Historic McsBurg School
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The One-Room Rural Schools of Richland County

Historic McsBurg School, also, The One-Room Rural Schools of Richland County. . Historic McsBurg School, In 1841, the year Richland County came to be, a primitive log structure located 4 miles north-northeast of Olney - at the intersection of what is now North Silver Road and East Tank Farm Lane - housed one of the first four schools already in existence when the new county was officially formed. The school was known as "McsBurg," thought to be named after the McWilliams family, the surname of several families residing in the neighborhood. That log structure endured for several years, but was eventually replaced by this frame building, constructed in 1874-75. Records show the largest number of students attending McsBurg School was 40, in 1913-14. But the schoolhouse closed its doors at the end of the 1943-44 term, due to shrinking enrollment (eight pupils) and the approaching mandated county-wide consolidation of schools. In 1947, the building became a summer cabin for the Kowa family, who later donated it to the Olney Garden Club in 1964 for restoration and relocation to the Olney City Park. In 2015, the Garden Club deeded the schoolhouse to the Richland Heritage Museum Foundation, which performed a second restoration and moved the building here, to its current location next to the Heritage House Museum., The One-Room Rural Schools of Richland County, Education in the Midwest first began in the home, then moved outside the home to what were known as "subscription" schools, in which families paid the teacher directly, often through the barter system. These schools soon gave way to the concept of one-room schools when state education laws were passed and a system of taxation was enacted. The era of the rural one-room school in Richland County lasted more than 100 years, peaking at 87 schools in operation in the early 20th century. They numbered that many because state law called for schools to be no farther apart than two miles, so no student would have to walk a long distance to attend school. The rural, one-room schools contributed immensely to American democracy and the growth years of the Midwest. At their peak in the late 19th century and early 20th century, an estimated 65,000 schools dotted the Midwestern countryside.