 One Room School House
Still Educates
Students
of History
click on photo to enlarge
Christie Raber
"Ned and Dave have a sled. Dan is on the sled. r-ed N-ed si-ed c-an D-an." Like listening for the sound of the ocean in a seashell, if you are quiet, perhaps you can hear the sounds of children learning to read Lesson 5 of a circa 1887 reading chart in the Wyandot County Museum's one room school house.
The building, wlgch has.graced the grounds of ti.,, Wyandot County Museum for twenty nine years, was donated to the historical society by Gordon Keiper, a funeral director from Dunkirk, Hardin County. The school was located On a farm that Mr. Keiper owned. The historical society had collected many artifacts from one room schools in the area hoping that they would be able to put them back into their native habitat once again. The historical society decided against using a school house from within the county as most of them were brick and would be difficult to move due to their deteriorated condition. So, it was with much excitement that the historical society planned to move Mr. Keiper's one room school house twenty-two miles to become a valuable addition to the museum grounds.
During the summer of 1966, the school was macked to the museum in sections. The roof of the school was removed and cut into four pieces. The roof pieces and the belfry were brought to the museum in one shipment. The main part arrived later. Once the difficulty of moving the schoolhouse was accomplished, other problems needed to be solved. Besides putting the school back together, many slate tiles of the roof were broken, some of the siding was bad and the smacture needed to be painted. Eventually, a company in Canada was found who made special shingles that matched the hand made ones on the schoolhouse. A new roof replaced the broken slate. Members of the Lions Club replaced the rotted siding and re-nailed loose boards. They also scraped the building and painted it white, a change from its original red. The project was completed during the summer of 1968.
Having refurbished the outside and stocked the inside with artifacts from Wyandot County one room schools, the finished product was officially christened on Sunday, May 27, 1973. The school still continues the purpose for which it was built an estimated 130 years ago. Visitors to the museum are educated to the ways of the mid-1800's through the little building and the artifacts it contains, especially if they can be quite and sit still long enough to hear the sounds that echo faintly through the room: "Bess has a new doll. The doll has a new dress. B-ess, dr-ess ..."
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