History on Pine County Schools

The following was taken from the book "Pine County & Its Memories" published by Jim Cordes in 1989.  

The first public school in Pine County was built in Chengwatana Village in 1868, in section 26, R21. In 1894, the district was reorganized and the school was moved about three miles northeast to the Hustletown area, in section 19, on land donated by Henry Kruse. Miss Agnes Glanville was the first teacher in Hustletown.

Hustletown School District 1 …..Hustletown is a community six and one half miles east of Pine City. It has a church, a cemetery, and a school, District No. 1, whose original building was moved in from Chengwatana Village.

District number 2 was organized in 1869., This building, owned by the Brennan Lumber Co. was also a dance hall. The building was remodeled and moved several years later. A two-story frame building was erected on the present school site and in 1893 a large two-story brick building was built which was completely destroyed by the fire. The next school house was a two-room building at which there were morning and evening sessions due to lack of space. Another high school building was constructed in1911 and later demolished and a new one built in 1936.

District 32, the Gebhart School, was established on August 30, 1898, in section 29. Named for a local landowner, the school was razed in 1955.

District 35, the Friesland School, located in section 1, was organized on November 16, 1898. This school in later years was used for special education. It closed in 1980.

District 38, the Weser School, located in section 8, was established as a school district on July 10, 1899. Named for a local landowner, this school closed in 1965. The original building burned

District 60, known as “Number 60” was located in section 14. Organized on October 5, 1903, it closed in 1951. The building was moved to be used as a granary.

Chengwatana School District 1, The first public school in Pine County was built in Chengwatana Village in 1868, in section 26, R21,. In 1894, the district was reorganized and the school was moved about three miles northeast to the Hustletown area, in section 19, on land donated by Henry Kruse. Miss Agnes Glanville was the first teacher in Hustletown.

District Number 69, known as the Chengwatana or Wanous School, was organized on July 11, 1905. Wanous is a local family name. Constructed in section 14, R21, this building has been moved to Pine City and restored as a schoolhouse museum. An attempt was made to place the school on the National Register of Historic Places, but because it was removed from its original site it did not qualify. Some of the original District 69 furnishings are there today, but many items were donated from other school districts.

Meadow Lawn School District 73, was organized on July 9, 1906. It was constructed in section 10, R20, and named for the Meadow Lawn area of the township. This school was demolished in about 1980. The area known as Meadow Lawn seems to be that part of the township lying east of the Meadow Lawn schoolhouse.

The Midway or Kurzhal School, District Number 98, was located in section 21, R20. It was organized on June 14, 1913. The building is no longer there.

District 109, the Chapin or Clover Hill School, was organized on March 20, 1916. The building was demolished in the late 1970’s. It was in section 6, R20.

District 55 School, was organized on November 25, 1902. The schoolhouse stood in the southwester corner of section 17.

District 21 at Willow River was organized on July 14, 1890. The first building had one room. May Wood was the first teacher. In 1894 a second classroom was added. That year the teachers were R. H. Blankenship and Neil Dunn.

The original schoolhouse burned in 1900. That year a new T-shaped schoolhouse was put up and a second floor was added later. In 1920 the brick schoolhouse was built.

The Rutledge or Pine Grove School, District 6, was organized on February 4, 1878.

District 9, in Pine City Township, the West Rock Lake or Connaker School, located in section 5, R21, was named for the community and an adjacent landowner. The district was organized on January 3, 1882, and a building was put up that same year. At a later date the old school house was replaced by a new one at the same location, it closed in 1957.

The Hinze or East Side School was organized on February 10, 1908. Originally known as the Rock Lake School, the building was put up in about 1893 and was part of District 9, in 1908 it became District 77.

The Milburn or Engler School was organized as District 33 on August 30, 1898. The building is in section 32. Eleanor Ploeger, who taught here, recalls that the school closed in 1970.

Sauter School District 53, was organized on August 16, 1902. Various maps show it in different locations in section 4, T38, R21. The school was named for a nearby landowner, F. Sauter.

District 99, the Spring Valley or Shuey School, served the Milburn area. This district was organized on October 27, 1913 and had its building in section 20, T38,N, R20. This school was moved to highway 70 to be used as a private residence.

Pine City grade school, District 3, was organized some time before 1871. The school was built on the present site of the village hall. For a time this first building was the social center of the village, serving as a church and Sunday school building. When vacated, it was moved to the fair grounds to be used for 4-H Club activities. The wood frame schoolhouse was replaced in 1893 by a fine large brick structure named the Webster School. In 1903 the building was enlarged by adding two wings. Pine Country’s first high school was established here in 1904, a separate high school building was constructed in 1914. The Webster school was completely destroyed by fire on January 12, 1939 and was rebuilt in 1942.

Rock Creek School District 4: The Rock Creek Village, or Roosevelt School, was organized as District 4 on August 8, 1874. Dale Martinson recorded for us that the first District 4 schoolhouse was wood-frame and two-story. The building plans for this schoolhouse were prepared by N.M. Stranberg. The higher grades were up, the lower ones down. This school burned in 1923 and a new one was built in 1924. The most recent schoolhouse is a brick building now privately owned.

District 15 is shown on the Gustafson school district map to be in section 14, but is covered in the Pine City Township history. This school district was established on March 12, 1885. The building was constructed in section 11, T38N, R21W.

McKay School District 23 was organized on September 26, 1893 and named for a neighboring family in section 35. This school was located near the Government Road.

East Rock Creek Community was the home for three school districts. District 13, the Lowell or Calvin School, was established on May 17, 1884, with a building in section 30, R20. The Pleasant Prairie School District 28, was organized on July 12, 1897. Fred Vacinek and his father Vaslav before him, attended this school. The first schoolhouse was moved in 1928, the second one originally had no bell tower, though one was added later. In the early years a wood stove heated the schoolhouse, later, an oil heater was substituted. One District 28 scholar recalls that the school closed in 1968 and that the students were then hauled to Pine City schools. District 28 schoolhouse was auctioned off and served as a granary on the Adolph Plessel farm.

District 82, the Deer Valley School, was organized on June 9, 1908. The building was in section 22.

The first township schoolhouse was built by the Martin-Laird Lumber Company for the benefit of its employee’s children in about 1880. This school district, Number 8, was organized on February 7, 1880. The building was destroyed by the Hinckley fire.

The Shady Oak School District Number 25, was a log schoolhouse built on land donated by the railroad in section 36. This district was organized on October 21, 1894. The school, located on the Government Road, had as its first board, J.B. Butler, Clerk. Joseph Ouradnik, Treasurer, and John Sherrry, Director.

District 31 was organized on August 29, 1898, with a building in the southwest corner of section 17. The building was torn down in 1912 when the district was consolidated with Brook Park.

The Beroun Jefferson School, was organized as District 34 on November 16, 1898. Origianlly a log building, constructed on railroad granted land in 1895, this building burned in 1939. A frame schoolhouse replaced the original building in 1900. The two-room brick schoolhouse was built in 1925 at a cost of $13,000 to replace the wood structure. The wood frame building was just east of the later school side.

The Greenwood or Cabak School, District 45, located in section 15, was organized on January 8, 1901, and named for an adjacent land owner.

District 48, the Wilson School, was organized as a district on July 8, 1901, with a building in section 32.

School District 81, the Ludenbach or Grand View School, served the northwest part of the township. Located in section 7 it was organized on June 9, 1908.

West Rock School District 12, is located in section 24 on the State Highway map. Originally, it was one half mile west of this site. The district was organized on February 16, 1884.

Royalton School District 7 was known as the Brunswick Road, Royalton or Bobtail School. It was located on the Brunswick Road in section 4. This school district was organized on March 1, 1878, classes began in 1879. The building closed in about a 1949 and was razed by Andrew Bernecker.

The following information about the Clint, Greeley, Hay Creek and District 63 schools was furnished by Township resident Duane Swanson.

The Clint schoolhouse was located in section 29. The residents of the Clint Community during the 1880’s recognized the need for a district school within easy walking distance. The Danewood school in Chisago County was too far away. George Neilson organized a petition to the County officials for such a district and on November 22, 1884, Pine County School District 14 was detached from District 7. School for the nineteen children was held in the Erick Selberg home. In 1885 a log building, 16 feet by 22 feet, with four small windows, was constructed by the residents on Henry Olson’s land. In 1892, the district purchased a site further west and built a frame building… Throughout the first decade of the twentieth century the school district officers patiently set aside funds for the construction of a new schoolhouse. In 1916, a brick structure was built on the original site. The building faced south, with a full set of windows on the east. A large library and a full basement with fuel room and recreation room were contained in the school.. By the 1940’s the district had decided to transport its students to nearby Braham School. On June 12, 1951, the district was officially consolidated into the Braham independent system. The building was torn down and the brick sold.

District 17 is the Greeley School. Organized on January 3, 1888, it was built in section 27 on land donated by Mr. Wahlberg.

District 41, known as the Hay Creek or Hickory School, was organized on July 9, 1900.

District 63, according to Duane Swanson, was organized on January 5, 1903. The school was located north of the Snake River. The students were eventually transported to Grasston Village in Kanabec County.

The Stumne or Oak Hill School District 124, was established in section 1 and was organized on September 26, 1927. Named for a local family, this wood framed school house was torn down in the 1960s.

There are records of five rural school building locations in the township of Windemere. The earliest township schoolhouse was District 11, the Blomskog School . It was located on the section line dividing sections 9 and 10 between Sturgeon Lake and the County road. District 11 was organized on October 13, 1883. The schoolhouse was built in 1888 by the A. O. Nelson Company for $85.00

As more families arrived in the township, District 11 was divided into four districts designated 11A, 11B, 11C and 11D. District 11A School was built in about 1895 on Island Lake in section 8 by Fred Swanson. Known as Island Lakes School, it operated until consolidation, then the students attended Moose Lake, Willow River or “C” School, which remained open until the district voted to merge with the Moose Lake Schools.

The District 11B schoolhouse was built in about 1895 on the southeast shore of Sturgeon Lake by Fred Swanson. In 1910 it was moved to “Streets Corner” in section 22 where it was known forever after as the Street School. This school was closed, sold, torn down and used as lumber on the Clyde Johnson property.

District 11C, the Lake Eleven schoolhouse, was built in section 15 by Nels Lund who also worked on the Blomskog Church. This schoolhouse burned in 1938 and was replaced by a new building which would later serve as the “New Windemere Town Hall.”

District 11D School, known as “D” or Sand School, was built in section 29 near Rush Lake. This school was closed in 1933 and sold to Rudolph Anderson to be used as a barn.