed through the years.  During the years of 1903 to 1910 there were about 70 students.  In 1910, the enrollment was thought to average between 50 and 60 with an average daily attendace at around 40.  The difference between enrollment and attendance was attributed to the need for older students to help on the farms in fall and spring, meaning they attended school only during the winter months.  When the 1920 building was erected, enrollment averaged about 30 students, this being attibuted to the establishment of parochial schools.  Eventually the school was closed because of low enrollment, and a new elementary school combined several of the area country schools.  The date of the last graduating class of Spring Valley School could not be found in the Manitowoc County records accessed.

The 1920 school building still stands on the same location on Pioneer Road.  It has been converted into a home whose exterior appears to have little change from the brick constructed dimensions.

As a young student at St. Fidelis School, I visited Spring Valley School and remember how very large and comfortable the classroom appeared.  All eight grades were together, different from the school that I attended.  

 

                                                       TAYLOR SCHOOL 

                                                          By Karl Wesener

Taylor School is now the second house on the right side of South Cleveland Road east of Highway 42.  It was named after the property owner who donated the land for the school..  It was a one room school house with a basement for the coal furnace.  The teacher or one of the older boys kept the furnace fueled in winter  One teacher taught grades first  to eighth. 

When I started school in 1950, there was no running water in the school house and we had an outhouse attached to a shed.  This was also used for playing Anne-Anne-Over.  Every morning I either walked or biked 1/2 mile up a long hill to get to school.  When I was in eighth grade with Mildred Kolb Mullen, there were a total of 12 children in school.  We has swings, a merry-go-round, a teeter- totter, and a small baseball field.

In fall we had a Halloween party, with the basement made like a spook house.  In winter we always had a Christmas program with skits, songs, and Santa.  Some evenings in school, we had movies for the parents and children.  Great memories.

The school closed in 1960 and the children went to the Meeme Elementary School built by the Kiel School District.

 

                                                       WASHINGTON SCHOOL

                                                        By Marie Neuhaus Schwinn

Washington School was located in Ada and was the last one room schoolhouse in Sheboygan County to close, in June 1966.  History of the school is sketchy, but it was at least 100 years old.  Record books written in German date back to 1869.  The building was constructed in 1895 after the first structure was razed for a larger facility.  Indoor plumbing was put in shortly after I started school.  I do remember the pail of water above and below the water bubbler, and the outdoor toilets and also not really using them in winter.

The County School Librarian, Doris Phipps, came to school regularly with a box of traveling library books.  Once a year, the Superintendent of County Rural Grade Schools, Ray Lightfoot, would come along with her to see how things were and to see if the eighth graders would be ready to go on.

We all took turns with duties like cleaning the chalkboards, sweeping, dusting, straightening library books, cleaning bathrooms, putting up the flag and taking it down, and passing out milk later in my years.

We had Halloween parties where the older children made a spook house for the younger ones, and everyone brought treats.  Our Christmas programs were held in the town hall to accomodate the crowd.  All the students joined together to clean the hall and set up chairs, make Christmas decorations and play props, learn recitations and songs, and rehearse so the program would be a success.  The Christmas progam was next to importance in the community as Christmas Eve at church.  Everyone's new Christmas dress was first seen there.  Santa came and presents were exchanged.  Valentine parties were entire school functions with everyone receiving cards from everyone young and old.    Little Valentine candies with words on were a big deal then.  Sandwiches, chips, popcorn, cookies or cake, kool-aid or soda were our lunch.  In spring, we had a picnic at a park.  Everyone brought food and beverages.  We also had baseball tournaments with other one room schools.  School was out early on those days to travel to the other schools.

The milk program was started around 1953 or 1954.  It was four cents a carton and the old milk was only two cents.  We froze the cartons and ate them on the way home from school.

Each district had their own school board.  Our classes were:  Reading, Arithmetic(a - rat - in - the - house - may - eat - ten - ice - creams), Social Studies, Language, Penmanship, Civics, Spelling, and Art.  Music was with Professor Gordon on a radio program called "Together We Sing".  We had one morning and one afternoon recess for everyone at one time. 

The teacher had to prepare all these classes for all grades at different levels.  1&2, 3&4, 5&6, 7&8 grades had Social Studies, Language, Penmanship and Civics together.  Reading, Spelling and Arithmetic were always one class by itself.  Music and Art was the entire school.  We had the "Alice, Jerry and Jip (the dog)" reader first.  Also "Friendly Village" maybe in third grade or so. 

We had an annual Spelling Bee.

We always took pictures to the fair and got our award money.

Bikes and walking was very common for transportation. 

We went of field trips like going to the Sheboygan County jail, the Wade House,etc.  Parents volunteered to drive so everyone could go.

What a scary day in eighth grade to visit Kiel High School for a day.  Such a big fast-moving crowded atmosphere.

Other KHS 1961 Classmates:  Mary Ann Marx Olm, Helen Rausch, Madeline Kahl Smith, Delores Bassuener Van Wyk

 

       TRANSITIONING FROM A ONE ROOM / COUNTRY SCHOOL TO KIEL HIGH SCHOOL

                                                       By Marie Neuhaus Schwinn

Leaving our one room school, with a small family of  25-30 students, and coming to a school with four times as many students in one grade as we had in our entire one room school, was an overwhelming experience for many of us.  Even more overwhelming was the possible 350 or so students in the entire Kiel High School grades of 9 -12.

The city kids had a large established set of classmates to thrive with and did not really need to concern themselves in learning to fit in.  They just did fit in already.  They were friendly but it took much time for us to belong.  When the school day was over, we country kids left our new last period class, quickly went to our lockers to get our jackets, and got in line to get on the bus for our ride back to the country.  After the last period class, the city kids gathered to continue to interact with each other in after school activities to nuture their bonding yet to another notch. 

We didn't even realize the scheme of how this transition affected us.  I guess we just thought we were not good enough to rub shoulders with these city kids.  It wasn't until our 50th class reunion when I visited with Barb Christel Henschel and we discussed our boys Mark and Brian that things really felt different for me.  We were no longer so very different. 

I had a phone conversation with Jack Lechler about one room country school kids transitioning into the large school.  It was good for me to realize that Jack being a city kid realized what we country kids experienced.

As time has passed, we no longer feel like a country kid from a one room country school.  We are now a member of a large family of classmates that are bonded together with good memories of Kiel High School.