District No. 16 School (Nuss School), Sutton, NE

OLD SCHOOL OF THE DAY

District No. 16 School (Nuss School)

Sinnens House

Hickory St.

Sutton, NE 68979

The country school was more than an educational facility. It became a symbol of an earlier time, a time that people remember to be much better than it probably was. They remember the “values” of those who started and attended one-room schoolhouses; the closeness of a young teacher and her charges, the five-year olds to the thirteen-year old—the good parts.  One-room rural schools existed throughout the world but were especially common in the British Empire. Prussia and Spain supported education in sparsely populated areas but it was in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the British Isles that the concept dominated rural education.

     School districts were formed on the heels of the first setters. Districts were typically seven to nine square miles. Farm families gathered, organized the school district and selected the school board. In the midst of trying to make a living off the land, these families built or acquired a school building, equipped it, hired a teacher and had a school – almost 80 of them in Clay County, more than 200,000 in the country.  The District #16 school house, one of two Nuss Schools in School Creek Township, came to town in 1954 and was located across the street from the main school building and next to the Voc Ag. building to become the Kindergarten school for several years. After that it was converted to a home on Hickory Street and has served the Gary Sinnen family.  The rural school system was an important part of the settling of the Great Plains. One of the histories of the rural system points out that it was largely a feature of the British colonies. The idea that kids in even the most remotest settled areas were entitled to a free education led to rural schools in the United States, Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand to a greater extent than elsewhere.

District No. 13 School, Sutton, NE

OLD SCHOOL OF THE DAY

District No. 13 School

Wollers House

South Saunders Avenue

Sutton, NE 68979

Country schools in Nebraska were state chartered corporations. The state secretary of state provided a boiler-plate for the necessary reporting documents that such organizations were required to submit. Forensic historians who have examined those archived reports from these farmer-run corporations, that is, elementary schools, have been amazed at the quality of those reports. School board members understood the limits of the skills and training and followed the boiler-plates to the letter. The reports are generally perfectly formatted, thorough in their data, and seemed to be always submitted on time. 

     One-room schools became part of the folklore of the 19th Century with poems and songs written about them. They figured into literature and had roles in movies. “The Little Red Schoolhouse” was a phrase that popped up to conjure up a popular image even though nearly all of them were white. So what became of the one-room schools?  A lot of them became farm outbuildings – garages, granaries, hog houses; many deteriorated and were torn down; but a few lived on to find new lives. District #13 from four miles south of Sutton, NE, in its earlier life, was moved into town to become the home of the Wollers on South Saunders Avenue for many years.

Wolfe School House, District No. 55, Sutton Nebraska Museum, Sutton, NE

OLD SCHOOL OF THE DAY

Wolfe School House, District No. 55

Sutton Nebraska Museum

309 N Way Ave.

Sutton, NE 68979

The Sutton Museum is the home of the Sutton Historical Society and is dedicated to the collection and preservation of historic artifacts and information about the Sutton, Nebraska community. The Sutton Historical Society operates a museum complex including a museum, a restored 1908 vintage historic Sutton home, and a country school museum.  Very early in the life of the Sutton Historical Society, they discussed acquiring a country school building as part of their museum. The country school was too much a part of the history of the area not to be featured in any museum.  It just so happened that he county fairgrounds board had a country school which was in the way of some of their development plans, and they were offering the building to any interested party. So the Sutton Historical Society took it.

     The city stepped up and offered the Society the perfect spot in the southeast corner of the city park, a piece of ground that had been orphaned from the main portions of the park when the course of School Creek was streamlined in the 1990’s. And even better, that location was on the same street as the building that the Society already owned separated only by one house, which they later managed to capture giving them several contiguous lots for the museum.  Thus, they have the school building from District No. 55, the Wolfe School which originally sat two miles north of Fairfield. The last school board had given the school to the county fair board fully equipped and furnished and in excellent repair. It was perfect for museum use with student desks, a teacher’s desk, pot-belly stove, piano, blackboard, books – the works. The blackboard extends across the front wall and there is the classic elevated stage at the front of the room.

     The Wolfe School has two rooms in the corners beside the front door. Those were the old “utility” rooms used as coat closets, storage and for drinking water, etc. The ceiling was dropped sometime in the history of the building leaving a four or five foot tall space between the new and old levels.  Rural schools did not have indoor plumbing. Two outhouses “out back” served for toilet facilities.  The Sutton Historical Society’s rural school museum came from Lone Tree Township in Clay County, Nebraska, about four miles southwest of Clay Center and two miles north of Fairfield. The school house was known as the Wolfe School in District #55 and operated until the 1962-1963 school year; Dorothy Shaw was the last teacher in the Wolfe school when there were six students.  One school desk has been added to the arrangement of the school. This desk of a distinctive design has been in the basement of a house in Sutton for many years. It came from a rural school about five miles north of Sutton, District #8, one of the two schools in School Creek Township that were designated as “Nuss Schools,” the other being District #16.

     District #8 was in the middle of a large tract of land that was settled by the Germans from Russia who found a home in the Sutton area after 1873. They built their first school furnishing it with desks of this design, a design that they were familiar with in Russia, and probably earlier in Germany.  When they built their second school they furnished that school with desks of the much more common design for American schools, the design of the rest of the desks in the room.  The District #55 museum school has also found a new purpose thanks to the Sutton Schools 4th grade classes. For the past few years they have incorporated the school into their Apple Valley block where they re-enact classes in a one-room school house. The students come to the museum school at the beginning of the block to be assigned to their families for the term and then return weeks later to graduate from Apple Valley in the school house. The Sutton Museums are open on Sunday’s from 2 – 5 p.m. or by appointment. They especially like to show off Wolfe School.

Dry Creek School (Cedar View or Hillsdale), Gallatin County School District 9, Manhattan, MT

OLD SCHOOL OF THE DAY

Dry Creek School (Cedar View or Hillsdale), Gallatin County School District 9

W. Dry Creek School Road

Manhattan, Montana

The Dry Creek School in Manhattan, Montana, is a balloon-framed one-room schoolhouse that was built in 1902. Gallatin County, one of the original nine counties established in 1865 during territorial days, was Montana’s first extensively settled agricultural area. Homesteaders followed miners in the late 1860s and established schools in private homes or one-room cabins. Tiny one-room schoolhouses soon dotted the countryside, often no more than five miles apart. When the population grew, a frame schoolhouse usually replaced the original log cabin. Just north of the current Dry Creek site, a simple log cabin comprised Gallatin County School District 9, established before 1896. The present building replaced the cabin in 1901 and the first classes were held in the spring of 1902.

     The school is a splendid example of balloon frame construction. Building materials were pre-cut and assembled on site at a total cost of $1,700, including classroom equipment. The utilitarian design mirrors the shape of its log predecessor with one significant change: a recessed entry provided protection against harsh weather. The cupola housing the school bell, a feature shared by only two other Gallatin County schoolhouses, proclaimed the building’s significance to the early community.  There were 45 students. The school was first known as Cedar View and, later, Hillsdale to correspond to local post office addresses. It became the Dry Creek School after 1909. It has a recessed entry door and a cupola, and it was also used as a community center.

     Students dwindled to only four in 1945, and the school closed. District 9 later disappeared when it consolidated with Manhattan School District 3 in 1961. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981, one of 13 one-room schoolhouses in Gallatin County, Montana, that were listed on the National Register together in July 1981, and three more were listed later.  Purchase of the building by the Jolly Neighbors Club in 1997 for use as a community center reconfirmed its value.

Big Bend Rural School, Hoppe Spring Park, Steelville, MO

OLD SCHOOL OF THE DAY

Big Bend Rural School

Hoppe Spring Park

Route 19

Steelville, Missouri

Big Bend Rural School is a historic one-room school building located near Steelville, Crawford County, Missouri. It was built in 1893, and is a one-story, rectangular frame building which is constructed in simple, utilitarian manner on a native sandstone foundation. Since it is built on a slight slope, its foundations are 8″ high at its east end and nearly 3′ high on the west.  It measures 20 feet along its east and west sides by 25 feet along the north and south sides and has a gable roof. Big Bend Rural School is constructed on a foundation of native sandstone. Its exterior walls are faced with pine clapboards which were originally painted white.  The gabled roof encloses a boxed cornice and is covered by a galvanized, standing stair, tin roof. The school originally had six windows, three on the east and three on the west. Five of these have been boarded up, and one, that at the southeast corner of the school,-has been replaced by additional pine clapboarding. The present makeshift door is composed of three, vertically placed oak boards. A plain, brick, interior chimney is located on the gable ridge at the west end of the school.

     Big Bend School is a one story structure with no basement or attic. Its interior walls are faced with 1 1/2″ tongue and groove boards placed horizontally to within 2 1/2′ of the floor. Here, vertical tongue and groove wainscotting with panels 1 1/2″ wide continues to the floor and encircles the room. The ceiling is faced with 2″ tongue and groove panels, and the floor is covered by 3″ floorboards. Stretching the length of the west wall is a low podium which is 8″ in height and 3′ deep. In the center of the west wall, near the gable peak, a flu is located which originally served a wood burning stove.  The fabric of the building is unaltered except for the replacement of a window at the southeast corner with horizontal clapboarding.  The roof of the school was originally covered with wooden shingles and featured a short, rectangular, wooden belfry at Its east end which was faced with clapboards and topped with a gabled roof. This belfry was placed on the roof ridge at the east end of the school, just above the front door. These features were removed at an unknown date. The original windows were two-over-two, double-hung sash.

     Big Bend School closed in 1949 and is owned by the Crawford County Historical Society.  It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.  Big Bend Rural School was relocated on Nov. 3, 1999, to Hoppe Spring Park in Steelville, MO, not far from its original location.

Jefferson College, Washington, MS

OLD SCHOOL OF THE DAY

Jefferson College

16 Old North St.

Washington, Mississippi

Jefferson College, in Washington, Mississippi, at 16 Old North Street. Named in honor of Thomas Jefferson, the college was chartered in 1802, but did not begin operation until 1811. Chartered on May 13, 1802, by the General Assembly of the Mississippi Territory, Jefferson College was the first institution of higher learning in Mississippi. It opened in 1811 with 15 students, as a preparatory school, under the name Washington Academy—a one-room, wood-frame structure, built on the college property. By 1817, the institution had become a fully developed college. The first permanent buildings, constructed of brick, were completed in 1820. By 1840, Jefferson College offered the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts.

     Jefferson College was founded as an all-male college but operated primarily as a college-preparatory school, and later became a military boarding school, which it remained for most of its history. During the American Civil War, Jefferson College was closed. After the end of the war, the buildings were used by the Freedmen’s Bureau to aid transition to a society of free labor. In November 1865, the school’s Board of Trustees regained control of the facility. The institution reopened in 1866 as a preparatory school and continued as such until it closed in 1964. Between 1872 and 1911, under the tenure of Superintendent J.S. Raymond, the college had its longest interval of stable governance, with increased enrollment. By 1893, the institution had been reorganized as a military school, taking the name Jefferson Military College. Instruction was entirely secondary education. Early in the 20th century, dormitories were built to accommodate more recruits. By the late 1930s, enrollment had increased to about 100 students.

     Following World War II, declining student enrollment, low tuition, and lack of external funding caused financial hardship for Jefferson College. After 150 years of operation and unable to pay its debts, the facility closed in May, 1964, and remains closed to this day. In 1965, all buildings and lands owned by Jefferson College were conveyed to the State of Mississippi in exchange for discharging the school’s debts. The historic campus was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. In 1971, Jefferson College was placed under administrative control of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH). Detailed plans were developed for preserving the historic buildings, and restoration work began in the mid-1970s. In 1977, Jefferson College was opened to the public as a State Historic Site and was designated a Mississippi Landmark in 1985. The site is operated as an historic museum and park.

Cahill School (School District No. 16), Frank Tupa Park, Edina, MN

OLD SCHOOL OF THE DAY

Cahill School (School District No. 16)

Frank Tupa Park

4924 Eden Ave.

Edina, Minnesota,

Cahill School is a one-room schoolhouse now located in Tupa Park near Minnesota State Highway 100 and Eden Avenue in Edina, Minnesota. It is the oldest remaining building in Edina, and served as a schoolhouse, church, community center to hold village elections, meetings, dances, and other social events, and theater over its 94-years in use. Cahill was an Irish community located in the western half of what was then Richfield Township. Hugh Darcy sold a two-acre property on the southeast corner of Cahill Road and West 70th Street to the school district on June 27, 1864, for five dollars. Named for Catholic missionary priest Thomas Cahill, a wood-frame schoolhouse was constructed with clapboard siding and window frame detailing evoking the Eastlake Style. The school was heated by a woodstove and had no internal plumbing. The school served grades one through eight as part of School District No. 16 of Hennepin County. It also hosted services for St. Patrick’s Catholic Church until 1884.

     Even after the residential neighborhoods of Morningside and the Country Club got modern schools (Wooddale School and Morningside School) in the 1920s, Edina farm kids continued to attend the one-room schoolhouse with its outhouse for a bathroom and old wood stove for heat. Things changed, however, when John McCauley brought his young wife from Chicago to the family’s old homestead in southwest Edina in the 1950s. Accustomed to city schools and indoor plumbing, John was astonished to find that his daughter attended the same one-room school as his father had in the 19th century. The McCauleys set out to bring things up to date, starting with indoor plumbing. The school operated continuously from its founding until the building was closed in 1958. The school moved to a new brick school building on West 70th Street that was later demolished. The wood-frame building was restored in 1969, and it was relocated from its original site at the southeast corner of Cahill Road and West 70th Street to its present location in Frank Tupa Park, adjacent to Minnehaha Grange Hall in 1970.  Historic Cahill School is on the National Register of Historic Places. The school is open for school field trips, related programs, and special events during most of the year.

Weber-Blaess Schoolhouse (Downer School), Saline, MI

OLD SCHOOL OF THE DAY

Weber-Blaess Schoolhouse (Downer School)

 520 Woodland Dr. E.

Saline, MI 48176

Weber-Blaess one-room schoolhouse, Saline Michigan

In 1836, a year before Michigan became a state, Lodi Township (north of Saline, MI) was platted. The Weber-Blaess school was built in 1867 in Section 17, on Ellsworth Road in Lodi Township in Lodi Township.  The simple wood structure was built on the same stone foundation as its predecessor, a log school that had burned a year earlier. The school’s name has been changed over the years. Originally, it was known as the Downer School, taken from the name of Abraham Downer, who was the director of schools for many years. Mr. William Blaess bought the Downer farm in 1899. He was the school director for 14 years and so, the school’s name was changed to Blaess. The Blaess family also boarded the teacher for several years. It was favored by teachers for its good food and accommodations. Clara Blaess Gale, daughter of William Blaess, attended this school and later became its teacher. Recently, the land on which the school was built was owned by the Raymond Weber family and currently, by Raymond’s daughter Janet and her husband Milton Weidmayer.

     The school had three sessions: summer, fall, and winter. The younger girls went to school during the months of May, June, and July because during regular school sessions, the older boys were too rough. During these months, the boys were busy helping with the farm work. Some students attended a few months, while others attended five or six months each year. Their promotion was not based on grade level. The McGuffey Readers were used for instruction and a student progressed from one reader to the next level reader. It would depend on how often the students attended school as to how fast they progressed in the readers. The school did not have sequential grades until later years. The Webster Speller was used for spelling instruction. The last day of school, games and a picnic were held, with box socials and Christmas highlighting the remainder of the year. Monies earned from the box socials were spent on things for the school.

     Over the years, some changes have taken place to the building, including the installation of electric lights in the mid-1920s. The front addition was added and included a coatroom and coal bin, as wood was no longer used for heating. When the siding was replaced, the color changed from red to white with green trim.  The Milton Weidmayer family, the most recent owners of the Weber-Bless school, had converted the building into storage for farm equipment. The family donated the buildings to the Saline Area Schools. The project of moving the school and historically preserving the building was assumed by the Saline Area Schools Historic Preservation Committee. This committee was formed to collect and display Saline Area School memorabilia.  On June 19, 2002, the school was moved from its original location to a one-acre site on Woodland Drive. It was a long suspense filled day, taking four hours to move the school just one mile of its seven mile trip. A basement was dug to house utilities, including heating, and an addition was built to include a food preparation area, storage area, handicap accessible restroom, and a handicap entry. The main structure has been historically restored. The original oak floors have been refinished and the bead board wood walls have been cleaned and painted.  A new chimney has been laid using old bricks, windows have been replaced, and a new wood shingle roof has been installed.

    The popularity of the Weber-Blaess School is increasing among home-schooled children and other school districts as well.  Children from private schools as well as from Ann Arbor Public Schools regularly visit the school. Schoolmasters Jim and Cheryl Hoeft explain to the third-graders what it was like for farm kids who attended the one-room schools in the area and re-enacted a typical school day, which included penmanship practiced on a slate, McGuffey Readers, and arithmetic problems. Students are encouraged to read a book titled “One Room Schoolhouse” before they arrive at the 520 Woodland Drive school dressed in period clothing.  It’s run and maintained by the Saline Area Schools Historic Preservation Foundation and is owned and operated by Saline Community Education.

     This is intended to be a living history museum from the early 1900s, where young people can have a one-room school experience between the years 1890-1950. Old student desks were collected and teaching materials were ordered. Saline Area School teachers worked on developing curriculum that will be used at the school. Each grade will experience a different era. Lunch will consist of foods eaten during the time being portrayed and recess will be spent playing games of that time period, such as Graces, stilts, jacks, and marbles. Teacher and students will be encouraged to wear period clothing during their stay at Weber-Blaess to add to the authenticity of that day. Because of its unique history, this one-room school has been able to provide for its own future with a living history experience for students of the twenty-first century.

Funks Grove Church and Log Cabin School Site, McLean, IL

OLD SCHOOL OF THE DAY

Funks Grove Church and School Site

7054 E. 535 North Rd.

McLean, IL  61754

Funks Grove Church, Cemetery, and Chapel of the Templed Trees, 7054 E. 535 North Rd., McLean, IL, is a historic site.  In 1824, brothers Isaac and Absalom Funk left their Ohio farm in search of a new location. Six months later Robert and Dorothy (Funk) Stubblefield joined them. Among the first settlers, the Funks and Stubblefields put down roots in the area now known as Funks Grove. Early on, worship services were held in homes or the first log cabin school building constructed in 1827. A stone marker located just west of the church indicates the original site of the school.  Adam Funk, the patriarch of the family, chose the location of the cemetery. In 1830, he was one of the first to be buried there.

     However, Robert Stubblefield insisted on a real church.  So the church was built in 1864-65 by Isaac and Absalom Funk, Robert Stubblefield, and their sons in the area now known as Funks Grove from white pine shipped by railroad from the east coast.  The ceilings were made of plaster that contained horse hair and hog hair to bind the plaster together.  The Funk and Stubblefield families maintained the cemetery and church until 1891, when they formed a stock company named Funks Grove Cemetery Association (FGCA). Since then the Funks Grove Cemetery Association has owned and maintained the cemetery grounds and the church.

    In 1948 when Thaddeus Stubblefield, a former President of the Cemetery Association, passed away, he left his land in a trust to the FGCA. In 1982, the FGCA became a 501(c)13 not-for-profit corporation. Today, income from the Thaddeus Stubblefield Trust farmland is used to maintain the cemetery and church, to provide for religious and educational benefits, and for beautification of the Grove. The trust ensures perpetual care and continued growth for the cemetery, church, and the 1,000 acres of upland timber. The Chapel of the Templed Trees, inspired by the Reverend Loyal Morris Thompson and developed with the help of the Funk and Stubblefield families, is a sanctuary in the woods that is the setting of many outdoor weddings..  The pews are logs made of American Red Elm, and the pulpit is a tree stump.

     The Funks Grove Church and Cemetery parking lot is available for church, chapel, and cemetery visitors.  The church is back to full capacity, which means the building has a maximum capacity of 200 and the Chapel of the Trees holds approximately 200 on the logs.  The building is currently open by appointment, but the grounds are open 7 days a week from 7:00 a.m. to 1/2 hour before dark, with a trail leading to the Sugar Grove Nature Center. Dogs are not allowed on the cemetery property. Pets are welcome on most trails, but must be leashed and remain on the trail at all times.

Sheldonville School (The Little Red Schoolhouse), Wrentham, MA

OLD SCHOOL OF THE DAY

Sheldonville School

The Little Red Schoolhouse

944 West St.

Wrentham, MA 02093

Once upon a time, there was a little red schoolhouse. The Little Red Schoolhouse of Wrentham, Massachusetts, has been building a community in the classroom and beyond for many years now. The school operates in a one room historic school building, built in 1869. It served as a place of learning to many local children. Scores of area children passed through its doors to be educated. One hundred and fifty-two years later, the iconic structure is still standing and still educating children today.

    The Little Red Schoolhouse was known as the Sheldonville School when it was built in 1869 to replace several one-room district schools (neighborhood schools) located in private homes throughout the area.  By the mid-1800s, education in Massachusetts was trying to get away from district schools and the single, multi-grade classroom and move to more centralized schools, but that did not work well for Wrentham because it was such a big town.

     The building itself gives hints of what schooling was like in the 1800s and early 1900s. There are two front doors, one for the boys to enter and another for the girls, suggesting they were separated for lessons. The second floor of the building, now used for storage, may have been used as an overflow classroom or perhaps a play-space on rainy days. The building has likely always been red, the color most schools (and barns) were painted at the time. Red paint was inexpensive because it was made from iron ore, which also acted as a wood preservative.

     By the early 1930s, however, the Sheldonville School was the only Wrentham district school still in operation. Other district schools had closed down and students were transported to the newer, much bigger Center School, which was located at the time in the now-empty lot at the intersection of Rt. 140 and 1A, across from the Original Congregational Church.  The Sheldonville School was a primitive and crowded building compared to the Center School. The 1930 town report notes the interior of the Sheldonville School was rehabbed and electric lights were installed in that year, but a request to “replace the sanitary closets” was denied by the town.

     Town records note that Miss Nina B. Sheldon was hired by Wrentham in 1921 to teach at the Sheldonville School, and she remained its head teacher for many years, probably until the school closed. Nina Sheldon was likely a descendent of Rhodes Sheldon, a whaleboat builder who settled in the area and is considered the founder of the Sheldonville section of Wrentham. By 1951, only grades 1 through 4 were being taught at the school. Miss Sheldon taught grades 3 and 4 and a new teacher, Dora Dalton, taught grades 1 and 2.  In 1957, the original King Philip High School was built (it has since been renovated). This freed up space for younger grades in the town’s schools, and in June of 1958, the Sheldonville School closed its doors.

     After the school closed, the building was briefly used as a consignment shop. However, several area parents soon decided to reopen the building as the Little Red Schoolhouse, returning the structure to its original purpose of educating children. The age of the beloved school demanded support from the preschool staff and the parents, and everyone was glad to help. It needed a lot of extra time, a lot of extra ideas, and a lot of extra energy, and the town is not responsible for its upkeep.  Parents donated and replaced windows, built tables, installed a playground, and raised $30,000 to delead the structure.

     The Little Red Schoolhouse, or “Little Red” as it is affectionately known, is now a non-profit cooperative preschool, and its directors, both past and present, view their role not just as educators but as caretakers of history. The cooperative preschool model gives parents a voice in the education of their children.   The Little Red Schoolhouse is one of only a few remaining one-room schoolhouses in New England, and the only one in the area that has been educating children almost continuously since 1869, notes Stahl of the Historical Commission. As a reminder of what Wrentham once was, it serves as a link to the roots of the community.  Little Red has continued to educate children through two worldwide pandemics now, surely a significant milestone. Perhaps that is the real legacy of Little Red: not just that it has withstood the test of time in Wrentham, but that it has helped children to feel safe and nurtured even in an uncertain world.