Cedar Township
The first school district, District 1, in the NE1/4 of the township deep in the new home land of Mr. Leach and his neighbors. Mrs. Wilgocki writes the following report of District 1.
District 1, Cedar Creek School
September 16, 1871 notices were prepared and addressed to the residents in the area to call a meeting for the organization of a school. It would be District One. The school board members were:
A. J. Leach
Albert Palmer
Monroe Whitmore.
The first teachers were Mrs. E. H. Leach and Miss Beckwith.
It was a frame building and as far as was known it was the only one of its kind for some time. Later buildings were of sod or log. It was located on Cedar Creek on land owned by Mr. Leach.
The district covered a good many miles as it went to a mile south of Oakdale. In 1882 Mr. Julius Thorman was one of the forty-two pupils attending. In 1883 another school house was built a little east of the old one. In 1906 the building was improved by adding a hall and belfry. (The photo on this page shows District 1 as it looked -- photo taken in 2007.)
Mrs. Arthur Derry taught at District 1 in 1887 with 25 pupils attending. The pupils varied in the school in number from forty-seven down to one. After the school was closed the Cedar Creek Club purchased the building and used it for club meetings and community affairs. In 1962 the district merged with the Elgin Public Schools. By 1974 Cedar Township was only one school district, No. 36. Part of the children were bused to Boone County and others to Elgin Public School. In 1975 the school building was still owned and used by the Cedar Creek Club.
~By Mrs. Henry Wilgocki
Source: History of Antelope County, 1883-1973, Pg 24
Chapter XXXIV. A Little Girl's Life in Antelope County in Early Days
By Mrs. Kate M. Brainard of Oakdale
[Excerpt-Page 200]
We were always quite proud of our school. Our district was No. 1, and that of itself was considered a distinction. We had a frame school-house while the other school houses, with one exception, as far as we knew, were sod or log. As this same school building was afterwards bought by Mr. Eggleston and used for a chicken house, I hardly suppose it was as fine a building as it seemed to our childish eyes. But we did have a good school and pleasant surroundings, for the school-house stood in a cozy little nook, not so far from the creek, where there were lots of timber, wild flowers, and many delightful places for play. When I commenced going to school, and for some years afterwards, I was the only scholar that was born in Nebraska. The other children used to twit me of this fact and rather poked fun at me for never having been out of the state.
Source: History of Antelope County, 1868-1883 by A. J. Leach
