Ethel Wall about the time she started school at Spring Hill
In the 1890's, the Oklahoma territorial legislature began to set up a public school system in both the towns and rural areas. The schools in the rural areas were placed about every three miles, so the children wouldn't have to walk to far each day. The school at Spring Hill was first set up as a subscription school in 1890. Later that year, the Abbott family donated some land for a school building to be placed near their homestead. William Abbott and others in the community built the new school that was located on the northwest corner of the Abbott homestead, about three miles east of Lexington, Oklahoma. The school was divided into two rooms with a partition that could be removed for community events. The smaller room was used for grades 1st-4th and the larger room was for 5th-8th grades. A small hall had been built in the front of the building where the children could store their coats and lunches. The school also had a belfry.
Location of Spring Hill in Cleveland County
Spring Hill School 1907
Thompson Simmons, Inez. Spring Hill, a Place to Call Home.
Unfortunately, the Abbott Family did not stay long enough to obtain title on their homestead as per the "Homestead Act". It required a settler to live and improve the land for five years in order to earn the title. A Jeremiah Newville purchased the land from the Abbotts in 1893 for ten dollars an acre and they received a title to the land in 1900. On October 21, 1901 Jeremiah and his wife Frances deeded an acre of their land to school district #56. This site was be used for a school house or church purposes. The school in the picture above was destroyed by fire in July of 1915 under suspicious circumstances. Before the fire members in the community had been in a fight regarding the location of the school. Those east of the school had to walk further than others in the community, so it was decided after the fire to rebuild another school a half mile further east of the original location. The community worked hard to get a new school built before the next school session in the fall of 1915. The school continued in this location until it finally was closed down in 1961. The building is now used as a home.
New Spring Hill School
Not only did the building serve as a school, but was also an important part of the community. They held pie suppers, enjoyed singing conventions, Spelling B's, Christmas programs, hosted political debates, adult classes and various sports such as baseball and basketball.
According to records, Ethel Wall and her sister and brother started to school at Spring Hill in 1915. She must have only went to the old school for a few months before it burned down and then enjoyed the brand new building when it was finished in October of 1915. Ethel would have been 12 years old when she started school at Spring Hill. Her sister Blanche was 14 and her brother Lewis was just 10 years old. They were enrolled by their father Lewis Mack Wall in Feb of 1915.
Ethel continued her schooling at Spring Hill until 1919 along with her brother. Blanche seems to not have returned after 1915.
Here are the possible teachers that the children would have had at Spring Hill
1914-1915 Florence Turk and Dollie Rose Washburn
1915-1916 Johni Whitsett and Pearl Whitsett
1916-1917 Johni Whitsett and Ethelyne Marcum
1917-1918 Ruby Whitewell and Maggie Hooper
1918-1919 Maggie Hooper and Louis Latimer
Thompson Simmons, Inez. Spring Hill, a Place to Call Home
Memories
These memories of Spring Hill School are taken from the book, "Spring Hill, a Place to Call Home by Inez Thompson Simmons. The book can be found at the Norman Public Library. It gives a little insight to what life was like around the time Ethel Wall was going to school there.
"I started to school in 1912. My first grade teacher was Marion Prater. I remember going to school in the old school house. It was a two room school with a big hall in the front. One day there was a real bad storm. All the kids were still at school when the roof blew off the room where the hall was. It was quite a scary experience. When I was in the third grade one of the boys said something to the teacher. She got so upset that she gave every one of the kids a whipping. Some of the games we played were jump rope and crack-the-whip. Baseball was the big thing. The big boys had two or three ball fields on the school grounds. The girls played ball across the road, north of the school, on the Hooper place. A big event at Spring Hill was the Spelling matches. We studied all year fore this event. I remember how my mother would help me spell the words. One year I planned to enter and got sick the day of the contest. Everyone brought a sack lunch. Lots of times the girls would walk to the Newville pasture and sit on the edge of the canyon to eat lunch. Every year at the end of school we had a program and a big picnic. There was always lots of food and everybody came. Church was an important event. Singing was held every Sunday afternoon. During the summer, revival meetings were held under a brush arbor at Big Elm." Grace Newville Hunt Daughter of Jeremiah and Frances Newville.
"One of my most vivid memories of Spring Hill is of the day when a man in a wagon came tearing by the school at recess. He turned and headed toward Lexington. We later learned that he had killed someone not far from school. He had stolen the horse and wagon and was trying to escape. He was caught later. At recess the small children would play games like "Needles Eye" and "Marching Around the Levee". The older children would play "Blackman" and baseball. We would use a piece of board as a bat and the baseball was made of rags that had been tightly wound into a ball. When I first started to school the little girls made a playhouse in the ditch bank beside the road. We would dig shelves in the side of the ditch bank and have a grand time. We would always line up and march into school after recess. We stood beside our desks until told to be seated. There wasn't a well at school so the water was carried from the Hooper farm. Two children were sent with a bucket to carry water. I doubt if they ever got back with much water. They would go up and down the desk rows giving everyone a drink. Everyone drank out of the same dipper. Lunch consisted of two biscuits. One had bacon or sausage and the other with jelly or preserves. Once in a great while we might have an apple. Lunch was pretty meager. There was just enough to keep one from starving. One form of punishment was to stand in the corner at the front of the class. The length in the corner depended on the crime committed. I never received a spanking but remember that corner well. In order to transfer to high school in Lexington all the eighth graders were required to take County Examinations. I will be ninety-one in June and still remember two of the scores. One score was a 98% and the other a 60%. Even with the low score of 60%, I was the only one in my class to pass the exam. Miss Cora Hall was my first grade teacher and Miss Anna Jackson was my teacher in the eighth grade." Ruth Conley Christian as told by her daughter Clara Hughes 1989
"My school day memories of starting to school and eight years later finish the eight grade at the same country school are very special to me. The little white school house was Spring Hill, district #56 in Cleveland County, Oklahoma. My family lived a mile and a half from the school. Mrs. Sadie Daniels Smith lived close to my family therefore I was allowed to ride to school with Mrs. Sadie. What a heart ache it was to see when she got married. I often think of how fortunate I was to have so many good teachers like Miss Geneva Carpenter, Mrs. Cora Burkett, Mrs. Anne Ray, Mrs Winona Sherman and others. I recall a very frightening day when the old fashioned stove pipe fell across the room landing on several of our desks and black smoke filled the room quickly. We students filed out of the room quickly and not in the best order. In the winter, we had a nature made ice skating rink on the Newville's pond which was located across the fence from the school yard. All our recesses and noon hour were spent on the ice until the spring thaw came. Baseball and basketball were great favorite sports. One day one of the baseball batters threw his bat and I got the lick right on my head and out I went. When I cam around they were washing my face with cold water. Another outstanding event was the fall pie or box suppers. All the community gathered on a Friday or Saturday night and each women or girl brought a pie in a pretty box and an auctioneer would auction each one off to the highest bidder. Whow! What some boys had to pay for his sweethearts pie was quite high. The proceeds from this function were used to help defray the expense of the community Christmas program. The church which also held weekend services in the school building also helped with the Christmas program. We sang Christmas songs, readings were recited and plays were dramatized. A huge Christmas tree was set in one of the corners and decorated beautifully. Gifts were brought and placed under the tree and even Santa Claus came in to help give out the gifts. Each child got a sack of fruit, nuts, and candy." Dorothy Hollowell Waddle
Thompson Simmons, Inez. Spring Hill, a Place to Call Home
Another bit of information I found in the book, "Spring Hill, A Place to Call Home" was the lists of community members from 1910-1961. Lewis M. Wall, the father of Ethel Wall, was listed as a community member from 1915-1919. His father Lewis L Wall was also found on the community members list from 1910-1912. Lewis L Wall passed away in 1914 but his wife Samantha lived until 1935 and I am surprised she was listed more as a member of the community after his death. I see she was only listed in 1917. It is possible that she was living with one of your kids.
Thompson Simmons, Inez. Spring Hill, a Place to Call Home
Recently, the Cleveland County Historical Society has been placing markers were all the rural schools once stood. Here is the one I found for Spring Hill.
The school as it looks today!
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