Browsing the hometown newspaper I came across an old photograph. The caption read, The East Hampton Union School. It was taken in 1894 and there in that picture was my Great Grandfather Floyd P Lester. What a surprise. As I read the names of the other students I recognized those names, those family names are as familiar to me as the sun rising in the morning. I went to school and graduated with many of them. I got to thinking that many of those pictured must have been great grandparents to my classmates.
Some of the names survive today, in East Hampton, descended from these folks. Lester,Grimshaw,Fithian,de Mott, Sherrill, Baker, Osborn,Hedges Collum, Bennett and Field. There are a total of forty five listed for the school. Quite a large number for the time and place. I also found it interesting that it was a Union school. I have always known my school district as Union Free. I recall seeing that phrase used often in the description of the school. Union Free school district number one and such. I never gave it any thought. Apparently, somewhere along the line East Hampton became disenchanted with the union. An interesting piece of history that perhaps warrants some exploration. The paper is not archived that far back for viewing online so I'll have to wait on that. I'm sure it was a hot topic of debate at some point. I wonder when that time was ?
I did locate a picture of the school online. The picture is quite dark but it shows quite the structure. I wonder what became of it ? I do not recall seeing it, but few buildings were destroyed, by man anyway, in East Hampton and if it is not preserved somewhere the story must be an interesting one. Maybe the Union boys were upset !
These little finds provide perspective. You don't think of your great grandfather as graduating school. I don't know what we think. Yes, they went to school but not like the school we know. 1894 and it wasn't a one room schoolhouse with a little wood stove in the back. No, it was quite a large two story affair. From what I can make out in the photo it had a large front porch and a bell tower. Nothing like I would have imagined. Quite modern and progressive. Maybe a bit too progressive for the local folk and that is why the union was given the boot ! East Hampton was beginning to feel the influence of the wealthy even then. Why great grandfather Lester himself ran a fast transit system from Hook Mill to the Beach to accommodate those wealthy clients. Tickets cost ten cents each ! By 1910 the automobile put him out of business and that is an indicator of the progressive nature of East Hampton.
1894 the year great grandfather appeared in that picture. He was sixteen. I wonder if that was the last year of school for him. When he was twenty he was working for a man named Mulligan that owned a general store. He delivered supplies to the Rough Riders at Montauk ! That was the Spanish American War. He also married Lucy, my great grandmother that same year.
Things in the " old days " were pretty much the same as today. Our technology really hasn't changed human nature. We do have the ability to review the past more thoroughly than in past generations. Used to be only scholars would have access to all that. Our only mistake is not in learning from that past. That has always been the case and I expect that will not change either.
It is these finds that continue to inspire me to write. I take a casual interest in these things of the past and perhaps some one in the future will take that same interest. I intend to provide whatever little insights I can. The things I take for granted and understand will not be so in the future. Common everyday things to me are going to be history to another. Consider something as simple as a doorstop ! Do you have one ? That is what I'm talking about. A simple thing isn't it ? Now take that picture it provides more questions than answers.
footnote: The picture in the East Hampton Star appeared on Jan 15,1959, page nine. Great Grandfather Lester loaned it to them. I do not have the original and wonder about its' whereabouts.
Some of the names survive today, in East Hampton, descended from these folks. Lester,Grimshaw,Fithian,de Mott, Sherrill, Baker, Osborn,Hedges Collum, Bennett and Field. There are a total of forty five listed for the school. Quite a large number for the time and place. I also found it interesting that it was a Union school. I have always known my school district as Union Free. I recall seeing that phrase used often in the description of the school. Union Free school district number one and such. I never gave it any thought. Apparently, somewhere along the line East Hampton became disenchanted with the union. An interesting piece of history that perhaps warrants some exploration. The paper is not archived that far back for viewing online so I'll have to wait on that. I'm sure it was a hot topic of debate at some point. I wonder when that time was ?
I did locate a picture of the school online. The picture is quite dark but it shows quite the structure. I wonder what became of it ? I do not recall seeing it, but few buildings were destroyed, by man anyway, in East Hampton and if it is not preserved somewhere the story must be an interesting one. Maybe the Union boys were upset !
These little finds provide perspective. You don't think of your great grandfather as graduating school. I don't know what we think. Yes, they went to school but not like the school we know. 1894 and it wasn't a one room schoolhouse with a little wood stove in the back. No, it was quite a large two story affair. From what I can make out in the photo it had a large front porch and a bell tower. Nothing like I would have imagined. Quite modern and progressive. Maybe a bit too progressive for the local folk and that is why the union was given the boot ! East Hampton was beginning to feel the influence of the wealthy even then. Why great grandfather Lester himself ran a fast transit system from Hook Mill to the Beach to accommodate those wealthy clients. Tickets cost ten cents each ! By 1910 the automobile put him out of business and that is an indicator of the progressive nature of East Hampton.
1894 the year great grandfather appeared in that picture. He was sixteen. I wonder if that was the last year of school for him. When he was twenty he was working for a man named Mulligan that owned a general store. He delivered supplies to the Rough Riders at Montauk ! That was the Spanish American War. He also married Lucy, my great grandmother that same year.
Things in the " old days " were pretty much the same as today. Our technology really hasn't changed human nature. We do have the ability to review the past more thoroughly than in past generations. Used to be only scholars would have access to all that. Our only mistake is not in learning from that past. That has always been the case and I expect that will not change either.
It is these finds that continue to inspire me to write. I take a casual interest in these things of the past and perhaps some one in the future will take that same interest. I intend to provide whatever little insights I can. The things I take for granted and understand will not be so in the future. Common everyday things to me are going to be history to another. Consider something as simple as a doorstop ! Do you have one ? That is what I'm talking about. A simple thing isn't it ? Now take that picture it provides more questions than answers.
footnote: The picture in the East Hampton Star appeared on Jan 15,1959, page nine. Great Grandfather Lester loaned it to them. I do not have the original and wonder about its' whereabouts.
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