Published: February 09, 2006 11:14 am

— Just another day in 1892 —

Retired teacher relives history as a schoolmarm

PITTSBORO — Some days Doris Martin lives in the present; others she steps back in time.

Taking on the persona of “Miss Pheobe,” Martin runs the Pittsboro One Room School, a living history museum.

“I always tell the children that once we step in the door, we’re waking into the year 1892,” Martin said.

And Martin knows how to run a classroom. She is a retired school teacher with 32 years of service behind her, the last 25 spent at Pittsboro Elementary School.

“The community and parents really care about their children and the school corporation,” she said. “It was a wonderful place to teach.”

While she doesn’t regret retiring, she said she just wasn’t quite ready to get out of the education field altogether.

“I did some of the planning and curriculum for the program when it was just beginning,” she said.

The school house had been used from 1882 to 1919 and retains much of its original appearance. The Northwest Hendricks School Corporation purchased the building from Frank and Dorothy McClung for $1 and had it moved just over four miles into town.

“The building had to cross I-74 and the railroad,” Martin said. “There was a lot of coordination with the power company, but our superintendent did a wonderful job getting it done.”

For a time, the building had been used for grain storage so it did need some refurbishing before reopening. Martin said many of the furnishings and artifacts in the building have been donated by area residents and many of them are very expensive antiques.

For example, a dictionary stand at the front of the class sold for $3 out of the Sears catalog in the late 1800s. Martin said they paid $300 for it.

During a typical program, students take on the name of a former student and participate in such activities as “ciphering” and spelling bees.

“On each desk there is a name from the class that attended school in 1911,” Martin said. “At the end of the day, we tell them what happened to the student. The kids really seem to like it.”

The visiting students spend almost an entire day doing activities appropriate to the time period. Girls and boys sit on opposite sides of the room and even have recess in different areas of the school yard because, Martin explained, that’s the way it once was.

“They bring a lunch without using anything plastic and they have to drink water because there were no bottled drinks,” she added.

The year 1892 was chosen because Indiana’s own Benjamin Harrison was president of the United States and Danville resident Ira Chase was governor of Indiana, Martin explained.

The school was dedicated in 2000 and hosts about 2,500 students a year, mostly from third- and fourth-grades throughout the state.

“We are getting students each year from all the schools in Hendricks County and Decatur, Franklin, and Lawrence townships,” Martin said.

She said this is a slow time of year for the one-room schoolhouse but added, “During the spring and fall, we’re booked five days a week.”

Martin and her husband Ernest have been married for 43 years. Their daughters, Diane Barnett and Rosa Freeland, both graduated from Tri-West High School.

For more information on visiting the Pittsboro One Room School, call Martin at 892-4107, fax to 892-4524, or visit the website at www.pittsborooneroomschool.org.

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