Prairie Belle School

My dad, Clyde Martin, attended Prairie Belle, a one-room school in the 1930s. He was one of four generations of the Martin family to attend the small Greenwood County, Kansas school. The school existed for sixty-six years, starting in 1886. It cost $450 to build the school in those early days.

My family had the school records, since the Martin family was active on the school board and served as the treasurer for the school. My mother combed through these to write a history of the school. In addition, she interviewed a number of former students of Prairie Belle school, including her husband and her sister-in-law, Dorothy Jones. A few years ago, the family donated the records to the Greenwood County Historical Society in Eureka, Kansas.

Here's a glimpse inside a one-room prairie schoolhouse in Kansas. Although the school building is gone, the memories remain.

(Photo from the Martin family album)

Clyde Martin grew up in Greenwood County, Kansas in the 1930s. A hard-working man, he started out farming like his father, but switched to oilfield work to support his growing family. Roughneck, Driller, Tool-Pusher were some of his job titles during the years in the El Dorado oilfield of south-central Kansas. After retirement, he had time for fishing, gardening, selling at the farmer's market and many other activities.

The book also traces the Martin/Joy/Kennedy family history in Kansas. It brings alive Douglas County, Greenwood County and Butler County history ranging from territorial strife to the El Dorado oil boom.

This is the black-and-white paperback version and there is a heritage hardback edition also that includes some color photos.

A story about the school bell

Clyde tells a story about an unusual accident he had at school that required a trip to the doctor's office in Madison for stitches.

"One lunch hour it was my best friend's turn to ring the bell. I slipped around the school and crept up behind my friend and jumped at him yelling BOO. Well, I scared him so bad he slammed the bell back over his head and connected with my head, resulting in a bloody mess and two extremely excited kids."

If you wander enough antique shops or check on eBay, you'll find a vintage school bell. They've also been reproduced as a more affordable memento of the good old days.

Just don't whack anyone on the head with one. These can be decorative as well as useful (ring the bell to call everyone to dinner or train the dog to come in from the yard with it).

I find these old schools fascinating. If you want to read more, here are some great links I uncovered. Learn about the architecture of these schools and check out the vintage photos.

Vintage map of Kansas available from Zazzle: Kansas 4 posters by davidrumsey

Plan some day trips to one-room school houses near where you live. If you don't live in Kansas, maybe a longer trip is the way to go.

We used to have a set of these and when I was a kid, we played "school" for hours. One of us was the teacher and the others were the students. Lots of fun.

They can also make a great vignette in a room. Add a school bell and put some dolls in period outfits on the seats.

This is not Prairie Belle School, but it gives you an idea of what the school day would be like. It's rare to have film from that period, so the quality isn't super, but still interesting.

Excerpt from the book, Clyde Owen Martin

"All we had to drink was water and lots of it carried in from the cistern in the school yard. We used a long handled dipper to dip our drinks from the bucket" Clyde's sister, Dorothy, remembered. In 1928 the community bought a watercooler to put the water in and everyone brought their own cups but the water still had to be pumped from the cistern. Dorothy concluded, "We ate at our desks unless the day was extremely cold, then we huddled around the stove. On hot days the teacher went outside with us to eat in the shade of the only tree!"

The Madison News on February 3, 2011 featured a story that it originally ran 50 years before on February 1, 1951. It was in the Looking Back column.

"The District 102 (Prairie Belle) school house was sold to Chris Sauder at the auction held Saturday, Jan. 20. The land went to Parker Cox. A good crowd was present according to Roy Richards, District No. 79 school board member who clerked the sale, and the district realized a total of $641, of which one building brought $490.

One of the furnishings which was not sold was a religious picture which had been given to the school in 1935 by Miss Verna Brumbaugh who taught her first term of school there in 1890-91. The picture, a head of Christ, had hung in Miss Brumbaugh's school room during all her teaching career which included 21 years as second grade teacher in Madison, and was given to her first school after her retirement in 1932. At Miss Brumbaugh's request it will now hang in the Madison eighth grade room. She also taught eighth grade in Madison for three years."

The school buildings and property were advertised in The Madison News on January 18, 1951.

"Roy Richards, clerk of the Madison school board has advertised the property formerly belonging to District No. 102, for sale. It will be sold at auction to the highest bidder at the site. Included in the sale are the school building, 2 outhouses, coal shed and some of the contents of the school building. District 102 was recently consolidated with Madison district."