I attended Campville School
(Harwinton's 7th school district), grades three through
seven, from September 1931 until June 1936. My teachers
were: Mrs. Amy Wilson for one year, Miss Minerva Matoon
for three years, and Mrs. Malaney for my final year
in that educational facility.
Though we lived in Harwinton, my two older sisters and
I had been students in the Town of Litchfield's Fluteville
School, which was closed at the end of my second grade
for its shortage of students. This little School had
been located only about a mile South of our farm house
along the valley road to Thomaston, called "Route
#8", while Campville School was located about two
and one-half miles distant in a northerly direction
by way of the unimproved "dirt roads" now
named "Wildcat Hill Road" and "Campville
Hill Road".
For some years my sisters, Bobbie and Billie, and I
walked the distance both ways to school each day in
all kinds of weather, excepting when we were able to
rarely "hitch a ride" with a neighbor, or
when our farm truck might be induced into going our
way. During later years we could take the hourly bus
of "The New England Transportation Company"
as far north on Route #8 as Campville Center. We would
then walk the steep unimproved "Campville Hill
Road" about a half-mile to and from school. Sometimes
we would bring our sleds for the return trip.
Even now, about sixty-eight years later, my sisters
and I well remember the below zero morning during which,
while trudging up that hill in a few inches of snow,
one of my sisters decided that she was so cold and tired
that she could go no further! I took her by the hand
and pulled her along, while my other sister pushed her
along from behind. When we finally arrived at the school,
we found the door locked! There was no shelter and no
heat! School had been called off because of the extreme
cold, but no one had remembered to telephone us of that
fact (It was a toll call from Torrington to Thomaston).
After a brief conference, Billie, Bobbie and I decided
to walk the several hundred feet to the Slate home to
seek warmth. Mrs. Slate had us come in to get warm,
fed us cocoa, and let us use the phone to call our parents
to come and rescue us. She was such a kind and generous
lady!
Though having been one of the benefactors, it is still
difficult for me to believe that one teacher, single
handedly, was able to care for thirty students, ranging
in age from five to sixteen spread over the eight grades.
It is also almost unbelievable that at the same time
these mostly young ladies were able to teach us to read,
write, recite, spell, appreciate music, honor our parents,
salute the flag, conjugate sentences, and do arithmetic
- all to the degree that we ended up prepared to enter
High School, or as with some, to go out into the adult
world and earn a living.
Campville School, as with most of the one room schools
in Town, had no electricity, used kerosene lamps, was
heated by a wood burning stove near the front of the
room, and obtained its hand carried water for drinking
and washing from the not so nearby brook. The atmosphere
and condition of the outhouse could be a story of its
own!
There was no way to readily communicate an emergency,
and no other adult around to aid the teacher or share
the heavy load. The teachers had the full responsibility
for the welfare of the children from 9 am till 4pm each
school day. Without question, the teachers in the one-room
schools were heroines of the first order!
GAMES and ACTIVITIES: Played cops and robbers, cowboys
and Indians, hide and seek, and blind mans bluff. We
also whittled and carved whistles, bows and arrows and
sling shots with our pocket knives, played haley over,
climbed trees and wrestled. The girls played hopscotch
and jump rope in addition to some of the “boys
games”.
