Memories

My mother, Audrey Lucken Girard was the teacher at the Fernwold (as she pronounced it) School until it closed. On the picture you have, the woman standing in the doorway is Lorraine Peterson Dorski. The elderly man next to her is my great-grandfather, Ole M. Johnson of Worden Township and the elderly couple next to him are my great-grandparents, Gilbert and Mari Lucken who
lived on Barber St. in Stanley. My mother, Audrey Lucken, took the photograph.

In the 1950s my parents took us kids on a trip from Chippewa Falls to see the school. The school had a gymnasium in the basement as well as a furnace room and boys and girls bathrooms with chemical toilets. Upstairs were two class rooms. When my mother taught there she was the only teacher and used one room.  In the winter she would ski through the woods from the home where she was boarding to the school. If there was a snowstorm and no students showed up, she would have to stay until 1P.M. ring the bell and then she could leave and she would get paid for that day. She had to build a fire in the furnace each morning when she got to school. One morning she found a big snake on the floor of the gym. She was deathly afraid of snakes but after she built a fire in the furnace she picked up the snake with a shovel and put it in the furnace. She knew the Reesby family well and said Mr. Reesby was on the school board.  Pierre Girard

1932-1933

1932-1933

"Three Good Kids"

1932-1933

Tues. Oct. 16

Hi Mildred, Fernwald School closed in 1938, then for one year, we lived in Colby and in 1940, we started at Butlerville School.  John & Marshall Girad never went to school when I went.  I went 3 years to Fernwald and started at Butler in 5th Grade.  My Brothers, Tom, Jim & Bob were in school with me at Butler.  Tom went 2 yrs.  I went 4 yrs., Jim 6 years and Bob went about 5 years and my sister, Myona, went (I think), 1 year to Butler.

I hope this helps with the history of the school somewhat.

Sincerely, Leona Colts