Marshall County, Oklahoma
Early Day Teaching Experiences
by Annabel Davis
This document prepared on Dec. 3, 2000
I
taught all grades in elementary schools. I had all eight grades in
Bowlin, East Lasiter. I also Went into town and took commodities and
did the cooking on top of a long heater. We were given canned beans,
cheese, meat canned. I would cook and stir with one hand and hold the
book with the other and had a good meal for each child. Oh, yes it was
an effort, but I enjoyed seeing the childrens face show they were
getting plenty to eat with little effort.
We had the Superintendent to drive out, Mr. McAdoo, and tell us that
our school, Bowlin, scored the highest in the county on the county
tests. I taught one boy in seventh. He asked if he could go in to Co.
Supt. And take an eighth grade test, so he did and was ready for high
school. Edsel and Minor Caraway were the 2 graduates of 8th. grade to
high school.
Each community I taught had great community spirit. The special
events at the school were well attended by all of the patrons of the
community. I remember the pie suppers that we had. Everyone came and
had a very enjoyable time of fun and fellowship. Events at the school
and church services were the highlight of the week for the citizens of
the community.
Our home in Bowlin was the teacherage that was adjacent to the
school. It was a convenience for the teacher's comfort and also was
handy for me to get up early on cold mornings and begin a fire in the
stove at the schoolhouse so it would be warm and ready for the students
when they arrived on a cold morning.
I remember one of the students that rode to school on her horse .
The horse was kept on the school grounds until she was ready to start
home at the end of the school day.
In those days one did not drive to town if it had rained very much. The
roads that we had to travel were much too muddy so we had to plan to
get everything that we would need for a long period of time during the
winter months.
These were the days of no telephones, television or newspapers so our
contact with the outside world were by radio.
Rena Mae Allbright and I commuted daily to Cumberland to teach
school. I remember the roads were muddy on occasion and there were
times that we missed the track and slid off the road. There was always
someone who came along and helped the teachers get back on the right
track and headed in the right direction. Cumberland was also a great
community that always supported the school and the teaching staff.
The last school that I taught in Marshall County was Oakland. I taught
with Tiny Lynn and Mr. Dobbs from Tishomingo. The old school house is
still standing in the Oakland community. We had a lot of good students
to attend school there and had many enjoyable years serving in the
community of Oakland as teachers.
At this writing I am 95 years of age and still see some of my former
students in the community. The years of teaching school in this County
have left me with many memories of all the good people that I taught
with and friends in each community in which I served.
YELLOW HILL SCHOOL
By MY MYRTLE HUEBSCH
It was in the early summer of 1919 that my parents, Mr. & Mrs. W.
E. Savage bought a ranch of 450 acres in the Yellow Hill community. We
moved there on January 1920 and their four children started to the
Yellow Hill School. These children were NORA (SAVAGE) VINSON age 11,
MYRTLE (SAVAGE) HUEBSCH age 9, JEROME SAVAGE age 8 and BRYAN SAVAGE age
6. Both boys are deceased. JEROME passed away in 1992 and BRYAN in 1940.
We had many new experiences where we lived 4 miles south of Madill. It
was black land and not any trees. Yellow Hill had many trees and hills.
MR. DAN DAVIS of Madill donated 2 acres of land for the Yellow Hill
School with the understanding, if it ever ceased to be a school, the
land would revert back to him and that is what happened.
This school was a one room school. It was sold at a public auction at
the Marshall county court house in about 1928. To my memory, it brought
$40.00 or $50.00. I do not know when the schoolhouse was built. The
school closed in 1921.
The first day of school to Yellow Hill that we attended, Papa took us.
There was not any roads, you just went across a creek and up a
mountain. The second day, our parents thought we could make it on our
own. Papa followed us just to be sure. When he got to school, we were
not there. We went back home and we were not at home either. We found
our way home about 2:00 pin. When we got to the top of this hill or
mountain, we turned south instead of north
We started home from school one afternoon and the broom weeds were
higher than our heads on top of this mountain. What was four little
children to do? The wind was out of the south. If we went back north
the fires would over take us. We held hands and ran through the fire.
None of us were burnt, just scared.
Our teachers were MISS DAISY KING and RUBY WRIGHT and MRS. EFFIE BUTLER
(JONES) (WATSON). NAY BENICH taught 2 months of summer school.
It was told that the outlaws would hide in the Yellow Hills.
When Mrs. Effie was teaching there, she was a very brave lady and a
good teacher. She heard there was a desperado hidden out near the
school. She explained to the pupils how she would handle it.
She walked about 3 miles north to catch a train to Madill to get a gun.
She put that gun in her desk drawer with the knowledge of every pupil.
If that outlaw came, we were to get in one corner of the schoolhouse
and she would protect us. All children felt as safe as if the U. S.
Army was in front of us. The outlaw never came.
Yellow Hill school was located in the Northwestern part of Marshall county, one half way between McMillan and Durwood.
About 1 or 2 miles east of this school, there was an oil well being
drilled. Everyone was very excited, as they were sure to strike oil.
The folks who worked there lived in tents or a one-room house that they
had built where they could work, as in 1920-21, cars were very few. The
folks there had children in school. When the oil well was not
producing, the folks moved and school attendance fell very low and less
taxes were paid.
On the last day of school of the 1921 school term, we had a picnic.
Where did we go? Most of the community went to where the oil well once
was. Lunch was really dinner on the ground. A table cloth, or a bed
sheet was spread on the ground. Mrs. Effie was our teacher. In the
summer of 1921, NAY BENICH taught. And that was the closing of Yellow
Hill school.
The girls had a toilet to use, but the boys had to go to the woods.
According
to Mrs. Huebsch brother Hasting Savage, their father Mr. Savage bought
the school building and moved it to their place and they lived in it
for a while.
For anyone reading this Huebsch is pronounced (Hipps).
Written by memory in 1998
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