Number 8 School (EDU.5)

Number 8 schoolhouse

In the early days students had to walk to school so, by 1894, there were 10 neighborhood schools in Sedgwick for a total of 340 students.¹ This undated photograph is of the Number 8 school which is on Schoolhouse Hill, just before the Herrick Road.

Abby Neese described her education at Number 8; “In those days, teachers had to be qualified to teach all subjects. There were eight grades in one room; children ranged from six years of age to twelve or thirteen. For class recitations, pupils moved to the front seats, so we all could hear them give their answers to the teacher’s questions. Consequently, we learned about many subjects.”²

The schoolhouse was built in 1875 on land donated by John Eaton and Andrew Wood.³

Lilla McIntyre, the mother of Rebecca Bowden Herrick Wanbaugh and the teacher in this undated photo, was the valdictorian of her GSA senior class and graduated from Bates College.  She taught for a while at the Number 8 school during which time she and her students raised the money needed to buy the bell for the school.

When the building was no longer used as a school it was used as a sail loft by Clarence Hale.  His son Donald continued that work until his retirement and today the building is a private residence.

Number 8 school class of 1914.
From left to right: back row, Miss Billings, Emery Herrick, Earl Dority, Elizabeth Herrick, Alexander Dority, Agnes Sinclair, Catherine Sargent, Clifford Cummings, Elsie Chatto, Ruby Robbins, Lyman Robbins, Robert Sinclair.

Front row: Rexford Lymburner, Lewellyn Beadle, Gladys Grindle, Doris Hooper, Estelle Hooper, Alice Lymburner, Bessie Robbins, Barbara Lymburner, Elizabeth Hooper, Reginald Dority.

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¹Sedgwick, Maine Bicentennial Committee, Life and Times in a Coastal Village 1789-1989, page 34

² Sargent Neese, Abby, Growing Up in Sargentville, Courier-Gazette, Inc., 1983, page 9.

³ Hancock County Registry of Deeds, Book 805 Pages 442 and 443.