PARSONS, Ks — Oak Grove Schoolhouse is open now! The 1877 one-room stone schoolhouse is in SE Neosho County, located in a rural area about 7-1/2 miles NE of Parsons. The efforts to restore Oak Grove stretch back more than 50 years. Much of the progress has been made in the last 5-10 years but the majority of the work has been done in the past 3 years.
Thanks to the grants from the Kansas Historical Society’s Heritage Trust Fund the school is ready for students. The plan is for the school to open as an active classroom for fourth graders to learn as if they were back in 1877.
Research has revealed that Oak Grove was more than the average one-room schoolhouse. Due to its historical past, Oak Grove has been listed on both the Kansas and National Historic Sites Registers. Oak Grove was built out of local sandstone in 1877 – but it was first established as a log structure in 1867. Oak Grove was built on the Osage Trail, the route that thousands of migrating settlers followed into Kansas after the Civil War. When you stand in front of the Oak Grove schoolhouse, you stand upon the same route traveled and frequented by these determined pioneers.
For those familiar with Little House on the Prairie, Oak Grove has a unique connection to the Ingalls family and their travels to Kansas during the years 1869-1871. Extensive research has established a great likelihood that the event described in chapter two (“Crossing the Creek”) of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s third novel took place on the Neosho River just a short distance east of Oak Grove – and the Ingalls family would have passed the front door of the original log cabin school on their way down to the river.
The open house sessions will be held on Friday, Oct. 14, 5-7 pm, Sat Oct 15, 9-11 am, and Sat 1-3 pm.
You can find more on this historic school here: