Unknown Connections at School

When my father Lester Albertson was in the fifth grade at Oak Plain School 1918-19, his teacher was Ida Mitzner. I thought I recognized the name Mitzner. I found that Ida's older brother, Herman, married Lela Bond in September 1919. Lela was a first cousin of Florence (Bond) Falk, who was Wilma Falk's mother. Lester would not meet Wilma for about another ten years, but then they would be married in 1933. He is being taught by a very close relative of his future wife's relative's husband.

But then, when I looked at his eight grade teacher's name, Lillian I. Clingman, I thought I recognized that name also. So I checked in my database and discovered that Lillian was the adopted daughter of Irene (Bond) Clingman. Irene was the first cousin of my mother's grandfather, John Howard Bond. I am sure that Irene knew our family since she attended the same Bond Reunion in 1939 that my grandmother did. Again Lester's teacher is related to his future wife.

I wonder how many times this happens in our families that lived in rural areas. .

Report Cards From the Past

Yesterday, January 20, 2017, I posted a photo from Oak Plain School near Halsey, Oregon, with the names of the students pictured. I had the pleasure of finding some of my father's (Lester Albertson) old report cards from that school. I was able to learn some interesting facts from these records.

Lester was in the fifth grade in the 1918-19 school year. His teacher was Ida Mitzner. . He attended school for 149 days, with 0 days absent and 0 times tardy. For his studies his grades ranged from 88 to 100, with most of the grades in the 90s. One of the items I found surprising was in the second month of the school year under the designation deportment. It was marked 75. Then all the other months were from 88 to 94. Apparently he slipped up that one month. So I did find on the back of the card a section for teacher remarks and she wrote, "An excellent pupil." Note that Ida's younger brother Theodore and sister Amanda were on yesterday's photo.

In the 1920-21 school year, Lester was in the seventh grade with Ethel Bray as his teacher. That year he went to school 152 days, again with 0 days absent and 0 times tardy. The lowest grade I found in his subjects were 80 for the first month's test in history and the second month's test in writing. By the second half of the year the lowest was 85 in spelling, but almost all the others were in the 90s and even a few 100s, which made his total average for the year 93. By now his deportment was graded 94-100 and application was 95-100. So he was promoted to the 8th grade.