this page under construction 6/29/17
country school houses
in southeast nebraska & northeast Kansas
still standing as of 2017
Links to some extant country school buildings in southeast Nebraska & northeast Kansas
Maple Grove Country School, Pawnee County, Nebraska School District 17, a museum in Table Rock
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Kenter Country School, Richardson County School
District 40, south of Humboldt, NE
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Mt. Zion Country School, Nemaha County, Nebraska School District 45, east of Elk Creek, NE
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Greendale Country School., Pawnee County, Nebraska School District 6, south of Pawnee City, NE
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Excelsior Country School, Nemaha County, KS School District 111, east of Bern, KS
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background
There seem to be no inventories of country school buildings that are still standing.
The school buildings are still out there after all these years -- most have been closed at least 60 years ago. Some have been brought to museums and saved, including Maple Grove Country School, Pawnee County School District 17, and at least seven on the grounds of the Pawnee City Historical Society site. Others are still in place. Most of those are badly deteriorated, but some have been saved by students who treasure their memory, such as Pleasant Valley Country School southeast of Table Rock (Pawnee County School District 32) and Prairie Grove Country School north of Seneca, KS (Nemaha County, KS), which is on the National Register of Historic Places. Some have been repurposed for homes and places of businesses.
The way of life when these schools served rural communities is gone now. In their heyday, schools may have had 10 or 15 students or more. As they dwindled away, they became schools where the children of only one or two families might attend. Some had only five or six children But which of the original school districts could produce even five or six children nowadays?
The educational system could not sustain country schools and so they were chopped. But they are well remembered by those who were the students. In the memories of each country school student, the details are specific and dear the teachers, the events, the other students. The greater collective memory merely recognizes the country schools as a lost treasure, a romantic facet of farm life.
The reality is that many a child saw no education beyond that one-room school but rather had to work the farm or be hired out to earn money desperately needed by the family. Eighth-grade graduations meant something in those days. Even that much of an education could not have been practical without the country school system, which provided a place that students could reach by walking -- or by horse if your family was well enough off. With no other way to get to school, students would simply have had no way to get to nearest town school five miles or more away.
The shells of a system that provided a means to an education to rural school children should be remembered. As they continue to fall down and to be removed for various reasons, there needs to be a record of what they have looked like in their last days. No one has time to do an inventory or a comprehensive project. However, it is better to do something than nothing, and so we begin this little collection of pictures of country schools near Table Rock, Nebraska, in Pawnee County and in adjacent counties in both Nebraska and Kansas. Most are within a 30 mile radius of Table Rock.
Please share your pictures for these pages by emailing to [email protected].
The school buildings are still out there after all these years -- most have been closed at least 60 years ago. Some have been brought to museums and saved, including Maple Grove Country School, Pawnee County School District 17, and at least seven on the grounds of the Pawnee City Historical Society site. Others are still in place. Most of those are badly deteriorated, but some have been saved by students who treasure their memory, such as Pleasant Valley Country School southeast of Table Rock (Pawnee County School District 32) and Prairie Grove Country School north of Seneca, KS (Nemaha County, KS), which is on the National Register of Historic Places. Some have been repurposed for homes and places of businesses.
The way of life when these schools served rural communities is gone now. In their heyday, schools may have had 10 or 15 students or more. As they dwindled away, they became schools where the children of only one or two families might attend. Some had only five or six children But which of the original school districts could produce even five or six children nowadays?
The educational system could not sustain country schools and so they were chopped. But they are well remembered by those who were the students. In the memories of each country school student, the details are specific and dear the teachers, the events, the other students. The greater collective memory merely recognizes the country schools as a lost treasure, a romantic facet of farm life.
The reality is that many a child saw no education beyond that one-room school but rather had to work the farm or be hired out to earn money desperately needed by the family. Eighth-grade graduations meant something in those days. Even that much of an education could not have been practical without the country school system, which provided a place that students could reach by walking -- or by horse if your family was well enough off. With no other way to get to school, students would simply have had no way to get to nearest town school five miles or more away.
The shells of a system that provided a means to an education to rural school children should be remembered. As they continue to fall down and to be removed for various reasons, there needs to be a record of what they have looked like in their last days. No one has time to do an inventory or a comprehensive project. However, it is better to do something than nothing, and so we begin this little collection of pictures of country schools near Table Rock, Nebraska, in Pawnee County and in adjacent counties in both Nebraska and Kansas. Most are within a 30 mile radius of Table Rock.
Please share your pictures for these pages by emailing to [email protected].