HomeMy WebLinkAboutDistrict 8 Purdy School (28)"'e Ithaca Journal
Saturday, July 19,
By CAROL KAMMEN
SPt'ud to 77ae Joe
UTH Eddy Gaydosh and Roger H.
Eddy have sent me some reminiscences
of The Purdy School, District No
formerly on Bostwick Road in Ithaca. . 8,
The school, which served the Town of Dan -
by (Ithaca city district schools were incorpo-
rated after World War II), had twenty-one stu-
dents in 1910. III those days, Bostwick Road
ran along the south side of the school. Today
the road is to the north.
The origin of the school's name is not clear,
but schools were often named after a town
road or for the person who gave the land to the
district. Sometimes a farmer would donate a
Piece of his property so his children would have
a school nearby.
The Purdy School's teacher in 1910 was Ly-
mette W. Curry, and the officers of the school
were Fred T. Jackson, trustee, Amasa John-
son, clerk, and Fred Eddy, collector of taxes
for the district. The students were of various
ages; the youngest appear to be eight or nine,
the eldest in their teens. The twenty-one stu-
dents came from nine different area families.
Among the recollections about the school
are these:
The school was heated by coal. During re-
cess, and before and after school, students
played a variety of games. "Annie over," was
one, "duck on a rock," another. "Fox and
geese" was played in the winter, and students
also slid down a nearby hillside in the snow.
There were swings, and baseball was also
played at the time.
Usually, the students had a new teacher ev-
SCHOOL DAYS: Students from the Purdy School shown in this 1910 picture are
Howard Hornbrook, Voilet Quick, May Hornbrook, Harold Jackson, Anna
Brown, Lewis Hornbrock, Lydia Brown, Elmer Jackson, Roger Eddy, Clayton
Eddy, Roger Quick, Eunice Harms, Arthur Beardsley, Lillian Quick, Herman
Brown, Jessie Bossard, Violet Hornbrook, Edward Kane.Missing from the pic-
ture were Helen Jackson and Pansy Quick.
cry year.
Lunch sandwiches, brought from home, in -
eluded honey, jelly, and plum catsup (a form
Roger Eddy included some family informa-
tion about the Eddys, who came to Tompkins
County in the mid nineteenth century and
living, but his three children still live in the
Bostwick Road area. Roger had two daughters,
both of whom are living in California.