The Old Schoolhouse – Honoring a Legacy of Learning

If you have eyes, and an appreciation of symbolic reminders of the past, let me suggest a visit this Thursday afternoon to the 1840 Snyder Schoolhouse in Spring Arbor. At that one-roomer where hundreds of children once learned their "readin', writin' and 'rithmetic," some of us local historians will dedicate the latest of the Jackson County Michigan Historical Society's signs.

If that teaser is of interest, mark it down for 4 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 14. Location? The schoolhouse is located in Spring Arbor Township’s Harmony Park at the corner of Star and Harmony Road (behind McDonald’s, in between the district library and the Fire Station).

The 1840 Snyder Schoolhouse. It was located on the northwest corner of Chapel and King Road from 1840/41-2001. In 2001, it was transported to Harmony Park at the corner of Star and Harmony Road.The 1840 Snyder Schoolhouse. It was located on the northwest corner of Chapel and King Road from 1840/41-2001. In 2001, it was transported to Harmony Park at the corner of Star and Harmony Road. (Photo Credit: Ken Wyatt)

Why might this be of interest to you? There are among us aging students of that particular schoolhouse - and others scattered around Jackson County. These buildings are mostly lonely, abandoned citadels of learning, long since replaced by modern buildings with such features as "imagination hives", sophisticated computer labs and cafeterias where hundreds of children are fed meals that once were provided by their parents at home or in lunch pails.

Snyder is only one of those old schoolhouses. And in a sense, it is symbolic of all the others. As a member of the historical society board, I can tell you that we've kicked around ideas for those others. Perhaps, before they're all buried in the dust heaps of history, we might write more detailed accounts of some of them.

Sara, Liz, Judy, Lloyd and myself during a visit several years ago to the old schoolhouse. (Photo Credit: Ken Wyatt)

But this week's ceremony is something for the here-and-now. And I'll gladly point out that, but for the generosity of Lloyd and Judy Ganton, this symbolic remembrance would not be happening.

I was part of a small group a while back that visited the schoolhouse. It is, in effect, a museum - available to those who are interested in a glimpse at education as it once was.

My father attended one much like this one in southern Indiana back in the late '20s and early '30s. Indeed, all of America once was the realm of the one-room schoolhouse. No less a figure than John Greenleaf Whittier enriched American literature with these lines that introduced his poem, "In School Days":

Still sits the school-house by the road,

A ragged beggar sleeping;

Around it still the sumachs grow,

And blackberry-vines are creeping.

Those lines aptly describe one old Pulaski Township schoolhouse sitting forlorn in a field not far from our home at Swains Lake.

David Elwell and myself outside the Snyder Schoolhouse. (Photo Credit: Ken Wyatt)

The Gantons had it in their hearts to preserve one of these old houses of education. I'm hoping to see some of you on Thursday for a bit of celebration, ceremony and fellowship where once upon a time the schoolhouse bell called children to one of the sacred halls of learning. It is a humble place, to be sure. But it was a sacred in the grand possibilities that lie in the future for all children.

My friend Leo took this shot of a schoolhouse out in Grass Lake. (Photo Credit: Ken Wyatt)

During Civil War days a few years ago, I was visiting the Riceville schoolhouse on the grounds of the Hubbard Museum when I spotted this young girl reading from one of the old schoolbooks. I asked her to read from it, and she did a beautiful job. This area is restricted during battle. (Photo Credit: Ken Wyatt)

This is one of the sadder specimens of the old schoolhouses that are no longer kept up. It is located in a field south of here off of Pulaski Road.Toilet paper (Photo Credit: Ken Wyatt)

The old Quakertown school in Parma Township. (Photo Credit: Ken Wyatt)

Here's a shot of the first reunion of the Quakertown school in 1908. (Photo Credit: Ken Wyatt)