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We welcome our newest Life Membership Deb Smeltz.
Please note: the Poorman Gallery is receiving some upgrades and is closed to the public. Meetings have been relocated to the Heisey House. The Billy Raymond Readers Theater has been rescheduled to Sunday, December 13, the same day as our Holiday Open House at the Heisey.
On November 22 from 2 to 4pm at the Friendship Center in Beech Creek there will be a 100th birthday meet and greet for Arlene Hoffman, long time staff member at the Historical Society. She gave tours of the Heisey for years! Drop by and wish her a Happy Birthday or send a card to the Historical Society, 362 East Water Street, Lock Haven PA 17745 and we will deliver your greetings to her on the 22nd of November.
We recently received new items to add to our collection and they are on display in the Heisey House. Silk mill threading tools used prior to 1924 came from Cheryl Miller of Clarion, and Mill Hall High School yearbooks 1946-1950, as well as the "Orange and Blue" 1950 issues were donated by J. Cornell, Wolcott, NY. They are on display at the Heisey.
From the Collection
By Kathy Arndt
A program from a 1921 graduation featured the following words: "Education is to know for the sake of living, not to live for the sake of learning." Very early in the 1800s, opportunities began to grow for the education of its young population. The Historical Society's collection holds many sources of information related to schools throughout the county including yearbooks, programs, photos, some district records, books, and news articles. Writings by local historians such as Sara Beck Ricker, Boyd Grieb, and Joby Topper also helped in the research for my two columns on area schools. My gratitude to all!
Even before the passage of the 1834 Pennsylvania Education Act mandating the establishment of school districts in every city ward, borough, village, and township in the state by 1854, schools were being built in Clinton County. Schools had been built in Lock Haven, as well as Lamar and Wayne townships by 1810. Many schools followed. The first school in the Beech Creek district was on the Fearon farm. There were also schools in the Hubbard, Quay, and Masden districts as well as a school in the nearby Bear Swamp area near the mines.
Initially, most of the early schools were built of wood. Because of frequent fires, as soon as the brick industry was established in the county, bricks became the predominant building material. Most schools were 1-2 room buildings offering classes 1-8. Terms ranged from 4-6 months at first. The Renovo High School was one of the first to offer a 9 month term. Wages were low and men were paid more than the women teachers. Generally, women had to resign if they married or became pregnant. When the epidemics hit in 1918 and during times of war, some of the restrictions on women teachers were relaxed.
The northern section of our county also experienced the growth of schools. Farrandsville and Youngwoman's Town both built schools in the 1830s. Drury's Run built its school in 1864. Leidy Township had 5 schools with 5 months terms. There were also schools in Cedar Run, Westport, Bitumen, Ritchie Station, Glen Union, and Whetham. Renovo was incorporated as a borough in 1866 and the 7th Avenue School was built in 1868. The six room 14th Avenue school with grades 1-12 was built for a cost of $15,000 in 1873. In 1875, St. Joseph's Catholic School was built.
There were also numerous schools built to the west of Lock Haven. Allison Township's two school buildings were located at the top of Bellefonte Avenue on Barton St. The one remaining building now serves as the Historical Society's Barton Street School museum. Flemington had both an elementary and high school. By 1858, there were 6 schools in the Mill Hall and Bald Eagle Township area including schools in Plunkets Run, Laurel Run, Sugar Run, and Revelton. The Peter Dornblaser farm in Bald Eagle Township had a school on the Crissinger farm in 1875. That building much later became the home to Flowers by Monica and an Amish school. Like Flemington and Mill Hall, Salona had both an elementary and high school. The Salona school was later used as a Normal School for a short time, a headquarters for the Grange, and a senior center. Porter and Lamar Townships also had many one or two room schools. More about the larger Clintondale School later.
Sugar Valley and Loganton also had several schools including those in Booneville, Tylersville, Logan Mills, Bull Run, and both an elementary and a high school in Loganton. Milton J. Furey, while researching his book entitled The Past and Present of Clinton County in 1840, was told by Levi Conser, a school board member, that boys needed to learn only how to read, write and do some arithmetic but it was a waste of time to educate girls because they only needed to know how to read. *
To the east of Lock Haven were the Centennial school on the Island Road in Dunnstable Township, and a school in Woodward Township, as well as in Haneyville, Mackeyville and Woolrich. Avis had both an elementary and high school.
Most of the schools had been built in the 1800s but things began to change early in the 20th century. It was estimated that in 1905 there were 154 schools and 5004 students in Clinton County. In 1909, there were 12 high schools, most graduating their pupils after 10th or 11th grade. Although encouraged to continue their education through 12th grade, 50% of the students did not. The Clintondale School board members offered to pay the tuition required to attend the Lock Haven High School but not the cost of their transportation. Some students who accepted their offer carpooled, some moved to Lock Haven and worked part-time to pay their room and board, and others rode the mail bus.
The construction of new schools slowed after the flu epidemic of 1918 and WWI. School districts had fewer teachers available and less money as economic conditions worsened. Consolidations began to occur. The one and two room schools closed and students were transported to larger schools by first horse-drawn wagons and later buses in the 1920s and 1930s.
In 1952, the school districts of Mill Hall, Bald Eagle Township, Beech Creek, Lamar and Porter Townships joined together to form the Bald Eagle Nittany School District (BEN) The new high school was completed in 1955 in Mill Hall. In 1970, the school districts of Lock Haven, BEN, Bucktail (Renovo), Sugar Valley, and 13 elementary schools consolidated to form the Keystone Central School District. The construction of the new high school was completed in Bald Eagle Township in 1999. The first class to graduate was in the year 2000. The former BEN High School became the new Keystone Central Middle School covering grades 5th-8th.
In mid-1970s, the KCSD commissioned the Rossi Report to study the facilities throughout the district. As a result of this study, several elementary schools, including those in Castanea and Beech Creek, closed in 1976. Castanea students transferred to Robb and Beech Creek pupils went to Liberty-Curtin in Blanchard.
The number of public schools in Clinton County has gone from a high of 154 in 1905 to 2 high schools, 1 middle school, and 5 elementary schools now. I hope my two columns on the schools of Clinton County have brought back some memories, more good than bad, for you. Personally, I remember dropping out of my kindergarten class in the basement of what is now our Poorman Gallery and quickly changing my college major from education to liberal arts after 2 hours in an Akeley classroom. Primarily, however, I remember the friendships I formed that in some cases have lasted for a lifetime. As radio personality Paul Harvey used to say at the endo of his broadcasts- "Now you know the rest of the story."
*Editor's Note: My grandfather, a farm boy who put himself through college in the early 1900s, ingrained the following on my mother, who passed it on to her daughters. "Educate a man, you educate an individual. Educate a woman and you educate a whole family"