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Gatesville school demolished; stone to be reused
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Last week Grant Township lost one of its historic landmarks with the demolition of Gatesville School, at the corner of Thunder and 11th Road. But the country schoolhouse will see new life as the stone of the building will be re-used by the City of Clay Center.
"This is a rock building that has been deteriorating through the years," said Carolyn Chaffee, owner of the property. "Since it is made of rock, it can't be moved or used for anything else. We have asked the City of Clay Center if they can use the rock for any building like in Utility Park or the zoo area. They have decided to make use of it."
Art Tannehil, a former student of the Gatesville School, tore down the structure on Tuesday, Oct. 20 and hauled the rock to Clay Center.
Chaffee said a lot of local history is tied to the school, and she can trace her own roots to the school. Her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother all taught there.
"My great-grandmother was the first teacher in the first school building," she said. "It was a wooden building and was located by the Gatesville Cemetery in 1870. A public road know at the Fort Riley-Fort Kearney Military Trail crossed Mall Creek to the southeast and over the hill near the cemetery."
The second school house, which was the stone building just demolished, was built in 1884 on the corner of the township road.
"In 1894, my grandmother Anna Reed was teaching at a school on the west side of the Republican River and she could hear the school bell ringing at Gatesville and decided to apply for a teaching job there. She got the job and of course met John Dunham and they were married in 1898.
"I've had aunts, cousins, and also my mother as teachers there," Chaffee said. "My mother, Rachel Dunham Hughes, taught there 1925 to 1927 after she graduated high school and then again in 1954 until it closed in 1957."
Chaffee attended all eight years of grade school there. In her eighth-grade year the school consolidated with the District 93 school, with the first four grade at the District 93 school building, which was two miles east and the last four grades at Gatesville.
The last eighth-grade class to graduate at the school included Max Martin, JoAnne Williams, Larry Eagen and Adela Sherbert.
"I hate to think of a landmark gone, but it looks so bad the way it is, and I would like to have the rocks put to good use," Chaffee said.
The stone that was above the door with the letters JM carved on it will be saved for the Johnnie Mullin family. Chaffee also plans to have a stone marker built with the Gatesville School picture and history where the school used to be.
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©Clay Center Dispatch 2009
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