Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Lincoln County's first log schoolhouse was built in 1879 and was recently reconstructed by two locals at the Museum.
DAVENPORT - The small schoolhouse structure seen today outside Lincoln County Museums looks a bit different than it did originally but stands proudly on the museum grounds serving as a window into the past.
Its history spans many decades and if it could talk, would tell stories covering over 140 years of local history.
The schoolhouse was originally built in Fall 1879 as a homestead cabin by William McRedmond (whose father, Luke, founded the city of Redmond) along with his neighbors, notably Richard Hutchinson who was an early state representative and senator, just north of Mondovi in the Baldridge area.
The cabin was built using trees from a canyon several miles away. The trees were dragged by horse to the site using a rope attached to the saddle horn.
In 1883, the building was donated by William McClure, whose descendants still live in Lincoln County, to be used as a schoolhouse. The log cabin was used as a subscription school (District No. 1) in 1884, initially serving nine students taught by Miss Addie Bowers.
The seats were homemade, and the desk at the side of the cabin was a low shelf, split from a log, hewed and dressed down.
The small structure was soon too small to fit the needs of the growing district and was replaced by two larger buildings over time before the district was finally consolidated with the Davenport School District in 1940.
The building was abandoned and began to fade into history before a Davenport resident, Charles Ivy, took action to save the historic building.
Ivy dismantled the building and brought the structure to his yard at 908 Eighth Street in Davenport in approximately 1921, placing it on his property next door to fellow pioneer, Charles Myers whose residence was at 904 Eighth Street.
Ivy rebuilt the structure and filled the schoolhouse with local pioneer era artifacts he collected and operated a small museum for the public to enjoy. Ivy's vast collection of relics later became the foundation for the current museum collection
Charles Ivy and Charles Myers both passed away in 1953, when the city of Davenport purchased the schoolhouse from Mrs. Ivy and moved it to a small grassy area south of the fire station before dedicating it to both Ivy and Myers in 1954.
The schoolhouse was repaired several times over the years before it was neglected and started to show signs of its age. Davenport citizen Gabe Gants convinced City Council to let him take on the project and the "Save The Schoolhouse Committee" was formed in 2008.
The schoolhouse was sealed, repaired with a few replacement logs, and landscaped with the project wrapping up in 2009, with the expectation it would last another 100 years.
But on May 3, 2010, a windstorm struck Davenport and blew over a tall fir tree that landed directly on top of the old schoolhouse. The structure was badly damaged and many of the original logs destroyed.
The remains of the schoolhouse were stored under cover at the Lincoln County Museum for many years until 2022 when Gants and Jerry Warner used what was left of the structure to build what you see today.
While it may be smaller than the building that once housed the first schoolhouse, it stands as a glimpse into a past when pioneers settled a tough unknown country in search of opportunities while paving the way for all of us who follow.
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