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Transportation

Children in the early days usually walked to school. Some students rode or drove horses. Horses were very much a part of country school heritage. Saddles were too expensive and dangerous for the early homesteaders so the majority of school children rode bareback.

There was a variety of horse drawn vehicles - buggies, democrats, buckboards, wagons, stoneboats, surries ( a two seated carriage) and carts in the summer time. With the coming of winter out came sleighs, cutters, jumpers, and stoneboats (usually with short sides).

In later years children rode bicycles to and from school. When the country schools closed due to centralization school children rode the yellow school buses.

The history of country schools would not be complete without a few lines about "The School Horse". These faithful horses came in all sizes, colors and shapes. To most school children it didn’t matter, their little horse was their pride and joy. School children were kicked, stepped on, bucked off onto hard ground, had a few runaways, broke the harness and broke buggy and cart shafts. Nosebleeds, bumps, cuts and broken bones and even fatalities occurred (but very rarely). The school horse ranked at the top of all horses as far as the school child and the parents were concerned. Parents placed a great amount of trust in both their children and their school pony. Each could hurt the other - the horse by losing its way in a storm or bucking a child off, and the child by abusing or neglecting his four legged friend. It seems school horses had to be gentle, patient and "OLD". Although parents tried to teach their children about the horse, experience was a dear teacher.

You could compare school horses to people: - some were stubborn, some cranky, some downright funny, some very tricky , some intelligent and some very affectionate. These horses were entrusted with the lives of the school children. They made sure they got to school and back in all kinds of weather.

The "Faithful School Horses" disappeared in most districts when the bright yellow school bus replaced them. Horses were as important to the school system as were the pupils, teachers, books, equipment and the curriculum.