Historian's Corner



Charlene Cole
Sandy Creek/Lacona Historian
Historian's Corner
July 20, 2016

Photo: White School Vegetable Garden Sandy Creek News - February 1914

Miss Laura Smith of District No. 13, Sandy Creek, is this week attending some of the sessions held in connection with Farmers’ Week at Cornell. By special request of Miss Mc Closkey she has on display there an exhibit of work done in District 13 by herself and her pupils, along the lines of nature study and agriculture.  

Sandy Creek News - February 1914 - The White School House, District No. 13 was formed in 1828 and was known for many years as the Clark District, taking the name of a family that lived on the hill to the north.

The 1914-1915 evaluation was $32,160 for the nineteen farms wholly or partly located within its mile-square boundaries. The teacher’s salary was $3.00 a week. Fuel was about $4.00 a cord. Pupils’ books, lunches and transportation were furnished by their families. The lists of trustees were pioneer settlers from the area: Ezra Corse, Sidney Baldwin, Levi Woodard, Joel Morey, George Buell, Orlando Kent, Stephen Lindsey and Harrison Peck. That they and later trustees and teachers were keenly interested in the best education for all of their children made their little rural school one of the best in Oswego County’s First School District, as surveyed by District Superintendent, Mrs. Mildred G. Pratt in 1915-1916.  

Sandy Creek News - June 1915 - Demonstration evening in District 13, Sandy Creek, May 28 was well attended. The reading work demonstrated was excellent; the history review was interesting as was the drill on Bible characters; the large number of quotations given so readily and with so much understanding proved that morning exercises on Mondays had been held with a purpose; a novel feature was the demonstration in social forms and showed those boys and girls able to conform more easily and naturally to customary rules of good usage than many people of mature years; the rapidity and accuracy of the mental work in percentage by the sixth grade boys was quite remarkable; excellent work in dramatization and other entertaining features supplemented the work already mentioned. A report of receipts and expenditures of funds earned by the school was interesting. They have purchased a three panel glass front book case, a teacher’s desk, two large chairs, a clock, a magazine rack, drinking fountain, three bracket lamps and a few other things besides having a sum of money on hand. This was surely an entertainment with a purpose and the parents and others present greatly enjoyed it. For a short time after centralization it was the home of the White School Home Bureau.  Did you or a family member go to any of our one room schools? I am looking for memories of your school years to add to the Town of Sandy Creek One Room Schools local history book.

Charlene Cole
Sandy Creek/Lacona Historian
1992 Harwood Drive
Sandy Creek, NY 13145
315-387-5456 x7
office hours: Friday 9am to 2pm
www.sandycreeknyhistory.com