Mariaville

I mentioned the school and one-time general store at the corner of the Peters property in the previous entry.  I have some pictures of that, one a blurry sepia gloom but with more buildings than the store and school, then one of the school and store Mom got from a California woman, Evelyn W. Dale, after the latter's letter and photo to Nebraskaland Magazine, July 1988.  Mrs. Dale's grandparents were also Mariaville homesteaders, and her father had been born and reared in the area.  She even remembered that her mother had boarded with the Peters family while teaching the Mariaville school.  Throughout my childhood I was confused by the Rock County Mariaville north of Newport and the Knox County Morrillville, the latter between Bloomfield and Center, where Mom and Dad and their families went to school.

About the photo below she wrote, "Enclosed is a photo taken by my father many years ago showing the 'downtown' district of Mariaville:  the post office, general store and school."  So I'm going to guess that at the far left in the blurry photo are the post office and someone's home.  Strangely in the good photo the school windows look boarded up, but I think it's just shutters against the weather, for there's smoke coming out of the chimney (and the store's too, with a strong south wind).  As I said, I remember the general store across the road, an empty playhouse when I was very little, as briefly run by (Great) Uncle John and Aunt Nellie (Peters) Feddersen.  Uncle John was no more a store manager than Great Grandfather Peters was much of a farmer (they both apparently preferred books), from what Gram and Mom said.

Here's a fancy little Mariaville School Souvenir, dated "Sept. 5, '98 --April 21, '99," with the teacher's photo on the cover, next to the photo of the Peters homestead.  With that shorter school year, I wonder if they had any holiday vacations.  Inside the Souvenir is a list of 37 pupils, including Glen, Forest (missing the second r), Nellie, and Myrtle Peters.  Myrtle is fifth down in the right column, Forest (sic) and Nellie ninth on the same line, and Glen twelfth in the left column.  

  
There's a rather good photo of the pupils, with the Peters children in the photo, I assume, but nothing indicating who or where.  The boys' caps are striking, as are the smocks for the four girls in front.  I assume the tallest in the back row is the teacher, though, with overalls, he might be the kind of large eighth grader I once went to school with.  I have another very dim Mariaville school photo with a fancy outline that has "Myrtle Ida Peters" on the back, but it's like peering through fog.