Cox School/Pershing School
Portage Township
Location: District #6 – Section 24, southeast corner of Center Street and Cox’s Drive.
The first Cox School was a frame structure with a central bell tower built between 1861 and 1873. It was used as a school until it was replaced in 1927 by the brick building in the photograph above. Apparently at that time it was renamed Pershing School. The original building served as a meeting hall and as a recess building during bad weather. Later it was moved across the street and became a private residence, but was later demolished when the Upjohn Company bought the property. The brick building became part of the Portage school system in 1946, but continued to be used as an elementary school until 1951 when a new Pershing Elementary school was built to the south. After that it was used by several businesses.
Teachers
1921-22 Julia Jacobs
1925-26 Silas Groat
1927-28 Silas Groat, Eleanor Mattison
1929-30 Mrs. Willo Foulk; Mrs. Blanche Harsha
1930-33 Emma Musson; Mrs. Blanche Harsha
1933-34 Roy McIntyre; Mrs. Blanche Harsha
1934-36 Roy McIntyre; Bernice Brockie
1936-37 Melvin Vorenkamp; Bernice Brockie
1937-39 J. R. Cook; Bernice Brockie; Lois M. Krieger
1939-40 J. R. Cook; Bernice Brockie; Mrs. Grace Cunningham
1940-41 Roy McIntyre; Bernice Brockie; Mrs. Grace Cunningham
1941-42 Carl Rhodes; Bernice Brockie; Mrs. Grace Cunningham
1942-43 Mrs. Editha Gillmore; Mrs. Mabel Adams; Mrs. Bernice Haas
1943-44 Mrs. Edith Gillmore; Mrs. Bernice Haas; Mrs. Mabel H. Adams
1945-46 Charles E. Merry; Mrs. Bernice Haas; Mrs. Mabel H. Adams
1946-47 no longer listed in county school directories
Compiled by Catherine Larson, Local History Specialist, Kalamazoo Public Library, 1999. Mapped October 2008. Last updated 30 June 2022.
Sources
Manuscripts
List of one-room schools still standing in Kalamazoo County in 1982
- Hultmark, Sarah
- Manuscript, Local History Collection, Kalamazoo Public Library
Books
An oral history of Portage schools: Cleora Skinner to Pete McFarlane, 2017.
- H 370.9774 O633 (circulating copy also available)
Articles
“Looking Back: They filled Portage’s Pershing School in 1930”
Kalamazoo Gazette, 19 January 2003, page A13, column 4 (with photo)
Maps and atlases
USGS topographic map for Kalamazoo County, 1922/1950 (Schoolcraft Quadrangle)
- History Room topographic map case, drawer 5B, folder 37.
Files
Teachers’ and School Officers’ Directory, Kalamazoo County, Michigan, 1921-22, 1925-46
- Shelved in a pamphlet box with H 379.774 K149 (History Room Storage)