Cove Schools

I will try to tell about some of the schools I attended. The first I can remember was one taught by Henrietta Rogers. Her mother, Mrs. Hickman, a widow, taught the bigger girls in the front room of her house. Henrietta had the little tots in the back room or kitchen. I must have been very young.

The next I remember was one taught by Miss Martha Howland, another daughter of Mrs. Hickman. It was in a home too. I remember this teacher well because a man named Isaac Nash used to come there sometimes to see her (he later married her). He used to have us kiddies stand in a row and sing "In Our Lovely Deseret." I never forgot it. 

Afterwards I went to a school taught by a man named Merrick or Mechan. He and his daughter taught. One day I found one of the girls' bonnets out by the ditch. Some bigger girls got me to stick it in the ditch. Then someone told on me, and the teacher made me stand before the school with the wet bonnet on my head. 

Another school was taught by a Mr. Fancher and wife. Later when a baby came, Mrs. Fancher taught in their home and I went there. Now we had moved down to the South Field and I stayed with Grandma Comish so I could go to school in Franklin--that is I would come home Friday night and go back Sunday. I also stayed one winter with a dear old lady, a widow, called Granny Vail. She did weaving for a living. She used to do all our weaving. That winter the teacher's name was Jensen from Weston. 

Then I went to a Mr. Rogers where I was one of his favorites. I was a good speller, and one day I spelled some words that some of the larger girls missed. They all slid down and I went above all of them. Schools weren't graded like now and little and big were in classes together. If one could read or spell well, they went in a higher class. So, as I could both read and spell, I was in a class above my age. 

By this time school was started in Cove, and I persuaded Father to let me go there. The first school was taught by Aurelia Fifield, a niece of Aunt Adelade Allen. She had school a while in the summer time in the old log house (Uncle Andrew's)--later a stable. Then next winter a crippled man named Hyrum Ricks taught. Next summer Susie Goaslind taught. She got married to Ernest Purnell and taught that winter. I remember her giving my brother France a licking, and how he did kick her shins. I was ready to fight too for he was my little brother. I guess he deserved it though. 

School House in Cove 

I will describe Uncle Andrew Allen's log house. It was built on his quarter section where he lived a few years before he built farther east. This little house was about twelve by fourteen and was nine logs to the square with rafters and a shingle roof. It had a homemade door in the west side and a six-light window in the east. There was a sheet iron stove in the north end. The benches, of which there were four, were made from slabs--holes bored in and legs inserted. There were two desks or tables made from machine boxes with legs nailed on. A bench was placed on each side of them. As the room was dark a twelve-light window was placed lengthwise in the south gable end. Aurelia Fifield was the first teacher. She taught one summer. Two other teachers were Hyrum Ricks and Susie Goaslind Purnell. Sunday School was held in this building for sometime with John Albiston as Superintendant. After he left Mark Preece was put in his place. Sunday meetings were also held there with Charles H. Allen as Presiding Elder. The old house has been used for a stable for years. 

Another thing I remember while going to this school was that the boys would hurry and hitch up the team to get ahead of Charley Goaslind because he liked to tease. So one night he got in head and no matter how hard we would try he would not let us pass, and neither would he hurry along. So when we got to Uncle Andrew's place, they stopped there. We tried to pass again. But no, he wouldn't let us. By this time I was pretty angry, so I jumped off and started to walk home. I had a rope in my hands and I only went a little way. Then I turned around and when he wasn't looking II gave him a hard lick with the doubled rope. He turned out and let us go; but oh, I hated to go to school next day. Charley came up to me and said, "What did you hit me for, Susanna?" I told him because he wouldn't let us go. He said, "Next time you hit me you won't hit me!tt Well, I was glad to get off with that as I didn't know but what he might slap me.

By this time there was a schoolhause built just a little ways up on the hill--up near where Don Titensor's place is. Hanna Goaslind taught awhile in the summer and I went in the afternoons as Mother was sick and there was too much to do to go all day. 

I remember another school for girls taught by Miss Henrietta Rogers who taught from books in the forenoon, then in the afternoon she had classes in fancy work such as crochetting, tatting, netting, embroidering, etc. Some of the girls did some lovely work while I, I am sorry to say, only learned how to do them. I didn't finish a piece though I did some of the work afterwards--especially tatting and crochetting. 

At some of the schools, we used to have spelling matches, where they chose up sides to see which side could stand up longest. Other times all would stand up, and we would try to see who could leave the head of the class the most times. In some schools we sang the capitals--such as "Maine, Augusta on the Kennebec River," saying it over three times. There were other teachers along the way that I haven't mentioned. 

In October after Mother got better, I started to school at B.Y. in Logan. The teacher was Miss Ida Cook. But I only went 'til March as Mother had had a stroke and I was needed to do the work. I had stayed at a Mr. Thomas Tarbets and worked for my board. The lady saw to it that I paid for what I got--they were real kind to me though. I picked up and never was so fleshy. I got weighed at Franklin when I returned. Just as I stood in hat, coat, overshoes and I weighed 136 pounds. By fall I weighed 108 pounds. So ended my schooling. Source