Kansas One Room
School House Project
Richland School -- Butler County

I wonder if you are still collecting data on schools of yesteryear? 

The school I attended wasn't really a one room school, but it was close to it.  It had 2 teachers.  1st, 2nd, 3rd, & 4th grade was in one room with a teacher named Vada Broderson.  5th, 6th, 7th, & 8th grade was in another room with a different teacher.  That's all the grades we had.

We had 2 school buses, we called them "the north bus" and "the south bus".  Every Monday morning we all wanted to be the first to get to school.  That's when the teacher handed out "school jobs".  One job was for 2 students to carry dinner trays to the teachers house for her aunt and mother.  That was the most coveted job.  Other jobs were washing the blackboards at the end of the school day, ringing the bell after recess, and others that I no longer remember. 

There were 2 classrooms and a music room upstairs.  Downstairs we had a gym with a stage, and a lunch room.  We all said our prayers at lunch (I think the teacher led the prayer).

Richland school was closed and absorbed into the Douglass school district around 1962.  It's sad to see the small schools vanish.  We learned so much more in that little school than we did after we were transferred to a large school. 

The name of the school was Richland.  It's been many years and I'm not sure which county it was in.  I think it was in Butler County, but it might have been across the line in Douglas County [sic. Butler County].

I went back to see the old school a couple years ago.  It still stands, but is privately owned and is now used for a cow barn. 

I noticed you have Rose Hill in Butler County on your list.  I went to that school but I didn't know it started out as a one room school.  About 1962 when I started attending it had a new grade school and a very old 2 story high school with a new lunch room and gym built on.  I loved the old building!  It was a homey type atmosphere that made learning fun. 

Thanks for keeping history alive on the web.

Saturday, November 9, 2002 10:06 PM

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