| A History of STRUM and the TOWN OF UNITY by Roy Matson |
| THIS IS PAGE 24 | TABLE OF CONTENTS | PAGE BACK | PAGE FORWARD |
| doors and windows, N. C. Foster furnished lumber for $257.20. The total cost was $694.27. This included desks, blackboards, etc., and served the district until 1915 when the brick building was erected. A new treasurer handled the book in an approved fashion after 1900. Total receipts for 1906 were $509.78, expenditures were $492.18. In 1904 a second classroom was constructed, evidently enrollment had increased. The lumber bill was $325.11 and carpenters’ work was $114. Bills for stone, plastering, seats, freight and other miscellaneous items came to $253.82. According to old pictures the rooms were set at right angles to each other. Claude Burton and his sister Leona (Mrs. J. M. Olson) taught at monthly salaries of $50 and $42.50 respectively. As years passed, enrollment kept increasing and books and teaching materials were added causing expenditures to increase slowly. Florence Parker was head teacher in 1908. William Cox of Osseo taught a couple of terms around 1911, receiving $52 per month, the highest teacher’s wage up to that date. District taxes had been around $900 for a couple of years leading up to 1914. There seemed to be three teachers with Robert Kuenzli as principal. Enrollment had been growing as the population in the village increased and it seems some thinking had occurred regarding a new and larger building. Attaining a state graded level and at least two years of high school had been discussed at annual meetings. Families in the village favored a school south of the river but Carter Valley residents raised a howl and threatened a boycott of village business places should this take place. So the board purchased additional land from Paul Eide, about $80 was spent on earth moving and shortly after the July, 1914 annual meeting contractor M. G. N. Schneider or (of) Independence began work on a two story, four classroom, brick building. The treasurer’s book, of course, shows only receipts and disbursement figures. No meeting reports, resolutions or minutes which could furnish a better clue to those proceedings can be found. The last pages of that old book shows building costs and tex (tax) revenues plus a couple of loans that financed the project. The architect was paid $75 for the plans (no high percentage fee for that board!). Heating and ventilating cost $550.00, cement blocks were $246.88. Freight totalled $43.97 and Sever Johnson had a well drilling contract at $23.50. The balance, $9405.18, went to M. G. N. Schneider for a sum total of $10,344.53. Cash raised was as follows: District #2 began with a building fund of $ 1,200.00 A state trust fund loan 7,000.00 Loan from First State Bank of Strum 2,000.00 Sale of three old buildings 153.83 Less an error in bank interest - 16.00 $10,337.83 Expenditures $10,344.53 Then follows a blunt statement, “short in bldg. fund” $6.70. Present day financiers rarely exlain (explain) any overruns or deficits on construction projects and their high priced computers would have difficulty imprinting $6.70. Paul Moltzau and Henry Robbe were members of that board and the driving force behind the building project. One of them may have just dug in his pocket and covered the “shortage”. The building was in good use as a school until May, 1957. Brick Riverview District #3. Available records of this school go back to 1874 but again the early years are missing. This was District #7 on Sumner records indicating that it was established prior to Johnson Valley #8 which was formed in 1870. Also the 1869 Sumner assessment roll shows that settlers of the district were assessed a school tax, telling us school was being held. The organization of Unity township on April 2, 1878 was held in the original Brick Riverview building, at the time called the Howery school. Two brothers with that name lived in section 26 and likely were early settlers in the area. Very few people lived at the village site during those years and township meetings were held at this school until 1887. This building seems to have had the same location in District #3 as the later one. We |