Abbe Creek School
Introduction The historic '''Abbe Creek School''' is a one-room schoolhouse museum located one mile west of Mt. Vernon, Iowa, on E48.It is believed to be the oldest standing one room brick schoolhouse in Iowa. The school is located on land claimed by William Abbe, the first white settler in Linn County, Iowa.
History ===Community established===Abbe Creek School was first organized in 1844 by pioneer homesteaders: Alison I. Willets; Jesse Holman; and Peter, Henry and Conrad Kepler. They engaged a carpenter named Lichtenbarger to build the first log school. The school was first called Sumner School but later it came to be known affectionately as “Little Brick.” Locally, it was called Kepler most likely because many Kepler family members attended.===Construction===Records in the Linn County assessor's office indicate that the present school house was built in 1856 of soft brick thought to have been manufactured locally at Port Stottler brickyard. The building measures 20 by 26 feet and originally faced north.===Restoration===The doors of Abbe Creek School closed on June 1, 1936, after serving the community for 92 years. The building was later converted into a private home. The school and yard were purchased from Mr. and Mrs. Eddie Pitlik in 1963, and on October 25, 1964, the restored schoolhouse was dedicated as a museum. It is now operated by the Linn County Conservation Board and is open during the summer: June – August, 1 p.m. – 4 p.m. Museum tours are available for groups at request.
Grounds features ===Cemetery===Behind it lay the community cemetery called Sugar Grove, where many early residents, including the first wife of William Abbe, Olive, and Zimri Davis (1783–1856, a veteran of the War of 1812) and his wife (a daughter of a Revolutionary War veteran) are buried. Two American Civil War veterans, Morris Burnett and George Thompson are also buried there. Many graves date from the 1850s, the earliest visible date is 1847.===Abbe Creek===Also on the grounds is the spring that furnished drinking water for the school. It is the source of a small feeder stream running into Abbe Creek. The original tile used to collect water is still in place. In the winter, the students would skate on the ice of frozen Abbe Creek. There is a storm cellar set into the hill of the school where students would take shelter in severe weather.===Lincoln Highway===With the grading and paving of the Lincoln Highway in 1925, the school was moved to face the East and the cemetery was isolated from it by the road. A Lincoln Highway marker still stands on the school grounds. A few hundred feet southeast of the schoolhouse site is a marker honoring William Abbe as the first settler in Linn County.
Education + Known Abbe Creek Teachers  Name  Years Ellen S. Warren   1875  Maria S. Drowns  1876-1877  Arvilla Warren  1877  U.D. Runkle  1877-1878  Ida Goudey  1878-1879  Mary C. Keidick  1879 U.D. Runkle  1879-1880  Mary C. Keidick  1880-1881  Fannie L. Dobson  1881-1882  M.A.B. Hess  1882 Kate L. Willson  1882  Mrs. Sucas A. Sucore  1882  Ira G. Fairbanks  1883  Mrs. Sucas A. Sucore  1883-1884  Alma E. Kenderine  1884-1887  Ella Owen, Mrs. John Cordes  1887  Charles N. Stodad  1888  Henry A. Collins  1888  Eva Worrell, Mrs. Eva Briggs  1888-1890  Mary E. Sherk  1890  C. Emma Wallace  1890  Clara E. Blinks  1891-1892  Bernice E. Blinks  1892-1894  F.M. Hicks  1894-1895  Lida Colton  1895  F.M. Hicks  1895-1897  Carrie Barthalomew  1897  Isabel Cowen  1897-1898  Clara E. Wallace  1898-1900  Katherine Bently  1900 Geo. W. Johnston  1900-1901  Name  Years Mary Spry  1901  C.M. Spry  1901-1904  Flora Browning  1904-1905  Lillian Scroupe  1905  Maude Petty, Mrs. Metzger  1905-1906  Charlotte Spry  1906  Bertha Evans  1907-1908  Grace Kearns  1908  Eva Bear, Mrs. Loyd Mongun  1908-1909  Beatrice G. Brousseau  1909  Amand Whittington  1910-1914  Alice Fawcett, Mrs. Ross Emerson  1914-1915  Harriet Adams, Mrs. MeBach  1915-1916  Lillian Ehrnon  1916-1917  K. Tallman, Mrs. Burton Hogle  1917-1918  Olive E. Hahn  1918-1919  Floss Hoover  1919  Ruth Travis  1919  Anna Welty  1920  Gladys Robb  1920-1921  Anna Welty  1921-1922  Hattie Connor, Mrs. Charles Ford  1922-1924  Mrs. Glen Dee  1925-1926  Fear Thompsen, Mrs. Laurence Begley  1926-1927  Thamer Sizer, Mrs. Robert Begley  1927-1928  Bessie B. Scobey  1928-1929  Mrs. Glen Dee  1929-1930  Mrs. Florence Brace  1930-1933  Mrs. Harold Reid  1933-1934  Agnes Boyer, Mrs. Vrooman  1935-1936 ===Community ===In pioneer times the school served as the center of community life. It served as a school on weekdays and a church on Sundays. Occasionally, a circuit reading preacher from Dubuque would hold services. Once or twice a month the local residents brought their families to sing and practice spelling in the one room school.===Students===Attendance at the school was not required. The farm work came first and in the time left over, the children went to school. Children traveled to school on foot or horseback. Each child was asked to furnish a certain amount of firewood for the school stove. Children started to attend school when they were four and rarely finished the full eight grades. If a student did pass their eighth grade examination, they were allowed to carve their initials on the brick exterior of the school. These carvings are still visible today on every side of the school. Subjects studied in school included reading (McGuffey Readers), spelling, drawing, penmanship (the Palmer Method), music, geography, arithmetic, U.S. history and grammar.===Teachers===Old school records show that teachers were paid very small salaries. In the 1870s and 1880s, pay ranged from $20 to $30 a month with no holidays allowed. The first teacher of Sumner School, William Willcox, probably received less than that. By 1897, Miss Isabel Cowen, teacher for the winter term, was paid $35 a month and allowed $10 for the care of the schoolhouse.One infamous Abbe Creek teacher, Professor Hicks, could spit his tobacco juice into a crack of a floorboard near the stove with 80 percent accuracy.Image:AbbeCreekHouse.jpg|As a home in 1940'sImage:AbbeCreekTour.jpg|School tour
References
External links *  Abbe Creek School Museum - Linn County Conservation Board