Grain silos, railroad stops, railroad housing, schools, and water towers dot Western Kansas. These four things clustered together for a good reason. The railroad would put housing for families to live and they would work on the railroad, keeping it open and repaired. When this happened the families would need to send their children to school so there were a lot of little “one-room school-houses”. My dad has a memory of “#9 school” which was located northeast of Spearville close to one of his childhood homes. One particular year there was a blizzard and the children were stranded at the school. Dad reports that the teacher made them all form a line to the firewood outside, holding hands so no one would get lost. When the storm was over their dad came and took them home.  

If you want to learn more about the history of one room schoolhouses, be sure to visit FHSU's Oral History Collection.

If you want to learn more about the history of schools in rural America, be sure to visit the Kansas School House Exhibit and Dorothy Trenkamp's recollections of her time in a two-room schoolhouse.

If you still cannot get enough information about one room schoolhouses, check out this PDF by the National Park Service over the Historic Public Schools in Kansas. It has floor plans!