This week's theme for Sepia Saturday happens to be schools. Old schools happen to be one of my many interests, especially the old schools throughout Oregon.
On February 12 of this year, I did a post about McNeil/Panther Creek School, where my great-grandfather Albert Traylor and his cousins attended.
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| Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews |
To learn who is in this photo and to read the rest of that blog post, please "CLICK HERE."
My grandmother, Florence Hedrick Traylor and her brothers, John and Homer Hedrick attended both Sunnyvale School and the Drain Normal School; going on to graduate from Drain High School. My great-great aunt, Aurilla Hedrick Putnam, was one of the first teachers at the Drain Normal school.
The Drain Normal School:
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| Drain Normal School ~ Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews |
Sunnyvale School:
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| Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews |
I'm guessing that if Grandma was around 10 or 11, this one was taken in 1922 or 1923. I sat with her before she died in 2000 and we wrote down everybody in this photo that she could remember. I tried to get the spellings as close and I could. Amazing that at almost 88, she still remembered everybody!
Back Row: Teacher, Mildred Church, Ruel Elliott, Jess Woody, George Cary, John Hedrick, Dwight Rossiter, Harley Swearingen, Homer Hedrick Lois Rossiter, and Teacher, Helen Smell.
Row Three: Gertrude Hubbard, ______, Luce Snell, Florence Hedrick, Winifred Morningstar, Anna Baker, Amy Cary, Edna Baker, ____ Elliot (?), Venus Lakey, Mary Cunningham.
Row Two: Mildred Snell, Lucille Swearingen, Esther Snell, Irene Snell, _________, Vera Kersterson, Letha Hubbard, Alda Swearingen, ________, Katherine Cunningham, Bruce Cunningham.
Row One: Louis Lakey, Charles Ross, Floyd Ross, Otis Swearingen, Claude Snell, Buck Hubbard, Paul Lakey, Horence Cunningham, Richard Snell, Austin Rossidger
Drain High School:
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| Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews |
I need to ask Mom to make sure, but I'm pretty sure that in the picture above, Grandma is in the third row up, at the end, and Uncle John is the row above her close-by and wearing the cardigan. He must have liked those, because he is wearing one below too.
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| Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews |
Okay, now we will switch gears. Another one of my projects includes researching the Mohawk Valley of Oregon, with hopes of someday writing a book or two about it and other early Oregon towns and cities. I just found a great link that will help me with this, and am going to put it on here so that I can find it later. If you want to check it out, please CLICK HERE (Louis Polley).
Here are a few photos of some of those early Oregon schools.
The three pictures below were taken in communities in the Mohawk Valley of Oregon. All three come from The Curtis Irish Collection, a Mohawk Valley historian. To read about the info that Curtis has gathered over the years, please CLICK HERE.
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| Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews |
This is of the Stafford School in the Mohawk Valley, and was taken in the 1870's.
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| Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews |
The Upper Mabel School was built in 1878.
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| Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews |
This one was taken at the Wendling Booth Kelly Camp 35 School. By 1945 the logging camp schools were all closed.
To learn more of schools in the Mohawk Valley, check out this link by CLICKING HERE. Also, to learn more about The Mohawk Valley and other cool info about early Oregon, please check out Steve Williamson's website by CLICKING HERE.
I hope that you enjoyed your visit! I didn't go too much in depth, but this gives me something else to work on as time permits. Happy Sepia Saturday, my friends.
~ Kathy M.
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At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot! All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.  |
17 comments:
Oh my gosh Kathy, I LOVE old photos! Even if I don't know any of the people. It's fascinating to me....to see how they dressed...the "dismal" looking places and people...at times! Doesn't it make you wonder what people will say when they look at pictures from our era??
Wonderful pictures again Kathy! What a grand building that first school is. The pictures of the children are fascinating; you could spend hours studying them. And as for the names....! Otis Swearingen is my favourite, and he should be the hero of a novel.
Nice collection of photos. In the Drain Normal School photo, the girl on the left of the bottom row is really looking up.
I too love looking at these pictures, both the school buildings and the children. change the clothes and hairstyles on the children and they could be from any time.
You have the nicest photographs of little rural schools. The second school with its rows of windows and tall steeple is gorgeous.
Isn't it funny how pictures look alike from the same time period? I have a picture of my mom taken in front of a school, and it looks remarkably like these. Times sure have changed.
I didn't realize they had special logging schools. But I guess it makes sense. Quite a rustic little schoolhouse.
Nancy Javier
What fun to go through old photos-so nostalgic. You found some good ones. Sepia is always nice for a change. Hope you are having a good weekend. Mickie :)
What a fine collection which shows off the buildings as well as the children. The boys overalls caught my eye at Sunyvale School for some reason.
Great shots, Kathy. Those old black & whites always make me feel. . .something. LOL Can't describe it with words (some writer, huh?). What a comparison of those old schoolhouses to the mega schools today. My daughter's high school has 3500+ students. Nuts, right?
You have a real treasure trove of fantastic school photos!! These are all amazing! I love to look at all the faces, trying to determine personality from just this one glimpse. My favorite, by far, though, is the Sunnydale School photo ... second row, second child from the left. He or she (it difficult to tell) just oozes mischief! I love it! Thanks so much for sharing all of these. They're truly fabulous.
What amazing treasures! I am just fascinated by these photos, especially because they are all Oregon pictures. Thanks so much for sharing these with us. Some of the details are so interesting - the girls dresses, the hairstyles... And who knew that little old Drain had such a fabulous school!
What neat pictures!
One-room schools intrigue me, as does the name "Normal School" - what were they compared to, for them to be normal, I wonder? The Drain Normal School seems rather lonely, on the side of the hill like that, but I presume the rest of the town was behind the photographer. An excellent selection of photographs again, thank you Kathy.
Some wonderful school photographs - a joy to look at end enjoy. I always think these type of photographs are some of the richest you can find when it comes to finding and exploring the detail of faces, expressions and social history.
What a super post. You have plans on writing books? How fabulous is that?!!! Good luck with them. Tho, I enjoyed ALL the 'sepia' photos, I especially like the Mabel School. Dunno why...maybe for the fact it's reminiscent of a 'little house on the prairie school/church'.
Thanks for popping by yesterday for my Shadow Shot. Today's post is:
Macro Halloween Candle Holder...Eerie!!
HAVE A TERRORIFIC WEEK!!
Oh my goodness Kathy! These were awesome. These school photos really are a microcosm of the place, time and culture where they were created. I am inspired to hunt out more photos locally! Thanks.
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