Bureau County’s one-room schoolhouses date back to the 1830s, only a few years after Henry Thomas had settled in what would become Bureau County, the first white man to settle in the area.
George Owen Smith, who wrote the “History of Princeton,” wrote that schools got a boost in 1849, when the school law was amended so voters of a school district could determine whether to levy a tax for the support of common schools. The records show that the first listed school tax for 13 of the 22 townships of the county amounted to $3,210.12, of which Princeton received $1,948.04.
Bureau County Historical Society Pam Lange and Jane Gronwald wrote “School Days, School Days,” a paper on Illinois’ one-room schoolhouses. They said Illinois had more one-room schoolhouses than any other state — 12,000 in all — and Bureau County alone had 236 across the countryside. Rural schoolhouses were built about two miles apart, so pupils could easily get to school.
Lange and Gronwald wrote that one teacher taught all eight grades and may have had as many as 35 students or as few as four in the classroom. Each district usually included about 10 to 12 families.
Living arrangements for a teacher varied from district to district, and often the teachers spent the school year living for a month at a time with school board members or their students’ families.
Lange and Gronwald wrote the primary method of teaching the country schools was memorization and recitation. Most schoolhouses were the same on the inside and just had the basics, blackboards in the front, a teacher’s desk, maps for geography lessons, rows of desks where students often sat two to a desk, and a pot belly stove.
The one-room schoolhouses eventually went the way of the horse and buggy. Of the approximately 200,000 one-room schools in use at the start of the 20th century, only about 12,000 buildings remain.
According to an article in the Bureau County Republican dated Dec. 30, 1943, the number of schools in the county had dropped to 158, and 30 of those schools had just closed. The schools had closed primarily due to a teacher shortage, but enrollment was another factor. According to the article, only the Berean, Dalzell and Manlius schools had more than 30 students, and many schools had six or fewer students.
While Bureau County’s one-room schools have closed, and many of the buildings are no longer in existence, the memories remain.
During the next several months, we will share the stories and memories of Bureau County residents of the schools that marked their childhoods.
At one time there were nearly 200 one-room schoolhouses in the county, and we hope to find the stories and photos of many of them.
We hope you will enjoy the series, and encourage others to share their memories.
And now, in the words of the old song “School Days:
“Let’s take a trip on the Memory Ship,
And sail back ... to the old village schoolhouse.”
See Thursday’s BCR for the story of the Bryant School, located between Princeton and Tiskilwa.
Comment on this story at www.bcrnews.com.