History
PROCTOR SCHOOL DISTRICT #24J 1895 - 1972
In 1893 the original town site, first named Dayton, was started by homesteaders and loggers in the land of the Kootenai people. C. E. Proctor had a store that was primarily for Indian trade with cash sales of sugar (cocochita), tobacco (yahket), and lard.
Much of the land obtained was bought from the Indians through the agent. The price was about $1.25 to $1.75 an acre. As the land had not yet been allotted to individual Indians, whites apparently regarded the money as more in the nature of a good-will offering to the Indians than as a purchase price. Later land was worth as much as $150 per acre.
There were several small mills in operation in the early 1900s. Most of the lumber was sold locally but logging really started when the Somers Lumber Co. Mill put a boat on the lake to take logs by boom to Somers. This was primarily winter logging as the logs were hauled by sleigh to Dayton and dumped into the lake. A hotel was built by Proctor in 1906 to be ready for the incoming settlers. By 1910 the townsite had a country church, Proctor's store and post office with Frost as postmaster, saloons; The Cliffmere, a 25-room hotel; a jail, and a school. Just prior to the Flathead Reservation opening in 1910, the original "Dayton" post office was moved to another building on the shore of Flathead Lake taking the name of "Dayton" with it. The next day residents found themselves without mail service and a village without a name. Most of the original community people wanted it moved back, but the federal government ruled that the original Dayton community should be renamed. It was then given the name of Proctor after Clarence Proctor who started a new post office. C. E. Proctor said, "We will have a post office here and it will have a name if we have to give it mine." Proctor today is on the main road for fishermen and campers heading for Lake Mary Ronan.
Early Settlers
Ole A. Anderson came to Proctor from Sweden in the late 1880s with his brother, John, and their aged father. Ole was born May 7, 1866, in Sweden. He and his brother homesteaded the place where Frank Masterson lived and later sold it. Ole Anderson served as a Proctor School Trustee from 1906 through 1909. The Baertsch boys said their uncle Ole Anderson loved kids and was the "kindest man in Proctor . . . he was a good old guy."
In 1901 five women of the Meuli, Savall, and Wilhelm families came from Wisconsin on the immigrant train car to Whitefish accompanied by bachelor John Baertsch. The women were joining their husbands already homesteading in the Proctor area. Their children would begin attending the school. After settling the families, John Baertsch returned to Kalispell to meet his brother Oscar A. Baertsch from Wisconsin. Baertsch's then came over the trail by Lost Lake to Proctor by saddle horse. Oscar worked for C. E. Proctor and Cromwell doing ranch work. On September 15, 1909, he married Bertha E. Rowe. Bertha was born in Philipsburg, Montana, and came to Proctor in 1897 and settled on a farm. Bertha Rowe Baertsch attended the first school in Proctor. The Baertsch's homesteaded at Hog Heaven until "grasshoppers cleaned him up" and they moved to Proctor.
"The Proctor School" District #24 - The Earliest Public School in Today's Lake County
When more settlers moved in a small rural school was opened at the top of a hill on the old Roy McNitch place below the current Charlie Adams' place. The tiny log cabin school was built and dedicated July 15, 1895. There were six pupils. Sadie Parsons Smith of Big Lodge (now Rollins) was the first teacher. School was held only six months, three months in the spring beginning in March, and in the fall beginning in September. Henry H. Smith was the first
appointed member of Proctor School District #24 School Board in 1896. He would serve from 1896 to 1899 and was again elected in 1909 through 1917 serving a total of ten years.Henry Smith married Sadie Parsons on March 23, 1893. The Smiths settled at Demersville for a time before taking up homesteads in Big Lodge Flats, now known as Rollins. Sadie Parsons Smith taught school at Tobacco Plains near Eureka before coming to the Dayton Valley, where she was the first teacher in the community at the small log cabin school.
Jack Meuli's father "Mel" started school in the fall of 1901 in the second grade and went through the eighth grade in the old school located on the hill to the north of the present school. By October 14, 1902 enough people had moved into the area that the northern part of the district split off into District #41 called Bayview, later Rollins. Mel's father Michael Meuli was a trustee from 1902 to 1905 and he again served in 1910-1911, the last year of the old log school.
Other early teachers who taught in the old log school were Anne Gillard, Myrtle Cole, J. C. Duckworth, Frankie Thompson Proud, Elizabeth Sellers Proctor, and D. A. Cubbage. Mrs. Frankie Proud remembers that when she and her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Thompson, moved from Kalispell to Proctor in 1895, there was no school in the community. The log building that was erected for a school was difficult to heat and the distance the youngsters had to travel to attend was considerable so that no school was conducted in the winter. She taught in this school in 1907 still in a log building. Frankie wrote: Some of my students were Mel, Nick, and Marie Meuli; Art, Ava, and Eva King; Urban and Ethel Savall; Gracie and Birdie Reed. This was my last venture as a teacher.
By 1908 trustees selected a site for a new schoolhouse. They purchased two acres of land from C. E. Proctor for the sum of one dollar. A contract was entered into on August 15, 1908, for the construction of a schoolhouse according to plans and specifications for $2,500. The old log schoolhouse was put up for auction, December 26, 1908, and was sold for $17.50 The final payment on the new school was made on January 1909.
School commenced in the new building in September 1910 with Samuel C. Bernett as teacher for the upper grades and Miss J. Louise Duckworth teaching the primary grades. The school covered the first through the eighth grades and had two rooms of about 20 students per room. Reading, writing and arithmetic plus geography and spelling were studied.
The school rooms were heated by a wood burning stove. Wood was brought in from the woodshed and piled by the stove. [Later a basement was dug and a furnace installed.] The seats were double, two students sitting at and sharing the same desk. The library consisted of one small bookcase containing books you took home to read. Reading had to be done by kerosene lamps. In those days a student was required to take a state examination before entering high school. If you failed the examination, you went back and took the eighth grade over. In later years the school became rated as a superior school and this examination was no longer required. (The Superior rating is carved onto the sign at the school but is painted over.)
Drinking water was carried in pails from the hotel to the schoolhouse. The price paid for carrying the water in 1913 was $5 per month for four pails of water daily.
The drinking water continued to be carried from the hotel for a year. Then bids were let for putting in a water system. A bid was given to dig a ditch to the schoolhouse for 75 cents a rod. Another bid was given to dig out the spring and put in a concrete reservoir for $3 a day for eight hours. This was satisfactory for a few years before going back to carrying water by the students. A well was drilled in later years. [Today the water is still has so much iron in it that it turns everything yellow.]
Bessie Thomas finished the eighth grade at the Proctor school and in October 1911 married R. L. Walker.
Proctor Pupils of 1913-1914 with Adelaide Durfee (later Proctor) Teacher
Grade 1: Chester Hoffman, George Smith, Donald Hawkins, Hazel Herriman, Pearl Hetrick, Alice Marker; Grade 2: Frank Anderson, Walter Hetrick, John Lininger, Floyd Smith, Cora Hoffman, Anabel Marker, Evelyn Williams, Stella Nelson; Grade 3: Edwin Hilton, Clauncey Hilton, Dick Williams, Arnold Smith, Herbert Pikel, Thelma Dwelle, Goldie Herriman, Leona Lininger, Velma Lininger, Ruth Nelson, Gladys Smith; Grade 4: Ruth Babcock, Elmer Donaldson, Harold Jones, Harry Smith, DeWitt Hawkins, Laurence Hetrick, Lucy Scott, Genevieve Williams.
Proctor Pupils of 1913-1914 with Madge Stillman Teacher
Grade 5: Stanley Proctor, Grade 6: LaRue Babcock, Roy Proctor; Grade 7: Harry Hafer, George Hilton, Dewey Hilton, Leslie Williams; No Grade Level listed with ages ranging from 11 to 15: Hilda Foss, Arminda Hetrick, Ava King, Eva King, Gladys Donalson, Millie Mann, Florence Williams, Laura Williams, Pearl Williams, Laurence Windsor, Marguerite Proctor, Edith Smith, Merle MacDonald, Laura Hawkins.
Proctor Pupils of 1914-1915 with Adeline Durfee (later Proctor) Teacher
Grade 1: Harry Dwelle, Donald Hawkins, William Pikel, Chester Proctor, Richard Proctor, George Smith, Alge Meuli, Ruth Pikel, Marie Thomas, Jennie Thomas, Gladys Smith, Evelyn Williams, Mollie Williams, Helen Evanson, Vivian Lymon; Grade 2: Chester Hoffman, Pearl Hetrick, Alice Marker; Grade 3: Frank Anderson, Walter Hetrick, Herbert Pikel, Lloyd Smith, Cora Hoffman, Anabel Marker; Grade 4: Thelma Dwelle; No grade Level: Dick William (age 11) and Arnold Smith (13).
Proctor Pupils 1914-1915 with S. C. Bernett Teacher
Grade 5: DeWitt Hawkins, Harry Smith, Nicholas Wilhelm, Ruth Babcock, Gladys Eayrs, Larene Hetrick, Marguerite Proctor, Lucy Scott, Genevieve Williams; Grade 6: Roy Proctor, Stanley Proctor, John Wilhelm, --- Meuli, Helen Eayrs, Arminda Hetrick, Pearl Williams, Laura Williams, Lawrence Windsor; Grade 7: LaRue Babcock, Jesse Eayrs, Andrew Wilhelm, Leslie Williams, Laura Hawkins, Millie Mann; Grade 8: Harry Hafer, Ava King, Eva King, Hilda Foss, Loretta Lemire, Florence Williams, Edith Smith; No Grade: Ida Koisti (age 14).
Proctor Pupils 1915-1916 with Adelaide Durfee Teacher
Grade 1: Howard Eayrs, Alva Hawkins, Ray Lynn, George Smith, Loyal Smith, Earl Koplin, Julia Koplen, Della Caton; Grade 2: Cecil Caton, Vivian Lynn, Marie Thomas, Jennie Thomas, Mollie Williams; Grade 3: Donald Hawkins, William Lemire, Alice Marker, Irene Koplen; Grade 4: Allen Frame, Floyd Smith, Anabel Marker, Evelyn Williams.
Proctor Pupils 1915-1916 with Mabel Lewis Teacher
Grade 5: Julia Brander (would later become a teacher at the school), Albert Frame, Arnold Smith, Harry Smith, Dick Williams, Gladys Smith; Grade 6: DeWitt Hawkins, Nicholas Wilhelm, Ruth Babcock, Gladys Eayrs, Edith Frame, Genevieve Williams, Lucy Scott; Grade 7: Laura Williams, Pearl Williams, Laurence Windsor, Alice Edge, Frank Frame, John Wilhelm, Stanley Proctor, Vivien Jansen; Grade 8: Edith Smith, Andrew Wilhelm, LaRue Babcock, Jesse Eayrs, Earl Smith, Ralph Caton, Leonard Edge, Helen Eayrs, Laura Hawkins, Ava King, Eva King, Loretta Lamire, Millie Mann.
Proctor Pupils 1916-1917 with Ruth E. Raine Teacher
Grade 1: Frank Williams, Raymond Smith, William Brander, Murel Beeson, Helen Thomas, Evalena Learn, Della Caton, Lawrence Frame, Genn Jenson; Grade 2: Howard Eayrs, Loyal Smith, Earl Koplen, Alva Hawkins, Clare Jenson, Elsi Vanlaningham, Julia Koplen, Jeannie Thomas, Louise Nelson, Margaret Jenson; Grade 3: George Smith, Cecil Caton, Alice Marker, Mollie Williams, Fannie Vanlaningham, Marie Thomas; Grade 4: Donald Hawkins, Allen Frame, William Lemire, Velma Vanlaningham, Irene Koplen, Ruth Nelson, Stella Nelson.
Proctor Pupils 1916-1917 with Cynthia Squires Teacher
Grade 5: Floyd Smith, Frank Anderson, Annabel Marker, Evelyn Williams, Julia Brander; Grade 6: Dick Williams, Arnold Smith, Albert Frame, Raymond Vanlaningham, Gladys Smith; Grade 7: Nicholas Wilhelm, DeWitt Hawkins, Harry Smith, Genevieve Williams, Ruth Babcock, Gladys Eayrs, Louisee Scott, Edith Frame, Vivian Jenson; Grade 8: Stanley Proctor, Leonard Edge, Lee Masterson, Ralph Caton, Andrew Wilhelm, John Wilhelm, Pearl Williams, Alice Edge, Laura Williams.
Proctor Pupils 1917-1918 with Ruth Raine Teacher
Grade 1: Raymond Smith, Murel Beeson, Leroy Burnett, Oliver Thomas, Austin Thomas, Fern Jensen, Mildred Proctor, Luella Learn, Inez Learn; Grade 2: William Brander, Frank Williams, Helen Thomas, Laurene Hand, Evalena Learn; Grade 3: Earl Koplen, Alva Hawkins, Clare Jensen, Loyal Smith, Marie Thomas, Jennie Thomas, Julia Koplen, Louise Nelson, Margaret Jensen, Elsie Vanlaningham; Grade 4: George Smith, Ruth Nelson, Lonnie Vanlaningham, Mollie Williams.
Third grader Louise Nelson would grow up to teach in Big Arm and Dayton as Louise Nelson Senft. Louise attended second through eighth grades at Proctor. She attended high school in Kalispell and went on to attend Normal School earning a teaching certificate. She started teaching at 18 years of age. She married Ed Senft in 1934 and moved to Sandpoint. Louise contacted the Lake County Country School Historians early in 1999 expressing deep interest in restoring the Proctor School. Louise Elizabeth Senft died March 6, 1999 in Sandpoint, Idaho just short of her 90th birthday in June.
Proctor Pupils 1917-1918 with Cynthia Squires Teacher
Grade 5: Allen Frame, Donald Hawkins, Stella Nelson, Velma Vanlaningham, Irene Koplen; Grade 6: Floyd Smith, Dick Williams, Frank Anderson, Julia Brander, Evelyn Williams, Anabel Marker; Grade 7: Arnold Smith, Ray Vanlaningham, Gladys Smith, Grace Hutchinson; Grade 8: Lee Masterson, Harry Smith, Nicholas Wilhelm, DeWitt Hawkins, Ruth Babcock, Lucie Scott, Genevieve Williams. DeWitt P. Hawkins would grow up to be interested in all community activities. He served as trustee in the Proctor church for many years, carried the mail, and was a trustee on the school board from 1918 to 1920 and again from 1925 to 1928.
The Larson sisters from Wisconsin, Laura and Carrie (later County Superintendent) first taught at Creston for two or three years and then in Proctor from 1918 to 1920-21. Laura taught the lower grades and Carrie taught the upper grades at Proctor. They next taught at Rollins from 1921 to 1923 and thereafter in Pablo from 1923 to 1929 where they rented a house to live in while teaching. Carrie Larson was elected county superintendent and served from 1926 to 1930. Laura then married Mel Meuli. She and her husband would years later serve as trustees. Mr. Meuli served twelve years in the thirties and she served six years in the fifties followed by Mel for two more years.
Agnes Mary Bloes Tonkinson was the school teacher for the 1922-23 school. Prior to coming to Proctor, Agnes taught in Glacier Park, Columbia Falls, and Demersville. She married Roy Tonkinson in 1921 and accepted the Proctor teaching position. Agnes taught the one year and then ranched in the area with her husband. The Tonkinson's ranched 160 acres of meadow and woodland west of Proctor where Agnes was the major caretaker of the fruit trees and vegetable and flower gardens.
Oscar Baertsch's schooling started with Agnes Bloes Tonkinson in first grade in 1922. He remembers his third grade teacher Froeda Nelson who moved his entire class back to second grade! He remembers Bessie Marble and Mrs. George Rude who also taught and lived in Big Arm. But his "best teacher" was Gertrude Bly who he had for 8th grade. Gertrude Bly taught three years from 1932 to 1935. In those days there was a barn behind the school for children's horses.
Buck Baertsch remembers some pretty rough times getting to school. Mother took the team with trusty Pete and cutter to get through the ice and heavy snow. Coming back from school they got stuck on McCrea Hill and all the kids got out of the cutter. She used the blankets to throw under the feet of the horses to get some traction. He remembers Froeda Nelson who taught in 1924-25 and 1925-26. One day he was headed over the school yard stile. Miss Nelson asked him just where he was going? He replied, "I'm going home to help Dad cut the cats." Miss Nelson picked him up and carried him
back into the school where she "whaled the daylights out of me!" Buck remembers Proctor's Christmas tradition of wash boilers full of hot oyster stew made by the community ladies and served yearly before the Christmas play. Students mixed their own glue and made colored paper chains to decorate the tree. Real candles were clipped to the tree but somehow the tree never caught fire. Other pleasant memories are the Pledge of Allegiance first thing every morning and Bessie Marble playing basketball, croquet, tennis and even boxing with students. Bessie Marble taught at Proctor from 1924 to 1928. Two of those years Carrie Larson was her supervisor as County Superintendent of Schools. "Bessie Marble was a good teacher. We learned a lot from her. (Students attribute her high standards to getting the school a "superior" rating. ) My brother John used to pout a lot and she would put him under her desk until he could quit."
Oscar Baertsch clearly remembers that during Bessie Marble's teaching tenure freshman high school students stayed at Proctor for one year -- the 1926-27 school year. Bessie lived in Rollins and brought Margaret Gates and Ellen Tiffany with her each day for high school. She had the credentials to teach and did. Proctor high school students were: Ralph Baertsch, Billings Adams, Tommy Walker, Thomas Nelson, Inez Learn, Dale Rogers, Helen Thomas, Marie Thomas and Evalena Learn. The next year Bessie taught all eight grades and no high school. He knows of no other high school students remaining at Proctor. Bessie Marble died shortly after leaving Proctor.
Buck's favorite and most beloved teacher was Gertrude Bly. She was a "good gal, a good teacher . . . serious but real good." Gertrude lives in Washington and visited Ruthie Tonkinson two years ago.
Agnes Tonkinson did not teach at Proctor again until 1928-29. Agnes Tonkinson served as school clerk from 1930 to 1933. Roy was trustee from 1931-1933 and again from 1941 to 1943. For fourteen years school teachers boarded and roomed in the Tonkinson home:
"Beautiful, dark-haired Julia Brander" taught in Proctor in 1929-30. Her mother had died while she was young so she was raised by her father and uncle Barney and aunt Lillie Mae Branigan. She attended
Proctor grade school from age nine and was eleven years old in 1918 in the sixth grade. She must have finished grade school and had very little high school before beginning her teaching career. She taught in the Swan in 1924-25 and also taught at Battle Butte where she boarded with the Bordens. At Proctor Julia would read to the students and start crying. Her conditioned worsened and following her 1929-30 teaching year her family took her to the mental institute in Warm Springs. Young Juanita Brander (Uhde) remembers her mother would seldom talked about her aunt, but they did visit once. Julia hoped they were coming to bring her home and reacted vehemently when that was not the case scaring young Juanita. In looking back, some of her students wondered if they might have contributed to her conditions as "we were an ornery bunch of kids." Julia Brander remained in Warm Springs until she was aged and was placed at the White Sulphur Springs Nursing Home. About 1996 "Buck" and John Baertsch visited Julia in White Sulphur Springs and Buck was remembered for his rascally student days. Oscar visited her also. He said she still had the same pretty nose and eyes and talked so nicely. She remembered him and was pleased to see him but could not recall her family, the Branigan's, probably because they had placed her there. Julia Brander died two years ago at White Sulphur Springs. Baertsch's recognized her need for placement but felt so sorry for her as she lived her whole life institutionalized.
Juanita Uhde remembers that
when she was in the second grade, her uncle got off the high school bus and stopped to visit Helen Hedstrom. She was quite sure he had a crush on her. Helen taught three years at Proctor from 1938 to 1941. Jack Meuli remembers that Miss Hedstrom "had very good discipline with kids that were bigger than she was and some almost as old." By this time the school barn was gone. Students put their horses in a woodshed between the two outhouses. Jack reported that, "All the students brought their lunch except for the 1940-41 school year with Miss Hedstrom when we had a hot lunch program. Dick Williams was the cook through a Work Projects Administration (WPA) program. It was also the WPA that funded the digging of the basement under the school sometime between 1933 and 1936."
Dan Brander remembers April Fool's hijinx with boys all dressing in girls dresses and showing up for school for the day! He knows he, Jack Meuli, and Duane Savall were part of the tricksters and he says Jack Meuli was "the best dressed female at school!" Dan and Wayne Coe would also pull a crazy prank with an axe at a Proctor PTA Meeting humiliating his parents. Dan's eyes still twinkled mischievously remembering those long ago pranks "rolling marbles down the floor and
gazing off watching deer up the hill on our homestead when I should have been paying attention, putting pennies up your nose, and pouring a bucket of water down a funnel" Yet he also remembers learning respect through daily pledges to the flag and silent pauses for prayer.
Juanita's memories of Irene Hyer, who taught in 1943-44, are of the two Coe boys fighting constantly on the playground. Mrs. Hyer would come out to break up the fighting -- but come no closer than ten feet from the boys -- and repeat over and over, "Boys, boys, don't do that boys!" Another time Juanita rode her horse up the steps and entered the classroom. Mrs. Hyer didn't like it and made her back the horse down. Jack Meuli, whose
father Mel was trustee, related that Mrs. Hyer had "no discipline. It was so poor that his parents sent Jack to Kalispell. Juanita Brander, Duane Savall, Tom Tonkinson, and Gordon rode the bus to Polson for school for a half a year." The next year Irene Hyer would teach in Polson for the only two years teaching in Lake County. Daniel Brander reports that Mrs.Hyer lives in the Polson Evergreen Nursing Home. Jack later wrote, "I felt I got a good education in the rural school and all except for one year we had good teachers."
Joan Coe and Gaybeth Learn were the 1950 eighth grade graduates listed on Rollins student Jerry Winkley's program. Graduation ceremonies were combined by the Rollins, Proctor, Dayton, Big Arm, and Elmo with eighteen students graduating. Proctor students sang "Whispering Hope" at the ceremony.