Dean Karau column: West Park was Kewanee s first starcourier.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from starcourier.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Local history columnist Dean Karau revisits a time when Kewanee, Wethersfield shared a school
Star Courier
Soon after the founding of the Wethersfield Colony in 1837, the settlers built a small hewn-log meeting house on the northeast corner of Tenney and Church Streets. In 1839, the Colony opened the first school with a single teacher in the meeting house. Early teachers included Miss Stewart, Miss Dorr, Mr. Keeler, and C. C. Blish.
The seats were slabs four to eight feet long, with legs made of wooden pins driven into augur holes, and no backs to the seats. Younger students sat on the seats holding books in their laps, swinging their feet which could not yet reach the floor. Older students had seats facing the walls, with a wide board jutting out from the wall to be used as a writing surface. The students would gather the school books from the seats each Friday afternoon to make way for the Sunday services.