Warner School Was in
Operation from 1881 Until 1942 Chillicothe Constitution Tribune, January 4, 1955. |
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Warner School Was in Operation from 1881 Until 1942
Earlier It Was
Yahns School in Another Part of District 85.
by Mrs. Luther Boone, Wheeling, Missouri
reprinted with the permission of the Chillicothe Constitution
Tribune
The first school in District 85 of Monroe township was called
the Yahns school. It was located in the eastern part of the district,
north and east of the present site.
The last three teachers at the Yahns school were Betty (Smith)
Wells, Lewis Chapman and Dick Morgan.
The school site was moved to the Henry Wagner farm in 1881 that
it might be more centrally located. Mr. Warner came from Indiana in 1869
and settled on the 160 acres of land in District 85. He gave the acre of
land for the school site which was named for him. His two eldest children,
Dan and Minnie, attended the Yahns school. The four younger children,
Noah, Frank, Daisy and Luna, attended Warner. His son, Frank, now lives on
the home place, across the road west from the schoolhouse. It was he, who
furnished the information for the Warner school history. Its earliest
records were burned in a fire which destroyed the home of John Robinson, then
clerk of the district.
The school house, which still stands, is two miles west and
one-fourth mile north of Ludlow, in Monroe township, Section 17--District 85.
Frank Warner started to Warner school in 1881, at the age of 6,
having previously attended one-half term at Yahns. Mr. Warner and his
brother, Noah, are the oldest living pupils of the school.
Salaries of the school's early teachers were around $35 per
month. The school year was divided into five months of winter and three
months of spring. The schoolhouse is a frame building facing the
west with two main entrance doors and three windows on both the north and south
sides. In the early years, it was heated by a box-type wood-burning
stove. Coal oil lamps were used for light. Water was carried from a
spring nearby. Games played included blackman, handy-over, dare
base and wood tag. Slates, paper, pen and pencils were used
exclusively for written work, since there were no blackboards. The
school's first teacher was Dick Morgan. Other teachers named were Loll
Morgan, Emma Dietrich, Perry Borders, Cora (Shuman) Skinner, and Delbert
Culling. Around 40 pupils were enrolled during the early years of the
school. Two of the directors serving the year the school house
was built were Alec Beamer and Alfred Hamblin. Some of the early
patrons of the school were August Yahns, David Wilson, Alec Beamer, Alfred
Hamblin, Sam Burry, Henry Warner, Jess Adams, Billy Dale and John Jarvis. Community
activities at the school included basketball dinners, literary and debating
societies, spelling matches, church and Sunday school services. Mrs.
Delber Else of Ludlow, who started to Warner in 1903, gave some information
about the school's later history. She was Miss Levah Hatchitt. Her
first teacher was Inez Miller. Other teachers she recalled were John
Davis, Hazel Kapley and Trixie Marker. Games played when she
attended included baseball, darebase, black man, drop-the-handkerchief, post
office, fox and Geese. She studied Jones' Readers, Milne's
arithmetic, Reed & Kellog's grammar, spelling, history, physiology and
geography. There are seven trees on the school ground, and there
were two barns for horses, one barn for the boys and one for the girls, and a
coal house, which was used as a playhouse in the spring. After
attending Warner for five terms, Mrs. Else finished her schooling at Ludlow,
graduating from high school there, then attending Kidder Institute. Hours
which she attained at the University of Chicago were later transferred to the
Chicago School of Massage. She was graduated from the latter institution
Jan 6, 1948. In addition she has 250 hours of credit in practical nursing
from Research hospital in Kansas City. Mrs. Else is now a practitioner in
her home at Ludlow. She remembers, at one close-of-school
entertainment, having recited with Elsie Fitzpatrick the following poem,
"Children's Heads Are Hollow:" It was said as fast as the child
could possibly pronounce it: Ram it in, cram it in, children's
heads are hollow; Slam it in, jam it in, still there's more to
follow; Hygiene and History, Astronomic Mystery, Algebra,
Histology, Latin, Etymology, Botany, Geometry, Greek and Trigonometry, Ram
it in, cram it in, children's heads are hollow; Rap it in, tap
it in, what are teachers paid for? Bang it in, slam it in, what
are children made for? Ancient Archeology, Aryan Philography, Prosidies,
Zoology, Physics, Clinictology, Calculus, Mathematics, Rhetoric and
Hydrostatics, Hoax it in, coax it in, children's heads are
hollow. Scold it in, mold it in, all that they can swallow; Fold
it in, hold it in, still there's more to follow; Faces pinched
and sad and pale, Tell the same undying tale. Tell
of moments robbed from sleep, Meals untasted, studys deep; Those
who've passed the furnace through, With aching brow will tell
to you, How the teacher crammed it in, rammed it in, jammed it
in, Crunched it in, punched it in, rubbed it in, slapped it in, Pressed
it in, caressed it in, rapped it in, slapped it in, When
children's heads were hollow. Warner school
closed in 1942. The last teacher was Ethyline Morse. She lived in
Ludlow and drove to school. Her salary was $50 per month. Directors
at that time were Elmer Cruse, Charles Cromack, Fred Wilson, clerk, and Clinton
Warner. Names of the pupils attending the last term of school
were Grace Marie Cruse, Donnie Cruse, Charles Lee Cromack, Lucille Cox, Glennie
Silkwood and Jackie Silkwood.