From “The hitching post…” column in the Ottawa Herald, a series of articles about early Franklin County schools researched by Bruce Fleming and written by Herald Editor and Publisher Jim Hitch. 6 Feb.,1992.s
Valley View School, District 91, two miles north and two miles west of Princeton, was organized in 1880 and closed in 1957.
The last teacher was Louise Pohl and the last school board members were Harry Moody, Maxine Brown and Grant Carey.
Horses played a key role in the life of Valley View in early days. One teacher, Ruth Kreek, rode out from Ottawa in a buggy during World War I. Another, Mary Campbell, rode to school in a buggy in the early 1920s.
Lee Taylor, 834 Tremont, recalls that “My sister, Beverly (Taylor) Schmidt and I rode a Shetland pony to school. Everything was great on the way to school, but when we would start home, the pony would kick and buck if two of us tried to ride, so the only solution was for one of us to walk while the other rode.”
Dorothy (Ferguson) Harrison, 134 S. Oak, nearly always walked the 1 ½ miles to school, but was allowed to ride her pony if she was late or not feeling well.
“Then when I got to school, I would turn her around, facing home, and she would trot straight home to the barn door.”
Bonnie (Anderson) Gibbons, 205 Grant, said “Our favorite game, year-after-year, was anti-over, where we threw the ball over the coal house, which was just the right height.
“I also remember taking the old Victrola records and heating them on top of the big old stove so we could form them into fancy shapes and vases. Some of the parents objected to ruining the old records.”
Louis “Bud” Plaske, 2106 Iowa Terrace, recalls corporal punishment at Valley View. A boy went to the privy and, upon returning, yelled something into the fresh air duct that fed the
big stove. The teacher met him at the door with her paddle, but somehow fell down when she grabbed him.
“She didn’t even bother getting up, but paddled him right there while sitting on the floor. It was funny, but no one even cracked a smile.”
Harrison said “We all looked forward to and enjoyed the spelling, arithmetic and geography matches. My favorite was the geography matches, when we divided into two groups.
The teacher would write the first and last letter of places and students would rush to the blackboard to fill in the letters between. If no one knew them, then we would hunt till we found them on the map. It was a great way to learn names and locations of places. In arithmetic matches, one at a time from each side would go to the blackboard to work problems.”
Harrison recalled that one teacher, Mildred Taylor, who taught from 1918 to 1922, “would bring a big kettle and heat beans or soups on the big stove in the middle of the room. Sometimes on Fridays, she and the older girls would make chocolate pudding which the students all loved.
“During World War I Miss Taylor had us help by rolling bandages.”
Others who taught at Valley View were Irene Shomber, Mary Jane French, Mary Channon, Marjorie Meagher, Doris (Fitzgerald) Peterson, Mary Baker, Ruth (Tullos) Means, Eunice (Gillette) Hoover, Mildred Taylor, Mary (Campbell) Wismer, Gladys Price and Mona Kewish.
Students known still to be living in Franklin County, in addition to those mentioned earlier, are: Wilma (Carey) Atchison, Marjory (Carey) Reeves, Maxine (Finch) Moore, Eunice (Merris) Hoopes, Virginia (Carey) Lancaster, Velma (Carey) Louderback, Fred Kissinger, Richard Lantis, Helen (Perry) Linneman, Thelma (Burns) Hopkins, Helen (Moody) Macy, Marjorie Keene, Doris (Ramsey) Beal, Lee Taylor, Rex Weigand, Carolee (Ferguson) Goetz, Jim Baldwin, Anna Huff, Charlotte (Moody) Macy, Hazel (Perry) Domnanish, Dale Burns, Ray, Alton and Bob Carey, Darrel and Marrel Macy, Duane Anderson and Bill Finch.