Small Town Bits Sunday #3 Sugar Grove Joint Vocational School

Another weekend has come and gone. Why do they go so quickly? I think they go even quicker when you are under the weather! I hope you have managed to avoid all of the nasty germs floating around right now!

Sugar Grove Joint Vocational School. This topic was chosen because this is where my Great Grandfather graduated from high school. It seems that I really do have what appears to be endless tidbits from this side of the family. I love it! Tonight, my Dad and I were looking through a box of things that were my Great Grandfather's. Small Town Dad was looking in an envelope and I was looking in an album and we were holding pieces from the same time frame. I, of course, joined the two together and became curious.

After getting home and looking through the envelope, it is a pretty neat find.

This was the piece Small Town Dad was looking at.

I was holding a newspaper clipping about the same thing.

You open the piece Small Town Dad was holding and this is what you will see:

Class of 1932!!!

Now for the piece I was holding.

There were a few clippings, all the same.

One was dated July 31, 1982.

My Great Grandfather's high school class was celebrating 50 years!

50 years later and only 4 of the original 23 had passed.

There were some photos in the envelope as well.

This one is a color image that resembles the paper clipping.

There is no notation as to who had taken the photo.

The best I can figure is this picture is the the same folks from the above picture and their spouses/guests.

Also in the envelope was a handwritten packet. This packet contains names, addresses, and a little tidbit about each of the classmates. This is pretty cool to me. I can't wait to sit down and read the entire packet.

In addition to my Great Grandfather, my Great Aunt also graduated from here.

My Great Aunt's tidbit reads:

Graduated from Penn'a State University class of 1937. Was a school teacher for 28 1/2 years. Married and widowed twice. No children.

Now lives in Santa Rosa California, neighbor Charles Schulz Studio, Cartoonist of Snoopy, Peanuts, Lucy etc.

Yes it is true. Someone in my family personally knew Charles Schultz. This is mentioned in a couple different places in all the 'treasures' we have.

My Great Grandfather's tidbit reads:

I worked for the National Forge Co, at Irving, Pa as a crane operator for 35 years retiring from there in 1971.

I also was an electrician and did house wiring for 22 years.

In 1937, I married Ethel and made our home in Youngsville, Pa. We had three children, a daughter and two sons, Six Grandchildren, three girls and three boys and two great granddaughters.

We spend the summer at our cottage in Findley Lake, N.Y. and the winters at Bradenton, Florida.

The handwriting is not my Grandfather's. There is a p.s. that says "I also know Evan is a stamp collector"

That little bit was also true.

The piece that made me curious was this one...

This photocopy is marked "Sugar Grove Seminary and Conservatory"

There was nothing else in the envelope indicating a connection between the Sugar Grove Joint Vocational School and the Sugar Grove Seminary Conservatory. I remember hearing stories about the Seminary and was pretty sure they were connected.

I found some information at "mysugargrove.com/edu"

"In 1881 the Erie Conference of the Brethren in Christ church let it be known that it desired to build an institution of learning in the community that could donate the largest amount of money to the cause. Raising more than $8000, Sugar Grove outbid all other communities in northwest Pennsylvania and in the autumn of that year, construction began on the project that wouldn't be completed until 1884. The United Brethren Seminary educated 180 students at its peak offering collegiate instruction in theology, the fine arts, history, language, the sciences and also offered courses in "commercial branches" of law, economics and pedagogy. Tuition ran between eight and ten dollar a semester"

CAN YOU IMAGINE????

Mysugargrove.com also states "In 1921 the community had taken over the use of the United Brethren Seminary building and began using it as Sugar Grove main educational facility offering k-12 instruction at the site. With the development of the Warren County School District, the building was used for high school students from Farmington and Sugar Grove townships, while elementary students from those areas attended a school in Lander. Numerous buildings that are now used as homes surrounded the school and were used for educational instruction as well to serve the numerous students who hailed the facility as their alma mater until the completion of Eisenhower High School in 1956."

**I would later graduate from Eisenhower High School. And it is currently undergoing renovations.

The Seminary building was replaced by the Sugar Grove Elementary School, construction began in 1963. The bell from the tower of the Seminary's main building rests in the front of the elementary school.

**I attended 6th grade at the "new" elementary school.

So....they are kinda sorta the same school!!!

Also in the stack of things we were looking through was this photo.

This would be the class of 1932!

I love these time travels!

Have a great week everyone!

Thanks for stopping by!

Hugs from my small town to wherever you are!

~Jen