I grew up in a small Ohio town and I rode the school bus from 1st through 12th grades. My bus ride always included a country road on which every school day we saw a one-room brick school house. (SW corner of Stine Rd and Enon-Xenia Pike). As the years went by I watched this wonderful, familiar friend fall apart. After I married the school really began to deteriorate. Every time we visited the area I would want to take a photo of the school but never did. Finally, when we went specifically for the task, the school was gone. It was a huge loss for me and, since that time, whenever we pass a one-room school it is a joy to stop to take a picture or two. Thus, our collection here and the blog with schools in other states. Jill :oD
Monday, May 13, 2019
Franklin Township #? Mills School
This school is located about six miles north of Burlington at the SW corner of US61 and 160th St. Looks to be used for storage.
I grew up in the southwest corner of Franklin Township, and Mills School would have been located near the east edge of Franklin Township. From 1958 to 1962 I rode a school bus to/from Sperry high school, and we passed by this building every day. Maybe that is why this photo looked somewhat familiar after sixty years.
The north-south road passing through the section numbers 14, 23, 26, 35 is Highway 61. Notice the school symbol centered between Sections 26 and 35. There is no name on the school, but this must be it. Maybe someone else can confirm the name. I grew up in an old 1840s, two story house in the extreme northeast corner of Section 31, which is 3.5 miles directly west of this school.
OK, check out this link. Here it says Franklin Mills School and even gives the GPS coordinates.
See the clip image below from the 1930 plat map of Des Moines County, Iowa. The two school locations (Wild Cat and Zion) are identified in red. Also the three stars indicate approximate locations where my parents lived, identified by the years they lived there.
The above link points to the first one-room school that I attended with my two older sisters in 1948-1949. That year was taught by my second cousin, https://funeralinnovations.com/obituary/292284/Leona-Schmeiser/. Located in Flint River Township (Section 8) and officially named Flint River School, we knew it as "Wild Cat." I started school two weeks before my fifth birthday and was too young. For that, my cousin flunked me, and I would repeat kindergarten again at a different school. The Wild Cat schoolhouse has been converted to a home, and a photo of the converted building can also be found on the internet.
We were poor and my parents had moved a number of times in the 1930s, 1940s, and early 1950s, likely to the cheapest rentals that Dad could find. In September, 1949 they moved about two miles north from Flint River Township to Franklin Township, into an old house that was about to fall down. It had no running water or electricity. In my second kindergarten year we would walk about half a mile southwest to Zion School (Section 29 in Franklin Township.) https://www.desmoinescounty.iowa.gov/536/Zion-Schoolhouse I can still remember the kerosene lamps, Mom trimming the wicks and wiping black soot out of the glasses. My middle and youngest sisters, my younger brother, and I are in some of the photos in the above link.
I can only imagine how many hours Dad had to listen to Mom complaining about no electricity, especially when my brother was about to be born in May, 1950. So, sometime in 1950 we moved southwest about a mile into another house, this time with electricity but again with no running water. This house came with 160 acres of land at a rental cost of $1050 per year, the annual amount never to increase until Dad and my younger brother purchased the property in the mid 1970s. We became "farmers." From that time on the kids would walk northeast to Zion School.
On Dad's side, my great grandfather settled from Prussia on the northern edge of Section 32 of Franklin Township in 1845, where my grandfather was born and raised. And my Dad was born and raised in the middle of Section 33 of Franklin Township. When I was born, my parents lived a couple miles north of Burlington, Iowa, but I grew up in Section 31 of Franklin Township from about age 7. Most of the Wehage clan, originating from Prussia, is still centered around the north edge of Section 32 of Franklin Township in Des Moines County, Iowa.
5 comments:
I grew up in the southwest corner of Franklin Township, and Mills School would have been located near the east edge of Franklin Township. From 1958 to 1962 I rode a school bus to/from Sperry high school, and we passed by this building every day. Maybe that is why this photo looked somewhat familiar after sixty years.
Hi Roger,
Thank you for that bit of history. Do you happen to know its township number?
Hi Glenn,
Check out this 1930 plat map of Franklin Township.
https://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/islandora/object/ui%3Ahixson_473
The north-south road passing through the section numbers 14, 23, 26, 35 is Highway 61. Notice the school symbol centered between Sections 26 and 35. There is no name on the school, but this must be it. Maybe someone else can confirm the name. I grew up in an old 1840s, two story house in the extreme northeast corner of Section 31, which is 3.5 miles directly west of this school.
OK, check out this link. Here it says Franklin Mills School and even gives the GPS coordinates.
Latitude: 40.91337
Longitude: -91.1701477
https://iowa.hometownlocator.com/maps/feature-map,ftc,2,fid,456733,n,franklin%20mills%20school.cfm
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/318066792403046536/
See the clip image below from the 1930 plat map of Des Moines County, Iowa. The two school locations (Wild Cat and Zion) are identified in red. Also the three stars indicate approximate locations where my parents lived, identified by the years they lived there.
The above link points to the first one-room school that I attended with my two older sisters in 1948-1949. That year was taught by my second cousin, https://funeralinnovations.com/obituary/292284/Leona-Schmeiser/. Located in Flint River Township (Section 8) and officially named Flint River School, we knew it as "Wild Cat." I started school two weeks before my fifth birthday and was too young. For that, my cousin flunked me, and I would repeat kindergarten again at a different school. The Wild Cat schoolhouse has been converted to a home, and a photo of the converted building can also be found on the internet.
We were poor and my parents had moved a number of times in the 1930s, 1940s, and early 1950s, likely to the cheapest rentals that Dad could find. In September, 1949 they moved about two miles north from Flint River Township to Franklin Township, into an old house that was about to fall down. It had no running water or electricity. In my second kindergarten year we would walk about half a mile southwest to Zion School (Section 29 in Franklin Township.) https://www.desmoinescounty.iowa.gov/536/Zion-Schoolhouse I can still remember the kerosene lamps, Mom trimming the wicks and wiping black soot out of the glasses. My middle and youngest sisters, my younger brother, and I are in some of the photos in the above link.
I can only imagine how many hours Dad had to listen to Mom complaining about no electricity, especially when my brother was about to be born in May, 1950. So, sometime in 1950 we moved southwest about a mile into another house, this time with electricity but again with no running water. This house came with 160 acres of land at a rental cost of $1050 per year, the annual amount never to increase until Dad and my younger brother purchased the property in the mid 1970s. We became "farmers." From that time on the kids would walk northeast to Zion School.
On Dad's side, my great grandfather settled from Prussia on the northern edge of Section 32 of Franklin Township in 1845, where my grandfather was born and raised. And my Dad was born and raised in the middle of Section 33 of Franklin Township. When I was born, my parents lived a couple miles north of Burlington, Iowa, but I grew up in Section 31 of Franklin Township from about age 7. Most of the Wehage clan, originating from Prussia, is still centered around the north edge of Section 32 of Franklin Township in Des Moines County, Iowa.
Wild Cat And Zion Schools.jpg
Hi Roger,
What an interesting history you and your family had with country schools! Thanks so much for this bit of history.
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