Back row: Ruby Sullens - teacher, Ray Cobb, Wilma Perkins, Barbara Smith, Darrell Shuler, Alice Marie Brewer, Lorene Perkins, Thelma Eagan,

                  Lorene Slater, Shirley Brewer

Middle row: Sondra (Shuler) Harmon, Wilma (Shuler) Hampsten, Donnie Shuler, Jack Norris, Lena Mae Black, Wesley Perkins, Ron Cobb, Paul Norris

McHaney School (Possum Trot) – District 62

By Ellen Gray – June 1980

(One Room School Memorial – Archives - Salem, IL)

      I started to this school (McHaney) in September, 1902.  Other first graders were Otis HINES, Ruby SHULER, Earl DORRIS.  Earl and Otis are deceased.  Ruby is now Ruby GAINES of Alma.  Our teacher was Frank HICKMAN, who in later years became Superintendent of Marion County Schools.

Residing in our district at that time were the following families:

-      Mrs. Rachel McHANEY with her children, Maude, George, Holland and Robert.  All are now deceased except Maude, who is in Fireside Nursing Home in Centralia.

-      Mr. and Mrs. Noble Cruse – no children in school

-      Mr. and Mrs. William HINES - Effie and Clara in school (both now deceased).  Effie was bookkeeper at a number of grocery stores in Salem for twenty or more years.  Clara died April, 1980, at age of 91

-     Mr. and Mrs. Sam W. GRAY’s children in school in 1902 were Jessie, Nellie, Frankie, Ida, Annette, Robert, Charlie, Ethel and myself, Ellen.  Now living are Annette and Ellen.

-     Mr. and Mrs. Tom GRAY’s children were Alpha and Alvin.  Alpha is living, now aged 96, and resides in Dr.’s Nursing Home.

-     Mr. and Mrs. Jake MUCK had Joe and Arthur in school.  Joe is now deceased and Arthur lives in Decatur.

-     Mr. and Mrs. Pete HINES - Elston and Emma at home.  Both are now deceased.  Elston was killed in an auto accident about three years ago.  He was a Methodist minister for more than sixty years.  Another son, Melvin, now deceased, had children: Gail, a minister for many years (50, I think), died last year at Kinmundy.  Otis and Loyd and Edith, all deceased.  Florence Shreffler lives in Alma, and Agnes Clesson lives in Salem.

-    Mr. and Mrs. Tom DORRIS and children, Earl, Lena, Ruth and Alma, lived in the district.  Only Ruth is now living.  She was a beautician for many years, now retired.

-    William Campbell and son, Clarence, both now deceased.

-    Mr. and Mrs. Wiley CAMPBELL, and Dicie, Erma, Herschel, Agnes, Della, and Jean.  Erma died as a child.  Herschel died in 1960, and Agnes died in 1962.  Dicie Rhoads, a widow, lives in Salem.  Della in Patoka.  Jean Collum lives in Houston, Texas.

Other families were:

-    Henry CARTER, with children, Estel, Charlie and Orlan, above school age, then, (now deceased).

-    Laurn Carter still lives in the area.

-     Mr. and Mrs. Henry SOMERVILLE had three daughters and one son, Audrey, Cleta, Savannah, and Walter.  Cleta still lives and is in a Baptist Retirement home, also Savannah, retired Registered Nurse, lives in Texas.

-     John SMITH family had sons, George, Henry, Charles, and Hilary.

-     Mr. and Mrs. Charles MAULDING had Otto and Raymond in school then.  Otto is now deceased.  There were Velma, Ralph and younger children, children of Charles and Emma Maulding, now living – Raymond, Morris in Oklahoma City, Katie in Alma, Ellice in Flora, Raymond in Kinmundy.

-     Mr. and Mrs. William BALLANCE had one son, Maurice, who became a teacher, also a minister.  He had two sons.  Maurice died about thirty years ago.

-    Another family, Mr. and Mrs. Abner GREENWALT with children, Dessie, Willie and Ruth, now all deceased.

-    The Thomas Neal’s, and Mr. and Mrs. David HILTON, Clara, Gertrude and Ethan, and a younger sister, Opal, all deceased now.

-    The Joseph BLACK family, Cecil, Wesley, Eva, Robert, Ethel, Mattie, Dwight, Wayne.  Only, Eva, a former Marion County Treasurer, who now lives in Salem, and Wayne lives in Mt. Vernon, and Mattie of Oregon, but now Kinmundy.

-    Homer OSBORN family

-    Forrest SANDERS family.

      Teachers of my father at McHaney School were Miss Ellen LOVEJOY, and John or Peter DEEDS. 

      Later teachers (of my brothers and sisters) Mae CHANCE, Ellen MORTON, Ethel STEVENSON, James RICHARDSON, Mr. _____ HOLLENBACK, and Herbert BLAIR.

Teachers since 1911:

Ella DeVillers,

Blanche Sheppard

Annette Gray

Ethel Farthing

Francis Roger

Winifred King

1921-22    Myrtle Cooper

1922-24    Roy Mulvaney

1924-25    Vivian Williams

1925-26    Roy Mulvaney

Tot Donoho (2 years)

Mrs. Della Horn

S.J. Seiber

Sam Cozad

George Mason

Mrs. Elva Andrews

Howard Thurman

Mrs. Ruby Sullens (5 years)

Otis McGill

Bertha Gaston (2 years)

Susie Malone (3 years)

Felta Williams

Phyllis Smith

Earl Yund

Susie Malone (2 years)

Ruby Sullens (2 years)

Beryl Smith

Consolidated with Kinmundy-Alma.

James McHANEY for whom the school was originally named was born in 1805 in Tennessee and came to this area in 1843.  He was married to Nancy SIMS, a native of North Carolina.  He served as a trustee of Marshall Creek Baptist Church.  In addition to serving as county superintendent of schools, he was credited with organizing the first county teachers’ association (1859) and setting up the first teachers’ institute (1860).

(NOTE:  Another school in the eastern part of the county was also referred to as Possum Trot.)

McHaney or ‘Possum Trot School – Tonti twp

          "A century ago, more than a hundred one-room schools dotted the landscape of Marion county and many of our older citizens experienced attendance at one of more of these extinct institutions.  Most, however, do not know how “Possum Trot”, “Slater Hollow”, or “Given’s Chapel” received their names.  There are probably none who remember that a rattlesnake den near “Possum Trot School” was wiped out in 1902 with 187 rattlers being killed.  City dwellers may not realize that neighborhoods developed surrounding the schools.

          In an undated clipping from the “Centralia Sentinel”, we found an account of Possum Trot School written by Alpha Gray, the paper’s correspondent at that location.  It is printed here as a contribution to Marion County lore.

          “District no. 62 is on the school record as McHaney, but it is better known as Possum Trot.  The school house is situated in section 8 of Tonti twp. between East Fork Creek and Jim’s Creek.

          The first school was taught by James McHaney, who also served as Marion County Superintendent of Schools.  He taught the school in one room of his home and for that reason it was called “McHaney”.

          The first school house to be built in the district was a log building and was about one-fourth of a mile west and a little south of where the present building is now located.  It was replaced by another log building, and when the men were cutting the logs to build it with, an opossum ran out of a hollow place in one of the logs, and one of the men, William “Gin” Nichols, named it “Possum Trot”.  That school house was replaced by a frame building, and in the year 1892, it was destroyed by fire.  It was replaced by the present building.

          Just a short distance west of the school house is a hollow known as Slater Hollow, named for a family who lived there.  While living there, one of their children died and was the first to be buried in the Cruse Cemetery.  Mrs. Slater’s maiden name was Cruse, and a few years after their child died, one of her brothers was killed by a tree falling on him.  He was the second person to be buried there and since his name was Cruse, the cemetery was called Cruse.

          Jim’s Creek which is a short distance south of the school house was named after Jim Kenny, a man, who years ago lived on a farm about a quarter of a mile east of the school house.

          A very sad and exciting incident occurred not far from the school house, when James Chance, great-grandfather of our present county superintendent of schools (Paul B. Chance) was Sheriff.  A horse had been stolen from a man in the south part of the state, and the sheriff had been notified that the thief was hiding here.  A party of men got together and began a search and found him hiding in a thicket of brush and briars and before they had time to capture him, he drew a gun and shot and killed Joseph Chance, son of the Sheriff.  The news spread rapidly, and an angry mob gathered and came with a rope to hang him, but the Sheriff, although it was his son that had been killed, had the decency and presence of mind enough to rush him away before the mob got there.  Not long after that the prisoner hanged himself with a rope made of yarn that he got by unraveling his knitted suspenders and socks.

       One outstanding thing about this school district was the rattlesnakes.  They became so numerous that it became dangerous for children or even older people to go berry picking.  The den was finally located, and on May 2, 1902, the farmers in the vicinity quit their work and spent the day digging the vipers out of the den and killing them.  On that day they killed 187 rattlesnakes and several kinds of snakes, and at different times that spring, some would go and kill them until all together about 600 were killed.  There has never been very many rattlesnakes in her since then, although in the summer of 1947 about the time they were clearing out the timber and putting the high power line from the southern part of the state to the northern part, some snakes were killed.  One farmer killed one that had 14 rattles, and two or three others were killed, and there was some talk of digging the den out again.

       There is a General Baptist Church about one and three-fourths of a mile northeast of the schoolhouse.  It was named Given’s Chapel for a man by the name of Jerry Givens whose father had sent him to America to persuade his two brothers to return with him to Ireland.  When Jerry got to America, he, like his brothers, liked the country so well he never went back to Ireland.  He lived in Chicago awhile and finally came here and settled on a farm, married, and had one son.  He died when the son was small, and his wife and son returned to Chicago.  When they decided to build the church, his widow gave the land from the northwest corner of the farm so they decided to name the church Given’s Chapel.

      Among the early settlers here were James McHaney, James D. Gray and Britton Smith.  None of James McHaney’s descendants now live in the district, but there are four of Reverend Gray’s grandchildren living here.  They are Francis Gray, Alvin Gray, Alpha Gray, and Nellie Fulton.  Alvin and Alpha Gray are also grandchildren of Britton Smith.

      The school this winter is taught by Mrs. Lyman MALONE of Alma.”

(“A Peek from our Past” – by George Ross – “Salem Times-Commoner” – July 26, 1995 & Aug. 2, 1995 - copied from a history found at the One Room School Memorial in Salem)

"Salem Times-Commoner"; Salem, IL; Aug. 13, 2014

McHaney / Possum Trot School; Tonti twp., Marion Co., IL

McHaney / Possum Trot School; Tonti twp., Marion Co., IL