WILD HORSE District No. 39
NW1/4 NE1/4 of 14-15-23
1916-17 (6 months)
Teacher: Clea Anding, Board: Rhett Jones, J.D. Beals, H.E. Underwood, Census: 33
1917-18 (6 months)
Teacher: Rosa Newkirk, Board: Rhett Jones, J.D. Beals, H.E. Underwood, Census: 36
1918-19 (6 months)
Teacher: Daisy Cochran, Board: Rhett Jones, J.D. Beals, Fred Hyman, Census: 27
1919-20 (6 months)
Teacher: Daisy Cochran, Board: Rhett Jones, J.D. Beals, Fred Hyman, Census: 35
1920-21 (6 months)
Teacher: Elsie Jones (2 mo) Rula Woodruff (4 mo), Board: Rhett Jones, J.D. Beals, Fred Hyman, Census: 37
1921-22 (6 months)
Teacher: Imalove Christian, Board: Rhett Jones, J.D. Beals, H.E. Underwood, Census: 32
1922-23 (6 months)
Teacher: Claude Hubbard, Board: Rhett Jones, J.D. Beals, H.E. Underwood, Census: 31
1923-24 (6 months)
Teacher: Pauline Guernsey, Board: Rhett Jones, W.H. Downey, H.E. Underwood, Census: 30
1924-25 (6 months)
Teacher: Alice Rose, Board: W.H. Downey, H.E. Underwood, Rich Hay, Census: 26
In the spring of 1925 District No. 39 (Wild Horse) transferred to UG7 or Breezy Meadow.
Wild Horse School Memories written by Maye Jones Cogburn
“Wild Horse School was built on the prairie close to Wild Horse Creek. The school was eight miles north of Strong City and one mile east of Fred and Avis Cobb’s home which was originally Rhett Jones’ homestead. My brother, Tom and I walked one and ½ miles through pastures to school. Tom was seven and I was five. My parents thought it best for Tom to wait until I could go to school with him. At the time I had long braids of hair which hung down my back past my waist and as we passed the Lawrence McClellan Home, their geese were always out to greet us and hang onto my hair. Two years after we started to Wild Horse, the school building was moved one mile north between Sam Kendalls and the McFarland place, Bill Caudle’s grandparents. I don’t know how or why it was moved unless it was on a road instead of the middle of a pasture. Wild Horse was a one room school with grades from one to eight, handled by one teacher.
Our Wild Horse community sent eight boys to WWI. Seven came home together and later Vernon Kendall was released from the German prisoner of war camp. The other seven were Bill Beals; Bill Downey, John Hyman; Walter, Floyd and Harley Rice and John Hyman, an uncle of previous John Hyman. It was a great day when the boys came home. All of the community met at the school house to welcome the boys back. The entire time they were gone, there was a flag hanging in the window with eight stars on it. The school house served as a meeting place for every occasion such as literaries, church, revivals, picnics, funerals, pie or box suppers and Christmas trees. On Friday afternoon, we had basketball games, ciphering matches, spelling bees and geography matches challenging any school nearby. The teachers I remember included Mrs. Andings, Rosa Newkirk, Elsie Johnson Lettle, Rula Woodruff, Daisy Cochran Hyman, Pauline Guernsey, Imalove Christian and Alice Rose Thomas. Rula Woodruff operated the telephone office at Roll and also a drugstore. The children who attended Wild Horse School included: Hyman, Underwood, Jones, McClellan, Kendall, Cowart, Heaths, Guest, Mason, Caudle, Beals, Painter, Cantrell, Thomas, Harris, Robison. Simpson School was down to six pupils and they were transported by car to Wild Horse. They were Hays and Weeks families. After that year, Simpson, Wild Horse and Breezy Meadow consolidated and changed the name to Superlative, which was a two room and taught to eleventh grade. If we wished to graduate, we went to Strong City and took a test and graduated with credits. I was one of the few. Superlative was not a name for people to remember, so it was changed back to Breezy Meadow.”
Wild Horse Memories written by Alice Rose Thomas
“This little one room school (where I taught my second term of school in 1924-25) was located on a little grassy knoll just east of the Roll community. Like most early day schools in Roger Mills County, it was a frame building with a pot-bellied stove in the center for heat; long recitation benches at the front and double desks, well carved for the children. There were about thirty-five pupils enrolled from first to eighth grade. Four of five of these pupils had finished the eighth grade and came to take high school subjects such as algebra, English, U.S. History and Literature. Many of the parents at that time did not think credits were necessary just so they knew the subject. These older pupils would help me by hearing smaller children read, recite, help with lessons, pronounce words, etc.
The children either walked or came horseback to school. There was a little shed for the horses on the side of the coalhouse. I boarded at Guy Kendalls and we walked the one and one-fourth mile to and from school. We took our lunches in tin pails or sacks. This was long before any hot lunches or soups were available, unheard of. Often we chose up sides on Friday afternoons for either a ciphering or spelling match which was often very exciting, especially when parents came to watch. Henry Hay was one of the fastest at ciphering and hard to beat but he had to really work to beat Tom Jones, Rae Weeks and several others. One afternoon Five Star School, a one room school, north of us came for a ciphering contest which was an exciting event. The teacher was chief janitor with the help of pupils who brought in coal, kindling , water, picked up paper, cleaned the blackboard, dusted erasers and helped sweep.
At recess, we played Dare Base, Blackman and ball when we had a good ball and bat. The smaller ones had teeter boards, play houses and a sand pile.
Rhett Jones, Guy Kendall or Rich Hay, all now deceased, would haul a load of kindling to use to start fires. Sometimes on Monday morning we would find all the kindling and coal brought in by the children used up by visiting fellows who had used the building for card games or poker. They would leave the building all littered with party remains.
Mrs. Underwood, age 101 is the mother of six of my pupils and is now living at the Cheyenne Rest Home (1981). The spring of 1925 Wild Horse united with Breezy Meadow, a one room school west of us and made into a two room school named New Breezy. There is no evidence left at the site of Wild Horse. It is in a pasture owned by Carrel Wickham.”