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Douglas County Museum

Even though there were 111 school districts in Douglas County, often children had to walk five or six miles to school, sometimes as much as ten miles.  School only lasted three months as that was all they could afford to pay the ‘schoolmaster’.

Early schools had spellin’, readin’ and ‘rithmetic because ink was hard to come by for ‘ritin’.  If the schoolmaster or ‘marm’ didn’t know how to make it from blackberry root and copperas or oak balls or know how to make a quill, there was no ‘ritin’.

Anyone alive today that remembers the wooden framed courthouse in the center of the square?  It was sold for $350.00 and tore down in January 1937 by F. F. Buck and E. R. Fletcher.  Anyone related to either of these men?  Do you have pictures of it being torn down that you would share with the Douglas County Museum?  Write a story about it and bring it by the Museum for our Winter Journal of the Historical and Genealogical Society.

Did you ride the train from Ava to Mansfield or help load tomatoes or railroad ties and lumber or livestock?  Write an article about what you remember to share with others.

Tommy has his collection of mini pencil sharpeners and elephants (all Republicans) on display during the month of September.  The elephants range in material from glass to wooden and seashell to metal to soft stuffed to plaster.

Stay tuned for more!