Schools Days In Mendon —
Not many years after the Pioneers settled Mendon, Ralph Forster and his associates in the Ward Sunday school hit upon the idea of celebrating May Day. This was around 1866 and Mendon has had a May Day festival ever since. Professor Alma N. Sorensen said, “The settlers were so happy when spring came, as the winters were long and cold. When people lived in log cabins they had to express their feelings by getting out, as spring was most welcome. Some of the maidens went to the foothills and picked wild flowers, then came and danced upon the green.” They said, “Why not celebrate the May Day with a Maypole dance and crowning the queen. Seny Sorensen Richards was that queen.”
In early days the boys would have to help their fathers on the farm till late in the fall then as soon as the land could be plowed and planted in the spring the boys were kept out of school to help with the farm work. The only education they would get was in the winter months. There were a lot of big boys in the lower grades with the younger children. So these boys were often called “Knot Heads” or “Bullies.” They would try to bully the lady teacher and she would often call in the principal to take care of them. The big bell in the belfry would ring at eight-thirty a.m. telling all to get ready for school and then at 9 o’clock to start school. The winters were cold and the children wore warm home knit stockings. The fathers would come in sleighs and pick up their own children and any others who wanted a ride. We sometimes wore a sort of veil over our faces and knitted scarf over our heads. I don’t know about overshoes at this early date, but I am sure they wore something on their feet to keep them dry. We did wear two or more petticoats and woolen coats too.
When it was time for recess a triangle would sound and we would all march to the music out, and then the triangle would sound to go in. A. G. White would play the music. Mud was deep around the schoolhouse and Oscar Barrett and some other boys would haul straw and scatter it around to keep it out of the inside. Some remember roasting potatoes in the pot bellied stove. On Washington’s Birthday there was nearly always lots of snow on the ground and the school would go sleigh riding. The boys would hitch their horses to the sleighs and a sleigh ride to Wellsville and back.
Some kids didn’t know their right foot from their left foot in marching into the room. They would all be lined up outside. They were to start with their right foot. The teacher was John Anderson from Lewiston, told them to call right foot, hay foot and the left straw foot. The marching was more uniform after this. Hay-foot, straw-foot…
— Lizzie Stumpf Barrett