1949: Crisis at the Schoolhouse
2024 marks the Ephraim Historical Foundation’s 75th year. Read on to discover how school teacher Helen Sohns got things started.
by Kathleen Harris, EHF Educator
An Urgent Phone Call
In the spring of 1949, Helen Hoeppner Sohns could not have imagined the consequences of her phone call to Warren Davis. Sohns was a long-time teacher at Ephraim School. Davis was a friend and summer resident who had become part of the fabric of Ephraim over many decades. With a note of urgency in her voice, Sohns told Davis that the village board had voted to scrap the one-room schoolhouse. The board's call for bids, advertised repeatedly in the Door County Advocate since January 1948, had yielded nothing. No one, it seemed, wanted the 24 x 50 foot frame building that had stood on Moravia Street since 1880.
Left: Ephraim Schoolteacher Helen Sohns, c. 1930s.
Below Left: 1949 ad calling for bids.
... and in with the New
On the other hand, there was great enthusiasm for the new school, built up the road on Church Street (Hwy Q) at the corner of Norway. The site was level, unlike the old school that was tucked along a hillside making for "a very poor and dangerous playground for the children." Each new class room measured 24 x 40 feet, nearly as big as the entire old schoolhouse. There was a drinking fountain, too, and room for a library. Nifty "florescent bulbs for dreary days" added a contemporary touch, having been sold commercially for just a decade. It seemed a great improvement compared to "the old school and its cross lighting." Click underlined words for more information: 1938, The History of Florescent Lights.
Ephraim's new elementary school (today's village offices) opened January 24, 1949. "Separate cloak and lavoratory rooms for girls and boys" were something to cheer about, good-bye outhouses! What's more, the basement, complete with a kitchen, had a "large recreation room for games when inclement weather prevails."
Parents, in turn, were happy about the new oil furnace with steam heat that guaranteed an even temperature throughout the building, though truth be told a few young rascals would miss dropping crayons through the old school's iron floor grate, onto the furnace below. Speaking of flooring, how about the new building's modern, easy-care asphalt tiles instead of old-fashioned hardwood planks milled from local trees. Asphalt tiles, invented around 1920 as a by-product of asbestos mining, seemed just the ticket for easy care. They were in fashion nationwide and would remain so until non-asbestos vinyl tiles became standard in the 1980s, with help from the EPA.
Source: “Plan Open House at Ephraim School on Washington’s Day” by Mrs. Wm. Wedepohl. February 17, 1949, Door County Advocate
And yet …
Teacher Helen Sohns surely appreciated the conveniences of the new building and recognized the changing needs of classrooms and students. And yet, it didn't feel right to dismantle a place that had created generations of memories. Was she remembering the many children who had walked up the path from Moravia Street and stepped through the schoolhouse door?
All of them had taken turns tugging on the faithful bell, and heard its clang of welcome. All had practiced sums on the chalkboard and, at day's end, gone outside to clap dusty erasers. The schoolhouse was where Ephraim's children first learned how to compromise with neighbors, practice kindness, and learn that success and taking accountability can feel good, in different ways. The one-room schoolhouse represented what Ephraim strived to be: a community that was welcoming, hard-working, honest, and resourceful. And fun! Goodness, who could forget the budding thespian talent on display at countless schoolhouse pageants and plays.
The old school was more than a building. Embracing progress didn't mean you simply chucked the past. Did it?
1859: Ephraim's First School
The building Sohns wanted to save wasn't Ephraim's first school. In 1857, Rev. Andrew Iverson, the Norwegian minister who established Ephraim as a Moravian community a few years before, was elected Town Superintendent of Public Schools. It was a good fit given his Moravian belief in creating an engaged citizenry through education. At the time the Township of Gibraltar included Ephraim, Fish Creek, Egg Harbor, and Baileys Harbor. Each town had its own school. Ephraim (District #4) representatives quickly met and voted to levy a tax for $120 to build a log building on land Iverson donated.
Ephraim's first school opened in 1859 with Pauline Larsen appointed first teacher. She was the daughter of Ole Larsen, who met Iverson in Buffalo, New York when the Moravians were journeying to Wisconsin. Pauline was a married teacher, uncommon at the time. She had 35 pupils her first year and earned $4 a week. Ephraim's first school still stands on Willow Street and is privately owned.
1880: Ephraim’s Second School
On September 16, 1880, the Door County Advocate reported “the citizens of Ephraim have just completed a handsome new frame school house which adds greatly to the appearance of that model little burg. The old school building was to have been sold at public auction on the 15th.” Around 1900, an addition increased the building’s capacity from sixty to eighty children.
As the village grew, so did the number of students. Twenty years later, a larger school was constructed for $658. This was the building that Helen Sohns was determined to save, the one that was in such a precarious predicament and in danger of being dismantled. When she phoned Warren Davis in the spring of 1949 she had just one question. Would he help save the schoolhouse?
NOTES
Pictured above right: Ephraim's Schoolhouse in the late 1890s. Nellie Noble is identified as the teacher. Nellie Noble Howe (1878-1962) was daughter of Alexander and Emily Noble of Fish Creek. They are buried at the Ephraim Moravian Cemetery. Nellie is buried in Blossomburg Cemetery, Fish Creek, near her daughter Dr. Gertrude Howe, the last resident of Gibraltar Historical Association's Noble House.
“Teachers Meeting” May 2, 1896 Door County Advocate
The fifth meeting of the teachers of Gibraltar was held April 18 in the schoolhouse at Fish Creek. The meeting was called to order by Vice-President Walter Smith. Miss Weborg being absent, Mr. Whitford kindly took her place and conducted the exercise in pedagogy in a very instructive manner. Following was a selection from the Sketch Book by Nellie Noble and a sketch on the life of Emerson by Mable Thorp. All the time having been spent, the remainder of the program was omitted.
The committee on program arranged the following for the next meeting to be held Saturday, May 9: Imagination in Education, R. Whitford; Emerson's Essays, History, Walter Smith; The Sketch Book, The Voyage, Gertrude Noble; The Talisman, Nellie Noble; general conversation exercise.
Those present were Misses Gertrude Noble, Eva Hill, Hannah Johnson, Nellie Noble, Mable Thorp, Laura McSweeney, Messrs. Walter Smith and R. Whitford.
NELLIE D. NOBLE, Sec'y
