We played games every day, like ‘stone teacher.’ Everybody sat on the steps next to each other. You hid a stone in your hand, and the kids had to guess which hand it was in. If you were right, you moved up one step.
Like a youngster uncertain of its own identity, Jacksonville endured a succession of political name changes in its early years. Originally founded in 1793 as “Palmertown” by Jonathan Palmer, it was renamed “Jacksonville” when Andrew Jackson was elected president in 1828. The presidential election of James Polk in 1844 brought a post office to the hamlet and with it yet another name change to “Polkville.” When Abraham Lincoln was reelected president in 1864, the people of Polkville lost their post office to nearby Little Utica. In protest, they renamed the place “Jacksonville” and it stuck. By 1878, according to Professor W. W. Clayton’s “History of Onondaga County,” Jacksonville was “a small hamlet at the cross-roads west of Little Utica, containing a carriage, joiner and undertaker’s establishment, country store, cider mill, boot and shoe shop, and tannery.”
But, some 50 years later, inertia had set in. This once-bustling little hamlet made the short list of Onondaga County’s “forgotten villages” in a series of stories written in 1933 by Elmer Bogardus and Elizabeth Pike for the Syracuse Post-Standard. One year later, the Agricultural Experiment Station at Cornell University issued an educational bulletin about the rural areas and small towns of Onondaga County. It listed Lamson and Little Utica as two of 10 hamlets with populations of fewer than 50 people, and Lysander and Plainville as two of 25 small villages with populations of between 50 and 249 people. Jacksonville failed to merit any mention, even as a hamlet. Jacksonville may have been hidden in plain sight, but contemporary sources in the 1930s complimented the place for its scenic beauty and sense of tranquility.
Back then, Lamson Road eastbound curved northward toward Jacksonville, and then turned sharply eastward at the little hamlet. As a result, folks traveling east and west between Lysander and Phoenix missed the Grange Hall and the Jacksonville School, because both buildings were located just south of the four corners. But, in 1963 the town of Lysander straightened Lamson Road, putting Grange No. 588 squarely in its path. So, it had to be moved, and the little schoolhouse lost its larger neighbor. The big grange building can still be found one-half mile further south on Fenner Road, where the Lamson Grange will celebrate its 120th anniversary this year. Like our rural school districts, our granges are also disappearing. Fifty years ago, Grange No. 588 had more than 100 members with names like Brown, Chase, Church, Dickinson, Horner, Hubbard, Kozma, Reeves and White. Today, the Lamson Grange still survives, but with far fewer members. So, what ever became of its former neighbor, the Jacksonville School?
Recently, I spoke with Jeanette Brown Horner by phone. She attended the Jacksonville School in grades one through six, from the fall of 1945 through the spring of 1951. Later, I enjoyed coffee with her brother, Ron Brown, at Vicky’s in the Fireside Inn, where “Browney” is a regular. He went to the Jacksonville School from first through fourth grades. Then, Baldwinsville centralized when he entered fifth grade.
“So, I went to school in the Odd Fellows Hall on the second floor upstairs over what is now the Mohegan Manor, because there weren’t enough rooms in the Elizabeth Street School,” he said.
Ron and Jeanette lived in the second house south of the Jacksonville cemetery, the former Whitbeck home. Ron remembers that “there was a trout stream that ran under the road right there, and a blacksmith shop. That’s gone now, but the barn is still there.”
Jeanette said that she had only two teachers over the entire six years, including Betty Wolford Bassett in her third year and Bernice Reeves Foster all other years. Bernice, my grandmother, was also Ron’s teacher all four years. Ron and Jeanette remember the daily routine quite well. Jeanette said “We usually said the pledge of allegiance in the morning. I remember each class going up front each day, and helping the others to learn. We did have a piano, and we would learn music. We would sing songs of the day, like Stephen Foster songs.”
Ron said, without hesitation, his “favorite part of the day was recess. We played games every day, like ‘stone teacher.’ Everybody sat on the steps next to each other. You hid a stone in your hand, and the kids had to guess which hand it was in. If you were right, you moved up one step.”
There were special times throughout the year, too. Jeanette remembered the annual Christmas pageants well.
“They were little skits and songs that we performed for the parents that came. We all seemed to go home with crayons and coloring books, which we were very happy to have. I remember Kenneth Bennett singing ‘All I Want,’ and he was minus his two front teeth,” she said.
Ron’s favorite memory is of the annual picnic in the spring.
“I remember going up each year on the Bellows Road in a patch of woods for a picnic. The first time, I went through that woods so fast, and I came out on the wrong side and got lost for a minute. It probably wasn’t more than 100 yards on a side, but I panicked, and thought that I was in the Adirondacks somewhere,” he said.
“The school was right there near a sand hill. After the picnic, we’d go up into to Mr. Bellows’ woods looking for trillium and jack in the pulpit, and then play in the sand afterwards,” Jeanette said. “We usually went home for lunch, because we were close enough. Margaret and Beverly Cochrane lived across the road, and Carol Crook lived nearby. There was a barn and a house between us and the schoolhouse. We walked home and back to the schoolhouse for lunch. When Mrs. Bassett was there, she wouldn’t let the kids back in the schoolhouse until 1 p.m., regardless of how cold it was. Our dog used to walk us to school.”
Ron chuckled and added, “We used to get a lot of snow, and we used to walk to school on top of the snow banks. I remember my mother warning us not to reach up to touch the wires.”
Jeanette recalled fondly, “I didn’t have a bicycle, but some of the girls did. Whenever I got the chance to ride a bicycle after school, it made for a wonderful day.”
Both agreed that they enjoyed attending a rural one-room schoolhouse. Jeanette thought for a minute, and then said, “I think that you got more from the teacher, because there were maybe only three or four kids in my grade at Jacksonville. I think that I learned math ahead of my time. Before you ever reached the next grade, you had the advantage of hearing what the other grades were learning. So, there were things that you picked up on.”
Ron recalled fondly that fellow student “Billy Field and I were like brothers, inseparable. We’re right next to other in every picture. Really, all the kids were close. That’s what was nice about going to a one-room schoolhouse.”
As Ron and I finished our coffee, he told me one last story.
“About 35 years ago we took a trip down to Amish country in Pennsylvania to see how they live and we ran across the Field family from Jacksonville. Come to find out, they were camping two sites down from us in the nearby campground. We got to talking about the old Jacksonville School that night around the fire. We had driven all the way down there, just to see what it’s like to live like that and to go to a one-room school. And then, it hit us. We used to go to a one-room school ourselves, and it was right here in our own hometown.”
Sometimes the things that have made our lives so special are right here in front of us, hidden in plain sight. Maybe we’re too busy to notice, or maybe we just plain forget. Perhaps, we move away, assuming that the grass is greener somewhere else. Baldwinsville is covered in snow right now, but the grass always comes back in the spring. And, when it does it’s always green.
In two weeks read the next article in the series, “Lysander Goes to School.”
Looking Backward will appear in the Messenger every other week, as long as there are stories to tell. If you have questions about this story or suggestions for future ones, including any local historical images or information, please contact me via e-mail at Bvillehistory@earthlink.net.
Picture: Teacher and students of Jacksonville School, Nov. 18, 1898. Note the pet bunny in the boy's lap sitting third from right.
