People, places and memory
Saving the Friendship Bogs school
Firsthand recollection and preservation history
A former pupil’s memories and a restoration speech tell how an abandoned cranberry-community classroom became a preserved schoolhouse.
A pupil remembered
Herbert Gerber’s March 1986 account recalls beginning at Friendship in 1913–14. He described shared books, a coal stove and children arriving from Jenkins Neck in Wilford Sooy’s Model T. He placed the last school year in 1917–18. These are an adult’s memories of childhood, preserved in the THS collection.
Preservation was not a single move
Thelma Allen’s June 8, 1986 dedication speech recounts rescuing the vandalized building, borrowing township transport, and another setback when a truck struck it after arrival. A 1978 township letter proposed the school grounds as its home. Restoration turned the structure into a place where children could experience a one-room classroom.
Sources and research limits
The page gives 1975 for the move, while Allen’s speech associates the project with 1976. The difference remains open. This preservation campaign is distinct from moving Tabernacle’s two-room school in 1936. Neither restoration speeches nor recollections establish the Friendship building’s exact original construction date.