82-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 6, 1991 Springdale Farm And One-Room School Perpetuates Heritage SHARON B. SCHUSTER Maryland Correspondent NEW WINDSOR, Md. When John Cornell Lovell surveys his herd of purebred Angus that grazes on the pasture land adajcent to the family home stead, he takes pride in the fact that the farm has been in the fami ly since the 1870 s. His maternal grandparents settled m the shel tered valley surrounded by rolling green pastures and make Spring dale Farm their home. “I was bom in this house,” said Lovell. He perpetuates the fami ly’s agricultural heritage, farming 250 acres at home and leasing over 100 additional acres nearby. “My grandfather was a cattle drover, and Dad had a hatchery” he recalled. “Grandfather Cornell” bought catde from farms in the area and in neighboring towns. “When it came time to sell them, he drove them to the cattle cars at the rail road. He would ride in the caboose to the cattle yard in Baltimore.” It might come as a surprise to pre sent day Main Street residents to know that cattle were driven past the frontdoors of their New Wind sor homes. That was around 1910, and Lovell was “just a little kid” then. Lovell runs Springdale Farm with the assistance of herdsman, Robert Mehlman, and Alvey “Nook” Weller. The senior citizen keeps fit by playing a major role in the daily operation revolving around his herd of 140 Angus. The calf operation boasts 60 cows calving this spring. There is even a set of twins in the pasture. “I always liked Black Angus,” said Lovell. “That goes way back. They are the best for marbling in beef and I think the nicest looking.” Standing in the fields as proof to his testimonials are fine exam ples of the Angus breed. A son of Pine Drive Big Sky and Black well, from the Wye herd, are the Springdale Farm herd bulls. cow- “The calves have the right birth weight and they look promising,” remarked Lovell. He markets his animals primarily through private treaty sales. Some of his young stock was sold at the Maryland Angus Futurity to 4-Hers and will be shown in Carroll, Howard, and Frederick Counties. As an active member in the Maryland and John Lovell surveys a pasture full of heifers where one cow has twins. Lovell has 140 head of purebred Angus cattle. The Springdale School Is visible in the American Angus Associations and the Cattlemen’s Association, Lovell participates in the clubs and promotes the Angus breed. Whether the day’s agenda includes making round bales of alfalfa hay, trying to plant oats between the raindrops, or tending to business inside the white frame house, John Lovell rises with the sun. “I don’t need an alarm clock. Dr. Hamey gets me up at 6:14, no later, seven days a week.” The tempermental Siamese cat that he refers to was dubbed “Hamey, because that’s where I found him. And we gave him a Ph.D. in orner iness, so we call him Dr. Hamey.” Mr. Lovell shares his comfort able home with other four-legged friends. Recently widowed, he appreciates the presence of Prin cess, a loving and sensitive Gol den Retriver who is a loyal com panion at home and around the farm. And B.C. Samantha rounds out the family of quadrupeds. The black and white cat just showed up one day and has been at Spring dale ever since. B.C. stands for “Barn Cat” although she now claims residency in the main house. As he begins his day, Lovell fixes his breakfast. “I give The Princess a little milk every morn ing when I have my cereal,” he said with a smile. He talks to Robert every day and then heads out to the bam or the pasture or wherever duty calls. Springdale Farm is unique, not only in its past heritage and pas toral beauty, but also because it harbors a piece of history. Lovell has only to walk to the end of his lane to visit the one-room school house that he attended as a child. The brick structure, complete with belfry, stands on the crest of a hill as a reminder of a past way of life. “My mother went there and my grandfather, Ellsworth Lovell, taught school there.” “The bell rang five minutes before nine every morning,” recalled Lovell. He and his brother, Marker, made their way up the hill to the little school where they studied reading, writ ing and arithmetic for six years. “There were about four or five kids in each grade,” he explained, with about 25 kids altogether. The day began with the Pledge, led by his teacher, Joseph Lang don. Mr. Langdon walked the two John Lovell and his faithful companion, Princess, enjoy the warmth of the wood stove on a rainy day. miles of dirt road from nearby New Windsor to teach his scho lars. “He was halfway strict,” Lovell said of his former teacher. “But he wasn’t mean. I don’t recall that he ever used a switch or paddle.” Most disciplinary actions consisted of standing in the comer or sitting on the dunce stool and wearing a dunce cap. At noontime the children went home for lunch and returned when the bell sounded at five minutes before one. Sometimes the kids ate their lunch at school or hur riedly ate their lunches and returned “because we were trying to play a game.” Baseball, tag, hide and seek, leap frog, and mar bles were popular games, “and we played mumbly peg with our knives,” he recalled. The bricks of the old school house, which bears the date 1854, show the scratch marks where boys sharpened their knives. 101, a brick one-room schoolhouse, was built In 1854. Close inspection of the outside “The students used to go up and sit walls reveals initials carved at on a bench in front of the teacher’s child height on several of the desk where he would cross exa bricks. The old-handled pump is mine and see what you knew,” gone now, but Lovell said “it was said John Lovell with a chuckle, there for a long time. They said The airy room is filled with the well was contaminated, so authentic period furnishings from every day, it was the chore of one Utile metal lunch pails to the old of the kids to go to the house pot-belUed stove. Mr. Lovell said across the road or to our house for that occasionally the teacher a bucket of water to fUI the cooler heated a pot of soup on the stove, inside,” he explained. That was during those cold, snowy John and Marker Lovell days when the kids would bring attended Springdale School until their sleds to school and ride the 1927 when the school was put up slopes that dipped down to the for sale. Their father purchased Lovells’ home. Old books and the building. “Dad made a chicken readers line the shelves, and maps house out of it,” he explained, and a portrait of George Washing- After years of duty as an outbuild- ton hang on the walls. The only ing on Springdale Farm, John’s ' things missing are the privies that brother. Marker, took on the stood out back. monumental task of restoring the building, inside and out, to its for mer condition. The charming one-room schoolhouse stands ready for schoolchildren once again. In its restored condition, it now serves as a model for today’s students to visit and relive a day that now only exists in the history pages. When they cross the worn stone threshhold at Springdale School, students step back into a different time. Desks with inkwells and slates face the front where the teacher’s desk sits on a platform. Vhmesfead