My Grandmother's Brother Orville Pictured with My brother Lance in about 1977 and on the farm he shared with his brother Clarence near Polo, Illinois
The letter was one of his secrets that I found in an old family junk box in the attic there
Dated April 27, 1928 From Superintendent V. W. Allaben of Forreston Public Schools and mailed with a 2 cent stamp to simply a name and town and state,
it was written to my great-Grandfather, William J. Beightol
My dear Mr. Beightol:
I wish to explain to you that the letter you received wednesday morning was not the first letter i had written to you about Orville's absences. Did you get two other notices as to Orville's attendance here and his scholarship? With each of these I enclosed a excuses Orville had brought for his absences, as I had said I would in our talk some time before.
When I did not hear from you, and Orville began to be absent all day: I supposed you were keeping him out of school for work on the farm: after a time, however, I learned that Orville was coming to town daily. and that was when I wrote you a letter and put it in a plain envelope that I had someone else address. I had learned in the meantime that probably my letters were not reaching you, being taken from the box by Orville or whoever went after the mail.
I do feel that under the circumstances, it is a wise thing to take Orville out of school for this year, as long as he doesn't like school, he will never do anything in it. I am writing a letter to Orville that I hope will make him think about his mistakes this year, and will make him try to come back next fall.
With best wishes, I am,
Yours sincerely.
V. W, Alladen
I do not know if my great Grandfather ever got this letter, and I never found the letter Orville was promised, or know if he returned to school - But I know he was a wonderful father and uncle and farmer, and that his wife, was a school teacher.
Jeff didn't cut school, but when he was bored he was disruptive in class. A very smart math teacher realized it was because he was way ahead of the other students so she let him and another boy who had the same "issue" go on ahead of the class at their own pace. No problems after that! It sounds like Orville knew what he liked and didn't like and hopefully he ended up working on the farm and enjoying it. It sounds like the principal really understood him though and wanted what was best for him. How fun to find the letter though!
