I took the following two photos of the Witt School (370 Witt Road, Meyersdale, PA) while out sightseeing with my uncle Ralph Dietle on August 7, 2021. He attended this school when his father Irvin Henry Dietle taught there. When the road was covered with deep snow, they parked the car at the top of the hill and walked down. Ralph tried to walk in his father's footsteps, but that was hard because his father's stride was so much bigger than his.
Ralph reported that a lot of the kids walked home for lunch. Ralph also reported that once a year, the kids would hide from the teacher, or just not come back after lunch. Looking at satellite imagery, the building is at 39.81690727646099, -78.93979412825614. It is now being used as a residence or a hunting camp. (Lannie Dietle, August 9, 2021)
The following image is a class photo of the Witt School when Irvin Henry Dietle was the teacher. Irvin (my grandfather) is standing in the back row.
Ralph Dietle left the following undated picture of Witt School students to me when he died. The teacher, Irvin H. Dietle, was Ralph's father and my grandfather. Some of the students are identified by symbols that correspond to the list at the upper left-hand side of the image.
As reported in the 1996 book "Descendants of Johann Adam Dietel", the following is written in one of Irvin H. Dietle's pocket notebooks: "Winter of 1939-40 Was an old fashioned winter The ground was covered with snow from Christmas until the first of april There were plenty of drifts and our road was closed for 3 months I brought the car home on the first day of April only had it home once since before Christmas There was no plowing done until April. I taught Witt school and walked both ends about 6 miles a day." The book also states, " He would have to leave home before daylight, so he'd take up a shotgun and away he would go, taking a shortcut through the woods." He carried his shotgun back and forth to the Witt school so he could hunt small game along the way.
Upon reading the prededing quote from our grandfather Irvin H. Dietle's notebook, my sister Dana wrote, "I bet that's the year Dad talked about spring being late and after he gathered eggs, he was jumping from green grass to green grass spots (because he was so happy to see grass). In his excitement he tripped, fell and broke all the eggs (or most of them). He got in trouble with his mother."
L. Dietle
