Abbe Creek School
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The historic Abbe Creek School is a
one-room schoolhouse One-room schools, or schoolhouses, were commonplace throughout rural portions of various countries, including Prussia, Norway, Sweden, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Spain. In most rural and s ...
museum located one mile west of Mt. Vernon, Iowa, on E48. It is believed to be the oldest standing one room brick schoolhouse in
Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...
.Booklet prepared by Linn County Historical Museum The school is located on land claimed by
William Abbe William Abbe (1800–1854) was an Iowa state senator and is believed to have been the first white settler in Linn County, Iowa. Originally from Ohio, he traveled west in search of land in 1836. Little is known about Abbe until this time. Abbe ...
, the first white settler in
Linn County, Iowa Linn County is a county located in the U.S. state of Iowa. As of the 2020 census, the population was 230,299, making it the second-most populous county in Iowa. The county seat is Cedar Rapids. Linn County is named in honor of Senator Lewis F. ...
.


History


Community established

Abbe Creek School was first organized in 1844 by pioneer homesteaders: Alison I. Willets; Jesse Holman; and Peter, Henry and Conrad Kepler. They engaged a carpenter named Lichtenbarger to build the first log school. The school was first called Sumner School but later it came to be known affectionately as “Little Brick.” Locally, it was called Kepler most likely because many Kepler family members attended.


Construction

Records in the Linn County assessor's office indicate that the present school house was built in 1856 of soft brick thought to have been manufactured locally at Port Stottler brickyard. The building measures 20 by 26 feet and originally faced north.


Restoration

The doors of Abbe Creek School closed on June 1, 1936, after serving the community for 92 years. The building was later converted into a private home. The school and yard were purchased from Mr. and Mrs. Eddie Pitlik in 1963, and on October 25, 1964, the restored schoolhouse was dedicated as a museum. It is now operated by the Linn County Conservation Board and is open during the summer: June – August, 1 p.m. – 4 p.m. Museum tours are available for groups at request.www.mycountyparks.com
Used with permission Accessed 2009-07-29


Grounds features


Cemetery

Behind it lay the community cemetery called Sugar Grove, where many early residents, including the first wife of
William Abbe William Abbe (1800–1854) was an Iowa state senator and is believed to have been the first white settler in Linn County, Iowa. Originally from Ohio, he traveled west in search of land in 1836. Little is known about Abbe until this time. Abbe ...
, Olive, and Zimri Davis (1783–1856, a veteran of the
War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...
) and his wife (a daughter of a Revolutionary War veteran) are buried. Two
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
veterans, Morris Burnett and George Thompson are also buried there. Many graves date from the 1850s, the earliest visible date is 1847.


Abbe Creek

Also on the grounds is the spring that furnished drinking water for the school. It is the source of a small feeder stream running into
Abbe Creek Abbe Creek is a stream in Linn County, Iowa, in the United States. Abbe Creek was named for William Abbe, who settled there. Variant names According to the Geographic Names Information System, it has also been known historically as: *Abby Creek ...
. The original tile used to collect water is still in place. In the winter, the students would skate on the ice of frozen Abbe Creek. There is a
storm cellar A storm shelter or storm cellar is a type of underground bunker designed to protect the occupants from violent severe weather, particularly tornadoes. They are most frequently seen in the Midwest ("Tornado Alley") and Southeastern United States ( ...
set into the hill of the school where students would take shelter in severe weather.


Lincoln Highway

With the grading and paving of the
Lincoln Highway The Lincoln Highway is the first transcontinental highway in the United States and one of the first highways designed expressly for automobiles. Conceived in 1912 by Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, and formally dedicated October 31, 1913 ...
in 1925, the school was moved to face the East and the cemetery was isolated from it by the road. A Lincoln Highway marker still stands on the school grounds. A few hundred feet southeast of the schoolhouse site is a marker honoring William Abbe as the first settler in Linn County.


Education


Community

In
pioneer Pioneer commonly refers to a settler who migrates to previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited land. In the United States pioneer commonly refers to an American pioneer, a person in American history who migrated west to join in settling and de ...
times the school served as the center of community life. It served as a school on weekdays and a church on Sundays. Occasionally, a circuit reading preacher from
Dubuque Dubuque (, ) is the county seat of Dubuque County, Iowa, United States, located along the Mississippi River. At the time of the 2020 census, the population of Dubuque was 59,667. The city lies at the junction of Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin, a r ...
would hold services. Once or twice a month the local residents brought their families to sing and practice spelling in the one room school.Sherman, William L., Iowa’s Country Schools: Landmarks of Learning. Mid Prairie Books, Parkersburg, IA: 1998.


Students

Attendance at the school was not required. The farm work came first and in the time left over, the children went to school. Children traveled to school on foot or horseback. Each child was asked to furnish a certain amount of firewood for the school stove. Children started to attend school when they were four and rarely finished the full eight grades. If a student did pass their eighth grade examination, they were allowed to carve their initials on the brick exterior of the school. These carvings are still visible today on every side of the school. Subjects studied in school included reading (
McGuffey Readers The Eclectic Readers (commonly, but informally known as the McGuffey Readers) were a series of graded reader, graded primer (textbook), primers for grade levels 1–6. They were widely used as textbooks in American schools from the mid-19th centur ...
), spelling, drawing, penmanship (the Palmer Method), music, geography, arithmetic, U.S. history and grammar.


Teachers

Old school records show that teachers were paid very small salaries. In the 1870s and 1880s, pay ranged from $20 to $30 a month with no holidays allowed. The first teacher of Sumner School, William Willcox, probably received less than that. By 1897, Miss Isabel Cowen, teacher for the winter term, was paid $35 a month and allowed $10 for the care of the schoolhouse. One infamous Abbe Creek teacher, Professor Hicks, could spit his tobacco juice into a crack of a floorboard near the stove with 80 percent accuracy. Image:AbbeCreekHouse.jpg, As a home in 1940's Image:AbbeCreekTour.jpg, School tour


References


External links


Abbe Creek School Museum
- Linn County Conservation Board {{NRHP in Linn County, Iowa, state=collapsed History museums in Iowa One-room schoolhouses in Iowa Museums in Linn County, Iowa Education museums in the United States Defunct schools in Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Linn County, Iowa School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa 1844 establishments in Iowa Territory