Vera (Lagemann) Freese
taught at Oak Grove 1938-39, Brinkman 1939-44, Doeblin 1944-45
Vera Lagaman graduated from Marthasville High School, May 1938. She then drove from her home in Marthasville to Central Wesleyan College in Warrenton each day for 10 weeks. Then she took the State Teachers Exam, she remembers it being hard and many people did not pass. The exam took two days. She remembers doing well on the exam.
That same year in Sept 1938 she started teaching in Oak Grove School near Jonesburg. She had 8 students in that one room school. The school did not have a cistern; Vera had to walk about two hundred feet to get the water for the school. She had to dip water with a bucket and rope and bring to the school. She would put the water in a large crock with a spigot. Student used the water to drink and wash their hands. Once a month, a Music Teacher would come to teach music to her students. There were big tall windows on the East side allowing ample light into the room. She does not remember having to use the kerosene lamps during the school days.
The next school year, she taught at Brinkman School, 3 miles south of Marthasville. This was school was less than 3 miles from her home. She had 8 students again, she felt young since an 8th grader was taller than her. In order to receive a certain certification the school had to have four special events. She remembers a Wiener Roast at Halloween, a Card Party in January, A puppet show, and a Christmas Program. She and her students enjoyed making puppets and a house to portray the “3 Little Pigs” story. The school board had decided the school should have hot lunches. This was around 1940. Once a month a member of the school board would bring cans of peanut butter and pork n beans to the school. Vera remembers heating the pork n beans on the heating stove in the middle of the room so the students could have a hot lunch. Vera taught at this school for 5 years. Each summer and many nights she would take extension classes from Mizzou & Kirksville.
Shortly before Vera married James Freese she taught at Doeblin School on Oberhelmen Road 3 miles west of New Melle. Again she had about 8 students. She remembers one 1st grade student having a hard time reading, during recess Vera discovered that girl only knew German. At the same time one 5th grader was so far ahead of the others. She gave him an encyclopedia to take home one weekend, and "he read the whole book". She remembers a Christmas Program one time when Wesley or Ervin Brakensiek jumped out of a box to portray a Jack-in-the-box. She remembers Superintendent Jolly coming to her school and being impressed with her sandbox where they made items such as Igloos when studying Eskimos.
At each one of those three one room schools, Vera was responsible for heat, putting wood or coal in the stove, supervision at recess, and sweeping the floor each day as well as teaching. She would bring corn cobs from home to help start the fire.
After that school year, 1945, at Doeblin, Vera Freese was a farmer’s wife and began her family. When the four children were small she would substitute at Marthasville grade school. In 1967 she was offered a teaching job at St. Vincent’s School in Dutzow. She thought “O this will be so much easier not having to light a fire, or fix a hot lunch, or sweep the floor after school.” The challenges of 3 grades & 30+ students in her classroom were different than she experienced in her one room school. She taught at Dutzow for 10 years.
Later thru East Central, in Union, she taught Adult Basic Education classes at the Emmaus Home. She taught Emmaus residents for 18 years before retiring in 1995, and 57 years after her first “one room” teaching job.
Vera’s two daughters are teachers, Marcia has taught 37 years, and Cheryl is in her 27th year of teaching. Vera's granddaughter, Laura Freese, is in her first year of teaching.
Ruth Busdieker, Sept 2009