Stone School

The painting shown below is the one-room Stone School that was formerly located on the north side of US54 Highway about 1 mile east of the K105 junction, near Toronto, Woodson County, Kansas. The school was attended by my mother and her older brother, Roland, beginning in 1914, as first graders. They traveled, along with the hired man's children, a 3 mile distance to the school from their home on a farm above the Verdigris River valley in a horse drawn buck-board wagon. My uncle at 7 years was responsible for the harness and mother at 5 years old took care of the feed and water in the shelter near the school for student conveyances. The shelter wasn't in the sepia photo taken in 1917 by Josie Dean, teacher, from which this painting was made. Ms. Dean gave each student a copy of the picture as a memento of their attendance. The Stone School building survived until the early 1950s when a tornado dumped its stones in a heap and scattered the roof across the county. In 1918, mother's family moved to town were she, her older brother and siblings attended a graded elementary school.