COUNTY SCHOOL REUNION BRINGS FORMER STUDENTS TOGETHER - Union, Russett, Apple Farm And Fairview

(07/11/2005)

One of Calhoun's best-known "older-days" school
teachers Bernice Stump attended Saturday's reunion

Former students of a few of Calhoun's old schools congregated at Grantsville's senior center Saturday to recall life in those rural communities.

It was a reunion for Union, Russett, Apple Farm and Fairview schools, mostly one-room structures.

Randall Fowler (pictured right)attended the Russett two-room school for eight years, grades one through eight.

"My favorite recollection was playing softball, sometime with other schools," he said, often playing Grantsville and Brooksville. "There wasn't a whole lot of other excitement going on. "They'd load us on a pick-up truck to go to the away games," Fowler said.

He recalled teachers Mabel Parsons, Mary Chauncey, Roscoe Gainer, Troea Morrison and Henry Kight.

Sometime later the school burned to the ground.

Arletta Suttle Schoolcraft (pictured right) said she went to the Upper Rush Run one-room school all eight years, gradating in 1956. "Bernice Stump was the teacher all eight years," she said. "She was a good teacher. We all loved her."

The school was just above the former village of Apple Farm. Schoolcraft said she walked two miles to the school from over on the Bear Fork side of the mountain.

She and her brother were the janitors for the school, building the fire in the early morning and washing the blackboard. "We got paid a little bit for the job," she said.

Recess was filled with playing tag, marbles and ball.

Calhoun had 104 mostly one-room schools during the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Photos of many of the old schools can be found in the archives of the Hur Herald.