Wilbur, Henry & Alice Inspire a School

Wilbur, Henry & Alice (circa 1870)

Just short of a year after the Dakins moved into their new home on Vantine St., they were blessed with the birth of a son. They named him Wilber and all of Knights Ferry rejoiced with Laura and Isaac on their good fortune.

Having a new person in the home meant many changes. Isaac spent less time at the smithy, turning over much of the work to his partner, and Laura took up the study of child rearing with an intensity bnever seen by the other mother's in town. Soon the articles she submitted for publication took on a childcare complexion, so immersed was she in her new role.

Two years later, in 1863, another bundle of joy arrived in the Dakin home. It was a boy and his name was Henry. By now Laura was an expert on babies and while neither child was slighted, the care and feeding of infants became a well organized routine.

Nearly two years went by before a third child made her appearance. This time the Dakin's were the proud parents of a girl whome they promptly named Alice. All three children were born in the big white house at Dean and Vantine Streets where loved prevailed among all the Dakins, young and old.

The Ladies Literary Guild, meanwhile, was never without enthusiasm, always ready to take up the clarion call of a new need in Knights Ferry. In 1861, a school of sorts ahd been set up in one end of at stable on Main Street, but as the town's population grew it became woefully inadequate.

The ladies, under the forceful leadership of Laura Dakin and her sisterm, Mary Locke, soon turned the focus of their attention to getting a real school with a building dedicated to the education of their children; one with modern equipment, adequate books and tools, and a qualified teacher of some experience.

With the Dakin children fas approaching school age, the call became more urgent. On November, 1868, with Wilbur Dakin approaching his seventh birthday, the Ladies Literary Guild finally succeeded in convincing the county to organize the Emory School District, an area including Knights Ferry.

But, without money and a lack of enthusiasm on the part of county officials, it was still an up hill battle for five long years before the ground was at last broken on the hill top over looking Knight's Ferry were a real school house.

It proved to be well planned for a growing population. By 1880 there were 64 pupils in the one spacious room that offred a first through sixth grade education to all children of the area.

Much of the success of this and other far-reaching accomplishments in Knights Ferry can be traced directly to Laura Dakin and her ability to sway public opinion to get things done.