SCIENCE HILL ONE-ROOM SCHOOLHOUSE – PISGAH, IL
One Room, One Teacher, Countless Lessons Learned!

Science Hill – This must be the place my grandpa told me about when I was young, when he said he had to walk 5 miles to school…in the snow…barefoot…uphill…both ways. This must be the hill – Science Hill. Uphill both ways? That must be some hill!

Except, now I know grandpa lived less than half a mile from school (Yes, I measured it) and it’s pretty flat ground, considering the surrounding farm land and railroad tracks that run through the area. Google Maps says my grandpa should have been able to walk that distance in less than 15 minutes – if he used the roads and didn’t cut through any pastures or fields, which would shorten the time even more. Besides, according to my aunt – my grandpa’s sister – even though they DID walk to school, they didn’t walk barefoot. She said they always got a brand new pair of shoes for school and when they walked, they were often picked up by passing neighbors who were driving in that direction. She said the neighbors driving by wouldn’t pass them up without giving them a ride. It sounds like grandpa was telling stories…again!

In early American history, one-room schools were the standard for educating our children, especially in areas that were less mobile and more rural, where transportation hadn’t yet evolved to the point where folks had access to many other options. One room schools were often geographically centered in the area they were intended to serve and they were the focus for most rural communities. Many times, they were used not only as a schoolhouse, but also for church services, town meetings, voting, picnics, and other community related functions, activities, and events. They really were the heart of the community in many instances.

At the heart of the Pisgah community was Science Hill School. Unfortunately, Science Hill is no longer standing and finding information about it proved difficult, but not impossible. Luckily, I was able to talk to some former Science Hill students who are now in their 90’s, as well as some of the last group of students who went to school there, who are now in their 80’s. With their help and the help of many others, as well as some old memoirs and newspaper articles I found, here is what I learned…

According to one of its past teachers, Gilbert Masters, Science Hill School was established in the late 1800’s. The schoolhouse was located 1/2 mile Northwest of town on the Old Vandalia Road, one of four roads that met at a bridge, the only such intersection in the U.S., according to the memoirs I read from Pisgah resident, Jack Kilver.

My grandpa’s sister told me that even though Pisgah was a small town, sometimes they had a lot of kids in school. In her third grade year, they had so many students, they had to sit 2 kids in each seat. Science Hill had as many as 54 students at one time, grades one through eight, but usually averaged closer to 20 students or less. Most of the students who attended Science Hill were children from the surrounding farmsteads as well as the children of farm laborers. Jack Kilver said there would be an influx of new kids at school around the first of March due to seasonal employment as the farmers would hire their farm help for the year. Families would come and go, he said. There were some years when there weren’t many students at all. My cousin, John Smith, started school when he was just 4 1/2 years old because the teacher didn’t have any first graders at all, so she talked his mom into letting him start school early. John was the only one in his class until 5th or 6th grade. He likes to tease that he was at the top of his class. While John was the exception, most students started first grade at 5 years old and graduated eighth grade at around 13 years old.

There was a sign on the front door of Science Hill that read, “Standard School”. Starting around 1912, the Illinois legislature set up uniform school standards that were to be completed by 1917. These standards included requirements such as, each building was to have two doors, front and back; there was to be a jacketed furnace in a back corner of the room, not an open furnace in the middle of the room; windows were to be on the side of the pupils’ desks; there must be a good collection of books, maps, and dictionaries; there was to be a cloak room for lunch pails, coats, and drinking cups; there was to be a cement walk in front; there must be an ample playground; county exams were to be held at specific times; the teacher must be certified, must have at least a high school education, must be paid a minimum of $360/year, and must maintain a ranking of good or superior teacher by the county superintendent. A standard school was a designation that meant the school met all these criteria. In 1912, only 657 of the 10,532 one-room schoolhouses in Illinois had earned the right to display the “Standard School” sign.

Science Hill met all of the Standard School requirements. The front door of the school faced North. There was another door on the Southeast corner of the building. There were 8 windows along the West side of the school to let in plenty of light. There was a wooden floor and big chalk boards on the wall. There was a flag on a pole behind the teacher’s desk. There were photos of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln hanging on the walls. There were roll-up maps of countries around the world and a map for each U.S. state. There was a pencil sharpener to sharpen your pencil. There was one lightbulb hanging on a cord in the middle of the school room. If it got really dark, they would turn that on. It wasn’t really enough light to study by, according to John Smith, but it was the best they had. In the later years of the school, there was a coal room in the basement for the furnace. The rest of the basement was clean. There were tables down there for lunch time when they couldn’t go outside. There was also a kitchen with a stove and ice box. There was also a water cooler with 5 gallon jugs of water. Each student had their own cup for water. There were lights in the basement. The older kids would help with chores around the school. It was a privilege to be chosen to help clean the blackboards and erasers, not a punishment, we were told by Helen Wood Burnett, a former Science Hill student.

Outside, there was a small pond East side of the building. There was also a shed beside the school. According to Jack Kilver, when the school was built, they modernized it with chemical restrooms that never worked, so they had to put in outhouses. There were two of them, one for the boys and one for the girls. The outhouse for the girls was made of brick. The boys just had a “lean-to”. Later in the 30’s, the boys got a better outhouse.

When it was time for school, kids would get there many ways. Some would walk, ride a horse, or be brought to school by horse and buggy or a car. John Smith said he got to school quicker in the Winter time than other times of the year. In good weather months, it could take extra time to get to school, he said, depending on how many distractions you might find along the way. School was never canceled for snow storms. John remembers that not even deep snow kept Miss Aufdenkamp from teaching. “We didn’t have snow days,” he said. “If Miss Aufdenkamp couldn’t drive her car through the snow from Pisgah to the school, someone would pick her up on a box sled and take her to the school. Sometimes my dad, Earl Smith, would pick her up. And most kids would walk to school, even if snowdrifts were deep.”

The school day would begin around 8:00 am with a ringing of the bell from the teacher. It was a small, handheld, brass bell with a long handle that sat on her desk until she was ready to ring it at the doorway to summon the students. The kids would greet the teacher as they entered the building. The girls would enter and go off in one direction, while the boys would enter and go in the other direction, to their respective cloak rooms just inside the front door, where they would leave their lunches and hang their coats. Everyone had a peg to hang their coat and hat on. Overshoes went under your coat, on the floor. John Smith told us his typical outfit for school was a pair of jeans and a blue denim work shirt. His sisters wore dresses. He said he always got 2 new pair of pants and 2 wool shirts every year before school started. They got a new pair of shoes every year, also. He said by the time the school year was over, there was cardboard in the soles. Those were school clothes only, and they came off when you got home so they could be cleaned and worn again later. There was no roll call, although the teacher did do a head count. There weren’t many students most of the time, so it didn’t take long for the teacher to figure out who was there and who was not. After a head count, the Pledge of Allegiance was recited.

Each Science Hill student had a desk. Each seat had a desktop attached to the rear of the seat for use by the student sitting behind you. The seats in the back row had no desktop attached to the back of them. The first grade students sat up front. The second graders sat behind them, and so on. There were 2 benches in the front of the class by the teacher’s desk for each class to use for their group lessons. Each class would take turns approaching the benches to get their lessons from the teacher and answer questions. While you were at the benches, the rest of the school kids behind you could be quite a distraction. After the teacher gave each class their assignment, they would return to their desks to complete their work. All assignments were completed at school. There was no homework. If a student had a question, they would raise their hand for the teacher. Once their assignment was completed at their desk, they could help other kids. Some students would use their free time to read a book from the library, a 3′ x 8′ steel cabinet with shelves. It contained old books and a set of encyclopedias. The students had to have their own school books, tablets, and pencils. They used 3 ring binders with loose leaf paper.

The subjects taught at Science Hill included reading, writing (including cursive writing), arithmetic, history, and even art, according to Helen Wood Burnett. Jack Kilver has fond memories of his teacher, Anna Mae Aufdenkamp. He said she taught more than just what was in the textbooks. She also taught literature and music. She played 2 minutes worth of music on the Victrola every morning before class started. Jack said, “Miss Aufdenkamp shaped our lives for the better. We were country people. Seldom did we go to town, and whatever we learned about the rest of the world we learned from school or church.” Science Hill teachers got paid $90 a month during the depression, according to Jack. Out of that salary, he said the teacher would pay the janitor $1 a month for taking care of the fire in the furnace, which was located in the basement of the school. Teachers either lived locally with their family or another family. Craig Wood told me, “My dad went to Science Hill and at one time, the School Marm lived in Iven Wood’s house and my dad made sure she got to school.” Iven’s home was Judge Samuel Wood’s farm prior to Samuel’s death.

But it wasn’t all work and no play at Science Hill. There was a morning and afternoon recess and a break was also taken around noon for the lunch hour. For the lunch hour, many kids would eat a lunch they brought from home. Some students were only able to afford a sweet potato to bring to eat for lunch. Others brought a sandwich. Some kids went home for lunch. A few others were allowed to go to the Pisgah store to buy a 5 cent pie, Helen Wood Burnett told us. She said this was a big treat as money was scarce during the depression. Around 1940, a lady came to school and made lunches in the basement from government surplus. Sometimes the surplus was canned grapefruit or orange juice. The surplus cheese was added to macaroni. The lunch was made from whatever was available that month and everyone appreciated the meal because it was hot and free. Other times, families of kids took turns bringing hot meals to eat. John Smith said he brought his lunch during his first 4 or 5 years of school. He ate a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. In November, they would butcher a hog at home and have meat for the Winter. If there were leftover mashed potatoes at home, they would be made into potato cakes and he would bring those to school between some bread with a little butter on it. Biscuits were also a common lunch item. John said they had biscuits everyday at home. They would be made early in the day and eaten for breakfast, lunch, and supper. Leftover biscuits were taken to school. John’s grandma was the lunch lady in the basement of the school for some time. She rode back and forth to school with Mrs. Sikes, a teacher there. John’s sister, Mary Louise Smith Doolin, recalls the benefits of having her grandmother downstairs in the kitchen at school. “The lunchroom was in the basement and of course the aromas of what she was cooking filed the air. I remember I used to raise my hand to go to the bathroom and I would go down and she would give me a cookie! I’m surprised Mrs. Sikes never caught on, or maybe she did and just let me get away with it!

There was a playground on the East side of the school yard. The kids would run races or play games at recess and lunch, including Hopscotch, Tag, Shinny (a hockey game played with a tin can), Annie Over (a tag game where a ball is thrown over the roof of the building), Baseball (third base would touch the school), Red Rover, or Mother May I, to name a few. Around 1940, the school directors purchased a merry-go-round that was added to the playground. A teeter-totter and a swing set were added later. The pond near the school was used for skating and sliding in the Winter time. The boys would play hockey on the pond with a stick that was cut from a hedgerow and a tin can. When the pond was thin in places, the boys would get their feet wet. John Smith said when the older boys wanted extra play time, they would take the bell clapper out of the teacher’s brass bell so it wouldn’t make any noise when she would ring it for class to resume. Then they would go slide on a sheet of tin down the hill on the other side of the road. When the bell wouldn’t work, the teacher would have to walk over to the hill and yell for them, which took extra time.

My Aunt relayed a story to me that her brother, my Uncle Ed Witham, used to like to tell. Uncle Ed was a student at Science Hill. One day, while playing baseball in the school yard, a girl named Thelma McCarty was running the bases and she ran into the tree that marked second base and broke her leg. Uncle Ed had to run all the way from the school to the elevator to get Gus Kilver to come take her to the hospital. Uncle Ed was glad that he was able to run that distance to go get help.

School ended around 3:00 pm, we believe. There was one adult for the whole school and they were responsible for the kids for the entire day. If there were discipline problems, the teacher went outside and got a switch, Helen Wood Burnett told us. Carrie Conlee was a teacher from the late 20’s to 1935. She ruled with an iron hand. Discipline was her specialty, I learned. Jack Kilver wrote that she had two switches, one for the little guys and one for the big guys.

Christmas time was a big deal at Science Hill. There was a Christmas program held at night and every student had a part in the program. They would spend the day before the program practicing their respective parts. Tables were borrowed from the Union Baptist Church to make a stage and someone from the community would bring a gas light to light up the area. The school was filled with parents of all the students who came to watch them perform. It was an annual social gathering. Everyone came and participated in a gift exchange. Jack Kilver said the school directors gave everyone 2 oranges and a bag of candy for presents. For some kids, that’s all they got for Christmas, he said.

The last day of school each year was cause for celebration at Science Hill. They would hold an end-of-school party, which included a picnic, playlets, exhibits, games, races, and competitions, such as a whistling contest, spelling contests, math contests, and more. All the parents and school alumni would come and everyone would bring a dish for the noon meal. The food was put on the desks inside while everyone gathered outside. Gifts were given to the teacher, there were readings, and students with perfect attendance for the year were awarded with a dollar! The big excitement for the day was a baseball game between the students and the alumni. People would stay all day, visiting and playing. Sometimes there was a weiner roast and marshmallow toast in the woods, near the school.

As motorized school buses made longer travel distances possible, one-room schoolhouses began to consolidate into multiple-classroom schools where classes could be held separately for different grade levels. Most one-room schools had been replaced by larger, consolidated schools by World War II and Science Hill was no exception. Science Hill School was closed in 1947 and sold soon after, as they consolidated with Franklin schools for the 1947 school year. Science Hill and its lot of 2 acres was purchased by W. A. Becker at the time “for an even $2000”. The contents of the school were auctioned off and brought $1785 from Albert E. Curry. The building was then used occasionally for grain storage, until it was razed in the 1960’s. The land-site has since been cleared and planted with corn and soybean crops; leaving only the original dirt lane that led up to the school on the hill. This land where Science Hill once stood is now owned by Martha Knapp and Mark Fletcher, according to Terry Wood Cully, whose husband, Gary, farms the land.

So, were one-room schoolhouses really effective, or were they just the best they could do at the time? Many people think they were really on to something and still see enormous benefits in this model of schooling, even for today. In the early 1900’s, there were around 200,000 one-room schools all around the country. Today, there are still over 200 one-room schoolhouses that are carrying on this old-time tradition. They enjoy many benefits:

• Lower cost: They have less overhead due to smaller buildings and minimal staff.
• Good student/teacher ratio. Students are not just a statistic. They receive individual attention and recognition.
• Individual responsibility and self-sufficiency is stressed as students learn to work independently.
• Students can move at their own pace, moving ahead to a higher grade when they are ready.
• Teamwork is encouraged as older students help younger students.
• Students may have the same teacher many years in a row. This fosters a deeper understanding of the students by the teacher.
• Automatic review for older students as they listen along to younger students’ lessons, year after year.
• Younger students can listen to older students’ lessons and learn from them. This allows bright students to work ahead and participate in upper classes.

Abraham Lincoln thought one-room schools were good enough. He was educated in one. So was Henry Ford. Henry Ford loved his so much, he had it moved to a museum in Michigan. It was also good enough for my grandpa, and many like him, who only attended school through the 8th grade, but went on to become members of what we call our greatest generation. It was also good enough for those who used their one-room schoolhouse education as a foundation, going on to attain advanced degrees in colleges and universities, many making great strides and contributions in various disciplines and specialties.

On the fertile ground where Science Hill once stood, today they grow corn where they used to grow curious, young minds. And while the building itself may be gone, we want to ensure the spirit that Science Hill School helped create in our parents, grandparents, and others that came before us is still alive and well in Pisgah and lives on in each one of us who remembers it and celebrates it with fondness and pride.

*PLEASE NOTE*
Science Hill grounds are on private property. The path leading there is dangerous. For your own safety, and by the landowner’s request, please don’t trespass. Thank you!

If you have any Science Hill memories you would like to share with us, we would love to add them to our report. Please email us: Mike@PisgahILHistory.com