Gone but not forgotten
First Posted:
Al Zeiss, 95, Milwaukee, Ransom Township, remembers a time when children walked to their neighborhood school, which in his day had no running water, electricity, central heat or toilets that flushed.
He was born in 1918 in the town of Milwaukee, originally spelled Milwaukie, and began his education at six-years-old in 1924 at the Milwaukee School, one of five schools in Ransom Township, located opposite the end of Ledge Drive in Ransom Township, on the north side of Creek Road.
Water was collected daily from neighbors’ wells; the two rooms were heated by a stove that burned wood and coal that students helped their teacher to stoke; and toilets were found in outhouses.
“In those days there were neighborhood schools,” Zeiss explained, “And they were in areas where we walked to school.”
Children walked in all types of weather conditions and, some students, including Zeiss went home for lunch.
“There was no cafeteria,” Zeiss said, “I went home for lunch, but in those days some (children) brought their lunches in dinner pails.”
Sixth, seventh and eighth grade students attended class in the “main” room, and grades one through five in the room referred to as the “left” wing.
“In 1928 and 1929, the population grew,” said Zeiss. “So, they brought three grades down from Mountain Valley (School).” Mountain Valley School was located on Bald Mountain, also part of Ransom Township.
“We had eight grades in the building and one teacher for the older students (sixth, seventh and eighth grades) and one teacher for the elementary school students (grades one through five).”
Zeiss described the interior of the two-room schoolhouse as having “five rows of seats” that took up probably five-eighths of the room, “with an aisle in the back and aisle between the row of seats and a recitation bench across the front of the room...that would probably seat eight to 10 students.”
The teacher’s desk was situated on a raised platform.
“One teacher taught all the subjects: penmanship, arithmetic, history, English, spelling, geography, music and art,” said Zeiss.
The school year started in September and closed in early May, so children could help out on the family farms.
Zeiss, who worked on his family’s farm since he was seven-years-old said, “Most of our students’ parents were farmers. On this side of the mountain they were farmers. When I was seven-years-old, we weeded corn. That was a common job for farm children to start to weed at an early age. Most farmers had cows. My father had three cows and there was a man up the road who had 20 cows.”
His school day began at 9 a.m. and ended at 4 p.m., with an hour off for lunch and a 15-minute recess period in the morning and afternoon. Usually on Friday afternoon two grades at a time were lined up against the wall for a spelling bee.
Was Zeiss a proficient speller? While he enjoyed arithmetic the most, he said regarding the spelling bees, “Well I guess I held my end up. I finished eighth grade.”
During the recess periods and the hour at lunch, boys played baseball and a game known as “Catty,” using a broomstick or wooden stick, and girls jumped rope.
“Baseball was very popular,” said Zeiss. “During the winter we would sleigh ride.”
While today’s schools have large libraries, Zeiss’ school had a library cabinet that held dictionaries, a set of encyclopedias and a few classic books that were probably donated by parents and neighbors.
In eighth grade, students were given a county examination. Those who passed the test were high school bound. “In order to pass on to high school, you had to take the eighth grade examination (given by the county). Not everyone passed, but they could retake the examination at a later date, and many of them passed the second time,” said Zeiss.
Zeiss noted the Milwaukee School was demolished in the late 1940s to make way for new wider roads.
