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District No. 51, Johnson/Walker
DISTRICT FORMED 1871
YEARS SCHOOLS BUILT 1871, 1877, early 1880s
GENERAL LOCATION Northern part of Oneka, just west of Hugo
MODERN ADDRESS Located at Irish Ave. near Withrow.
DISTRICT BOUNDARIES Oneka Lake marked the northwestern corner and School Lake marked the southeastern corner. Southeastern corner lost when districts consolidated in 1952.
DISPOSITION Now Razed
NOTES
  • 1871: District established and the first schoolhouse was built on a section 26. Later, in the 1890s, a Mr. Benjamin Sawyer owned farmland there. The first school had 32 students it’s first year.
  • 1877: A new building was erected on section 14, when District 63 was organized.
  • Early 1880s: A cyclone tears off the roof and shed, and was rebuilt.
  • 1897: New wood floors are put in.
  • The school was in the town of Oneka, and was named after a lake in the town.
  • Enrollment in 1898: 56 students. In 1938: 27 students. In 1939: 36 students.
MEMORIES: “One day the teacher was talking to and questioning the small pupils in history concerning the persons about whom they had been reading. A little fellow remarked with an important air, that Benjamin Franklin invented fire-wood and electricity’, and another member of this class, said that ‘Daniel Boone crossed over the mountains into Kentucky to hunt for the Revolutionary War.” -Stillwater Gazette, Nov. 1898

Known Teachers:

1871-2: Mary Withrow
1896-7: Mrs. A.H. Staples
1897-8: Mrs. A.H. Staples
1898-9: Mrs. A.H. Staples
1938-9: Margery Knapp
1939-40: Margery Knapp
Other teachers: (before 1898): Mamie F. Meredith, Lilla Withrow, Hattie Wilklow, Eunice B. Gage, Cassie M. Knight, Cecil Dilley.