Compiled by Betty Jane Wilson, society president
It was not "School Days, School Days, Dear Old Golden Rule Days," according to the Valley Falls New Era Feb. 14, 1884. Reporting "A Skirmish in School," the news item continued:
"It appears from facts gleaned, that there was a pretty lively skirmish between the teacher, Mr. Wilson in District No. 38 (North Cedar), and one of the pupils named Gragg, the son of Zachariah Gragg.
"The lad had been guilty of some misdemeanor for which the teacher called him to account. This was in the evening before school closed. The next morning, just after school started, the teacher invited young Gragg to come forward and take off his coat for the purpose of receiving further punishment for his misconduct of the evening before. The lad refused, and Mr. Wilson waded into him with a good sized stick from a hedge fence. The boy offered stern resistance, grabbed up another big switch that was near at hand and for several minutes the teacher and pupil had a lively game of 'slapjack' and it was nip and tuck for a time, but the teacher finally got the mastery of the pupil, made him take off his coat, and take a severe castigation in his shirt sleeves. It is said he whipped the boy so severely that the blood ran down to the floor. The fracas so frightened the younger pupils that they fled in terror and went home. At last accounts, all was quiet and the teacher was still holding the fort."
However, the Feb. 28, 1884, issue of the same news source reported:
"Wilson, the school teacher in the Grace District (No. 38), called his school at the usual hour last Friday morning, and, when all were seated, proceeded to inform them that his labors among them were about to end and admonished them to 'steer their footsteps in another direction' — go to another district — 'if they would become Newtons, Washingtons, or Garfields.' The 'atmosphere of their own district was too demoralizing for the proper development of great minds, which they gave evidence of possessing.'
"He rattled on in this sarcastic strain for some time, then took his leave of the place, and a day or two later, after a settlement with the directors, he went back to his mother in Indiana. Kansas is doubtless too far west for such soft cracklins as Mr. Wilson."
The Valley Falls Historical Society Museum will be open at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 2.
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