Danville schools

DISTRICT #50

DANVILLE SCHOOL’S

The following information is an excerpt from the paper "Danville and Danville Township" read by Miss Olive Baker before the meeting of the Montgomery County Club of St. Louis, November 11, 1912.

The records for this paper were from Marion Baker her father’s private files.

Miss Baker was reared at the Baker home one half-mile east of Danville on the Booneslick Road. She attended the Danville Public School, the University of Missouri and the University of Chicago where she graduated with honor. She became an outstanding principal in the grades of the St. Louis Public School System.

"When I consider the work of the schools of Danville, I feel it would be impossible to do them justice even though I devoted the entire paper to this phase of the life of the town.

William Wright settled on a farm about one-half mile east of Danville, on the Booneslick Road in 1826. He built a little schoolhouse in the yard west of his dwelling. He kept a tavern and boarded the students who attended the school. His sister, Miss Isabelle Wright, taught the school.

William Wright sold his place to the pioneer minister, Rev. Andrew Monroe in 1833. He continued to conduct a very select boarding school known as Prairie Lawn Seminary. Mrs. Mary Scholl, daughter of Dr. M.M. Maughs, is living and attended both Prairie Lawn Seminary and the McGhee School, which was opened in the town of Danville in 1841. Mrs. Scholl says the first teacher in the seminary was Miss Mary Phane from Boston, who taught her all the manners she ever knew. The two Misses Spencer from St Charles, MO. Succeeded Miss Phane and later Miss Smith taught in 1838. In 1839 Miss Mary McGhee came from Shelbyville, Kentucky and took charge of the school for Rev. Monroe.

The Prairie Lawn Seminary was destroyed by a cyclone.

In 1841 Miss Harriet McGhee came to Danville and organized the McGhee School for Young Ladies. Miss McGhee taught in this school for seven years. The brick building used for this school near the old brick church which is in use in Danville today (1912). Young ladies attended the McGhee School from the best families at a distance as well as near Danville.

At this time Elliot Hughes Sr. was teaching a school for boys on the south side of the town. Sylvester Baker had donated the site on which this school was built. He evidently believed the boys must be educated as well as the girls.

James H. Robinson opened a private school for boys in part of the CourtHouse in 1848. The noted and revered Methodist minister, Rev. Carr Waller Prichett, succeeded Mr. Robinson at the male school, continuing several years. Mr. Pritchett later assisted in organizing Pritchett College at Glasgow, MO, which is noted for its high standards in scholarship. Among the prominent men who attended Pritchett School in Danville were Judge Sam Edwards, Dr. John Davis and Judge Walter Lovelace from Montgomery City. Both the Pritchett and McGhee Schools were considered the best in this part of the state.

James H. Robinson established the Danville Female Academy and erected the group of school buildings in 1853-54. This was a very successful and good school attended by daughters of prominent families from all parts of Missouri as well as other states.

A common practice in schools at that time was to have all examinations public. After came the closing exercises which consisted of dialogues, compositions, and speeches by the pupils. The friends and patrons were next called upon to speak.

After the war Mr. Robinson closed his school in Danville and reopened it in St. Joe, MO, as Patee Female Seminary. Four of the Danville Female Academy buildings are still standing (1912). Two of these buildings are used for dwellings, the public school is conducted in another and the Methodist Congregation for their house of worship bought the fourth, the chapel of the academy.

The building used by the public school was the classroom for the academy. It was a full two-story frame building in the N. W. corner of block 11 in the town of Danville. Mr. and Mrs. A. L. Jenness taught the school for a number of years. They must have been excellent teachers for their students were proficient in the subjects they studied with their instruction. My mother and father attended this school when these teachers were the instructors. Mr. Jenness taught the upper grades upstairs while Mrs. Jenness taught the lower grades downstairs. (My father rode a buckskin pony. My mother walked the half-mile to school. My father was able to enter the University of Missouri from this school. My mother went on to Beethoven Conservatory in St. Louis for instrumental and vocal music.)

When the two-story building finally was unfit for school use a bond issue was voted for a new school building of brick on the Montgomery-Danville Road at the edge of Danville. It was one large room with a full basement, a furnace, interior toilets and space for a separate space for library and reading room. When consolidation was voted I was a member of the first Montgomery County R-II School Board. I hoped we could hold the Danville school as one of the Grade schools but there were not enough pupils in the west part of the district to hold the school. The building was sold to the Methodist congregation. When the church closed the building was sold for a country store.

Miss Olive Baker

Frances G. Darnell

DISTRICT #50

DANVILLE SCHOOL

I taught there from 1948 to 1955. My salary was approximately $200.00 and increased each year. Danville school was a modern school with indoor toilets, hardwood floors, piano, library room, furnace, and basement large enough for play on element days. It was also used as a craft room.

In 1952 there was an epidemic of polio and afflicted seven or more children. School was closed for three weeks.

Lunches supplements by individual milk program. Refrigerated in windows, as there was no refrigerator. Some children went home for lunch.

I had as many as 35 students. Four families of Jones made up about 16 of the total enrollment.

There was a large outside bell that was used to call the students in the mornings. It had been removed to the newly erected building from the old building by the former girl’s academy (south of old highway 40).

Knox (a one room school outside of Danville) and Danville often engaged in competitive softball games, students were transported in cars by parents. The teachers served as umpires.

In recent years the school has been used as a country store. Stately poplar trees lined the drive to the building.

Mary Callaway Jones

Montgomery City, MO

The Last Danville School Building

After the Danville School was closed it was sold to a Methodist congregation and was used until it was sold in the late 1960’s to my Grandparents Martha and Kenneth Bethel. They ran a country store from the building, very successfully until 1973 when they retired. The building continued as a store until the late 1970’s. It served in various capacities until the early 1990’s when it was completely renovated and turned into a private residence. This building serves as the last testimony to the Danville School System.

Anthony Bethel