Page 95

KOSSUTH
    Kossuth township was organized before the legal establishment of school
districts.
There is no recorded evidence that any of the present school districts numbered
from
1 to 5 inclusive have ever had any other district number designation. An
interesting
bit of historical fact about Kossuth is that the four sections added to the
eastern part of
the township were added for school attendance reasons. The West Twin river
cours-
ing through these sections separated that area from the rest of the Two Rivers
town-
ship. Since there were no bridges connecting these sections to the Shoto
district, the
proper officials attached these sections to Kossuth so that the children
could attend
Kossuth No. 5.
                       KOSSUTH I- FRANCIS CREEK
                                 Lillian C. Jehle
    Kossuth district No. 1 was
appropriately named the Fran-
cis Creek school because it is
located a short distance north
of that village and is the dis-
trict school for the Francis
Creek community. As one would
expect, it has always been
known by that name. Francis
Creek was so named from Fran-
cis creek which flows past the
school into the West Twin.
    The Francis Creek district
was organized    in the early
1850's, but it was not until Oc-
tober 8, 1856, that the trustees
for uie distrit purchased 3'4
acres of land from Michael Hasmer for $37.50 for a school site. The original
school
site is used today and is described in the warranty deed as the N.W. corner
of the
NW¼4 of the NW¼4 of section 17, Kossuth. The district then
included all of sections
1, 2, 3, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. When Kossuth Jt. 1 was set up in 1901, a
large area was
detached in the northeastern area. Other small areas were attached and detached
since its organization so that today the boundaries of the district are very
irregular.
    The first public schoolhouse, a frame structure, was built about 1852.
According
to a picture of that school in possession of Mrs. Louis Cootway, a former
pupil, the
building was about 18 x 24 feet with four shuttered windows on each long
side and
one in the entrance side. A small entry was attached to .the front of the
building
and a lean-to shed for fuel was added to the rear. The equipment consisted
of the
usual homemade desks and seats, seating six to eight pupils each. There evidently
was
no cloakroom, and so the clothes and dinner buckets were stored in the schoolroom.
The schoolyard had a large dinner bell atop a high pole to call the pupils
in -rom
play. After the first building had served its purpose, it was sold for $43.45
on Febru-
ary 27, 1892, and moved about one mile west to the present highway 141. There
it
was remodeled into a cheese factory, still standing today and owned by Adolph
Schenian.
    The second and present school building was brick-veneered and built in
1891 at
a cost of $708 for material and $747.41 for labor. This school is about 28
x 38 with a
smaller brick fuel shed attached to the rear. The building does not have
a basement
because the schoolyard is covered with only a thin layer of soil on top of
rock. Out-
door toilets only are practical. New blackboards, double desks, and a bell
were pur-
chased for the new school. The large Webster dictionary added in 1893 is
still found
in the library. The school was heated by a wood stove until 1908 when a more
modem
heating and ventilating system was installed. Today a floor furnace is used.
A kitchen
cabinet and oil stove to aid in serving hot lunches were purchased in 1922.
Single type
desks and seats replaced the double desks in 1923. A new maple flooring was
laid
in 1930. Two years later free textbooks were adopted. In 1935, the southwest
corner
of the schoolroom was partitioned off and made into a semi-library-kitchen.
Electric
lights were installed the same year, making possible the use of radio and
an electric
plate. Other equipment consists of a piano, a steel file, maps, globe, bulletin
boards,
tables, and chairs. A well was drilled on the schoolyard in 1908 by William
Reif.
95