Mill Lane Schoolhouse (ca. 1850)
Mill Lane Schoolhouse (ca. 1850)
The Mill Lane School
was a one-room schoolhouse built around 1850. Eight to twenty-two
youngsters, ranging from first to tenth grades, were educated in a 19’ by 20’ room. This was the beginning of differentiated instruction, where pupils received personalized direction from a single teacher.
The school day began with the teacher ringing a bell to announce the start of the lessons. Students entered into a vestibule where they would hang their jackets on hooks. The children would then sit at wooden desks arranged by age from youngest to oldest with boys on one side and girls on the other.
They then set to work on their assignments independently, or practice penmanship in their copybooks. Copybooks are like notebooks, but are handmade workbooks. They would then be called by grade level to the
recitation bench. This is when the day’s class would truly begin!
The young scholars were taught writing, spelling, reading, arithmetic, geography and history. Often students learned all disciplines from one standard education book, such as the McGuffey Reader. Previous students of the Mill Lane Schoolhouse, Mrs. Edith Cochran Hoeren and Mrs. Frances Cochran Stafford, recalled, “...a large bookcase with lots of books and a big world globe.” A pot-belly
stove warmed the occupants during the winters; notes and work were completed on slate boards as well paper and pencils.
Children brought their lunches from home in lunch buckets; a basket, small metal pail or large cloth napkin/bandana. Lunch could be a sandwich, a cookie, strawberries or a peach. Trading often took place because other students’ lunch pails’ contents often looked tastier. Children were permitted to pick apples and pears from the nearby orchard. Mrs. Hoeren also remembered the children playing
lots of different games during recess. Simon Says, “Mother May I?,” Duck-Duck-Goose, ball games, tag, and hide and seek were a few of the recess games. Also, down near the stream they hunted for frogs, snakes and mice. These creatures might appear the next day inside the teacher’s desk. They also played on wooden swings hanging on nearby trees and a seesaw. The seesaw was built by Mrs.
Voshell Wallace’s father for the playground. Beginning in 1898, Mrs. Martha Voshell Wallace was a student at the school. After Mrs. Wallace graduated from high school, she taught at the schoolhouse from 1910 to 1913.