Communities of long ago: Morning Star community revolved around schoolhouse
By ROWENA PLETT
Staff writer
One mile south of 190th on Pawnee Road stands a lonely country school. The windows are boarded up, slate siding is falling off, and shingles are crumbling, but the name plaque clearly proclaims: Morning Star Dist. #41. The structure was built in 1891.
The original school was established in 1873, when a group of families in the area decided to organize their own school. They named it Morning Star.
The first board members were W.E. Oursler, S.E. Richardson, J.H. Hett, and W.M. Gray.
The first three-month session was attended by nine students. In 1892, enrollment stood at 26.
The school was closed from 1942 to 1948 because of lack of students. It reopened in the fall of 1948 and was closed for good in 1961.
The school building served as a community center. Political speakers held meetings and rallies there.
In 1894, a singing school met there to practice and perform.
Religious services were held in the school beginning in 1873 and continuing into the 1920s. There was never a formal congregation, and the group was served by ministers from various denominations.
Rex Siebert attended Morning Star School. He was five years old in 1928 when he entered first grade.
Years later, his wife Vernolis' son, Francis, was in the last eighth grade graduating class from the school.
Vernolis said Frieda Hett was the last teacher at the school and did an excellent job of teaching the students and keeping them interested in their studies.
Rex said his grandmother Angeline taught Sunday school at the school.
Rex and Vernolis remember attending monthly community meetings there. School children performed and others were invited in to provide musical entertainment. Everyone enjoyed a potluck supper.
With the final closing of the doors, another country school passed into history and the Morning Star community was no more.
The current owner of the building and grounds is Mrs. A.J. Hett of Marion.
(Some of this information was obtained from Marion County Kansas, Past and Present, by Sondra Van Meter.)
