🏫 Schoolhouses of Minerva
School History - Home   /   District 1 – Alfred White   /   District 1 – Olmstedville    /   District 1 – Minerva Central
District 2 - Minerva Elementary   /   District 3 - Lynch/Mallon   /  District 4 - Irishtown   /   District 5 - Puddin Hollow
District 6 – The Ryan School   /   District 7 - The Gore School   /  Districts 8 & 11 - North River
District 9 - The Boreas School   /  District 10 - Leonardsville   /   District 12: Havron - Kays   /   District 13 – Aiden Lair

District 7 – The Gore School:  Circa 1890 – Circa 1940

Photo of The Gore School with unidentified students on the steps.
The Gore School with unidentified students on the steps.

🕰️Timeline at a Glance

  • 🏫  Pre-1890
  • School established  (exact founding date unknown)
📜 1890 – Boundary Shift
  • 70 acres removed from District 7 and given to Chester's District 12 Gore School ordered to "conform:
  • she did not
🏠 Circa 1906 – New Building
  •  New one-room schoolhouse                constructed on North Gore Road
  •  Original West Road building’s fate     
           unknown
👧 1921–1925
  • Dorothy Howe Hammond attended    Gore School
  • Grace West Brannon was her teacher
  • Walked two miles daily with Nellie   
          West
❄️ 1917 – Temporary Closure
  • Post Star reports school closed due
            to poor roads and winter weather
🧑‍🏫 1928 – Substitute Teacher
  • Grace West ill; Theresa Ryan serves    as substitute
  •  Source: North Creek Enterprise
📝 1930 – Milestones
  • Alma Kelso appointed as teacher
  • Graduation ceremony held at     
          Baptist Church
  • Rev. Cunningham delivers address:
         “Success”
🏙️ 1931 – Teacher Illness
  • Mrs. William Raby substitutes while
            Miss Kelso visits NYC for medical
            treatment
📣 1939 – Teacher Assignment
  •  Principal P. J. Fitzsimons assigns 
           Teresa Ryan to Gore School
  •   Possibly operating as MCS       extension
🔚1940 – Columbus Day Program
  • Gore students participate in
           Minerva  Central School event
  • School's official status remains   
            unclear
🔚 Post-1940 – Uncertain Closure
  • Exact closure date unknown
  • May have operated longer than any 
​            other one-room school in Minerva
District #7 – Gore School Teachers – Gathered from all Documents
​
1867
  • Paid Almira J. Huntoon – $16.00
  • Paid Charlotte E. Stone – $35.00
1868
  • Paid Charlotte E. Stone – $14.00
  • Paid Mary S. Norton – $28.00
1874
  • Paid Susan J. Wood – $30.00
1876
  •  Susan J. Wood – $36.00
1882
  • Paid Gussie Cheney – $32.00
1884
  • Annie Thompson
1885
  • Paid Clara M. Tefft – $30.00
1887
  • Paid Hattie D. Chamberlain – $25.00
1891
  • Paid Florence E. Durkee – $18.00
1896
  • Paid Lizzie Durkee – $19.00
1921 – 1925
  • Grace West Brannon – Salary unknown
1928
  • Theresa Ryan substituted for Grace West
1930
  • Miss Alma Kelso, of Olmstedville has charge of the Gore school
1931
  • Mrs. William Rady is filing in for Miss Alma Kelso who is in NYC for a doctors appointment
1939
  • Gore School, Teresa Ryan

Was Anybody Listening

We, R.R. Stevenson, School Commissioner of the 2nd Commissioner Dist. of Essex County, and J. Wells, School Commissioner of the Commissioners Dist. of said school districts, do hereby order that the farm of Sherman Thompson in School Dist. #12, Town of Chester—which farm is known as subdivision 5 of great lot 63 in the free north of the 24th township and containing 70 acres of land—be detached from said Dist. #7, Towns of Minerva and Chester. It is further ordered that Dist. #7 Gore be so altered as to conform to the alteration herein made to Dist. #12, Town of Chester.
R.R. Stevenson, Essex County  J. Freeman Wells, Warren Co.

Did you get that? I’m not sure that I did. Old American English was a bit more formal and stilted compared to the way we speak and write today. Many people reading that town record entry would be a bit bug-eyed and asking themselves if this mystery was worth all the work to solve. One phrase jumps right out at me:
“It is further ordered that Dist. #7 Gore be so altered as to conform to the alteration herein made to Dist. #12, Town of Chester.”

Boundary Shift – 1890
Misters Stevenson and Wells, Commissioners of the Commissioners, just took 70 acres of land away from District 7 and gave those acres not to another Minerva school district, but to a school district in a different town and county. And then, of all the nerve, those Misters ordered her to conform.

It is both celebratory and frustrating to report that she didn’t conform—not in the least. Which makes you want to cheer. However, not conforming makes the mystery of her story pretty difficult to determine.

One of the very first pieces of information I looked at as I wended my way through each of Minerva’s schoolhouses was their age. I want to put at the top of each page when they opened their doors for the first time and then, sadly, when they closed them for the last time.

Well, the Gore School has not obliged—and each time a clue is discovered, another question arises.

New Location and Building – 1906
No one knows when District 7 was formed. She was ordered to conform in 1890, so we know her doors were open, but we don’t know for how long. We know she began her life as a schoolhouse on West Road somewhere near the home of Lawrence West. We know in 1906 a new building was built on the North Gore Road.

But again, another mystery. And yet, no records remain to explain what happened to the original West Road building.

Dorothy Howe Hammond - Student at Gore from 1921–1925
We do know something about her life on the North Gore Road. Helen Wager sat with Dorothy Howe Hammond in Dorothy’s kitchen in January of 1996, and the two of them hashed out Dorothy’s history for the upcoming Historical Society Quarterly.

Dorothy attended the Gore School for her first four years of school. She was taught by Grace West Brannon while she was there. That would have been approximately 1921–1925. Dorothy spoke fondly of her walks to the school on North Gore Road. At the time, her family was living in the house that in later years became the home of Carol Gregson.

It was two miles from Dorothy’s home to the school. She would walk up West Road and pick up her best friend, Nellie West, and the two would walk together the rest of the way to the “cozy one-room” schoolhouse.

Memories of skipping school to slide in the winter were shared, as well as the wonder of getting picked up by a bus when she started attending the new school—which is what she called Minerva Central School.

Other than a notation in the October 1981 Quarterly mentioning that the Gore School was one of the five one-room schoolhouses still operating in 1923, that’s all we have.

Beyond that, only a handful of teacher names surface—and even those come with gaps. And there is a notation that we do not know when the Gore School closed.

Clues from the Papers: 1917–1940
A search of the New York State Historic Newspaper Database turned up some useful information:
  • The Post Star reported on February 15, 1917 that the Gore School had closed until better roads and weather happen.
  • In 1928, we learn from the North Creek Enterprise that Miss Grace West of Minerva was quite ill and Miss Theresa Ryan substituted for her at the Gore School.
  • Both the Post Star and the North Creek Enterprise reported in May of 1930 that Miss Alma Kelso would be in charge of the Gore School.
  • A year later, on May 13, 1931, the North Creek Enterprise reported that Miss Kelso was ill and traveled to New York City to consult a physician. Mrs. William Raby filled in for her while she was away.
  • A graduation ceremony was held at the Baptist Church for graduating Grammar School students of the Gore School in June of 1930. Mrs. Edward Brannon put together the program and Reverend C. Cunningham gave the address. His subject was "Success." This was reported by the North Creek Enterprise on June 26, 1930.
  • Principal P.J. Fitzsimons reported to the North Creek Enterprise in August of 1939 that Teresa Ryan would be teaching at the Gore School.
    • Mystery: Was the Gore School now an extension of the new centralized school but still operating on its own?
  • In 1940, the North Creek Enterprise had a brief blurb about Minerva Central School holding a patriotic program in observance of Columbus Day. The program was comprised of selections by students from the high school and the Gore School.
    • In 1934, District 7 (Gore), Irishtown, and Aiden Lair schools were formally consolidated into District 1 — Minerva Central School. While newspaper references show Gore students in events as late as 1940, the school ceased to exist as an independent district in 1934.
Remaining Mysteries
  • Just how old was District 7 when she closed? She opened sometime before 1890 and closed sometime after 1940. She operated for at least three years after most of the other districts had centralized and become part of Minerva Central School. However, she may have been considered an extension of MCS.
  • Whatever happened to the original school building on West Road? Her birthdate remains a mystery.
  • The trustees? Nowhere to be found in the usual sources.
  • Was she called the West School when she sat on West Road?
  • Why is she such a mystery?
What We Know
  • A pretty solid list of teachers—but not, I might add, from the same source where we found all the other district teachers listed.
  • A location for her second building. The Gore School on North Gore Road became the house of Helen Brossman.
We also know that she didn’t conform.  Other than District 2, Minerva Elementary School all other schoolhouses became part of the centralized school district either when she opened her doors or shortly thereafter.  Gore held out until sometime after 1940. 

The Gore School operated on her terms, outlasted her counterparts, and left behind a trail of stubborn questions, the best kind of mystery for a historian to chase. She may have been left out of the records, but the Gore School was never silent, we just weren’t listening.
Sources
MHS Quarterlies
  • April 1975
    • Early Minera Schools
  • April 1981
    • Minerva Schools
  • January 1981
    • 13 School Districts
  • January 1996
    • Of Parrots and Babies
Newspapers
  • The Post Star - February 15, 1917
  • North C reek Enterprise – 1928
  • Post Star - May, 1930
  • North Creek Enterprise – May, 1930
  • North Creek Enterprise - May 13, 1931
  • North Creek Enterprise - June 26, 1930
  • North Creek Enterprise  - August 1939
  • North Creek Enterprise  - 1940