SCHOOLS OF YESTERYEAR
Wadsworth School
Bingham No. 3, Part 6
by Janis Stein

During the 1960s, some children attending Wadsworth School were intrigued with their new sink and running water.

Bingham No. 3, also known as Wadsworth School, was located on Wadsworth Road, one-half mile west of Stambaugh Road or one-half mile east of Nugent Road, in Section 8, Bingham Township, Huron County.

The spring rains brought with it new fun at recess. The ditch in front of the school filled with water and, wearing boots, the students walked down into the ditch to see how far they could get. One little girl went in a bit too far, but still she was determined to try again. Spotting her friends boots, she quickly kicked off her wet boots, borrowed the dry ones and returned to her fun. Although her friend’s boots went almost to her knees, she quickly realized the water was higher than she anticipated, and she cringed as the icy cold water flowed inside these “borrowed” boots. It didn’t take long for this little girl to realize she was in trouble – in trouble with both her friend and the teacher!

Children attending Wadsworth School in the 1950s and ‘60s enjoyed playing Red Rover and Ante I Over, and they played with a basketball at recess on occasion. But even more fun was the group activity of building a fort in the southeast corner of the lot. The children would bring from home any scrap of material that might be useful, from sticks to rabbit wire. The six-foot square fort looked more like a sod hut, and the children used old screens to cover the windows and to give the walls support. Everyone pitched in and helped, working on the fort during every available minute. A page wire fence surrounded the acre schoolyard, and the children found a way to slide under the fence to enter or exit their fortress.

Should a child scrape a knee, rip a seam or have an accident, every child knew who could and would make things better. Vi Hanselman lived just past the railroad tracks, and if the children needed a bit of comfort or a few stitches in a ripped pants, Mrs. Hanselman always made everything right again. It seemed Mrs. Hanselman always had a spare pair of pants on hand if necessary, and she wiped the tears away from many a child, replacing the sadness with smiles!

During the early 1960s, the school board decided it was time to make improvements in the form of taking the woodshed down and building an addition onto the back of the school. A new sink and running water piped in from the pump amazed some students. Before the days of running water, Wadsworth students heated water on the stove and washed their hands by scooping water over their hands with a ladle. The long awaited dream of having an indoor drinking fountain finally became a reality. Designated boys filled pails of water, dumping the water into a five-gallon crock. Children pressed a button alongside of the fountain and filled their paper cups to the brim.

Part of this new room also housed bathrooms for the boys and girls, and the remaining area was used during the winter for those students who chose to stay indoors. The students played old records, and the girls danced the Stroll. Harold Piotter met with his 4-H students in this part of the new addition as well, teaching the children the finer points of woodworking. Using a table saw or a jig saw, the students followed written directions out of a book in order to construct their woodworking project. Mr. Piotter worked as an electrician, and he also taught his Handy Helpers 4-H group about electricity.

While the students cherished these long-awaited indoor bathrooms, the stools sometimes backed up, forcing the students to again make the trip out back to the square cement outhouses. Over the years, the girls decked out their outhouse with curtains and flowers while the boys’ outhouse tended to be filled with webs and spiders. Because the snow penetrated the cracks of both outhouses in winter, all students had to dust the snow off their seat before conducting their business!