HomeMy WebLinkAboutDistrict 8 Purdy School (29).v or1U War 11 Wcre incorpo-
dcnts in ]ylU. In �W had twcnt
ran aloe those days, Y-one stu-
b the south ys , Bostwick Road
the road is to side of the school. Today
the north.
The origin of the school's name is not
but schools v„ clear,
a town
road or for the
ere often named after
district. Person who gave the land to the
Sometimes a farmer
Piece of his pro ert would donate a
Y so his children would have
a school nearby.
The Purdy School's teacher in 1910 w
mette W. Curryas Ly_
were Fred T. , and the officers of the school
Jackson, trustee, Amasa John-
son clerk, and Fred Edd
y, collectr
for the district. The students wereoofOftaxvariouses
ages; the youngest appear to be eight
the eldest in their teens, g or nine,
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-
ery year.
Lunch sandwiches, brought from home, in-
cluded honey, jelly, and plum catsup (a form
of .jam). Rarely did children have meat at lunch
time. It was recalled that Harold Jackson ate
bean sandwiches. Eunice Harris had a lunch
box with a thermos bottle — unusual in those
days. Most lunch boxes were enamel buckets or
lard pails.
Water for the school was brought up the hill
Irom Edgar Eddy's farm. He was the father of
two of the students at the school —Clayton
Eddy and Roger Eddy. Everyone drank from
the same dipper.
Major holidays were Decoration Day, now
called Memorial Day, on which students plan-
ted corn and sometimes pumpkin seeds, and
Election Day, in November, called "potato -
digging day. "
SCHOOL DAYS: Students from the Purdy School shown in this 1910 picture are
Howard Hornbrook, Voilet Quick, May Hornbrook, Harold Jackson, Anna
Brown, Lewis Hornbrook, Lydia Brown, Elmer Jackson, Roger Eddy, Clayton
Edd.Y, Roger Quick, Eunice Harris, Arthur Beardsley, Lillian Quick, Herman
Brown, Jessie Bossard, Violet Hornbrook, Edward Kane.Missing from the pic-
ture were Helen Jackson and Pansy Quick.
Roger Eddy included some family informa-
tion about the Eddys, who came to Tompkins
County in the mid nineteenth century and
whose descendants live here still.
Edgar Eddy was born in 1838 in the town of
Dix, in Schuyler County. His parents had
moved there from New Jersey and purchased
land f'or one shilling (from 6 to 12 cents) per
acre; they had 100 acres. They built a log cab-
in, in which their son Edgar was born. At the
age ot' 25, Edgar "struck out" with a horse and
wagon and came to the Inlet Valley area where
he met and married Mary Jane Hardenburg.
They had four children. Edgar Eddy voted for
Lincoln and never failed to vote thereafter.
Fred Eddy, Edgar's son, had two sons of his
own: Roger and Clayton. The two boys were in
the Purdy School in 1910. Clayton is no longer
living, but his three children still live in the
Bostwick Road area. Roger had two daughters,
both of whom are living in California.
Roger Eddy also said he recalled seeing Hal- 1
ley's Comet in 1910, and also pictures of the '
San Francisco earthquake and fire. He also re-
members the following:
• the Finger Lakes Ford garage, located
where the State theater is today — its entrance
was on Cayuga Street;
• that Eddy Kane, also a student at the Pur-
dy School, had a 1914 Indian motorcycle;
* that in the 19201s, Lewis Hornbrook and
Clayton Eddy drove race cars at Waterloo.
Clayton's car was called Old Green Number 9,
Roger Eddy would be interested in hearing from old
acquaintances in the area. His address is 3212 Mont-
claire Street, Sacramento, Calif. 95821.