Radersburg School
From Tom Moore:
We now come to the time when there were a few children in and near Radersburg. In 1869 a young lady by the name of Miss Mary Gilham was employed as a teacher in a little dirt-roofed cabin used as a school room. Desks were unknown and instead was used a table about four feet high, two and a half feet wide which was perched on a high bench without a place for the pupils to rest their feet. The little pupils were on the opposite side of the room at a long bench 14 inches high. In those days children were sent to school at a very early age, often less than four years.
Through the kindness of Miss Gilham, the little ones, when they became sleepy, would be wrapped in shawls and coats and a place found for them to sleep. Kind readers, it is hoped that you will accept this statement as a real fact, strange as it may seem to you and compared with present day conditions. Names of a few of the scholars remain fresh in my memory: Mittie Kennon, who was later married to attorney M.J. Parker, her sister Katie Winslow who passed away in Townsend in the early part of 1946 at the age of 81 years and six months, Richard and George Harwood, Vinnie Wells, Jim Walker and the writer of this article - doubtless the lone survivors of the 1860s in Radersburg. There may have been other scholars, if so, they have escaped my memory. Later, our dearly beloved teacher married Dr. Bullard of Helena. We children did not feel very kindly toward the doctor for taking our teacher away from us.
The original school, no longer standing, was located on the Castleberry property. After Broadwater County was created and Radersburg became a part of it, the courthouse was used as a schoolhouse until the brick school was built at the western edge of town and ready for occupancy in 1913. After this the old courthouse was used as a community center where programs and dances were held until 1926 when it was sold to Thomas Willliams, who razed it and built a barn of the material. The foundation of the building is still there and is locally the site is referred to as "Schoolhouse Hill".
Mertie Doughty (Mrs. Bish Williams) was a pupil at the old school on the hill. About the age of six she was very frightened one morning on her way to school when she saw a man hanging from a huge cottonwood tree behind the school. She continued her schooling and later became a teacher here.
Radersburg School Teachers:
