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By Barbara Benson

Assessor, REBECCA M. TONIGAN

Happy New Year – Hope all had a wonderful Holiday Season.

 

The 2005 assessment books were closed as of December 16, 2005.  All appeals were heard and all further appeals to the State Property Tax Appeal Board are in the process of  being filed.  We had approximately 360 appeals at the County level (190 being from the same property), which left us with approximately 170 others.  Of those 170, approximately 30-40 were from the unincorporated area that was revalued.  This revalue was a necessary step to take in achieving the uniformity needed in that area of the Township because the property values in that area were very low – in some cases 50-60% low.  When that happens, the tax burden is distributed amongst all other taxpayers in the district, which creates an unfair burden to the remaining property owners.  

 

This year we will be revaluing the remainder of the Township.  Preliminary figures show that some areas are in good shape, and other areas need some work.  It is too early to tell which areas need the most work. 

 

Our hope is to close the books as early as possible this year so we can get notice out to the property owners and have the option to meet with homeowners in my office to review the changes made and determine if we are missing any information.  This process will hopefully be done before the publication of the assessment changes for the year so that if we find any discrepancies they can be changed before the books are published.

 

Please note that you may see field people in your areas.  These people are there to simply verify the information we have on each property so that our information is accurate and up to date.

 

 

 

When writing about the one-room country school houses of Cuba Township for the last issue of Cuba News, I left out one, simply because it isn’t there any more.   But it was a building with an interesting history.  

 

In the last thirty years of the 19th century, the Porter family owned acreage in the vicinity of the present Buckley and Oak Knoll Road intersection.   Elliot Porter gave land on the east side of Buckley Road, just north of the present day entrance to Tudor Oaks Farm, for a schoolhouse.  He, and his son Lorenzo were directors of the school, which was of typical balloon frame construction.   In 1889, Ren as the son was known, hired a new teacher.  Hattie Brown was the daughter of Joseph and Emaline Hawley Brown, who lived in the Octagon House on Barrington’s West Main Street.   This is noteworthy, because, beginning in 1889, Emaline and Hattie started writing letters, some 700 of which survived, to Hattie’s sister Laura, who, after her marriage to Joseph Nightingale moved to Fairmont, Minnesota.

 

Those letters describe Hattie’s year teaching at the Porter School, her subsequent courtship and marriage to Ren Porter in 1893.   Hattie had been a substitute teacher at “the Village School”, the original Hough Street School and she first had to attend a Teacher’s Institute in Libertyville before taking up her post at the Porter School.                                                   

 

As Emaline wrote “He (Ren) hired her for the winter and spring term both, he said he would rather hire that way, they pay her thirty dollars a month the four winter months and twenty five dollars a month for two spring months, and they hire her fires built.  She intends to go to the Lake County Institute.”                                                                              

 

There was the matter of where Hattie would board during the week.  In your minds’eye, walk on muddy trails from the Octagon House, along Main Street to Hart Road, north to Oak Knoll, and west all the way to Buckley, then north to the school.  In a letter written to Laura on October 6th, 1889, Emaline writes:  “Pa got Crabtree’s horse and carriage the other day, and took Hattie to see her school house, and to see about a boarding place, Mrs. Porter (Ren’s mother) said she did not want to be bothered with a boarder and Mrs. Johnson said the teacher they used to have paid three dollars a week Monday till Friday night, and Hattie told her that she had never paid but two dollars, so Mrs. Johnson said that she would talk it over with her husband and let her know what they would do about it.  She is delighted with the school house, it is new, has nice seats, has plenty of desks and blackboards and a nice map”.

 

The Johnson house was on Oak Knoll Road east of Buckley, and the Porter house was on the south side of Oak Knoll, just west of Buckley.  Both are still there.   More information to be continued in the next newsletter.

 

 

 

 

Sharp:  “When I was six years old, (1910) it was time for me to start school, and I went

 

to the Porter School which was located on what is now Buckley Road.  It was the only

 

building on this sod road and located on the east side in an oak woods about halfway

 

between Cuba and Oak Knoll Roads.   There would only rarely be a buggy or wagon

 

pass this school during a day.  The schoolteacher was Annabell Welch, and the class

 

consisted of about thirteen children and covered eight grades.  The desks were designed

 

to accommodate two persons.  It was good to be able to sit close, especially on cold days.

 

 

A dug well with a hand pump was located south of the schoolhouse.  The older boys

 

would pump a pail of water and bring it in for drinking.  It had a dipper with a long

 

handle on it, and everybody drank out of it except the teacher, who had a folding-cup.

 

The dipper was never washed except at the start of the school year.  The pail of water

 

had to be emptied every day after school during the winter, or it would be frozen the next

 

day.

 

 

All the pupils, regardless of age, would play together at noon or recess.  The school house

 

floor was scrubbed once a year at the start of the school year.  Thereafter, every Friday

 

noon the teacher, with the help of the students, would sweep the floor and clean the

 

blackboards”.             

 

 

And what became of the Porter School?  In the mid-1940s, when consolidation began,

 

the school was sold to Ruth Mead a well-known artist, and moved to her property on

 

Ridge Road to always be known as “the school house” but used as an extra storage place

 

for the household.   When a devastating tornado came northeast through Barrington in

 

1967, the Mead house and the Porter School were virtually destroyed.    Just some clay

 

pots were left along the school’s north wall.   A photograph exists of the school in its

 

original location.  It was published in “Tales of Old Barrington” in 1976.   As most of its

 

pupils pass away, the Porter School exists only in the history books.

 

 

Next time:  Some more “tales out of school”.