Rusk County Historical Society Museum
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Schoolhouse
Welcome to the Little Red School House. The schoolhouse was built about 1900. It was located in Section 7 of the Township of True, about three miles north of Glen Flora.
The school was in operation until 1919 when the new central school was opened. "Little Red" was used for a home, garage, and storage building. This photo shows the exterior of the schoolhouse.Now let's go inside the schoolhouse. As you walk in the front door you see a wash stand and two chairs.
As you turn to the right, you can see where students hung up their lunch pails in the entry way.
We leave the entry way, and enter the main schoolroom through the doorway. We see there are many desks inside, and the teacher's desk is at the front of the room, on the right.
On the front wall we can see the daily program of classes.
An organ sits at the front of the room. Perhaps the teacher played music as the students sang songs.
A bulletin board on the wall displays some school children's valentines from a long ago time.
On the right hand side of the room, we can see a large dictionary on a stand which is low enough even for the youngest of students to reach. Notice the water cooler can be seen through the doorway on the right.
Along the back wall of the schoolroom we notice bookcases, and a picture of George Washington.
To the left of George Washington's picture, we see the "Rules for Teachers - 1872."
The rules were as follows:
1. Teachers each day will fill lamps, clean chimneys.
2. Each teacher will bring a bucket of water and a scuttle of coal for the day's session.
3. Make your pens carefully. You may whittle nibs to the individual taste of the pupils.
4. Men teachers may take one evening each week for courting purposes, or two evenings a week if they go to church regularly.
5. After ten hours on school, the teachers may spend the remaining time reading the bible or other good books.
6. Women teachers who marry or engage in unseemly conduct will be dismissed.
7. Every teacher should lay aside from each pay a goodly stime of his earnings for his benefit during his declining years so that he will not become a burden on society.
8. Any teacher who smokes, uses liquor in any form, frequents pool or public halls, or gets shaved in a barber shop will give good reason to suspect his worth, intention, integrity and honesty.
9. The teacher who performs his labor faithfully and without fault for five years will be given an increase of twenty-five cents per week in his pay, providing the Board of Education approves.
We leave the main schoolroom through the door on the right. As we leave, we walk past the water cooler and then out the front door.
Ida Jipson Kramer was the first teacher of the Little Red Schoolhouse. Her picture is shown below.
From 1907 to 1908, Helga Hanson taught at "Little Red," and from 1911 to 1913 the teacher was Mable Hanson.
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