It may be mid-summer, but recently, one school in Casco was in session for a group of children and a retired teacher.

The Raymond/Casco Historical Society opened the old Quaker Ridge Schoolhouse to the public on Saturday to coincide with Casco Days. Area children dressed up in period clothing and sat two by two at the wooden desks in the one-room schoolhouse, located in Casco Village behind the library.

During their “lessons” the children learned about period clothing from textile expert Holly Ihloff, covered the “three ‘R’s,'” using their slates and chalk, and played Rachel and Jacob, a game similar to Blind Man’s Bluff that was popular 100 years ago.

But the highlight of the day was the visit from Casco resident and former teacher, Olive Burgess.

Burgess, who will be 100 years old next month, shared with the children and visitors about what it was like to attend and to teach in a one-room schoolhouse.

Although Burgess never taught at the Quaker Ridge School, she taught a total of 25 years in three different schools in Casco.

According to her daughter, Georgette Burgess, in January, 1927, Olive traveled by train from Vassalboro to Danville Junction in the Poland Hills area and then hitched a ride to Casco with a mail carrier on an old-fashioned snowmobile, the vehicle of choice for winter mail delivery in the 1920s.

In fact, the snowmobile trip is how she met her future husband. Also a mail carrier, he was persuaded by his five sisters, trying to marry him off, to “check out” the new teacher as she rode by. Two years later, the two were married.

Olive taught at the Casco Village School, now the post office, until 1936 when she transferred to the Webbs Mills School. During her time at Webbs Mills, she had one class that numbered 52, consisting of sub-primary (children younger than first graders) through eighth grade.

Later she taught at the Memorial School and became principal after a year there, resigning before her baby, Georgette, was born.

As Olive Burgess reminisced in the Quaker Ridge School on Saturday, the children and visitors listened attentively to her stories. She said all of her students were good – she never had a problem with discipline.

When asked what the children did at lunchtime, she replied, “I’d bring stuff from home and I’d warm it up (on the woodstove) for a hot lunch for the children.”

While she shared with the crowd, a couple of her old students stopped in to say hello and to wish her an early Happy Birthday.

“I already received the most beautiful birthday card from one of the little boys I used to teach,” she said.

The Quaker Ridge Schoolhouse, which is on the National Register, is maintained by the Raymond/Casco Historical Society. Made up of 33 members, the Society is dedicated to preserving the area’s rich history.

Originally known as the Friends School, the schoolhouse was erected in 1849 on a piece of land where the farms of William Hall and Isaiah Gould met, located on what was known as Quaker Hill.

Closed in 1942, when the area began consolidating schools, the school building was sold at auction later that decade.

In the fall of 1971, the school was donated to the newly formed Raymond/Casco Historical Society and was moved near to its current location.

When Casco’s new town office building was constructed it was moved once again, this time to its present location.

Anne Miller, the organizer of Saturday’s event, was pleased by both the turnout and the response of the visitors. She is already planning for even bigger things at next year’s open schoolhouse.

“I think it went very well,” Miller said. “The children loved it and said they would all like to come back again next year.”