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"Tuesday, October 18, 1838 - Notices had been posted in several conspicuous places in School District No. 10, Town of Hempstead, calling for a special meeting of the freeholders of the District at the schoolhouse on the 16th of October, 1838, at early candle light. The purpose of the meeting being to authorize Christian Snedecker, Abraham Miller and Elbert Treadwell, Trustees, to repair the schoolhouse and to contract for fuel for the coming winter... The schoolhouse is an exceedingly old structure, located at Bethel on the road leading from Hick's Neck to the village of Hempstead. The old house had been standing for seventy-five and one hundred years and is shockingly out of repair; at best, it is an old barrack. The structure is about fifty feet by twenty, of wood, clapboards of oak. Light is admitted to the interior through seven square windows distributed along three sides of the building, with solid board shutters hung on hand made. wrote iron hinges without fastenings, except the logs of wood which stand against them, serving the double purpose of keeping them open or shut, as circumstances required, may claim that dignity. The interior of the Bethel Schoolhouse consists of an entry and one schoolroom, sealed entirely with plain boards, no superfluity of paint or plaster intruded to mar the absolute rusticity. The great oaken beams axed square are exposed overhead. The desk at which the pupils sit is constructed of common pine boards and extends continuously around three sides of the interior, the surface of which is nearly covered with the rudely carved initials of three generations of ambitious students. The Master's desk is on a slight elevation in the northwest corner of the room... it was used six days a week for school
purposes, for Methodist prayer meetings on Friday nights , and occasion
religious services on Sunday... at the period above referred to William
Fowler was the master. He was succeeded by master Ellison who came in answer to
an advertisement for a teacher... He was succeeded by
Jesse Pettit, a teacher
who rendered faithful service for many years in this school. He subsequentially
became a proselyte of Mormonism and moved with his entire family to City of the
Saints in Nauvoo. His successor was John McGee, an Irishman, and a man of
more than average ability." -
Personal reminiscences of men
and things on Long Island, Daniel M. Tredwell, 1912-1917
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