SCIENCE HILL POEM
My great-aunt who attended Science Hill School sent me this poem a few years ago. She told me it almost brought tears to her eyes. Here is what she wrote about it:
“This poem was in the Franklin Times. I sent a copy of it to my 7th and 8th grade teacher. She was in a nursing home. She was only 11 years older than me. The poem meant so much to her. She wanted everyone she taught to have a copy. She died a few years ago.”
SCIENCE HILL SCHOOL
A little rural school called Science Hill
was Northwest of Pisgah town.
It was on the old Vandalia Road
but now has been turned down.
Many young scholars went to this school
and left to start lives of their own.
Now they are in all parts of the U.S.
This area is no longer their home.
Gilbert Masters used to teach here
back quite a few years ago.
Another teacher was Grace Davenport
and many others, records show.
It is difficult to visualize how it was
when children rode horses to school,
Some walked or came in cars,
where they were taught the Golden Rule.
Students would do their problems
on black boards that were used each day.
Sometimes they would do their spelling
and an eraser would wipe it away.
Today, the old road is closed
and the school has been torn down.
Crops are planted where it was.
Little remains to be found.
The teachers had many chores to do
like cleaning the school each day,
tending the fire to heat the room,
and shoveling the Winter snow away.
Like other rural schools of the day,
many students recall it still.
And though the old building is gone,
they still remember Science Hill.
– Reuben J. Bates of Waverly 1997
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Reuben J. Bates was born November 26, 1928 in Jacksonville, IL; the son of Reuben H. and Helen Zachary Bates. He passed away on Monday, February 1, 2010 in rural Franklin, IL at the age of 81.
Mr. Bates attended Jacksonville High School with the Class of 1946 after attending his first two years at Alexander High School. He farmed and later served as farm manager of the Bates Trust Farms located at Murrayville, Franklin, and Waverly.
Mr. Bates was a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, Cass-Morgan Farm Bureau, First United Methodist Church in Waverly, Jacksonville Area Genealogical and Historical Society, and a charter member of the Waverly Genealogical and Historical Society. As a lover of history, he read and recorded monument information within cemeteries all over Central Illinois.
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If you have any information to add to this page, please don’t hesitate to contact me: Mike@PisgahILHistory.com