Click Here to Return To Milestones
As I look back upon growing up in North Sewickley Township in the early part of the century, it allows me to focus on the outstanding influences on my life. They are as follows: my family, my church, my school and the grange.
As the grand-daughter and great grand-daughter of Civil War veterans, I learned at my grandmother's knee, a sense of patriotism and love of country as she knitted socks in 1918 for the soldiers of World War 1. Her son was serving as a physician in France. Another heritage from that family was a love of learning. One grandfather, one aunt and three uncles were school teachers. At the age of four I began my formal education at Harpers Ferry's one room school taught by my cousin. My father had received his complete formal education at this same school. The school itself had changed very little during that period. It consisted of one large room with a raised platform at the front and was heated by a pot-bellied stove in the center. The furniture consisted of a teacher's desk (just a table at first) and an arm chair. About thirty pupil's seats and desks of varying sizes filled the room. There were also two long recitation benches, a wall clock, a flag, and an enclosed book cupboard. A blackboard was fitted across the wall in the front. At the back, mere hooks served for wraps and a shelve held lunch pails; many of which were Karo buckets. The lavatory facilities were non-existent. The toilets were merely two holes located on either side of the play area. The coal and wood for heating were protected from the elements by a doorless shed halfway between the school house and the toilet. The water for drinking was carried in every day by two students from a spring in a nearby pasture.
There were no subjects such as public speaking or drama. Yet, it was there that I gained experience in reading and memorizing poetry for delivery; directing and acting in plays (dialogues as we called them): planning box socials; and patriotic programs. The one room school was a social institution as well as an educational one. There, I learned respect for authority in heirachy. How awed we were when Professor Locke, our county superintendent, would visit our school! Our aesthetic elements were developed in many respects, as we gathered autumn leaves, evergreens, and spring blossoms or cut crepe paper for streamers to decorate the building for various celebrations. The sense of originality and creativity were given full sway as we presented our ideas and demonstrated them. What a well-rounded and complete training was presented by those ladies in that little one-roomed school house!
My first recollections of Concord Church are not so definite because I had always attended it. The church had been founded by my great grandfather and his brother when they imigrated from England. The church building, then situated below the cemetery close to the dirt road. consisted of one room with two front doors. It was heated by two pot-bellied stoves; one on either side of the room. Lighting came from six long narrow windows with three on each side.
I remember driving through the mud in a buggy with my parents or in winter, gliding through the snow using a sleigh. But, the most memorable was joining my uncle (Marie Wise's father) and his family on their two horse bob-sled. Papa and I often walked across the fields when he felt that the roads were too muddy for a horse. There I encountered my first and only stile. It was over the fence between the Householder property and the cemetery. After 1913, we drove a Maxwell to church but always on a dirt road.
I am amazed as I look back at the training and guidance we received at Concord Church. It was not only religious training but training for life. This guidance came not only from our minister, but from our members as well. I remember the hours those ladies spent with us practicing for Children's Day and Christmas programs. They gave us experience in choral reading, dramatic reading, marching to music, and singing. The big event of the year was Children's Day which came in June and we could walk to practice. There were no conflicts for practicing time as school in the township closed in late April or early May. Also, high school graduations or college commencements were almost non-existent.
For many years we shared a minister with another congregation so we had our services at various hours. I can recall a 2:30 p.m. service and also a bi-weekly one. When there was no preaching service, we would have Class Meetings led by various men of the congregation - notice that word, men. This was not true of the young people. The Epworth' League gave my age group both male and female, the opportunity to speak publicly. It afforded us the experience of public prayer, parliamentary procedure, and simply putting our feelings and ideas into words. The Church itself sponsored no' social functions in this era, but the various -Sunday School Classes and the Epworth League provided sufficiently. One of my prized possessions is a Bible, autographed by the members and presented to me by the Epworth League when I left for Allegheny College in 1928. With these poignant memories, is it any wonder that I have never changed my church membership? I am still a member of Concord United Methodist Church.
The institution that broadened my horizons and gave me a feel into the outside world was North Sewickley Grange # 1566. How many times I have seen that printed and written on envelopes, mailings, etc. around my home! My father and mother were charter members; in fact, my mother was the last surviving member. My father served as the first secretary and throughout the years, he filled all of the important offices not only in our local grange but in the Beaver County Pamona' as well. The Grange first met in the Laurel Point school house. After the road was hard surfaced and the grange building erected, the grange became the social focus for the entire community. Mercer Road and Bennetts Run were the only hard surfaced roads in the township.
It was at the grange that I met people who attended churches in both Beaver Falls and Ellwood City. It was at the grange that I was first introduced to the rituals and the beautiful formal language of its ceremonies: the pageantry and symbolism of its tableaux and the extra-ordinary range of talent and musical ability possessed by that group of farm people. Please remember that at the time all granges were farmers.
It was there that I saw my first 3 act play performed by our members, those from other granges, and some by traveling Chautauqua players. I saw my first basketball game at the grange hall. They also had roller skating and in the summer, strawberry and raspberry festivals. What broadening experiences, the Patrons of Husbandry afforded me.
These reminiscences of my childhood make me prouder than ever that I have grown up in North Sewickley Township. These recollections make me appreciate the kind of people I grew up among and the lasting effect that their lives had upon mine.
Thank you friends and neighbors for what you have taught me.