The recent school house in Goodyears Bar was built in 1862. It is not in the list of the buildings that burned in 1864. This fire stated in P. Cody's Saloon and burned all of the main section of town. Therefore it seems reliable that the present school house in Goodyears is still the original struture.      

For the first few years from 1849, until the late 1850's there were only a few children in Goodyears Bar. In 1854 there were only 13 children between five and eighteen in this school district. Mrs. Massey was the first teacher in Goodyears to teach in a private school located somewhere close to the present school building. Her husband is also listed in the 1854 census of Sierra County as a miner from France and aged 37 years. Then in 1862, the first public school teacher in the new school house had 52 children and was taught by Mrs. Delaney who's husband was a miner from Ireland. See the table below for a list of teachers who taught school at the Goodyears Bar School house. This school house still stands today.

Teachers who taught in Goodyears Bar Schoolhouse
Mrs. Delaney	1863
Miss Marian Hatch	1866
Miss Harriet Hatch	1867
Miss Saria Jackson	1869
John McMillian	1870
Dr. Bardock	1871
Annie D. Gregory	1872
Annie Wilderson	1872-1879
Miss Lulu B. Davis	1876-1898
Miss Eva Fanane	1878-1900
Mrs. M.L. Parker	1880
Maggie Williams	1881
Albion S. Mileg	1882
Mrs. L. Sobranes	1882
Thomas McGrath	1889
A.B.Thompson	1890
Celinda Casserly	1891
H.M. Kennedy	1891-1893
Miss Helen Wright	1894
Miss Blanch A. Parker Somerville	1894
Miss Ella Kane	1895
W.A. Spencer	1896
Miss Maggie O'Connell	1900-1902
Miss Ella Blackmore	1903
Miss Elizabeth Ogier	1903
Miss Belle Alexander	1903-1905
Miss McMahon	1906
Miss Jessie Simmons	1907
Miss Belle Alexander	1907-1916
Miss Ruth Turner	1921
Miss Maude Pencovic	1922
Miss Lian Vogue	1922-1929
Mrs Sidney Stran	1929-1934
Mrs Annas Forbers	1934-1938
Mrs M Johnson	1939
Mrs Evelyn Smith	1940
Mrs N C Clark	1946
Mrs Jewl Williams	1947
Mrs Sidney Stran	1946-1953
Closure of school in 1953

The year, 1920 was not a good year for the Goodyears School. The school changed schoolmistresses three times. First, Mary Stenberg, then came Nellie Miller, and followed by Agnes Dow. Seems to me that maybe rowdy children caused the first couple of teachers to quit!

 

Frank Somerville of Janesville, California came to Goodyears Bar on July 3, 2004 to find the gravesite of his Great-grandparents, Hazard and Mina Parker. It turns out that Frank has a book written by his grandmother Blanche Parker Somerville which she wrote about her childhood in the Goodyear's Bar and Downieville areas. Blanche was a school teacher in Goodyears Bar in 1894. Frank has been working on the family history and has accumulated information which will be updated on this website. The Parkers and Somervilles are part of the history of Sierra County and of the Great Gold Rush which took place here in the Goodyears Bar area. Good to see you, Frank.

www.GoodyearsBar.com is where the North Yuba flows. We love the history and the life in Sierra County, California