Sand Bank School

Sand Bank School. Kaskaskia Cahokia Trail. , Sand Bank School ha a history dating to 1800, The first log school was built only a few feet east of the Kaskaskia-Cahokia Trail. The log one - room school on the sand hill served the settlers living near Captain James Piggot's Fort Great Run settlement, which was just south of this schoolhouse near today's Carr Creek, Captain Piggot was awarded three land claims totaling 1,120 acres and gave his wife Francis Ballew and her son Timothy Ballew the 400 acres of Land Survey 555, Claim 505. , As settlers began spreading out from Fort Piggot after the Indian Treaty of 1795, Francis Ballew Piggot built a small log cabin with a fenced in garden on this site, and appeared at the Cahokia Courthouse to have her claim certified. Her cabin likely became the first log school on this site around 1800, after Captain Piggot died and Francis moved to St. Louis. The earliest school records located show that Levi Piggot was teaching at the school in 1816.Log schoolhouses on this site served the farm children of the area for over 100 years before this one-room frame structure was built in the fall pf 1903. , Public funding for Illinois's school was enacted in 1855, and the school became Sand Bank District 2, located in T1SR1OW It was one of eight public schools in Columbia Township. , In 1874 James McKee was teaching at Sand Bank School, and he left in 1876 to teach at the new Public School in Columbia. According to Monroe County records Nellie Weibel served as the first woman public school teacher in Monroe County at Sand Bank School, then Etter and Riverview schools prior to 1899. In 1899 Maggie Urmey was the teacher, Julia Divers Wilson was the teacher from 1900 until 1912. It was told that she walked to the school from town every day until she married Mr. Wilson and left teaching. Lorenz Vogt, who previously taught at Schoemaker School and at Sand bank in 1912 and taught there until 1924, His wife and son ran a store that would become Vogt's IGA. Edith "Maude" Mehan began teaching at Sand bank in 1924 and remained there until the school closed in 1952. , On July 15th, 1902, in compliance with new state Law requiring school districts to be numbered by county, rather than township, sand Bank District #2 was renumbered as District #55, with a district census of 44 children between 6 and 21 years of age. School Board Trustees John Gummersheimer, Michael Geyer, and Anton Vogt decided a new school was needed and purchased extra land from farmer Frank Hermann, and in the fall of 1903 erected a new frame school in front of the log schoolhouse. On May 11, 1904, The Waterloo Republican reported "the Old Sand Bank schoolhouse was sold last Saturday at public sale and was bought by Mr. W. Phelps for $10. With its removal will pass one of the old landmarks of Monroe County." Mr. William Phelps, from the Dupo area, was the only bidder for the historic log school. He dismantled it and moved it to the site of his store at the corner of Route#3 and Davis street Ferry Road. Boy's and Girl's cloak rooms were added to the front of the school after1910, and the wall of windows on the east was created soon after as Illinois required more natural light in rural schools. In 1916 Sand Bank School was one of 59 districts in Monroe County. , The Alderson family purchased the school at auction when it closed in 1952, and lived in the building until Forest Alderson passed in 2002. It sat empty until Terry Schramm and Dennis Patton purchased it in 2008. Restoration efforts began when students from Columbia High School and tradesmen from the area volunteered to the work. The Sophia and Elmer Oerter Charitable Foundation and the Charles Todd Foundation provided the funds for materials. In 2010, the Sand Bank School Historical Society was awarded the Illinois Governors Hometown Award for Outstanding Community Volunteerism , In 2014, Joseph and Patricia Koppeis purchased the property and allow the Sand Bank School Historical Society to manage the schoolhouse.