WELCOME TO SCHOOLS OF HALL COUNTY
ABOUT THE SCHOOLS OF HALL COUNTY
The pioneers lost but little time in getting educational facilities for their children, in fact as soon as the children first brought to Hall County by the original colony were of suffecient age to receive some public instructions, a means was provided. From log house quarters to splendid brick buildings has been a long road of fifty or fifty-five years, but a story in consistent keeping with the other phases of the county's progress.
In some districts of Hall County the official records reach back to 1871 or 1872. Beyond that, it is necessary to resort to statements furnished by the earliest settlers, even though some minor disagreements might arise on such facts.
As early as 1864 a private school was held in the neighborhood adjacent to Grand Island where the pioneers first settled. This territory was afterward organized into district number one (which is treated separtly at some length) and also originally included a large part of what became district number two. A first hand account of the earliest school has been furnished to us by Frederick Stolley, one of the pupils:
The first school in Hall County was located on the Theodore Nagel farm, south of Grand Island, where George Baker now lives. The first scholars who attended Mr. Nagel's school (for this was a private school, with Mr. Nagel as teacher) were, Henry Henne, William Stelk, Fred Lilienthal and myself, and later Charley Hann and John Hann were added to our list. The school house was Mr. Hagel's dwelling of logs, with an earthen roof. I remember one day that father and Mr. Menck visited our school, when it had rained very hard the night before and a drop of rain was still dripping here and there from the earthen roof, with some dirt and hay coming down, and soon there came tumbling down seven or eight young mice onto our studying table. The two older gentlemen asked in astonishment, "what is that?" Mr. Nagel answered, "Oh that is nothing uncommon with us," and he reached out with his coat sleeve and brushed the family of young mice from the dining table, improvised for school work, onto the floor, and orders, "Fred, you take a broom and sweep that bunch of dirty creatures outdoors."
At other times the boys attending his school had to help Mr. Nagel keep his corn field clean of weeds, which we were to pull up root and all. Our teacher never indulged in this kind of labor, but would wander over to the O.K. Store and buy a large sack full of sweet crackers for us. After we had devoured them he would order us back to school where we studied multiplication tables, and the A.B.C's. I think that is about as far as we ever got, except for great ear pulling stunts, and some terrific stick blows over our backs once in a while. Christian Goettschand Lillie Scheel were also students at that school.
Three years later the public school was put in its place, and gave our young people an opportunity to make acquaintance with the English language. The first (private) school handled by Mr. Nagel was a German school exclusively, because he was unable to even speak the English language, let alone teach it. But, otherwise, he was a very learned man and deserves due credit for his efforts in establishing school work in this vicinity. This school was the only possible chance for us in those frontier days. The children derived a direct advantage through this school.
Transcribed By: Kaylynn Loveland, Larry Coates & many volunteers at the Prairie Pioneer Genealogical Society. SOURCE: Buechler, Barr & Stough. "The Schools of Hall County, Chapter XIX," The History of Hall County, Nebraska (Published: © 1920).
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Thanks to Kaylynn Loveland, Larry Coates, and other from Prairie Pioneer Genealogical Society for transcribing this book for Hall County NEGenWeb Project.
