Back to School: A Room With A Few

By Bennett Owen

A room with a few:

- Pupils

- A few desks

Fruita Schoolhouse, Capital Reef, Utah. Credit: Bills Travel Journal

- A few books

Credit: My-West.com

- A few grades – as in one through eight

Oldest schoolhouse in Montana, it served duty in Twin Bridges, Montana, but now resides in Nevada City, Montana. Credit: oldmantravels

- A few outdoor privies – one for boys, one for girls

And lots and lots of borderline juvenile delinquency. A basic fixture of our western heritage, the one room school is truly a trip down memory lane ... though to hear my Uncles tell it, it was more like a five- mile slog through heavy snow, muddy spring roads and untold, often cunningly creative diversions.  As the old saying goes, “in my day we had to walk 20 miles to school, uphill both ways.” And getting there was half, if not all the fun.

Fruita Schoolhouse, Capital Reef, Utah Credit: Billstraveljournal

The accounts of rural school life are surprisingly uniform. Teachers were often little older than the students they were instructing, the older kids tutored the youngsters, who benefited from listening in on the drills they would be subjected to a year or two down the road. There was also the added workload of fetching firewood, toting drinking water and myriad other daily chores.

Adobetown Schoolhouse, Virginia City, Montana. Credit: Sunni J.

It’s what the kids were up to when the teacher wasn’t looking that really makes for interesting reading, including some rambunctious boys who cornered a packrat and thought it would be funny to put it in the teacher’s desk drawer. Here’s my Uncle Jules with ‘the rest of the story …’

“After about an hour as the schoolroom became quiet, Miss Kelley could hear a noise in her desk drawer. Upon opening it out jumped the packrat. The teacher shrieked and literally had a heart attack! Aunt Wilda was summoned for first aid and Dr. Lee was called. Miss Kelley did survive but I don’t know the fate of those two boys.”

It’s strange how my uncle Robert’s eyes twinkle when hearing this story.

Polaris schoolhouse, Montana Credit: Montanaheritageproject

One-room schools were often a ‘Room With a Pew’ as well, doing double duty as a Sunday go to meetin‘ place of worship.

One-room schoolhouse and church is now a Daughter’s of the Pioneers Museum Torrey, Utah. Credit: My-West.com

In 1919 there were 190-thousand one-room schools operating across America. That has dwindled to about 400 as this school year gets underway. In our neck of the sagebrush, the Polaris School still opens sporadically … whenever a dozen school-age kids or more are living in the valley.

Sulu schoolhouse, Sulu, Montana Credit: Patrick_h

Do your homework because tomorrow’s post includes an eighth grade graduation test from 1895. The results WILL shock you. Hell, I could barely understand the questions!  In the meantime, here’s how one western teacher handled her unruly students:

Walter Bruening – I’ve Been Working on the Railroad

By Bennett Owen

Walter Bruening, Great Falls, Montana

Walter Bruening, the world’s oldest man, has died. He visited earth for 114 years and spent 97 of those in Montana. In the year that he was born in Minnesota, scattered Indian skirmishes were still being fought on the Montana plains.

On the War Path Atsina Edward S. Curtis, c. 1908. Courtesy of the Library of Congress

Flathead Camp on the Jocko River Edward S. Curtis, c. 1910. Courtesy of the Library of Congress

That same year a contingent of black soldiers gathered in Montana...they would soon embark on a cross-country bicycle trip from Missoula to Saint Louis…testing the efficacy of bicycles in mountain combat.

Image Courtesy of "Montana's Buffalo Soldier's Bike Ride to Missouri"

It would be decades yet before his life would be touched by the wonders of electricity, running water, radio and automobiles. At age 16 he went to work for the Great Northern Railroad, laboring 12 hours a day, seven days a week to earn $25 per month. If the song were about Bruening it would go, “I’ve been working on the railroad all the live-long century…” for he spent the next 51 years of his life doing so…a job that sustained him and his wife through the great depression and two world wars.

Image Courtesy of AllPosters.com 

Courtesy of the PTA Transit Authority

It would be pretty hopeless for a man to live so long and not acquire some wisdom along the way. Here’s some from Bruening and it’s worth pondering:

• Embrace change, even when it slaps you in the face
• Eat two meals a day because that’s all you need
• Work as long as you can
• Help others
• Accept death

Now do yourself a favor, but be careful, it may take up your whole weekend. Follow the link to the Great Falls Tribune page documenting Bruening’s 114^th birthday. You’ll find an amazing timeline, historic photos, videos…in all a fascinating 20^th century history lesson worthy of a Pulitzer.

Exceedingly strange that but for his longevity we would never have had the honor of seeing a glimpse of the extraordinary life and times of a simple man.

Image Courtesy of joseflebovicgallery.com, (c) David Plowden
Great Northern Railway Freight Train, West Of Havre, Montana, 1968/later printing. Silver gelatin photograph, titled, dated and signed in pencil verso, 24.1 x 31cm.