The Teacher Who Saved the Schoolhouse
A quick-thinking teacher organized students into a bucket brigade to save a burning schoolhouse at Hughes' mill.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
But for the presence of mind of Miss Sybel Simpson, the new school house at Hughes’ mill would now be in ashes. The lumber touching on the flue caught fire through some defect and when discovered by the teacher and children had already gained considerable headway. Miss Simpson, with admirable presence of mind, at once gathered several dinner buckets and organized the children into a bucket brigade, and by stacking desks one upon the other until she could get within reach of the devouring element, soon had a stream of water playing on the flames which checked and finally subdued them.
“Miss Simpson, with admirable presence of mind, at once gathered several dinner buckets and organized the children into a bucket brigade.”
Infrastructure risks in remote logging camps and mill towns were constant. Simpson’s ingenuity under pressure highlights the vital role of local schoolteachers as not just educators, but essential frontline responders for their communities.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.