Mahaffey Borough is located in southwestern Clearfield County surrounded by Bell Township. It is there that Chest Creek, flowing northward, empties into the West Branch of the Susquehanna River.
Mahaffey’s prime location made it ideal to encourage the growth of the early lumbering industry, as well as fostering railroads and a larger leather tannery.
Its earlier settlers, including its namesake, Robert Mahaffey as early as the 1840’s, began to develop the town and its surroundings.
Mr. Mahaffey used his early lumbering lands holdings to diversify his business interests with grist mills, sawmills and general merchandise stores.
Business growth meant the growth of families. Mahaffey’s parents upheld the honored obligation to their children and established schools wherever needed in the area.
As was then common, small one or two-room elementary schools dotted the maps of towns and countryside alike.
The overcrowded classrooms housed students from Grades 1 to 8. Teachers did the best they could with the resources that they had.
Eighth grade was often a cut off for most kids from working families. Many were ready for the working world after then and high schools were often built to accommodate townspeople.
Some students who sought the privilege of a high school education had to walk long distances from their rural homes.
The photo shows Mahaffey’s original two-story building and probably dates to the first decade of the 20th century.
A newer brick structure replaced it in 1915. It was common, then, for the school’s elementary students to use the downstairs rooms and the high school to use the ones upstairs.
There is what looks to be an outhouse on the right side of the photo.
Even then, high school students struggled with Algebra or Trig and had courses in Language, Biology, History and Latin added to their curriculum.
It looks as though a high school class posed near the windows on what looks to be a warm day in May. One brave boy is having a good time sitting on the window sill. As kids have said, “There is no week of school like the last week of school.”