Margaret School

One Of Only Two
One-Teacher Schools by 1965

Lincoln Sentinel-Republican, 23 December 1965

Margaret School, District No. 43, is one of the two remaining one-teacher schools in Lincoln county.
The other is Ash Grove, District No 16, with an enrollment of 13 students. Ethel Geering is the teacher.
Margaret school is located in southwest Lincoln county, south and east of Sylvan Grove. It was formed on Feb. 21, 1878, and is a stone, one-room building.
At present the teacher is Mrs. Joan Fuhrman, who is substituting for Mrs. Helen Schwartzel. Eight students are attending classes there this year.
County superintendents, through the years, have compiled and kept good records of all schools in the county. It is interesting to note that the first subscription school in the county was formed in 1870. During the 1870s, 93 school districts were organized. Records show that from 1912 to 1919, 14 districts were disorganized and in 1925 the county had 79 districts.
In 1933 there were 83 districts with 69 listed as rural until 1947 the Law of Reorganization reduced the number of 16 districts.
The first teacher listed for Margaret school was C.F. Pugh on Feb. 6, 1882, and he was paid $25 a month. Other teachers listed in the early 1880s were M.C. Thomas, Mary E. Miller, Milt King, H.H. King, E.R. Kenyon and Maggie Kaugman [sic]. All of these persons only taught from a four- to a six-months term and earned from $30-$35 a month.
Finally, Mary Mickley was one of the first to teach more than a few months, having stayed there four years. From her report of March 24, 1893, there were 35 pupils ranging in age from 5 to 17 years. McGuffey’s Reader was used at that time.
Her daily programme, each period being 15 min long, included morning exercise and alphabet, First Reader through Fifth Reader, Physiology, recess, Arithmetic, Spelling, noon, Singing and Alphabet, First Reader, Second Reader, Geography, Writing, recess, Alphabet, History, Grammar and Spelling.
There were 39 pupils at the school in 1894. Some of the family names were Haymond, Kratky, Peterka, Ptacek, Shaffer and Vasko.
In 1959, Mount Ayer mandatorily disorganized and attached the territory to District 43. At that time, District 43 operated two schools, Blue and Margaret. In 1962, Blue School closed and the district has operated as a one-teacher district since that time.