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The Bartholomew County Historical Society will present “Early Schools in Bartholomew County” at 6 p.m. Tuesday, November 19 at Helen Haddad Hall, located at 315 Franklin St. in downtown Columbus, as part of the Society’s Evelyn Seward Speaker Series.

The talk will feature speakers Beth Newman and Janice Montgomery.

The pair will each speak a bit about schools in general before taking a deep dive into how the Hope community came together to support the restoration of Simmons School making Glen Keller and Barb Johnson’s dreams a reality. Additionally, Newman and Montgomery will speak about the oral histories Hauser Historians conducted in the early 1990s, as well has how those stories helped establish the framework for current day-long fieldtrips for students  to the school where they step back in time to the year 1892.

Admission for this event is FREE.

Funding for the event is provided by the Evelyn Seward Speaker Series Endowment.

A bit about the evening’s speakers who each bring unique experience to this event as they both portray a one-room schoolmarm role for presentations throughout the year at Simmons One Room School. Both women were active under the leadership of the late Glen Keller and late Barb Johnson – who led the task of establishing Simmons as a living schoolhouse in the modern day, which has received more than 1,500 student visitors each year for more than 25 years.  

Beth Newman
Beth is a retired educator, who spent most of her teaching career in the Flatrock-Hawcreek school district. FRHC is the home of Simmons One Room Schoolhouse, and Beth was involved in the early restoration of the building and continues to serve as a schoolmarm at the Schoolhouse. In addition, Beth has served for many years as a math consultant associated with the non-profit Math Learning Center based in Salem, Oregon. She currently is a member of the Simmons One Room Schoolhouse Board and is involved in Hope Moravian Church.

Janice Montgomery
Janice is a retired educator who has spent most of her career in Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation. She has also worked at the Center for Teaching and Learning, the former IUPUC and Ivy Tech with education programs, and Bartholomew Consolidated School Foundation. She is proud to have been a substitute teacher in most all BCSC schools while not teaching full time, as well as working at Simmons School for almost 20 years. She is currently involved with the Simmons One Room School Board, BARTA (retired teachers), NAMI, Mental Health Matters and Garden City Christian Church.

For more information about this event and future offerings by the Bartholomew County Historical Society visit HERE.