OLD SCHOOL OF THE DAY
Lone Star School, District 64
West Ave. M
Bison, KS
Named in honor of the many buffalo that once roamed the surrounding prairie, Bison in rural Rush County, KS, got its start when the Missouri Pacific Railroad plowed through the area in 1886. However, the region had seen settlement for several years prior to the coming of the railroad. The first “school” was held in a farm home in 1877. George Ficken Jr. donated land one and one-half miles west of where Bison would later be established for a German Methodist Episcopal Church and school. Construction began in 1878 with hand-hewn native stone donated by members of the church, and in 1879, the Lone Star German Methodist Episcopal Church and schoolhouse was finished. With help from the community, contractor Henry Mertz and carpenter Henry Rogers built the dual-purpose building for school activities during the week and church services on Sundays. Typical of early one-room schoolhouses, this limestone building features a simple rectangular form with a gable roof with little architectural ornamentation. A wood-frame vestibule was added to the front of the building in the early 20th century. Early schoolhouses like this are often classified as vernacular in style.
The property, which includes a coal shed and outhouse, was nominated for its associations with early public education in Kansas and for its architectural significance as a good example of an early vernacular one-room schoolhouse. It was nominated as part of the “Historic Public Schools of Kansas” Multiple Property Submission to the National Register of Historic Places. The town officially began when the railroad arrived and the name “Buffalo” was first chosen. However, when they found the name was already in use, it was called Bison and the first homestead was built in the town in 1886. In the spring of 1888, the Missouri-Pacific Railroad Townsite Company surveyed and platted the town and post office was opened on May 7th and a general store, just a few months later in July. The first gas well drilled in Rush County was at the north edge of Bison in 1903, marking the beginning of oil and gas development in Rush County. By 1910, the town’s population had grown to about 375. The following year, the town was officially incorporated.
Lone Star was used as a church and school until 1890, when the congregation of the original Lone Star German Methodist Episcopal Church west of the city built a new church a mile north of the site. The old building was then sold to the school district 34 (later 64) and classes were held there as grades one through eight attended school here until 1947 when area school districts consolidated and the district merged with Bison where in 1937, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) had built a new grade school of native stone blocks as well as hand-dug municipal water well which measured eighteen feet in diameter and sixty-nine feet deep. At that time Lone Star began to be used as a clubhouse by the Sunshine Extension Homemakers Unit of Bison. Former students and members of the Bison community have donated time and money to help with maintenance and repairs. The interior features several pieces of original furnishings and original gas light fixtures. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on Jan. 22, 2009.
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