Back in the “old days” students used chalk to write on slates and sat at desks like these in rural one-room schoolhouses, before schools began being consolidated. Tina L. Scott photo.Fair goers relax outside the Brickyard School at the Merrill Festival Grounds during the 2023 Lincoln County Fair. Tina L. Scott photo.Original Brickyard School, now a school museum display, is open for tours each year during the Lincoln County Fair and at other times by special arrangement. Tina L. Scott photo.In the “old days” at school, students couldn’t turn on a faucet or even bend over a bubbler (water fountain) to get a drink. Water, pumped by hand from an outside well, was brought in to fill the water dispenser in the hallway, used to dispense water into a cup. Prior to that, students might even have shared a dipper of water from a common water bucket. Tina L. Scott photo.Marie Rein demonstrates how wood was put into the stove, surrounded by a safety barrier to keep children from getting burned. This stove provided heat for the school. The older boys kept the wood box inside the back door filled with wood, and the teacher came in early each morning to get the stove going so the school would be warm when students arrived. Tina L. Scott photo.
