Cottage Grove School.

Cottage Grove School.

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District No. 31, Cottage Grove School
DISTRICT FORMED 1852 (also in 1918?)
YEARS SCHOOLS BUILT 1852, 1868
GENERAL LOCATION Cottage Grove
MODERN ADDRESS 7480 Lamar Ave.
DISTRICT BOUNDARIES Northeastern quarter of Cottage Grove
DISPOSITION Now a residence.
NOTES
  • 1852: District established and school built for $250.
  • 1868: New school built with two classrooms for a cost of $3,600.
  • 1890s: School repaired.
  • 1950s: School is torn down, and a house is built on the location.
  • The first school was in an old log cabin built by J.S. Norris, and consisted of 8 pupils.
  • May also have been known as Mackintosh school
  • Very famous for its Tom Thumb wedding (a mock wedding put on by the schoolchildren) in 1931.
  • A grammar and primary school
  • Enrollment in 1938: 41.
MEMORIES: “On Friday afternoon we would move all the desks to one side and we each had a little Copen-saw and we sawed out shelves, and anything out of wood. We ripped apart orange crates for wood.” -Lucille Brown Spicer

Known Teachers

1852-3: Marthat Newell
1868-9: Emma Crage
1891-2: Miss Flynn
1895-6: Annie McHattie
1896-7: Annie McHattie
1897-8: Annie McHattie
1898-9: Gertrude Lyon and Amanda Oman
1907-8: Lila Swanson and Helen Dier Foley
1923-4: Miss Hanson
1930-1: Grace Dummer
1930s: Florence McCallum and Vernon Emmerson
1938-9: Miss O’Connor (lower grades) and Alvan Hall (upper grades)
1939-40: Miss O’Connor (lower grades) and Alvan Hall (upper grades
Other teachers (before 1898): Emma Winkley, Nellie Winkley, Walter Ayres, Miss Tuttle Jennie Witherspoon, Bee Malone, Grace Derome, H.W. Briggs, Dr. Bacon, J.W. Howard, and Emily Crippen.

 

Cottage Grove School students performing a "Tom Thumb" wedding in 1931.

Cottage Grove School students performing the “Tom Thumb” wedding in 1931.