Ladies and Gentlemen, Members of the Association

My knowledge of, and acquaintance with the historical red and white school houses of Amherst is of such a recent date as to render my recollections of no value from a traditional or historical viewpoint. Every member of this association knows as much of them as I do.

You have been entertained by very interesting accounts of the times when as a part of the struggle to locate a village at the present site of Amherst, the old red school house was built. The idea of the Wisconsin pioneer seems ever to have been that wherever a settlement or center of settlement is to be made, there must be established the school house, and around this temple of learning, however humble, would naturally radiate the lines of settlement.

The stories of these early days as I have heard them are interesting and entertaining, and make any remarks of the days within the recollection of the youngest member of the Association seem commonplace.

From the date of the building of the old red school house until the date of my coming to Amherst only twenty-seven short years had intervened, yet the immutable effects of time and change were such, that the old red school house had served its day and given way to the two story white school house which was constructed on such an ample scale that its builders were certain that they had provided school facilities for all future pupils of Amherst; this large new school, the source of so much satisfaction and pride to Its builders, had in turn become old and out of date, and an additional building had been erected near the Methodist church to care for the ever increasing school population.

The number of pupils had increased from the dozen or so that gathered around the first teachers in the old red school house in 1858, to about one-hundred and fifty in the schools during the year of 1885.

The efforts of those who endeavored to build up a town here in preference to the lower town had been rewarded by a beautiful village of about 500 souls. In fact, it was the Amherst as we all knew it in 1885, not as it is today and not as it will be twenty years hence, for time has wrought changes so slowly that we have not realized it, but when we cast up accounts for ten years we find they have been many.

I was told that I would be called upon to say something of my memories of Amherst or school experiences at Amherst. One subject will naturally include much of the other, so I have not determined upon which, if either, of the subjects I am talking. I shall leave it for you to determine. If I undertook to give you some of my school experiences you would expect to hear something novel, exciting or unusual, and I should disappoint you in talking about Amherst. If, on the other hand, I should attempt to give the memories of Amherst that crowd themselves upon me, I should sound such a personal note as would be painful to me and not interesting to you. The hand of fate, or whatever force it was, that directed my steps to Amherst, certainly shaped the course of my after life. The reasons I need not give.

I first came to Amherst In 1885. I was looking for a job. I had heard from Mr. Suhs, my predecessor here, that there would be a change in principals.

The first man I met or spoke to in Amherst was Isaac Simcox and the first woman I met was Mrs. Simcox. They were old friends of my aunt who lived in Waupaca. So for a starting point I found them. I told Mr. Simcox my business, and he left his work and went with me to visit the various members of the board. The school board at that time consisted of P. N. Peterson, clerk; Chas. Couch, director and J. O. Foxen, treasurer. We found Mr. Peterson hitch-lug up his horse at the barn in the rear of his present residence. He gave me a hearing and advised me to call upon the other members of the board we found Mr. Foxen at the store of Foxen & Murat in the building now occupied by the International Bank. Mr. Couch was more elusive and if we caught him at all that day, It was late in the afternoon. Mr. Simcox entertained me royally, and introduced me, I think, to all the businessmen. Of course, I could not afterward remember them all, but coming here to live, I always assumed that he didn’t miss any, and as fast as I learned their faces, proceeded to talk to them as the spirit moved me, without waiting for further introduction.

My application was apparently looked upon favorably from the first visit, but the board couldn’t seem to get together that day, and I was asked to come up at a later date. I made two visits after the first, before I finally moved and came to stay.

On one of these, I struck the town in the morning just as the news had come in of a bear that was ravaging Herb Ward’s cornfield. The excitement was intense and everyone who had a gun was going for a shot at that bear, most of those who didn’t have guns went to see how it was done. I, with a few others, stayed in town all day; it was lonesome until about 3 P. M. Then as the hunters and their retainers returned it was lively enough. They did not get the bear.

On the other occasion I had been to Stevens Point and stopped off over night, to ascertain about the time of commencing school or something of that nature. During the night the old wagon shop that stood north of the hotel barn, and I should judge about where Luce’s livery barn now stands, burned.

There were two wooden hotel buildings and the hotel barn between the building and the corner, and the way the men fought fire that night to save the other buildings was something to remember. Nobody went to bed again that night - and the effect of the fire, or something else, upon some people was about the same as that of the bear hunt. I had left my hat in the office of Salscheider’s hotel when I went to bed, and when I turned out at the cry of fire, the office was locked, so I was forced to spend the remainder of the night in the crowd bareheaded.

I think every man and boy in the crowd asked me where and how I lost my hat. I was much embarrassed at first, but afterwards consoled myself with the thought that none of them would remember it, even if they knew me.

I was two years at Amherst and as I have already intimated my experience as a teacher was very pleasant; my relations with pupils, parents and school board were of the most satisfactory nature.

Of course, in the daily conduct of school life, there were some petty annoyances, but in the light of after events they were so trivial as to be lost to sight and memory. During my second year A. S. Smith succeeded Mr. Couch as director of the board. There were changes in the personal of the pupils during that time, and although I believe I remember every one of them, yet when I recall the old white school house, I always get the impression of it during the first term, nay rather the first day.

I can see the steep and crooked stairs, I can almost feel again the diffidence and embarrassment I felt on that first Monday morning in September, 1885, as I faced the room full of curious young people. I felt very much alone. I can see that old school room with the larger desks back between the stairways with the box stove with elevated drum partially shutting oft the view in front of them. And hen the smaller desks to the front - and with few exceptions I can recall the faces above those desks. I can, further, tell the ages of the pupils as they were given to me at that time. I am not going to tell that however.

The division of the school had been made on the lines of a scheme gotten up in the State Superintendent’s office for use in common schools - dividing the common branches into a primary, middle upper form. During the first year we undertook to subdivide forms into classes, preparing for a more systematic grading. A work as actually accomplished, while crude, was of great advantage and would have worked out all right. Our greatest difficulty the fact, that at the beginning of the spring term of each the older and larger pupils dropped out to teach, or work, as the might be and the primary room received a fresh supply of beginners, so that we had to move a class up from one room to the other and the teacher above had to complete the work of the teacher in the form below. In my room I had everything in the upper form all above that including the second grade branches. I had also, during the first term, one pupil who was taking plane geometry, reciting after school.

The pupils covering this scope of work were in, and present themselves to my recollection, in three general divisions. Though not in the first division were pursuing the same studies. In the first division and occupying seats back of the stove were Lottie and Minnie Gasmann, Ethel and Ida Rice, Allie Guernsey, Grace Fryar, two Misses Starks, Mina Childs, Marcelli Courtright, Annie Nelson, Henry I. Nelson, Bert Nelson, Ernest Smith, Ollie Lysne, Mary Smith, and one or two others.

The second division contained such pupils as Pearl Fryar, Bessie Nelson. Blanche Bigler. Edna Smith, Allie Boss. Charley Weller. Gustave Hansen, Lloyd Sands, Antone Bakke, Lewis Nelson, Chester Moberg. and to this division naturally belonged most of those who came to school during the late fall and winter only. Sometimes pupils who thus came in pursued studies in this and in one of the other divisions. In the third or lower division in my first year were girls and boys like Myra Fryar, Mary Bakke, Nellie Nelson, Pauline Bobbe, Mathilda Otto, Anna Rollefson, Ivy Peterson, Hattie Moberg, Grace and May VanSkiver, Willie Simcox, Willie Weller, Walter Pearson, George Couch and many others. In point of numbers this was the largest class.

As I recall these names and reflect that they are all, either men or women hearing the burdens of life, or else have been promoted to a higher class beyond, I am more than ever impressed with the havoc old Father Time is making in the roll of the old white school.

The school board in my day was economical and the apparatus was not. The supplies were limited to a box of crayons or a new dipper, occasionally. I think Mr. Peterson and Mr. Foxen would have been and were inclined to furnish apparatus and appliances really necessary, but Mr. Couch usually settled the discussion by declaring that “We can’t do it because the people won’t stand it.”

I soon found that I got the needed articles the easiest by going or sending to Foxen’s and Murat’s store - I always got the goods and I suppose they got their pay.

There is one little instance that occurs to me and I cite it to show how the teacher’s influence is manifested in unexpected ways and sometimes follows very trivial acts. This impresses me because I have had the same experience at two different times. During my first year here, a girl named Helen Werachowski living at the Junction, came to school for a time. She entered sometime after the first of the term and instead of having her name and age as was my usual practice, I asked the question and put down the answer myself. She told me her name was Helen Veryhusky. I was innocent of all foreign names except a few Irish ones and after several repetitions, I put down the result as V-e-r-y-h-u-s-k-y, and in this way her name went onto the rolls and into the reports.

In looking up a question of title lately, I found where the same girl had signed a deed to property in 1896, 11 years after I had thus re-christened her, and had followed my version to the letter.

Family traditions were overthrown and parental teaching set at naught. This was the way the teacher spelled it and it was therefore right. The real name is W-e-r-a-c-h-o-w-s-k-i. Phonetically, I am inclined to think I was pretty near right. This one unintentional act had its result. The influence of that misspelled name I have been able to see. I hope that any other mistakes I may have made have not left such telltale marks.

The old school house has passed away, but the influence of those sheltered within its walls is an active, potent force which will  be felt in an ever widening circle for all time to come. We are happy in the belief that that influence is everywhere and always tending for the enlightenment of mankind and aiding in the building up of  a better and stronger race of men and women. The old school house with its lack of modern improvements, its dearth of apparatus and facilities, has sent forth a strong column into life’s great army. If the modern schools of today can do work proportionately as good, they will do well indeed.

In conclusion I may be permitted to say, that I count my life in Amherst, as a teacher, and as a citizen, as one of the bright spots my life. My recollections are nearly all pleasant and the painful part is not of something that happened, but the fact that such times must pass and bring us to the dark places of life.