Volume 12 , Issue 21

History of McKeever School

The History of McKeever School, written and researched by Milt Lehr, Professor Emeritus, NWOSU. The Cherokee Outlet of the territory of Oklahoma was opened to settlement by the Land Run of 1893. After securing a homestead, the pioneers' immediate concern was the education of their children. The first schools were often a soddie or log building and later schools were built using clapboard, stucco, of wood and plaster construction.

The one-room school played an important role in educating the children of this state. In 1900 there were 200,000 one-room schools in the United States. In 1897 the Oklahoma Territory had 1,909 organized school districts of which 224 of these school districts with schools meeting an average of 70 days a year. It was not unusual for 40 pupils to attend these schools since farm families were large and each quarter section of land had a family living on it.

Records located in the Woods County Courthouse show that the McKeever school was organized in August 30, 1894, and that its district numbers were both 191 and 23.

School was first held in the dugout home of Mr. and Mrs. Hulet, which was located about one-third of a mile south of the present McKeever school, which is located on the southwest corner of section 24 six miles west of Alva. The dugout home was 12 feet by 18 feet with a dirt floor and was four feet deep into the ground. Sod was laid above the ground two feet deep. The roof was composed of dirt laid over branches and poles.

Click the John McKeever family as written by Dorothy McKeever in 1986 for the Pioneer Footprints Across Woods County history book, pg. 454.

During the 1894-1895 school year, Dick McKeever purchased the Hulet claims and donated the southwest corner of section 24 for a school building.

Maggie Shiel was the first teacher of this school and 23 students were enrolled. Teacher salaries at this time were $20 to $25 per month. By 1902, the salary paid to Nettie Courtner had increased to $35 per month and school was being held for 100 days. The total budget for that year was #311.67, according to Woods County Courthouse records. The value of the school was $600 and other property was valued at $100.

According to a newspaper clipping dated January 29, 1895, and preserved by Harvard and Sue Litton, lifetime residents of a farm home located a short distance north of McKeever school, the first 23 students included Harry Benton, Johnie Benton, Myrtle Cocohm, Glevie Kinney, Mary Kinney, Tomie Kinney, Amon McKeever, Phoebe McKeever, Cora Messmore, Evert Litton, Jim Litton, Thomas Litton, Orwell Shirley, Bertha Smith, Clair Smith, Earl Smith, Melvin Smith, Cora Turner, Bessie Vincent, Dora Wiggins, Della Wiggins, and Gracie Wiggins.

The members of the first school board were Frank Spurgeon, Dale Smith, and Jim Benton. The second term of school was held in a frame box house that was moved to its present site from four or five miles northwest of Alva. This building was a wooden structure 14 feet wide and 28 feet long with a wooden floor made of 1x12 planks. Desks were fashioned from this same kind of wooden boards.

The original building that is standing today was constructed at a cost of $300, which was financed by bonds. All labor was donated by residents of the district except the plastering, which was done by Nick Edwards who was hired to do this work. A. B. Messmore was overseer of the carpentry work. The school bonds were paid off in five years. The American elm trees that encircle the school ground were planted about 1915. The members of the school board at that time were Nate Litton, John Parsons and Clayton Hyde.

The teacher salaries were sometimes paid in cash obtained from donations and some salaries were paid in warrants, which could be cashed at banks for 60 cents on the dollar. Sometimes teachers were paid in sod breaking since most of them owned nearby land or had a claim.

The original building underwent extensive remodeling in 1938 when WPA funds were provided by the federal government to modernize school buildings. A basement was constructed a few feet west of the building and it was then moved overonto the completed basement after the anterooms at the front and a coal bin at the back were removed. A few years later, a highline was constructed nearby along Highway 64 and electric lights were added to complete the modernization.

The teachers of McKeever School were as follows:

Maggie Shiel 1894-1895; May Park 1895-1896; A. C. Parsons 1896-1897; Grace McKitrick 1897-1898; Cora Murray 1898-1900; Birdie Vorhies 1900-1901; Nettie Courtner 1901-1902; W. P. Bosserman 1902-1903; W. J. McGill 1903-1904; Phoebe McKeever 1904-1906; Pete Exell 1906-1908; Agnes Murray 1908-1910; Dena Salesman 1910-1911; Hattie Jarred 1911-1912; Frankie Callison 1912-1914; Lester Maddox 1914-1916; Jess Sears 1916-1917; Homer Bloyd 1917-1918; Margie Callison 1918-1920; Myrtle Martin 1920-1921; Lillie Callison 1921-1922; Pearl Martin 1922-1925; Fay Faulkner 1925-1927; Dolores Fuller 1927-1930; Clara Brown 1930-1931; Helen Tallman 1931-1932; Ada Taylor 1932-1933; Josephine Fisher 1933-1937; Hulda Groesbeck 1937-1939; Hazel Smith 1939-1941; Ruth Frazier 1941-1943; Fay McAlpin 1943-1948.

After the opening of the Cherokee Strip, the rapidly expanding rural school system created a demand for trained teachers. By 1897 there were 1,792 organized school districts in the Oklahoma Territory of which 726 districts with 25,858 pupils were interested in seeing the establishment of a normal school in Alva to meet the demand for qualified teachers.

In 1897, after a two-year struggle the Northwestern Territorial Normal School was authorized by the Oklahoma legislature. Classes were first held in the Congregational Church in Alva until a building later called the Castle on the Hill was constructed.

When Oklahoma became a state in 1907, the school was renamed Northwestern State Normal School (NSN). In 1919 its name was changed to Northwestern State Teachers College (NSTC) and in 1939 it was given the name of Northwestern State College (NSC). Finally, in 1974 it was renamed Northwester Oklahoma State University (NWOSU).

It should be remembered that for most of its history the primary purpose of Northwestern has been the preparation of teachers for schools in this section of Oklahoma.

McKeever school remained in use until 1948 and then served as a community building for several years. In 2000 the school was given to NWOSU by Dean and Patty Nusser, farmer-ranchers, who own the land on which the school stands. Restoration efforts were soon started and the school was moved to its site on the NWOSU campus in the summer of 2001 where it will assume an important role in the preparation of teachers at Northwestern and the education of the public in general to the importance the one-room school played in the education of farm children in early Oklahoma.

[Note by webmaster: There was restoration efforts and repainting going on this summer of 2001, As of this writing, the building is no longer standing on the NE corner of Hwy 64, 6 miles west of Alva. It has been moved to the campus of Northwestern Oklahoma State University, in Alva, OKlahoma. The only reminder that the building existed 6 miles west of Alva on hwy. 64 is the basement left behind. -- LK Wagner]   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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