district 17
originally called the BARREN COUNTRY SCHOOL
LATER MAPLE GROVE COUNTRY SCHOOL
ALSO THE MUMFORD COUNTRY SCHOOL
Pawnee County was divided into 78 school districts. All but a few had a school. This is about the School District 17 school.
In 1917, the teachers and students of each of the country schools in Pawnee County were asked to write a history of their school. Many did. They are simple, usually two to four pages. Some do little more than offer a list of the teachers but most offer something of when the school was built, who the early settlers were, and so on. At Maple Grove, the Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Grade classes at Maple Grove wrote the history. It was handwritten by Maurice Wilson, who signed himself as “Scribe.”
Apparently certain information was requested, including the earliest settlers, and the history begins by naming the pioneer families and telling where they lived based on who lived there now. The pioneer families were the Linons, Mumfords, Wests, Longfellow, and Edgar Wood families, Edgar Wood being the only one remaining. The history then gets down to business: |
as early as 1870 - first school at mr. laurence linn'sThe first school in District 17 was held on the old Laurence Linn place where Mr. William Binder lives now, probably as early as 1870. It was an old house. It was said that when they had a thunderstorm, there was thunder and lightning for a week after Most of the people were young, so there were only two or three children to go to school. No one remembers who the first teacher was. |
1874 - the present school house built after divisive argument about whether it should be in the north or south part of the districtIn 1874, as there were more children to go to school, they felt they ought to have a new and permanent school. |
the school house described
The building was made of the best of wood. It is all white paint which was hauled form the Missouri River. They paid about ten dollars a thousand for it. Now the same would cost about eighty dollars per thousand. Mr. Edgar Wood and Mr. West were on the building committee. Mr. Hare of Pawnee City built the house.
At first the schoolhouse had an ante room containing a hall and library on the west side but this was tore off and the door put in the south side. Of late years, there has been built a hall on the south.
At first the school was called the “Barren School” because there were no trees on the grounds. The people planted a grove of maples and so it got the name of “Maple Grove.” [
The history does not mention that it was also called the Mumford School.
stories about teachers
Miss Linn taught the first two terms in the school house. Her father was a doctor and he gave her a human skeleton and every pupil learned the name of every bone in it. She only had about six pupils.
Miss Alice Scott tells the following experience she had on coming out to the school for the first time. She had been told she was to board at the Mumford's just north of the school house and across the road. She got to the top of the hill just south of the school house and could see no house. She thought she must be mistaken as to the place, but kept walking. When came to it, she found it was a dugout. (The dugout is now Clyde Wilson's cellar.)_
number of pupils
There have been as many as sixty pupils attending school in this school house. There now only fourteen boys. Isn’t it a poor district that cannot afford to have a girl in school?
photographs
1909
The student body of the "Mumford School" in a photograph from the Omaha Bee, January 3, 1909: No names are given.
The photo was an illustration in a nearly-full page story about Pawnee County:
school year 1914-1915
This photo was included with a 1917 history of the school. At the time of the history, there were only 14 students, all boys, so the student body shrank considerably in those few years.
1918-1919 school year (date only, no names)
This photo in the back of the Maple Grove Country School Museum bears a date but, sadly, there are no names. Photo 2092. Some of the students who wrote the 1917 history were probably still in school. The maple trees that were planted have grown quite well!
undated
1939-1940 school year, teacher dorothy plihal kubick
Miss Dorothy Plihal taught for two years after she graduated from Table Rock. Her son Bruce shared this photograph from school year 1939-1940:
Back row Middle Row Front Row
Valeria Thomas Marvin Thomas LaVern Thomas
Arval Carmichael Ronald Thomas Mary Ann Wenzl
Paul Marfice Eileen Carmichael Buford Thomas
Bernice Marfice Dennis Marfice
Betty Ann Kotalik Donald Marfice
Valeria Thomas Marvin Thomas LaVern Thomas
Arval Carmichael Ronald Thomas Mary Ann Wenzl
Paul Marfice Eileen Carmichael Buford Thomas
Bernice Marfice Dennis Marfice
Betty Ann Kotalik Donald Marfice
To the right: Bernice Marfice talks about attending Maple Grove, and about an inspiring teacher there: Dorothy Plihal Kubick. |
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a few photos of the school in modern times
handout at the museum
Prepared june 2018
students who have attended
No list has been compiled. Beginning in 2016, a list is begun. Hopefully we can get more names!
Carmichael family: Arval, Eileen (identified in 1939-40 school picture)
Herink family: Carol Jean Herink Turnbull (visited in 2019)
Kotalik family: Betty Ann (identified in 1939-40 school picture)
Marfice family, all of the siblings: Isabel, Dennis, Bill, Don, Bernice, Paul, Norman (identified in 1939-40 school picture)
Thomas family: Valeria, Marvin, LaVern, Ronald, Buford (identified in 1939-40 school picture)
Wenzl family: Mary Ann (identified in 1939-40 school picture), Margie Lou ("Marge")(source, Carol Jean Herink)
history of maple grove written in 1917
The history above was transcribed from a handwritten history. The transcriber is unknown. Both typed and handwritten copies were secured from the Nebraska State Historical Society. The original handwritten copy is in the gallery immediately below.