WHERE THE SCHOOLS WERE LOCATED

A school for the children in the newly developing region of the lower portion of Dunklin County, Missouri was a priority for the individuals who lived in the still swampy region. A well written article, “History of the Bucoda School” written by Cordelia Frie Rose and published in the Dunklin County History: Volume Number Two by the Dunklin County Historical Society (date unknown). [Photos are from other sources.] She covers the history using common knowledge and old school board records. There were 5 distinct school buildings. Some of which were modified after initial construction to deal with a changing population. The following 5 schools’ descriptions are extracted from that article. [Information from Delia Rose’s article is in Italics.] 

This self-drawn map tries to show where the various schools were located. NOTE: The exact location of the Wilson School (1875) is not be properly located in the diagram. The red dot should more properly be located about where the words "Clifford buried here" are located. The Liggett School (1887) is properly shown. When a newer school was built, it was located on property purchased from A. R. Byrd. It was a 1 room building named Byrds School (1895). That building was replaced by a multi-room school building and named Bucoda School (1918). The village of Byrds had changed it name to Bucoda in 1917. In 1940 the 5th and final school building, a brick building, was built on the same property.

1.  The Wilson School (1875): It was then known as the Wilson school, named in honor of John Wilson who donated the plot of ground for the building. This one-room schoolhouse, located one-half mile east of the McGrew farm, was built of hewed cypress logs and was covered with clapboards. The room was filled with long, low benches made of riven planks and they had no back rests for the comfort of the occupants. Since there were no desks in this early school, the children either held their only two books or placed them on the puncheon floor underneath their benches; their school supplies consisted of a speller, a reader, a slate, and a slate pencil. This first schoolhouse was erected by the directors of the district with assistance from other civic minded citizens of the community. These directors were: the president, a Mr. Hillhouse, who rived the boards; Hamilton (Tip) McGrew, who sawed the timber; and J. Riley Austin. Henry Ellis became the first teacher in the Wilson School.

The ground itself was a very small clearing in the midst of a densely wooded section on a rise between Honey Cypress and Kennemore sloughs. Many of the trees in this area reached the growth of eleven feet in diameter; one oak tree was found to have a circumference of thirty-three feet. This nearby woods was the only playground available to the children, therefore, the teacher was ever alert to prevent his charges from wandering too far away from the main building because of the ever present dangers lurking in the woods. Among the woodland menaces were the following: bears, panthers, bobcats, wolves, wild hogs (razor backs), deer, and copperhead, cottonmouth and rattle snakes. On their way to and from school some of the pupils had to cross Kennemore slough and other low water-filled places on foot logs or in boats.

2. The Liggett School (about 1887): During the period of time between the building of the Wilson school in 1875 and the year 1887, the southern part of the community had become much more densely populated than the northern part where the old school stood. It was decided to build a new school with a more centralized southern location; therefore, a new school was erected about one hundred yards west of the Frie place near Kennemore slough and about three-quarters of a mile northwest of the present site. The school was renamed the Liggett school. It was a box house 20x30 feet in size, with eight windows--three on each side and two in the rear--with double doors at the front of the building, a double floor made of rough lumber, the roof covered with boards (shingle fashion), and sides stripped. There still were no desks, but the benches were made from dressed lumber. On June 20, 1896, some additional seats were added to the school. A. R. Byrd built two lots of seats, receiving seventy-five cents for his labor; G. H. Mickey, five benches, receiving twenty-five cents. On this same date the old schoolhouse was sold to A. R. Byrd for the sum of sixteen dollars.

3. The Byrds School (1895): A. R. Byrd came to this area in the 1880s, bought most of the land in this community, established a sawmill near the site of the present store at Bucoda, and began an extensive clearing project. A logging bridge was built across Kennemore, eliminating the hazard of rowing or walking foot logs to school. The new mill town was directly responsible for a tremendous increase in the enrollment of the Liggett school; and, by the early 1890s, it had become quite evident that the old building was inadequate to meet the demands of the growing community. On April 12, 1895, the school board ordered a special meeting to be held on June 12, for the purpose of voting a loan of one thousand dollars to be used in erecting a new schoolhouse; they were to meet for the additional purpose of enlarging the district to extend east to Honey Cypress slough, then south to the township line. Notices of the plans and specifications were to be published in the Dunklin Democrat and posted in the Senath post office and the county clerk’s office in Kennett. The contract was let in August of the same year. It was further decided to move the location of the new school to the present site, on a two and one-half acre plot purchased from A. R. Byrd, about three-fourths of a mile west of the Byrd’s store.

The new school was another one-room building, finished in the latter part of 1895. With the new building came another change in the name of the school; this time it changed from Liggett to Byrds. The Byrds school was evidence of very definite progress in the development of a larger and better school system. The teacher’s desk was at the north end of the schoolroom on a platform which extended across the room, about six inches above the level of the classroom. Slate blackboards covered the north wall behind the desk. The windows were placed on the east and west sides of the building, and the two doors were at the front, on the south end with one on each side. Included in the new furnishings for the classroom were double desks with shelf space provided for books and supplies underneath the writing top. Since two children were seated at the same desk, the teacher must have found it extremely difficult to keep constant watch over the entire group. No doubt many an interesting incident must have occurred the moment the teacher’s back was turned.  One form of punishment in common practice was to make a boy sit with a girl at one of these double desks. The new desks were arranged with one row along the east wall for the boys, one row along the west wall for the girls, and a double row down the center to be used for either, as necessary. The boys used the door on their side of the building and the girls did likewise. The pupils still used slates and slate pencils--tablets were very rare indeed.

4. The Bucoda School (1918): At a special election on June 15, 1918, the community voted in favor of a proposition to borrow six thousand seven hundred dollars ($6,700) and to issue bonds of that amount for the purpose of building  a new schoolhouse. The members of the board at that time were: H. H. Brydon, president; G. F. Holligan, T. J. Stovall, Bert Wilson, A. R. Huggins, and S. W. Glenn. P. A. Frie was district clerk.

The new schoolhouse was a four-room stucco building with two sixteen-foot porches. A hall was built down the center of the building with two rooms on each side. The two rooms on the east were connected by sliding doors, in such a way that both rooms might be made into one large room by opening the doors, thus accommodating community gatherings. The back room on the west side was used as a dwelling place for the family of the principal, C. E. Allen. His wife was the first to organize a 4-H sewing club in this community.

When the new building was completed, the directors decided to add a partition across the south end of the east front room, making a small room only a few feet wide. 

Bucoda School. Date unknown. Probably 1920s. On the right, A Young Ladies Sewing Club at the Bucoda School. This is the room in the front, east portion of the 1918 school just behind the automobile in the picture on the left. Helen Fritz is 3rd from left and Nealie Cox is 2nd from right. The first young girl on the right looks like Pauline Cox.  Picture provided by Helen & Ronnie Booker.

This room was built primarily to be used as a place in which to hold board meetings. It also served as a library and 4-H club room until the library was moved into the principal’s room. Then it became the agriculture and home economics room. Later, it was again used for by the 4-H club girls for their sewing and cooking lessons, having its own sewing machines and cook stoves. Finally it became a classroom when the sixth teacher was added to the faculty in 1936.

...On April 29, 1924, the board purchased a Delco light plant and five Emerson fans, one for each room. This investment was a great improvement toward a more efficient school. The Delco plant served the school’s lighting purposes until the building of the REA line in this territory in 1937. The school decided to sell the power plant and obtain its electrical power from the REA.

Bucoda School c1938-39

On the left side of the picture can be seen early construction of the modern school which opened in 1940.

5. The brick Bucoda School (1940): The present red brick schoolhouse was built in 1940, containing six classrooms, an auditorium, rest rooms, a furnace room, and a modern heating and water system. E. T. Friton was the architect who designed the new structure. The actual labor in erecting the building was done through the W. P. A., with Tom Rickard as supervisor. The first teachers in the new schoolhouse were as follows: Alva DaVault, principal since 1934; Louise Barnes DaVault, Idella Hamlin, and Alberta Palmer, in the system since the early thirties, and Nellie Moore and Ollie Riggs.

The 1940 school building was an enormous improvement over the previous school in terms of facilities. This building had a central heating system, a double room, which was used in my days there as one part classroom and one part auditorium. 

I was told that it was torn down by L. A. Gibson in the 1960s when the school was consolidated with the Senath School System. 

Above is a drawing (not necessarily to scale). It does depict the general layout of the school. It shows the relationship to the play ground, the lunchroom and the related apartments and bus parking area.

When I was in school, the ball field was in the manner as drawn. It seems that was changed later on.

At times teachers taught 2 classes in the same room, depending on the enrollment in the grades. During my year there (1948-49), we had the 5th and 6th grades in the room adjoining the Auditorium. Mrs. Clare Lambert’s desk was near the opening to the Auditorium. 

During the late 1940s, Mr. Greenwood, the custodian, & family lived in the north apartment. The Cross family lived in the south apartment. He was the bus driver. A husband and wife (teachers) lived in the small unit. Floor plans shown are uncertain.