Tri-Counties Genealogy & History by Joyce M. Tice School Photos of the Tri-Counties Chemung School #2, Town of Chemung, Chemung County NY Bradford County PA Chemung County NY Tioga County PA

School: Chemung School #2 Township: Chemung, Chemung County NY Year: CA 1910 Postcard Submitted by: Mike Tuccinardi

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HI Joyce:

  Here's a  scan of an undated pc chemung school # 2, we'll have to say 1910 because that's what everyone else says about undated old post cards. It's while W.D. Morely had the store on the north east corner of Main and Washington, because W.D. Morely published this postcard. It is so beautiful.
  Note the wooden board sidewalk. From the right, on the postcard, you can count down eight slats. This building was converted to Walter and Leda Kirk's residence in the early 30's.

From a Burt Beers email:

      Marion attended that school (the one on the postcard) from 1920 to 1927 before going to Waverly for 8th grade. She says that the building was closed after the school year 1927-28 and the brick school house near the cemetery was opened in 1928. The old school house, she recalled, had two classrooms and a third room used for assemblies, etc. She doesn't know when the building was constructed, but she said the deed to her house refers to lot on which her house stands as once being the location of a school.
    [This woman's house was built in 1912, which puts this picture before that. However, and a BIG HOWEVER, my 1869 Chemung map shows a school at this location, meaning,  next building north from the Morely store.
    So:
    1. Kirk's Garage was the first building on the west side of Washington.
    2. Kirk's Garage was directly across the street from his house.
    3. Kirk's house was the first bulding north from the strore.
    4. Kirk's house was the old Chemung school, remodeled.
    5. The old Chemung school was School # 2.
   Therefore,
     This postcard is a picture of the old Chemung school.  Mike T.]

    Walt Kirk acquired the old school structure and remodeled into a house sometime in the early half of the 1930s.  Fay Rogers and my Grandfather Wood did much of the construction work.

From Burt Beers 8/22/2004 - Joan Shafer is his sister living in Chemung, Elsie Thomas taught in Chemung schools for as long as I can remember.

Joan has given me--very tentatively--additional data, some that modifies dates that I sent you earlier and some that expands the story. She has recently seen material drawn together several years ago by Elsie Thomas as she did some research--work that Joan thinks is quite reliable--on schools in Chemung. I don't know if Elsie's (I think that she still lives and is a little better than 100 years old) research reaches back into the earliest schools, but her findings do cover the school in your pictures and the one that preceded it. I'll ask Joan to Xerox a copy for me if she has access to the original. Joan didn't have a copy at hand when we talked by phone, and she was drawing data from memory when we talked. So what follows is not definitive.

1. The school in your pictures opened--Joan thinks--in 1851 and closed--as earlier reported--in 1928. Students and teachers were unable to move into the brick building near the cemetery until 1930. Construction on that building ran behind schedule (don't know why, but a Depression generated monetary shortfall could have been a cause). Between the fall, 1928 and the fall, 1930, classes were held in what I think was the then empty John I. Ford general store on the corner of the east/west main street through town and Washington Street (the school in your scans was on Washington St.).Joan says that our mother filled in for teacher friend for a few months at the school. Mom was fairly fresh out of high school at the time.
The front of Ford's store in that location is pictured is on the edge of one of the photos that you and I have seen, and I recall being a bit surprised that it was a general store, not exclusively one selling farm supplies. Evidently the Ford family tore the old general store down after the school kids moved out, and Guy & Reva Ford (John I.'s son and daughter-in-law) built the brick house that currently stands there (Joan tells me the house is currently a mess, but it was in the 1930s one of the nicest in town).

2. My Aunt Marion Gardner (my mother's sister) told me months ago that the school preceding the one in your pictures was located on the lot where (her) house currently stands. Her house is also on Washington Street. The lot rises about ten feet above the street, on your left and one or two houses north from Kirk's Garage, almost, but not quite, across the street from the school house/Kirk's house. Marion recalled the school located was recorded in the papers relating to their purchase of the house, but she recalled no details, not having seen those papers for many, many years. Now Joan tells me that the school was indeed there, and she thought its dates were 1830 to 1851. It must have been a one room school. Aunt Marion's lot is rather small.

The picture seems to show a house behind the school building. That is one I knew as the McCutcheon house. Floy (Florence) McCutcheon was the town's telephone operator during much of the 1930's.) [and all of the 40s - The house he's talking about is in the left rear.- mt]

May I compliment you on a great site.  I was surprised when I ran across the picture and description of the #2 school in the village of Chemung as I also have a copy of that postcard. I may be able to clarify some of the comments on this building as I used to live next door to it when I was much "younger."  The W.D. Morley store was purchased, with the aid of Ernie Robinson of Watrous, PA, by my grandparents, Winfred and Delilah (Gorton) Dewey about 1935 and was renamed W.E. Dewey & Son Red & White.  My grandparents with their children, Joe, Winifred and Paul, moved there from Marshlands, PA.  I believe the old Morley Hotel, which later became the Chemung Hotel, was owned by the same man.  Directly behind the store was a house which my parents owned and was purchased from Harry Gunderman and was directly across Washington St. from Kirk's garage.  The school building was purchased by Walt & Leda Kirk and then renovated into their home.  The original school building was situated a little northwest of this building across Washington St. where Pete and Marion Gardner lived.  Facing the school in the picture, the building to the right was the home of Floy (McCutcheon) Beard and was sort of between our house and the school building.  The building on the left was the home of Larry and Hazel Graham.  Both of these buildings were facing the street behind all this.  When this building was being renovated into the Kirk home, they also built a 3-story building behind and to the left of the school.  The ground floor was all garages and the 2nd and 3rd story were two apartments.

Right directly between our house and Kirk's house stood a small building right close to the sidewalk and was used by Larry Graham as a barbershop for years.  While we still lived there this building was moved over on the back street next to the Graham residence and behind the Kirk residence.  This small building was then converted into a playhouse for the Graham's daughter, Patricia.

I attended the new school on North St. from first grade through the sixth grade.  My first teacher was a Mrs. Grace and my last teacher there was a Mrs. Myrtie Doane.

The Northwest corner of Main and Washington St. was a general or hardware store owned by John I. Ford.  This building was torn down and replaced by a beautiful, in its day, brick home by John's son and daughter-in-law, Guy and Reva Ford.  John I. built another building a little east and south of Main St. where he owned and operated the John I. Ford & Son feed store.  After John I.'s death, Guy ran the store and later sold it to Robert Hammond.  This store was the building east of the Chemung Fire Station.  I understand that the feed store along with the grocery store my grandfather and dad operated are no longer there.

Hope this information is helpful to you and to the subscribers of your website.

James (Jim) Addison Dewey, Sr.
Fuquay-Varina, NC  27526
JDeweySr@aol.com

Here is a scan of a RPPC of Chemung # 2. On the color 1910 PC of the Chemung School on the website, the trees are around 15 years old. The RPPC photo has no trees, and the girls dressed in late nineteenth century dresses. I would tentively date this photo around 1895. Same building, same shed. I cropped off the writing space on the RPPC as it is unused. I bumped up the contrast, and changed the tone  to asepia. The original is greenish and somewhat faded, as you can tell by the shed.

Maybe someday someone can name the children in the photo.

Regards,
Mike

1936/1937 Chemung No 2 First and Second Grades Photo and information courtesy of James Dewey Sr., Burt Beers, and Joan Beers Shafer Front row from left: (1) Walter Casterline (2) Eddy Post (3) Unknown (4) a Peterson--I thougt that it might be Claire but Joan Beers Shafer says no. (5) Unknown
2nd row fron left:   (1) Joyce Thomas (2) Freddy Paige (3) Unknown (4) Bobby Hammond (5) Unknown (6) Joan Beers (sister to Burt Beers) - married alias Shafer	Third row: (1) Teacher Charlotte Wood [Later married Wayne Rogers] (2) Betty Walker ( I think) (3) Unknown (4)Ramona McCutcheon  (5) Unknown (6) Unknown (7) Unknown

Tri-Counties Genealogy & History by Joyce M. Tice School Photos of the Tri-Counties Dry Brook School , Town of Chemung, Chemung County NY 1904 Bradford County PA Chemung County NY Tioga County PA

Ovtober 2006 Hi Joyce:   As promised, here's the booklet. I "photoshopped" that Johannah Hughes sent me,  I hope it's presentable. Nelson VanGaasbeck was our mailman (Chemung R. D. #1)  in the '40s, before Norm Gunderman.  He had a Model A deuce coupe; you could hear the mail coming  while he was coming by Peterson's. Mike Tuccinardi Lower Dry Brook School -  # 12 1903-1904 Mrs. Belle Lenox, Teacher H.C. Seely, Trustee

Pupils: Agnes VanGaasbeck Ruth VanGaasbeck Nelson VanGaasbeck Susan VanGaasbeck John VanGaasbeck Fred Cope Susie Graham Frances Young Edna  Young Clair Seely Catherine Ayers Frances Quinn Bernice Garrabrant Mildred Garrabrant Ruth Stewart Earl Conaway Willie Conaway Lyman Blend Freddy Blend

My brother had this to say, when he saw the list of students at the Dry Brook school:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~srgp/souvenir/chem2.htm#drybrook
The email was entitled:
Jim Tuccinardi:
I remember Freddy Blend

Fred use to drive a truck for the town of Chemung in the 1950's and early 60's. After Clark road was washed out in a spring flood in 1962, the town hauled gravel out of the Wynkoop and commenced pouring from where the bridge crossed the Wynkoop Creek, all the way up
to Randall's (top of Tillman Hill - mt) Fred Blend, Chet Wood Sr. and another guy named Ernie, drove the three dumps.

Freddy used to let me ride along in his truck. That was the summer you came home from Newfoundland. (1962).

My memories of Fred Blend are confined to the 1930s, when I think that he had become the boss of a "work gang" of men working on the town's roads. I was a small boy and not sure that Mr. Blend knew who I was, other than one of the kids who was frequently on hand to watch the men work. But, I'd echo the impression of him as a very nice fellow. Always quite nice in whatever minor contact that I had with him, and a man at I think was always spoken of with respect around town. Certainly, I recall my parents always speaking of him with respect. Somehow I seem to recall that he and his wife lived on the east side of the street that ran between the Fire Station  and North Street.

Mike

Tri-Counties Genealogy & History by Joyce M. Tice School Photos of the Tri-Counties Dry Brook School , Town of Chemung, Chemung County NY 1918 Bradford County PA Chemung County NY Tioga County PA

	Drybrook School District No. 12 Chemung, Chemung County New York May 17, 1918 Edna P. Peppard, Teacher School Officers John VanGaasbeck F. L. Hood William Swain Treasurer C.H. Hubbard Chairman Deo Hood Secretary Pupils Ray Banzhof  (Owner of this booklet) Irene Blend Grace Crowley Delos Douglass William Douglass William Farr Norman Hosley Agnes Shaw Bernice Sprague Everett VanGaasbeck

Tri-Counties Genealogy & History by Joyce M. Tice School Photos of the Tri-Counties Dry Brook School , Town of Chemung, Chemung County NY 1924 Bradford County PA Chemung County NY Tioga County PA

Tri-Counties Genealogy & History by Joyce M. Tice School Photos of the Tri-Counties Chemung School #3, Town of Chemung, Chemung County NY Bradford County PA Chemung County NY Tioga County PA

Town of Chemung School No. 3, Beantown School 1952 Dale Culver provided photo and documentation.  Miss Copp would come around to all the one-room schools in the Town of Chemung and would tell the most wonderful Bible stories, using her easel, a flannel sheet, and paste-em-up Biblical characters. We all looked forward to these sessions. Mike Tuccinardi

Tri-Counties Genealogy & History by Joyce M. Tice School Photos of the Tri-Counties Chemung School #11 Town of Chemung, Chemung County NY Bradford County PA Chemung County NY Tioga County PA

Chemung # 11Visit from Bookmobile Sept. 1954 Left to right: John Decker RoyLee Decker Kenneth Townsand Martin Lepkoske Sandra Lanterman Paula Lepkoske Alice Decker Unknown Unknown Delos Shaw Charles (Chucky) Whitney Madeline Shaw Mrs. Martha Peppard Hilliker, Teacher (standing in back of the three boys)

---

   There were fifteen one-room schools and taxing districts in the Town of Chemung. To know
where all these schools were located, and their district numbers and boundaries, one has to consult an 1869 F.W. Beers Town of Chemung map. It is extremely detailed, showing exactly where all private and public structures were located, including the names of the residents. But one has to mentally supply the current names of the roads, as in those days, the town roads were not named.

   From 1869 to 1919, two district numbers had changed. Dale Culver pointed out that his aunt, Edna Culver, taught in district/school No. 3, while the map shows that school as No 6. On the map, No. 19 on the Pine St. Extension near Waverly disappeared in the ledger. So I had to assume that 19 became 8, and 6 and 3 swapped. This is assumption proved to be true, as the Waverly Board of Education occasionally supplied No 8 with unknown teachers, because of its proximity to Waverly.

   I decided not to list the names associated with District/School No.1 (on the River Road) for several reasons:
   1. The school was vacant in the early thirties.
   2. The money paid to the person listed for No. 1, in some years, was noted as a tax collector’s salary, and in other years, in excess of a teacher’s salary.
   3. There was no continuity in names from year to year, no substitutions as in other schools.

 This list is neither complete nor accurate. The school years generally were from Labor Day to Memorial Day, while the fiscal year was from Jan 1 through Dec. 31. Entries were made accordingly, intermixed with other expenditures for that district.  Some schools were only in session from January to June ( No. 14 in particular). Also, the teachers were paid in an irregular fashion. Because Martha K. Hicks was paid monthly, we know that the average salary for a teacher in this district was around $85 a month.

  Thanks to Burt Beers, Dale Culver and Jim Dewey, we knew for sure that the Peppards, the Hicks, Martha Hilliker, Edna and Sarah Culver, Grace Snell, Elsie Thomas, Mary Phipps, M. Virginia Price (French), Mrs. Alice  Simkin, and Mrs. Clara Merchant were teachers. Clara Groves (Mrs. Harvey Barr) and Belle Lenox are listed on the souvenir booklets. The rest of the names are an educated guess, based on location in the ledger, continuity, and salary.

  School life in a one-room country school was, by today’s standards, primitive. Heating was by wood stove, meaning, you had to wear your coats in class in the winter. The plumbing consisted of a hand-operated well pump and two outhouses per school. Each family had a cubby for their lunches; and a wash basin, with a community dipper. We started each day with the Lord’s Prayer, the Pledge of Allegiance, and a song from “Our Golden Songbook”.

   But No. 14 was brutal. It sat on top of Tillman Hill, on the northwest corner of Clark and Van Gaasbeck Roads. At 1700 ft., Tillman is the second highest hill in Chemung County; with no trees to break the wind. It’s almost like a mesa. Using Clark Rd., on either side, just before you get to the top, is a steep 30 degree incline. When the road is icy, you have to crawl up or slide down. The temperature in the winter on our side of the hill used to get down to 20, 25, and 30 below, we walked to No. 11 anyhow. But I can’t imagine how cold it was for those kids and  teachers up there. I don’t know how they did it. We were tough, but they were tougher.
 

	1918 / 1919		1919/1920		1920/1921
District / School No.	Teachers	District / School No		District / School No
2	Laura Fitzgerald	2	Laura Fitzgerald	2	Hiram Goodrich
2	Frank C. Hicks	2	Mrs. May Hood	2	Ruth Bullock
3	Ellen B. Peppard	3	Edna Peppard	3	Edna Peppard
4	M. M. Davis	4	Bertha M. Manberg, M. H. Hewitt	4	Bertha M. Manberg
5	Bertha M. Manberg, M. H. Hewitt	5	Ruth E. Carey	5	Ruth E. Carey
6	Festus Miller	6	Mrs. Mary Vargison	6	Fred Miller
7	Eloise Grace	7	Eloise Grace, Mabel B. Grace	7	Mabel B. Grace
8	Alice D. Sanders	8	Waverly Board of Education	8	Waverly Board of Education
9	Lena E. Dean	9	William Johnson, Andrew Drake	9	John W. Doane
10	Mrs. Bertha D. Gardner	10	Frank C. Hicks, William E. Howell	10	G. W. Campbell, Frank C. Hicks
11	Carrie B. Cooper	11	Myrtie G. Doane	11	Eloise Grace
12	Marian Hosley	12	Mrs. Bertha D. Gardner, Belle Lenox	12	Myrtie G. Doane
13	Lillian J. Hicks	13	Lillian J. Hicks, G. W. Campbell	13	Lillian J. Hicks
14	James Blend	14	Alva H. Walker (? spelled Ala)	14	Mrs. Mary Vargison
15	Mrs. J. Arnold	15	Mrs. Bertha D. Gardner	15	Mrs. Bertha D. Gardner

Bradford County PA Chemung County NY Tioga County PA

Published On Tri-Counties Site On 21 AUG 2004 By Joyce M. Tice Email: Joyce M. Tice You are the  visitor since the counter was installed on 21 AUG 2004