'No babbling then was suffered in our schools – the scholars' test was silence.' It is said John Stutzman most frequently failed to measure up to the standard of the test, and was oftenest knocked down, which knocking was however received without a display of an undue amount of ill humor.
“Two dollars per quarter or three cents a day was paid for tuition, and the flogging was administered gratuitously and liberally.
“The first house in which the youth of this vicinity attended school under the new system was built by the Directors of Conemaugh township, of which it was a part, in the upper end of a maple grove, now in Moxham, and close to a silvery stream whose name, Sam's run, carries us back to the days of the pioneer. The house was very much like one later built in Walnut Grove, a description of which will be given further on. It was heated by a 'ten-plate' stove, which burned wood about three feet in length, and which had to be cut and carried to the stove by the pupils. It was at that time called the Harshberger school, but later the Von Lunen. The territory from which it drew its pupils extended from the fourth ward, Johnstown, to the limits of Cambria county at the Red Bridge, and at right angles to this line from near Jerry Walters' farm, to and including Vickroy's in what is now Ferndale. The teachers who first taught there have gone to their final home and one of the oldest now living is the well known and respected S. Dean Canan, who remembers the Vickroys attending his school in 1844. At that time many of the patrons were Pennsylvania Dutch or Germans, and some of these were anxious to have the language of their fathers taught and used in the schools. Mr. Canan, not being equipped with a German education, was met by strenuous opposition to his beginning the work, which was the stronger for having the previous term, and for the same reason, succeeded in preventing the late Abraham Kopelin, Esq., from [taking charge of the school. Mr. Canan therefore repaired to the home of the late Geo. W. Easly, Esq., who was a Director and lived in what is now the ninth ward, Johnstown.]* Together they went to the schoolhouse, where Mr. Easly duly installed the new teacher, who, in a short time, disarmed all opposition, and gave entire satisfaction in spite of the fact that he still wasn't 'Dutch.'
“One S. W. Dripps was, however, perhaps the first teacher to wrestle with the difficulties of a pedagogue in that house, and was followed, in nearly if not quite the order given, by a Captain West, an ex-boatman ; a Mr. Tantlinger, S. Dean Canan, John Howard, Jacob R. Stull, Pat Roddy, Robt. O'Connor, Joshua Strayer, a Mr. Perry, Harvey Matthews, James Patrick, Jacob Trefts, Sarah Vickroy, Philip Constable, Geo. Stutzman and Sarah Harbison. Some of these teachers were quite popular
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* NOTE: In the original book, these lines are typed out of sequence in the paragraph, and confusing to follow; therefore, for the sake of readability, they have been transcribed in the correct sequence. No words have been changed, only their sequence in the paragraph.
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