Country School Museum

 This School within the house is not always going to be available to see for it is within a private home. It is here in the website just to show it's history. 

Long long ago the 2 story part of this house was built and the OLD school was moved over to the house sometime around the late 1800s. That 2 story part was built around 1883.  The man that grew up in this house said his previous relatives moved that 'school' to the house from about a mile South.  Since we have the records to Belleview we looked on the old maps of the schools and nothing was in that area at all. So we didn't think it was a school. Maybe the roomer got started but wasn't true??? We dug into the walls and found this:

Along with the obvious 'black board' surfaces, there were gobs of scribbles and some writing you could bearly make out! WOW this really was a school!!! According to the square nails and the rough cut lumber it had to have been built somewhere around the 1870s! Then one day we found this at the Sumner County Courthouse in Wellington, KS: Arrows point to where the school origionally came from

The best thing we can figure is this school was the District 86's first school which I call a pioneer. The only way to comfirm this is to find the District 86 of Sumner County school

What happened to the old schools after they were closed and no longer used as a school?

In the early days as schools were still doing well, the school boards could vote for updating or rebuidling to get a larger more modern school. What happened with the 'old school'? Well often times school boards would sell them to someone that wanted to buy it to use on their home as a living room or as a garage etc..  Or later on in time after the last schools had to close and reconsolidate into the school districts we have today many schools started a community club. Belleview had one called the "Belleview Community Club" and Spring Creek school had one called the "Spring Creek Community Club". After these clubs had to quit a lot of schools were sold to the local township for $1.  Some were used as polling places such as Belleview. 

Then you have couples like us that feel sorry for the poor ol buildings that no one wants anymore! We hope to teach people about these schools that once dotted the country side!!

Sumner County had just over 200 schools throughout the county! Children in rural areas did not have to walk anymore then 3 miles!

OR IS IT THE ORIGNINAL OLIVE BRANCH SCHOOL District 117??



Sure looks IDENTICAL! WHOA!! Chimney, 2 windows on the sides (current windows are not original) And the front side with the door was removed to be added to the house long ago.