Grist for the Mill

A Bimonthly Publication of the Freeport Area Historical Society April/May, 2004

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MEETINGS
The next meeting will be April 9, in the Community Room of Kings in Sarver, but we’ll start later than usual due to local church services on Maundy Thursday. We’ll begin about 8:00. Come after church and have dessert. The May meeting is a dinner meeting on Friday May 14 – see the flyer enclosed. Meetings in June through September will be held at the mill. See the next newsletter for dates and times.

OOPS!!
There were two goofs in the last newsletter. There was a misspelled word – did you catch it? And, we’re not talking Jacob Shoop’s Journal! Hey – stop harassing Rich Buday about it! He printed what he was given – it’s the editor’s fault. Also, one of the pictures was reversed – did you spot it? (We’ll let Rich take the “blame” for the picture mistake.) We don’t mind if you find mistakes; at least then we know you are reading Grist for the Mill!

LET THEM EAT CAKE
As mentioned, the May meeting is a dinner meeting. We need cakes to finish off the yummy meal. If you can contribute a cake, please let Don know .

MORE DATES TO REMEMBER
We are planning to have the Mill open to the public on the following Saturdays: May 22, June 26, July 24, August 28 and September 25 from 11 to 6.

To accomplish this we need to have some work days – please call Don to find out when he needs a work crew and to volunteer.

THE DIARY OF JACOB SHOOP
One of the columns that always garners a lot of interest in Grist is the column extracted from Jacob Shoop’s Weather Book of 1848-1870. Thanks to Rich Buday and Buday Printing, we’ll be printing some of these for sale. They will go for $25 and some may even be available at the May dinner meeting. This is a treasure that anyone who lives or lived in the area would want to add to his or her personal collection. The column “From Jacob Shoop’s Weather Book 1848-1870” as well as “Heirloom Recipes” will return in a future Grist.

GROCERY STORES GALORE
By Rod Chapman

The community of Freeport, situated along the Allegheny River and Buffalo Creek, was somewhat set apart from other towns up and down the Alle-Kiski Valley. When we look at the number of businesses that once graced our town, you can see that it was a self-contained community.

Last issue we looked at the churches once located here. Let’s look at the grocery stores. There were a bunch: Nuceras on Second St., Alice Kennedy on Second and Market, Trettle & Girardi on Market and Third, Seitz at Market and Fourth, A & P on Fifth, the American Store on Fifth, P. H. Butler on Fifth and High, Hesselgessers also on Fifth and High, The Service Grocery on High, and Sweeney’s Grocery also on High St. Frank Schrecengost, in the spot now home to Freeport Beverage, was a Gulf Station that also sold groceries. In a future issue we’ll list other stores, some of which overlapped in the services or product available.

Nuceras went out of the grocery business and opened a beer garden; the building was removed when the ramp into town from the “new” bridge over the river was constructed. Alice Kennedy’s store later became Scottie’s Market. Girardi was located where Brestenski Meat Market once was located. Seitz was in the corner of the apartment building on Fourth near the railroad, opposite the old Central Hotel.

The A & P was on Fifth St., next to J. H. Shoop; the building is now vacant. The American Store on Fifth was located about where the Linda Lucas Beauty Shop building now sits. P. H. Butler was on the corner of Fifth and High, the former location of Ben Way’s, later Freeport Hardware. Across Fifth was M. L. Hesselgesser, where Heaven Scent Flower Shop is in business. Lisa Marie’s School of Dance now occupies the Service Grocery. Sweeney’s business is now occupied by John’s Heating and Air Conditioning.

All of those stores were busy and the owners made a good living. Today we have one grocery – Freeport Foods – housed in the old Camerlo Deli store on Fifth.

EDUCATION IN DAYS GONE BY
Have you ever heard your parents, grandparents or great-great grandparents talk about having “only” an 8th grade education? Could you have passed the 8th grade test in 1895? This test was the final exam for 8th graders in Salina, Kansas, in 1895. It was taken from an original document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina.

Grammar – Time, one hour
1. Give 9 rules for the use of capital letters.
2. Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications.
3. Define verse, stanza and paragraph.
4. What are the principal parts of a verb? Give principal parts of “lie,” “play,” and “run.”
5. Define case; illustrate each case.
6. What is punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of punctuation.
7-10. Write a composition of 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.

Arithmetic - Time, 1.25 hours

1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of
arithmetic.
2. A wagon box is 2 ft. deep, 10 ft. long, 3 ft.
wide. How many bushels of wheat will it
hold?
3. If a load of wheat weighs 3942 lbs., what is it worth @ 50¢/bushel, deducting 1050
for tare?
4. District No. 33 has a valuation of $35,000.
What is the necessary levy to carry on a
school 7 months at $50/per month, and have
$104 for incidentals?
5. Find the cost of 6720 lbs. of coal @ $6/ton.
6. Find the interest on $512.60 for 8 mos. and
18 days @ 7%.
7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 in. wide, and 16 ft. long @ $20 per metre?
8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days
(no grace) at 10 percent.
9. What is the cost of a square farm @ $15/
acre, the distance of which is 640 rods?
10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note and
a Receipt.
Editor’s Note: Bonus points if you can define “tare” and “rod”. Did you notice No. 4 – School in session only seven months! More on this test will appear in a future Grist.

FIRST FREEPORT SCHOOL WAS PRIVATE ENTERPRISE
Another in a series of columns written by Vernon Ross and published in a local paper; this one was published in July, 1956.
The new elementary school building on High Street (now known as Freeport Kindergarten Center) is not the first school to be built on that street.
There were two schools in which the common branches were taught and an academy offering higher education, all within the block between Fourth and Fifth Sts. in the early days of the town.
The first of these was a day school in 1832-33 in which James Pneuman, reputedly a good mathematician, taught.
These pay schools were more or less liberally patronized until the adoption of the common or public school a few years later. They taught the common English branches, arithmetic, reading in the testament, spelling and writing.
The date of the first school in Freeport is unknown. It is believed to have been held in a log cabin on Water Street, now Riverside Drive. The teacher was P. R. Bohlen. The second teacher was a man named Lee who taught only one term.
About the same time a man named Wolford taught school in a dwelling house on Market St., above Fifth Street.
There is a story that earlier, about 1808, one of the first settlers, by the name of Weaver, became distressed because the children of the settlement were not receiving any education. He is said to have gathered the children outside his cabin on Water St. and taught them what he knew.
The second school house on High St. was a frame building built at the corner of Fourth St. about 1857. This was the first public school in the borough and the first teacher was Dr. Thomas Galbraith.
A visitor to the school soon after its opening relates a disciplinary problem present at the time. The school then had two departments and two teachers. The visitor’s description, in part, is as follows: “There was great confusion resulting from the pupils and two teachers reciting at the same time and from the immoderate loquacity and playfulness of the pupils.”
The visitor must have been a person of importance, perhaps an official school visitor of the county. He states in his description of the school: “After observing the pupils for awhile, I called together a few of the ringleaders in the mischief and loud talking. We made the agreement that if their teachers would give them and the other pupils a few minutes, between the opening of school and recess and closing of school in the afternoon for talking, they would agree to refrain from whispering and talking other times during school hours.”
The suggestion is said to have worked, although it is difficult to believe. The visitor relates in his notes that at a later visit the schoolroom was peaceful and quiet.
In a few years the pupils were transferred to a new brick building adjoining the town cemetery. The building and lot cost over $3,000. The description of this building, the original “Little Red Schoolhouse” in Freeport, says “It was intended for four departments (probably that number of rooms or classes), but was soon enlarged to eight departments.”
The schoolrooms were about 33 ½ ½1/2 ft. by 23 ½ ½1/2 ft. with 16 foot ceilings. They were well ventilated and furnished with patent cherry and pine furniture. The halls were 10 feet wide in the shape of a T, like a house.
Another seat of learning was also set up on High St. The Rev. Hugh Kirkland in 1836 opened an academy at High and Fourth Sts. The classes and the common and higher English branches were taught with Rev. Kirkland and Samuel Wallace as teachers.
The Rev. William Galbraith opened an academy in another section of town in 1843.

AND SPEAKING OF EDUCATION
Check out the program for Freeport High School, in 1910.
Commencement
Freeport High School
May 26, 1910

PROGRAM

FREEPORT JOURNAL
The following article, from the June 3 edition of the Freeport Journal, gives more details about the commencement exercises for the Class of 1910. Freeport Journal editions are available on microfilm at the Freeport Library. The staff there will assist you in doing research.

Commencement
Seitz’ Opera House was filled to overflowing last Thursday evening by the good people who had come to see the sweet girl and dear boy graduates make their bow, speak their little piece, get their sheepskin and make their commencement in the larger school of life. Everybody had their best bib and tucker, and a smile of happy expectancy wreathing their faces when the class appeared, four young ladies and three young men, making the perfect number seven. Rev. A. B. Elliott offered a prayer, and a number of choruses were given by the entire school, under the direction of the music teacher, Mrs. Rowe, Mrs. L. N. Berube, accompanist. These were very well rendered, and evidenced good work of both teacher and pupil. Miss Gladys Ross, who had taken second honor, spoke of the successes and failures of life, and treated the subject with the grave consideration it deserved. Robert O’Brien let his imagination play through the “universal Language” of birds, flowers, and all the voices of nature, while Misses Gladys Ross and Zella Hastie in a duet entered the “Garden of Rest”. George Murphy, the historian of the class, told in well-metered rhyme of the sunshine and shadow that had fallen athwart their path, and Robert O’Brien in a piano solo, brought the audience in touch with Beethoven’s Moonlight. Mrs. Ada Rowe brought a charming bouquet of “Roses After Rain,” and responding to an encore sang an Irish Lullaby that could not have been sweeter. Miss Catherine McQuade read the palms of her classmates and told of the events grave and gay that would happen in their lives, and the Glee Club waltzed along the banks of the “Beautiful Blue Danube” and “In May.” Miss Helen McCulloch had a wheel of fortune and was liberal in making appropriate presents to her fellow students, and was not forgotten by them in return. Miss Zella Hastie, the valedictorian, told of three great yellow perils and sounded a note of warning as well as farewell. J. J. Daniels on behalf of the school board presented the diplomas in a short address, and they were received on behalf of the class by George Murphy. The evening closed with the class song and congratulations to the Class by all their friends. They all acquitted themselves well in their individual parts, and the hearty applause given each number showed that the audience was pleased.