Ray Somero

New Ipswich Historical Society

Ray Somero remembers school days

Patti Kankaanpaa posted this oral history on Facebook on July 15, 2023:

According to Stephen Taylor, founding executive director of the N.H. Humanities Council, hundreds of one-room schools dotted the landscape of New Hampshire a century ago and were the backbone of primary education for generations of children.

In An Oral History of Finnish-Americans in New Hampshire’s Monadnock Region [1997], people have spoken about their learning experiences during the Great Depression in the one- and two-room schools of New Ipswich.

The following, a more recently told account, is from Ray Somero. In a July 17, 2020, phone conversation, he recounted his own early school days.

Ray’s parents were Eino and Sophie Sorvari Somero; their family of nine children was one of very few enjoying what now is termed “school choice.” A Town authority told Ray’s mother that if her children left out the back door of their farmhouse, they would attend Highbridge School. However if they departed via their front door, they would attend Number One School.

Ray’s sister, the late Mildred Somero Henault, recalled New Ipswich had 12 such schools, although originally it seems there were at least 13.

Ray, below, in passing mentions schoolchildren shopping at Toko’s store. Then-proprietor Hjalmar Toko was uncle to Carl Toko of New Ipswich. It appears Hjalmar owned the store prior to the era of Harold “Duke” Johnson, who presumably acquired it after Hjalmar passed in 1953.

Here’s Ray:

At the time that I went to Number One School it was two rooms and Rose Hakala was the grades one, two, three teacher; and she was second cousin to my mother and she came from Keene.

When I entered first grade in 1938, grades one through three were in the first classroom. She [Rose Hakala] was in the east wing of the school and Pearl Steele [Thompson] was in the west wing, on the right. There were maybe 30 kids in each wing. I walked with my brother Billy, and the girls [their sisters] walked by themselves.

On the east side of the school grounds there was a vacant lot where we played baseball. On the west, we had an outhouse divided into a boys’ side and girls’ side. If you came out the front door and took a left, the outhouse was against the property line. One building split into two outhouse. But the teachers didn’t use the outhouse. If you went down the hall they had their own hopper indoors.

Most of the kids were speaking Finnish at home. When I went to school, our father’s family and Matti Kangas’s family [neighbors] spoke Finnish at home. Miss Steele was well-respected and I had her in the fifth and sixth grades. You obeyed and you were fine.

Martin Somero [Ray’s cousin; son of Frederick and Arline Somero] later built his house in 1950 on a Lower School Street lot, just below Number One School [on Upper School Street]. There was a path from the schoolyard down through that lot that led down to the store and the kids would go down during recess or lunch to buy candy and ice cream to Toko’s. Didn’t have to ask permission or anything like that.

There was a Mr. Pratt who was the janitor. He took care of the heat. Mr. Pratt lived next door on the west side of the school. My parents promoted education. Some kids used to quit as soon as they turned 16 and go into the mills. but my parents didn’t want me to quit. We didn’t want to quit. My brother Arthur was deaf from birth. He attended a school for the deaf in Brattleboro, Vermont, starting at age eight.

The things we always looked forward to were the Children’s Fair and Memorial Day parades. We had a music teacher, Miss Wheeler, and had her all through elementary school. I was at Number One School for one year before the elementary schools consolidated into one building. Highbridge School closed a couple of years earlier in 1936: those kids all ended out at Number One school. The school across from the cemetery is School Number 12. When you go from Bank Village over River Road to 123A and take a left over the Souhegan River, the school [for that neighborhood] is on the left: a brick building.

Mr. Ames was the superintendent and I was in the first grade and I was scared to death of him. I didn’t know if he was a doctor or what. Those who entered school speaking only Finnish were challenged in that they couldn’t understand the teachers and sometimes had to repeat first grade. They were lucky. One boy with more than a language problem had twice repeated second grade but couldn’t advance no matter how hard he tried. One day he didn’t come back. We didn’t know where he went.

James Roger diary entries

18th July 1912

Cloudy; wind variable. David & Henry mowing below henhouse in morning. I went for grad; thunder commenced when I got to Highbridge and rain as I left the Mill. A fine rain for a few hours. Dave & I planted 200 cabbage which Humphrey brought last night. Alice & John arrived unexpectedly per 7:10 p.m. train.