Friday, August 17, 2018

Assemblywoman Jenne reflects on importance of churches, schools in ag communities

Assemblywoman Addie A.E. Jenne, D-Theresa, said she enjoyed listening to former students of one-room and community schools reminisce about their educational experiences prior to the centralization of schools in St. Lawrence County.

The St. Lawrence Power & Equipment Museum hosted a country school reunion Saturday on the museum grounds in Madrid, which drew former neighborhood school students from Coles Creek to Heuvelton.

The group, which included a centenarian, ranged from students who attended those schools in the 1920s to a student who was attending the West Potsdam school until it closed its doors in 1966,.

"Listening to their stories, their memories of their teachers -– some were strict, some were nice – and the shenanigans that went on weren't all that different than my memories from school. It's a reminder that the more things change the more they stay the same," Assemblywoman Jenne said.

The afternoon session included a stop at the No. 12 Schoolhouse from the town of LeRay in Jefferson County that now sits on the museum grounds. The schoolhouse was restored - with work completed in 2014 - after it was moved to Madrid.

The schoolhouse was donated to the St. Lawrence Power & Equipment Museum in 2010 by the Indian River Central School District.

At that time it stood midway between the villages of Philadelphia and Evans Mills, not far from its original location. It had been donated to the district and moved there in 1990 by Champion International Corporation to make room for a road- widening project.

The schoolhouse is believed to have been built around 1850 after the Free School Act was passed to meet the needs of the community.

The schoolhouse first appeared on maps in 1855. It continued to be used until its closing in 1915, likely due to the U.S. Army expanding its Pine Camp facilities in 1913, incorporating much of the land that is now Fort Drum. Many farm families and their children had to move away from the area.

Roger Austin, a long-time member of the museum board, said a schoolhouse and a church were critical components in the planning process for the museum grounds.

Mr. Austin recalled the effort that led to the museum site being located near the intersections of Route 345 and Route 310 in Madrid.

He said board members had reviewed 18 sites when he got a call from Leon Goolden expressing an interest in having the museum located on the site of his three-generation family farm in Madrid.

Mr. Austin said museum officials were searching for a site with at least 40 acres, some tillable, with some older buildings near a state highway. Mr. Goolden’s farm met all the criteria.

"It was 150 tillable acres with six original buildings, including the outhouse. We worked out an arrangement suitable to both parties, and we had our site to preserve the heritage of the North Country and the technology of farming," Mr. Austin said.

"By 2006, the museum owned a new home and what has been accomplished since is really amazing. The treasures you see, the collections are priceless," he noted.

"Today, our woodshop is being built. That's exhibit 28. You can see the progress that is being made. This has really all happened in just 12 short years," he pointed out.

Mr. Austin said a second phone call that changed the museum's trajectory came in December 2009 when Assemblywoman Jenne shared the potential for the 1850 schoolhouse to become one of the museum's exhibits.

She said she first learned of the museum board's interest in having a schoolhouse on the site when she attended festivities at the power and equipment Madrid museum on Labor Day weekend in 2008.

"My predecessor had helped fund projects here in the past. We walked around the grounds, and it was a pretty empty field at that time," Assemblywoman Jenne said.

"Later, as I kept driving by the old schoolhouse on Route 11 in the Indian River School District, I started seeing the potential for it to be here," she said, noting she called Mr. Austin after learning the school district was eager to sell the schoolhouse.

"It took a lot of work and a lot of money, but here we are. The schoolhouse was hauled here, restored and now is a centerpiece of the museum," Assemblywoman Jenne, who helped secure state funding to move the schoolhouse to Madrid, said.

She said education and religion have long played an important role in communities with deep ties to farming.

"It embodies our values. It is particularly meaningful for education and religion to be must exhibits at an ag museum," Assemblywoman Jenne.

IN THE PHOTOS:

TOP PHOTO:

Assemblywoman Addie A.E. Jenne smiles as young students, mostly from the Canton area, dressed in clothing typical of that warned by their peers in the 19th Century, recited the first Pledge of the Allegiance and sang a patriotic song.

BOTTOM PHOTO:

Roger Austin (r), a long-time member of the St. Lawrence Power & Equipment Museum's Board of Directors, recalls the role Assemblywoman Addie A.E. Jenne played in helping the museum board get a 19th Century for the museum grounds. Leon Goolden (l), whose family owned the farm where the museum is now located, also serves on the museum board.

Assemblywoman Addie A.E. Jenne visits with Judy Liscum (l), who portrays a school marm at the St. Lawrence Power & Equipment Museum's No. 12 Schoolhouse. Ms. Liscum, speaking at the recent Country School Reunion, said Assemblywoman Jenne's intervention saved the schoolhouse from becoming another structure that becomes a victim of time and age.

Assemblywoman Addie A.E. Jenne discusses the role religion and education have played in agriculture communities during the Country School Reunion at the St. Lawrence Power & Equipment Museum. Roger Austin, a long-time member of the museum board, had shared the assemblywoman's role in getting the schoolhouse moved from Jefferson County to Madrid.

Schoolhouse Number 12