Mecosta Township
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Mecosta Township |
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| Mt. Hope School about 1907 or 1908. This is from the photo collection by Ethel Armstrong who spent hours giving background information of the area and sharing her collection of photos. She was a lovely woman and who kept in touch after she had gone to a nursing home. |
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| Students at Mt. Hope School. Sitting on the bench at the left is Alonzo Armstrong (Ethels husband) and squatting beside him is his brother Frank. This school was located on 220th Avenue in Stanwood. Below you will find her poem about the old school which she gave me permission to use in my story written about Mecosta Township. |
The Mt. Hope School stood on the hill And looked down on the fields below, What conversations it must have heard What secrets did it know? Wraps were hung on a row of hooks In the cloaks on the wall Tin lunch buckets sat on a shelf there too Awaiting the lunch time call. The boys all wore bib overalls And were barefoot most of the time The girls wore long black cotton hose And pigtails with bows so fine. The water was carried from the spring In a battered, galvanized pail They all drank from a dipper of tin That hung by it on a nail. The teachers were of a courageous breed Most barely out of their teens But they took on a responsibility Beyond their wildest dreams. Now everyone has forgotten the school That stood so proudly there All that is left is the lilac trees That still perfume the air. How many young lives were influenced By the lessons they carry still And how many dreams were born and died On the top of Mt. Hope hill? |
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