THE HISTORY OF
DRY CREEK SCHOOL
This school house now is part of the SPPA grounds.
Dry Creek School, also known as Deer Creek School had its beginnings as a sod schoolhouse. The “soddie” was just north of where the wooden schoolhouse was later built. Ray Sheley’s mother, Lena Berning, was known to have attended school in the sod structure.
In 1887 the construction of the wooden building was completed. As reported by the Norton Courier on January 27, 1887, “A fine new frame schoolhouse is just completed in the Sheley neighborhood. Next Tuesday night it will be dedicated. Norton eloquence may raise the echoes. Listen!” The small school, just twenty by twenty-six feet, now stood ready for seventy-three years of service to the farm community.
Dry Creek School stood ten miles north of Norton, with a legal description of’SE l/4 Sec.3 Tl R23. The earliest records show that the land was owned by Melinda and Wilson Adams and sold to Anna Sheldon in 1883. Anna Sheldon then sold the land to School District #23 (Dry Creek School) in 1886. Many years later it was deeded to the State of Kansas and then again to School District #117 (formerly School District #23). The property was then in the ownership of Aldine Township, the township in which it was located. In 1961, the property was purchased by Blanche Lofgreen and later deeded to her son. Denzel Lofgreen in 1970.
On August 25, 1887, of the first school term, the Norton Courier reported. The semiannual apportionment of the state and county school funds are now awaiting distribution…District #23 will receive $2.00…District #1 (Norton) will receive $194.80..-The lowest amount is District #102 with $3.05.” Referred to as “Sheley” School by some early written accounts, the school served the needs of the surrounding community. On August 25, 1887, the Norton Courier reported, “Owing to the rain, the lecture at Sheley Schoolhouse was put off until August 27, 1887.” In the early 1900’s it hosted many community social events; literaries, township meetings, Sunday School services, missionary services and other social gatherings.
School began at the new Dry Creek School building on September 15, 1887 with its first teacher, Ella Webb. Many teachers taught there through the years. Most taught one to three terms before moving on to another school. Common student family names were: Belden, Caldwell, Cox. Hubbard, Mayo, McCrea. Cochran. Sheley, Cass, Lofgreen. Saathoff, Searla. Webb. Rorabaugh, Corns, Hunter, Cart, Wyatt, Ballinger, Kopp, Laughlin and Skrdlant to name a few. In many cases two or three generations of one family were educated at Dry Creek School.
Some improvements to the schoolhouse have been recorded. Sometime after 1910, Mr. Ed Waters drilled a water well for the school. It was located at the northeast corner of the schoolhouse properly. It was a pump with a handle to draw the water. This system replaced carrying water in from neighboring farms. In the 1920’s, a merry-go-round and swings were placed on the playground. In the early 1930’s, an anteroom was added onto the front of the school. How fortunate any teacher was to have an anteroom to store coal and cobs. This shortened the many trips to the coal shed for fuel for the stove. It also served as an entryway, coat closet and provided some storage. A telephone was added around 1932 or 1933 because of a mysterious occurrence in the winter of 1932 at the schoolhouse. A security fence was added in 1941, probably due to the close location of the school next to highway 383. Electric lights were installed in 1949. Prior to this, kerosene lamps sat in black cast iron holders on the wall, ready for use on dark winter mornings. It is believed that the wooden floor has been replaced three times.
It was the mystery of a “murdered man” near Dry Creek School that made the schoolhouse infamous. The January 1932 homicide was never really settled although the case was eventually labeled “solved” and then “closed.”
Teachers in the school were:
1913-1916 Mrs. Olive Altman
1917-1918 Maude Dufford
1918-1919 Edna Guthrie
1925-1926 Grace Hickman
1926-1927 Eva Cope
1926-1928 Wilma Rorabaugh
1926-1929 No School
1926-1930 No School
1926-1931 Lois Curry
1931-1932 Unknown
1932-1933 Beth Page
1933-1934 Daisy McMullen
1934-1935 Maxine Rhoades
1935-1936 Neva Keene
1936-1937 Lester Applegate
1937-1938 Faye Montgomery
1938-1939 Thelma Houchin
1939-1940 Iris Olson
1940-1941 Iris Olson
1941-1942 Iris Olson
1942-1943 Mary Stevenson
1943-1944 Ada Beryl Gregory
1944-1945 Thelma Houchin
1945-1946 Thelma Houchin