One-room schools were common place throughout our rural area until centralized school districts were formed. Each town usually had several schools within a small distance where students met in a single room. There, one teacher taught “the three Rs” (reading, writing and arithmetic), to all students usually up to the eighth grade level. Montezuma students were taught in seven, one or two-room schools scattered throughout the town and countryside. In 1936, the Port Byron School District centralized the 22 surrounding town districts.

My mother attended School No. 6 at High Bridge. She often reminded me how lucky I was to have a bus pick me up at my front door, as she remembered walking to school in all sorts of inclement weather. Back then, I hadn't yet learned to appreciate her passing comments about the “good old days,” but today I wished I had listened more intently to her childhood memories about school life.

Teachers had a lot of responsibilities and were paid a minimal salary by today's standards. A newspaper article in 1912, noted that Nellie Tosh from Fox Ridge was the highest paid teacher in the area, earning $15 a week. Most of us can fondly remember one teacher who stood out among the rest. My favorite teacher from Port Byron Central School was from Montezuma. Genevieve Doherty retired the year I graduated, but started her early teaching career at District No. 6, High Bridge School.

Teachers in one-room school houses were often former students. A well-respected teacher who in 1918 first taught at School District No. 5 on Beach Road was Miss Minnie Fowler, where she had once been a student. In 1924, she moved to District No. 2, a larger school on Laraway Road. To further her education and a desire for excellence, in 1926, she enrolled in Oswego State Normal School. In 1928, she accepted a teacher position in Auburn, and taught there for another 34 years.

Lucille Purser Hitchcock remembers her school days at Mintline, District No. 7 like it was yesterday. Her father, Tom, was a school trustee who hired the teachers.

One of her teachers was Emma Olmstead who rode the trolley from her home in Savannah and walked the rest of the way to school with Lucille and her brother, Warren. Other teachers she remembers were Lila Frio and Hilda Mecomber.

She told me my father, Charlie Denman, used to start the fire in a potbelly stove at her school to warm it before the teacher and students arrived. This is the only school still standing in town and is used now as a residence on Denman Road. There was a cupboard to keep their dinner pails and hooks on the back wall to hang their coats. Students sat on a long bench in front while being taught a particular subject. After the class ended, they would return to their desk in the back, and they were allowed a recess in the afternoon. They would enjoy a picnic with their parents near the end of the school year at the school, and there was always a big tree with presents at Christmas time.

Lawrence Knapp a few years ago shared his fond memories in our local newspaper, the In Port, of attending District No. 6 at High Bridge starting at 6 years old.

His first teacher was Mrs. Helen Weston, who began teaching there her first year. The first book he remembered reading was “The Little Red Hen.” He shared that “there was a sense of belonging and unity, and yes, a sense of responsibility when assigned to bring a pail of drinking water from the nearest farmhouse.”

Lawrence's great grandfather, Thaddeus Crippen Chappel, taught school early in town history when he moved here from Otsego County in 1848. His mother, Harriett Chappel Knapp, also taught school at the School District No. 5 on Beach Road.

District No. 1 was located on High Street behind the Baptist Church in the village. In 1903, there were 22 students who were given a souvenir booklet by their teacher, D. D. Wiggins. The other schools in town were: District No. 2, located on the old Auburn Road, (now Fuller Road across from Carner Road); District No. 3, located on Decker Road, (old Route 90).

In June 1929, parting classmates from District No. 5, Beach Road, Genevieve Alfreds, Frances Moroney, Marie Moroney, Isabella Wright and Lester Ohara were also given a souvenir booklet of their school year from their teacher, Lillian E. Weeks. It included a poem by John Whitter with the ending lines: “And when the world shall link your names, with gracious lives and manners fine, the teacher shall assert her claims, and proudly whisper, 'These were mine.'”

The Montezuma Historical Society is planning a day to scan old photographs from town later this year.

If you have stories or photos of one-room houses or other pictures from town stashed away in your family collection to “link” to our collection, please plan to share them then, or give me a call.

Cheryl Longyear is historian for the town of Montezuma. She can be reached at 776-8632 or e-mail montezumahistorian@tds.net