Prairie School in Montgomery County

Submitted by Dan Whistler

The Prairie School was located 6 miles Northeast of Elk City, Louisbugh Township, Montgomery County, Kansas. It was built in 1871 on land donated by Thomas F. Whistler and Awuire Littleton. The construction was done by Squire Littleton and James Brown with lumber hauled in from the mills in Arkansas. At the time there were no trees from Pocket Hollow to the East to Duck Creek to the Northwest therefore, Prarie was an appropriate name. The roads were simply trails at the time as the section lines had not been located. In a paper written by Mae Couch in 1935 it is mentioned that the story of a little girl who lived two and a half miles East of school would walk to school by herself. there would be prarie chickens which she thought might be Indians and would walk stooped over to keep from being seen.

The frist Board consisted of T. A. Frizwell, W.W. Preston and Squire Littleton. The first teacher was a Miss Evans who received a salary of about $25.00 a month. The school term began in Octobver and lasted for 4-5 months. The pupils, age 5-21 years, were placed in classes A, B, and C. They would attend until they were of age or they wanted to quit. Requirements for a teacher's certificate was two months in normal school, be 18 years of age and pass an examination given by the County Board. A list of teachers includes Miss Evans (1871-72), Maude Weaver (1904-05), Faye James (1920-21), Fred Stong (1921-22), Faye James (1922-23), J. Audrey Watson (1923-24), Verna Thompson (1924-1925), Helen Linn (1925-26), Agnes Whistler (1926-1927), Dora Porter (1929-30), Alliane McCarty (1930-31), Mae Couch (1932-34), Pauline James (1934-35, and other names but without dates that include Miss Divens, Mr. Hughes, Ed Martin, Sadie Hackney, Kate Wright, Benson Rucher, Ed Cole, Bob Clark, Wilmore Clark, Roe Evans, Frank Coleman, Eva Goodwin, Bessie Kelley, Phyllis Miller, Squire Littleton and Oscar Owen.

These names and dates have not been verified through local school records with Montgomery County. A few of the first students to attend Prairie School are Ed Cole, George Hutson, Alex McDowell, the children of Perry Brown and John O'Kane Whistler, the son of Thomas F. Whistler. There have been four generations of Whistler's who have attended Prairie School. John O'Kane Whistler's daughter, Agnes (Whistler) Saunders, his daughter-in-law, Maude (Weaver) Whistler, and a daughter-in-law of Bert and Maude Whistler, Mae (Couch) Whistler have all taught at Prairie School.

The school building is typical of most of the one room school houses throughout Kansas. Placed on one acre of land, the front door faced the East. There were 4 windows on the North and South sides, later a window on the Southwest side was changed to a door for fire safety reasons. There was a cement front porch with four galvanized posts that were worn slick from the pupils swinging on them. A school bell in the belfry was rung at 8:30 AM for 5 minutes, then class started at 9:00 AM. The teachers desk was on a raised platform on the West end of the room, with a blackboard, bookcase, piano and pull-down maps behind and to the sides. Three rows of double desks for the pupils, smaller desks in front and larger desks in back were placed in front of the teacher. There were curtains that could be pulled together in front of the platform area for plays and performances. A potbellied stove was on the North side of the room. Older boys would bring in coal and kindling from the shed, on those cold days, and they would pop corn on the stove. Just inside the front door was pegs on the wall for coats, shelves for lunch buckets, places to hang drinking cups, a pail for drinking water, and a wash basin & towel. Outside on the South was a well near the hedgerow for drinking water. The coal and wood shed was near the back door. On the North side was the two bathrooms (outhouses) one for boys and one for girls.

Directly in front of school was a small bridge over a culvert along the road. I have heard from reliable sources that the older girls would talk about the birds and the bees with the younger girls on this small bridge. Subjects taught to all 8 grades were arithmetic, reading, grammar, spelling, writing, and drawing. Geography was introduced in the 4th grade, history in the 6th grade, physiology in the 7th grade, and Kansas history, U.S. Constitution and agriculture in the 8th grade. Spelling bee's, ciphering matches and sports were some of the school activities. Community meetings were held once a month where pupils would perform in plays. Christmas and the last day of school were always special occasions for everyone. Mae (Couch) Whistler recalls as a teacher (1932-33-34) her Christmas activities included a huge cedar tree decorated with paper chains, popcorn on strings, and paper ornaments made by students. She painted electric bulbs blue then had her father, Clarence Couch and her husband Harry Whistler solder them to a wire that was then connected to a car battery. The parents and children gasped and applauded when they turned the lights on. Mae Couch received a lovely quilt with all the students names on it that was made by the ladies of the district. Some of the games played during the recess were tag, drop the handkerchief, needles eye, ante over, farmer in the dell, butter & eggs, jump rope, hopscotch and when it snowed, fox & geese. Baseball was a favorite activity, all the children played the same game. The older pupils always helped the younger ones. Mae Couch Whistler joined in the games and feels that this taught them patience, tolerance and love. Everyone walked to school, sometimes in bad weather wagons were used but Mae stated there were no days that school was canceled due to weather.

To gather this information I have sent request for details to my Aunts and Uncles that attended Prairie School in the 1920-30's for their first hand accounts. Much of the above story is from their many memories they have shared with me. The following brief comments share some of their lighter stories with you.

My uncle, Glen Whistler reports a prank on teacher, Oscar Owens. He always drove a one horse cart to school, on a Halloween day it was found up on the coal and wood shed. Glen says he doesn't have any idea who might have done it. I'm sure my uncle wouldn't do something like that. My Aunt Margaret (Whistler) Baumann remembers taking a drink from the water bucket and having a scorpion in her mouth. She quickly spat it our without getting bitten. Cousin Marvin "Pete" Whistler mentioned taking hedge apples to school, hiding them in the desks, then rolling them down the aisle when the teacher wasn't looking. Aunt Nan (Whistler) Henderson played ball on the Prairie School team that was all girls. They played another team from the Gregory School, whipping them rather badly. One of the pupils on that team was Ray E. Henderson that Nan later married. She liked to bring up that fact whenever baseball was the topic for discussion, always with a good-natured ribbing.