The Old Bogue School

The Bogue School, 1857 Wallings Map

The Old Schools, PART TWO

Ever wonder about those old schools? The families and kiddos had vastly different experiences than today’s world. Running water and plumbing did NOT exist. Privies for boys and girls were used. Heat was by a wood stove, which left you hot if you were near it, but cold on the other side of the room.  By the early 1900’s Vermont rules stated that all children age 8-15 MUST attend school. Children over the age of 12 could work before or after school or during vacations in “railroading, mining etc.”  For those under 16, you could work no later than 8 p.m. All the residents on Deane Road, known previously as Shanley Road and before that, R11, were farmers, so I am sure they appreciated having their boys home to help with the farming…but the girls could have done it too!

The Bogue School ended its educational services in 1920, but continued to provide a space for community events. My mother or aunt told us that our grandmother, Virginia F. Deane, would go to the schoolhouse where a number of women knit socks for the soldiers in WWII. Perhaps they were part of the Knitting for Victory efforts by the American Red Cross that made millions of articles for the soldiers abroad. Perhaps this was how my mother became and remained a long time knitter, knitting all kinds of apparel for her family. These are things we likely will never know for sure. But the thoughts warm my heart.

And pretty amazing that The Bogue School, District #11, still stands...after 182 years. What stories those old weather boards could tell.