Provided photo Pictured is Bonnie (Madden) Davis (far left), her cousin, Barbara Madden, holding onto Bonnie's younger brother, Clyde, who was not yet of school age, and the other students outside the District 2 school along with their teacher, Miss Erickson (back row right), circa 1942.  

We have begun learning about Bonnie Jean (Madden) Davis, whose life journey began on a rural Lynd farm. Her journey took her away for years before returning to a career teaching kindergarten in the Marshall Public Schools. Her life on the family farm helped prepare her for all that followed. Her formal education began at the local country school near their farm.

“I think it was District #2, but I am not positive. It was a half mile from our house, so I always walked. I think we started school in September and ended at the end of May.”

She described their schoolyard.

“It was not very big. It had an outhouse over here (Pointing to a corner of a rectangle representing the school’s lot on the table top) and over here (Pointing to the side of the rectangle away from the outhouse) was a shed to put the horse. There was some kind of (pump) where we got water, but we had to walk to get the drinking water. We had a teeter-totter, some swings, a slide and that was about it.”

Bonnie also described the interior of their school.

“When you walked up the steps there was a little room. That was where you hung your coats or all your things and your lunch pail. Then you opened the door and went in. There were rows of desks and pictures of both Abraham Lincoln and George Washington up in the front. Over on the side was a long cupboard. It opened and there were books in there. But only the older children could go there. I always wanted to go in that one and never got there. (Bonnie laughed) There was a piano over to one side of the room and there were blackboards around and up in front. Teacher’s desk was located in the back of the room by the stove. The stove, that we brought cobs for, was over in this area. (Pointing to a back corner of a rectangle on the table top that represented the school room) Her desk was on the other side across from it.”

She recalled that the students had responsibilities to help out at school. They helped clean the blackboards, carried coal and cobs for the stove, and swept the floor. She specifically remembered a daily chore that involved a trip from the school to a nearby farm and back.

“I remember carrying the water. There was always a bigger person and a smaller person. When it was your turn, it was for a whole week. It was from (a farm) even closer than the half mile I had to walk. So, it wasn’t so bad. We would pour it in (a water fountain) and then we’d get the water from it for drinking. We probably all used the same dipper for getting drinks.”

Bonnie’s country school offered classes for grades 1 through 8, but they never had students in all the grades during her time there. She shared a photograph of the full enrollment during her second year that shows ten students. She remembered there were three in her grade.

“Barbara Madden, Gilbert Regnier, and myself were the little kids. Then there was Howard Hastings and Cletus Madden. They were two years ahead of us. Then Harold and Rita Regnier were older. Here is one who came for just that year (pointing at a student in the photo) and this is Roger Anderson. I remember playing with this one, (pointing to a girl( Delores. They only lived another half mile or a little more away.”

Bonnie remembered her first country school teacher with great fondness.

“My first two years it was Miss Erickson. She boarded with us. (Meaning she had a room and took meals with the Maddens) I remember one time (at the table) my dad said, ‘Honey, would you pass the honey?’ Oh, my gosh! Her face got so red! (Bonnie laughed) He thought that was the biggest joke. I even slept in the same room as the woman. The poor thing never got away from me. (Bonnie laughed) I liked her, though. She was special. She liked staying with us because my parents were fun. So, she enjoyed it and it was very close to school.”

Miss Erickson had to leave the house early in the morning to open the school.

“I know she had to get that stove going. I don’t know if she had to check on the outhouse. Sometimes I’d walk with her and help her a little bit.”

Bonnie explained some of the reasons she liked Miss Erickson as her first teacher.

“I thought she was a very good teacher. She was fun and she’d play with us outside on the playground at recess and join in some of our games like kittenball and Anti-I-Over over the school. That was quite a throw (Bonnie laughed) especially for the us little kids! We had recess every morning. I don’t remember how long it was. Then we’d have recess again in the afternoon. We would put on puppet shows about two times a month and ask our mothers to come up to see them. We would also have tea parties and ask our mothers to join us. If we went to school every day of the year, we got a reward; Miss Erickson would give us big, peanut hunts and parties.”

Miss Erickson left District #2 after two years of teaching there, while boarding with the Maddens. So, Bonnie had a different teacher for her third, and last, year at her country school.

©2026 William D. Palmer.