Bichet country school is nominated for national register
By ROWENA PLETT
Reporter / photographer
A little country school built of limestone stands about a quarter of a mile north of U.S.-50 four miles east of Florence. With its picturesque bell tower and location on a hill covered with bluestem grass, the structure stands out against the prairie sky and can be seen by highway travelers.
Known as the Bichet school, it was built in 1896 and existed until 1946, when it was closed. It was purchased at auction for $600 by the late August and Georgia Lalouette, who owned the land around the site. The coal house, merry-go-round, furnishings, and books also were sold.
Although it has been vandalized numerous times, the Lalouettes have worked to preserve the structure.
At the behest of Georgia, Helen Beckham of Marion is in the process of nominating the school building for the National Register of Historic Places.
She has done extensive research to substantiate historical facts related to the building.
French immigrants filtered into the Cottonwood Valley at Florence from 1857 to 1885, growing to more than 60 families.
According to Fred Bichet III of Florence, the first school built for the French children was located near the Cottonwood River in Doyle Township east of Florence. The site originally was owned by Alphonse Bichet who came to the valley in 1858.
The school was a frame building. School records began in 1878.
According to the Jan. 17, 1896, issue of the Florence Bulletin, the school was destroyed by fire.
That same year, the school district received $800 from the sale of school bonds. The annual report showed expenditures of $664.31 to build and furnish a new school house.
According to the Bulletin, Oscar Johnson was the contractor and was an employee of A.F. Horner who owned a rock quarry east of Florence which produced building and paving stones, ashlar facings, window sills, corner blocks, and door sills.
Johnson was described as a skilled and artistic stone mason and is credited with building the Horner building and many other homes and structures in Florence.
The school house was completed in July 1896 on a one-acre site which, according to Georgia, was donated by a man with the last name of Oldrieve. It continued to be known as the Bichet school.
The first school year, 1896-1897, began with 19 children from eight French families. They ranged in age from 5 to 19 years.
Their surnames included Bichet, Goffinet, Lalouette, Louis, Martinot, Reverend, Rensen, and Featherkile. These names continued on the school records until it closed in 1946, with their descendants serving as teacher, student, board member, or clerk of the district.
The teacher that first year was Laura M. Keller. She was legally qualified to teach with a Grade 1 certificate. She received $40 a month for the eight- month school year.
Teaching aids included charts, Monroe Readers, Watson Spellers, Spencerian Copy Books, Bayots Geography, Barnes U.S. History, Steels Physiology and Hygiene, Bryant and Stratton Bookkeeping, and Gage Natural Science.
According to school board minutes from April 13, 1945, the board was considering whether or not the school should continue.
They hired Frances Pinkston, who held a Life and Emergency certificate that would expire June 2, 1946. The term opened Sept. 3, 1945, and closed April 19, 1946.
Miss Pinkston had two students, Leo Grimmet, 8, a third grader, and his brother Edwin Grimmett, 11, sixth grader.
They were the last students to attend the Bichet school. The boys were the step-grandchildren of Leon Lalouette, who started his schooling in the Bichet school at the age of 6 and was listed on the role up to 1889.
Few social events and programs held at the school were noted in the local newspaper. Those that were publicized included a Republican meeting in October 1896, a meeting of the Marion County Teachers' Association in February 1896, a cake walk in January 1927, and a pie social in October 1927.
Mary (Lalouette) Grimmett of Florence graduated from the school in 1933 at the age of 14. Graduation ceremonies were held in the Marion County Courthouse with other rural schools participating.
After the school house was purchased by the Lalouettes, many events were held there. It was headquarters for three years for motorcycle races held nearby. Other events included 4-H parties, square-dancing, and Lalouette family reunions.
The Lalouettes dreamed of having a museum in the school to display their extensive collection of artifacts and animal trophies. But after they started moving showcases into the building, it was vandalized several times, so they abandoned the project.
They opened it to school children for some years but, because of continued threat of break-ins, it is no longer open to the public.
Georgia, who lives nearby, said that people traveling on U.S.-50 are fascinated with the structure, and she sees them stopping to photograph it.
In June 2002, a film company from Omaha, Neb., after seeing a picture of the building on the Internet, called Marion Chamber of Commerce to find the owner. They contacted Georgia to get permission to film a music video using the exterior of the school as the backdrop.
A young actor and his guardian, along with the film crew, stayed at Marion's Country Inn Motel during three days of filming, June 22-25. The final scenes were filmed from a helicopter.
The video they produced was a tribute to Kayla Rolland, 6, a school-yard victim who was killed by a 6-year-old classmate in February 2000.
Georgia spent time this summer cleaning the interior of the building. It had been used for storing alfalfa and clover seed, which has been removed and the floor sanded.
Several original items remain including some double desks, the chalk board, and an antique fire extinguisher.
The bell was stolen from the tower, but Georgia hopes to replace it someday.
