Adkins, Mattas, Mize Family History
Adkins, Mattas, Mize Family History
The Adkins-Stainbrook School
On horseback or sometimes in buggies, they came across the Jim River Hills to school. Children of the Adkins, Mattas, and Mize families got the foundation for their education in a one room schoolhouse not far from each family’s farm. This primary school established in Foster Township, near Milltown, South Dakota opened in 1899.
Drawing by George Mattas, student, 1910
In the early years, two of the families’ patriarchs, Zina Adkins and Joseph Mattas served on the School Board. Sometimes Zina was chair, and Joseph, clerk, other times, Joseph was chair and Zina was clerk. Later, Joe Mattas Jr. was treasurer. And many years later, Zina’s son Paul was chair, and the Mize family was represented by William Mize’s son, John David as treasurer! The families believed in education and gave their time to make it happen.
Funding for the school came from appropriations and taxes. But the school board was ingenious in funding the purchase of textbooks. They solicited local businesses for money, then allowed those businesses to stamp the books, a form of advertisement! Those books passed down from student to student, became autograph books for some.
Adkins-Stainbrook School Textbook; Circa 1910
The course of study established in 1902 was divided into grades and sections. Nine sections in each grade, instead of years and months accommodated the farming community. Unless students attended more than six months they could not make a grade every year. Between farm work and schoolwork, it was not uncommon for those completing all eight grades to be young adults. Joseph Mattas’ son, George, completed his final grade in 1911 at the age of 18. He is standing to the far right on the family farm next to his father.
George Mattas; Circa 1911
Parents actively monitored report cards and attendance. Zina Adkins’ daughter, Grace attended first grade in 1901. In 1905, Zina signed all her grade reports and she received a perfect attendance certificate!
Grace Adkins; Circa 1906
One of the first students prior to 1900 was Joseph Mattas’ daughter, Amelia. In an interview in 1974, she recalled that there were 43 students in that one room school and only one teacher! In 1904, that teacher, Miss Edna Brink promoted Amelia after seven years' work to the graduating class of 1905.
Grammar Lesson from Amelia's 1902 Textbook.
Amelia Mattas; Circa 1905
Evidently, attending the Adkins-Stainbrook School was a positive experience for Amelia. In 1910, after completing her certificate from Yankton Normal School, she returned as teacher. Her father Joseph and Zina Adkins, members of the school board, hired her to teach for $40 a month.
What a group of students she had that year! Seven from the Adkins family, five from the Mize, three Mattas’, and ten others from the surrounding farms. The Mattas' included her brother George, and sisters, Lillian and Mayme. Twenty-five students and one teacher, Miss Amelia Mattas!
Yankton College; Circa 1910
Amelia, nineteen, stood under 5 feet 4 inches tall, probably weighed just over 100 lbs. Corseted in long skirts, she faced students each morning, some of whom were nearly her age and twice as big.
Amelia’s brother, George and Grace Adkins both in the seventh grade, were seventeen. Paul and Lewis Adkins, strapping tall young men ages 15 and 13, who some say were not afraid of a good fight, squeezed into the wooden desks.
Twins, Lottie and Dottie Adkins, age seven, were in the first grade with the youngest student, Raymond Mize, age six. In Amelia’s words from the 1974 interview:
“There were no discipline problems for me!"
At the end of the term, Amelia promoted Grace Adkins and George Mattas to the graduating class of 1911. The end of the term also signified the end of Amelia’s teaching career. She became engaged to John David Mize, and a married woman teacher was against school rules in South Dakota.
In 1919, the children of Amelia Mattas and John David Mize, Jesse and Everet crossed the Jim River Hills to attend the school their grandfather, Joseph, helped establish. Attending with them were their uncle, William Mize, Jr. and three Mize cousins, including the Nash children. They were also joined by six of Zina Adkins' children. Mr. B.L. Hoague supervised their education along with other families from the community. He had 38 students.
My father Horace (Pete) Adkins left, and my uncle, Jesse Mize, bottom both born in 1911 were classmates.
Although not allowed to teach, Amelia Mattas Mize, elected to the Adkins-Stainbrook school board, served as its clerk. In 1924, under her supervision, bids were taken to build a new school. The notice was printed in the Parkston Advance Newspaper. No records were found as to who built the new school.
NOTICE TO BUILDING CONTRACTORS
Sealed bids will be received by Amelia Mize, Clerk of the Board of Education of Stainbrook School District N 42 of Hutchinson County, South Dakota, at her residence two miles north and six miles east of Parkston, in Foster Twp., Hutchinson County, South Dakota, until 7:00 o’clock PM on Saturday, April 19th, 1924, for the construction of a new schoolhouse in said district, according to specifications on file at the residence of Mrs. Amelia Mize.
Proposals are to be rendered according to full instructions, which are set forth in the specifications, and must be accompanied by a certified check in the amount of least 10% of the bid. The accepted bidder will be required to furnish a bond double the amount of the contract, and shall file with his bid sufficient evidence that he will, if accepted, be able to furnish such bond.
The right is reserved by the Board to reject any or all bids. Dated this 15th day of March, 1924
AMELIA MIZE, Clerk of School District No. 42
Amelia Mattas Mize; Circa 1920's
By the late 1920’s, the third generation of Mize and Mattas families and the grandchildren of Zina Adkins attended the school. The Mize children still rode a horse to attend classes, but their teacher, Ed Carpentier arrived by automobile. On the right is a story written by Margaret Mize, daughter of Amelia and David.
Left to right, Margaret, Helen and Jesse Mize, Circa 1020's
In 1930, Margaret Mize and her classmates helped bury a time capsule in a concrete base for a newly erected flagpole. Cliff Adkins, grandson of Zina and son of Paul Adkins, then chairman of the Adkins-Stainbrook School, was part of the group. Ed Carpentier, still their teacher, supervised.
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1939 brought a new teacher to the school, Vina Mae Adkins, the youngest child of Zina Adkins. She served her students with the same sense of community as did generations before her.
Hired by her brother Paul, then chairman of the School Board, she was paid $764 for the year by Treasurer, George Mattas, Amelia’s younger brother.
Her students included 3 Adkins nephews, and 2 Adkins nieces. She taught until her marriage in 1943. Like Amelia Mattas 30 years before, it was against school rules to be married and teach.
Vina Mae Adkins; Circa 1930's
0ver the years, the Adkins-Stainbrook School had not only been the foundation of education for Foster township, it was a community gathering place. A place to raise funds for worthy causes, a place for other organizations to meet, and of course sponsoring the annual school picnic!
Parkston Advance 1918:
A Red Cross box social will be held
at the Adkins school house in District
No. 42, on Friday evening, March 1.
This school is located two miles west
and one mile north of Milltown.
Everybody is invited to come out and
assist in a worthy cause.
B. L. HOAGUE, Teacher
JAMES VALLEY-SPORTING CLUB
NEWS 1930:
Fellows, you are sure missing it!
What? Those good times at the little
old schoolhouse. We had
a show Thursday evening. Boxing,
wrestling and other muscle building
sports.
Come on now, you boxers, and put
on the gloves with some of our friends
from the East: If you don't believe
they can fight, ask the teacher, Edw.
Carpentier, He has marks on his
face to prove it. And there are others
that can do worse than his opponent
did.
Through the sportsmanship and cooperation
of Stainbrook school Dist.
No. 42, we have the use of their
school house for a club house, with out
any cost whatever. Many thanks
to them.
There will be a skating party leaving
the schoolhouse at 7:30 P. M.
Thursday. Why not join us and have'
some fun?
FRANK CARPENTIER
Parkston Advance 1902:
There will be a basket social at
the Stainbrook school house, district 42, Friday, Feb. 21. A short program will be presented. Proceeds to be used for library.
Parkston Advance 1941:
$38.00 was turned in Tuesday
morning to the Red Cross W a r
Fund by the Stainbrook School
district No. 42, the net proceeds
of the Red Cross benefit
program and sale put on by that
school last Monday evening. Donations
of merchandise to be sold
at the program was made by various
Dimock and Parkston business
places and donations of cash
were made by individuals to help
swell the proceeds of the evening,
Vina Mae Adkins is teacher of the Stainbrook school.
By the 1950's there were no longer any of the Adkins, Mattas, Mize families left on the Dakota Hills. The school closed for lack of students in 1954.
Foster Township Plate Map: 1910
On a sunny September day in 1988, eight of the Adkins-Stainbrook School students from the eighth grade graduating class of 1930, reunited. Cliff Adkins and Margaret Mize Adkins coordinated the gathering. Fifty-eight years had passed since they buried that time capsule. The now over seventy-year-old classmates stomped the abandon school grounds to find it.
They thought they had!
From The Parkston Advance, Sept. 4, 1988:
…..The search continues. Members of School District No. 42, whose hopes for finding a time capsule turned to little more than dust during a ceremony at the Parkston Armory. The students gathered with other curiosity seekers as John Wienbach, Wienbach Construction blasted open the capsule.
Alas, it turned out to be only a quart jar whose lid had rusted away. As a result, the slip of paper inside was ruined and did little more than crumple away. However, the class was not discouraged as members believed that the find is a detour and not a dead end. They just couldn’t remember where the capsule actually was. “It could be the same time next year to try again," said Cliff Adkins.
They never did.
Abandon site of the Adkins-Stainbrook School
Terry Grajkowske, great nephew of Bertha and John Braatz, students of Amelia Mattas in 1911; Bill Hoffman, great grandson of Zina Adkins, board chair in 1902; and me, great-granddaughter of Joseph Mattas, granddaughter of Amelia Mattas, granddaughter of Zina Adkins, and daughter of Margaret Mize Adkins, from the class of 1930, found its foundation on the Jim River Hills.
Terry Grajkowske left, Bill Hoffman, right; Circa 2022
A pile of concrete and rock rubble is all that is left. But part of the flagpole and its base remain. The time capsule may still be buried there, and we are going to look for it!
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The time capsule search continues, but the legacy of the Adkins-Stainbrook School has been found.
The Adkins-Stainbrook School and its location became lost in the memories of students long gone until this year, over 100 years since its establishment.
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Edited by Jessica Kay Brown