#40: Drums and the three R’s. Part 2: No, Ronnie!!
Bang the chalk-board erasers OUTSIDE!
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| Year 1 done! Gee! Pretty GOOD! It was all downhill from there, though. Oh, and don’t look at the “Behavior” columns. If you do, just remember, I TOLD you I didn’t want to go to school at that age! |
As I suggested at the end of the previous post, now that
we’ve been schooled on what opportunities, at least for Primary Education, were
available to the Drums of Drums, we can turn to how those Drums took advantage
of the opportunities they found available to them. As a way of “personifying”
this idea, I entitled it “Drums and the three R’s. Part 2: No, Ronnie!!
Bang the chalk-board erasers OUTSIDE!” If you are unfamiliar with the concept
of “banging” chalk erasers, and didn’t catch the explanation in the previous
post (Part 1), and therefore don’t understand why this is funny (at least I
think it is!), I included the endnote again below. See Endnote #1 below.[1]
The first documents directly related to school attendance
(Report Cards, school photos, etc) come to us from Ella and Elmer Drum. Elmer,
born in 1895, graduated from the Butler Township High School in 1911, after having,
it would seem, completed the full 10 years. Ella, born in 1897, started her
schooling two or three years after Elmer, completing at least the eight primary
years in 1913. We will have a look at Elmer’s and Ella’s “evidence” later in
this post. However, for any of “us” who came before them - Nathan, John,
Philip, George, Jacob, or Philip, and their wives and children - we are just
making EDUCATED guesses (sorry, I couldn’t resist).
As we saw in the
previous post, Three R’s Part 1, “formal” education offered by
“the state” came to Drums somewhere in the early 1830’s so Drum Tree members
seeking schooling before 1830, most likely got it from their parents, neighbors
or through schools run by their church.
Philip’s son, John, who was born in 1826 (so was six
years old in 1832), would probably be the first in the line of Drums covered by
Drums of Drums, PA (Philip, Jacob, George, Philip, John, Nathan, Elmer,
Harry, Ronald, Philip) to attend school via a Township School system. He
probably joined a number of his older cousins already attending classes in one
of the one-room schoolhouses the Drums Lions Club[2]
says were built by Butler Township between 1830 and 1870. If so, he would have
been followed in the same school system, probably in the Drums school, by his
son, Nathan, and we know the same is true for Nathan’s son, Elmer, and Harry
after him.
The first actual evidence (non-school generated) that we
have to help us know that the Drums took advantage of the educational
opportunities presented to them by their local towns and beyond, comes from a
newspaper tribute to George W. Drum(George, George, Jacob, Philip)
published in the Valley Vigilant at the time of his death in 1913. He
was born in Sugarloaf in 1832 and would therefore have reached age 6 in 1838.
The article reports, “Our subject, who was reared in Sugarloaf Township and
educated in the public schools and Wyoming Seminary[3]…”.[4]
As was seen in the post Somebody’s
Got to do it (The Jobs We Did), he went on to serve in the PA
Legislature and as a Justice of the Peace. His son, George Frank Drum, known as
G. Frank Drum, became a doctor and two of his daughter’s, Dora and Susan, each
married a doctor. Now there was the crowd to know if you ever got sick!
Nathan S. Drum’s son, Philip Leo Drum(Nathan, Philip,
George, Jacob, Philip), also attended the Wyoming Seminary. According to
the Pennsylvania
State Legislature’s website, he was educated as follows:
born in Drums, Luzerne
County, Pa., January 31, 1871; attended, Wyoming Seminary, Pa.; graduated, Bloomsburg Literary Institute and Normal School (now
Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania), 1893; attended, Lafayette College, 1897;
LL.B.[5],
University of Pennsylvania
School of Law, 1900; teacher, Upper Lehigh school district (2
years); teacher, Carlisle
Indian School (1894); teacher, Bloomsburg State
Normal School (1895-1896)…. (the rest is about his employment).
Philip Leo’s sister, Nora A. Drum (1876-1954), must have also
attended Wyoming Seminary or, perhaps Butler Township schools, or both, because
she went on to earn a Teaching Degree from Bloomsburg State Normal School (later
known as Bloomsburg State Teachers College and now, Bloomsburg University). At some point
after receiving her teaching degree, she became a teacher in the Butler
Township Schools. Unfortunately, I have not located information yet that
provides any more specific details about these circumstances.[6],
[7]
Philip Leo’s daughter, Elizabeth Drum, also sought higher
education after her primary education was complete. In 1927, when Helman
published the Drum Genealogy, she listed Elizabeth as a student at Syracuse University in Syracuse,
New York.[8]
In my library, I have two books that I believe serve as
the next “evidence” we have that us Drums done got ourselves an education. At
least, I think they both do. One of them came to us via Ella Santee
Drum’s uncle, Jacob Santee. In 1887 he bought Guyot's Geography Series: The
Earth and its Inhabitants. Common-School Geography[9]
for $0.25. A photo of his account book in which he lists this purchase along
with a few of his other purchases that year, is included in the Post The
Drums and their times, Part 2: 1870’s – 1970’s.
Jacob, or Uncle Jake as my Grandmother called him, was
born September 25, 1855. By 1887, he’d have been 32, so, certainly not still a
school-boy; which makes this purchase a bit of a mystery. But wait! The plot
thickens!
On both the inside cover and on the top of the first page, Jacob (or
someone) has written “Wilkes-Barre, June 12, 1887”. The first page also
includes, in very tiny letters, “Jacob Santee” written below the date. One
assumes he went to Wilkes-Barre to purchase this book, but it is interesting
that he wrote the location of the purchase, and not his home location, in the
book, if that is the case. As far as we know, he did not ever live in
Wilkes-Barre. Census data does not exist for 1890, however, he is listed as living
in Butler Township in both the 1880 and 1900 censuses. I even considered that perhaps
he’d enrolled at the Wyoming Seminary during that period, but at 32? By the
way, just to round out this discussion of confusion around this book, the entry
for the book in his Account Book is dated June 13, 1887, not June 12. Who can
account for “such goings ons”, as my Grammy Drum would have said, shaking her
head.
All of which brings us then to the second of the two
books I mentioned; this one entitled, A Complete Course in Geography:
Physical, Industrial, and Political. With A Special Geography for each State.[10]
It was written by William Swinton and published in 1879. It most likely was
purchased by Christian Schoesche (or came as a gift
to him) probably around 1880. Written in beautiful script on the cover page is:
“Master Christian Schoesche’s book, Center Hills, Luzerne County, Penna.”
Written above that, in more school-like cursive, is “Jennie Santee”. Jennie was
Christian’s niece. See the post “Books,
Books, Books” for a little more information on this book.
Christian was born in 1865. He turned 15 in 1880. I
assume he used the book first and then passed it to Jennie for her school
needs. She was born in 1884. Her sister, Ella, married Elmer Drum in 1919. Somebody,
I’m guessing Jennie, used the Title Page for practicing forming letters.
As for the mention of “Center Hills, Luzerne County” (it could be "Hill"), I have no information on what, or where, Center Hills or Hill is or was in Luzerne County. There is a road approximately a mile east of Conyngham called Center Hill which might, however, be a clue.
As for the mention of “Center Hills, Luzerne County” (it could be "Hill"), I have no information on what, or where, Center Hills or Hill is or was in Luzerne County. There is a road approximately a mile east of Conyngham called Center Hill which might, however, be a clue.
The first actual evidence generated by a school system that
we Drums done gone to school (report cards, school photos, etc.) come to us, as
was mentioned above, from Ella and Elmer Drum’s school years in the early
1900’s.
Up first is a “Certificate of Attainment” presented to
Elmer in April of 1910. I do not know if one of these was given to every
student every year but he sure got one that year. He got a better one the next
year. This Attainment thing is only 5” x 7” so just a baby compared to his
Diploma. He received that in 1911. Here it is, in all of its full 9 ½” x 17 ½”
glory!! The ribbons on it look like they
are gold and black. However, the school colors were “Lemon and Maroon”. I guess
some colors don’t hold up so well over time.
He got his picture taken with his class as well. There he
is in the back row, right behind Mr. Herbert Wenner, the Principal. To the left
of Elmer are Myrtle and Sara Cook. Elsie Smith is to the right of Elmer. In the middle row are Viola Heintz (Berner), Wenner, and
May Brighthaupt. Down front we see Willie Dinklocker, Hazle Klinger (Werner),
and Ronald Smith. I listed them here exactly as Mom has them listed in the
scrapbook so I am unsure what the names in the parentheses are (maiden or
married).
Not to be shown up, Christie, Elmer’s sister, held her
own in school, as well. Here is her school photo from 1912. I think, given the
wide variation in ages seen in the photo, that this is the whole crowd, not
just her class. Someone hung an arrow over her head so it is easy to find her:
(L-R) second in, in the back row.
Now, Elmer’s future wife, Ella, was the same
age as Christie. One would assume Ella must be in this same photo. Alas, she is
not. We know who most of the people are in this photo. Of the one’s not
identified, probably by Ella for my mom in the early 1970’s, most are boys and
the few unidentified girls are too young. Besides, if she was in the photo, one
would have thought she’d have identified herself! Mr. Wenner, by the way, is standing on the
left in the doorway.
Christie, age 15, graduated April 25, 1912. Here are her
Commencement documents for finishing Primary School (8th grade). The
next level was “High School”. The ceremony was held at 8 o’clock at the Drums
Methodist Church. According to the Commencement Program, Christie gave an
“oration” entitled “The Home and the School.” I don’t know what she
said but I bet she was nervous.
It’s not that we don’t have a class photo of Ella, we do.
Well, sort of. Here it is. It was taken about 1910 or 1911:
As can be seen by the “inscription” on the photo (thanks,
Mom), Ella was out sick the day of the photo. Of course, these were the days of
the one-room schoolhouse, thus why the ages are so varied in these photos. In
fact, Ella and Christie did not attend school in the same building. Christie
went to school in the Drums school and Ella’s school building was the one known
as Jacobs School which was the closest to our present home, Drumyngham (see the
1873 map of the schools in the post “…Three
R’s, Part 1”). This was confirmed for me by Lifelong Drums
resident, Robert “Bob” Reed[11].
That’s his father at about age nine, standing in the front row, sixth in from
the left. The teacher’s name was Bessie Fagan.
From the records saved by the Santee and Drum families
that are in “my” collection, I do not know if Christie attended 9th
grade or ever graduated from High School. Ella Santee, who was the same age as
Christie, was promoted into “High School First Year”, but this occurred one calendar
year later than Christie’s Commencement. The next photo is of Ella’s “Monthly
Report” (Report Card) for the 1912-1913 (8th Grade) school year. I
didn’t include all the pages, but I did include the last page, the one that
says she was promoted. I do not, however, know if she attended any classes past
the 8th grade.
The following offers a better
view of the Promotion Page. I do not know what “on conditions” means and I do
not know why Ella has reached this level of school a year later than Christie. I assume it is because she probably started
school one year later than Christie.
Just to show that we Drums appreciated education, I’ll
offer yet another tidbit of evidence. Warren Nevin Drum(AA, Josiah,
Abraham, George, Jacob, Philip), born 1885 and died 1928[12],
must have had a worthy education. He once served as the Principal of the
Indiana State Normal School (known as Indiana
University since 1965). The school was founded in 1875 but no word on
just when Warren took up the reins of Principal. I assume that he was serving
in this role when he died. Helman includes him in her 1927 genealogy as “Warren
Drum, Principal of Indiana State Normal School” (present tense).[13]
Now we jump to the next generation: the children of Elmer
and Ella Drum, and Elmer’s sister and brother-in-law, Christie and Paul Yoch.
The following is a photo of a page in one of my mom’s scrapbooks. The upper
left photo on the page is identified by Mom as my dad, Harry in the second
grade (age 7). I don’t think this photo resembles my dad but one should never
argue with one’s parents so I guess that is who the picture is of. The next two
photos are Christie’s sons, Gordon and Marvin. They DO resemble the older Gordon
and Marvin that I knew. The next two photos that are glued on the page to the
right of Marvin’s photo are both photos of Harry’s sister, Clara; one at age 7
(1932) and one at age 8 (1933).
The two large photos in the middle of the page are 8-year-old Clara again and 10-year-old Harry, both taken in 1933.
The group of four photos near the bottom of the page include, top left, 10-year-old Harry again. To his right is Clara at 9 years of age. Below her is Clara at age 12 (1937). To her left, below Harry, is a photo identified by Mom as Anna Kemp. Anna Kemp was the much beloved First, Second and Third Grades Teacher.
The larger photo to the right of this group of four in
the photo above is of the Drums School Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Grade students
of 1935. The teacher is standing in front of the door. Gilbert “Gil”
Bittenbender[14],
a classmate of Clara’s, identified the teacher as being either Gertrude
Wilson or Katherine Wenner (he couldn’t remember which).
Here is a closer view. Ten-year-old Clara Drum is in the
back row, 2nd in from the left. I’m surprised that no one hung an arrow
over her head, nor did Mom include a list of who else appears in this photo. However,
Gil, who clearly remembered Clara, “thought” he recognized himself in the photo
as well. “I think that’s me” he said with a bit of nostalgic wonder in his
voice. “Which one, Gil?” I asked. He pointed to the 7th boy in from
the left and said, as he laughed, “That tall, skinny one! I think that’s me. I
was a tall, skinny kid!” I have to admit it, I think that is Gil, too.
That brings us to the fateful year of 1936 when, for
reasons never fully explained to me, my dad left school in the middle of the
seventh grade. More details about Harry and his school years are included in
the post “Some
of us never went to war”.
To the right are Harry’s Report Cards. He is missing the
6th Grade Report Card, possibly because he may have been home
schooled that year, having been diagnosed with Rheumatic
Fever and removed from school part way through the previous, 5th
Grade, year.
Although he left school part-way through the 7th
Grade, he was present when the class photo was made. Here are the Drums School 7th
Grade students of 1936. Dad is standing
in the second row, first one on the left. Once again, someone has placed an
arrow beside him to help us locate him in the crowd. Once again, Mom failed to
include a list of who the others were in the photo. The teacher sitting in the
front row, however, is Mr. Opiary.
Although Harry left school at Grade 7, Clara graduated
from Hazleton High School in 1943. Here is the page of Seniors from the 1943
Hazleton High School Janus (yearbook) that includes her photo, second row, far
right. It identifies her as having been an active member of the Swimming Club
and noted that “her friends ran into large numbers”. I guess she was nice, even
then! See the post “Nice”
for more nice Drums!
The next in line would be me and my illustrious career as
a student, and that of my brother’s. Since I don’t have all of his details I best
leave him out of it and rather than forcing MY career as a student on my
readers, how about I leave you with my Mom’s last full year of school, instead.
 |
| Eleanor Esther Shearer, age 16, 10th Grade, 1943. |
When I was in school, I often told my mom that school
made me sick. So, how about we next turn to what we know about the illnesses we
Drums suffered through and what we did to alleviate the suffering! Return to Drums
of Drums, PA on May 12 for #41: Getting Well, Part 1: They got a tea for that!
[1] One
will probably only understand why this statement might be funny if you
experienced classrooms with chalk, or black, boards. Black slate was affixed to
classroom walls. This provided a smooth, dark surface upon which teachers could
write letters and numbers using white, or sometimes yellow, chalk. To remove
what was written, one swiped a felt “eraser’ over the board, which wiped the
chalk away. Eventually, the chalk dust would build up on the erasers making
them less effective. The remedy for that was to “clap” or “bang” them together;
outside the building, of course; thus jarring the chalk particles loose from
the felt; the wind carrying the resulting great clouds of chalk dust away; that
which did not end up covering the child doing the “clapping”, of course. I
imagine most kids, at least I know this was true for me, relished the
assignment of cleaning the chalk erasers at the end of the school day. Such fun
will never be known in classrooms filled with smart boards and iPads and
computer screens.
[2] Two
Hundred Years of Progress: Butler Township, 1784-1984 (Drums, PA: The Drums
Lions Club, 1984) p 17-18
[3] For
more information on the Wyoming Seminary, visit their website at: https://www.wyomingseminary.org/ and/or the Wikipedia page for the Wyoming Seminary at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyoming_Seminary.
[4] “Conyngham’s
Grand Old Man Dead, Honorable George W. Drum is no more – was the town’s oldest
native citizen” Valley Vigilant, November 14, 1913. P 23
[5] So,
what the heck is a “LL.B.” degree? Well, according to “Ask
Adele”, LL.B. “is the abbreviation for the Bachelor of Laws. The
degree abbreviates to ‘LLB’ instead of ‘BL’ due to the traditional name of the
qualification in Latin, ‘Legum Baccalaureus’. ‘Legum’ is the plural of 'lex',
meaning law, while ‘Baccalaureus’ is the origin of the term
'Bachelors degree'. As Latin plurals often abbreviate by doubling the
first letter (e.g. 'pp' for 'pages'), it abbreviates to 'LLB'.” So now
we know.
[6]
Drum, Nora, Miss; Mrs. R. S. Small, and Mrs. Millard Shelhamer, Drums
Methodist Church and Valley Notes (Drums, PA: St. Paul’s Methodist Church,
1953)
[7] Helman,
Laura M., History and Genealogy of the Drum Family (Allentown, PA:
Berkemeyer, Keck & Co., 1927) p 13
[9] Guyot,
A., Guyot's Geography Series: The Earth and its Inhabitants.
Common-School Geography (NY: Scribner, Armstrong & Co., 1873)
[10] Swinton, William, A Complete Course in Geography:
Physical, Industrial, and Political. With A Special Geography for each State
(NY and Chicago: Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor, and Co., 1879)
[11]
Reed, Robert, Interview took place at the Butler Township Active Adult Center,
January 16, 2020.
[12]
Findagrave.com
[13] Helman,
Laura M., p 26
[14]
Bittenbender, Gilbert, Interview took place at the Butler Township Active Adult
Center, January 13, 14, & 16, 2020. Gilbert was born in June, 1926 and
attended school in the Drums school from fall of 1932 to spring 1944 when he
graduated. If he is correct that the boy in the photo is himself, he would be
nine years old in the photo.
