Walnut Crove Elementary Schoolby

Lesta Wanless Jackson and Ceorgenne Jones

Walq.ut G.rove School District No- 81 was established in07 and reported a student enrollment of 27 pupils in itsit year of operation. Lesta Wanless Jackson recalls earlyTditions in the Walnut Grove area as follows:

"My fathe.r, mother, two brothers and, one sister canne to uthatnw calLed Walnut Groae in the sping of 1905. Da.d had pur-wed 60 acres ltnown as 'Jaggy Land.' This land was coaered,:h Louely woods, so my father built a saumill. The trees werenun'Lerous he had to ch,op some d,own to make a place to set up' tent. Seaenty-Second Aoenue u)as called Jaggy Road, after a'. Jog1y who ou,ned land here and a store in Vancouuer."0ur star mail route was the longest'star' route in the county.'. Alexander, our mail carier, droue two beautiful black,ses. The seraice was really good. Iaggy Road was aery, Dery,dd,y with deep chu.rkholes. In the southem part, rlear Fourth

Plain, the road was coaered with'corduroy' planks. Bumpingoaer these gaae us a rough ride. Our first water supply was abricked-up well equipped, with a'pulley lift.'

"The Aduentists held religious seruices and, proaided, schaol-ing {or about ll pupils in a small building on what is nou 63rd.Street, but was then Stewart Road. When m,ore children beganattending, they transfeied. them to McCany School near thepresent site of the Andresen Animal Ainic (6915 E. FounhPlain BouLeaard).

"The popul,ation kept growing, and about!2Q7 _Charlcs Jack-son contracted to build a one-rootn school for the Walnut GroueSch,ool District. Some of the early farnilies with children enrolledwere the Peddits, Wanless, Boardmans, Izers, Knffins and,Nobles. Among the first grad;uates were Frank and Hugh lzerand Albert Nanney. Albert is now an attom,ey in Vancouoer.There uere 15 boys and, 12 girls enrolled,, Thc directors were F.

171

:lII

a

=

{

rl

,scHOOL/wEr"tIUT

Walnut Croae School, as it appeared in 1958.

Noble, W. Izer and a Mr. Knffin. One of the aery first teachers'u)as a u)onlo,n who liued in town and d,roae a horse and' buggy. Ibelieae her name was Mrs. L. Miller. Other teachers uere LouiseSaunders and a Miss Elaine Broutn."

Georgenne (Jackson) Jones recalls her school experiencesin the years 1934-1941:

"When I entered Walnut Grooe School in 1934, it was a hro-room, schoolhouse. Miss Jessie Rogers (she utas married la,ter to aMr. 0ren Shores) taught grades 1-4, and Mr* Etful HayslipButler taught gradns 5-8. Miss Rogers' roottl, was refeted to asthe'little room' and, Mrs. Butler's the'big roorn.' There uerehuge sliding d,oors between the tuo rooms. There u)ere separateclaakrooms for boys and, girls. The first graders sat at tables,each pupil haaing his own drawer for his mateials.

"I really d,on't remember much about those early school years.Life seemcd to begin when you hit the 'big room' and were nolonger considered a'littl.e kid.'

"Becantse of four grad,es being in one room, one class was usu-ally reciting. In many ways this was good,. Pupils learned nconcenlrate on their oun studies, no fil,atter what comm,otion, wasgoing on in the room. Al,so, they would, unronsciously piclt upinformation from upperclass recitations.

"Becan"r,se teach.ers were too busy to be intemtpted by etterychild that wanted something, they h,a"d, worked out sigw,ls. One

finger raised indicated that you were asldng permission to go tothe bath,room or to get a dink of water. Two fingers meant thatyou wanted to go to the library which consisted of ruto large bookcases. Three fingers signakd that yoa wanted to speak to sonxe-

one. If the teacher nodd.ed her head. yes, you got ap; if no, yousat and asked again later.

"GLue and ink were fumish,ed by the school. Studcnts brought

11,;d,a wild assottnxent of cold, cream, jars for paste. Each desk hcl.d anink well that was filled,weekly.

"Each day something d,ifferen was on the schedalc. On Mon-d,ays, both rooms would. meet for a half hour of singing. OnTuesd.ays, Mrs. Butlcr would bing her radio and, we uouH Lis-ten to the 'Ameican School of th,e Air.' On Wednesdny, wewould, practice penmanship - thc Palmer or Rice system, Id,on't remember which onc. On Thursdays we had 'clr,tenteaenJs.' Child,ren brought in any weird. news they could find. Fi-day aftentoots u)ere deaoted to art wark until the coming ofspring, when, this time was reseraed for ballgames.

"Garnes were played, throughout the schaol term. A l,orgeencl,osed playshed was used in the uinter, rnostly for dndgebatl.In, the early fall, big and little child.ren, were out en masse fornarute-ante-oaer.' We had a tennis ball we threut ooer th,e sch,ool-house. I dnn't rentem,ber choosing up sidcs, but thc sides alwayssbemcd eaen and we would continue thc game at recesses andnoon.

t'Each spring, the bqrs.prep,red, for a marbl'e tournaftLentwhile girls jumped rope and pl.ayed hop-scorch. ThE m,ajoity ofthc 'big room' kids loaed'crack-the-whip.'

"Wen softball stanted,, u)e u)ere all delighrad,. For pan of us,it meant school was dismissed at 1:30. We pl,ayed, SalrnonCreek, Felida, Barberton, Sarah, Orchards and Minnehaha. In1941, we played Orchard.s and, Minnehaha for the champion-ship and won. Our sch.ool was so much smaller than thcse thatwe u)ere reaLly proud,.

"Mrs. Butler and Miss Rogers each had a 1935 Ford coupewith a huge trunk. Thcy would prop these open, and. if you werepicked to ide to the games in the trunk you felt really honored,.

They would let fiae kid"s ndn in the trunlc and two in the front.We had no schaol bus n ridn in then. We would, id,e our bicycLesto ganxes in Barberton and Minnehaha.

"We had a rnusic teacher, a Mr. Moran, who camc oaer oncea weela for band hssons. We pl,o,ced first in the music meet in1941. We pl,ayed against the same schook we played basebalL

uith."Chores were assigned to chil.d,ren each Monday moming.

These consisted of blackboard cleaning, ingtng th.e bell, pickingup litter, and, so forth. The two most popular jobs were cleaningthe schoolyard,, wh,ich was done d,uing school hours, and ing'ing the betl. This bell now hangs in thn Walnut Groae Church.You were in eueryonn's good graces if you could manage to ingthe beLl early for recess and lunch, and late to signal return to

cLasses."Hot lunchcs were begun at the school about 1939 or 194O' A

kitchen was buih in the plnyshed' and, a Mr* Seagarn was the

coolt."The playshed had a large stage, and programs were giuen

there, especially at Ch,isnnas. Around, 194A, we put on an oper'

etta,'Tom Sawyer.' It required considnrabln work, but eaeryorle

had fu;n dnins it. We madc quite a bit of rnoruey. Most of it went

for dishes, I belieae. The mothers' club sold aduertising space 0n

the stage curtain to the merchants in Vancouuer."At this time Ygfut Qtgue was an in4cpe\,4fryt EWU\

tict. The srhool d.ireciiiie G"ors;ffJm;;Torold Bee

ffi,nd, John Lusby.

"Eighth grade graduation was a big eaent. We went to Shum'uay JLrnior High to uisit one day, to get acquainted with a citysclrcoL. We came back sure that ue would neuer find our wayaround and tlrut, ue would be miserable.

"We rode a funny LittLe school bus, driuen by a Mr. Anderson,wlren we began attending Shumway. It had four Long seats, andwhen we entered the city school the kids in town would sa'y," Here comes the cracker box from Pea,nut Groae.'

"When we graduated in 1941, there were 13 in. our cLass' Ituas the Largest cLass up to that time. Ruth Bold, Peggy Conway,Lorraine Joh.nson, Jack Smith, Gene Lusby, DaLe Osborn and Ihad started tlrc first grad.e together, but before the end of oureight years we Laere joined by Betty Kelly, Pat SeLlman, Edithand Roy SomdaLen, Richard Browning and George Morison.Tltis uas the year, I belier:e, that u,:e had approximately BS stLr'-

dents. We tltought ue had a reaLll- big school."

On Nlarch 1 \.e

c o nstru c t a new atldiiir-,it nace:sta1.tothe B0 students enrolled in grades 1-6. I n slru,t-

tion *as for three cll.sroonl,.. a iLii-na,,: r(1.-,tii trl]rl I miiitiprlir-

':

pose room. Cost of this addition was $54,734. In 1955, addi-tional <:lassrooms were added at a cost of $81,678.

In March at 1962 after 55 years ofalnut was the

ancouver ool District.-undei tlre management oI the Walnut Grove school board untilthe end of that school year. Walnut Crove graduates hadalways attended Vancouver High School.

In 1954, more classrooms and space for a iibrary wereadded to the north wing of the building at a cost of $101,589.Final modification of the present building was cornpleted in1968 in the form of a l0-classroom wing on the east of theexisting building and a structure to the south of the buildinghousing a multipurpose room, kitchen, teachers' dining room,locker roorns. health facilities and administrative offices. Thislast addition to Walnut Grove, constructed at a cost of$438,604, doubled the overall size of the school.

Principels rt ho har e serr.ed at Vralnut Grove since itt,ecar-.. p:.rl oI th,': \-ancouver School District are Harold (HaI)Henr'. 1962-63: Geral,l D. \loffatt. 1963-70; and Willis Blair,l gtr_r t5.

&r^t '1Ka p',*a"n o rrc l'1

toto

rt.*"W

"4,dG