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The Goldendale Sentinel, Goldendale, WA., November 6, 1958, page 9

Long Community Service Recalled:
NO. 12 SCHOOLHOUSE HAS STORE OF MEMORIES

The old No. 12 schoolhouse became alive once more last Wednesday evening when Bruce Spalding was honored for his years of service as a rural mail carrier. Since the school was closed in about 1938, it has been utilized for many such occasions as a community hall. On election days it serves as polling place of No. 4 precinct. It is one of the county's best examples of useful service which may be performed by the abandoned school.
At the Spalding dinner, a canvas was made of the over 50 guests, and 16 were found who felt especially at home because a part of their school days had been spent in the room. They included Victor and David Thompson, W.J. Young, Mr. and Mrs. Clyde Story, Oren Story, Cecil McDowell, Mr. and Mrs. John Hoctor, Mr. and Mrs. William Hoctor, Joe and Fred Hoctor, Abram Tebbs, Mrs. Bruce Spalding and Walter Story.
The schoolhouse was built in about 1892 or 93, according to the memory of W.J. Young and Clyde Story. It replaced an earlier building located about a half mile away on the Pierce place, which is believed to have been one of the first schools erected in the county.
Best remembered of the school's teachers were said to be F.S. Calvin, who taught there for 17 years. Jim Hill, Mrs. Bowen, Kirby Lyle, Cary Ramsey, Kathryn Reader and Edith Niles also will were mentioned as teachers, and Mrs. E.C. Kayser was said to have been the last teacher of the school.
Calvin is said to have planted the fir trees on the schoolhouse property, carrying them in gunny sacks from mountain sources over 50 years ago.

The Goldendale Sentinel, Goldendale, WA., November 27, 1958, page 8

Sentinel Articles Stirs String of Memories for C.R. Miller
PIONEER RECALLS SCHOOLING AT NO. 12 BUILDING

Edit. note: the following story about early county schools was submitted by C.R. Miller, Rt. 1, Bx 3A, Yacolt, Washington.

The Sentinel's recent article regarding the No. 12 school certainly brought many memories to me, for I attended that school. I also attended the old No. 12 school half a mile north, near the lane just west of the Duffield home. Jim Hill was teacher at that time, 1888 and 1889.
Those I remember at the old No. 12, when there was a three-month fall and a 3-month spring session, work Dave, George and Pearl Collins, Joe and Margaret Hoster, Jim and Dan Duffield, the late Ed Cahill and brother John, who passed soon afterward in early youth. There are also were my brothers Henry, Bill and myself, who lived one mile east of the present No. 12 at the homestead my father filed on in 1869. I have the patent for the same, signed in 1872 by President U.S. Grant.
In 1889 and 1892 I attended the Glenwood log school, with Jim Hill, my brother-in-law, as teacher. The old school, I am told, is still standing, half a mile south of Glenwood, Wash.
Those I can recall at that school are Paul and Willie Kuhnhausen, Lelia and a Betsy Shaw.

RECALLS TEACHERS

The present No. 12 school house was built during my absence from the state 1892-93. My first schooling at the present No. 12 was 1894, 1895 and 1896. The teachers during that period were Ella Henshaw and Tal Bratton (father of the present Tal, or Howard). He had but one arm but that good arm was good at wielding a switch, for I knew by experience. I cannot recall for what but think it was for fighting in the lane east of the school by some boys homeward bound.
My recollection of those as classmates at No. 12 are Pearl Collins, Joe and Maggie Hoctor, Ed and John Cahill, Clay, Bill and Lincoln Thompson (but not sure about Clay). From the Anderson farm and came one of the Hoyte sisters, either Pearl or Maud, yet possibly both of them. My youngest brother, Bill, and three Snodgrass boys, George, Wesley, and another whose name has slipped me but who usually came late.
On the hill south lived the Rawley Byers family from which came three, Arthur and two sisters. There, too, came Bessie Young, whose father was Joe Young who I admired much in my youth.
John Edding and George Hartshorn, who lived with the Eddings, came from two miles to the southwest. Nearer, but in the same direction, was the Parrott family with George, Ben and a sister attending at intervals.

FISTIC ENCOUNTER RELATED

Others from outside the district spent time at No. 12 - one Mabel Ward, who I thought was a beautiful girl; another was William Mulligan, who I should not forget for he and I once had a fistic encounter in the lane.
Completing the circle starting at the Collins home, with not a sign left to mark the spot, came a girl from the Sims farm, located on the east side of the big butte.
As to the early schools, the location of which I remember, are No. 1, Rockland, on the Washington bank of the Columbia opposite The Dalles; No. 2, the John Burgen school, three miles south of Goldendale; No. 4, four miles east of Goldendale; No. 6, three miles east of the No. 12 schoolhouse, and about the only one of now outstanding.
The first school at which I sought learning was the Fruit Flat district, No. 36, in 1886. At that time there lived a family at each spring coming from the hills, so there was a full attendance. Ethia Miller, my cousin, was my first teacher. W.P. Rauch taught there several terms. He commuted by foot to and from Goldendale, where he was a bookkeeper for the Herb and Almon Baker store.
Of the early schoolmates at No. 36, two are still living in the district, Nellie and Nannie McCann. Of the Coffields I remember, most have passed, except the eldest girl, Louise, who was my Sunday School teacher. There are younger Coffields, but I don't think they came up to No. 36. They were not in the hack-load that drove in from the Coffield fruit ranch at Cliffs when I was in school there. I have a picture of that old No. 36 school house, taken just before it was razed.