One-Room, Country, & Historic Schools of Crawford County

 

The first school in Crawford County, Kansas, was built at Pleasant Ridge, about two miles southeast of Fourth and Broadway in Pittsburg.  The children who lived in the towns had a better advantage in terms of having an uninterrupted school year.

In 1882, the county had 7,114 children of school age, 5,546 of whom were enrolled. During the county’s early days, as in most of the country, most kids lived on farms, and attending school was not a significant priority for families.

By 1883, there were 111 school districts in the county. The schoolhouses were constructed of the following materials: one stone, three brick, and 97 wood-frame. At that time, the average daily attendance was 2,999, with it being evenly spread between girls and boys. The job of teacher was usually held by young men or women, with their salaries being $34.45 and $27.35, respectively, in 1883. If a married female teacher became pregnant, her tenure as a teacher was more than likely over, and she would have to resign. A common practice of rural teachers was to spend the weekends at their students’ homes. The total value of the school property in 1883 was $75,000.

By 1960, there were thousands of school districts in Kansas. To reduce this to a more manageable number, the State Board of Education in 1963 passed the Unification Act, which required each school district to offer grades 1-12, with kindergarten being offered at the discretion of that local school district. This reduced the number to 306 and allowed planning boards in each county to decide how the districts would be divided up and what the boundaries were. The deadline for the counties to make these decisions was March 1, 1964. The recommendations were submitted to the State School Superintendent for approval. Crawford County divided itself into about 7 or 8 districts, with those being consolidated again in the 1980s into the five school districts there are today.

 

Name	District	Years of Operation	Location & Information
Brazilton School	118	??
Cato	04	1869-1955	Cato, Kansas School in Crawford County, courtesy of the Kansas State Historical Society. Cato was founded in 1854 at the northern edge of the Cherokee Neutral Lands, now Crawford County. A stone school built in 1869 still stands after serving as a schoolhouse and a meeting house until 1955. The Cato Historical Preservation Association maintains the school. Never a large town, Cato’s population peaked in 1910 with 112 residents.
Green Elm	41	1872-1955	Green Elm School Green Elm School, District 41, is in Pittsburg, Kansas. The school was relocated to this location and is part of the Crawford County Historical Museum. It was initially located in the southwest corner of Crawford County, seven miles north and one mile west of McCune, Kansas. School classes were held from 1872 to 1955 and employed 66 different teachers. The school’s name was based on an elm tree near the school. The museum is located at 651 S. Highway 69 in Pittsburg.
Washington Grade School	49	1938-??	Washington Grade School in Pittsburg, Kansas, courtesy Google Maps. Partially funded by the Public Works Administration, the Washington Grade School was designed by Thomas W. Williamson & Company of Topeka, a firm widely known for its design of schools in Kansas. This school was probably constructed as part of the same project that included the addition to Roosevelt Middle School. The project received $117,000 in funds, which were matched by $128,000 raised through municipal bonds. The same architect designed both buildings. W.K. Martin Construction Company of Kansas was the builder. This T-shaped one-story brick building was designed in the Colonial Revival style with a complex hip roof with short cross-hip wings that project slightly beyond the North and South ends of the main block. The arched entrance is centered in the West façade of the main block below a small wood cupola with a copper roof centered on the ridge. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in April 2008 as part of the Historic Public Schools of Kansas nomination. Standing vacant today at 209 South Locust Street in Pittsburg, Kansas, it has been threatened with demolition.
Zion Lutheran School	118	??	Brazilton School #118, courtesy of Google Maps. Located at 12 E. Bredehoeft Road in Brazilton, this one-story Vernacular wood clapboard building is rectangular with a gable roof. It has a coal shed and a cistern. It serves as a community building today.

Crawford County Historic School Districts

School	District	Post Office		School	District	Post Office		School	District	Post Office
Able	15			Gooding	44			Opolis	110	1877-Present
Adams	94			Goshert	103			Osage	55
Arcadia	112			Greenbush	30	1874-1901		Ozark	13
Banner	84			Green Elm	41	1872-1894		Paulk (later Polk)	75
Barber	81			Gregg	74			Pea Ridge	92
Base Line	61			Gun	113			Pittsburg	49	1876-Present
Bayless	51			Hadley	18	1881-1894		Pleasant Dale	21
Bethany	122			Harmony	123			Pleasant Hill	28
Beulah	2			Hepler	108	1871-Present		Pleasant Prairie	97
Brazilton	118	1882-1966		Idell	40	1870-1901		Pleasant Valley (1)	48
Bunker Hill	82			Johnston	6			Pleasant Valley (2)	73
Butler	85			Keplinger	89			Pleasant Valley (3)	78
Cato	4	1858-1861 1867-1905		King	54			Pleasant View	31
Center Valley	87			Kirkwood	121			Pomeroy	76
Centerville	10			Lane	53.			Prairie Bell	20
Cherokee	39	1870-Present		Langdon	63			Prairie View	29
Chicopee	62			Liberty	36			Quick	111
Cleveland	116			Liberty (2)	69			Rhodenberg	102
Contrary Point	72			Limestone	60			Round Prairie	65
Cook	80			Litchfield	22	1881-1903		Rowe	106
Cow Bell	93			Lone Star (2)	50			Salem	26
Crawfordsville	27	1867-1873		Maple Grove (1)	8			Schwab	99
Cyclone	77			Maple Grove (2)	25			Schweitzer	68
Dumb Bell	88			McCune	57	1878-Present		Sheffield	16
Dutch Valley	35			Meyer	86			Slifer	38
Englevale	124	1891-1954		Midway	115	1871-1878		Spangler	42.
Eureka	52			Mills	45			Spice	95
Fair Oak	24			Monmouth	59	1866-1955		Second Valley	19
Fairview (1)	7			Mound	91			Star of Hope	83
Fairview (2)	14			Mound Valley	23			Stilwell	64
Fairview (3)	100			Mt. Carmel	96	1871-1895		Sunrise	109
Fairview (3)	117			Mt. Pleasant	56			Trask	98
Farlington	12	1870-Present		Mt. Zion	33			Union (1)	9
Fleming	119	1892-1908		Mulberry	58	1869-Present		Union (2)	70
Freed	90			Mulberry (2)	104	1869-Present		Victory	17
Frontenac	47	1887-1957		Myers	43			Victory (2)	120
Fuller	107	1894-1914		Nelson	101	1895-1905		Walnut	66
Garfield	71			New Hope	114			Ward	46
Gaskill	34			Oak Grove	5			West Union	79
Gem	105			Old Arcadia	1			Wheeler	67
Girard	37	1868-Present		Olive	32			Yale	11	1892-1914

*The number in parenthesis next to a name indicates that there was more than one school district in the county with the same name and refers to their order of creation.

Also See:

Crawford County, Kansas

Crawford County Photo Gallery

Kansas Main Page

One-Room, Country, & Historic Schools of Kansas

Sources:

Kansas Post Office History
Pittsburg Memories