Part IV - Education, a supplement to the Big Rapids Pioneer Newspaper. Used with permission.



TEACHING COMES FULL CIRCLE AT PURSLEY ONE-ROOM SCHOOL
By Linda Sanderson - Special to the Pioneer

Joe and Julie Doyle had no idea of the surprise that awaited them when they moved into their new home in Mecosta Township.

The couple discovered two cement platforms about 30 feet apart and thought they might be the former entryways to a one-room schoo they had heard was located on their new property.

And, after some investigation they learned that the Pursley School was established there sometime between 1863 and 1900. Plat maps from 1900 show the school listed as "School No. 2."

Back in those days, townships ran the schools locatyed within their borders. Mecosta Township named "School District No. 2" after Dan Pursley, a sawmill operator who lived nearby.

The school building had wood heat and no electricity or running water. It was the responsibility of the boys at the school to carry the day's water from the well, a covered pipe arrangement on a creekside leading from the basement of the Pursley farmhouse.

"That cover still didn't keep the frogs out," laughed Milo (Ben) Kelly while describing his boyhood memories at the school.

Kerosene lamps with movable reflectors lined the walls of the tiny educational facility to provide study light, outhouses were used to answer "nature's call," and all grades were taught in that same facility; according to Kelly, and others who remembered what it was like to attend school in those days long gone. The school closed in 1936.

By 1926 Fred and Emma Goldthwait bought the Pursel farm and lived there along with their three children - Martin, Doris and Audrey.

Among the memories were hard winters when children walked to school through as much as two feet of snow and five foot snow drifts. There were no "snow days" back then.

Doris Goldthwait Hulsapple remembers one winter when a teacher had to stay at her family's home due to a blizzard.

And she also remembers Frances Syler, the earliest teacher she can recall, who taught in 1928-29.

When a neighbor told the Doyles of Hulsapples's memories, Joe a local contractor, was shocked to learn that Syler, his grandmother, had taught at the school on the property where is family now resides.

And, since his wife is also a member iof the teaching profession, the Doyles can now claim that teaching has come full circle on the property that once housed Pursley School and now serves as their home.

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