The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
2000-01 Project of Henderson County Retired Teachers Association (HCRTA)
This book continues from last week and was a project of the Henderson County Retired Teachers Association (HCRTA) by president Mary Alice Huntoon of Stronghurst who produced, between Nov. 13, 2000 and March 12, 2001, a storybook of “Memories” from retired teachers in the HCRTA organization. Ms. Huntoon asked HCRTA members to share things they remembered when teaching.
She also included any articles from the last ten HCRTA newsletters where people had shared “Teacher Spotlights” or articles about “Graham School $1.00”.
The Quill began the series on 12/29/2021 thanks to Ms. Huntoon.
HCRTA Members Included in the Memories Project
Article from the “Henderson County Retired Teacher’s Newsletter”, Copy 1 Year 2000.
In April 1940, my first year of teaching, the day began bright and sunny. By noon it became windy and cloudy. My ten students of the one-room rural school finished our lunches and went outside to play their favorite game, softball. By one o’clock the weather had grown darker, the clouds more ominous.
Wanting to keep an eye on the threatening clouds, I “forgot” to ring the bell at one o’clock; we just kept playing ball.
I wondered how I could protect the children if a tornado came. Just beyond the schoolyard was a deep ditch, maybe four or five feet. I thought perhaps they could lie down in it.
About one-thirty the sky cleared a little, and we resumed classes. The next day’s paper told of a tornado in southern Illinois that had lifted the roof from a rural school. The teacher had kept the students safe by having them get under their desks.
A few days later my eighth grade boy, who was nearly fifteen told me he knew why we’d had such a long noon hour. He, too, was watching the weather and had thought of the same ditch.
Retired teacher of the month
Kathryn (Manifold) Link was born and reared in La Harpe Township, Hancock County. Her great-grandfather was one of the pioneers who came west in 1832 and homesteaded in the new settlement that became La Harpe.
She received her elementary and secondary education in local schools, graduating from La Harpe High school in 1935. In 1939 she received her Bachelor Degree from Park College (now Park University), Parkville, Missouri. She majored in French with minors in literature and social studies and obtained both an elementary and a secondary teaching certificate.
During these late Depression days, teaching positions were hard to find. She spent the summer making applications and personal interviews through Illinois. At these interviews one of the first questions she was asked was, “What experience do you have?” School board members were not impressed with one semester of practice teaching.
By September, with still no job, Kathryn enrolled at Gem City Business College in Quincy. Near the end of October she was called from class for a phone call. This person who was hired to teach a one-room school near Basco had suddenly resigned to take a government job.
Because the directors of the school had also considered Kathryn’s application, they wanted to talk to her again. After an interview that night, she quickly moved home, then to that school district and began teaching on November 1, 1939. Her salary was $70.00 a month-board and room was $5.00 a week.
Kathryn admits that she hadn’t really wanted to teach, but the scarcity of money and jobs pressured her into the profession. Her experiences at this school was pleasant.
The ten students (grades three through eight) were well mannered and conscientious. She truly enjoyed her year.
The winter blizzard which kept people snowed in for a week and a threatened spring tornado have been written of previously. In retrospect, they only added spice to the year.
At the end of the year, she was offered a renewal of her contract with the same salary. However, she was offered a contract at DurhamCenter School west of La Harpe at the salary of $72.50 per month. She accepted the offer and moved home. She taught that school for two years.
In the fall of 1941, Kathryn became engaged to John E. Link of rural La Harpe. They were married May 11, 1942. She and John took over the family farm at the retirement of her parents. There they reared their six children and lived until 1977 when they retired and moved to La Harpe.
After her first retirement from teaching, Kathryn planned never to teach again, but in the 1950’s a shortage of substitute teachers led the county superintendent of schools, a long time family friend, to insist that she get her certificates reinstated. For about eight years, she did substitute teaching.
In the fall of 1964, Kathryn was drafted to fill the vacancy left by the retirement of the French teacher in La Harpe. A foreign language, like some other skills, slips away if it is not used. After nearly thirty years of not using much French teaching it was a challenge.
High school teaching proved to be more interesting than one-room schools. After three years in La Harpe School, she again retired because of a change in administration.
Nevertheless, when August came, another telephone call drafted her to teach English at Union High school. Six classes of English a day mean more papers to grade! These students were cooperative and appreciative of any attention given them. The position was challenging and enjoyable, but the homework was infringing too much on family time. After three years, Kathryn retired again.
August 1970, same script, different setting, another phone call sent her to Stronghurst High School to teach French and English. Fellow teachers and students were friendly. She taught here for seven years until her husband retired from farming.
During her tenure in Stronghurst, it became Southern High school. The transition of uniting with Media was smooth. The seven years at Stronghurst were for the most part pleasant. Among the highlights is a trip to Paris, France with fifteen students. For Kathryn, it was a dream come true.
She tells of walking from the hotel to the restaurant, still hardly believing she was really in Paris, and pinching herself as she said, “Je marche sur la Rue de Champagne.”
Other trips with students to state conferences of Future Teachers of America, later S.A.E. were also enjoyable.
Also while teaching in Stronghurst she had several students enter the annual essay contest sponsored by the National Association of Teachers of English. At least two of them were winners.
While on the staff at Southern, she was instrumental in expanding the French curriculum to four years and in adding creative writing to the English curriculum. She also sponsored several independent study courses.
As Kathryn looks back on her teaching years, she counts most of her former students as friends, and has many happy memories. She says having former students greet her with a smile and sometimes a hug makes it all worthwhile.
Her husband died in January, 1994 just four and a half months short of their fifty-second wedding anniversary. Besides their six children, they have fifteen grandchildren, and at last count twenty-three great-grands. Her family and her church are the center of her life. She is thankful for her life-long association with young people and still enjoys them.
She says, “Praise God from whom all blessing flow.”