Bell Township High School - Bee Tee Vie Yearbook (Salina, PA)

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BEE TEE VIE The early school onth was twenty-six days long, hat meant having school every ay except Sunday. By 1860 he school month had been sh rtened to twenty-two days, whi h included just every other Satur ay. This was soon changed to the school month of twenty days s we have it now. The Bible, Pilg im's Pro- gress, Robinson Cr soef' and other such books as 'ere found in the homes were thi! only text books at first. Later tliie ' 'United States Reader and Cobb's Speller were used, and for an arithmetic, the Western Cal- culator. As late as 1863 little rr geography or gra ll'T1aI' WHS taught. ln 1850 1V1cGuffey's Readers and Spellersu and Rays Arithmetics' use. Each pupil pr came into pvided his own text books and he teacher was required to teac whatever the pupil brought, m kingfxany different classes neceisary. Penmanship was a spected art and rem sults were achieved paper with goose quill by the teacher and highly re- rkable re- n foolscap pens made homemade ink.5 Sums were done on small slates with small piecies of soft slate gathered from or crick. When Bell Towns a separate townshi Alcorns' School, me fore, was the first s the ' 'run ip became in 1853, tioned be- chool built and took care of the immediate se community' 'und tho who had attended lV1cDivittsg which was located near Beaver Run. About the same time Duffields' was moved near D. S. Carnahan's farm, and the Dutch F lat School was relocated near james Mor- gan's. The location of Shaffer's and the Bell Point School re- mained unchanged. The buildings erected about 185 8 were frame buildings heated with cast iron coal stoves. The cost of building these and fur- nishing them completely was ap- proximately 532500. Until 1887 Bell Townships school system was comprised of six schools. Then a sixth build- ing was constructed at Salina by the Townsend Brother Con- tractors. In 1900 the Dutch Flat School was rebuilt near Lucian Claw- son'sg DuFF1eld's was abandoned and a new building was con- structed near Albert Wolford'sg and the location of the Bell Point School was changed. When part of the Bell Point district was cut off from Bell Township and annexed to Wash- ington Township, the Bell Point School was returned to its original site. At the same time the building at Wo1ford's was rebuilt as Wolwend's. This building was later moved to Salina. A second building was built at Bell Point in 1915. A one room school was ade- quate at Salina until 1903, when the number of pupils required more space. As a solution to this

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Introduction In 1800 when the settlers began to feel safe from Indian raids, they decided to build schools and churches. In some parts of Westmoreland County one building served both pur- poses. The parents of this com- munity, who desired their child- ren to have an English education, agreed to construct a school buildingl on the Yockey farm about a mile south of where Perrysville now is. This building was built on the same plan as most of the early settlers' houses, which were us- ually built of split logs and had shed roofs and ground Hoors. These girls and boys of more than a decade ago sat upon puncheon2 seats with their backs against the wall and wrote at rough board desks which were fitted against the wall. Openings which served as windows were covered with greased paper to admit some light and yet keep out the rain and snow. A fire- place at one end of the room was frequently large enough to admit a back log3 five or six feet long. The school sessions started at daylight in the morning and lasted until dark, 'making it necessary for the pupils to study at home by firelight or the dim light of a fat lamp or tallow candle. The first school house4 was probably the only one in the bounds of Bell Township until 1824, when the law provided for the election of three school directors with authority to lay out the township in school dis- tricts. Before Bell Township was separated from Washington, school houses were built at Shaffersf Perrysville, Bell Point, Dutch Flat, and Duffieldsf In 1853 a school house was erected near Alcorns' Cross Roads, and in 1887 one in Salina. All of these early buildings were log ones heated with coal stoves. Later buildings were constructed of hewn logs, had comb roofs of clapboards or shingles, and rough oaken board floors. They were heated by wood burning stoves, which were later replaced by eggshaped coal stoves. Those students who wished to write sat on an oak board bench at a wide chestnut board desk, which extended around three sides of the room. At these the pupils laboriously copied the copy which the teacher gave them. Since the larger boys and girls were the only ones who took writing, the smaller ones sat on a bench, using the fronts of the writers desks for back rests and having no desks for themselves' 1 The building was on the plot which is now the St. james Cemetery, but neither the cemetery nor church were there then. . Punclfeonisplit logs, . Back log-a large log placed at the back of the fire place, against which the fire was laid. . Black ink was made from logwood or maple, red ink from poke berries. 2 3 21. On the Yockey farm, where the St. james Church stands. 6 . Public Works Administration-a system of allotting government funds for the construction of public buildings,

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Introduction problem the P. O. S. of A. Hall was rented for school use. In order to solve the problem per- manently a four room building was built in 1905. Four more rooms were added to this twelve years later. The first steps in establishing a high school curriculum were taken by Bella Glass Boden in 1908. This work was directed by lvlrs. Boden herself as Super- vising principal until 1911. Dur- ing that time E. E. Shaulis and Eugene Piatt were high school principals. ln 1911 Salina High School, offering a two year course, was officially organized with E. B. Leaf, principal. From 1913 to 1916 E. H. Keibler and james L. jones held the principalship. A third year was added in 1917, when james Hughes was principal. R. G. Bortz, V. R. Peterson, and Charles Helman served in that capacity one term each with the same curriculum. C. M. McNaughton came to Salina as high school principal in 1921 and held that position until 1929. During his stay the schools of the township were consolidated and a fourth year was added to the high school course, making it a standard fourth class high school. Mr. George Willard began his work as supervising principal, too, in 1921. In order to take care of the number of students that were being brought in from the out- lying schools the building was moved in from Wolwends and two other portable rooms were added. This situation caused the members of the school board, F. F. Weister, president, john lVlcCreary, secretary, W. J, Whitesell, treasurer, D. P. Bow- man and R. L. Alcorn, members to make plans for the erection of a new high school building. This, the first brick school building in the township, was completed in 1929. lt had eight class rooms and a spacious auditorium, which accommodated grades seven to twelve. At the same time as the new building there came a new high school principal to B. T. I-I, Sq Mr. George Gage, who remained until 1931. Mr. Mearl Gerheim, who taught in the highschool for one year when Mr. Gage was principal, was elected to the office of high school principal in 1932 A vocational course was offered for the first time in 1930. Forty- two students .were enrolled in this course the first year, and the number increased from year to year, definitely increasing the enrollment of the school. The course included all phases of home economics, as well as agriculture and shop. These, of course, interested a number of students who had not wanted the academic course offering foreign languages, science, history and advanced mathematics. The frame building, which