School Days - Wyatt School - One Room School

I have a photograph of a group of students and teachers that always amazes me, whenever I look at it.  Here is is:

School at Wyatt, Texas about 1919-1920 based on the age of May Ruth Springer
Personal Collection 

This appears to be from the time of the "One Room Schoolhouse" and probably is the whole school.  What fascinates me is the number of persons in this photo from my family - all somehow related to this school!

Well, to start, here is some information about the town of Wyatt from The Handbook of Texas.

Wyatt was located on U.S. Highway 67 five miles southwest of Midlothian in Ellis County, one mile east of the Johnson county line. Early settlers in the area were E. K. Ward and J. F. Burks. The center of the community was a wooden structure built in 1884 which served as a school, a church, and a lodge. This building later burned. The Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe reached Wyatt in 1887. A store and a gin operated in the town, and a post office delivered mail from 1888 until 1906. In 1895 Wyatt reported a church, a school, six businesses, and a population of 100. Highway maps in 1948 indicated a church, a school, several businesses, and scattered rural dwellings at the site.

My grandparents, Minnie and Aubrey Springer, and my great grandparents, Henry and Jennie Ramer (Minnie's parents) lived in the area southwest of Midlothian, apparently near this school, at this time.

In the above photo are four of my grandmother's siblings and two of her children. WOW!  Two of her siblings were teachers, her brother, Ernest and her sister, Bernice.  Ernest is on the back row on the left, next to the student with the male student with the tall hair; and Ernest has a white shirt with rounded collar and a tie.

Ernest Ramer, cropped from above photo

To his left down a few people, is his sister, Bernice Ramer, another teacher. She is almost hidden behind a young girl on her right, and to her left is a tall young man.  I can't tell if he is a teacher or student. It appears that he may have a white shirt and tie on, so perhaps is a teacher, also.

Bernice Ramer, cropped from above photo

Just about 4 persons to Bernice's left, is her sister, Johnnie Prue, a student.  She is just in front of the very tall girl on the back row.

Johnnie Prue Ramer, cropped from above photo

Then, on the front row, kneeling, dressed in overalls, next to another boy also in overalls and kneeling, is their youngest brother, Grady Ramer.

Grady Ramer, cropped from above photo

Then, to Grady's left about two persons over, is their niece, May Ruth Springer. She has a dark dress on and has very short hair.

May Ruth Springer, cropped from above photo

There is one more person, Ramer Springer, May Ruth's older brother, who is most likely in the photo.  But we have not been able to find him with any confidence.

So, this photo has family members in the same school as teachers and students from two generations of my family.

In 2008 and 2009 I interviewed my aunt, May Ruth, pictured in the last photo above, and had her tell me stories about her life.  She shared a couple of stories about school life that I will share here. 

When we started to school at Walnut Grove, Ramer was about 11 months older than I. But he wouldn’t go to school without me going with him, because we had been pretty close. So, Daddy paid for me to go one year to school at the Walnut Grove School house. Ramer wouldn’t go to school unless I went, too! And, so, we were in the same grade all through school.

We went to the one room school at Walnut Grove. Two teachers is all we had for all that were there. We had a cistern and we drew our water in a big bucket. We had one dipper and all we children used the same dipper in the water! When we needed a drink, we’d go out to the cistern and get us a drink of water. We didn’t have cups, glasses or nothing else. And that is something that today would be nothing like that; because each one has to have their own and we have to be really careful on account of diseases. But anyway, we went on through school together there.

I also remember that my mother’s brother and his wife, Uncle Ernest and Aunt Lottie Ramer, were the 2 teachers for this schoolhouse. And so they did not have anywhere to live, so mother let them have a room of our house. It was a two-story house. We children slept upstairs, and mother and daddy gave them a bedroom downstairs, so they would be there close to the school.

I am not sure of the sequence of events in their family - when they lived near Walnut Springs and when they lived near Wyatt, but I believe that the stories of the "one room school" were pretty much the same.

'Til Next Time!

#52Ancestors