In describing our town at its incorporation toward the end of the 18th century, “Discovering Hampton” tells us that it was “actually a collection of villages with evocative names: Appaquag, Rawson, Boston Hollow, Bigelow, Howard Valley, Clark’s Corner and Hampton Hill.” Each of these was a small community with businesses and institutions, train stations and post offices, taverns and inns, stores and mills, and, of course, schools. Most of these remain as homes. The Appaquag School was relocated to North Bigelow Road, the Bell School remains on Kenyon, and Clark’s Corner’s School, on Hartford Turnpike. The Center School, behind Fletcher Memorial Library, also housed the Town Hall, a brick schoolhouse across from Sarah Pearl Road served the Bigelow District, and the ABC Schoolhouse is still in Howard Valley. These seven one-room schoolhouses served students in grades one through eight, until eventually three schools were designated to educate students town-wide, with first through third grade in the Bell School, grades four, five and six in the Center School, and grades seven and eight at Clark’s Corner.
This issue recognizes the accomplishments of local scholars graduating from our elementary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, on their way to hopeful futures, and the extraordinary remembrances of current and former residents reflecting on the one-room schoolhouses of the past.
I walked to the Bell School, but once my father drove me. It was the second day and I didn’t want to go. My father said, “You’re going to school,” and that was it. The teacher was Evelyn Hughes, a really good teacher, very fair, we all loved her. We had desks, but our chairs were set in a half circle in front for lessons. We took a lot of nature walks. At recess, we mostly played chasing games like tag and in the snow, Fox and Geese. We were fascinated whenever the road crew worked near the school. I went to Center School for grades four, five and six. There was no homework, but we were all responsible for chores, sweeping the entries, separate for girls and boys, erasing the blackboards and clapping the erasers. The boys were in charge of the wood stove. I think it did us all good. Once we went on a field trip to see a special train, a “silver something”. It never came, but the engineer let everyone get in the engine. The fireman warned, “don’t go near the firebox or you’ll all go to hell!” One girl didn’t go in; she was afraid she’d get dirty.
Peggy Fox
My first three years were at the Bell School. The teacher, Evelyn Hughes, came early to start the fire so it was warm inside. There was a pail of water with a dipper and little paper cups for us to use for drinking. A section of the room had children’s books. My friend Marjorie Keach and I had permission to go to her grandmother’s at lunch time; that was a big deal. I remember her grandmother some mornings coming to our house in a bathrobe and a stocking cap and asking, “Do you have a bit of bologna for me?” It’s funny the things you remember. The next three years I went to Center School. The Town Hall was upstairs and sometimes the teacher brought us up to learn about the roles of government. I remember at recess playing hop scotch in the road. Lillian Vida was our teacher. For a while it was Dorothy Horowitz, but the boys gave her trouble. I remember Frank Postemski telling her his name was “Francisco”, and another boy named John said he was “Johann”. I went to Clarks Corner School in seventh grade and graduated in eighth with a ceremony at the Grange. There were only three others in my class – Jimmy Estabrooks, Jane MacMillan and Teresa Vargas.
Jane Marrotte
In September of 1942, I enrolled in third grade at Bell School in a class of six. It was Lois Richardson Woodward’s first year teaching. The school had a big wood stove, water from a spring at the edge of the swamp, and outhouses for boys and for girls. One of the duties of the male members of the school board was to clean them once a month. My father participated as board Chairman. The remainder of my elementary years was at Center School which had a hand pump outside for water and a wood furnace. The most outstanding event was a multi-town trip to Boston on a steam engine. Students from surrounding towns gathered at Hampton Station. It was a wonderful trip, visiting the U.S.S Constitution ship, the North Church, Breeds and Bunker Hill. That was my first trip on the Airline Trail on the steam train.
George Miller
From Hampton Remembers
We lived up on Kenyon Road and all eight of us went to the Bell School- and we always walked. There was one year that there was only two in our family – the rest was older and th’ others was younger that went to school down to this Bell School and there was no school. Because there was only two children! So the town had to hire my father to carry us over to what they called the Appaquag School.
Helen Whitehouse
When they closed the South Bigelow School, my father took all the children in the neighborhood, about five of us I guess, in his democrat wagon, with his horse to the North Bigelow School for a time, and then to the Center School and the town paid him. A democrat wagon is a two-seater with no top and a buggy is a one-seater with a top.
Vera Hoffman
When they closed Appaquag for lack of scholars and we had to be transported to Bell School we went in what was a two-seater wagon only there were seven of us altogether and the driver, that made eight, so they needed to accommodate more – they had the seats going along the sides front to back instead of sideways…that was an early school bus!
Harold Stone
At Appaquag the teacher rang a handbell at five minutes before nine and we had to be in our seats at nine o’clock. First the teacher checked the attendance and then we all joined in the Lord’s Prayer. We didn’t pledge allegiance to the flag in those days as they do now. We were anywhere from fifteen to twenty children ranging in age from six to sixteen and graded strictly according to ability. A fourteen-year-old and a nine-year-old would often be using the same book… At the end of recess, the handbell was rung because we played on the neighbors’ land and all up and down the road.
Arthur Kimball
We didn’t have a playground but we used to get over in the lot on the east side and play in there some until we were told to get out. They didn’t like to have us play there much ‘cause it was hay ground and they mowed it. We done a lotta sliding. We’d go right up the hill there and go clear up to “Hovihi” where Will Jewett lived, then slide down the hill, turn the corner and go right down to the grist mill We used to go up to a pond at “Hovihi”- Will Jewett had a cranberry bog that flooded every winter. We used to go up there skating at noon time.
John Hammond
From the Memoirs of Marion Burnham Halbach
We went to the Center School near the library. In good weather we walked, but if the weather was bad, Grandpa would take us in whatever motor vehicle he had at the time. We farm kids had special clothing in the winter—heavy underwear with a buttoned pocket in the back which we sometimes forgot to re-button. What a joke to see someone at the blackboard with their flap hanging down. This underwear also had long legs and we wore long heavy stockings, so the underwear legs had to be folded before putting on the stockings. No matter how hard we tried, we could never smooth away the lumps. Each school had all eight grades, but none of them had auditoriums, so at the end of the school year all the students and teachers gathered at the Grange Hall for graduation. They jointly put on a play, had a speaker and then diplomas were awarded. It was here that Charles and I first met in what might be called a “hair-raising” experience. I was standing on the stage between two unruly boys, Charles Halbach and Charles Kenjerski. Becoming annoyed with their antics, I finally grasped a handful of hair from each boy’s head and pulled them to attention! I do not recall what the consequences were, unfortunately, but I later married one of those unruly boys!