The opening of the new Tyrone Area Elementary School is the ultimate consolidation from a time when nearly thirty one-room schools and town grade schools took education to the students. Now students are taken to their education. From dozens of separate classrooms in separate buildings we now have one school with seven dozen classrooms.
School Bells Called Children
In the old days there was no such thing as a school bus. Everyone, town kids and farm kids alike, walked to school.
Can you recall in your mind the ringing of school bells each morning to call the children to classes, and also again before afternoon classes, in case the kids didn’t carry their lunch? It wasn’t very far from home, so most children went home for lunch. Farm families living outside of town were determined their children would get an education, as did their counterparts living in town. Thus came the one-room school.
A Trip Back in Time
We invite you to come back with us to that time a century ago, and lasting until as recently as the 1940s when the grandparents and great grandparents of many of today’s students learned in one-room schools.
Typically, one-room schools had six or eight grades, with one teacher. Plumbing was down the path. Schools would usually operate six months of the year — enabling the kids to help with work on the farm during the busy season and still get an education.
Teachers Quickly Certified
At the beginning, high school seniors could go to summer school after graduating and then could start teaching in the fall. Later, teachers had to have two years of college before starting to teach. But there was a lot of responsibility put on the shoulders of the individual students. They, like Abraham Lincoln, had to want to learn. And most of them did.
The Main School
If you visit the Baughman Cemetery, you may notice that there is a space at the entrance where there are no graves. That’s because a one-room school stood at that place around the turn of the century. The building was moved down to the road past Sportsmen’s Lake, and to the floor of Bald Eagle Valley near the turn on the railroad at the head of Van Scoyoc Run. It was renamed The Main School in remembrance of the Walter L. Main Circus train wreck nearby.
Other Foothills Schools
Also along the base of the Allegheny Front was Alder Run School, later renamed Mountain Orchard School, which served families living from the upper end of Decker Hollow through the Orchard Crossing area. Denny Snyder was their teacher and earlier, “Zeke” LaPorte taught there before moving to Tyrone High School.
And, farther southwest along the foothills was Mountain School, located along Schell Run just off the Janesville Pike opposite the upper reservoir. It became the Bob Long property.
On the back road from Grazierville to Tipton — just past the Antis Township line — was Wolfgang School, where Ella Gerber was a teacher there. The school existed before Rev. Ralph Wolfgang was born — for whom the school was not named. It was moved down into Grazierville and was placed alongside the one-roomer already there. It’s now a home.
Down the Valley
Heading north on Rt. 220 from Tyrone toward Port Matilda, several one-room schools still are visible. Although Main School is gone, Hickory Bottom School is now the home of Betty Walk. It’s located where California Hollow meets the railroad and the highway, below Reese’s Store. It’s typical of most one-room buildings: peaked roof running front to back, three windows on each side, and the door and two smaller windows on the front. They needed a lot of light in these buildings, since it was long before electricity.
Other one-room schools along Rt. 220 (once known as Bald Eagle Plank Rd.) in Centre County were Dix School, Hannah Furnace School (used as a home in the “heart of downtown Hannah”), Bell Hollow School, Fry Hollow School (also known as Skunk Hollow), Fowler Hollow, and Henderson School up Henderson Hollow, where Nettie Geist was a teacher for many years. Henderson School was used for many years as the Taylor Township polling place.
Warriors Mark/Franklin
On the eastern side of Bald Eagle Mountain, Warriors Mark Township and Franklin Township were amply served by one-room schools before the “big” Warriors Mark school was built at “Mud Alley.”
Early history tells of one-room schools at Warriors Mark, Huntingdon Furnace, and Graysville. School also was held at the Lutheran Church in Spruce Creek.
In 1880 there were nine schools serving Warriors Mark Township, including the villages of Birmingham and Warriors Mark. And in Franklin Township there were eight schools with a total enrollment of 203. That’s seventeen separate schools in these two townships — making a total of 341 students attending school. The average cost per pupil was $1.03 per month!
Six-Sided Desks
Grazier School was a one-room building located a mile up Ridge Rd. The school became somewhat famous because all of the desks and chairs were hexagonal in shape! Was this someone’s whimsical idea? Or was it a mistake in ordering from a planing mill? Sadly, we’ll never know.
A school was located midway between Frogtown and the county line. Buck School was along what is now Rt. 550. Over the years, many of the alumni of Buck School used to get together for reunions. Tyroners like Lawrence Nowlin and Helen and Homer Thomas would go back for these reunions.
Just a few miles past Buck School was Center School, but it was in Halfmoon Township, Centre County, so neighbors ended up walking in different directions to their respective schools.
Dr. Samuel Lake had the distinction of attending three Warriors Mark Township one-room schools. First was Huntingdon Furnace School, located above the settlement. There was no running water, and Dr. Lake recalls they had to carry water from a well that was located along the present highway. Teachers were Albert Houck and Edith Wrye. It had eight grades; each grade was called up front to review their lessons while other students sat at their desks studying. They walked to school, taking shortcuts through fields. A saw mill was located along the route, and the kids walked over the creek on a plank or sometimes had to wade through the creek.
The next school Dr. Lake attended was Breezy Point School, located on the hill between Warriors Mark and Seven Stars (on the left where new houses have been built). The teacher was Albert Beck.
Dr. Lake then attended Main School in Warriors Mark (no connection with the other “Main School” over the mountain). It was located where the baseball field is now, near the Methodist Church. May Hoover was the teacher.
Schools in Wilderness
Farm families in the Eden Hill area sent students to Rural Choice School, later known as Plum Bottom School. The building was torn down many years ago, but the front steps were there until just a year or so ago. The teacher was Leon Cox, who walked from the Cox farm to the school.
Cabin Ford School was truly out in the middle of the woods on a line between Shoenberger and Warriors Mark. The teacher and the students had to walk through the woods at least a mile from any direction to get to Cabin Ford School.
Early maps show Cool Run School a mile past Seven Stars along what is now Rt. 45. Graysville and Pennsylvania Furnace were just up the road. Isn’t it inspiring to realize how important education was to these hardy farm families who sent their kids — both boys and girls — to the one-room school just up the road or through the forest!
Adjacent School District
Eden Hill School was located up the hill from Pemberton — again on a good road — and served farm families too far from other schools to walk. At that time the region around Pemberton was part of Franklin Township.
Since Union Furnace is in Morris Township, Huntingdon County, their students went to Oakland School, along what today is Rt. 453. Hulda Tree Engelman attended Oakland School for one year, and then her father decided she should attend school in Tyrone.
This building still exists — an attractive home on the east side of Rt. 453 near Martin’s Nursery. Less than a mile toward Water Street is another identical building, also converted to a home.
Tyrone Township
Foster Crawford, who, at 91, clearly recalls all seven of the one-room schools in Sinking Valley, attended the one known as “The Brick Church School,” which was located next to St. John’s Lutheran Church.
He listed the others. Kinch School was located near the “Silver Barn,” a half mile from the railroad underpass at Honesttown, at one of the gateways to Sinking Valley. Kids from Irish Flats went to Pine Hill School, according to one person we talked with. There was a giant, pot-bellied stove in the center of the one-room school.
Cryder School was used as a Sunday school classroom on Sunday afternoons. Sometimes missionaries visited this school, including Robert Roseberry, uncle of Don, who was a missionary to Africa. Teachers included Pearl Hileman, Thelma Hileman, Myra Kephart, and Florence Caldwell, who was Paul Bressler’s sister-in-law. She later became the principal of Washington School, in Tyrone.
Other Sinking Valley schools were Arch Springs School, Crawford School, and Mt. Olivet School. Crossroads School, located where Honest Hollow Rd. intersects with the main road up Sinking Valley. In the 1930s it was a high school and then was turned into a grade school.
An interesting thing about Sinking Valley’s Schools, according to Mr. Crawford, was the fact that all seven of them were absolutely identical in design.
City Area Schools
Grazierville was laid out in 1871, and the plan included a school, which was built, but was larger than one room. In the early 1920s, during “Street Car Days,” students no longer went to Wolfgang School, and a consolidated school was built on Teabury St. in Grazierville, teaching kindergarten to 8th grade.
When the Pennsylvania Railroad laid out East Tyrone as a separate community of company houses, the school they built was a small one-room building. In 1880, there were thirty-five boys and twenty-six girls in attendance there. In later years, Dennis Snyder taught there, as well as Miss Gates and Mrs. Reed. The building is still standing and is a very nice home.
The school serving Ironville actually was a two-story building, with eight grades, four up and four down. Bill Barr, known and loved by so many until his recent death, was a teacher here.
Northwood School was two rooms and taught students to the 8th grade. Maggie Ryan was the principal for many years. Bill Barr also taught here during his career. The school burned, and the Northwood Chapel’s building was built at this site.
According to Suzanne Sickler Ohl, Tyrone’s first school was at the corner of what are now Pennsylvania Ave. and 12th St. The next one was along Spring St., which is now Railroad St.
Exciting, Romantic
Yes, when one talks with persons who were fortunate to have been a part of the era when one-room schools were in existence, it is immediately apparent that it was totally different from now, since the persons sitting next to you might be three or four grades ahead of or behind you.
The teacher, of course, had to individualize and compartmentalize his or her attention, going from grade to grade, often handling as many as fifty students. But, this was divided into six or eight grades, so each group of pupils got individual attention during part of each day.
Was it confusing to the children to hear about things much more advanced than their grade? Not at all. The late Glen Daugherty spoke many times of what it was like to go to the one-room school at Mountain Orchard. He said that he listened to the lessons for grades ahead of his, and quickly gained knowledge beyond his years. Spelling bees were one of the highlights of a one-room school education, and very young kids learned how to spell by listening to their older counterparts.
Glen said that it was a responsibility of the bigger boys to carry water from a spring nearby for the school’s use. Not for the rest room facilities, which were outside, but for drinking water and for cleaning the blackboards and desks. It was very much a “little community” in which everyone had to cooperate and help. The teachers had to arrive early and start a fire in the stove so the school would be warm by the time the pupils arrived.
Antis Township
Even though it is not part of the Tyrone Area School District, let’s include the one-room schools in Antis Township. Mary Brunner tells us there were thirteen one-room schools in the township, including five in the Tipton area!
Fuoss Mills grade school closed in the middle 1920s and became Fuoss Mills CMA Church. Mulholland School was located midway from Tipton to Roots Crossing along the back road to Bellwood. Crossroads School (not to be confused with the one in Sinking Valley) was located one-quarter mile from the PRR tracks at Tipton. It was later converted into a home.
Unusual School Name
At Pinecroft a one-roomer, called Sabbath Rest School, was located just at the hazardous elbow in the road. The unusual name was due to the fact that Elizabeth Furnace, located there, also was known as Sabbath Rest Furnace because Martin Bell — for whom Bellwood is named — did not want to operate his iron furnace on Sundays.
According to Mary Brunner, the reason that Pinecroft received that name was because Elizabeth Furnace used all of the hardwood in the area and the only trees remaining were pine.
Another school named for the “remaining trees” was Pine School, which was located where the bank was built at Tipton. It was a two-story building, much more spacious than the typical one-room schoolhouses that dotted the area.
Tipton Academy had opened beside the PRR tracks in 1867. Dr. Howard King came from Bucknell as a teacher.
Perhaps the one-room school that is best remembered in recent years was Beech Grove School. Long after the last student left the building it became the Little Red School House Bar. Located at the Bellwood Intersection, it was recently displaced by the giant Sheetz installation.
An interesting story is told about the family that converted Union School into a home. The owners were curious about the reason for the wooden box area that ran up through the second-floor room. Finally, they realized it was for the school bell’s rope to get to the roof where the bell was located.
There were two one-room schools at Roots Crossing, a grade school and an intermediate school, which is now a home.
Mary Brunner shares an interesting fact about the Taylor School. Her grandmother Florence Kough Cherry was a teacher there, as a 16 year old, just out of high school and a summer at a normal school (college).
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