MFTS Excerpt 1

Excerpt from More From the Shore – Spring 2016

Quakason School

Quakason was a one room School located at the intersection of Tingle and New Hope Road in Wicomico County. It was on the edge of the great cypress swamp. The school handled about twenty-five families within a three mile radius of the school. Quakason never was a town, it didn’t have a post office, a store, nor a church, the school was all that marked it. The name came from an Indian tribe that lived there and had a burial grounds there. Because there were no buildings other than the school, it was used for community functions such as socials. In 1920 the school had thirty-one students, with a budget of $863.75.

Quakason school was in a very rural area and an economically depressed area. Because everyone had to work in order for the family to survive, school attendances suffered greatly. In October the attendance at Quakason would be about 50%. The attendance records show the least number of students in the fall (due to farming) and the highest attendance in February when very little required the student to be home working. In 1909 The Wicomico County school board made the decision not to open school until October 4^th at Quakason, Melson, Royal Oak, Deep Branch, Gordy’s, Hammond, Wango, Powell’s, Oakland and Watereview due to families needing students to do farm work. In the spring and in the fall the students did farm work, from the strawberry crop to the tomato crop to the corn crop to the sweet potato crop. In November they cut holly and made Christmas wreaths. They even cut sugar cane to be hauled ten miles west to Smith Mill where a sugar cane press was.

Quakason families in the winter would go south to Whaleyville to the Wimbrow Company sawmill and pick up strips of soft gum wood and an iron form to shape a strawberry basket. They would take the gum strips home and make strawberry baskets by bending the strips over the iron form and clinching them with metal tacks against the form. The family would make them during the winter and in the spring the baskets would be sold back to the Wimbrow Company.

The students ranged in age from 6 years-old to 21 years-old. Since the older students were older than the teacher the school trustees would handle discipline problems with those students.

Teachers were hard to come by for the rural schools and Quakason was no exception. Since most teachers were between the age of 15 to 30 they, like people of that age today, wanted to be near a more populated area where there were paved streets with street light and movie theaters. Quakason had dirt roads and farms. It was six miles away from Whaleyville which when you got to Whaleyville, well, it was Whaleyville. Whaleyville was however on the tracks for a train that went to Ocean City or Salisbury.

There is a myth that school teachers in this time period had to be single. Quakason had both single and married school teachers. Teachers were in such demand for rural schools who ever wanted to teach at the school was hired. The single teacher frequently boarded with one of the school trustees. The married teachers had a long buggy ride from their farm to school. The teacher would frequently be just out of high school themselves. In Maryland 67% of the teachers of one room schools only had a high school education. They would have taken a summer course at the Maryland State Normal School and perhaps two week courses in the summer offered by the Tri-County Institute (overseen by the Maryland Normal School) in the local area (Ocean City) to qualify to teach. Another qualification was they had to be 15 years old. When the Tri-County (Wicomico, Worcester, Somerset) would offer courses in Ocean City for two weeks there would be about 300 teachers from the area attending and staying in Ocean City. You can only imagine the young single men who found a reason to be in Ocean City when this event occurred.

Learning at the one room school was pretty much reviewing and drilling facts. With 20 to 30 students ranging from the first grade to the eighth grade, the teacher had to pay attention to the school clock and schedule her time so she or he could handle several subjects in each grade.

Beside teaching school the teacher was also expected to put on school events – plays, music, socials that would be on the weekend or in the evening. In 1921 Quakason was one of several schools that started serving a hot lunch. The teacher prepared it and the cost was about 10 cents.

The pay was about $50 a month. There is a story about a rural teacher taking her check to the bank to be cash. She touched her fingers to the tip of her tongue as she counted the bills, the bank teller said “Be careful lady those bills may have germs on them” The young teacher replied “ I am not scared, no germ could live on my salary.”

1930 was a big year for closing one room school houses and centralizing them.. By 1930 better roads existed and better vehicles to use as school buses so centralization became practical. In April of 1930 the Board of Education directed that Quakason and Hearn schools be closed at end of year. The Children from the Hearn school and the Quakason School were bused to Pittsville.

Surprisingly students who were bused from a one room school to a school with several rooms were lost and kept wandering into the wrong room. It was an adjustment.

The school was sold in 1931 and the building was moved to Willards where it was converted to a home that later burnt.

Teachers who taught in one room school reminisce frequently about them, but when asked if they would like to teach in one again, all said no.

Some Quakason school trustees over the years were; Joseph S. Lynch, Joseph J. Mitchell, Alexander W. West, Sidell L. Baker, Joshua M. Baker,

Some teachers who taught at Quakason School;

1902 Daisey May Farlow ( born 8 Sep 1882, died 23 May 1966) She was the daughter of Benjamin Daniel Farlow and Louisiana Ryder Parsons.

1903 Mrs. Clara M. Culver (Clara Mae Adkins born 24 June 1878 Whaleyville died December 1976) She was the daughter of Edward B. Adkins and Mary E, Brittingham. She married in 1900 to William Handy Culver. He died in 1902. Next she married in 1915 Lambert John Powell.

1905- 1906 - vacant various substitute teachers

1908 – Margaret W. Holland, (born 1869 died 1917) She was the daughter of Joseph and Alice Holland, She was a sister to Dr. Charles Albert Holland and Dr Ebe Holland of Berlin and Powellville. The Hollands were originally from Milford Delaware.

1909-1910 Mamie Jones ( Mamie E. Jones born 24 March 1890 died April 1973) Her husband was Samuel T. Jones(1888-1963). Her parents were Chester and Clarrissa Richardson Jones. She graduated Powellville High School in 1908, In the 1910 census she was boarding in Sliddell Baker home, a school board trustee.

1914 to 1919 - Elsie Baker (father Slidell Baker, mother Anna Jane Donaway. Her husband was William Henry Short. She was born 28 Jul 1895 and died 2 April 1997.

1920 - Margaret Jarman ( Margarette Jarman born 30 Jun 1901 died 8 Nov 1967. Her mother was Mary Jarman. Margaret married Orlando Beal Houston. In the 1920 census she is in normal school.

1922 to 1929 – Mrs. Myra Cordrey (Myra E. Baker, her father was Parant Taylor Baker and mother was Anna D. Williams. She would marry Norman Franklin Cordrey. She was born 02 Jan 1898 died April 1966)