These cards from the Southampton township, Somerset County PA "Mountain School" for the school years 1896/97 and 1897/98 show that Emanual Korns was a Director for both years. The cards are now in the possession of one of Ada (Petenbrink) Bittner's descendants. Ada married Calvin Bittner, and their daughter Gladys married Allen Lester Korns, son of John Wilson Korns. The location of the Mountain School is shown on the map below by name, and with a symbol in the shape of a building with a flag. The school building still (2009) exists, and has been converted into a home; it was Bob Gaumer's home place. Click here to see a 1915 map that shows the location of the Mountain School.
Mike McKenzie provided the annotated 1939 aerial photo below. It shows the location of the mountain school and the nearby church.
The photo below was provided by Mike McKenzie in 2009. It shows a building that according to Mike's father, was formerly the Mountain School, but is now the Gomer place. It's location matches the school location that is shown on the map above. The building is located at Latitude 39.779801, Longitude -78.853048. The building certainly has the right shape to have been an old school, and the droop in the roof ridgeline suggests that it is an old structure. it does have a concrete block foundation, but Mike reports that it is not rare for people to have removed the old stone foundations and put in a cement block replacement foundation.
According to Volume III, pages 264 to 266 of the 1906 book "History of Bedford and Somerset Counties Pennsylvania", Karl Albert Miller taught at the Mountain School in Southampton Township at one time.
The two color images below show the 1896/97 Mountain School souvenir card that was donated to Korns.org by Erin C. Fiedler, a 5th grade teacher at Osceola Elementary School, in Florida. She found these items, and the ones shown below it, in a box of miscellaneous antique articles at an auction. They all seem to be souvenirs of the 1896/97 school year, since they were wrapped together in brown paper.
The image below shows a souvenir bookmark donated by Erin C. Fiedler. The bookmark was presented to Chrissie Cook by Mrs. Warren M. Buck.
The image below shows the card of Mrs. F. H. Cook, which was donated by Erin C. Fiedler. This is typical of school cards of this era.
The image below shows a little 2-1/4" x 3" booklet, which was donated by Erin C. Fiedler.
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