Kline Schoolhouse
Photo by Beatrice Szekely
School No. 22/Schoolhouse No. 6
(Also known as the Kline Schoolhouse)
1001 Hanshaw Road
By Patricia Longoria
Village of Cayuga Heights Deputy Historian
The nineteenth century farm families who lived in Tompkins County valued education for their daughters and sons. They were literate folk who kept track of local happenings by reading The Democrat and The Ithacan. They swapped books, read national magazines, and kept up to date on farming innovations published in agricultural journals. They documented their lives by writing letters and diaries.
In the early part of the century, the New York state legislature had enacted legislation to support education. The Common School Law of 1812 provided funding for communities to establish "common schools" to educate girls and boys in the basics of reading, writing, and mathematics. (See “Researching the History of Your School: Suggestions for Students and Teachers,” (Albany, NY: The University of the State of New York, The State Education Department, State Archives, 1985), 8.)
(Also known as the Kline Schoolhouse)
1001 Hanshaw Road
By Patricia Longoria
Village of Cayuga Heights Deputy Historian
The nineteenth century farm families who lived in Tompkins County valued education for their daughters and sons. They were literate folk who kept track of local happenings by reading The Democrat and The Ithacan. They swapped books, read national magazines, and kept up to date on farming innovations published in agricultural journals. They documented their lives by writing letters and diaries.
In the early part of the century, the New York state legislature had enacted legislation to support education. The Common School Law of 1812 provided funding for communities to establish "common schools" to educate girls and boys in the basics of reading, writing, and mathematics. (See “Researching the History of Your School: Suggestions for Students and Teachers,” (Albany, NY: The University of the State of New York, The State Education Department, State Archives, 1985), 8.)
School District No. 22
As early as 1823, residents of what would become the Village of Cayuga Heights had formed the Twenty-Second School District. Richard Manning, John Shaw, and Samuel Seaman served on the school board.
Local farm owners Jacob and Mary Cradit sold a small, triangular-shaped lot to the school district in 1823, at what is today 1001 Hanshaw Road. A schoolhouse, known formally as School No. 22 and locally as the Kline Schoolhouse, was built there at the intersection of Hanshaw and Pleasant Grove Roads (formerly known as Kline Road). On an 1866 map of Tompkins County, the school is labelled School House No. 6.
Local farm owners Jacob and Mary Cradit sold a small, triangular-shaped lot to the school district in 1823, at what is today 1001 Hanshaw Road. A schoolhouse, known formally as School No. 22 and locally as the Kline Schoolhouse, was built there at the intersection of Hanshaw and Pleasant Grove Roads (formerly known as Kline Road). On an 1866 map of Tompkins County, the school is labelled School House No. 6.
On August 29, 1823, Jacob and Mary Cradit sold a parcel to the trustees of the Twenty-Second School District for a "common school." The .66-acre lot, which cost $32.81, was "a part of Lot the ninety" bounded to the west by "the highway leading from Philip Klines to Cradits Sawmill" [today's Pleasant Grove Road] and to the north by "the highway leading from the corner of the lake to Dryden" [today's Hanshaw Road].
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Jacob and Mary Cradit to Ithaca Trustees of School District No. 22, Tompkins County Clerk Deed Book R, 470-471.
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A District School Teacher
One of the Schoolhouse No. 22 teachers was Isaac Owen Manning (June 5, 1838-June 16, 1919). In a diary he kept in 1858, the twenty-year-old wrote about his teacher training and first teaching job. Isaac was born in what was then known as the town of Ulysses in 1838. His parents, Joseph and Caroline Seaman Manning, owned an eighty-acre farm in the community of Hanshaw Corners, and Isaac worked planting and harvesting corn, wheat, peas, and potatoes; caring for cattle and sheep; and tending fences and roads. He balanced his farm chores with his attendance at the neighborhood Schoolhouse No. 22, from which he graduated in 1855, when he was seventeen.
Isaac then went on to study at Ithaca Academy and at a teacher training institute. Isaac struggled with his studies, sometimes falling behind with his schoolwork. He often noted that he was “embarrassed” after giving a recitation. Despite his “poor examination,” Isaac received his teaching certificate because the examiner “thought he should encourage me.” In October, Isaac “looked for a school” in Dryden and North Lansing. Probably because of a family connection—his uncle, Jesse Manning, was a school trustee, along with Samuel Hanshaw and W. Drake—Isaac was hired to teach “in our own district for $10 for 22 days.”
Like most teachers, Isaac had his ups and downs adjusting to his new duties and maintaining discipline. On November 8, his first day teaching at the one-room school, he had “28 scholars.” The very next day, attendance swelled to 34. “Got along pretty good,” he concluded. Trustee Samuel Hanshaw advised Isaac that neighbors were worried that he “would be too easy with the scholars.” In a telling detail about the level of discipline expected at that time, the school leader told Isaac that he preferred that the teacher “be too severe” in order to maintain order.
Isaac Manning frequently resorted to prayer and his religious faith to get him through the rough days. “It goes off pretty good to teach school but I feel that I need the assisting grace of God continually. Lord, strengthen my faith and lend thy helping hand,” he prayed. At the end of the term, the novice teacher had his scholars “read compositions and declare” in front of an audience of more than a dozen “spectators.” “The scholars done first rate,” he concluded proudly, “I was very pleased with them.”
Despite his initial success, Isaac’s teaching career in New York did not last very long. Two years after his term at Schoolhouse No. 22, Isaac had moved to Illinois to farm. His parents and siblings moved from Hanshaw Corners to Ogle County, Illinois by 1863.
Isaac’s cousin, Carrie Manning (Carrie’s father Thompson Manning was the younger brother of Isaac’s father Joseph), was also a student at School No. 22.
Isaac then went on to study at Ithaca Academy and at a teacher training institute. Isaac struggled with his studies, sometimes falling behind with his schoolwork. He often noted that he was “embarrassed” after giving a recitation. Despite his “poor examination,” Isaac received his teaching certificate because the examiner “thought he should encourage me.” In October, Isaac “looked for a school” in Dryden and North Lansing. Probably because of a family connection—his uncle, Jesse Manning, was a school trustee, along with Samuel Hanshaw and W. Drake—Isaac was hired to teach “in our own district for $10 for 22 days.”
Like most teachers, Isaac had his ups and downs adjusting to his new duties and maintaining discipline. On November 8, his first day teaching at the one-room school, he had “28 scholars.” The very next day, attendance swelled to 34. “Got along pretty good,” he concluded. Trustee Samuel Hanshaw advised Isaac that neighbors were worried that he “would be too easy with the scholars.” In a telling detail about the level of discipline expected at that time, the school leader told Isaac that he preferred that the teacher “be too severe” in order to maintain order.
Isaac Manning frequently resorted to prayer and his religious faith to get him through the rough days. “It goes off pretty good to teach school but I feel that I need the assisting grace of God continually. Lord, strengthen my faith and lend thy helping hand,” he prayed. At the end of the term, the novice teacher had his scholars “read compositions and declare” in front of an audience of more than a dozen “spectators.” “The scholars done first rate,” he concluded proudly, “I was very pleased with them.”
Despite his initial success, Isaac’s teaching career in New York did not last very long. Two years after his term at Schoolhouse No. 22, Isaac had moved to Illinois to farm. His parents and siblings moved from Hanshaw Corners to Ogle County, Illinois by 1863.
Isaac’s cousin, Carrie Manning (Carrie’s father Thompson Manning was the younger brother of Isaac’s father Joseph), was also a student at School No. 22.
Carrie Manning Attends the District School
Carrie lived on her family’s farm just north of the Kline Schoolhouse with her parents, Thompson and Caroline Drake Manning, and her older sisters Mary and Emma. In 1869, when Carrie was thirteen years old, she kept a diary in which she recorded her daily activities, including going to school.
On January 4, her first school day of the year, “the wind blew real hard,” and there were twelve “scholars” in class. (Nineteen students was the maximum number she noted.) A week later, “the road was so drifted that we could not get to school,” she explained. Carrie’s father often drove Carrie and Emma to school in the wagon or the “cutter.” On an especially rainy day, when the “rain ran over the road in places,” oxen pulled the wagon along the flooded road. Carrie noted in her diary that her father was made a school trustee on October 12. He bought supplies for the school, including wood, coal, a dipper, and chalk.
On January 4, her first school day of the year, “the wind blew real hard,” and there were twelve “scholars” in class. (Nineteen students was the maximum number she noted.) A week later, “the road was so drifted that we could not get to school,” she explained. Carrie’s father often drove Carrie and Emma to school in the wagon or the “cutter.” On an especially rainy day, when the “rain ran over the road in places,” oxen pulled the wagon along the flooded road. Carrie noted in her diary that her father was made a school trustee on October 12. He bought supplies for the school, including wood, coal, a dipper, and chalk.
Carrie seemed to enjoy school and proudly indicated the days she made “perfect” marks. “Got a card for being perfect all the week,” she wrote in early July. Classwork consisted of writing and reading compositions, doing “examples,” reading and reciting “pieces,” and singing. During recess, Carrie and her friends enjoyed riding down the hill, playing “mossy” and “barering,” and jumping rope. Carrie wrote about the new teacher, Miss Philips, who started in April. “I like her first rate,” Carrie wrote. In mid-June, Miss Philips took the students to explore the woods. She occasionally went over to Carrie’s house in the evenings and stayed overnight with the family, once helping with Carrie's embroidery. At the time, it was common for women teachers to instruct students in the summer, while male teachers taught in the winter, when more male students attended school. (In New York state, school attendance for students between the ages of eight and fourteen did not become mandatory until 1874.)
The Schoolhouse is Replaced
Like other schoolhouses in the early 1900s, the small Kline Schoolhouse was soon to be replaced. By that time, many of the area’s farms had become part of the new suburb of Cayuga Heights, which was incorporated as a village in 1915. In January 1920, the school district changed its name to the Union Free School District No. 6. Recognizing the need for a larger school for the growing neighborhood, developer Jared T. Newman sold land for a new elementary school to the school district, and what would later become known as Hitchcock Hall opened in 1923 at 110 East Upland Road.
The Board of Education of Union Free School District No. 6 sold the property "commonly known as the Kline schoolhouse lot" to Philip J. and Frances P. Krebs in 1941 (Deed dated May 21, 1941, Tompkins County Deed Book Number 260, Page 402). Frances worked as a clerk at Cornell University, and Philip (Cornell ’33) as an assistant manager in the Cornell Purchasing Department. The Krebs lived in the old schoolhouse for three decades. They sold the property in 1973 to Daniel and Katherine Anne Marvin, who sold it a year later to dentist H. J. Peter Patrick for use as his dental office.
Today, evidence of the white frame building’s original use can be seen in the two doors that flank the exterior chimney—one entrance for girls, and one for boys. The schoolhouse bell remains in the office, a reminder of schooldays past.
Today, evidence of the white frame building’s original use can be seen in the two doors that flank the exterior chimney—one entrance for girls, and one for boys. The schoolhouse bell remains in the office, a reminder of schooldays past.
