By Rhonda Westfall

It's hard to imagine the subdivision of homes in the area of Baker and McConnell streets being filled with old-fashioned threshing machines - Ronald Hyler's photos provide the proof.

"It was all farm land in that area from Baker Street east to old M-16 (Scott Road)," the native St. Johns resident recalls of his boyhood home. "My parents, Mitchell and Nora Hyler, farmed there."

Ronald, who served as a mail carrier for many years in the city of St. Johns, believes the threshing photo was taken in 1923-24. Carl Siefert owned the threshing machine.

The life-long city resident isn't sure about the date of the photo showing a team of horses pulling an ice sled, but assumes it dates from the same time period. He's also unsure of the year that the pictures were taken of a class of Central School students posing on a bridge over Bad Creek that was located south of Yallup Road.

He is positive, however, about the year that the class photo was taken of first and second-grade students at the old East Ward School. Ronald, pictured at the far right in the front row, began school there in 1926.

The photo of the old Union School provides an opportunity for a history lesson. The Union School was built for $10,000 in 1864, located on what would be known as the 'Central School' site for generations of students.

An addition to the original three-story brick building was constructed in 1880 at a cost of $5,000. The entire building was destroyed by fire in 1885. The blaze was reportedly caused by an unrepaired chimney crack in the attic.

According to the Clinton Independent, one of the papers that served area residents at the time, "school opened Jan. 4, 1886, in the new Central School, a $30,000 temple of learning." The new building served grades one through 12 and was a county normal school for teacher training.