Corvallis Schools, Colleges and Universities
Report Card for Corvallis Schools
Corvallis School District 509JEnrollment Statistics
| Pioneer Memories |
| "I attended school at Mt. Union School in the old building which stood on the hilltop just west of the cemetery. Among the teachers there I remember Margaret KNOX and John GALBRAITH (or CALBREATH). The schoolhouse was a good building but small, and was in an exposed position on the hill. All the water had to be carried up the hill. I remember there was a steep clay bank west of the schoolhouse that the boys called the "slick". After the rains started the boys had great sport here sliding in the mud. |
| Margaret NEWTON COOPER; Corvallis Pioneer |
Oregon Pre-schools & Private Schools
| Corvallis Pioneer Memories |
| "My first attendance at school was at
the Independent schoolhouse. My first teacher was Florence PORTER. The
second was Mr. NESKLER, and old white-headed man who seemed to me to be
unreasonable cranky. For whispering and other miner infractions of
discipline he would put the smaller pupils on the front bench facing the
school. Along the top of the wainscoting was a narrow ledge that caught us
about the middle of the back and made sitting on the front seat for any
length of time an extremely uncomfortable experience. Another teacher was
Nathaniel THOMPSON. If I am not mistaken he afterwards had a drug store in
Philomath. Miss Cettie ARMSTRONG was both day school teacher and Sunday
School teacher. The last teacher I had at Independence was Will HOWARD, a
fine teacher and a splendid man. I thought so much of him that when he
transferred to the Beaver Creek school I went there too. The two schools
were about equally distant from our home."
"When Billy REYNOLDS taught at Beaver Creek he changed the teacher's from front to the back of the room so that the pupils could not so easily tell when the teacher's eye was upon them. George BETHERS taught at Beaver Creek, also James BRYAN who was afterwards County Superintendent. " "A great deal of attention was given by some of the teachers to penmanship and mental arithmetic. In mental arithmetic the teacher would read a problem from the book and the pupil was expected to repeat the problem and give the analysis and the correct solution. Some of the problems were quite long and complicated. Frequently there was a class in algebra for the older boys. I got my first taste of algebra at the Beaver Creek school. Then I went to Philomath College for three winters, about six months each winter. I did not finish the course but read law in the office of W. S. McFADEN, and of E. L. BRYAN. For many years I have had an office here in Philomath." |
| Charles W. DAVIS, Corvallis Pioneer |
| Corvallis Pioneer Memories |
| "I first went to school at the Independent schoolhouse when John B. HORNER was teacher. Belle SKIPTON, who afterward became Mrs. John B. HORNER, was one of the pupils. I remember one time Mr. HORNER had to discipline her. He had her by the arm trying to shake her and she was crying. She was a big girl then. There was one boy who was especially unruly. John HORNER used to string him up by the thumbs. He would tie strings to his thumbs, turn his face to the wall, draw his spread arms up until he had to stand on tip-toe, and keep him there for a considerable time." |
| Eva GIBBS COON; Corvallis Pioneer |
| Note about (Horner Museum's)
John B. Horner:"John B. Swadelnack was born on August 4, 1856 in
Central Texas to Frank and Mary Anna Swadelnack. He took the surname
Horner after his widowed mother married Elias Horner in Walla Walla
(Washington Territory). After attending Whitman College, Horner enrolled
in Philomath College, receiving the BS degree (1877) and the MS degree
(1879). He also attended Willamette University and received AB (1885) and
MS (1887) degrees. In the 1880s, he taught school at several places in
Oregon, including Buena Vista, Union, Brownsville, Roseburg, and Albany.
He married Isabelle Skimpton on September 5, 1880; they had two daughters,
Vera Delle and Pearl Alicia. In 1891, he began a teaching career at Oregon State that lasted for more than 40 years. He taught English from 1891 to 1902 and history from 1902 until 1933. In 1925, Horner formally established the museum at Oregon State that was later named for him. He wrote several books on Oregon history and literature as well as numerous articles. Horner died on September 14, 1933 in Corvallis."OSU |
| Corvallis Pioneer Memories |
| "I was born in 1866. I went to school at Wren in a schoolhouse that stood on the same ground where the present school is. It was a frame building. There had been an earlier building a little further north which may have been a log house. My teachers, so far as I can remember, were Emma REASONER, Mr. GOOD, May LILLY, Margaret KNOTT and Margaret DUNN. We had only three months of school each year at first. This was gradually lengthened to five or six months, but I did not get a great deal of schooling." |
| Dick BALLARD; Pioneer |
| Corvallis Pioneer Memories |
| "The settlements were all along the
narrow river bottoms, just a single row of farms. Father raised grain by
irrigation. It was not until years later that anybody thought the bench
land could be farmed.
I had had but little schooling before coming west, and about 1865 or '66 a neighborhood school was built, the first in our part of the country. This school, which was supported by rates paid by the parents of the pupils, had about fifteen to twenty pupils. My oldest brother was the first school teacher. A public school was established about 1869 or '70 and Mr. CURTIS, afterward Judge CURTIS, of Boise, was the first teacher. The schoolhouse was on our place. We had only three months school each year. My sister Jane (Mrs. PALMER), and my brothers, George and Walter were all older than I. Spelling schools and literary societies were often held in our part of the country, not only for entertainment but also for self-improvement." |
| William CLARK Corvallis Pioneer |
| Corvallis Pioneer Memories |
| "I attended the old Ebenezer schoolhouse after it was moved from the original l ocation, It was built on a hill just south of Alpine and about 1860 it was moved to a site on S. R. HAWLEY'S farm a mile and a half west. This was a more central location. My first teacher was Enoch TURNER. Another was Champ MANN.(CHAPMAN?) When Alfred NICHOLS taught there were 75 pupils and only one teacher. Mrs. DONNY was a fine teacher and taught several years in succession. My cousin Jesse BELKNAP taught and Mr. ARNOLD, Mr. MARTIN, and Mr. HAUERT. Mr. Martin went with a party prospecting for medicinal herbs and was poisoned in some manner in the Klamath country. Judge EAKIN, who died while a justice of the State Supreme Court, taught and boarded at our house. He read law in the evenings preparing for his bar examination. In addition to the common branches instruction was given in higher arithmetic and algebra. After getting what I could in the district schools I went to Willamette University at Salem and was graduated in 1884 with the B.S. degree. Then I studied law in Portland in the office of WILLIAMS and THAYER. This was W. W. THAYER who was afterward governor of the state and justice of the State Supreme Court. I was admitted to the bar in 1887 but never practiced except to write a will or draw up a legal paper for a neighbor. I had learned so much of the "slippery tricks" practiced by the lawyers that the profession did not appeal to me. One of the men under whom I studied was called "Slippery Dick" WILLIAMS. " |
| Edward BELKNAP; Pioneer |
| Corvallis Pioneer Memories |
| "I went to school first at the Gingle Schoolhouse near Wells and then at the Suver Schoolhouse further north in Polk County. Mr. WOODWARD, who was later County Judge of Benton County was a teacher there. Mr. ARMSTRONG taught several years at Suver. He used to get $20.00 to $30.00 per month and "board round". There were no women teachers then. We studied the three R's, Geography and Spelling. History and Algebra were for those who had finished the Eighth Reader. " |
| T. BEVENS; Pioneer |
| Corvallis Pioneer Memories |
| All the schooling I ever got was at the Kings Valley school. My first teacher was James CHAMBERS, son of Rowland CHAMBERS, a pioneer of 1846. It was Rowland CHAMBERS who built the grist mill in Kings Valley. I just loved James CHAMBERS as a teacher. He was so kind and good and such a good teacher. Other teachers were Mrs. SCRAFFORD, John MARKS, Frank HOOPER, and Mr. BRISTOW. When we had a good teacher they used to stay several years. " |
| Sarah LONG BEVENS; Pioneer |
| Corvallis Pioneer Memories |
| "About 1857 father sold his place and
moved to Sublimity in Marion County, where he had been preaching and
working to build a church school. He had succeeded in building a new
schoolhouse about thirty by sixty feet, two stories, upper and lower
rooms, with a hall in front and a stairway, two small rooms over the hall
on the upper floor. He wrote East for a teacher. They sent Milton WRIGHT,
then a United Brethren preacher, later a Bishop and father of the inventor
of the air plane. He taught the first year in the new schoolhouse. Had a
fine school, about forty scholars and one teacher. The next year a teacher
by the name of CLINGMAN, one year; third year, CHANDLER; fourth, W. H.
DAUGHERTY, a Brethren preacher.
"They sold the building to the District as Brother CONNOR wished to move the Church School to Philomath. He said there were more United Brethren people and better chance for support. Father said he wouldn't object if they built on this plan. "I was ten years old when Brother DAUGHERTY taught. He named my little sister who was ten years younger than I. He named her Lillie May and bought her a new dress. I think about 1864 Brother DAUGHERTY was sent to Washington Territory as a missionary. He traveled on foot, - he was a large, Fleshy man - and came home with typhoid fever, died soon after he got home. He asked father to look after the Walla Walla District as he thought it a fine opening for our church. Father promised he would. The next spring father came up to Washington. With the help of a son-in-law and some others he established a church school at Huntsville. Father HUNT donated forty acres of land. At the division of the church the Liberals took this property. Then father moved to the Palouse Country and worked to establish a church school at Albion, Washington. With the help of three sons and some others he succeeded. Had a fine school there for some years. Prof. L. B. BALDWIN (now of Oregon State College) and his sister-in-law taught the first three years. Miss METCALF got married, so left Professor alone. He taught some time after. Then Bishop HOSKINS with the help of students; my son and daughter assisted. "This didn't end our school, as the District hired a professor from Salem, T. H. CRAWFORD, with W. W. BEACH, assistant. CRAWFORD taught here five years. He was a fine teacher. He said our school was far ahead of the Salem school. This ended my school privileges, as we moved near Walla Walla in Washington." |
| Mrs. CALVERT; Corvallis Pioneer |
1st OSU graduating class: 1870
| Corvallis Pioneer Memories |
| "The schoolhouse at first was on a
hill about a half-mile west of Summit. For a time we had only three months
of school. When they began having a winter term the roads were so bad we
had to go on horseback and sometimes not all of us could go. Some of the
teachers in the early days were: Mrs. John DUNCAN and her daughter, Clara;
the woman who was later Mrs. Emma GELLATLY; Fred MYERS and W. B. RISLEY,
who still lives at Alsea. "
"In later years the district was divided and a new district was formed with the schoolhouse at Fern Ridge near our place. The teachers I remember at Fern Ridge were Mrs. Molly MARKS, Bertha PLUNKETT (THOMPSON), and Mrs. Charles KENNEDY. " |
| Etna BARCHARD Pioneer |
Asha (a volunteer organization supporting basic education for underprivileged children in India)
| Corvallis Pioneer Memories |
| "I lived with a family named ARMSTRONG, and went to school near Pine Grove Cemetery about three and one half miles south of Peoria. This was from the time I was nine until I was thirteen. Among my teachers were a Mr. ARCHIBALD and a Mr. GIBSON. I have made my own way in the world since I was thirteen." |
| Alfred CLEMENS Corvallis Pioneer |
Hooking Schools
Corvallis
Open-House Hooking, Corvallis, OR
C/O
Carol McDuffie, 503-753-9242.
| "From about the time father was seventeen years old he carried the mail from Albany to Eugene on horseback. For four years he did this, making the trip in one direction one day and returning the next day. He washed dishes at the hotels to pay his board and on the nights he was in Albany he attended night school to improve his education. He had had little opportunity for schooling before that time. The night school seems to have been a private school and as I remember, there were several pupils." |
| Grace ANDERSON; Pioneer |
