Index of Cumberland County Birth, Wedding, Divorce & Obituary Newspaper Records - 2003
This index runs from January 1, 2003 through December 31, 2003.
The One-Room School at Historic Peace Church
As time passes there is an increasing nostalgia for the one-room school which so many persons attended and which passed from the countryside in the 1950s. Nationwide, in the early 1900s, an astonishing one-half of the children attended 212,000 one-room schools. However, as school consolidation progressed, by 1947 the number of one-room schools was reduced to 75,000, and by 1960, they had virtually passed from the scene. Cumberland County followed the national trend. In 1950-51, there were over 80 one-room schools in the county, but by 1957-58, according to the Cumberland County Education Directory, none were left. They were the victims of the school reorganization and consolidation which changed the school configuration after World War II.
An example of the rapidity of the closing of the one-room schools is contained in a brief description of the Big Spring Joint School System in the Education Directory of 1955-56. "The new school year will be a historic month for the citizens of the area. The new year will see the closing of twenty-five one and two-room schools and the opening of the six-room Mifflin Elementary School, the six-room Frankford Elementary School, the eight-room Plainfield Elementary School, the addition at the Jacksonville Elementary School, and the twelve hundred pupil Big Spring High School." In a similar vein the Cumberland Valley Joint School System in the same Directory reported, "The Silver Spring Elementary School was occupied December 15 at which time the nine one and two-room rural elementary schools in Silver Spring Township were closed."
With the closing of the rural one-room schools, the ubiquitous yellow school bus appeared on the back roads and highways carrying students to their new large and modern schools.
It follows, then, that the generations of people who attended the one-room schools are also passing from our midst; the youngest are in their 50s while the oldest are 90 and above. What the one-room school was like physically and the activities of the school day are in their memories. Interestingly, there are more written accounts of one-room school days from the 19th than from the 20th century. In the 19th century, these country schools were often called the common school or the "blab" school. This unusual approbation is derived from the amount of rote recitation. However, if the history of the one-room school in the 20th century is to be preserved, it is important, then, to capture the memories of members of our older generation who attended them. The History Committee of the Friends of Historic Peace Church chaired by Miriam Miller was fortunate to locate three former students who attended the one-room school at Peace Church, commonly known as the Stone Church School, during the 1920s. The former students agreed to share their memories in a Sunday afternoon program at Historic Peace Church on September 9, 2001.
The final part of this article is a recounting of their reminiscences which describe the building and the activities of the school day. Those of us who did not attend a one-room school will find some of their perceptions and conclusions surprising. We take for granted that a modern elementary school in order to be effective must have class sizes below 24, a school library, counselors, special teachers, audio visual aides, computers, and several administrators. The one-room school did not have any of these. It was usually a single building which housed one teacher, 40 to 50 pupils ranging in age from 6 to 16 usually in grades 1 to 8. The one teacher faced the daunting task of maintaining discipline, managing the pupils, and teaching all of the subjects to eight different grades.
To examine the 20th century Peace Church one-room school, however, it needs to be placed in its historical context in the Hampden Township, Shiremanstown, and Camp Hill area of Cumberland County. Rev. Anthony Hautz, pastor of the union church later known as the Salem Church, periodically crossed the Susquehanna River from Harrisburg to form the German Reformed Congregation in 1793 in what was then East Pennsborough Township. The congregation owned no building until 1797 when the congregation purchased the log house of the Shopp family. Its intended use was as a church and school until a stone church could be built. It was moved about one half mile to land purchased by the congregation for a church and burial ground. This location is at the present day corner of St. Johns Church and Trindle Roads.