Why did the schoolhouse close?

By Jack

The one room schoolhouse doesn't really operate anymore in America. Why is this?

After World War II, transportation improved. No more horses and buggies. More people had cars, making it easier and quicker to travel. So the superintendents and trustees said: "Why don't we close all the little schools, and make one big school for each township? It would save us time and money!" So that's just what they did. They closed down all the one-room schools, and established a big school for all the children in the area to go to.

Our one room schoolhouse with it's two sister schoolhouses was closed alike and the children were sent to Central School in Independence township. This is strange because 20 years earlier, Liberty was formed to save those three schools from being closed by Hope Township.

We were unable to locate the minutes for the 1945 Liberty board of Education meeting, so we don't know how people felt about the closure.

Our schoolhouse was closed in 1945 and a year later, it was sold as a house, which we live in today. But that's another story.

And with the demise of the one-room schoolhouses, went an important part of American history. What have we lost?