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Excerpts from Souvenir

Submitted by David M. Waid 

SCHOOL RECORD OF BLOOMING VALLEY, 1851-52.

        Nearly thirty-eight years ago, in the winter of 1851-52, I was teaching the first school in Blooming Valley, only a mile from my home, and on the same farm where I have ever since lived.  At the close of the term I was presented with the school record, in the shape of a neat and carefully got up document containing the names of thirty-nine boys and twenty-nine girls, being sixty-eight scholars out of a general attendance of over fifty.  On the upper right-hand corner of this document is a drawing of the school-house, and on the upper left-hand corner is a representation of the flag of our Union.  Over the list of names of the scholars, which is printed at the end of this article, is the following inscription:  "Presented, by W. W. Thompson, a record of Blooming Valley School, Francis C. Waid, Teacher, 1852."

        In the period of time since my dear old scholars used to meet me day by day, death has not been idle.  His scythe has removed a good many whose names and dates of death I have, to the best of my knowledge, added to the record; and in this portion of the work I am indebted in a great measure to the assistance of my cousin, Mr. Ralph Roudebush, for which I thank him.  Most of these who have died sleep in Blooming Valley Cemetery, and many of the funerals I have attended.

        To-day I honor the memory of the departed ones because I loved them, and I respect those living because we yet live to smile on and help each other.  A few of the names of my scholars do not appear on the record, for the reason that their attendance at school was not regular, and as their parents moved away they were forgotten.

        As a teacher I tried to do my duty to the best of my ability, but how well I may have succeeded I do not yet know.  I do know this, however, I loved my scholars, the entire school, the parents and my occupation.  "Friendship and success" was my motto.  In looking over this old record I am reminded of the happy days and pleasant faces that are gone as a dream, some faces never more to be seen on earth.  And I am here reminded that on June 5, 1889, I received a letter from my cousin, Henrietta Sturgis, of Centreville, Crawford County, bringing the sad intelligence of the death, of cancer, at Titusville, Penn., on May 30, 1889, of Ruth Ann Smith (maiden name), and of her interment in Blooming Valley Cemetery.  I had visited her on the 12th of last January, while on my way to Warren County, Penn., and found her very ill then.

        That winter of 1851-52 was one of the most pleasant and useful periods of my life.  Many friendships were formed that never have been broken, save by the hand of death.  The old school-house is still standing near the Advent Church, where it was erected, and is at present used as a dwelling.  I have said my days of school teaching were to me both pleasant and profitable, profitable because of their usefulness.  However much or however little the scholars may have learned, I added something new to my knowledge every day, and at the close of the school I was wiser than at the commencement.