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Community Corner

The Last One-Room School in Harford

Long after modern schools were open, this institution of learning was a holdout.

When you think of one-room schoolhouses, no doubt it brings to mind images of little girls in bonnets and petticoats, walking down a dirt road and swinging tin lunch pails. In other words, you’re probably thinking they’re a relic of the 1800s.

However, the last one-room schoolhouse in Harford County didn’t close until 1954.

Jefferson School was located near Carsin’s Run. When it was first built in 1860, it was a stone building with only one room. After it burned, it was rebuilt in 1897 with frame construction. It then had two separate rooms. By all accounts, nothing changed by the time it closed.

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According to a couple of former students, Jefferson School provided a good education as well as a memorable experience. 

When Nancy Sheridan Stubbs, who now lives in Elkton, began attending Jefferson School in the second grade in 1941, her family had just moved here from NYC. She described it as being a bit of a “culture shock.” She related how she walked up the hill to the school from where her family lived. They owned the store which would later become known as Carsin’s Run Store.

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When Stubbs arrived at school, she sat on the side which was the first-, second-, and third-grade class.  The other side accommodated grades 4-7. 

"I remember my mother taking a picture of all of the students on my last day of school," in 1946, as they stood on the steps outside the building, Stubbs said. "There were about 40 students at that time, and they all fit on the steps."

Stubbs’ sister, Alice Ann Sheridan Holland, also attended the school, as did their brother, Carl Edwin “Eddie” Sheridan. Stubbs recalled, “Although mentally challenged, Eddie went to Jefferson School for several years.” And their aunt, Edna Sheridan Schreiber, was a member of the graduating Class of 1922.

Upon graduating from Jefferson School in the seventh grade in 1946, Stubbs then attended Aberdeen High School in the old building on Route 40, which is now a community center.

"I was delighted to see that they had indoor bathrooms," unlike Jefferson School, Stubbs said.

Roger Preston, who still lives in the area, also attended Jefferson School and described it as being “very unique,” especially the old woodstove.

“Students would gather the wood for it and clean it out as well.  And we would also heat up lunch on it.  Soup, usually," Preston said.

When asked if he had any humorous memories of the school, Preston relayed the following tale. 

“When we  misbehaved, the teacher would send us out to get a stick so that she could switch them. Some of the boys decided it would be a good idea to weaken the switches before the teacher could get after them with it,” he said.

Preston also remembered that someone got switched just about every day.  He asserted that they weren’t bad kids, but that “it was just the teacher’s way of maintaining control.” And, he said, he “got a pretty good education there.”

In an article, "The Story of Carsin's Run," written by Preston’s son, Brian, which appeared in The Harford Democrat in 1970, he mentioned that there was at least one notable alum. 

William Baker was active in Maryland politics, and his accomplishments include serving as a congressman from 1895-1901. He was also one of the organizers of the First National Bank of Aberdeen and was its president from 1891-1911. He was the son of George T. Baker, who owned a local cannery.

This brings us to the teachers at the school. Although there were many over the years, there were usually two at a time, including Mrs. Herbert Gorrell,  May Shantz, Mable Kelly and Rebecca Gilbert Craig.

According to an article that appeared in The Aberdeen Enterprise when the school was officially closed in February 1954, it was Kelly, the principal of Jefferson School, who escorted her 26 students via school bus to their new scholastic home, Churchville Elementary School. There, they continued to be taught in a one-room setting for the rest of the year. The following September, the children from Jefferson School joined the Churchville students in their respective grades.

Children living on the Aberdeen side of the intersection attended Aberdeen Elementary School.

However, the story doesn’t quite end there.  In the summer of 2010, a reunion of students from Jefferson School was held at Hopewell United Methodist Church, in Level. The guest of honor was their former teacher, Rebecca Craig. 

Craig, who had recently turned 96, was reunited with 12 of the 85 students she taught in fourth through seventh grades from 1934 to 1941, according to an article in The Aegis.  All of the students who attended were Harford County residents.

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