First School House

July 16, 2006

The first school house in Littlefield was built originally as a church. A school was needed, so a new church was built, and the building became a school.

The following account was written by local historian Bettye Kate Smith, and appeared in the Leader-News on Thursday, November 11, 1976. (She also provided the picture.)

"Miss Willie Armstrong came to Littlefield in 1913 with the George T. Hillburn family (parents of Mrs. Bob [Alta] Smith) and taught school here through April, May and June of 1913.

"She stayed with the Hillburns during this time, then returned to the McCoy-Petersburg area where she later married Harley Davidson.

"In the fall of 1913, a Mr. Hatchett came to Littlefield as a teacher. The one-room school that George W. Littlefield had built was then divided into two rooms by a three-foot high partition, and Littlefield then had a two-room school. Miss Ola Page came to teach then, and Littlefield had a two-room, two-teacher system.

"Alta Smith recalled her brother, Davis Hillburn, and (her husband) Bob’s brother, Carl Smith, spent most of their time in the small hall dividing the two rooms as punishment for throwing spit balls.

"Some of the other students in the spring term not mentioned were Bertie (Smith) Davis and Gladys (Smith) James. (If anyone remembers names of other students and/or has pictures of the era, I’d really like you to contact me at the phone numbers listed at the end of this article.)

"Students of the fall term of 1913 included Hattie and Luther Hargrove, Alla Moultan, Morris White, Helen (Kling) Boyce, Mills Westfalls, Alice (Duggan) Gracy, and James, Ruth, and Vivian Courtney.

"’Mr. Hatchett ALWAYS wore a pretty grey sweater,’ quotes Minnie (Kling) Fredrickson.

"The actual organization of schools is most interesting to me. B. F. Smith (father of Bob [R. M.] Smith) circulated the petition to call for the first school election, and I have in my possession the original petition calling for an election to be held on the 4^th day of April, 1914, and presented to Judge C. H. Carl, and signed by G. T. Gallaway, County Clerk.

"Circulating a petition may sound trivial to people today, with as few people as there were in the Littlefield school district then. But you must remember that people did not live as closely together then, and the county seat was in Olton at the time, so all contacts were made by horse and buggy. The trip to Olton to present said petition involved a round-trip that took a whole day, through the sand hills, and the Mashed-O and Spade Ranches. Since there was no road, traveling was done ‘as the crow flies and from windmill to windmill.’ You stopped and opened gates through the barbed wire fences, so your navigation had to be pretty good to be sure to hit the right gate.

"I also have THE tally list of the special school election, the poll list of the election, and the official election returns. The election was held in the old school house on April 4, 1914, as called for.

(Mrs. Smith goes on to list the voters and presiding officials.)

"These documents came to me during my family research and it is most gratifying to know that future generations of the Hillburn-Smith family can look back on them and know their ancestors were instrumental in helping start the first Littlefield schools. Ina Bell (Wharton) Bush, daughter of Effie (Smith Wharton and S. M. Wharton, who was the first child born in Littlefield, taught in Littlefield schools in the 1930’s, along with her sister, Mildred.

"Teaching for these two was especially trying, since many of their students were their relatives. Hollis Smith, my husband and son of Alta and Bob Smith, vividly remembers getting at least one paddling a day for calling his first cousins "Ina Bell" and "Mildred" respectively, rather than "Miss Wharton!"