*There’s a memory that’s still vivid in many local hearts and minds – the memory of the one-room school. For many people even in their mid-sixties, one-room school was part of growing up.
*The population in New York has kept going up, but the number of school districts has been going down for 150 years! Mostly this is because better transportation (especially cars and buses) makes the little local one-room schools unnecessary.
*Number of school districts in New York – remembering that in the early days, a district had a single one-room school.
*1865 11,780
*1900 11,000
*1925 9,950
*1960 1,292
*1999 705
*Once upon a time there were 400 or so schools in Steuben County alone. This seems impossible until you think about 34 cities and towns, in an area larger than Rhode Island, with all the students making their way on foot. The numbers varied over the century and a half that the schools were in use, but here are some sample towns with the number of their schools at the height of one-room days.
*Bath 24
*Caton 11
*Jasper 14
*Wayne 5
*Wayland 14
*Any town might have twenty or more school districts, each with its little one-room school. Each district had an elected school board, which hired the teacher, set the taxes, and maintained the building. The minute book for Bath District 15 (Freeman Hollow) is very exacting with specifications for purchase of firewood (type, length, diameter, seasoning, stacking), but just records “hired Miss so-and-so” for teachers.
*This record also shows minutes of a meeting to decide whether to bother rebuilding the school after the old one burned down. They agreed to do so, and probably couldn’t have avoided it without breaking state law.
*In 1956, consolidation of 62 school districts formed the Corning-Painted Post School District. Some students there still attended one-room schools until 1957, and in Bath until 1961.
*One-room schools are having a revival in Steuben County and its neighbors. Conservative Anabaptist (Amish or Mennonite) communities have their own schools. Though operated like the schools of days gone by, they are private religious schools, rather than public schools.
*Although we speak of one-room schools in the rural districts, some in fact were larger. Stephens Mill had a two-room school, and Pleasant Valley had a lovely four-room structure.
*School years and school terms were shorter back then. Some districts shut down entirely during Fair Week. We also have records of schools being closed for grape picking, hay cutting, potato digging, and berrying – quite possibly they also closed for sugar making and any number of other seasons. Of course the kids were put to work on the family farm during these busy spells, but often the teacher hired out as well, for extra income.
*Steuben County Historical Society is kicking off its Winter Lecture Series on January 8 with a presentation, “Our One-Room Schools,” by Ian Mackenzie. Ian authored a book on the subject mainly covering the region that became Corning-Painted Post School District, but Friday’s presentation will be more wide-ranging. It’s free and open to the public at 4 PM in Bath Fire Hall. I hope to see you there!