Mosquito Valley School

 
"The Valley School" Mosquito Valley, Lycoming County Pa

"On this spot stood the Mosquito Valley School. It served the two dozen or so families of the valley from 1872 to 1925. It was the classic “One Room School” with one teacher for about 30-50 students from first to eighth grade. Through the 53 years of its existence, about 25 teachers served here, most educated at the Muncy Normal School. Many roomed with local families. Students walked to and from school, some from homes and farms as much as four miles away near the top of the nearby hills. The school quad was surrounded by a cross-board fence and a solid row of sugar maple trees, most of which are still living after nearly 150 years.

Early view before the school bell cupola was added on the roof

Inside the front door were two cloak rooms, one for the girls and one for the boys. On either side of the pot-belly stove in the center of the room were 12 double desks with ink wells; younger students sat up front, and older ones in the back. In the front behind the teacher’s desk on the far wall was a large blackboard with an alphabet on top and maps on the side, and one large Webster’s Dictionary. Benches across the front were used for individual recitation or discipline purposes. Out in the schoolyard was a hand-pumped water well for filling a bucket from which students drank from a common dipper. Behind the school house were 2 outhouses.

The curriculum was basic: reading, writing, arithmetic, history and geography. Each student had slate boards and colored slate pens wrapped in paper for writing (and saving paper). Text books were to be fitted with heavy brown paper covers to protect them from inclement weather on the long walks to and from school. Teaching activities included spelling bees, plays or tableaux, and giving recitations and speeches. Recess games included “fox and rabbit,” “3 cornered cat,” “crack the whip,” snow ball fights and shooting marbles.

The school flourished in the 1880s-1890s, and also served as a Methodist chapel for a few years. By about 1905-1907 the Williamsport Water Company had purchased most of the land up-valley from the school and the population served dwindled to the point that the school was phased out by 1925 and was later demolished. Its bricks are still visible under the nearby barberry thicket."

1895-1896

1902-1903

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Mosquito Valley School

"Following the Revolutionary War and early lumbering period, settlers moved into Mosquito Valley in the mid-1800s and transformed the valley into a thriving community with farms, sawmills, stone quarries, orchards, and vineyards. By the late 1800s, the need for a clean and plentiful public water supply for the Williamsport area led the Citizens Gas and Water Company to purchase much of the Mosquito Creek watershed. By about 1910 most of the properties had been acquired and its inhabitants removed. The watershed fell silent and reverted back to the beautiful forested area you see today. "