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- The Maddison School was located seven miles west of Farral, Wyoming and 11/2 miles east of Lake Cook. The folks, Milton and Helen Maddison, had talked to the school boardabout a School because my brother had gone to the Farral and RipleySchools for two years. It just hadn't worked out. He stayed withneighbors, Ted Butterfield, then with our uncle, Paul Dillavou. Mybrother was a nervous kid and was sick a lot. The Farral and Ripley Schools were in a different district. The folkswere in the Alva District, 21. Carp McAmis and either Dean or HarveyDavis were two of the school board members at the time. The first few weeks of September, 1950, school was held on the frontporch of Milton and Hellen Maddison's home. for their children Evan,third grade and Gwennie, first grade. Fern Wyman from Aladdin, Wyomingwas the teacher. Dean Davis moved the Schoolhouse in, on a truck, the last part ofSeptember or the first part of October. I believe the building came fromLame Jones. My Dad helped load the building on a truck and it was darkwhen they got their with it. The road wasn't wide enough in places toget between the tree branches. Dad would cut them or push them out of theway with a long pole to get the house through. My Mom had supper waitingwhen they got there but Dean didn't eat much. He was so tired andnervous, he sat there drinking one cup of coffee after another and sweatdripping off his head. The next morning they pulled the truck up across the road about a cityblock from the house and unloaded it. They got it leveled, blocked andready to use. It was a rusty colored tin on the outside My Dad and Uncle Jim Maddison built an outhouse out back and Dad cut woodand piled it along the building to use for heat. We carried a bucket ofwater to school each day to wash with and to drink. My Uncle Jim had built a one room house for the teacher to live in. Itwasn't too far from our house because the teacher had to get water fromour house for their needs. Fern had a little printing press that shewould print up a school paper and send to the neighbors and friends eachmonth. It told what we were doing in school, who had stopped by, etc.It was always two or three sheets of paper. Also had little bits ofwisdom, jokes, poems and was like a newspaper. This account was written by Gwen (Maddison) Weaver and is found on pages317, 318 in the book, ' One Room Rural Schools Of Crook County', by CrookCounty Retired Teachers, Crook County, Wyoming, Copyright 1985 andcompiled by Irma Dungey and Phillis Habeck and Published by Roger andKaren Malak.
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