Provided by Martha Bernie
It is unknown exactly
when and where the first one-room log schoolhouse in Union Township was
built, but it was probably prior to the Civil War, not too far from the old
Union Cemetery, two miles west of Phillipsburg. The earliest records still
in readable condition are from l871 when the annual school board meeting
closed with the secretary taking the oath of honesty, “So Help Me God.” In
l878, Cumberland Presbyterian Church records made reference to the
schoolhouse being used for Sunday sermons delivered by preachers visiting
the area. Obituaries before the turn of the century sometimes mention
burials “in the Union School House burying ground.” The multi-purpose
schoolhouse was clearly the center of educational, religious and other
community activities.
As the population of the district
increased, the log schoolhouse became crowded and was replaced by a larger
frame building. The second building was destroyed by fire in the summer of
l895 and a meeting was called so plans could be made for a new building.
Ballots were cast and it was decided that the new schoolhouse would be
constructed on a different site. An acre of land was purchased from the
Ozark Land Company and the new school was built for $328. John Wills
was the first teacher in the new building, 1895-96.
After the turn of the century, Eli
Shank donated a small piece of land for yet another new building across
the road from the Union Cemetery gate. Local children walked long distances
to attend classes from August until May. Some school years there were as
many as eighty students attending the Union School, ranging in ages from 6
to 21 years. Sometimes the older students only attended during the winter
months when they could be spared at home from farm chores.
The building was heated on cold days by a
big wood stove, and each year one pupil who didn’t live too far away was
paid 50 cents a month during winter to walk to the school by 7:00 a.m. It
was his or her job to get the wood fire burning so the building would be
warm for the teacher and other pupils when they arrived for class.
Union School students organized a
Literary Society and also a Debate team, and after some basic work in the
morning, Friday afternoons were spent competing with other schools in
debate, ciphering and spelling matches. Debate teams were given questions
such as, “Which is more destructive—fire or water?” or “Which has the
highest temper—a red head or a brunette?”
Each year at Christmas, the children
learned parts and performed in the annual Christmas program for their
parents. However, the big event of the year was the program on the last day
of school. In the morning, the children practiced their parts and waited
for their mothers and dads to arrive with baskets filled for the midday
“dinner”. As soon as everyone was present, the desks were placed together
to form tables and a bountiful meal was enjoyed by everyone. The program
was presented in the afternoon, and then the teacher gave each child a treat
as a goodbye present. Some early teachers at the Union School were Lela
Harriman, Ella Knight, Maude Dodson, Beulah Tribble,
George Chambers and Viola Warren.
In later years, the Union School
consolidated with the Phillipsburg School District and local children were
taken in buses to a larger, more modern building. The little stucco Union
Schoolhouse was boarded up for some time but eventually was used as a hay
shed. James Howerton owns the land where the building still stands
today, and from the roadside, it is hard to tell the aluminum-sided barn was
ever a one-room schoolhouse. The porch is gone and the windows are no
longer visible, but one thing does give it away…not too many barns have
chimneys! The building has been added onto on both sides, but the inside of
the middle section shows remnants of its prior life. Some of the old
blackboards are still on the walls, and the big chimney where the old wood
stove warmed the schoolhouse is still in tact at the front of the room.
Bertha Barnes, a student in about 1910, wrote her name in an unobtrusive
corner and the inscription is still there.
Hundreds of local children were
educated in the little one-room Union School. One teacher taught first
through twelfth grades, the part-time twelfth grade students sometimes being
older than the teacher! It was not an easy job, and a great deal of
stamina, endurance and discipline were needed to teach the Three R’s.
