Kansas ORSH List -- Lincoln County

Kansas One Room
School House Project
Kansas ORSH List -- Lincoln County

The Kansas Heritage Server would like to thank Lu Adams (adamslu@informatics.net) for contributing this information on the Lincoln County schools.

This is all the information that I came across, to date, on the Lincoln County Schools. Thanks for putting the info on the WEB for others to access.

LINCOLN COUNTY ONE ROOM SCHOOLS

As families began arriving in Lincoln County, one of their first concerns was for the education of their children. The people in general were from intellectual backgrounds and felt the need to provide a formal education for their youth. Education was to be a predominant factor in the development of the new land.

The first school in the county was taught by Mrs. Thomas E. Skinner in a little dugout on the Saline River from December, 1866, to April, 1867. Her pupils were her three sons, Bing, Everton, an Alfred, and also Eli and Frank Ziegler.

Other teachers included Marion Ivy, who taught a subscription school in Martin Hendrickson’s home in 1868, and David G. Bacon, who started a school in 1869 in a dugout near the same place. The first public school was taught by Mrs. Thomas Skinner at Monroe in 1870.

As early as the summer of 1871, the Saline County Journal mentioned Mr. H.E. Warner, who was teaching “a very good and interesting school” located just two miles west of Lincoln. A baseball club had been organized, called the Prairie Rovers, and they planned to challenge the Salina club at the Saline County Fair.

In the summer of 1872, Mrs. Anna C. Wait, wife of Lincoln attorney Captain W. S. Wait, taught the first school in Lincoln in her residence just south of the present location of the grade school. The building was serving as the Wait’s home and Captain Wait’s Law Office and only measured 10x22 or 14x28, small to say the least. Forty three students attended in this small space. The later became a shoe shop of E. P. Loso’s.

In the fall the stone school house was built in Lincoln, and Mrs. Wait taught there and in a variety of schools throughout the county for a number of years. Mrs. Wait was very influential on examining boards, at teacher’s meetings and at institutes.

Captain and Mrs. Wait organized the first Normal Institute in Lincoln in 1877.

Qualifying for state aid required paid enrollment of 50, but there were only 23 teachers in Lincoln County, so the businessmen of Lincoln enrolled and the required number was met and the county received the entitled state monies.

Mrs. Wait was called the “Dean of Education” in Lincoln County. When she died in 1916, the bell at Central Grade School tolled 79 times, one for each year of her life.

Many families directly effected the development of education with multiple members in a families becoming teachers. Mrs. Skinner, one of the earliest teachers, taught Bing, Fred, Norah, and Calvin who all became teachers.

Seven of Congressman Baker’s children---Florence, Ella, Ina, Lena, Meta, Edgar, and Eli----became teachers. He taught one term at Sunnyside.

John Lyden was appointed as the first County Superintendent.

The greatest period of growth was during the 1870’s when 93 school districts were organized. Most early students were taught in dugouts or on vacant claim shanties. There were no desks, chairs, or blackboards. The seats were made of large wood blocks. Large sheets of brown manila paper were used for blackboards and lesson material to supplement for textbooks which were in short supply.

In District 21 Laura Peate taught school in Rod Wilmarth’s kitchen, and in District 56 the first school was taught in Fouts’ cellar. Mrs. B.H. Ellsworth taught District 22 in a basement with an earth floor and two small windows. District 34 started a school in a shanty with four bear walls and earth floor and roof. Mrs. William Nash, who taught the school, provided the supplies. She had a board painted with lamp-black and some bits of chalk and four or five books. She and her pupils gathered cornstalks and weeds which were burned in a cast-away stove for warmth.

School District No. School Name/Names Township Dates

1. Beverly Colorado

2. Monroe Colorado

3. Rocky Hill Elkhorn

4. Fairview Colorado 1893-1912

5. Pleasant Valley Indiana

6. Lincoln Beaver

7. Cottonwood Battle Creek

8. Donley Franklin

9 Elkhorn Salt Creek

10. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

11. Spring Valley Valley

12. Denmark Grant (1893-1917) U-3

13. Old Vesper Vesper (1893-1914)

14. Twin Grove Pleasant

15. Bashan Elkhorn

16. Ash Grove Orange

17. Cedron Cedron

18. Mt. Pleasant Franklin

19. Potersburg Grant

20. North Ireland Indiana (1893-1917) U-2

21 Beaver Beaver

22. Malone Marion

23 Mount Pleasant(Biggs) Pleasant

24 Star Scott

25 Prarie Grove Battle Creek

26 Pinon Scott

27 South Ireland Indiana (1893-1914)

28 Sylvan Grove Pleasant

29 Dew Drop Marion

30 Sunrise Madison

31 Mount Pleasant Cedron

32 Orange Orange

33 Twelve Mile (Shady Bend) Colorado

34 Bismark (Later U-4) Battle Creek

35 Rocky Point (also #83) Scott

36 Green Valley Cedron

37 Union Valley Golden Belt

38 Oak Creek Vesper

39 Freedom Madison

40 Trail Creek Orange

41 Shiloh Cedron

42 Paris Battle Creek

43 Margaret (check #62 District) Golden Belt

44 Gorge Pleasant

45 Sunnyside Beaver

46 Beulah (Olivette) Beaver

47 Twin Mound Franklin

48 Madison Madison

49 Old Vesper Vesper(1891-1914)

50---------------------------------------------------------------------

51 Labar (Owl Creek) Colorado

52 Allamead Orange

53 Keystone Madison

54 Elm Creek Cedron

55 Fairview Hanover

56 Rosette Hanover

57 Ingalls Cedron

58 Surprise Marion

59 Star (near Beverly) Logan (1893-1921)

60 Long Grove U-4 Orange (1893-1920)

61 Upper Twelve Mile Logan

62 Blue Highland

63 Pleasant Valley Indiana (1893-1912)

64 Pleasant Hill (near Beverly) Logan

65 Dry Creek Scott

66 Golden Belt Golden Belt

67 Milo (also#10) Salt Creek

68 Garfield Marion

69 Pleasant Dale Elkhorn

70 Orbitello Highland

71 Liberty Valley

72 King Salt Creek

73 Table Rock Colorado

74 Lone Star Franklin

75 Willow Glen Grant

76 Logan Center Logan

77 Highland Highland

78 Elkvale Valley

79 Lone Rock Vesper

80 Pugh Golden Valley

81 North Denmark Grant (1894-1917)

82 Climax Hanover

83---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

84 Barnard Scott

85 Amsterdam Vesper

86 West Point Hanover

87 Red Rock Elkhorn

88 Westfall Madison

This next information was at the bottom of the page and is open for your interpretation:

End of #6-Lost Creek and Younger

Parochial Bethlehem Lutheran School a stone building located in Sylvan Grove, stands today, November 2001.

U-1,U-2, U-3, U-4

1 L & E Yordy (1896-1932)

l L &E 34d Creek (1893-1932)

1 L & O Spring Creek (1893-1982)

2 L & O Fairview (1893-1942)

3 L & O Rocky Hill County Line (1893-1927)

Thursday, January 24, 2002 9:45 PM

Old Elsmore -- Douglas County

Spring Valley -- Geary County