One man’s historical journey through rural education
By Janet L. Hanson,
Remember the old saying, “When I was your age, I had to walk miles in the snow to get to school?”
Jessie Ellis shares memories of Boundary County.
For Jessie Ellis, a resident of Boundary County since 1920, he really did have to walk through the snow as did many other area residents of the time. “We rode horses, and our main transportation was horse and buggy. Although some kids walked three or four miles to school every day, I only had to walk a mile and a half, so it wasn’t too far.”
Jessie explained that when his family moved into Bonners Ferry in 1920, the town wasn’t much, but it did have a grocery store, restaurant, granary, the railroad went through town and there was one bank.
“I don’t remember which bank it was,” Jessie said. “The Ferry was already gone by that time and the bridge was in. The roads were dirt, no gravel, and the valley flooded about once every three years. Most of the people just moved back into their houses after the floods, but once the Libby Dam was put in, it didn’t flood here any more. Most of the people here farmed back then. Dad built a chicken house to raise chickens and put in a big garden and berries.”
Jessie said the school house on Katka Hill opened in 1924 when Ms. Petty, an English school teacher, was hired.
Jessie visited with kids at Naples Elementary School last year and told them about his days in school.
“My dad picked her up at the station,” Jessie explained. “That was quite a deal when Dad came home and said to my mother, ‘I fetched you home a sister-in-law!’ Mom said, ‘How’s that? My brothers never come to see us at all.’ It wasn’t two weeks later and my mother’s brother, Victor came to call and married Blanch Petty before school was out that summer. Ms. Petty was a real nice person and a wonderful teacher, but she didn’t teach that next year after she married Victor. They had two boys, and one, Bobby, had a son, Dave Peterson.”
Jessie added that his family made their living selling produce to the people working on the railroad at Katka.
“Before there was a school on Katka Hill and Ms. Petty came to teach us, my Mother taught us at home,” Jessie said. “We worked in the garden after learning at home, and I remember when some boys came asking me and my brother to go pheasant hunting with them. Mom told them if they helped us with the turnip patch we could go. So, with their help, what would have taken us all day otherwise, we got done in three hours. When we got back home those boys said they sure wished they had someone to cook their pheasant. Mom told them, ‘You do my chores and I’ll cook your pheasant.’ Mom should’ve been a politician.”
During the 1926 forest fire near Katka, Jessie’s family lost everything and had to move down to Cow Creek.
“The kids at Cow Creek were pretty rough and finally the teacher committed suicide,” Jessie explained. “A new teacher came in named Joe Burke, and he said he would straighten things out. He put all the big kids in the back row, and when he asked one of the boys to do something, he wouldn’t do it, so Joe went down to his desk and took out the paddle and Wham, Wham, Wham, three times and that was the end of that. He was the only one he had to spank, the rest of them all behaved after that.”
Due to the county not having buses until 1934, Jessie didn’t get to go to high school until he was 20-years-old. “There were 15 of us older people from Cow Creek and Paradise Valley, and I was the only one that finished.”
“You know where the Boundary County Junior High School old brick building is?” Jessie asked. “That’s where I went to high school. School started about 9 a.m. and was out around 3:30 or 4 p.m. I had all good teachers, and they didn’t have to discipline very much because most of the kids behaved themselves. Then I worked for a year doing farming after getting out of high school.” …And that’s the way it was for 89-year-old Jessie Ellis during the early years of education in Boundary County.
As he thought back on his youth, Jessie recalled a time when his dad wanted to sell the cow for $40. “A man came to see the cow and Dad said, ‘Come on in and have some soup, a sandwich and rest.’ When the man got ready to go and he took the cow, Dad explained that the man’s wife was sick, so if he paid for the cow, he wouldn’t have the money to take care of her. Boy, my dad had a heart. Most people wouldn’t do that, and when Dad passed away, the funeral home couldn’t hold the people that came.”
Jessie said he believes things always come out alright, “you just need a positive attitude. There is just so much to be thankful for, and I remember when us boys would be arguing and my mom would say, ‘there ain’t no board that doesn’t have two sides. I was lucky to have real good parents.”
At 89, Jessie is still interested in learning new things, and last year, he attended classes with students at Naples Elementary School, where he shared his memories of going to school in Boundary County. Jessie recently moved to Athol, ID, just north of Coeur d’Alene, to live with his son and his family. “I love it in Boundary County,” Jessie said. “I’d never want to leave, but my son wants me to live with him now because he doesn’t want me to live alone.”
Editors Note: Check out next Wednesday's follow up on the Historical Record of Rural Education in Boundary County, through the late 70’s.
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