Class, 1927

The Pennsylvania School Code of 1927 required that children between the ages of eight and sixteen attend school. A provision in the code allowed a youngster under the age of sixteen to obtain an employment certificate, leave school, and work. 

For various reasons, in the early years of the town, a number of children were unable to pursue additional formal studies after completing their education at the McIntyre school. Some of the young men went to work in the mines, while others found jobs elsewhere above-ground. It was not unusual for young women to marry while in their late teens and start their families soon after, while others found work nearby or out-of-state or stayed home to help care for their siblings. Later on in the life of the town, a greater number of McIntyre children completed high school and some of them attended college. 

Louise Gilchriese Walsh, History and Organization of Education in Pennsylvania 
(Indiana, Pennsylvania: R.S. Grosse Print Shop, 1930), 372-73.

Photo: courtesy Helen Piscevich Morgan collection.