Field trip to Bedford Green Schoolhouse

On Tuesday, November 15th, Hawthorn history students visited the old schoolhouse on Bedford Green to learn about student life in 19th century America. The one-room stone schoolhouse was in use from 1829 until the turn of the twentieth century. The Bedford Historical Society conducts educational programs, depicting the past through period costumes and dramatizations of village life. A wood stove heated the schoolhouse, and the student who brought the most wood to school was given a seat closest to the warming fire. Our students learned to write their lessons in chalk on slate "notebooks" and marveled that the holes in the antique wooden desks were not for the wires of a computer, but for inkwells to dip the quill pen!