Abbe Creek School

Last updated
Abbe Creek School
AbbeCreekSchool.jpg
Exterior view from cemetery
Abbe Creek School
Alternative names
  • "Little Brick"
  • Kepler
General information
TypeHistoric school house
Town or city Mt. Vernon, Iowa
Country United States
Coordinates 41°56′32″N91°27′05″W / 41.94215°N 91.45134°W / 41.94215; -91.45134 Coordinates: 41°56′32″N91°27′05″W / 41.94215°N 91.45134°W / 41.94215; -91.45134
Current tenantsMuseum
Construction started1856 (1856)
Closed1936
Known forOldest standing one-room brick school house in Iowa
Website
http://www.mycountyparks.com/County/Linn/Park/Abbe-Creek-School-Museum.aspx

The historic Abbe Creek School is a one-room schoolhouse museum located one mile west of Mt. Vernon, Iowa, on E48. It is believed to be the oldest standing one room brick schoolhouse in Iowa. [1] The school is located on land claimed by William Abbe, the first white settler in Linn County, Iowa. [1]

Contents

History

Community established

Abbe Creek School was first organized in 1844 by pioneer homesteaders: Alison I. Willets; Jesse Holman; and Peter, Henry and Conrad Kepler. They engaged a carpenter named Lichtenbarger to build the first log school. The school was first called Sumner School but later it came to be known affectionately as “Little Brick.” Locally, it was called Kepler most likely because many Kepler family members attended. [1]

Construction

Records in the Linn County assessor's office indicate that the present school house was built in 1856 of soft brick thought to have been manufactured locally at Port Stottler brickyard. The building measures 20 by 26 feet and originally faced north.

Restoration

The doors of Abbe Creek School closed on June 1, 1936, after serving the community for 92 years. The building was later converted into a private home. The school and yard were purchased from Mr. and Mrs. Eddie Pitlik in 1963, and on October 25, 1964, the restored schoolhouse was dedicated as a museum. It is now operated by the Linn County Conservation Board and is open during the summer: June – August, 1 p.m. – 4 p.m. Museum tours are available for groups at request. [2]

Grounds features

Cemetery

Behind it lay the community cemetery called Sugar Grove, where many early residents, including the first wife of William Abbe, Olive, and Zimri Davis (1783–1856, a veteran of the War of 1812) and his wife (a daughter of a Revolutionary War veteran) are buried. Two American Civil War veterans, Morris Burnett and George Thompson are also buried there. Many graves date from the 1850s, the earliest visible date is 1847. [2]

Abbe Creek

Also on the grounds is the spring that furnished drinking water for the school. It is the source of a small feeder stream running into Abbe Creek. The original tile used to collect water is still in place. In the winter, the students would skate on the ice of frozen Abbe Creek. There is a storm cellar set into the hill of the school where students would take shelter in severe weather. [1]

Lincoln Highway

With the grading and paving of the Lincoln Highway in 1925, the school was moved to face the East and the cemetery was isolated from it by the road. A Lincoln Highway marker still stands on the school grounds. A few hundred feet southeast of the schoolhouse site is a marker honoring William Abbe as the first settler in Linn County. [1]

Education

Known Abbe Creek Teachers [3]
NameYears
Ellen S. Warren1875
Maria S. Drowns1876-1877
Arvilla Warren1877
U.D. Runkle1877-1878
Ida Goudey1878-1879
Mary C. Keidick1879
U.D. Runkle1879-1880
Mary C. Keidick1880-1881
Fannie L. Dobson1881-1882
M.A.B. Hess1882
Kate L. Willson1882
Mrs. Sucas A. Sucore1882
Ira G. Fairbanks1883
Mrs. Sucas A. Sucore1883-1884
Alma E. Kenderine1884-1887
Ella Owen, Mrs. John Cordes1887
Charles N. Stodad1888
Henry A. Collins1888
Eva Worrell, Mrs. Eva Briggs1888-1890
Mary E. Sherk1890
C. Emma Wallace1890
Clara E. Blinks1891-1892
Bernice E. Blinks1892-1894
F.M. Hicks1894-1895
Lida Colton1895
F.M. Hicks1895-1897
Carrie Barthalomew1897
Isabel Cowen1897-1898
Clara E. Wallace1898-1900
Katherine Bently1900
Geo. W. Johnston1900-1901
NameYears
Mary Spry1901
C.M. Spry1901-1904
Flora Browning1904-1905
Lillian Scroupe1905
Maude Petty, Mrs. Metzger1905-1906
Charlotte Spry1906
Bertha Evans1907-1908
Grace Kearns1908
Eva Bear, Mrs. Loyd Mongun1908-1909
Beatrice G. Brousseau1909
Amand Whittington1910-1914
Alice Fawcett, Mrs. Ross Emerson1914-1915
Harriet Adams, Mrs. MeBach1915-1916
Lillian Ehrnon1916-1917
K. Tallman, Mrs. Burton Hogle1917-1918
Olive E. Hahn1918-1919
Floss Hoover1919
Ruth Travis1919
Anna Welty1920
Gladys Robb1920-1921
Anna Welty1921-1922
Hattie Connor, Mrs. Charles Ford1922-1924
Mrs. Glen Dee1925-1926
Fear Thompsen, Mrs. Laurence Begley1926-1927
Thamer Sizer, Mrs. Robert Begley1927-1928
Bessie B. Scobey1928-1929
Mrs. Glen Dee1929-1930
Mrs. Florence Brace1930-1933
Mrs. Harold Reid1933-1934
Agnes Boyer, Mrs. Vrooman1935-1936

Community

In pioneer times the school served as the center of community life. It served as a school on weekdays and a church on Sundays. Occasionally, a circuit reading preacher from Dubuque would hold services. Once or twice a month the local residents brought their families to sing and practice spelling in the one room school. [4]

Students

Attendance at the school was not required. The farm work came first and in the time left over, the children went to school. Children traveled to school on foot or horseback. Each child was asked to furnish a certain amount of firewood for the school stove. Children started to attend school when they were four and rarely finished the full eight grades. If a student did pass their eighth grade examination, they were allowed to carve their initials on the brick exterior of the school. These carvings are still visible today on every side of the school. Subjects studied in school included reading (McGuffey Readers), spelling, drawing, penmanship (the Palmer Method), music, geography, arithmetic, U.S. history and grammar. [4]

Teachers

Old school records show that teachers were paid very small salaries. In the 1870s and 1880s, pay ranged from $20 to $30 a month with no holidays allowed. The first teacher of Sumner School, William Willcox, probably received less than that. By 1897, Miss Isabel Cowen, teacher for the winter term, was paid $35 a month and allowed $10 for the care of the schoolhouse. [1]

One infamous Abbe Creek teacher, Professor Hicks, could spit his tobacco juice into a crack of a floorboard near the stove with 80 percent accuracy. [1]

Related Research Articles

One-room school Small rural school in which students of different ages are mixed in a single classroom

One-room schools were commonplace throughout rural portions of various countries, including Prussia, Norway, Sweden, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Spain. In most rural and small town schools, all of the students met in a single room. There, a single teacher taught academic basics to several grade levels of elementary-age children. While in many areas one-room schools are no longer used, it is not uncommon for them to remain in developing nations and rural or remote areas. Examples include remote parts of the American West, the Falklands, and the Shetland Islands.

Jefferson County Public Schools (Colorado) School in West Pleasant View, Colorado

Jefferson County School District R-1 is a school district in Jefferson County, Colorado. The district is headquartered at the Jeffco Public Schools Education Center in West Pleasant View, an unincorporated area of the county near Golden in the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area. Jeffco Public Schools serves almost 81,000 students in 166 schools. It is the second-largest school district in Colorado, having been surpassed in 2013 by Denver Public Schools, which has an enrollment of approximately 87,000.


The Cherry Creek School District 5, also known as Cherry Creek Public Schools, is a school district based in western Arapahoe County, Colorado. The superintendent is Scott Siegfried. It consists of elementary, middle, and high schools. The district headquarters are in Greenwood Village.

Avilla R-13 School District

Avilla R-13 School District or Avilla R-XIII School District is a rural public elementary and middle school located in Avilla, Missouri, USA. For grades kindergarten through eight, it is the only school in the district. In the 2000 census, the district schooled 153 pupils and had 13 teachers on staff. Programs include basketball and agriculture, and the school boasts a low student to teacher ratio. Avilla is located at 37°11′38″N94°07′44″W, in Jasper County ten miles east of Carthage, Missouri on MO Route 96 and four miles west of the Lawrence County line.

Craigflower Manor and Schoolhouse National Historic Sites of Canada located in View Royal, British Columbia

The Craigflower Manor and Craigflower Schoolhouse are National Historic Sites of Canada located in View Royal, British Columbia and Saanich near Victoria. The centerpiece of each historic site is a 19th-century building — a manor and schoolhouse commissioned by the Hudson's Bay Company to provide education and lodging for their employees. Built as part of the agricultural community Craigflower Farm, the buildings served as a focal point for the community into the modern era; they remain open to the public today as museums devoted to the colonial history of Victoria.

Vergennes Schoolhouse

The Schoolhouse is an exhibit building at Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont. It was originally located in Vergennes, Vermont.

William Abbe (1800–1854) was an Iowa state senator and is believed to have been the first white settler in Linn County, Iowa. Originally from Ohio, he traveled west in search of land in 1836. Little is known about Abbe until this time. Abbe Creek, on which he established his homestead, still bears his name today. A one-room school house was established on the homestead site in 1856 and still stands today bearing the name of Abbe Creek School. He died in 1854 in California and was buried in Sacramento.

Ourants School United States historic place

Ourant's School is a one-room schoolhouse located on Ourant Road, east of Deersville, Ohio. The schoolhouse was placed on the National Register on 1994-03-17.

Fishing Creek Schoolhouse United States historic place

Fishing Creek Schoolhouse is a historic school located in the Villas census-designated place, of Lower Township, Cape May County, New Jersey, United States. The schoolhouse was built in 1888 and added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 6, 1980.

Venado, California Unincorporated community in California, United States

Venado is an unincorporated community in Sonoma County, California, United States, and is located about 12 miles west of Healdsburg, along Mill Creek Road, below the north slope of Knoll Ridge, on the south bank of Gray Creek, at an elevation of 1,102 feet. The name is Spanish for deer or venison, and the community had a post office from 1921 to 1941. Venado was devastated by the Walbridge Fire in 2020, part of the larger LNU Lightning Complex fire. The Walbridge Fire destroyed many homes and structures in the area, including the Venado Post Office and Daniels School.

The Greenfield Park One Room Schoolhouse is located in the town of Wawarsing in Ulster County, New York, United States. This one-room schoolhouse was built in 1830 and was home to grades one through eight. It was operated by one teacher and one school trustee. Its former students restored it to its present condition after forming the "Greenfield Park Historical Association" in 1960.

Sodom Schoolhouse United States historic place

Sodom Schoolhouse is a historic octagonal school in West Chillisquaque Township, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States reportedly built about 1812, 1835, or 1836 and used until 1915. It is located in a rural area on Pennsylvania Route 45 near several Scotch-Irish communities: the "small group of houses" formerly known as Sodom, which was about a mile east of the hamlet of Montandon, and about 3 miles east of a small town, Lewisburg.

Kansas one room school

In the late 19th and the first half of the 20th century, one room schools were commonplace throughout rural Kansas. In most rural schools, all of the students met in a single room. One room meant one teacher who taught basic reading, writing, and arithmetic to both boys and girls of all grades. When one-on-one instruction was necessary, the teacher would call a student forward to the recitation desk.

Perrinsville School

Perrinsville School is a historical site in Wayne County in Westland, Michigan. Perrinsville is a one-room schoolhouse that is located on Warren Road and Cowan Road. What is now the city of Westland used to be called the Village of Perrinsville in the 1830s. The main residential streets, Perrin and Liberty are still there today and Perrinsville was first settled by Thomas Dickerson in 1831. The Perrin brothers opened a sawmill in 1832 and several other business opened to help the village of Perrinsville reach peak activity in the 1850s.

Jarvis Stone School Historic one-room schoolhouse in Salem, Michigan, US

The Jarvis Stone School, alternately known as the South Salem Stone School, is a defunct school in Salem Township, Washtenaw County, Michigan, built in 1857, and restored in the years leading up to 2007.

Greenfield School (West Allis, Wisconsin) United States historic place

The Greenfield School in West Allis, Wisconsin was built as a two-room school in 1887, but in an elegant Romanesque Revival style unusual for such buildings. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.

Forest Grove School No. 5 United States historic place

Forest Grove School No. 5 is an historic building located near Bettendorf, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.

Marshalltown Community School District (MCSD) is a public school district headquartered in Marshalltown, Iowa.

Des Moines Township No. 7 United States historic place

Des Moines Township No. 7, also known as Cole School, is a historic building located northeast of Boone in rural Boone County, United States. The brick one-room schoolhouse was completed in 1888. The use of brick suggests the people in this area were either people of some wealth or there was a larger population who could draw on a broader base of financial resources. Student records were not kept until the year after the school opened. At that time there were 19 students who were between the ages of 5 and 16. Nellie Harvey was the first teacher, and she and those who came after her worked with the students from first grade to eighth. In addition to being a schoolhouse, the building also served as a voting place, a community center, and a storm shelter. As the number of farm families in the area diminished the enrollment in the school declined. Educational leaders began to advocate for better educational offerings and improved school buildings. In 1920 the Iowa General Assembly passed laws to improve rural schools. During the Great Depression more families left the farms and the school closed in 1933. Two of the students who attended the school when it opened had sons in the final class of eight students.

Gas Creek School United States historic place

The Gas Creek School, near Nathrop, Colorado in Chaffee County, Colorado, was built in 1909. It was the only school in Chaffee County School District No. 20 and it operated from 1909 to 1958. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Booklet prepared by Linn County Historical Museum
  2. 1 2 www.mycountyparks.com Used with permission Accessed 2009-07-29
  3. Linn County Conservation Board, Dedication Ceremony Program
  4. 1 2 Sherman, William L., Iowa’s Country Schools: Landmarks of Learning. Mid Prairie Books, Parkersburg, IA: 1998. ISBN   0-931209-73-0

Commons-logo.svg Media related to Abbe Creek School at Wikimedia Commons