School: Levis -
Lincoln-Meadow View History (Slavery - 1978)
Contact: Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon
E-mail:
dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org
Surnames: Schoenherr, Stankiewicz, Piekarski, Buettner, Withers, Kurtzweg,
Andrews, West, Henderson, Redmond, Kuhn, Bunkleman, Connors
----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI) 11/02/1978
Lincoln-Meadow View History (Slavery - 1978)
Mrs. Herbert Schoenherr, Rt. 1 Neillsville, recently became the recipient of the
news article pertaining to the former “older living student” of the rural
Lincoln-Meadow View School (Town of Levis).
From Roman Stankiewicz, Milwaukee, came the clipping from Wausau “Tribune
Herald: of his cousin, John Piekarski, who has been living in Wausau. Roman did
not realize that his cousin had also been educated in the same school he
attended until he read the book of history which was handed out on that
memorable reunion day last summer and through conversations with other members
of the family. It became known that John Piekarski, 84, attended the same
78-year-old school when he was seven years old, 1901-1902. Miss Ruth Withers was
the teacher at the time.
Piekarski’s father, Joseph, lived on the farm now owned by Marvin Buettner in
the Town of Levis. It was from there that young Johnnie and his sisters, Mary
and Frances, attended the school.
The father, Joseph, was taken as a slave when their part of Poland was overrun
by the Russians. He was forced to pull grain barges up and down the Volga River,
One stormy night he escaped and made his way be means of sailing ships to the
east coast of the U.S.A., when he again “jumped ship” and traveled west only to
work in coal mines which was almost like slavery.
He was still running for freedom when he settled in the United States and became
a citizen. Because he was a restless man, he moved to Levis Township in Clark
County, from there to a large wheat farm in Minnesota and where the call of
timberlands caused a move to Wausau where the family settled.
Roman wrote he had received a letter from Ruth Kurtzweg Andrews, Seward, Alaska,
who was interested in learning how the Stankiewicz family was. His sister,
Helen, made the remark of what beautiful handwriting Ruth had and what a
wonderful reflection on the education of those days.
He hoped the school reunion book would bring out other people to renew their
memories of the old school so that records and donations would make it a very
worthwhile museum. Somehow, we always called that part of the country ‘Home,” he
wrote.
Mrs. Schoenherr is still looking for pictures or information about the following
teachers who once taught in the Lincoln-Meadow View School: Musa West, who
taught 1900-1901; Clara Henderson, 1902-1903; Berdine Redmond Kuhn, 1917-1918;
Katherine Bunkleman, 1920-1921; and Mrs. Florence Connors, 1958-1959.
Anyone knowing of family or relatives, please contact Mrs. Schoenherr and
perhaps more history can be added to complete the records. Donations of articles
pertaining to the rural school era, especially of those of the Township of Levis
are being accepted.
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