Mildred Hopkins' Profile
By Rachel

Mildred Hopkins was a student at Free Union school. And a good one too! Her family were homesteaders that lived on Lake Just-It Road and she walked all the way to Free Union. Her family had cows and chickens. They grew potatoes and hay. Instead of a refrigerator they would put food that needed to be kept cold in the cellar. And they made bread twice a weak. She would play games like: Muggins (domino game) and Quoits. She wore dresses and put on pants underneath in the winter. Her school day consisted of: The Lord's Prayer, a hymn, lessons grade by grade, lunch and recess. In the Winter her father would walk in front of her in the snow so she could walk in his foot prints and not sink in the snow. Sometimes during recess she would go and get water from the Cummins' farm. Her best friend was Edna Cummins' and she also knew Sadie Hildebrant. They would sometimes play on a big rock outside the school house at recess. Sometimes she would do black- board duty. If you were bad you got a smack on the knuckles! Mildred attended Belvidere High School and the Newton Normal (teaching) School. She became a teacher and taught at Lommasen Glen School near Belvidere and the Ebenezer School around 1924. She purchased a Model T Ford for transportation. She taught for 4 years then married.