Crescent School

Click to Enlarge

I love the motley assortment of kids in these old one room schoolhouse photos. For a long time I thought we might have to enjoy them without knowing if any of these kids were our ancestors, but thanks to an assist from facial recognition software I think I have some answers.

This first one is helpfully stamped with the photography studio's location in Arpin, Wisconsin. Crescent School was located between Arpin and Vesper in Wood County, on what would become the Dykstra farm and right next to TerMaat property. Great grandfather Jan Hendrick Ter Maat moved to Arpin in 1912. Our grandfather Henry was already 17 and too old to be in school, but his younger siblings weren't. This picture was probably taken between 1912 -14. Ter Maat sisters Jennie, Lizzie and Anna are in the dark dresses near the teacher.

Click to Enlarge

This picture appears to be a few years later and Jennie and Lizzie are standing in front of the teacher, both with big bows in their hair (They must have known it was picture day and really dressed up. Lizzie stands out with a bowtie!). Young Anna is probably front row, first girl from the left.

The Dykstra family arrived in Wood County about 1913 so Grandma's sisters Winnie and Kate who were close in age to Lizzie and Anna might be in these photos too, but face recognition isn't telling tales in this case. In addition the tallest boys in these photos could be Ralph Dykstra and George Ter Maat, who were the same age, but that's just speculation. In 1913 they would have been 14 years old and coming to the end of school years.

Click to Enlarge

Finally, here is a Crescent School photo from the 1920s featuring the next generation of Ter Maats and Dykstras. Great Aunt Tena Dykstra is the tall blonde in the third row.  Hattie TerMaat is in the second row, third from the right. It's possible that the girl on the far left next to the teacher is Margaret, but I'm less sure of that. At least one of the urchins in the front row is likely the oldest Dykstra cousin, Cornelius, but I couldn't say which. Henry Dykstra, in his memoir Two Longs and Ten Shorts wrote about attending Crescent School,

I actually spent one and a half years in the first grade. My parents enrolled me when I was just five years old. This may not sound unusual in this day and age, but at that time when a teacher had thirty to thirty-five students in her care with an age range of six to sixteen, she had very little time for the very young student. A visit by the county supervising teacher nipped my early education in the bud, as she removed me from school at mid-term.

So depending on the year this was taken he might be in this picture too!

Location of Crescent School:

View Larger Map

Little Hattie's Best Dress

Aunt Hattie loved to dress her nieces and nephews up in sailor suits. Here I am with cousin Ann Eggebeen in matching sailor dresses in 1963. (And what a lush backdrop Uncle Joe's glads and dahlias make!).

Here's Pete in 1968, with Grandma TerMaat in Hattie's kitchen, ready to set sail.


I think I've discovered why Hattie favored these Victorian outfits. In the formal portrait below are sisters Hattie and Margaret TerMaat about 1920, Hattie outfitted in a sailor dress. Hattie's about the same age here as the girls in my pre-school Sunday School class who love their ribbons, sequins and tulle. Current fashions favor pink and sparkle and it's hard to imagine little girls today being attracted to a serious color like navy blue, but I'm going to guess that Hattie's ribbons were red. I bet she loved that dress with the giant, shiny bow.

Family Portrait with a Reg'lar Feller

This is the only formal portrait that I know of picturing all the TerMaat siblings together. Some effort went into it as you can see that Margaret, Marion and Hattie are wearing matching dresses. And Little Connie has picked out his best tie. If you look very closely, you can see that the photographer added a little blush to the cheeks.

The tie says "Reg'lar Fellers" and depicts one of the characters from a comic strip by that name. The series, created by Gene Byrnes ran from 1917-1949 and had many spin-offs including books, radio, animated and feature film versions, assorted merchandising such as dolls, pencil boxes (just search ebay) and apparently children's clothing.  This photo must have been taken in the mid 1930s. 1936, when Dad was seven and the animated short below was released would not be a bad guess. 



I like the little Reg'lar Feller jingle that introduces the film. Having just survived a visit from Connie's grandson Max (who really resembles his grandpa!), in which he dug a hole, built a catapult, investigated a pumpkin-tossing trebuchet and devoured Diary of a Wimpy Kid, it's especially fun to see the comic kids digging a hole, messing with an old jalopy, making it fly and in the feature film, building an amphibious vehicle. Some things about seven-year-old boys and their comic alter-egos never change.