RURAL SCHOOLS

by Claudia Tompkins

Entry T23 from the History of Hooker County Nebraska
with permission of the Hooker County Historical Society

Fairfield School southeast Hooker County. Anna
Lease teacher Late teens

A school in South Cherry Co. Mrs. June Kemp
Simonson and her mother both taught here

Revere School - 1928-29 Bernadette Piel French,
teacher Canida and Revere children

District 66 School South Cherry Co. 1919 - '21
Maxine McNeal teacher

School House District #51, South Cherry Co.
Dooley, Sullivan, Elliott, Cristie and Corr
children in 1947

Hecla School Hooker County

First of many movable Trailer Schools in Hooker
County Allegra Simonson - teacher

Highland School 1938-39 Claudia Machlan Tompkins,
teacher.

School House District 66, South Cherry County.

Hooker And South Cherry Counties

Prior to 1892, most of the Hooker County
and South Cherry County areas had unorga-
nized school districts. Schools were held in
many homes or some other available build-
ing. The teachers usually received their board
and room by staying in patrons homes by
turn. The ungraded schools were mostly of
short terms, three or four months. Pupils
could advance in grades as rapidly as they
were able - (3 R's, Readin', Ritin', Rithmetic)
some of the pupils might be 20 or 21 years of
age because of the short terms.

Parents donated textbooks that they may
have brought to this area from back east. The
desks and furniture was mainly crude or was
handmade. Blackboards were plaster painted
black. Slates and slate pencils were used also.
Fuel for the cast iron potbellied stoves was
cow chips or whatever the children may have
picked up during recess. These treeless plains
were quite a change from their homes in the
east.

Hooker County's school system was un-
usual. When the county was created in 1889,
it was divided into seven districts but because
of the small population, few classes were held.
At one time, District #2, as it was called then,
supported 22 rural schools.

The first school on the Dismal River 1903,
District #6 was organized in the southwest
corner of Hooker County. Nan Barnebey, the
1st teacher and the children were; Jess
Thompson and Robert Shimmin families. It
was a sod schoolhouse with ridge poles,
bought from Web Bowers. These were cov-
ered with hay, then sod, and last of all, gyp
which prevented leaking. Nan was paid $8 a
month and stayed the year with Shimmins.
Mr. Catron was county Superintendent at
that time. Mary Neal was the 2nd teacher to
teach the "Shimmin School." The old stoves
burned cow chips, the floor was wooden and
had plastered walls. (interviews - Frank
Shimmin and Mary Neal in Mullen Round-
Up 1958 by Mullen High School Students)

An article in part from the Omaha World
Hearld September 13' 1942 by Rev. Harold
Baker concerning Trailer Schools. " . . . if the
pupils out in the Sandhills can't go to the
school, the school goes to the pupil. For
several years the widely scattered population
of the Sandhills was a headache. It was
impossible to build adequate schoolhouses to
accommodate patrons that were few and the
distance great. The schoolhouses were moved
quite often to various points where it would
be convenient to the largest number of pupils.
That proved expensive and it damaged
plaster and often the chimneys. Wayne
Fitzgerald, Hooker County Superintendent
believes that the country school problem is
settled differently in Hooker County than
anywhere in the world. The bright idea of
building a trailer school, and two were
constructed by Wayne and his father, Frank
Fitzgerald. They can be dragged by a team of
4 to 6 horses as far as 20 or more miles to new
locations in a shorter time and less expense
than the traditional frame schools. Superin-
tendent Fitzgerald says the trailer schools are
the answer in thinly populated areas. They
are practical because of mobility, and eco-
nomical heating by small oil circulating
heaters."

Some of the early rural schools mentioned
in the family stories were: Hecla, Eclipse,
Shimmin, Ballard, Haney, McPherson -
Highland, Hardy, Cox, Furrow, Barnebey,
Hatch, Revere, Wright and Daggett. There
are no rural schools now in Hooker County,
the pupils are bussed into the Mullen
Schools.