District 6: School Memories from 1920's

Submitted by Charlotte Mayfield Jackson of Eugene, Oregon

In the 1920's her father, Clyde Mayfield, lived in Nemaha County as a child, and these are his memories, delivered to us by his daughter, Charlotte.

NEMAHA CO., NEBRASKA
DISTRICT NO. 6
EVA M. STEWART, TEACHER
BESS E. ANDERSON, CO. SUPT.
DIRECTOR, GEORGE BURDETT
TREASURER, MR. SKEEN
CLERK, ORA BENSON

PUPILS

          MILLA BENSON                       SAMUEL REBUCK
          ALICE ERISMAN                      LUELLA RHOADES
          HUBERT BENSON                      NEVA MAYFIELD
          NADEEN STEVENS                     HOLLIS STEVENS
          CLYDE MAYFIELD                     LESTER DUGGAN
          MARY REBUCK                        GRETCHEN LAMAR
          GLADYS LAMAR                       ARTHUR ERISMAN
          AVERIL STEVENS                     CLARKE COVEY
          LAVETA WHITWELL                    HEROLD WILCOX
          IVAN ERISMAN                       CORA STEVENS
          LOYD MAYFIELD                      HELEN RHOADES
          WILLARD ALLGOOD                    LOUISE RHOADES
          CLARENCE LAMAR                     HARLAN ERISMAN
          HOWARD DUGGAN                      KEITH STEVENS
                                             PAUL WHITWELL

According to my father, Clyde MAYFIELD,  who is 91 years old,  the names read starting at the 8th grade in the upper left column Then the rest of the students on down to the 1st grade at the bottom right column. My father says that both he and beautiful Mary REBUCK received 100% on their 8th grade exam.  Dad and Mary rode with the teacher on horseback to Lincoln to take the state exam, as well as Alice ERISMAN, Hubert BENSON and Nadeen STEVENS.They stopped at Meyers grocery in downtown Auburn for a treat, that was a big thing, that trip. Some man also went with them.

Mr. DUGGAN married Mrs. STEVENS and had seven of their children going to school each day.  The seven children brought a big can full of peanut butter sandwiches for them to share at lunch. My dad and his brother and sister usually carried biscuts with jam in a syrup bucket.

My father's family left Conway Springs, KS in 1917 and moved family, furniture, dog and livestock in a boxcar, (which was the way most people moved during that time) to Brock, NE. They stayed in Brock about 6 months and then moved to Auburn.

My grandfather, Samuel "Sam" MAYFIELD, found a job on the Thomas A. BATH farm. The pay in exchange for my grandfather's labor was $30.00 a month, a house, 2 pigs to butcher and 2 cows to milk.

Mr BATH had a son by the name of William Keith BATH who had a new Vealy sports automobile. William took my father for a ride in his new car and it went (and this is the truth) 60 mph. My father said that he was so frightened and the fence posts looked toothpicks lying down. He couldn't imagine anything flying through the air that fast. My father was 14 years old at that time.

I might mention that he remembers two girls (twins) by the names of Mary and Martha HENDERSON who quit going to school at Auburn's District No. 6. The girls were identical and it made things a lot of fun. But in 1919 the girls left and were sent to a Catholic school.

My father's favorite adventure was riding the horses from Auburn to Brownsville, NE. and taking the ferry across the swirling Missouri river to Port Rock, MO. Dad's older brother Albert MAYFIELD and little brother Loyd would take the trips across and back on the ferry. Albert and older brothers Fred and Henry went in the service in 1918 and Fred died of the flu in Nitro, WV and was sent home for burial and is buried in the cemetery in Auburn. When Albert came home to the BATH farm he was thrown from a horse and paralized. He lived three years after that.

My father remembers the town of Auburn with love in his heart. The community he says was like one big family. There was no high class people, everyone was all the same and always helped each others in time of need. It was a wonderful place for anyone to live.

Submitted by Charlotte Mayfield Jackson

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