Dazey High School - Log Yearbook (Dazey, ND)

Page 42 text:

2 5 vs..- .- - -.-v-.f-.-YA., 4 tl 'r 'n 'I 'r 'l 2 .1- -f AAv f, - vAAwsAN mo.rte1it and the voices of friends and the old familiar sounds will come back t0 you one by one. The marks on the wall, the scratches and carvings on the desks all have a little story to tell and their story is a story of the De0Dle you knew -and the people that you will remember as the ghosts of the old original haunted house whisper in your ear. You were promised a historical section along with this yearbook. That is very simple. I'll simply decide where to begin arid go to the records. However, the records are dry and one is immediately faced with the question of just where its beginning. Would' you begin' with the erection of a school actually has thelbuilding? I think not. A building is dead but education and learning is some- thing alive. It. is an idea, an ambition, matured in the mind of every man- But we want the beginning, so the question is just where did that idea come from? Who brought it here? Well, we are getting into impcnderables now. We will have to take something concrete. There are stories and they can be run down. They may be a bit hazy and the date uncertain but it seems th-at the original Scl100l building was constructed in Dazey in 18'24 just after the railroad came through town and the year the plotting of the town fSeptem.oer' 18, 18843 by John M. iJackJ B'urrel1 to whom Charles T. Dazey had deeded the townsite for the con- sideration of one dollar. Among the young men who gallantly helped in the con- struction of this temple of learning , later to be known as the 'knowledge box', was a young man who was later to be one of the schools early scholars, Elmer Oppegard. Then the first group of scholars graced the new structure. Without a trace of irony, I must say that that first class must have been a sight to behold. One teacher, Miss Ophilia, Wilsie, ruled 9 schol-ars, the age cf which ranged from. 3 to 19. During the years that followed strange things, according to present standards, occurred in the little one-'room school which was locat.ed approximately on the corner of .the block behind the present blacksmith shop or what was Oppegard's Implement. In another section of this 'book you will find a complete list of' the -teachers who performed their .missions in our little community, as I can determine from the records which ex'st. The terms. as they were called, seem.- ed to come at no particular time of the year.and thev seemed to h-ave no specif- ied len'gtIi. Some years one term was held of one, two or three months duration and sometimes two or three terms were held 'during the year. According to the school reports, the equipment was good and one of the most important duties of the pedagogue was to inspect the outhouses regularly and I presume that this was done without interfering greatly in the days routine. The teacher was paid, at least I note the sum is called salary on the report. M'ss Ophilia Wilsie tau- ght the first term of school for thirty-five drfllars ner month and during the years that followed the salary did not vary a great deal. Let us settle on 1888 now and try to guess what was going on. It is safe to assume that the principal talk was of the prospective Sfetehood and of Drohibition. In the general election of November the dry law came into being. I am told that 1.888 w-as the first year during which rainfall was plentiful enough to produce a good stand. Hopes suffered a severe setback, however, when the greater part of the crop froze on August 17. In that year of 1888, to the memory of the old timers, one of the first base- ball game was played against the Getchell ball team, with such men as Frank Ciriick on third, O. T. Olson on first, Clendenning at short, Knut Thompson catch- 'f'. Sif- art Tolstad in left field. and Alf Anderson in right fieldf In 1090 Anna Mary Woodcock took 'the reins of the old school to remain until 1893. During this time the world was in a furor -about labor unions, and when isn't it? The Hay- market Anarchist riots 'became a memory, Charley Chaplin and Paul Whiteman were born, 1891 produced the biggest crop this country has ever seen, Charley Dazey published his famous play In Old Kentucky . There was much in the news about the fights between the budding labor unions and' the Pinkerton truards and detectives, and a man by the name of E. A. Duff came to Dazey to be depot agent for a salary of forty-live dollars per month. Mr. Duff tells me that he WOUl'lf not have been able to take the job if he had admitted that he belonged to railroad brotherhood. .,.fvvx,.-.-,,-.-.-.-,,-,.,.,.,.g,v.v.',.-A-.'.,,v.'.'.,.,.g,-,.,..,. .-.v.v.,'.'.'.v.- ,.,.,.J ,,,-,-,-.- ,-,-.-,-.

Page 41 text:

14 a-Gfiafcaical Piciaae . . . In scattered communities 'throughout the land stand houses which have the reputation of being haunted. Those buildings have usually been standing vacant for many yearsg the paint is badly peeled: the porch is droopyi vines overun the house: the windows are broken and people, while they don't make a point of it, don't usually walk by that house at night, Among the children of the com- munity. hushed words of scary StorieS circulate concerning the so-called haunt- ed house of the city. Now I may be 21 sentimentalist, but I believe that every community has a house in it which is rgally haunted. It may be old and it may battered, but the older and the more battered it is the more chances are that ghosts inhabit the building. The building of which I speak is the schoolhouse. You may not believe what I sayg but if you your old school house. Don't go to visit new voices and faces will blot out the from that -old building. Simply visit the the summer when the building stands a front -of the building and look around hollows where home plate has been for see the trees, spindly little things perhaps when you were in school, grown in your time. The building looks much thirty-five years. Oh, 'there is a crack don't the odds are that you need to visit when school is in session becauses the voices of long ago that will speak to-you building, not the people there. Go during great empty hulk of uselessness. Stand in you. You will see the old bare spots and so long. To the north and west you will tall the same, if you attended during the last here and there and the white marks on either side of the front door where the tots beat erasers from time to -lime, are still there. The metal fire escapes will bring back memories of surreptitious climbs long years ago. On the south side of the building a little concrete pump house juts which you recognize to be -a relatively new addition. The old giant stride on which you may have received a bloody nose, a knocked out tooth, a bruised body or perhaps even ia broken bone, is gone as is the old teoler-totter. The slide west of the building is also gone and all have been replaced recently with playground equipment located on the block north of the SCl'lO0l. Now step into the building. the recognize-able odor of sweeping compound is there, and the old brass h-and-bell greets you from its little shelf above the ra- diator'to the left. Step up that first flight of steps now, go ahead. Now just whose silhouette would you expect to see against the window at the top of the next flight of stairs, -and just whom would you expect to see standing in line at the Old water fountain, and just which of the many teachers who have stood to the left and right of the door gently brushing their posterior against the two rad- iators frowning severely .at any inisbebavlor in the line of children just come in from a hard tustle at recess on the playground. Could it have been Miss Erickson, Miss Lund, Miss Johnson, Miss Tronness, Mrs Sands, Miss Fosmo, Miss Anderson, Miss Goheen, Miss Noxon-, Miss Larsen, Miss Ritchie, Miss Torgerson, or any of the others. And now as you walk over to the left and begin to ascend the stairs, do you actually see a figure standing at the west window with its hands resting lightly on the sill -and Deering intently out at a cloud of dust on the sec- tion west of town? Was it a mirage or could it have been a ghost? oh, yes, they are there all right. Just stand there and absorb that atmosphere and listen for a 1-vvvsfvxAAfv-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. .fAf.-.-vvvv-.-.-.-.-.-.-Jvvsfvv-.-.-.-.-.-.x,N,vvvd,-v-v-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.V Q,-v-.,-------v-v-.-Q-.-.-.-v-.

Page 43 text:

-smAAAA,-1vvw.fc On July 10, 1893 Valborg Petterson began a summer term and Lars Posenna Solsness took up the burden in the fall. Solsness remaned here until October of 1894 when Miss Rich assumed the duties of teacher in the Dazey school. Miss Rich remained until the spring of 1895. During this time a current events class would have had much to do with Coxey's army's march on Washingtong the dis- COVGTY Of X-I HY- I d0I1 t Sl1lJD0se that there would have been much in the papers about it but during this time Jack Benny made his original debut, and W. .l'. Bryan was getting ready to ni-ake his bid for the presidency against McKinley. 1895 produced 'the biggest crop that this country has ever seen and a young man by the name of C. P. Stowman came into town to run an elevator. During that same year the men of the town were inspired to build a one-half mile track. This was located in the vicinity Of the Stcwman -and Tolstad homes. The track was first plowed and then the strips of sod were cut into pieces. It was all haul- ed off. The parade of teachers following until 1900 worked terms of irregular length and none of 'them received more than sixty dollars per month for their efforts. They were eventful years, The papers must have played heavily on the Spanish situation and the country in general must have been well worked up over the treatinent of the Cuban natives by the Spanish. By this time W. R. Hearst had become a propagandist to reckon with. The-Ti '6n February 15, 1899 the battleship Maine was blown up an America was at war. Many men from this area volunteered for duty in the Spanish war and they became a par-t of the most ponderous and inefficient piece of military machinery the world has ever seen. The following year the Dazey school developed growing pains and a new school building was erected just in front of where the present school is located. In later years the building became better known as the Kelley house. The old orig- inal school house was moved over on the corner opposite where the Security Bank was to be built in years to come, and it became a part of the Waldorf Hotel. It was used as a billi-ard hall and soft drink establishment. The first bank in town wa.: organized by J. E. Jacobson, and began operation in a little shack which stood approximately where Elmer Oppegard's building was later put up. The crop went completely haywire in 1900. The season was extremely dry un- til July 4 when it began to rain and never really stopped, The rain came in time to save some fl-ax but a hailstorm in August finished that off. Due to the croli failure, prices soared and the following spring the price of wheat reached one dollar. Of course, everyone was buying seed, so no one was happy about the price, During this period people began to think a little about lights, telephones and other blessings of progress. A few carbide lights began to appear. By 1903 the Wright Bros, were about to make their first airplane flight and Dazeyite H. O. Oppegard 'began his four year term as Barnes County Sheriff land' Al .Tolson as a young fellow was singing By the Light of the Silvery Moon . In 1904 can:-e the building year in the village of Dazey. The Dazey State Bank building and Securi y Blank building were constructed. 1904 may also have the dubious honor of befnft the first year thatx black stem rust appeared. The rust was not so severe that the crop was a total loss, however. VWI vvv-,r .--A