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Number 10 (Moore) School

Number 10 was located about one-half mile east of the intersection of Highway 65 and County Road 400 N. It was sometimes referred to as Moore School, possibly for Joseph Moore, a county commissioner, or for a Moore family who lived near the first school building. The first Number 10 School was located near the first Moore's Bridge on land that was often plagued by inaccessibility when high waters flooded the lowlands. After that building was abandoned in 1912, it was used as a residence for various families for several years. The newer Number 10 was built on the west side of the bridge on higher ground. Neither building is now standing.

In the school year of 1877-1878 when the new school district of Number 10 was formed, Angelo Hillman taught there. His pupils were Sarah, Sammy and Maggie Burns; John, James, Alexander, Maggie, William and Hughy Hyslop; Sherman, Ella, Eliza, Ollie and Clarence Moore; William, Mary, Thomas, Sammy and Lewis Stuart; Mary, Nancy and Sarah Thorne; Mary, Sallie and Julia Van Campen and Lizzie West.

Other teachers at old Number 10 were Rhode Fithian, Ruth Hyneman, Henry Fisher (1903-1904), Charles Larcey (1906-1907), Fern Binkley (1908-1909), Carl Elliott (1910-1911), Alonzo Morrison and Ruth Moore.

Teachers of the new Number 10 School were Alonzo Morrison, Marie Hyneman, Essie Rumble, Mary Wolfe (1923-1924), Emily Bury, Marie Kolb, Audrey Hyslop, Frank Heidinger, Ruth Eads, Homer Morrison, Everett Fisher, Woodrow Smith, Lou Ella Withers, Homer Robb, Verna Jones, Olive Smith and Don Thompson.

Excerpts from a letter written by Marie Hyneman McCord to Irma Lindy concerning this school read: I taught one year 1917-1918 in a one room school, Number 10, which was two or two and a half miles from home. The student body was not large, but all grades were represented except the third and seventh. The parents of these children were farmers who had taught their children to obey. I had no serious problems with discipline. I could devote no more than 15 to 20 minutes to a class and meet all the classes each day.

After I worked with my beginners, I often put on the chalkboard a lesson copy for each one. The lower grades studied reading, arithmetic, spelling and writing. Beginning with the fifth grade more subjects were added-geography, history and physiology. Sometimes I gave the whole school a few minutes time for singing, also drawing. School usually began at 8:45 a.m. We had fifteen minutes of opening exercises. I usually read a few verses or story from the Bible and then a prayed a short prayer. School days ended at four o'clock. We had a fifteen minute recess in the middle of the morning and another in the middle of the afternoon. I believe we had an hour break at noon. The children played outdoors and often I played with them.

John Arthur Huey attended Number 10 in the middle 1930's. He wrote: the building itself was the typical while weatherboard structure with a coatroom, belfry and bell. A flagpole stood in front of the building. Water was obtained in the usual way from a well outside, with the water bucket and dipper located in the coatroom. The students brought their cups. The restrooms were outside. There were coded hand signals to designate request; a raised hand with one finger for sharpening a pencil; two, for going to the restroom.

Everyone walked to and from school, usually in groups. It was only a half-mile from our home. On a rainy day the ditches along the roadside were filled with water, and the great sport was seeing who could jump the ditch. Needless to say, there were times when some children arrived at their destinations a bit wet! Before starting to school in the fall of 1933, I had previously been a visitor as often as allowed. Others who started to school that year were Mary Whitehouse, Ruth Pauley, Maggie Mae Rainey, Joe Stanley Thompson and Johnny Clayton Phillips. The teacher that year and the next was Don Thompson. The next year Audrey Hyslop was my teacher, then a Mr. Smith and I believe that my last teacher was Frieda Kolb (1938-1939). Then the school was discontinued and the students were bused to Mt. Olympus.

Lunches were carried in a pail and I having a voracious appetite, would many times have my lunch eaten by the end of the first recess. My favorite dish in the lunch pail was blackberries and cream. In winter, after the lunches had sat in the unheated cloakroom all morning, it was more like eating blackberries and ice cream. Although there was a wide range of ages at the school, most games included everyone. One game often played was very rough--Black Man. Often I would come home with disheveled clothes and hayseed in my hair. When the weather permitted, wrestling was popular, too. Recreational equipment included swings and teeter-totters. The object in teeter-tottering was to unseat the guy on the other end.