Bell From MUDD SCHOOL

History of Bullskin Township Schools

     Salaries were very small and much of the pay consisted of farm products or such things the settlers could conveniently spare.  A teachers job was not an easy one by any means, but because of their dedication to education, they taught between 20 to 30 students, Grades 1 through 8 for eight hours a day.  They acted as mothers, fathers, nurses, kept the furnace fires going, and kept peace at recess.  A normal day would begin by the teacher fixing the fire in the pot belly stove.  They would then recite The Lord's Prayer and The Pledge of Allegiance.  The younger students sat at the front of the room and the older students in the rear.  The teacher would get the younger ones started on their lessons first and then gradually move on to the older students.  At lunchtime the children living closest to the school would go home for lunch while the other students would eat their lunch at school and enjoy recess.  There was no running water in the schools and the bathroom was an Outhouse.

In 1836 under the Common-School System, Bullskin Township was first divided into the following districts:

By the late 1800's early 1900's the number of schools in the township grew to 21.  They included the following schools:

BEAR ROCKS--Grandview Road off Bear Rocks Road
BELLEVIEW--Belleview Road near the Kelly Farm
BREAKNECK--Breakneck Road near Breakneck Church
CROSSROADS--Richey Road near Duncan Bottled Gas
FRANKLIN-- Off Route 982 on Franklin Road near Laurelville
GAULT--Corner of Route 982 & Gault School Road
GEARY--Spruce Hollow Road
GILMORE--Breakneck Road near Tanyard Hollow
HAMMONDVILLE--Corner of Hammondville & Main Street
JOHNSON--Corner of East End Road & Johnson Lane
KELL--Route 982 at Bullskin Elementary School
MUDD--Intersection of Mudd School & Hoke Roads
ORE MINE--Ore Mine Hill Road behind the Fairgrounds
PENNSVILLE--Intersection of Longanecker & Richey Roads
PERSHING--Across the road from Fairview Church
PLEASANT VALLEY--Breakneck Road & Quail Hill
RICE--Intersection of Prittstown & Rice School Road
RICH HILL--Top of Rich Hill above stone quarry
RIDGEVIEW--Top of the first section of Kreinbrook Hill
SOUTHERWOOD--Top of Three Mile Hill on Old Route 31
STOUFFER--Corner of Breakneck Road & Spruce Hollow Road

     The Bullskin Township Elementary School was built on the Kell School site and was dedicated on October 23, 1956.  Today this school is the only public school in Bullskin Towsnhip.