A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
Desks came in all sizes in one-room schoolhouses.
Rick Gresczyk led class at the historic schoolhouse at the fair Friday afternoon. He is from Kettle River and lives in Wright. He teaches at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College.
The Little Red School House at the Carlton County Fairgrounds represents a typical one-room, multiple-grade school common in rural areas years ago. Many of your grandparents and great-grandparents may have attended a school such as this one.
Townships often had many of these buildings. Little by little these schools were consolidated into larger school districts, and the old buildings became town halls, churches, residences or were torn down.
One- and two-room schools housed grades 1-8. They say the younger ones got that much extra and the older ones got lots of review. There were several different sizes of desks to accommodate pupils in all grades.
The teachers had their hands full. A teacher had no help, was paid very little and often boarded with families in the district. In early days, a teacher needed only to finish eighth grade and complete an examination to teach in the primary grades. Women often pursued this career until they married, after which they could no longer teach.
The building on the fairgrounds was originally the Big Lake Hanging Horn Community Church on South County Road 13 and Portage Road. It was built in 1925. It was a nondenominational church and community center, dissolving in 1956. The building was then moved to the fairgrounds.
The building restoration was made possible by the Carlton County Historical Society, the Retired Teachers of Carlton County and the Carlton County Fair Board. School research is an ongoing project by the historical society, so if you have photographs, documents or artifacts to donate, please call Jennie Hanson at 218-357-2385.
