A Glimpse of the Snohomish Schoolroom in 1880
A traveling visitor praises the discipline, music, and literary talent of students in a small Snohomish classroom.
Snohomish City is situated on the Snohomish river about twelve miles from its mouth, and contains two dry goods stores, two taverns, two blacksmith shops, one printing office, one saloon, a post office, one shoe shop, barber shop, a public hall, and thirty dwelling houses, with a resident population of about 150 persons. One of the chief features of the progress of the city is the public school, taught by that accomplished lady and teacher, Mrs. L. W. J. Bell. The schoolroom is as comfortably seated as any I have seen on the coast, and is occupied by 60 pupils. Among the most prominent features of the school are, almost perfect discipline, music, and a literary paper edited by two of the young ladies. My visit to the school was on Friday afternoon, when the paper was read to the school by Miss Lillie Bell and Miss Millie Woods. Its columns were filled with original matter, prose and poetry, which would do credit to a paper of much greater pretensions.
“The music was participated in by every child in the room, and led by the teacher and her two daughters, whose richly cultivated voices poured forth melodies which sent thrills of joy through every soul in the room.”
This provides a rare snapshot of the social and educational life of Snohomish when it was a frontier village of only 150 people. The focus on student-led literary journals shows that cultural development kept pace with the town's industrial growth.
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