During October through December of 1954, the Harrisonburg Daily News-Record printed a series of articles about old schools in Rockingham County. Most of the articles were written by Valley historian, John W. Wayland, but some of them were written by older residents of the area. In December, retired Superintendent of Schools John C. Myers authored an article entitled "Old Lone Oak School Recalled". John C. Myers not only attended the Lone Oak School but also taught at the school.

Lone Oak School was situated about one and one-half miles southwest of Broadway on the old Linville Creek road, now Route 617 on the east side of the road. The one-half acre of land for the school came from the D. C. Cline Farm, now the property of Robert Alger. My parents deeded to D. C. Cline one-half acre from their land to compensate him for the school lot.

The school lot was rectangular, the length being about twice the width. A large white oak tree stood on the north side of the school lot. This tree gave the suitable name, Lone Oak.

The building was erected during the summer of 1881. It was my recollection that Medford Spitzer built the limestone foundation and that Abram and Anthony Rhodes were the carpenters. As a five year old boy, I played with Davie Rhodes, Charley Taylor and some of my brothers under the lone oak with blocks and pieces of boards which the carpenters allowed us to carry off while they were at work on the building.

Pine lumber was used for the frame, weatherboarding, floor and ceiing. Lap shingles made locally from black oak trees were used for the roof. The desks were made locally.

The schoolhouse was about 30 feet long and 20 feet wide. The door was on the east end. A platform six feet wide was on the west side. The blackboard, extending across the west end was made of smooth boards painted black. No other paint was ever used on the building, neither on the outside nor the inside., except on the lower panes of the lower sash of the windows. This paint was intended to keep pupils from seeing people passing on the road.

There were three windows on each side. The wood stove was in the center of the room. A row of double desks extended along each side near the windows, about seven desks in each. There was one desk between the door and the stove and two desks between the stove and platform.. At each end of the platform was one desk. Hence the room could accommodate about 40 pupils. I don't recall that the room was overcrowded while I was a pupil from 1881 to 1889.

The teacher's desk, also homemade, had two long legs which stood on the main floor and two shorter legs which rested on the platform. I seem to remember that some of the smaller boys were required to sit under that table for punishment. Long wide shelves were built on each side of the door for the lunch boxes and baskets.

Brothers and sisters of a family brought lunch, generally we called it dinner, in a basket together. There was a small shelf near the door for the water bucket and above the bucket a pail for the common dipper. We carried the water from a well nearby. The water was hardly safe by present standards. We drew the water from the well with a rope tied to a bucket.

The school day was from eight until four with a recess of an hour at noon, and two recesses of fifteen minutes each, one in the forenoon and one in the afternoon. Our parents sent us to school to secure an education but many of us went to play. We added some playtime by coming early for a half-hour or more before school began. Round town was the popular game at noon.

School was not all play but play made school interesting, made us like to go regularly and helped us to work eagerly at our books during the study hours. The three R's were given full attention: spelling, history and geography were not neglected.

The Lone Oak School was in use for 21 sessions, beginning in the fall of 1881 and ending in the spring of 1902. There were 14 teachers altogether. Some taught more than one session. These are their names; Henrietta Miller, Richard W. Ashby (two sessions), J. I. Miller, Bettie Brenneman, Arthur R. Spaid, Katie Welsh, Medford Click, Susie Norford (four sessions) , Fannie Hammon, Robert E. Myers (two sessions), John C. Myers, W. P. Faulk, Vergie McCue, Gertie Few (three sessions).

Mamie Myers was appointed for the session of 1902-03. However, during the summer of 1902, Superintendent of Schools G. H. Hulvey and the Plains District School Board offered to transport, at the School Board's expense, the Lone Oak pupils to the Broadway School. The patrons agreed, hence pupils and teacher spent the session at Broadway. This is one of the first attempts at consolidation of schools in Rockingham County.

The life of the Lone Oak School was comparatively short, but it served a large number of boys and girls. There were ten children in our home and all ten attended Lone Oak at some time. Then there were Pennybackers, Clines,Klines, Rhodes, Brennemans, Bowmans, Shanks, Wines, Taylors, Nairs, Kings, Browns, Showalters, Richies, Hayes, Yates and others.

We had good teachers, some too easy, some too strict, some about right. The first seven were my teachers. I remember many things about each one. Arthur R. Spaid was my favorite. I was ten years old when he taught. He visited in our home many times and in the evenings often played his fiddle, which I never tired of. Mr. Spaid came from West Virginia and was for a time a pupil of John W. Taylor of Lacey Spring. After teaching at Lone Oak he went on to college and was for a time Commissioner of Education in New Jersey. I saw him last at the University of Virginia about 35 years ago. In retirement, he lived in his native Preston County in West Virginia.

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