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My recent column about the Highland School in Jackson County and other one-room schoolhouses brought back memories for many readers.
One of them was Winston Zeman, 88, of Melrose. He was a student in 7th and 8th grade during 1944-1946 at the Highland School. He said he went to the nearby Cuffy Nob school before that.
Zeman said my grandfather Keith Hardie transported some students from the Franklin area to Cuffy Nob when enrollment there decreased. There were 20 pupils in grades 1 through 8 at the Highland School when Zeman attended. He said he walked to school, rode horses in good weather, and used a horse and cutter in winter. Sometimes he used a car.
The Highland School closed a year later in 1947. Zeman said he and a fellow classmate would stop in to check its condition. He too is amazed it’s still standing.
Marion Christensen said there’s an annual celebration at the Lone Rock School, a rural school near Camp Douglas. The first school there was a log cabin built in 1871, which was torn down for the present structure; it has two rooms and a basement. It was closed in 1963, with the students incorporated with the New Lisbon School District. A nonprofit was formed in recent years and leases the building from the town of Orange, which formerly used the building as its town hall.
“I attended all eight years of my grade school there and we are quite proud of the school,” Christensen said in an email.
She invited me to their annual “Rock Around the Block,” a June celebration that includes a 5-mile walk, a short program with a flag raising, entertainment, silent auction and a potluck dinner. Proceeds from the event go toward renovation and preservation of the school, which was named after a nearby rock formation.
“So sad to see all the buildings of the past be in such sad repair,” she said.
Sue Hauser of La Crosse said she and her husband, Kirk, both attended one-room schools. She said she attended Grand View School in St. Croix County for grades 1-4.
“Although the building had electricity and a furnace, there was no running water,” she said. “We had ‘walking water.’ Each morning one of the 7th or 8th grade boys would carry a pail to the nearest neighbor’s house and bring back our drinking water for the day.”
Hauser said her mother helped put together a book about the rural schools in St. Croix County, which was published in 1991. The History Book Project Committee followed with another book about creameries and cheese factories in the county.
“It’s been a decade since either book was taken down from the shelf, but your schools article reminded me of them,” Hauser said. “They’ll be good reading during more of these ‘shelter-in-place’ months.”
She said she and Kirk are 70 and “once a farm kid, always a farm kid.”
“Your stories strike a happy chord for us and we always look forward to seeing what you’ll be sharing next,” she said.
Thanks to Winston, Marion and Sue for their thoughts. Reader feedback is always appreciated.
Who knows what may be shared next?
Chris Hardie spent more than 30 years as a reporter, editor
