Mary Maroney Murphy- My Favorite Teacher was my Mom

Smithfield Schoolhouse with Mary Maroney, her class and two
neighborhood dogs who thought they were students too.

My favorite teacher was my mother, Mary Maroney Murphy.

Mom taught in a one-room schoolhouse for nine years before she married. After she married, she never stopped teaching. Just about everything she did was geared to teaching.
Cutting up a chicken was a biology lesson. As she gutted the chicken she would show you each part of the chicken. This was the heart, the lungs, the intestines, to us it was a little disgusting but we learned the parts of a chicken.
We were taught all about trees, flowers, vegetables and everything else in nature.
The most important thing she taught me was the love of reading. She didn’t have too much time to read herself, having six children to raise and a farm to run with my father but she always made sure I had books to read. She always warned me not to loan out my books as I might not get them back. She was right. A couple of times I did loan books and didn’t get them back. My mother always looked forward to getting back to reading after she retired. Sadly, she was not able to do this as she developed macular degeneration and was unable to read. She always regretted this.

We got to know our area by going for rides on Sunday afternoons. We would just take off and pick a road and explore. Many times we would end up visiting people we knew. Mom was a great one for visiting relatives. I am so glad she and Dad knew their relatives as we were able to compile a history of the family which today so many relatives, especially cousins enjoy reading about. It has kept us all in touch.
Another person who taught us a lot was our Uncle Chet Maroney. When you went for a ride with him you did not chatter in the car – you were to look out the window and take in everything that you saw. He always said that we could talk at home, now was the time to observe.
Two other people who had a hand in shaping my future were Mr. and Mrs. Hoose, Charlotte’s parents (Charlotte Hoose Murphy). When they went to concerts at Tanglewood they would take me along with the other their other child, Jane. That is where I developed my love of classical music. Charlotte and I still go to concerts and opera, able to enjoy them very much.

Mary & Bill Murphy on their 50th Wedding Anniversary

Favorite teachers don’t always have to be the ones who taught you in school. Sometimes the best teachers were the ones closest and dearest to you.

Catherine Murphy is a charter member of the Indian Rock Schoolhouse Association and the Treasurer of the Amenia Historical Society. Until her retirement she worked at the Amenia Bank, and in fact was the bank's first female officer.

DRAW WHAT YOU SEE

Indian Rock Schoolhouse art teacher, Tilly Strauss, is proud to present an occasional art class at the schoolhouse each year. She has worked with the community on projects creating fabric flags with symbols of the region, and using color paper to create patchwork billboards, and even to demonstrating the steps to making paper. You don't have to be an artist to have deeply satisfying experiences creating and participating in a project that gives voice to an idea.

Tilly loves working with kids and adults of all ages. She helps the student to learn techniques in creating illusions, using light and shade to draw everyday objects. She also enjoys working with emerging artists to find their path in the art world.


for more information, call 845-489-3264

Welcome Visitors from Kripplebush Schoolhouse

Members of the Board at Kripplebush: (left to right): Gail Hilsenbeck-Many,
Indian Rock's friendly greeter Bill Burke (in dunce cap), Joan Pugliese, Donna Miller,
Toni Countryman, Larry Scalla

Indian Rock Schoolhouse always welcomes visitors and representatives of other schoolhouses. We have met a number of interesting folks from near and far...and Kripplebush is far from Amenia.

Kripplebush is a small hamlet in Ulster County, across the Hudson River. These folks traveled for more than an hour to come to see our little 1858 schoolhouse, and to hear about all of you...our nearby friends.

Kripplebush is near Stone Ridge and High Falls. The schoolhouse is dated 1857 and looks very similiar to Indian Rock. The big difference is that the school building is not alone in the schoolyard. There is another two story Lodge Hall there which will be made into a museum on the first floor. They have no pavilion however.

And what did we learn from each other? We discussed programs in our respective schoolhouses, funding, hours and insurance issues. We enjoyed a picnic in the schoolhouse since it was so cold and damp outside that day - Oct 21st.

Indian Rock promised to visit their schoolhouse next spring to see their large building being finished. If you are interested in a field trip to Ulster County in 2010, let us know and we will

make sure you have directions.

Memories from Noxon Schoolhouse in LaGrange, New York

Memories from a Dutchess County Schoolhouse – School #3 in LaGrange, New York

By: Ginny Russell Stoetzner, Amenia

Ginny attended the District 3 schoolhouse known as the Noxon School on Diddell Road in the Town of LaGrange in 1944. She went to that school for first grade only when she was 5 years old. The school closed in 1945. She describes her schoolhouse experience as follows:

We walked to school a half a mile each way.
My teacher at the Noxon School was Miss VanWagner . She was nice but I never saw her again in later years.

I remember the older boys going outside in the morning to pump a pail of water and putting it on the coal stove to warm. There was a holder with paper cups near the door for students who needed a drink.

The only heat was the coal stove and it was kept filled by the “big boys”. I don’t remember being cold. When it rained, or was snowy, the wet coats hung on hooks near the front door, mittens dried by the stove If you were small you tried not to get too wet or you’d go home with a wet coat and snow pants. I think I had perpetually chapped hands from the wet mittens.
Before lunch we lined up for hand washing. One boy sprinkled powdered soap and another poured a little water. We washed and were rinsed with the water falling into another pail on the floor.
There were no reading groups that I recall. Even though I do not remember learning to read or write, I certainly remember Dick and Jane. We had music class with the teacher - she played the piano while the class sang. I don't remember the desks or a library shelf but I know there was no playground. We played across the road in a field. I also remember one of the older girls always fighting with the boys and one day she chased one into the boys’ outhouse. Big trouble that day!


After school most of the kids had farm chores to do. We had chickens and a big vegetable garden. I only had to gather eggs and pull weeds-but many had to bring the cows in from the field and milk them. My first love in those years were the cowboys on TV on Saturday A.M. westerns (1949).

Before Christmas, the students began to practice for the Christmas pageant. Only two first graders were chosen to be in it, and I was picked! Both of us got to be dolls under the Christmas tree and I got to wear lipstick! I wore my "Sunday" dress and shoes(usually I had to wear old fashioned high-tops), a bonnet and of course - the lipstick. My brother was the Jack-in-the-Box and drove my parents crazy practicing at home.
The only gift I remember for the teacher was at Christmas. My mother made corsages for the teacher with "real" evergreens, holly - berries and ribbons. She made them every year for all our teachers. We did have a school Christmas tree decorated with paper chains and handmade ornaments.

One of my biggest wishes for Christmas was a bicycle…I always wanted one, but I never got it. We lived on a narrow dirt road and had a long but rutted driveway. “ Too dangerous!” according to my parents. I learned to ride on my cousin’s bike one summer while visiting in Newport, RI.



When the Noxon Road Schoolhouse closed, Ginny Russell and her brother took the bus to Raymond Avenue School in Arlington and, according to Ginny, getting a ride was fun after walking to school. She was scared at first but had a wonderful second grade teacher. Ginny ran into her when the teacher was in her 80's and she remembered Ginny’s name.

Tell us your schoolhouse story!

Tell your one-room schoolhouse story on the Indian Rock blog….for the whole world to read on the internet. We are collecting as many stories of the old fashioned one room schools as we can ..anywhere, anytime.

Send your reminiscences about your school days as a word file, and a jpeg photo (or one of your childhood drawings) to IndianRockschool@aol.com. If you are uncomfortable writing the story…just give us a punch list of the facts you remember.

We are especially looking for stories about the kids in your school, some of your most memorable teachers and what the area was like where you lived….what was the coolest prank ever pulled by the class bad boy? Did your teacher keep pet spiders? (mine did)
What was your favorite day ever at school?

Please don’t forget to include your name (and maiden name if applicable).
This is just for fun…so there are no fees involved or paid.

Memories from a Country Schoolhouse

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Memories from a Country Schoolhouse by John Quinn

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Who was this legendary one-room schoolhouse teacher?

Legendary Ladies enjoy
Recollections of Amenia Union and One-room Schoolhouses





























The Sharon Womens’ Club welcomed Indian Rock Schoolhouse to their April 18th meeting in Amenia Union. A group of Sharon women devoted to public service, these legendary ladies were a warm and interested audience for an Indian Rock trunk (in this case basket)show.
One of the previous and much-loved members of this organization of outstanding Sharon women was Kay (Humphreys) Kane, last school "ma'arm" of the Leedsville Schoolhouse

A short talk on the history of Amenia Union was presented before the illustrated lecture on the Amenia Union Schoolhouse (NYS side of the state line) and other nearby schoolhouses. The conversation quickly turned to legendary teachers of local schools on both sides of the State line.

One of the outstanding teachers in the Webutuck School District was Ella Staunton who began her career at the Amenia Union school. Ester Pollard and Bynon Kipp attended the Amenia Union School when Ella Staunton was a teacher there.

Ella Stauton’s name was very familiar to the assembled ladies of the Women’s Club. As we know Ella taught in several district schools, transferring to the brick high school, now known as the Amenia Elementary School when the Webutuck School District consolidated.



Another legendary teacher was mentioned: the unique Nettie Bump of South Amenia. Here is a topic where everyone has personal memories of the meanest, nicest, most special teacher at their school when they were children.


Thanks for inviting Indian Rock, Ladies!

It's Arbor Day again!

See you at Indian Rock for Arbor Day Fun – April 29 and 39th, 2010
First and second graders from the Amenia Elementary School will help Pine Cone Pete, in the person of Andy Durbridge, Rudy Eschbach and Beth Murphy (the Pine Cone Princess) at Indian Rock School’s two-day observance of Arbor Day on Wednesday, April 30 and Thursday May 1st.
While some of the children are planting trees, others will gather in the restored schoolhouse for an introduction to education in a one –room school and to talk about Arbor Day around the world with Miss Murphy.

Since the revival of the Arbor Day tradition on the grounds of the historic Indian Rock Schoolhouse, two flowering crab trees and five evergreens have been planted by Amenia school children. This year there will be white pines, thanks to Twin Brooks Garden Center in Millbrook, who have generously donated a trees to our efforts both this year and last.

Arbor Day 2007 – Mike O’Neil plants “his tree” with Pine Cone Pete and students.

Pine Cone Pete tells us that the trees will provide shelter for the birds in the winter in our wildlife schoolyard. The new shrubs planted last year will provide berries for them to eat.

We have invited many old friends to join us…and everyone is welcome. Parents, younger siblings, and friends are invited to both days of the celebration. Come around 11 am. Bring a bag lunch and drink to the picnic pavilion for a celebration of Indian Rock’s 150th birthday. There will be complementary birthday treats provided by our friends Joe McEnroe, the Bank of Millbrook and Freshtown of Amenia.