(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved. Contact us for information about using this image.
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At the turn of the century, horse-drawn wagons, called "barges," brought students such as these children in Sunderland, Massachusetts, to school from out-lying areas of town. The barges had roll-up curtains like the trolley cars for use when it rained or snowed. Towns were beginning to trade their many widely scattered one-room schools for larger, graded schools in town centers. Many towns in New England kept one-room schools in out-lying areas well into the 20th century. Note many of the children carrying tin lunch pails to school. They lived too far from the school to walk home for lunch.