Oak Grove School - Fractional District #6

Texas Township

Location: Fractional District #6 – Section 6, northwest corner of Stadium Drive and 1st Street.

The earliest available school records show that Charles Northrop deeded the one acre school site to the school district in November 1863. It is clear from the list of teachers that a school was being conducted that year somewhere in the district, but a building existed on this location no later than February 1867 when an insurance policy was purchased for it. The first building was evidently wood frame because in 1869 the school board voted to raise $25 to paint the outside with “mineral paint.” It had been replaced by November 1886 when a “one story brick, shingle roof, school building” was insured for $1,000. No evidence has been found as to when the present two-story building was constructed. The school was closed at the end of the 1944-45 school year. As of 2016, it was in use as a private home.

The school also served as a public library. In late April 1865 the board appointed Mr. Osmond Monroe Stevens, a farmer who lived near the school, as librarian of the district. The books were to be kept at school and loaned to the public. In March 1871, the board “voted to have Mrs. Kinney librarian.” That was probably Mary McKain Kinney, a native of Ireland who lived just slightly northeast of the school. A record of her family was found with other papers from the school district. Not long after she was appointed, the board also “Voted to admit schollars from other districts and collect tuition by rate bill and appropriate to benefit of school library.” Sporadic expenditures for library books continued at least as late as 1915. A “Catalogue of Books in District Library” found among the school’s papers, undated but probably from the 1880’s, lists 52 titles, heavy on history and biography, a collection evidently designed to appeal to adults more than children.

Teachers

Compiled by Catherine Larson, Local History Room staff, November 2016, with special thanks to Lora Branson for bringing this school to our attention, to the anonymous man who donated the school records to the Friends of the Library, to Carol Manstrom for recognizing their value and bringing them to Local History, and to Tam Skidmore for the huge job of scanning all those documents. Last updated 17 May 2022.