Discovered History: Summer Cohesion

 By Susan Zehnder, Education Director

What do clues, white curator gloves, pencils, paper, and objects have in common with eight- and nine-year-olds during the summer? It might sound like a sure recipe for eye rolling, but these materials actually created history detectives out of 128 Summer Cohesion students and their counselors.

This year, students had a chance to sharpen their literacy and drawing skills by examining objects from Chemung’s past. Many are eager to return. Here’s what they did.

Each group’s visit started with a scavenger hunt in the main gallery, where they were given visual clues in the form of a tiny picture. This activity encouraged students to move around the large room as they searched for their item and gave them a chance to see the wide variety of items we have on display. Quite a few students had been to the museum before, but by being asked to look for specific items, they discovered things they hadn’t seen on previous visits. They also had the opportunity to revisit familiar items. This approach kept things interesting for everyone. Our galleries are filled with hundreds of items of all sizes. Objects vary from small military medals to fossilized mammoth teeth and a tusk, and everything is connected to Chemung County’s past. There is always something new to see.

Once students found the item that matched their clue, they had to determine if the item was an artifact or a document and report their discovery. Additionally, they were asked to provide two words to describe the item.  As a result of collecting descriptive words, students saw how a “box” became a “small blue box made of metal and leather, while a “trunk” became a “large, old, decorated box.” Their words were recorded on a large sheet for them to see.

After the hunt, participants gathered in the education room for the next activity. Working with a partner, they received a photograph of an object to draw. Each object was different and it wasn’t always obvious from the photograph what kind of object they were looking at. This helped students focus on the details they saw and not ones they assumed existed. Each pair of students had to look closely at the photograph and draw what they saw.

When students were satisfied that they had drawn the object the way they wanted, they put on white curator gloves. For many this was particularly exciting, because they knew it meant they would be handling the actual objects. They brought their photograph up to match and collect its real object, which they carefully brought back to their table. Taking turns, students compared their objects to their drawings in order to make any additions or changes to their work.

Sometimes making changes to written text is tough for students this age, who often falsely interpret needing to make changes or editing as having failed rather than as receiving the chance to improve their work.  Comparing the photo, their drawing, and the actual objects helped guide the students through the process of editing. Although photographs are helpful, being able to see and handle a real object gave participants an entirely different experience of these historical items. Some students found their objects were a surprise because they were smaller or larger than expected. Others found the object’s color to be different. Holding the objects and feeling how heavy or light they were often changed what students thought the items were used for.

Each pair of students also worked together to write a label for their object. Here, using descriptive words became especially helpful if they weren’t able to identify what it was. Some objects looked familiar and were easier to decipher. A mortar and pestle, for instance, was described as a “food masher.” Other objects were tougher to identify and required some creative thinking. A cast iron bank shaped like a log cabin was labelled as a “house,” and students described a Haversack, similar to those used by soldiers to carry supplies during the Civil War, as a “traveling bag.”

Before they left, students compared their work to a poster with photos and labels of each object.

 We gave everyone the option to take their drawings with them or leave them for display in the museum. You can see some of their work on the wall as you enter the Museum’s Bank Gallery.

Mindful that this is their summer break, and a being a firm believer that kids should be allowed to play, discover, and create, especially in summer, when I heard the comment “this is the coolest thing ever” I felt that these detectives had successfully uncovered a new way to look at history around them, and no eyes rolled!

New Student Exhibit: The African American Experience in Chemung County

by Mr. John Liquori, 5th Grade Teacher, Horseheads Intermediate School

This is our country, as much as it is the country of any other race.... We may be the descendants of Africans, but we are citizens of the United States. This is our home... 

-Silas X. Floyd 

A large part of the 5th grade New York State Social Studies curriculum, which focuses on the history and governments of the Western Hemisphere, is the struggle for equality that happened to many groups of people in the United States throughout its history. This includes the Black struggle for racial equality, from the transatlantic slave trade and the Middle Passage all the way through the Civil Rights Movement and beyond. Black history is American history and the two should not be taught as if one is only a small part of the other. The Black experience in America is the backbone of the history of this entire nation--a nation built by slaves, torn apart by slavery, and suffers from a continuous struggle for human and civil rights that impacts us even today.

March 11, 1968 protest at Elmira City Hall

As a Social Studies teacher, one of my goals is to show students that any historical topic that can be studied in the broad context of American History can also be applied at the local level. For example, while the American Revolution was being fought throughout the entire thirteen colonies, locally, General Sullivan led a campaign through the Southern Tier which included the Battle of Newtown right outside Elmira. When the Civil War was ripping apart our nation in the 1860s, Confederate soldiers were dying in a prison camp called “Hellmira,” located on the banks of the Chemung River. There are always local ripples that affect the history of our entire country. When we begin to understand that the history of a nation is molded by local events and people, we can then truly understand why local history is so important. That is why in our classroom, American History is taught through a microhistory lens to where we live. This makes history relevant and it makes it real.

John Jones and Ernie Davis

 Starting December 5, there will be a new exhibit at the museum detailing the struggles and victories that local Blacks experienced as they fought for racial equality at home in Chemung County. This exhibit was created by a team of forty-four fifth grade students at Horseheads Intermediate School. These students, only nine and ten years old, were able to do the extraordinary task of taking primary and secondary source material and using it to tell the story from the perspective of those who lived and experienced the struggle for racial equality. This is a project the students worked on over a few months and the end product is incredible. In this exhibit, you will learn about the courage of John W. Jones and other abolitionists. You will learn about the humanitarianism of the Neighborhood House as they worked with local youth. You will read about the activism of the NAACP as they fought against injustices and empowered the Black people in this area. You will see beautiful visuals, including original artwork from Alsace Blandford and much more. There is so much that you will take away after visiting this exhibit. The African American Experience in Chemung County will be on display December 5, 2019 through January 11, 2020.

Orpheus Club party, 1942

Please join us on Thursday, December 5th, 5-7PM at the Chemung County Historical Society as we celebrate the 5th grade students and the important historical work they did to tell this history. There will be food and drinks, the opportunity to see and celebrate the new student-created exhibit, and also the chance to view the rest of the museum as well. This event is free and open to the public. We hope to see you there!

Impact of the Flood of 1972

by John Liquori, 6^th grade English and Social Studies teacher at Horseheads Intermediate School

[Staff Note: CCHS was pleased to work with Mr. Liquori and his students in the creation of the exhibit Flood of ’72 which is currently on display here at the museum. The exhibit was created entirely by a team of 44 6th-grade students at Horseheads Intermediate School. The students researched the historic flood, selected the photographs, and wrote the text labels with the help of Mr. Liquori who brought it all together and designed the exhibit panels. The Chemung County Historical Society is proud of their hard work and dedication to local history. Flood of ’72 is on display now through Saturday, February 16, 2019]

When I ask survivors what they remember most about the flood of 1972, it’s almost always the smell of the mud and water during cleanup following the disaster. However, there was so much of our own community that was impacted and often those stories go untold in the larger picture of the flood history. Even more, there are now new generations of people—children, grandchildren, and even great children of survivors—who have no idea the flood happened. As I worked to facilitate a standards-based project with my 6th graders, this is why I chose this particular topic.

Arguably, nothing in the last century has impacted the Southern Tier, especially Elmira, more than the flood. To those who lived through it, there was life before the flood and life since cleanup. There was Elmira before and Elmira after the catastrophe. The flood still impacts Chemung County even in 2019. It was a cornerstone in local history and important in the story of who we are as local residents. If we are to keep people here for the future to continue to rebuild and restore this area, we need to teach students about our own history and instill an appreciation for what Elmira and surrounding areas were and what it will be in the future.

I am a 6^th grade teacher of English and Social Studies at Horseheads Intermediate School. I teach a team of forty-five students. At the Intermediate School, I am fortunate enough to have leadership that supports Project Based Learning. So, this exhibit is the culmination project of this PBL assignment. Students have spent months learning about the flood, researching topics of interest in relation to the flood, and building an informational exhibit that focuses on the impact on different aspects of the local community because of the flood.

Students began reading background literature written by local historians such as Thomas E. Byrne, Rachel Dworkin, and Kirk House. Once students were versed in the general history of the flood, research groups chose topics in which to focus on and build this exhibit. Topics included first responders, military and government, hospitals, and more. Groups chose an authentic historical image based on their chosen topic and wrote a short history outlining that particular story. Students used primary and secondary source material such as newspaper articles, journal articles, documentaries, and personal accounts of survivors to tell their histories. Put together, this is a unique story of the flood that is personal, relevant, and highly informative.

This museum exhibit is 100% student created. These 6^th graders have worked very hard to tell a history that is still vivid to many but unknown to many others. We invite you to come learn about the impact of the flood on our local community in 1972. This student-created exhibit will be on display starting mid-January and we will have an exhibit opening reception on January 30^th from 5-7 PM at the Chemung County Historical Society where students and I will be there to celebrate their work and interact with the community. Everyone is invited to attend, free of charge. We hope to see you there!

One-Room Schoolhouses in Veteran

by Erin Doane, Curator

In 1876, the Town of Veteran had a population of around 2,300 and it had 15 schools. 15!? To modern eyes, that may seem like a lot, but the majority were small, one-room schoolhouses. This was typical of most rural towns in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries. Nearly all of the students would have to walk to school, so the schoolhouses needed to be close to where they lived. Of the 867 school-age children who lived in Veteran in 1876, 717 were enrolled pupils. There were 12 male teachers and 21 female teachers and a library of 445 volumes shared across the schools.

Students at Veteran School No. 7 in Sullivanville 
with teacher Eugene Bush, c. 1880s

The Town of Veteran Historians have a wonderful collection of photographs and materials related to these early schools. While researching the Towns and Villages of Chemung County: Veteran exhibit, which is on display here at CCHS through July 2018, I got to look through their school files. All the images in this post are from the Veteran Historians’ collection.

Veteran School No. 14, Parrott Road, Sullivanville, January 11, 1932

Teacher Irma Miller with students Mark Cronkrite (11), 
Judd Parrott (9), Margaret Vondracek (10), unidentified dog, 
Robert Hovencamp (11), and Frank Vondracek

The first schoolhouse in the town of Veteran was built in the early 1800s just east of the village of Millport. Simeon Squires served as the first school teacher. By the middle of the century, more schoolhouses had been built in Sullivanville, Pine Valley, and more remote areas of the town.

Veteran School No. 12, Pine Valley

Millport’s famous octagon school was built in 1869. The two-story building had two rooms, one upstairs and one downstairs, where students in grades 1 through 8 were taught. This was one of the only schools that had more than one teacher. In 1888, the two teachers were a husband and wife team who made a combined salary of $750 a year.

Veteran School No. 8, octagon schoolhouse in Millport, late 1800s

The school was torn down in 1930 and replaced with a red brick schoolhouse.

The interiors of the one-room schoolhouses were fairly similar. Typically, there were wooden student desks facing a teacher’s desk and a blackboard in the front of the room. The early schools had no electricity and water had to be brought in from either a well with a pitcher pump outside or from a neighboring home. A wood or coal stove would provide heat for the building in the winter. Since nearly every student walked to school, some were able to go home for lunch. Those who stayed would bring their own lunches or, at some schools, the teacher or parents would provide hot soup for all the students. Outhouses, one for boys and one for girls, were nearby. Some schools had a swing outside or a teeter-totter that students could enjoy at recess.

Interior of Veteran School No. 13, Miller-Skinner School, 
located at Veteran Hill and Sutter Road, 1940s

Most of the schools had students from grades 1 through 8 all in the same room. The teacher would work with one grade at a time but everyone could hear the lessons. Because of that, younger students often learned what their older counterparts were being taught. It was not unusual for students in these one-room schoolhouses to pass tests to skip into higher grades. After 8^th grade, students would go to high school in Horseheads.

Veteran School No. 5 on Middle Road, c. 1920s

One of the neatest things that I found in the Historians’ files were photocopies of yearbooks from Veteran School No. 10 from 1935 and 1936. The homemade yearbooks included class photos, drawings likely made by students, and even a class will. I wonder how many schools produced their own yearbooks like that.

Veteran School No. 10 yearbook cover and page of student photos, 1936

Pages from Veteran School No. 10 yearbook from 1935

Veteran’s rural schools were consolidated with the Horseheads Central School District in 1950 and the days of the one-room schoolhouse came to an end. Several of the schoolhouses were torn down but may more remain as private residences. For more photos and information about Veteran schools visit http://www.townofveteranhistoricalsociety.com/id14.html. To see more photos of students and read stories from those who went to some of the one-room schoolhouses in Veteran visit http://www.townofveteranhistoricalsociety.com/id24.html.

Veteran School No. 1, Terry Hill