Schools and our Church

Catlin Hollow Church

Thought I  would give a little history of Catlin Hollow to start with.  It is located in Charleston Township and  was organized in December, 1820 and  was taken from Delmar Township, which was organized in 1873.  It would seem as Dartt Settlement was being settled, several other pioneers came further northwest and settled in what is now known at Catlin Hollow.  Among those early settlers were Daniel Dennison, Edward McInroy, Jessie, William and Nelson Catlin.  Many of these people are buried in the Catlin Hollow Cemetery.

There was a pioneer saw mill constructed in Dart Settlement in 1816 in what was called Catlin Hollow Run,  that supplied lumber for the homes and various building that went up in the communities in the area.  Many of the pioneers were involved in farming, there was an established carding machine that ran for a number of years.

The First Methodist Episcopal Church of Catlin Hollow was organized about 1850.  Among  the early members were Cyrus Catlin and wife, Joel Catlin and wife, Edward McInroy and Dexter Catlin and wife.  I have always found it  interesting to find that the Baptist and the Methodist have shared this church throughout the years and obviously the Episcopal were involved with the Methodist at one time.

My family attended this church all though my growing up years, in fact, I was the last person to be married in this church and it eventually was closed and sold, with the money earned from the sale going to the Whitneyville Methodist Church and it was used to help build a new parsonage.

I am in possession of the original doors that were on the church and some of the stained glass that was in the windows.  I had a hanging made for each of my children so they could share in the history of this beloved church.  Many happy memories are involved in the four walls of this church and the beloved people that attended the services there.

Schools: 

The schools of Charleston were maintained by subscription and it was felt that in this township they were the best of any township.  They had good teachers usually graduates from the State Normal school at Mansfield.

The garage at our Homestead had been the Old McInroy School.

This came from the school in 1908 (compliments of Joyce Tice)

If you go back and look at the "beginning" pictures and see the garage, you can see what it looked like.

I can remember Daddy talking about the school he attended on Reese Hill, close to where he lived growing up.  On a winter day, they talked their teacher (he called her the school mom) into getting on their sled at lunch break and they rode all the way to Hills Creek and didn't get back until to dismiss that evening, so they didn't have class in the afternoon.  He said they couldn't talk her into that again.  He stated that the fire in the school house was out when they got back and they were cold, but they all had a good time.

Charleston School

The first consolidate school in the county was opened in 1909 and remained active until 1956.  It is really neat to me to think I went to school in the same school that my parents did.  You could roll a marble down the steps from the eighth grade class room and it would hit the water fountain and bounce and end up in the furnace room.  I think every kid knew that trick.  Now that school had memories!!

Now by the time Jerry and I went to school there, they had to construct two additional little buildings on each side.  On the right side was the second grade class room, and on the left was the third grade class room and then when we got to the fourth grade, we got to go back inside.  Each of the little building had their own coal stove, and the boys all had to take turns helping the teacher keep the fire going.

This was our second grade class room

This is where Jerry and I attended second grade.  This picture was taken by George Riebe.  He is the son of the people that were responsible for us to have hot school lunches in later years and his father was a janitor at the school.  One year after I had moved to Ohio and was home visiting, I stopped to visit them and asked them if I could go through the school one last time.  I knew they were going to tear it down and I so wanted to have a last look and he honored my request.  What a joy it was to walk those halls again.  Mrs. Carrie Olson was my first grade teacher, I later had the joy of caring for her as a patient and talking about her teaching career.  Second grade was our pastor's wife, Mrs. Barbara Finch, third grade was Mrs Shelley and we were all scared to death of her, fourth grade was Mrs. Christine Selleck, another lady that was my patient, fifth grade was Mrs. Cassie Gross whom, I dearly loved, she was suffering from leukemia and died soon after.  Sixth grade, we moved upstairs and we got to change classes, I had Mrs. Adeline Hess, Mrs. Doratha Wetmore and Mr. Brace.

It was sometime in these years when I was upstairs that it was decided our school was no longer safe and we would all be transferred to the Charleston High School in the newly constructed class rooms to finish up our elementary education.  If we were going to continue on to college we would go into Wellsboro to continue our education, and that is when I left a lot of my Charleston friends and transferred to Wellsboro.  That is another story, as I really missed those kids, but did make new friends.