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Note from Web Site guest, Barb Conrad.
I enjoyed seeing the picture you took of the old Gleason School on your
journey through Union Township, Tioga County. The Gleason School had been closed
for a few years but in 1951 it was reopened because of the "baby boomers". There
was not enough space at the two-room Ogdensburg school for all the kids headed
to school that year or the next, So I went through 1st and 2nd grade at Gleason
and then the school was closed. 3rd grade also was taught there. It was one room
with a big coal/wood furnace in it and a small cloak room where we also had a
crock of drinking water which the "big kids", meaning the 3rd graders, had the
privledge of carrying water from Joe Wynne's store in Gleason every morning so
we would have water to drink and water to wash our hands. We each brought a
drinking cup from home with our name on it that we kept at school. We had a
wind-up alarm clock to tell what time it was and of course, the out-house! I
don't remember how many of us attended school there but I'm sure there were only
about six or eight of us in 1st grade; probably about the same for 2nd and 3rd
grade. I read in the "History of Union Township" published by the Union Township
Historical Society - 1986, that the Gleason School was the former Skelly School.
It was moved from its sight in the Irish Settlement between Ogdensburg and East
Point to Gleason; the year was not disclosed. The Skelly School closed
permanently in 1920. A few years later, it was cut into three sections and moved
by haywagons to Gleason and re-assembled. It is now a storage shed. Another
version was that the Gleason School was formerly the Swamp School which was
located between Ogdensburg and Gleason. I personally believe the Union
Historical Society's version because they did an outstanding job in researching
the history of the township; digging in attics, talking to everyone they could
possibly think of, asking for old letters, journals, and newspaper articles, and
because the members are all descendents of the settlers of Union Township so
they all had a lot of personal stories to base their research on. (sort of like
what we genealogists do to find our ancestors!).
Spencertown School. Union Township,
Tioga County, Pennsylvania
| Spencertown School
District No. 1 Union Township, Tioga County, PA Term 1905-1906 Compliments of M. Jennie Preston, Teacher G. J. Smith, Director Supt. W. R. Longstreet, Co. Supt. PUPILS
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