Old Ford School, Class of 1948-49 Reunion

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The Historical Context of our sojourn at 
		Old Ford School

The US War of Northern Aggression (aka – Civil War) ended in 1865. North Carolina was occupied by Northern Troops and governed by appointed governments from the Capitol in Raleigh down to the City Commissioners in the small towns  until 1877. The winners write the history books, and this period was mislabeled "Reconstruction". The Marshall Plan, after WW2 was reconstruction; this was simple revenge and occupation. A near-equal period of chaos and official rape and pillage occurred in Russia in the period 1990 –2003, after Communism officially failed. The insiders (Oligarchs), with State acquiescence, „purchased” the major industries and natural resources, at "officially-determined"  low prices.

In NC, most public education, industries and state, municipal, and family finances were devastated by the war. The Industrial Revolution of the 1880’s largely left NC’s agricultural economy undisturbed. So, from 1877 until around 1895-1900, the economic and educational situation of Rural Eastern North Carolina slowly improved, but substantially lagged the other colonial states, and lagged the remainder of North Carolina. Private schools were generally the only avenue for elementary education, and, of course, only available to those with the financial means and geographic access. The first post-war "Graded School" in Washington was proposed and voted down in 1883, six  years after the Yankees began leaving. It was in the dregs of this environment, only 33 years after the occupation ended,  that the rebirth of public education at Old Ford Graded School occurred in 1910 with construction of a Wooden 6-room public school, of which, more below.

After World War 1 ended in 1918 with its 10 million total deaths, feelings of unfair reparations demands in the treaty of Versailles and the great inflation of 1923 in Germany, aggravated by the world-wide great depression that followed the crash of the US stock market in 1929, set in motion the forces that would lead to the National Socialist leader Hitler being appointed Chancellor in 1933 and the onset of the Second World War in September 1939. Mussolini forced a Fascist dictatorship on Italy in 1922. The Japanese in 1931-2 invaded and captured Manchuria, China.  Germany, Italy, and Japan signed mutual defense treaties in 1936-40. On September 3 1939 the British and French declared war on Germany.

Madam Curie, credited with identifying the radiative properties of radium and laying the groundwork for use of these properties for X-rays and  nuclear bombs, died in 1934. Insulin was shown to treat diabetes in 1920, Sulfa antibiotics were proven in 1932, Penicillin in 1940, streptomycin in 1943. DNA was discovered in 1953. Salk  Polio vaccine began widespread use in 1954.

Einstein’s theory of relativity was proven in 1919, and in 1939 he wrote to President Roosevelt that uranium could be used to make a powerful bomb. With the war imminent, work was begun almost immediately, and on July 16, 1945, the first bomb was tested in New Mexico. A month later, August 6, 1945, after a clear warning from President Truman, the first atomic bomb destroyed Hiroshima, the headquarters of the Japanese Southern Command. On August 9 a second bomb destroyed Nagasaki, a major Japanese seaport. On August 10, the Japanese government sued for peace. With the Germans already in surrender, World War 2 ended with total deaths estimated at 15 million, when the Japanese signed on the deck of the USS Missouri September 2, 1945.

In 3 years, almost to the day, the Old Ford Class of 1948-1949 assembled in Miss Kathleen Kopp’s room to begin the education which continues today.

(Hugh C Willard)

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1) Old Ford PDF Files Pages 1-23

2) Old Ford PDF Files Pages 24 - 33

3) Old Ford PDF Files Pages 34 - 39

4) Old Ford PDF Files Pages 40 - 69

Addendum 1776 - 1976 L Washington BiCentennial

OLD Stuff too good to toss

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1) Old Ford PDF Files Pages 1-23

2) Old Ford PDF Files Pages 24 - 33

3) Old Ford PDF Files Pages 34 - 39

4) Old Ford PDF Files Pages 40 - 69

Addendum 1776 - 1976 L Washington BiCentennial

OLD Stuff too good to toss

Page Of Blessings

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