Reiman-Simmons House opens first exhibit

QUINCY - Quincy schoolteacher Hannah Weber started her workdays firing up the classroom stove, filling the water bucket and making sure the outhouse was clean.

After she finished her chores, Weber spent her day teaching seven students, all siblings ages 5 to 14, a range of subjects in a one-room classroom near Quincy, said actress Joan Tucker on Saturday.

Tucker gave her performance during the Reiman-Simmons House first exhibit opening in Quincy, which attracted about 50 people for the 1 p.m. performance.

That's where children and adults got to hear what school was really like nearly 80 years ago in Grant County.

Tucker's performance was done against the backdrop of a large black and white classroom photo of children. Audience members sat in school benches, just as the 1930s students did.

For fun during Weber's years as a schoolteacher, children played games like pump pump pullaway, Annie over, and hide and go seek, Tucker said.

In 1936, Weber moved to Tumwater and taught school, where she once taught a home economics class of 56 students. Weber never married and returned to Quincy in her later years to help care for relatives.

Walker's performance was part of the "School Days" exhibit on display at the Reiman-Simmons House through June 28. People attending the exhibit got to try writing with chalk on small slate boards and practice penmanship with ink pens.

The school-themed displays highlighted are the Washington State History Museum's traveling exhibit of the state's schoolhouses and a historical exhibit on Quincy schools.

The event attracted people with ties to the area, like Susan (Simmons) Gabales, now of Manteca, Calif.

Upon seeing the tan and cream-colored photo display of "Students of the Valley," she burst out with, "That's my dad and that's his twin brother."

She was referring to a 1943 junior class photo, which pictured her father and uncle, Dean Simmons and Don Simmons.