Come, let's chat - have a cup of coffee - I want to share with you of the
  visits I had with folks near Hazelton, who received their education, Sunday
  School and church in rural schools. A backward glance - I owe my heritage
  to rural life - I, also, attended and taught in rural schools in the 'dirty
  thirties' - I wlaked or roade a horse daily.
     Ben Stout (deceased a few weeks after our visit) told that he attended
  school in 1890's. With tears, he related the sadness of the community when
  the school house burned. He said that Amse Huntmade, who lived with the
  Stouts, walked to school to build the fire, and discovered it.
     Ona (George) Buckles and Nellie (Lester) Gilmore smiled as they visited
  about the Sunday School and church services. Ona said that she loved to play
  the pump organ for the choir. Members were her sisters, Ida, Nettie, Ada, 
  the Stout brothers, Harve, Ben, Chas., Clem, and others.
     Edieth (Geore) Elliot and Pearl (Cox) Hardesty Broughton were still
  excited as they recalled box suppers, literaries, Christmas programs. The
  parents took kerosene lamps and lanterns for night activities. Proceeds from
  box supprs provided something new.
     Chas. Stout (deceased after our visit) recalled the double seats, the
  carved initials on the desks, the 'round oak' stove and the skunk trapper
  who got  too close to the stove!
     Mattie (Shannon) Carr recalled the water bucket with one dipper, and oh!
  the poor little fellow who put his tongue on the cold pump handle!
     Wallace McKee told how he hitched the team to a wagon, threw in straw
  and took children to and from school on stormy days.
     Mildred (Spicer) Turner said that she and her brothers, Ray, Lee, and
  Charley attended in the early 1900's. School was an important part of their
  family life. She smiled as she recalled mounting their horses from the
  wooden stile.
     Mary, Alice, and Holmes enjoyed their school days and said that they
  thought they were playing games when it was time for ciphering or geography
  matches and spelling bees. Their father, Ben, served many years on the 
  board, and Mary taught many memorable years.
     Clara Sullivan pointed to her scars on her face, as she told of meeting
  a classmate on the school house corner (chat).
     Geneva Garner told that her late husband Orville and Herbert Morehead
  were in on Halloween pranks - turning over school toiltes! (Now we know).
     Phillip Jackson related that his brothers and sisters packed their lunches
  and walked several miles regardless of the weather - 'good ole days'.
     Edna (Spicer) McCarter enjoyed teaching Sunday School and also, she was
  the 'school barber'.
     Leslie Stout relived the noon hour when he and James Spicer went skating
  on too thin ice on a farm pont!
     Glendon Martin, still scared, as he recalls the tornado that hit Crisfield.
  The teacher, Edra Hyatt, had the students to lie down in a nearby ditch.
     Eileen Gates, Betty McMichael and LaVone Spicer remember the anticipation -
  waiting for their grades to come by mail - following their eighth grade
  examinations that would qualify them for High School. (They all passed with
  honors).
     Ralph Stout said "Yes, there were happy days, the last day of school
  picnics in the 'Cedar Hills' - running around 'devils gulch.'
     Grandfather Reynolds once said to me - "love is a circle -  never ending"
  so it is - with these memories.
                   
     Source:Chosen Land - Barber County, Kansas,  pg. 25  
     Submitted by: Verda (Spicer) Diel