School: Curtiss – Midway School 102 Year Reunion (1978)

Transcriber: Stan

Surnames: Boardman. Wicker, Anderson, Becken, Bulgrin

----Source: Owen Enterprise (Owen, Clark County, Wis.) 14 Jun 1978

Midway School in District No. 2, Hoard Township, was built in 1930 and still stands, now serving as a family home. More than 175 attended a 102nd anniversary reunion of past students and teachers on Sunday, May 28, 1978 in Duncan Park, near Owen. This building was no longer used as a school after 1962, when consolidation took place with Owen-Withee.

It was in 1876 when the Midway School District No. 2 was first organized, which at one time encompassed the entire town of Hoard, until it was consolidated into the Owen-Withee School District in 1960. As it was not possible to build a schoolhouse in 1876, school was first held in the house in which Andrew Olson lived, just west of Curtiss. The school term that first year was very short, and only attended by four or five children, who were taught by Miss Boardman of Dorchester.

In the summer of 1877 the school district built its first building, a log structure located just one half mile east of the present school building. In the fall of that year school opened in the new log school, with Miss Alma Wicker of Colby as teacher.

The log schoolhouse served the district for ten years, and when the Curtiss District was formed, it was decided that the log school was too close to the eastern edge of the Curtiss District, so the officer decided to build a new frame building one half mile west of the log schoolhouse.

In the fall of 1887 school opened in the new school, with Miss Jennie Anderson of Amherst, Wisconsin as teacher. The enrollment by that year had grown to over 20 students.

During the first 13 years of the school district’s existence, it was it was known as District No. 4 of the Township of Mayville. Then in 1889 the Township of Hoard was organized, ands since that time the district became District No. 2 of the Township of Hoard.

On Friday, June 13, 1930 the frame school building was destroyed by a tornado, and when school started in September, it was held in the garage owned by Peyet Becken, with Mary Smiley Bulgrin as teacher.

Plans had been drawn up for a new building to be built on the site of the school destroyed by the storm, and on November 1, 1930 the students and the district moved into the new and modern brick school building. This building was used from that date until 1960, when the district was consolidated with the Owen-Withee district.