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Jane Petersen talks about what it was like to teach in a one-room country school years ago. Petersen was part of "A Day in the Past" on Monday at May Museum in Fremont.
Deanna Wolf tells about old-time irons during her presentation at "A Day in the Past" on Monday at May Museum in Fremont. The event gives fourth-graders a glimpse of life from long ago.
Kerstin O’Connor of Fremont tells about the life of a Swedish immigrant during the late 1800s. O'Connor was one of the presenters for "A Day in the Past" on Monday at May Museum in Fremont.
Fourth-graders listen as Jane Petersen tells what it was like to teach in a one-room country school years ago. Petersen was part of "A Day in the Past" on Monday at May Museum in Fremont.
Presenter Judy Ekeler tells fourth-graders about the history of May Museum, formerly the Theron Nye home. Her presentation was part of "A Day in the Past" on Monday.
Jane Petersen was just 17 years old when she signed on to teach at District 35 School near Scribner.
It was 1954 and Petersen would teach 13 students in grades kindergarten through eighth – all in a one-room, country schoolhouse.
Almost seven decades have passed since then, but on Monday the Fremont woman was in a schoolroom once again.
This time, Petersen was telling fourth-graders about an era when students brought their lunches to school in syrup cans with handles. If they were thirsty, these long-ago students got their water by dipping in a ladle into a large metal bucket.
Unlike today’s students, accustomed to Smart phones and texting, those of yesteryear got paper copies of information printed via a hectograph.
Petersen shared such experiences during “A Day in the Past” at May Museum in Fremont. The annual event gives area schoolkids a glimpse of how people lived many years ago, while providing an inside look at the historical museum.
Presenter Deanna Wolf of North Bend cited benefits of the event.
“Many times, ‘A Day in the Past,’ is an introduction to fourth-graders to the museum and they are fascinated,” Wolf said. “They bring their parents back. We’ve had a couple of events at Christmastime and we hear them say something about what they saw or learned when they were here at ‘A Day in the Past.’”
Fourth-graders from Fremont Public Schools, Bergan Catholic and Logan View attended a session Monday. Students took turns visiting a downstairs room transformed into an old-time schoolroom.
They made a stop in the kitchen where Kerstin O’Connor told what it was like for a Swedish immigrant to come overseas to work in Fremont long ago.
In the parlor, students learned how a house became a museum.
Petersen stood behind a wooden desk as she told fourth-graders – albeit briefly—what school was like for students in earlier times.
“Good afternoon, I’m Mrs. Petersen and I’m your country school teacher for the next 15 minutes,” she told one class.
Petersen provided an overview, saying most country schools were built so students didn’t have to walk more than 2 miles to school.
Dodge County once had 91 country schools.
Petersen was paid $125 a month to teach.
“Gas was 24.9 cents a gallon,” she said.
When Petersen started teaching, students brought their lunches to school in metal syrup cans. The metal cans kept small rodents, which would have chewed through a paper sack, from nibbling on a student’s sandwich.
“Mice – I discovered – loved grape jelly,” Petersen said.
The mice weren’t as keen on tomato jelly.
“Tomato jelly?” one student asked aloud.
Petersen also said the school didn’t have drinking water that could be pumped from a well. So Petersen brought water to school.
“I had two metal cans – called cream cans _ in the back of my car,” she said. “Every morning before I left for school, I had to fill those cans with water and that was our water for the day”
It was an early day lesson on water conservation.
“We had 10 gallons of water and I had 13 students so we didn’t waste water,” Petersen said.
The water was poured into a bucket. Each student could pour water into a paper cup. That was the students’ water for the day.
“We didn’t have milk,” she said. “We didn’t have a refrigerator, but we made it.”
At the museum, students learned about a hectograph, a device used to make copies.
“This is the original copy machine,” Petersen said.
Hectograph fluid (a gelatin substance) was poured into what looks like a frame. The gelatin set up.
Petersen used a special pencil to write on a piece of paper, which became the master copy and was placed face-side down on the gelatin.
The ink transferred to the gelatin and the master copy was removed. Other pieces of paper, placed on the gelatin substance, picked up the written words and became copies.
When it came to discipline, Petersen had few behavior problems among students, whose siblings shared the same room.
“If you got into trouble and had to sit in the corner, your younger brother or sister couldn’t wait to get home and tell mom that you got in trouble – so I had a whole room full of tattletales,” she said.
Petersen told of a time when eighth-graders had to take a test before they could go to high school. If they didn’t pass, they could forget about going to any more school or could return for one more year and study for the eighth-grade exam.
Many times, students didn’t go to high school, because they were needed to help on the farm. Petersen’s eighth-grade graduating class had 19 students – five of whom never went to high school.
Attending high school and graduating from college were special things. Petersen saved money and for $150 went to Wayne State Teachers College one summer.
She taught in a country school from 1954 to 1971 and then at Arlington Public Schools from 1971 to 1995.
Petersen’s talk ended when a school bell rang, signaling that it was time for students to go to another room.
McKinley Pieper said she learned a lot of kids didn’t get to go to college years ago.
Ketter Nelson was surprised to learn that 13 students only had 10 gallons of water to drink.
“You couldn’t drink that much water and you’d have to save it,” he said.
Ketter liked Petersen’s talk.
“It was real fun,” the Bergan student said.
Meanwhile, in the kitchen upstairs, O’Connor played the role of a Swedish maid during the time when Theron Nye needed someone to work in a large, stately house built in Fremont in 1874.
O’Connor described a woman, named Anna, who left Sweden where people were very poor. She faced seasickness during a six-week trip aboard a ship, arriving at Ellis Island in New York harbor. Those coming to Ellis Island underwent health checks.
“If you were sick, you had to go back home,” O’Connor said.
Anna, who was healthy, came to Fremont, never seeing her family again.
Using a globe, O’Connor – a much more recent immigrant—showed students where in Sweden she came from before arriving in the U.S.
Judy Ekeler could be found in the parlor, telling students about the history of the May Museum building, formerly the Theron Nye home.
There had been plans to demolish the building and construct apartments on that site.
But the late attorney Arthur Sidner used funds from the (Louis) May Trust to buy the house, saving the building from demolition.
Ekeler said Sidner gave the house to Dodge County, which allows the historical society to use it as a museum.
Volunteers believe the historical event is important for students.
“It gets that age group interested in the past, because they have little bright faces and want to tell you something that they saw,” Loretta Meistrell said.
“I think it’s important for them to understand that there are interesting historical things right here in their own backyard,” Ekeler said. “We try to teach them a little bit about the history of the museum and how it went from being a house that somebody lived in to a museum.”
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Tammy Real-McKeighan is news editor of the Fremont Tribune. She covers news, features, religion stories and writes the weekly faith-based, Spiritual Spinach column.
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Jane Petersen talks about what it was like to teach in a one-room country school years ago. Petersen was part of "A Day in the Past" on Monday at May Museum in Fremont.
Deanna Wolf tells about old-time irons during her presentation at "A Day in the Past" on Monday at May Museum in Fremont. The event gives fourth-graders a glimpse of life from long ago.
Kerstin O’Connor of Fremont tells about the life of a Swedish immigrant during the late 1800s. O'Connor was one of the presenters for "A Day in the Past" on Monday at May Museum in Fremont.
Fourth-graders listen as Jane Petersen tells what it was like to teach in a one-room country school years ago. Petersen was part of "A Day in the Past" on Monday at May Museum in Fremont.
Presenter Judy Ekeler tells fourth-graders about the history of May Museum, formerly the Theron Nye home. Her presentation was part of "A Day in the Past" on Monday.
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