PEOPLE OF DISTRICT NO. 27 DEDICATE THEIR MODERN NEW SCHOOL BUIDING
Last summer the people of District No. 27, five miles northeast of St. Edward, started out to remodel their old school which had been in use for twenty years, but before they finished the operations they awakened to a realization of the fact that they had practically a brand new building, so extensively had the old been remodeled and enlarged. Last Friday evening they held special exercises to dedicate the building and, like the program of remodeling, they did a thorough job of it.
The exercises, under auspices of the Community club, opened with the singing of the Star Spangled Banner. Frank Green, a member of the board, read an interesting history of the district writen by Mrs. George Crosier. Superintendent Kelley, of the St. Edward school, spoke upon the opportunities and advantages of a rural school teacher, and the mission of the country school. County Nurse Hanley gave a health talk in which she developed the thought expressed by the couplet: "He who has health has hope. He who has hope has everything." County Attorney Walter discussed the conditions of the times as relating to farm life. He attributed the present era of low prices for farm products to a combination of factors, a few of which he enumerated as the delay in completing peace negotations following the war, the sudden shrinkage of credits by the federal reserve system, excessive freight rates and heavy national taxation. In connection with the last item he mentioned the interesting fact that the cost of maintaining the army and navy for two year would build forty highways across the United States each way, and that the cost of the war equalled the value of every section of land in the country. In closing the program, County Superintendent Lecron spoke briefly upon the subject of Standardization of Schools."
District 27's building occupies a site of two acres and the lawn is sown to blue grass. Two features in connection with it not often found at country school are a barn which will accomodate more than ten horses, and a storm cellar. The schoolhouse is 30 by 24 feet in dimension and the main school room will accommodate about forty pupils. It is equipped with a sanitary drinking fountain, a library of reference books, a clothes hall, a heating and ventilating plant, ample blackboard space, and other features of a modern school. The window arrangement gives light from two sides--west and south with the main battery of windows on the west. Except in one or two minor respects, the building meets the state requirement for a standard school. The enrollment of pupils this year is thirty-one.
County superintendent and Mrs. Lecron and their sister-in-law, Mrs. C.N. Robb, of Omaha, and County Attorney and Mrs. Walter drove up from Columbus to attend the dedication.
History of the District. The history of the district as written by Mrs. Crosier and read by Mr. Green, who presided at the exercises, was as follows:
"In the spring of 1900 the parents of this neighborhood began to realize that they were living too far from school, as it was 3 1/2 miles from the most remote homes to the schoolhouse, and that was too far for little children to walk, so J.C. Wilson and George Crosier took it upon themselves to circulate petitions to have Mr. Pleasant and Palestine districts divided to form a new district. Of course, they met with some opposition, but succeeded in getting the required number of signers, which was two-thirds of the voters of each district. The county superintendent, L.H. Leavy, then ordered the division and a meeting was called to elect officers. J.C. Wilson was elected director, L. Justus, moderator; George Crosier, treasurer. They also voted to bond the district for funds with which to build a schoolhouse, but first they had to have a location. George crosier then offered to sell an acre of ground for that purpose. They accepted the offer, paying him $30 for one acre from the northeast corner of his farm. The bonds were sold to R.S. Dickinson for $381 and we were entitled to a share of the money from the taxes in the other two district, $179.56 from Mr. Pleasant and $127.77 from Palestine. With our state apportionment of $49.94, this made a total of $738.27. Carpenter were hired and the house built, but it was not finished in time to start school until October 16. The district was numbered 27, and Center school was chosen as the name. Improvements have been made from time to time, such as a cave, coal shed and a barn for the children's horses, if they drive to school. Right in the beginning we planted trees for shade, a fact we can point to with pride, as our school grounds are far ahead of some much older districts in that respect. Stella M. Elliott was hired to teach the first term at $28 a month. Teachers since that time have been: Grace M. Woods, Ella M. Hehnke, Mable Thompson, Alice Lyons, Edna Johnson, Maud Harris, Bessie Wilson, Nora Thomas, Julia Peterson, Geneva Jones, Maud Berlin, Alice Newman, Belle Curry, Hester Curry and our present teacher, Edna Ellis. Having outgrown the old building it was decided at the annual meeting last spring to enlarge and remodel it, and you now see our modern school building."[The Columbus Telegram, October 28, 1921]