TEACHER OF 1911-1912
RECALLS EXPERIENCES

By: Margaret Mitchell Palmer

Note: Margaret E. Mitchell Palmer was born in Loup County on the Raliegh Bolli Ranchn in 1893. her parents, Robert and Nannie (Alderman) Mitchell, soon moved to "Burwell where he was a businessman. Margaret graduated from Burwell High in 1910 and taught at Banner in Garfield County. In 1911-1912 she taught two terms at District 17 (Valleyview), then known as the Hesselgesser school. At that time, the school building was located across the river on the J.D. DeLashmutt property (later the Wallace Ranch). Mrs. Palmer is now 91 and living in Kearney. She wrote this October 22, 1980. Her Loup county friends and acquaintances include Ted Cole, the Elda Hyde family and the Brown family.
(taken from the Loup County Centennial Book 1883-1983)

Yes, I definately did teach in Dist. 17, the Hesselgesser District in 1911. I had tentatively planned to go to college-how I do not know as my resources from 7 months at Banner for $35.00 a month were rather slim. Probably I had faith in the loaves and fisher story. We lived next door to the Reverend Jesse Hartford and one day in late August, Jim Hartford called across the fence, "Wouldn't you like to come up and teach our school? Your mother was the best teacher we ever had and we'd like to have you." Just as simple as that. Two members of the board had gone to school to Mother her last term, in 1892--Walter Hesselgesser and Jim Hartford, so my credentials were met and my fate was sealed.

So on September 2, 1911, I packed my belongings and proceeded to Hartford's in the little spring wagon which was their conveyance at that time. It was a delightful fall-- quite dry as usual up the Calamus, but some enterprising entrpreneur had sold almost everyone a silo which was guaranteed to make proper ensilage from meager corn stalks for proper feed for the winter. So those first weeks of September, all farmers were building their silos, cutting fodder, getting it properly stored and watered according to instructions to make the sourest, most potent feed never before encountered. Be that as it may, the cattle loved it and thrived on it. The farmers exchanged work and machinery and I met many of them during the first weeks.

The school house, the usual box car type, was in a fenced in plot of ground on the DeLashmutt range prairie. It was an advance over Banner with a reed organ and also a pump on the front porch. There were the same double desks, a teacher's desk and a chair. The grass or hay had been mowed leaving raw stalks for unsuspecting barefoot boys.

The Kinkaid Fair was the third week I was in the neighborhood and I anticipated that school would be dismissed; not so, so Lela Hartford and I proceeded to school Friday morning. She was the only pupil to show up. We put in our time, ate our lunch and then shortly after 1 p.m. to be legal, I dismissed and we worked our way to the fair. It was the usual food and fair display. I met and visited with patrons who couldn't care less, but I got Frank DeLashmutts beautiful horse, Prince, and had a delightful time riding. The next day being Saturday we made a full day of it.

Farmers continued to be busy. Frosty October days came and the school house was cold in the mornings. No one had time to go the 15 miles to town for coal. I solicited the help of Rich Reinert who brought a team and wagon to school and teacher and pupils went over to Hartford Grove to salvagte fuel. this light load lasted until someone went to Burwell for coal, and the teacher was hight commended for her thrift and ambition. I haven't recovered from it yet!

There were 21 pupils enrolled, but attendance was intermittentent. I had no particular lesson plans, mostly from lack of intelligence and each went through the text from cover to cover, or rather as far as they could get with such perfunctory attendence. The Brown children were habitually tardy; coming in usually after 10 a.m. They were an untidy group, and finally one noon I combed the girls hari which was in unsightly braids. This was a mistake or was it? Mrs. Brown decided the teacher had more time than she had, so made it my permanent job. Watson Hesselgesser would bring his barber clippers in at noon and cut the boys' hair--styles were different then. I had a delightful place to live at Jim Hartford's. Mae was a grand cook-- had canned 85 quarts of chokecherries, mostly seeded. How could she?--- and made the delicious pies. I went from 117 to 150 pounds by Christmas and my mother was properly ashamed of my avoirdupois. I drank fresh milk and we had lots of hashbrown potatoes. I shared a room with Lela in the far northeast corner of the house where a glass of water would freeze by morning, but we slept in balnkets. I had heavy outing gowns and probably slept in my long underewear. One night I went home with Freda Reinert and was then introduced to the luxury of sleeping between feather beds--what indulgence!

Gus Scherbarth picked corn for Jim that winter and when to o cold or miserable to pick corn, he hunted. Oh those delicious ducks and geese.

There were numerous swains available. Jim said there were likely 50 within a radius of 5 miles. I was really not interested, nor were they! However, Leo Shafer and Watson Hesselgesser were more persistent but Watson had no means of transportation. Leo had horses from the
DeLashmutt ranch, but was under strict orders from J.V. not to take me out behind his frisky ones-- but Leo took me to "Literary" down at Nunda School some seven miles down the river. This school was heated by the usual pot-bellied stove and lighted by two kerosene lamps in brackets. The men all smoked so it was truly a smoked filled room. The programs were made up of studious debates: "The pen is mightier than the sword" and "Washington was a greater hero than Lincoln" One night we participated in a carivari. I think it must have been Minnie Burg. Boy! The boys shot off pistols or shotguns. I was annoyed or probably intimidated.

I was paid $40 a month for six months. we had a Christmas program of which I only remember that Lela Hartford (Reed) san "Star of the East" with myself at the orgon. My father rented a team at the Burwell Livery barn and came up for me.

My $40 warrant had to be signed by all three board members. Jim wrote out my warrant---always for "fourty" dollars. Mother may have been a grand teacher, but she she hadn't taught Jim to spell "fourty". Walter Hesselgesser was usually available with his signature, but Jim usually had to take me over to get Mr. Gilberts signature. They were just as carless with casual attendence.
Carl, Ona, Bessie and Owen came only occasionally and were very reluctant to open their mouths when they were there. In fact, it was a strange situation as none of talked much and I didn't feel acquainted with my pupils nor they with me.

Freda and Richard Reinert were twins and the oldest. Their mother had divided her name Fredericka to christen them. I think Rich only went part of the term; stocky and dominant but easily controlled. Freda later married Andy Snyder and then Dr. E.J. Smith. Her daughter, Virginia Snyder, married Paul Banks and their daughter represented Burwell and the valley as Countess of Ak-Sar-Ben.

We had no hot lunch, little interference from the outside world. I never investigated the lunch pails; that would be snooping. I heard one youngster tell another one time that they had lard in their sandwiches.

I paid Hartford $10 a month for board, room, laundry and sometimes transportation. Thus, one fourth of my income was for maintenance, just as the low income housing costs one fourth of one's income is subsidized government housing today. The Hartford's were delightful, congenial hosts. Jim's favorite expression was, "I'm just as happy as if I was right smart" and Mae called me a "sunny gun" when she was displeased with me. Her sisters and their families came often. Fern Livermore and Susan Morris. Also her parents, Robert and Jane Hesselgesser.

The Sabas and the Gilberts only came to school occasionally. Finally, on March 15, 1912 my term was over. We had missed some days because of blizzard conditions, but my beneficent school board granted me these because I had garnered wood in the fall. So, on March 15, Mae took me home in another impending snow storm where I learned that I was to teach in the Ida or Goodenow District in Valley County for the next three months. The Ida District is the farming community and was more affluent and had school nine months, but being very cautious, hired there teacher for only three months at a time. Being dissatisfied with the current teacher, they had dismissed her and wanted me to take the last term. Also, the Burwell system was offering me the fifth and sixth grades for next year-1912-1913, a grand job---60 pupils at $45 a month; so I proceeded to Ida for the spring term and boarded at Brechbill's in unusual splendor for they had a bathroom which was my first such experience.

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