- A History of the Kidder/Pleasant View School by Clark
Kidder
- The Kidder/Pleasant View School (School District No. 9) stood
in the Town of Fulton, in the south-
- east corner of the intersection of County Highway M, and
Highway 51. It appears that it was known as Pleasant View prior
to being named Kidder School. It was called Pleasant View School
when Gerald "Buster" KIDDER attended it in the
late teens through the early twenties, and it was known as the
Kidder School by the time Mildred (KIDDER) YAHNKE
taught there in 1936-41. It was referred to as the "Rex
Kidder School" in a 1925 document. It was typical of the
one-room schoolhouse of yesteryear. Heat was provided by a round-oak
stove, which stood in the northeast corner. The wood for stove
was stored in a woodshed directly behind the school. In later
years, the woodshed was remodeled into a one-car garage to house
the teacher's car, if she was lucky enough to own one! The blackboard
was on the west wall. An organ sat on a platform in the southwest
corner. The teacher's desk also sat on a platform. There were
smaller desks for the younger children. The seats on all the
desks would fold up. Each desk featured an inkwell in the upper
right corner, with a ridge along the top of the desk to hold
pencils. There were shelves under the desks.
- The school stood east and west, with the entrance on the
west end. Two of the four windows were
- closed up on the north side, and the east end had two windows.
There were both girls and boys outhouses. There was no basement
under the school.
- Some of the teachers who taught at the school were Evelyn
MURWIN, Ethel BODEN, Bertha
- KNUTSON, Catherine and Bessie MONAHAN, Marcella
McNALLY, Mildred (KIDDER) YAHNKE, Edith
BABCOCK, Mrs. CRIBBON (or CRIPPON?), Mrs.
SIBBELKOW of Beloit (who stayed with Happy ALBRECHT,
and did not finish the year out) and Regina MOORE of Edgerton.
- A few of the names of families that attended the school were
KIDDER (Gerald and Helen),
- FIEDLER (Arthur, Margaret, Ethel and Clarence), DOOR
(Bernice and Lester), LEITZ (Hilda, Irene and Lawrence),
RUSCH (Norma, Robert and Lesley), HEINE (Billy),
HELLER (Lucille, Edwin, Willard, Lester, Maxine, Lewis,
Ruth, Norma, Evelyn, Frances and Alma), JACKSON (Robert,
James, Richard and William) and MARTIN (Curtis, Harold
and Ken).
- Mildred (KIDDER) YAHNKE taught at the school
from 1936 to 1941. Edith BABCOCK taught
- during 1934-35. Mildred YAHNKE related the following
stories regarding the Kidder School:
-
- "One night a man had broken into the school and wrapped
himself up in the flag to keep
- warm. Luckily he was gone by the time I had arrived the
next morning.
- "Another time, teacher Edith BABCOCK's boyfriend,
Arley DAVIS, had come to school
- to sneak a kiss while the kids were outside on recess.
Little did Edith know, the children were all peering through
the window at the spectacle. That afternoon the children all
went home and told their parents what they'd seen their teacher
doing! A few of the parents called school board members, Happy
ALBRECHT and Emma KIDDER, to complain."
-
- Mildred also recalled that the school had no well, and all
the water had to be obtained from the Bill
- RUSCH farm due east of the school, and carried all
the way back. She remembered that her uncle, Rex KIDDER,
had built shelves in the alcove at the school for the children
to place their lunch pails. She recalled how married women were
not allowed to teach during the depression. She related the following
story as well:
-
- "A family from Texas with twin boys moved into the
neighborhood just west of Kidder.
- The two had gained a reputation of being a couple of bullies,
and managed to run off several of the teachers. I was called
by one of the school board members, and offered ten dollars more
than the going rate, which was ninety dollars per month, if I
would take the job. I decided I could use the money, and lived
just a mile east of the school with my grandmother, Elma KIDDER,
and could walk to and from work. I agreed to take the job. The
first day the boys' father came to the school carrying a club
several feet long, and told me to use it on them if they didn't
mind me. I had no intention of doing so. The next day, the boys
brought a frog to school, and handed it to me. I simply said
it was nice, and that we could place it in a jar for a few days,
and then set it free. The next day they brought a garter snake,
and handed it to me. I took it in hand and said that I really
didn't like the smell of snakes, and set it free. After discovering
a mouse in my desk drawer, I decided to try something. I asked
the children if they'd like to join me in a baseball game. They
agreed, and I hit the first ball right out of the schoolyard!
From then on, they were little angels. Their father came up to
me one day and said that they'd have to move back to Texas, and
the two boys stood there with tears streaming down their faces
as they told me."
-
- Eventually, the school became obsolete, as bigger schools
were built in the cities, and children were
- bused in to them. The school was closed in 1941 or 1942.
A former student, Harold MARTIN, moved the Kidder School
to his farm just west of where the school stood. The old school
took on a new life as a granary. It still stands today. Its façade
is pretty much original to when it was built, and it stands in
silent testimony to a quiet, simpler time in America's not-so-distant
past.
|
