"Put away your books and papers, closing time has come ." Elizabeth Beahm's story which follows best sums up that year when books and papers were put away at the Sinclair school for the last time.

EXCERPTS FROM A LETTER WRITTEN TO

MELBA EYLER OCTOBER 2,1979 BY ELIZABETH

VALLENTGOED (BEAHM).

My first acquaintance with Sinclair Island and its little school was made in the spring of 1938... A group of about thirty girls, all members of the Women's Athletic Association of what was then Western Washington College of Education in Bellingham went to Viqueen Lodge on Sinclair for the Memorial Day weekend. We went on a rather large sail boat from the bay south of Bellingham. Even though we had the lodge it was beneath the dignity of any of us to use the beds inside-we all slept in home-made sleeping bags on the beach or on the lawn. These home-made sleeping bags consisted of our own blankets which we folded in what we called "Eskimo style", with as much blanket below as on top of us. We also did all our cooking outdoors, and I seem to remember a lot of sand fleas getting into our food. The highlight of our eating was a huge baked salmon which was cooked in a pit on the beach. I seem to remember it took all day to prepare it-the fire burning for hours before, the preparing of the salmon by putting spices and slices of lemon inside it, wrapping it very well in kelp or sea weed, then with newspapers, (wet) and finally in burlap. This was placed on the hot rocks and sand, and another fire burned on top for several hours. The result was a feast I'll never forget!

Well, now to get on with how we found the school. A friend, Virginia Bruce, and I volunteered to go get milk from one of the farmers living on the island. I think it was a 2 gal. milk bucket we carried on a pole. We had directions on how to find the farmer's house (the Marches), but when we got to the crossroads, we went left instead of right. It was then we found the school. I was enchanted! I-It was like a story book-the little white school, trimmed in red, the big maple tree and the pump in the front yard, the swing hanging from the tree, the out-houses in back. Somehow, by boosting each other up we got a glimpse inside, and saw even what was then "old time "double desks, the victrola, and a stove. There were even some flowers growing on each side of the porch. It was love at first sight!

We finally did get to the Marches, and by that time were hot and tired, and Mrs. March gave us lemonade and cookies which we ate on her front steps. We asked about the school, and I told her I would love to teach in a school like that. She said that if I still felt that way when I graduated to apply for the job.

The summer of 1939 a friend, Eleanor Willison, and I decided to go to Viqueen for a week after summer school was over. We went on the OSAGE to Friday Harbor, and got off at Sinclair on the return trip. The fare was $1.00-no matter where you went, so we had a lovely all day boat ride for the same price as going to Sinclair alone. I believe the man in charge was a Mr. Hansen or Mr. Nelson. He was older, and very busy with the mail in his little office. I think the skipper was Harold Forsberg and then there were two others on the crew, whose names I've forgotten. They were all Scandinavians, and excellent sailors.*

(* Hienie Hansen was mail clerk. He picked up the mail for all the islands at the Bellingham post office and sorted it on the boat en route. George Nelson and Harold Frayseth are the crew members referred to by Miss Vallentgoed. They alternated as skipper and engineer. M. Leach)

Eleanor and I must have looked hungry, for they invited us to have some coffee and rolls in their tiny galley. I remember saying the coffee was "swell"-and one of the sailors looked at me in astonishment and was quite offended. He thought I said "swill"-a word I did not know the meaning of at the time. I suppose I had pulled a face, for the coffee was pretty strong, and I was a milk-drinker at the time. Well, anyway, that mistake was rectified, and we laughed about it many times afterwards.

The week at Sinclair was a wonderfully relaxing time for Eleanor and me. After the first night in "sleeping bags" on the front lawn, when we were awakened by a cow breathing down our necks and then by "Dogfish Louie" staring down at us, we decided it was much better to use the beds inside the Lodge. (Dogfish Louie was living in the little log cabin that now is part of the Berger place). Our days were spent beach combing, looking for agates - (I couldn't find many in those days) picking blackberries, hiking over to the school, seeing Mrs. March and getting milk from her, meeting Mr. Leadbetter, who showed us about 100 pounds of butter he didn't know what to do with. He milked his cow, and made butter all the time, and couldn't use it all, so there it sat in a cooler in the side of the shed getting rancid. (Mr. Leadbetter's place is now where the Leaches are.)

At this time I learned that the teacher who was at Sinclair, and lived in the back room of the school was leaving, and Hallie Rupp, who was engaged to the skipper of the OSAGE was going to teach there, and live in the "Finsberg Place"the house just north of the Bergers. I knew Hallie at school. We both lived at Edens Hall. I thought my chances of ever teaching at Sinclair were hopeless at that time.

One Saturday in early spring of 1940 a group of us decided to go to Friday Harbor on the OSAGE, and it was at that time, in talking to Harold I learned that Hallie and he were going to get married, and there was no teacher for Sinclair for the following year. You can imagine, I lost no time in applying for the job, much to the dismay of my mother. She couldn't see why I wanted to "bury myself on an island." In 1940 there were a surplus of teachers, and many of my classmates did not get any kind of teaching job, so I felt very lucky to have a job. The day I graduated mother came and had a little celebration luncheon at the Hotel Leopold for me. It was a wonderful day, and the only thing that marred it was thinking about our relatives in the Netherlands-they had just been overrun by the Nazis.

The summer of 1940 was one of mixed joy and anxiety........... I had the security of knowing I had a job-just what I wanted to do, but we were dreadfully worried about our family in Holland for we heard nothing from them. I kept thinking about the little school, and planning what I would do on the island. My mother went out with me to see the place, and was satisfied with my living arrangements. I was going to room and board with Mrs. Furlonge, an Irish lady who lived in the house right by the dock. Hallie found she was too lonely living by herself at the Finsberg place and she moved in with Mrs. Furlonge after a couple of months ... When Mother visited Sinclair she saw how much I loved the Island, and although she was disappointed that I wasn't "really teaching" she thought I would have a good experience, and she liked the people she met out there. It was agreed that I would go home once a month. Mrs. March, the clerk of the school board, rather liked it that I was going to stay on the Island most weekends.

The day finally arrived that I packed my three suitcases and left by train from Sumner to go to my new job. Since the mail boat left Bellingham at 6:00 A.M. it entailed staying overnight in Bellingham. Hallie and Harold Frayseth invited me to stay with them, and then of course I got to the boat early with Harold. Hallie also told me a great deal that evening about her stay on the Island and about the people who lived there, and also some pointers on teaching little children. (My training had been for Junior High School teaching). They were both so kind to me and it was fun to visit them in their new home. When I arrived on the Island, all ready to move in with Mrs. Furlonge, I learned that she had to go to Vancouver for a short time . . . Rather than to live in her house alone it was decided that I would stay with the Marches until she got back. I was delighted! They let me use Phyllis' room, and Mary was there at that time-she was getting ready to go to Walter Reed Hospital in Washington D. C. for training in physiotherapy. She was one of nine young women chosen in the U. S. for a very intensive course . . . I quickly learned about life on the island-baths once a week, washing clothes on a scrubboard in washtubs outside, carrying all the water from the well, brushing your teeth outside (I still do this often when I go to our cabin in the mountains here), milking cows, churning butter, the intricacies of the Aladdin lamp, the joy of fishing, the long hike to the post office, which at that time was in a sort of shed east of Mrs. Furlonge's house. The house Mrs. Furlonge rented was owned by Mrs. Schultz, another member of the school board who lived in Seattle. I thoroughly enjoyed my stay at the Marches-they were wonderful to me. Mrs. March told me many stories about her early teaching experiences, her growing up in a Quaker home in Indiana, and coming to Guemes Island by way of North Dakota with her friend, and living in Alaska, and how she and her friend married twin brothers in Washington. The Schultz house was her first home on the Island. . . Mr. March was so dear to me. Phyllis called him "Pappy", and I thought she and Mary were lucky to have such a wonderful father. He spoke very gently, and had a soft voice, and was one of the kindest people I have ever known in my life. Phyllis came home from Anacortes where she was teaching business courses in the high school, and one evening the entire faculty came to the Marches for a picnic in their front yard. Mrs. Furlonge came back from Vancouver in October, Mary had left for Walter Reed, and I moved to the house by the dock .

The first day of school four students showed up. Legally there were only two, Gerald Hadland, a second grader and Mickey Turner, a seventh grader. After much discussion it was decided that little Marian Brun, the daughter of Mrs. Doty's hired man could also come to school even though she was not yet five years old. A cousin of Gerald's (I've forgotten her name), who was a sophomore in high school also appeared. We had fun getting acquainted and cleaning and fixing up the school house. We decided to put up curtains so it wouldn't be so bare, and that became an arithmetic lesson for Mickey. We pored over the Sears catalog, decided on some bright green and orange sort of plaid curtain material, measured the windows, and Mickey wrote the order. When the material came we measured, cut and sewed those little curtains and thought they really added a lot to our school room. We needed more shelves for books and an aquarium I had in Sumner, so my first trip out after pay day (a minimum teacher's salary was $100.00 a month-a lot of money in those days) I brought back the aquarium and some lumber and orange crates, and we did some more fixing. School was fun. The weather was nice that September and we ate outside a lot at lunchtime. The children were well behaved and wanted to learn. I tried to help the high school girl with geometry, and suggested reading, but we really did not have the materials for her. She was enjoying being at school but really was not that eager a student. About three weeks after the opening day she went back to the mainland, so then there were three pupils. They always came to school on time, and were neat and clean. There was a nice big supply of good wood in the wood shed, and I started to chop it up for the stove, and made a lot of kindling. Our only bother at school was all the snakes in the tall grass and bracken. It was cleared only a few feet on each side of the buildings and in front. You couldn't go to the outhouse without almost stepping on one or two garter snakes. . . so the children and I decided that during recess time we would clear our acre of land. We really worked at it-pulled up all the bracken, got old wood together in piles, and killed snakes as we went. One day Mrs. March came and we burned all our piles of bracken, wood and snakes (over a hundred of them). Now we had a place to play baseball and a nice cleared school yard. We even found a little stream running along the north edge of the property, and an island in the middle, with two trees growing on it. That became a favorite place to eat our lunch.

In late October we had an evening party at the school. Mr. and Mrs. March, Mrs. Furlonge, the Hadlands, Mrs. Doty, and the hired help, the Bruns came. Mr. Leadbetter did not come. The children put on a little program, recited poetry they had learned, sang songs, and showed off their school work. They also gave each grown-up a gift-a hot pad made of woven construction paper glued on plywood and then shellacked. We had refreshments to end the evening. I will always remember the sight of everyone leaving the school with lanterns bobbing off in all directions.

After school I visited with Mrs. March and anyone else who happened to be around waiting to meet the boat as it came from Doe Bay on the return to Bellingham. Sometimes after the boat came the Marches would go fishing, and I often went with them. If I didn't fish I went beachcombing, and finally learned to find agates. Mrs. Furlonge was very interested in keeping up with the war news, and we would listen to the BBC programs on a little portable radio that Hallie and Harold loaned us-all we had to do was buy the batteries for it. I read a lot, learned to knit, and did some embroidery work at night as we sat by the table with the Aladdin lamp and listened to the radio.

Mr. March was busy trapping muskrats. I went with him many times. I enjoyed being with him, and he seemed to like my company too, even though he said that muskrat trapping was messy, and not fit for a girl. It was a big job to skin them and put them on stretchers. I never did anything like that, but sometimes would watch. Early one morning I heard a commotion in an area of a trap near the house, so went out to check it. A muskrat was caught by its hind foot in the trap and was struggling to get away. I knew I should put it out of its misery, so got a piece of wood, gave it a mighty blow on the nose to kill it, meanwhile saying, "Oh you poor thing, Oh you poor thing." That event caused me to lose interest in trapping.

A big cedar log washed up on the beach, and Mr. March anchored it before it would be washed out again. That log furnished the shakes for the "Federal Building" - the new Post Office on the edge of the dock that Mr. March was building. It was nice having the Federal Building there, for it was close to the water, and it was possible to see the Osage coming without just waiting out in the open for it. The old post office was about two blocks up the road in the woods.

Mr. March was also busy with the work on the "farm", keeping the roads in repair, and getting wood. I enjoyed helping with the wood sawing and loading. He had an old truck-the only motorized vehicle on the island.

Mrs. Doty, who lived in the "windmill house" on the northeast side of the Island had a wind charger and had electricity! It was a luxury. She also had the hired help, the Bruns, who lived in a little house on her place. She had a herd of Guernsey cows, and a very fine bull. She also had geese and turkeys. Every few days she would take several cans of cream by horse and wagon to the dock to be sent (to Friday Harbor) by the mail boat. Her place was about 2 miles from the dock. She was very nice to me, and I loved to hear her tell stories of her adventures in Alaska. She was a very independent and very hard working woman, carrying on the work of the farm by herself after her husband died. She often would invite Mrs. Furlonge and me for dinner on Sundays.

Mr. Leadbetter found a damaged skiff washed up on his beach one day in the fall. He came to me, and said that if I would buy the cedar planking, the "corking", and oars, etc. he would fix it up for me. I did so, and he really fixed the boat up. It was wonderful!! - a real boat of my own. I was going to paint it white and paint the inside red, but somehow had too much white paint and not enough red, so mixed my paint and got a beautiful and unusual pink. Since there was no other paint available I went ahead and painted it pink, and named the boat "BABY DEAR". BABY DEAR gave me many hours of pleasure. In the cove just east of the one by the Federal Building was the remains of a shed, and about the same time I found neatly folded grass mats, about 7 feet by 5 feet, washed up along the west beach, 15 of them. Some were in pretty bad shape, but there were about 8 that were good. Mr. March helped me fix up the shed with grass mats for a boat house. It was perfect!

Mrs. Furlonge spoiled me dreadfully. Every morning she would wake me up by giving me a little shortening pail of hot water to wash in. There was cold water to make the right temperature in the big ewe on the wash stand. After I got washed and dressed breakfast was waiting-many times a kind of hot biscuit she fixed in a Dutch oven on top of the stove. Then I would fix two sandwiches for lunch, fill the wood box, and take the two empty buckets down to the spring on the beach to get the daily supply of water. On the way to school I usually met Mrs. March on her way to meet the mail boat. We would stop and chat for a few minutes and each go our respective ways. Mrs. Furlonge fed me well. The only thing I missed was fresh milk, but when Mrs. Doty learned I really liked milk she would send a pail every few days. Bath day was on Sunday morning for me-in the wash tub in the middle of the kitchen - . . I had clean sheets about every three weeks. At first it bothered me, for I was used to changing the linen every week, but it was difficult to wash clothes with the rub board and to heat the water in pails on the stove. One adapts very quickly to the stipulations of a different mode of life.

A surprising thing happened the 1st of November. The Hadlands decided to move away from the Island! This left only little Marian Brun, who was just barely five years old . - . I wondered if I was going to be without a job, but thank goodness for little Marian-she kept the school going. She was a dear little girl, and after Mickey and Gerry left she had my undivided attention. She learned to read, and was learning addition facts, and really doing first grade work. The people on the Island really wanted to keep the school going, and Mrs. Doty, in her determined way was doing something about it. Somehow she learned about a family of five children who were in dire straits, and she offered to take the two older children if they could stay with her and go to school at Sinclair, so that was how we got Dale and Donna Lee Smith after Thanksgiving. Dale was in the second grade; Donna Lee in the fourth. They were nice children, but were very thin and nervous and quite far behind in their school work. Mrs. Doty was a strict disciplinarian, but clothed them, kept them very clean, fed them well. They filled out, became less nervous, and from all the individual attention came almost up to grade level in their school work. It was quite an adjustment for them to be away from their parents, but they profited from the experience. (Mrs. Doty kept track of Dale for many years after she had him). We had a Christmas program and party at the school house, and again all the grownups were given little gifts made by the children-tongue depressors carved and sanded down into a letter opener, and painted with a design. The children got candy and Japanese oranges. The tree was decorated with all sorts of paper chains and items they made, and they did as part of the program a little Danish folk dance, "the Bleking". The only light for these evening parties were the two oil lamps on the wall and perhaps a lantern.

I remember an incident which took place while little Marian was my only pupil. She was getting big enough to walk to school all by herself, and one morning she came running in very excited, and a little scared. She said a turkey had chased her to school. I thought she was making up a story, but before long a huge turkey gobbler did come up the road and into the school yard! We made up a cute story about the turkey who came to school, which she copied and we made into a little book. That turkey must have liked us for it came again on two other occasions.

Donna Lee and Dale and I all left the Island for the Christmas Holidays.

In January when I came back and rushed to the school to open up and build fires, I waited and waited, and no pupils showed up! I stayed at school all that day, putting in my time, washing, sweeping, straightening up, chopping wood, etc. Mrs. Doty came by and told me that the Bruns had left. I felt sure that Dale and Donna would be coming in a day or so, but we had lost Marian. I asked Mrs. March what to do, and she said to just go to the school and put in some time each day (I can't remember how long) and it would be all right. After a few days I got pretty bored so would walk down to Mrs. Doty's and try to help her. Poor soul didn't have her hired man so was trying to do everything herself. I learned a lot about farm work the next few days-including how heavy manure is. I cleaned the barn stalls, and wheeled a wheelbarrow full of manure on an inclined board to dump it on a heap. I almost dumped myself on the heap too! Mrs. Doty finally got a new hired man, and I'm sure he was a more proficient worker than I - especially with the manure!

When Donna Lee and Dale did not show up all that first week I was getting desperate. I felt sure I was jobless, and I really did not want to leave the Island that I loved so much. I remember one afternoon I walked the beach and cried. When I felt more composed I went home, but Mrs. Furlonge could tell I'd been crying, and in an unusual display of affection tried to comfort me-then the tears really flowed again!

Mrs. March, Mrs. Doty, and Mrs. Furlonge all got together and encouraged me to take the boat to Bellingham, try to find the children, and see if they would come back to the Island. I went on the mission, and after talking to Mr. Smith (his wife was ill) and seeing Dale and Donna Lee it was decided that they would go back with me on the following Monday morning. School again was in session! I was so grateful to them.

The winter was not bitter cold, but we did have ice and some occasional snow, and really enjoyed the warmth of our stove at school. The children progressed in their studies, and I tried to do extra "fun things" with them. We'd go walking in the woods or on the beach and look for special things. We tried a salt-water aquarium, but it was not successful. I remember the walks to school in the clear air, and often had a lovely view of Mt. Baker in the distance.

When Spring came we were delighted. Dale found a jot of frog eggs in a pond on the way to school so we put them in another aquarium. We studied them intently, and Donna Lee was keep. ing a daily log on their development into tadpoles. Many of the tadpoles died, but we did get two baby frogs - then one day we had a tragedy. One unusually large tadpole which seemed to be slow in developing ate one of our little frogs right before our eyes! It seems this large tadpole was a salamander.

Mrs. Furlonge again had to go back to Vancouver. This time I was all settled in, and decided to stay on in her house and take care of the place while she was gone. So I wouldn't be lonely I had some guests. My mother came for about a week, and a girl friend I had known for many years also spent a week with me. Mrs. Furlonge loved flowers and was an expert gardener. She had a lovely flower bed and graveled paths. There was not one weed in sight in her yard. I was not so dedicated, but tried to get things presentable for her return. Very often that spring I would put the mail on the boat so Mrs. March could get home early. One afternoon I was using a sickle to cut the grass along the walks . . . just as I gave a mighty swing with the sickle the mail boat whistle blew and in my haste I did not look, and put a huge gash in my left forefinger. I dashed into the house, grabbed a bath towel, wrapped my hand,, grabbed the mail sack and ran to the dock just in time to throw the sack aboard. When I got back to the house I was horrified by the wound-could see the bone. It made me sick. I wrapped it up the best I could, and just then heard the March's outboard in the distance. I went down to the dock and sat on the edge, hoping they would come by. They saw me sitting so forlornly, and came over. When I told them what happened they took me home with them-gave up the fishing, and Mrs. March bandaged it as best she could. They had me stay all night with them. The bandage was a good one, for it finally healed, but I have the scar to this day .

I learned a lot about plant life from Mrs. March. She was a walking encyclopedia when it came to plants. I learned about trees from Mr. March, who had been a logger. . . In riding the OSAGE and becoming acquainted with the crew I learned about navigation. Once in awhile they would let me steer the boat-but only after I had learned to box the compass. When my finger hurt so much at night I would put myself to sleep saying all the points of the compass. Later on, when I was in the Navy I learned that they did not box the compass, but used degrees in the navigation on the landing craft we rode every day.

Spring was lovely on the Island. My birthday is in early April. I did not tell my friends on the Island, but decided to make an occasion of it by inviting the Marches and Mrs. Doty and the children to dinner on Sunday. I was 21 years old, and after dinner, when we decided to walk over to the Finsberg Place to see how things were there I did tell them. There were lovely yellow roses growing next to the house, and Mr. March picked a huge bouquet of them and gave them to me for my birthday. It was a special gift.

As the school year was drawing to a close we knew that unless a miracle in the form of a family of children moving to the Island happened that the school was doomed. I felt very sad about it. I had hoped to teach there for two years, but it was the end. I loved Sinclair, I loved the little school, I loved my new friends, and it was with a heavy heart that I put things in order for leaving. We had a final celebration the last day of school-complete with Mrs. March's favorite treat,-ice cream. Everyone was there. We'd planned to have a picnic on the beach, but it ended up a picnic in the old post office building because it rained. It was hard to say goodbye, and when Mr. Smith and Dale and Donna Lee and I left on the OSAGE I felt I was leaving a very precious part of my life .

Note: Elizabeth Vallentgoed joined the WAVES sometime after her year of teaching here. She met her husband Metz Beahm while in the service. They lived in New Mexico after the war and had four children. Known as "Liz" by her island friends, "Betty" by her friends in the south, she taught for many years in Albuquerque. After she retired from teaching, she was active in such things as guiding tours through Europe, and especially working toward better understanding between nations. She was an influential member of Friendship Force-led a group of 401 to Seoul, Korea in 1979. She died unexpectedly in Albuquerque in 1980, as she was planning her next trip to Europe.

Elizabeth Vallentgoed Beahm.

TEACHERS AT THE SINCLAIR SCHOOL BEGINNING IN 1891

A tribute should be made to these courageous women,

who, with the simplest of educational tools, prepared the

children of the wilderness for the mainstream:

1891 Rebecca Ball, Noble Rice

1892 Noble Rice, A. Grace Fouts

1893 Grace Fouts, Noble Rice, Florence King

1894 Nellie Smith, Laura Smith

1895 Florence King, Laura Smith

1896 Laura Smith

1897, 1898 - there was no school. A notation by Alex K. Jackson, the district clerk states: "There is not a child of school age residing in the district at present. If the children whose parents own homes here were in the district it would give us quite a good school. But the hard times have driven them in search of that myth prosperity

1899 Leitha L. Galliher

1900 Mattie Wilt

1901 Phi Smythe

1902 Mary B. Smythe

1903 Lottie Velcoe

1904 Myrtle Snyder

1905 Barbara Howe

1906 Zenobia Doty

1907 Ella Johnson

1908 Kate Tracy

1909 Pearl McLeod

1910 Lilly M. Barth

1911 L. C. Richardson

1911-12 Edith Jones

1912-13 Belle Truman

1913-14 Olive Pope

1914-15 Freda Layton

1915-16 Ida Antenan

1916-17 Grace Michael

1917-18 Doris McIntosh

1918-27 Diza B. March

1927-? Jennie Gordon

? Edith Tuckett (Mrs. Granger)

1935-36 Ella Cook (Mrs. Pliney Snyder)

1938-39 Loretta Johnson (Mrs. Oscar Johnson)

1939-40 Hallie Rupp (Mrs. Harold Frayseth)

1940-41 Elizabeth Vallentgoed (Mrs. Metz Beahm)