CAMPBELLs, LUGGs, & BLACKWELLs of Nelson, PA

My first teacher was Mabel English. Henrietta Otterson and I started in the spring of 1905 when we were only five. Then that fall we really enrolled as first graders. Mabel roomed and boarded at our house as did most of the teachers who taught the district #3 school.

The path to the school house was through our pasture which was heavily wooded. It seemed rather scary to me so old Mac would go with me till I could see the school house. Then he would accept the crust of bread my Mother had given me for him and he would go back home alone.

Old Mac was an unusual dog, very intelligent and obedient. Father had about 300 sheep. In the spring or summer, he would (No, I believe it was in the fall) take a flock to Brainerd to sell. Old Mac would drive the sheep to the outskirts of town. There my father would send him home. Mac would trot on back the six miles, never stopping along the way. Neighbors used to remark about how he minded his business so faithfully.

In the horse and buggy days, it was the custom to keep a traveler overnight. One time we kept a peddler for the night. In the morning as he was about to leave he frightened me by suggesting he was going to take me with him. I thought he meant it so I ran screaming with fright. Mac thought he meant it, too, and came to my rescue, grabbing the man's hand in his mouth. I recall the peddler remarked to my Father that old Mac was a smart dog.

A friend of our family, Mr. John Poorman, had given me a pug dog. He was worthless, as dogs go, but he was my special pet. Mac tolerated him, even defended him when the big old dog of Thompson's attacked him.

One time when Dad was butchering, Bingo, the pug, thought he'd snitch a bit of meat. Old Mac set him straight as to dog manners by growling at him and preventing the theft. Bingo went slinking to the house and crept under the porch or "meditate" on his lesson. Bingo later forgot and committed an unforgivable error. He robbed a goose nest of thirteen eggs and that finished him as far as continuing to live with us. I wept, but Bingo was banished and taken away. Mac lived to be fourteen years old.

Other teachers I had in the country school were Ethel Chase, Irene Orton, Jennie Nelson, Elsie English, Edith Warnberg and Maude Caughey, in the order named. Ethel Chase, my second grade teacher, opened school each morning with prayer. I loved her for that. Irene Overton took time to play with me and was a good friend to all the family. She taught my mother to do burnt work and we all had a chance to help create some pretty objects. Elsie English taught me to play the organ and also started me giving "readings," which became my specialty. She also brought out some of my worst rebellious actions, for I resented her scoldings. She didn't build a love of music by making me cry when giving me a lesson. Edith was my seventh grade teacher and for a while our family was certain that my brother, Edd would eventually marry her, for he was her steady beau. Maude Caughey was my eighth grade teacher and I really settled down under her training and so I graduated from District #3 School.