Schoolmarm
by Kohler of Kohler News

Mrs. Eugene Pool was everyone's favorite Schoolmarm'.

On the living room wall of her home in Kohler, Mrs. Eugene Pool exhibits a favorite photograph dated 1912, reproduced on this page. [looking for photo of herself with 24 children on the front steps of her home - Bottom row, left to right: Lester Heling, Herbert Goetsch, Gerald Pool, Herbert Prange, John Plickert, Otto Henning, Harry Walthers, Emanuel Eickberg, and Carl Sass; Second row: Erma Hoffman, Herbert Hartfiel, Wilbert Brotz, Orville Brotz, Norma Leonardt, Bertha Plickert, Helen Behring, and Elsie Krepsky; Top row: Lorraine Pool, Elsie Hartfiel, Owen Pool, Mrs. Eugene Pool, Gertrude Goetsch, Selma Lorier, Effie LeMahieu, and Marion Pool.  Henning, Walthers, and Owen Pool are with the organization today.]   The children shown compose one of the early kindergarten classes held in the Village in what is now the Village Hall.

No report of the early history of the village would be complete without a mention of Mrs. Pool and her work with children.  She began teaching in 1885 as a girl - in fact, when she was only 12 years old [b.10-13-1873, d.1-5-1966].  She was a substitute teacher then, but became a regular at the age of 16.  Her most important qualification for teaching, she states, was her love of children.

The first District School No. 2 was set up in a building adjacent to the family homestead on the Lower Falls Road, but the school was later moved to the Village Hall.  Two regular teachers were hired.

Shortly after the turn of the century, Mrs. Pool was married, but she returned as a substitute teacher in 1912 when attendance at the school reached a new high.  For a time she conducted class in her own home [132 Market Street, Kohler, Wisconsin].  Her own children were members of the class.

Many Villagers will remember Mrs. Pool's Circus Club which she organized for the children.  She recalls that the first performance by the members of the Club netted a profit of 43¢ which was immediately turned back into the organization for improvements.  The Club has its beginning, she recollects, with a big black hen with a crooked neck, principal actor in the unique circus which paraded the Village.  Entertainment for shut-ins was the Club's especial endeavor.  In addition Mrs. Pool conducted several Sunday School classes.

Today this kindly lady, whose hair is only slightly flecked with gray, still lives in the home in which she held some of her first kindergarten classes.  Mr. Pool was formerly a carpenter for Kohler Co., then yard general supervisor.

The friendships Mrs. Pool made as a teacher live on even today, for she corresponds with many of her former pupils in all parts of the country.   Sewing and canning are other favorite pastimes.

She has five children.  They are: Gerald, Standardization; Owen, Brass; Gertrude (Mrs. Al Ehren); Marion (Mrs. Leonard Hamerla), and Lorraine (Mrs. John Maersch).  Albert Ehren heads Cost Department.