Wilburn School - Dist. No. Jnt-1

The Wilburn school served a joint district in Meade and Ford Counties. The school itself was located in Ford County but many families connected to Fowler in Meade County used this school.

This map shows what sections made up the original school district in 1886. School district boundaries sometimes changed over the years to accommodate families with children.

The town of Wilburn was established in 1885, on the banks of Crooked Creek just one quarter mile north of the Ford County-Meade County line. One year later there was a school established south of the town. The original school had been a modest, incomplete structure with a dirt floor, no desks, only benches for the students. But soon a new school house was built.

Wilburn as a town saw it's demise when the railroads came through the territory and went south through Fowler. The school continued to exist, however, as a rural school through 1946. The Wilburn Schoolhouse served as an educational, social, and community center for box suppers, literary programs, election day polling, and, during the depression, a meeting place for AAA and governmental programs. After World War II, because of school consolidation, the schoolhouse was torn down.

There are some gaps in the records, but the following is a list of the teachers who taught at Wilburn and the years they taught, arranged by year:

TEACHER	YEARS	TEACHER	YEARS
Brown, Willet	1886	Cavner, Mary	1920-21
Warmoth, M S	1886	Rexroad, Ruth	1921-22
Lambert, D A	1890	Walton, Grace E	1922-23
White, Stella	1891-93	Lesher, Avis	1923-24
Kelly, J W	1893-94	Shortner, Mildred	1924-26
Doolittle, Hattie	1894	Weaver, John	1926-27
Strieby, Clara	1913-14	Waters, Helen	1927-28
Moody, May E.	1914-15	Coon, Geraldine	1928-30
Haywood, Nettie	1915-17	Barragree, Murrel	1930-31
Younger, Paul	1916-17	Nelson, Elizabeth	1931-34
Garr, Edith	1916-17	Hildebrand, Ruth	1934-35
Younger, Paul	1917-18	Wallace,Vivian	1935-36
Dewey, Nellie	1917-18	Kissel, Oneita	1936-38
Garr, Edith	1916-17	McBee , Eldon	1938-40
Younger, Paul P	1916-18	Flanagan, Louise	1940-41
Dalgran, Nelle	1918-19	Carttar, Mary	1941-42
Dalgran, Margaret	1919-20	Bergkamp, Dorothy	1942-43
		Mundhenke, Ivy	1943-46

There is a database of the students who attended this school at the Meade County Historical Museum... some of the surnames were: Anton, Austin, Batman, Blanchett, Botkin, Cornelsen, Creamer, Dowell, Dunn, Francis, Fravel, Friesen, Gerber, Grogan, Hamar, Jantz, Kissel, Kroeker, Laws, Little, Long, McBee, Milford, Mingus, Morrison, Newell, Rarden, Reese, Rexford, Schlichting, Simerl, Stonehouse, VanRiper, Wakeman, Wisdom, Wood, Wright, Wussow, and Wysong.