Pike Township’s Four Corners school house survives … in disguise

I was contacted back in August by Marie Moreland about the house where she and her husband live in Knox County’s Pike Township.

She had heard from neighbors that it was originally a one-room schoolhouse that had been converted into a residence, and was curious to get more details about its history.

At the time, I was up to my neck in writing and publishing a new book, not to mention preparing for both a Chautauqua show for Mad Cap Living History at the Woodward Opera House and the Mound View Cemetery Tour, so I was unable to conduct any further research about the school.

Well, it turns out I didn’t need to.

Marie plunged into it herself, combining a few photos that she had with documents she was able to dig up. She did a good job filling in the blanks of the building’s history, so I’m doing little more than passing along her findings. It’s good to document something like this, because very few of the county’s one-room schoolhouses remain.

We’ve previously featured the old Tiger Valley school, which was moved to the Knox County Agricultural Museum and restored, where it is on display. How many others remain? Perhaps our readers can let us know on social media. Meanwhile, please keep in mind that the structure is now a private residence, and the residents’ privacy should be respected.

The 3Rs, plus orthography and physiology

According to Marie’s findings, the school was created as part of the statewide project to create school districts in the 1820s. The one-acre school ground was purchased in 1826 at the corner of Butler and Earnest Roads. The school was built soon after.

The earliest surviving county plat map showing it is 1847, though it was already long in use by that time. It appeared in the 1871 and 1896 county atlases, around the time when the school’s activities were at their busiest.

Marie said she has talked to neighbors who recall relatives of theirs who attended or taught at the school. A Fletcher neighbor recalled that his grandparents attended the school. Sure enough, the 1896 atlas shows properties owned by Fletchers just down Earnest Road west of the school.

Marie also talked to Martha Blanchard of Fredericktown, who recalled that her grandfather taught at the school many years ago. Blanchard, at the time of the discussion with Marie, was 92. Blanchard was the one who identified the name of the school as Four Corners School.

Moreland located original documents related to the school in the old files at the Pike Township house on Earnest Road during a recent meeting. Some of the paperwork dates back as far as 1904 and provides a snapshot of activity in the school.

In 1910, for instance, schoolteacher Lura Cunningham reported a total of 19 students, ten boys and nine girls. Subjects included orthography, reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, grammar, language, US history, and physiology.

Orthography includes spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and such. The language study—which was only pursued by two of the students—isn’t specified. It could have been Latin, French, or German, depending on the teacher’s expertise. It is interesting to note that the school’s average daily attendance for the period was only 60 percent.

Four Corners School: Ready for its 200th birthday

Lura Cunningham herself wasn’t much older than her students. She had just turned 18 when her reports were filed, which was not uncommon among rural teachers. Students rarely went past their mid-teens in the rural schools, and many of them immediately went into teaching.

Lura didn’t stay in that profession, though. Her marriage certificate tells us that Lura Lazelle Cunningham married Charles Robertson in 1920. The couple moved in with the groom’s mother in Liberty Township. She later got a house of her own on Old Delaware Road in Clinton Township, where Charles made a living as a mail carrier, and Lura worked as a housewife raising their children.

Lura lived the rest of her life in Knox County, passing away in 1956. She’s buried in Mound View Cemetery in Mount Vernon.

While activity continued to bustle at Four Corners, the school was plenty worn by the time its century anniversary came and went. As the county began reorganizing the school system, the one-room schools were phased out and replaced by consolidated schools, such as the one that still stands on Ohio 3 in Amity.

Four Corners School was shut down and sold off by the Amity school district in 1932 to Clarence Reams for $125. Reams was apparently the one who converted it into a private residence. About 50 years later, a new roof was put on, and an addition was added to the back of the building.

Over the years, the interior was walled off into separate rooms, considerably hiding any evidence of the original function. Marie said that the only easily identifiable thing is the original chimney, which still has the hole where the school’s wood stove was attached, though the hole was later filled.

With the various renovations, the building will reach the 200-year mark this coming year.

If anyone has any further stories or knowledge about Four Corners School, let us know!