1-Room Reunion
A lot of reminiscing will take place when 46 former students of the West Liberty one-room school get together Saturday.
The alumni and their families will be celebrating a 50th year reunion at the West Liberty United Methodist Church, 135 Church Road, Slippery Rock.
This will be the first reunion ever of former students of the school, which closed in 1963.
The school held grades one through eight and, in later years, grades one through six.
Alice Holden of Woodstock, Va., a former West Liberty student, decided to organize the reunion after attending her 50th high school reunion.
She passed the former school on her way home and decided to see if she could get some of her old classmates together.
“I just brought home a Butler County phone book and started remembering names of former students,” Holden said.
Holden sent out letters inviting people to an initial organizational meeting in September. She said the meeting was a success, with 21 former students attending.
At the meeting, Holden had the former students write down their memories from their time at the one-room school and over the next five months she put together a book.
“Memories of Bygone Days at the West Liberty One-Room School,” contains more than 400 stories from 50 former students, whose memories span 1929 to 1963.
Those memories include her own. Holden attended the school starting in 1950 and completed six years.
She said, “It wasn't a deterrent that we went to a one-room school.”
While writing the book, Holden learned that “more valedictorians came out of West Liberty than any other surrounding school.”
Some of the former students attending the reunion will be traveling from Florida, New York and Indiana. Others remained in Butler County.
Holden said, “About 70 or 75 are expected to attend.”
Of those, 46 are former students of the school.
One former student at the initial meeting in September was Ed Bosch of West Liberty.
Bosch attended the school from 1950 to 1956. He said, “I remember it was fun.”
Bosch recalled the games played during recess saying, “We use to play with a ball and throw it over a roof.”
Upon finishing school at West Liberty, Bosch continued his education at Slippery Rock High School. “I went to Slippery Rock and was totally lost up there,” he said.
Bosch adjusted to the change, and three days after graduating he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force.Today Bosch is living in West Liberty, and he still has ties to his old school. The converted school is now the home of his niece and her husband.Another former student will be traveling all the way from Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.Delores Cleaver, 83, attended West Liberty from 1936 to 1944.“I really enjoyed it,” Cleaver said. “We knew everyone from the first through eighth grades.”Cleaver said she enjoyed the lessons and at an early age knew a lot about geography and history from what the older grades were studying.Cleaver recalled being able to help the younger students with their spelling.She said, “There were times that we would help the teachers.”Following her time at the one-room school, Cleaver attended Slippery Rock High School. She then attended Slippery Rock University and became a teacher.She continued as a teacher and eventually received a master's degree in Florida. She later retired after 44 years as a principal.Cleaver will be attending the reunion accompanied by her daughter, Lori, from Tennessee.There will not be a shortage of stories to be told Saturday. Holden will bring 185 copies of her book, which were preordered by the former students and their families.
