No. 147, December 2010
Journal
Memories of Shady Grove
Grade School
By Russell Miller
as told to his wife, Delores
In 1938 I was six years old and ready to start school. What a thrill that was! I was to follow in the footsteps of six brothers and sisters who had gone to Shady Grove School before me. Carl, Dorothy and Gladys had finished school, and had gone on to other occupations. But trotting with me and holding my hand were brothers Marlyn, LeRoy and sister Joyce. Sister JoAnn came along much later, also attending Shady Grove.
The years I spent in Shady Grove
Were special years for me
Of mental growth and social skill
And splendid harmony.
The spelling bees and penmanship
The recitation bench,
The plays to act and games to share
When we would break for lunch
And oh, the fun of walking home
Through fields of grain and corn
Collecting rocks to throw
In Earl Christenson's mud puddles.
The years in country school were filled
With knowledge and good will
They've been a strength down the years;
They linger with me still.
In a 1990 interview with Earl Christenson he stated that Henry Much donated a half acre of land for a school in 1900. Hank was the son of Friedrich Much (1834-1923) who had three wives (not all at the same time) and fifteen children. The children were: Johanna Tellock,1859-1941, Otto I, 1862-1888, Ferdinand, 1866-1867, Friedrich I, 1866-1948, Frank, 1871-?, Matilda Spoo, 1869-1953, Herman, 1880-1980, William, 1881-1963, Theodore, 1883-1913, Henry, 1885-1964, Louis, 1887-1958, Paul, 1891-1961, Selma Christenson Soik, 1893-1978, George, 1894-1937, Robert, 1899-1985. In 2010 there are over 600 descendants of Friedrich Much. Are you one of them?
Prior to that time students of this area attended State Road or Paulson Schools. Growing population forced construction of a wood school in 1901 which served hundreds of students for the next 65 years. A building still standing, 109 years later, tradition and memories holding it vertical. No basement, just a stone wall. Wood heater in the back of the schoolroom, which failed to heat the building. As long as I attended this school, it had electricity, not the kerosene lanterns some schools had. In 1917 the Education Department of the State of Wisconsin mandated brick schools be built to replace the fire trap wooden edifices. For some reason the voters of Shady Grove chose not to do that ever.
This was a 'joint' district, located on a corner of four townships, Dupont, Helvetia, Wyoming and Union at the intersection of Swamp Road and 'OO'. In it's hey day, Waupaca County had over one hundred one-roomed schools, led by Helma (Paulson) Amundson (1888-1973) and Lewis Drobnick Supervisors of the Waupaca County Superintendents of all the teachers. Mrs Oscar Amundson made unannounced monthly visits to our school, we pupils were scared and on our best behavior. She also happened to be in attandance when the yearly school pictures were taken. Helma was a stern silver-haired stiffly corseted dignified lady with a fur collored coat and felt hat..
Families came and went, especially during the depression years of the 1930s. Jobs were few and far between, empty houses did not remain vacant for long, families would move in and out whenever circumstances improved. All sent their children to Shady Grove for some education. Years there were as many as 40 scholars (many with the last name of Much) in this small wood building. Students in the outlying parts of the district had to walk three miles to school, including me, uphill both ways. Snow and blizzards nine months of the year.
A well was drilled finally, after years of toting water from the Lombard farm across the road. One activity, pupils would entertain themselves in a grisly sport of pouring pails of water down gopher holes. When the little rodent would pop out of the tunnel, it was promptly clobbered and dispatched with a baseball bat. The poor helpless water-drenched gopher emerged finally from it's watery home to meet death face to face. The town board paid a nickel bounty. It seemed like fun then, but now seems cruelty to animals.
Another activity was playing ball, on the east sloping side of the school. Some years with few students, it was hard to organize a game. Harry Much was one of the best ball players from Shady Grove. We played the neighboring State Road School, who had bigger and better ball players than us from Shady Grove and they beat us badly. Winter time meant snow, and we enjoyed making snowballs and having a fight. Glenn Schmidt could make the best hard snowballs, all without the aid of mittens or gloves. Shady Grove had plenty of pretty girls, too numerous to mention. Both Carl Muchs were the most intelligent to graduate from Shady Grove.
An end of the school year event was the picnic when all were invited and a pot luck meal was served and all played baseball. Ice cold lemonade in a milk can.
My teachers were Alvin Ferg, Ethelyn Smerling, Marie Rohan, Carole Mae Winter, Violet Anderson, and Thelma Knutson. Miss Winter had just graduated from teacher's college, and this was her first assignment. Each January 12 she invited all the students to her home for her birthday party. What a wonderful supper her parents Nettie and Charlie served us, Barbecue buns and birthday cake and other treats.
Report cards were sent out every six weeks, in classes like Arithmetic, Citizenship, Civics, Drawing, English, Geography, History, Music, Physical Education, Reading, Spelling and Writing. Absent and tardy days were also recorded. I was absent many days due to the demands of farm work. In the report book, all guests were invited to sign their names, including during World War II, Edwin Winter autographed the book.
An anticipated end of year event was Christmas and all it entailed. Teachers planned the program, which depended on her contract for the next year. Plays, skits, songs and the final appearance of Santa Claus himself. I was probably the best actor Shady Grover ever had. Usually Earl Christenson played old St. Nick. Someone donated a tree, we decorated it with real lights, paper chains we glued with flour paste that soured in a few days. We hauled the portable stage in from under the crawl space, set it up, strung the curtain. We sang all the old familiar songs, from 'The Golden Book of Favorite Songs'. Remember that? The big night when all the parents and neighbors crowded into this small school, finale and the brown bag containing nuts in the shells, walnuts, pecans, filberts, almonds, Brazil nuts which we called ni--er toes. Salted peanuts, and we sucked the shells for the salt. Apple, orange, candies, angel food candy, the hard sweet meringue with bitter chocolate, stars. I wish now in 2010 Santa would bring me a brown paper bag of candy for Christmas.
Some of the families who were in the Shady Grove District were: Winter, Beyersdorf, Quick, Trice, Britzke, Cordy, Miller, McKay, Jannusch, Krause, Behnke, Wagner, Trice, Krueger, Draheim, Peterson, Hauser, Zemple, Schmidt, Kelner, Anderson, Schmidt, Clapps, Miller, Georgeson, Christenson, Thompson, Passehl, Postel, Flater, Hungerford, Baldwin, Bessette, Carlson, Grall, Esler, Huebner, and many many Muchs. Some years it was 75% Muchs on the school roster.
Two outhouses to the south of the school, boys and girls. In between was a woodshed, where we piled wood in the fall, and carried in each day. Bubblers furnished drinking water. Gathered milk weed pods during World War Two. Picked into gunny sacks, got paid 20 cents, and made into parachutes. Miss Winter organized tree planting in honor of Shady Grove former students who were serving in the War. An honor to ring the bell for the beginning of school and to announce recess was over. No such thing as missing a day of school, there were no 'snow' days, because few people had telephones in those early years and the teacher was expected to show up. Goiter Pills, those chocolate flavored tablets used once a week to prevent an enlargement of the thyroid gland in the neck due to the lack of iodine.
School board members through the years were Earl Christenson, Paul Much, J. C. Zwicky, Neta Winter, Merton Lombard, Carl Much, Andrew Anderson, Allen Behnke and others. Mark Twain said in 1897:
In the first place God made idiots,
This was for practice
Then He made school boards.
And then suddenly it was time for eighth grade graduation in the spring of 1946. Shady Grove students had the choice of three high schools, Iola, Marion and Manawa. I chose Manawa, 16 miles away. And I went out in the world to seek my fame and fortune, all with the knowledge I learned at Shady Grove School.
Information furnished by Earl Christenson, Craig Sathoff, Carl Much, 'Rural Schools of Waupaca County', the Shady Grove Archives and personal recollections.
Copyright 2010, Russell and Delores Miller