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Robert Henri information from the Museum
Here is some more from Mrs. Menke about the Church:
Nebraska Committee for the Humanities Grant #84-04
The Rebirth of the Cozad Revelation:
Subject: The History of "The Little Church By The Park," formerly New Hope Evangelical Country Church and the
Christian Science Society Church.
Date: May 2, 1985
Research and author: Betty Menke
Sources:
Personal interviews with former members of New Hope Evangelical Church, The History of the Evangelical Church in Cozad,
Personal interviews with Joe Allen and Dee Scroggin, papers of H. B. Allen, and information from the Records Administration
of the First Church of the Christ, Scientist in Boston, Massachusetts.
The New Hope Evangelical Congregation actually started about 1882 when R. B. Rowland came to settle in Dawson County
on a homestead claim. He gave an acre of ground for Rowland school to be built. Today that school is called Lucerne Valley
School. The first school was small, one room, and on Sunday it was used by the Rowland Sunday School. A little mission church
started soon afterward. In 1883, two ministers, Reverend Brooker and Reverend Stinson came for revival meetings. Some of the
early families in the little church were the Andersons, the Applegates, the Hansels, the Meliuses and the Loves.
In 1909 a little white frame church was built on an acre of ground donated by Ernest and Mary Love. It was called New
Hope and stood on the northwest corner of the Northwest Quarter of Section Twenty-four, Township Eleven, Range Twenty-four
in Dawson County, Nebraska. Some of the early Sunday School Superintendents were W. L. Love and Ernest Love. Furniture in
the new church consisted of wooden pews, an organ, a pulpit, a stove and at the front of the church stood a beautiful square
table with glass ball claw feet.
About the year 1920 country people began to have automobiles and went to town quite often. They thought it was time to
join the town Evangelical Church, so the New Hope Congregation requested to become a part of the Cozad Evangelical Church.
In 1921 the little white frame church sold for $500.00 to a new group called The Christian Science Society and moved to Cozad
on 10th Street, north of the Cozad City Park.
There was a coal stove on the west side of the building in the early days. The present furnace is about thirty years
old. There was an organ and always a piano and usually a soloist. The congregation participated in hymn singing. There were
no weddings, no funerals and no social functions held at the church. The windows in the building are original. The roof of
the building is about fifteen years old. The steps and railings outside were added in the 1950s. There were no restrooms.
The blue chairs and seats were given by Ma Kleinhans in about 1950. The reading table was given by Catherine Anderson and
the book case by Dee Scroggin. The collection plates were baskets with little wooden handles and later little cloth-lined
baskets. The present lecture stand was made for the church by Dee Scroggin. In the front of the church was a banner saying
GOD IS LOVE. There were two plaques hanging at the front of the church. One said: “Ye shall know the truth and the
truth shall make ye free. The other one said: “Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need.”
The Little Church by the Park is a good example of early churches and early church philosophies. When it was New Hope
Evangelical it was the center of most social activities. Not only were there services on Sunday and Wednesday nights and weddings
and funerals, but it was used for Ladies Aid Society, Quilting Parties, Potluck Suppers, Box Socials, birthday and anniversary
celebrations and all types of parties that did not include dancing. When it became a Christian Scientist Society Church the
service became more austere, and it was never used socially, not even for a wedding and funerals were never held in the church.
The music was different also. Both churches used the organ and the piano, but the Evangelical Church had an active choir
and much hymn singing at their social events, often just holding a “Hymn Sing.” The Christian Scientist
Church had very limited audience participation in hymn singing, never a choir but usually a soloist.
The leadership of the Evangelical Church was in the hands of a minister, who was paid a salary, but in the Scientist
Church the leadership was in the hands of a series of readers, elected by the congregation, and they were not paid.
The reason for the closing of so many country churches about 1920 was the invention of the automobile. Farmers could
afford cars by then and they were much more mobile. When they began to go to town frequently they made friends there and therefore
wanted to go to town with their friends.
The Cozad church began to lose membership in the 1970s and eventually closed in about 1981, but it had been an active
church for 60 years. The building was purchased in 1983 from the First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston, Massachusetts
by the Robert Henri Museum and Historical Walkway Foundation so it might be preserved as one of the earliest churches in the
area and one that was consistently used from 1909 to 1981 by two congregations. It will be used as a chapel and meeting place
for small gatherings and will be known as "The Little Church by the Park."
And here is some about the Country School:
Nebraska Committee for the Humanities Grant #84-04
“The Rebirth of the Cozad Revelation”
Subject: The History of the country School District No. 86 at Cozad, Nebraska
Date: May 2, 1985
Research and author: Betty Menke
Sources:
County Records and personal interviews with Rose Block Miller and Adelle Block Miller Griffis and Ruby Adle, last teacher
of District 86 and Dorothy Anderson Smith Ballmer.
This one room country school was built about the year 1880 on a site nine miles nort and west of the City of Cozad on
land owned at that time by David Adle and Christiana Frost Adle. This school was called “The Adle School”
because it was on Adle land, although it should have been called “The Block School: because so many Block children
attended it. There were five Block brothers who came from Germany and all settled together west of Cozad and there were 47
children produced from these five original families and all of the Block children attended District 86,
In the one room was a big coal burning stove. There were from 20 to 30 pupils who attended from grades one through eight.
The teachers always stayed at Block or Adle homes. Every day the pail of water was carried to school until eventually a pump
was put outdoors near the schoolhouse. There was a teacher's desk, a blackboard, a recitation bench, a stage curtain, a piano
which is now at 81R, and various kinds of student desks. Some of the desks were on runners.
This was a very active school, not only full of students in the daytime, but many evening community activities were held
there. The desks were on runners so they could be pushed to the side of the room for social activities. There was a neighborhood
PTA, a Literary Society, and a Grange Group that met there monthly. There were parties, programs, box suppers and even dances
held there. Chris Junker and his son played the violin, Ruby Adle played the piano; there was square dancing with local callers.
They used gas and kerosene lamps; everyone came and all the children too. Everyone brought lots of food. Angel food and devils
food cakes and lemon pies were favorites. Box Socials were held even when times were hard.
Country school children not only learned from each other and the teacher, but also from the recitations of the older
students. Every teacher had to buy her own text books as only the student's texts were furnished by the district.
There was a community water pail and dipper and somehow all students seemed to have an immunity to each other. There
was little sickness in the school. There were no lights; only daylight was available. If programs were held at night, lanterns
were used and later when Delco plants became popular, there were portable lights that could be taken to the schools long enough
for the programs to be given. Subjects taught in those early times were reading, spelling, arithmetic, geography, history
and much, much penmanship. There was usually much singing in the early country schools.
Outdoor games consisted of tag, hide and seek, and singing games such as "Skip to My Lou." Children walked
to school; only occasionally did a child ride a horse or have a horse and cart. The teachers walked to school or rode horses.
The school attendance varied with the season, many older boys coming in the winter months only. Often these older boys caused
trouble, and many a teacher was "run out" before the year was out. Some were strict disciplinarians, however, and
succeeded.
The school house on the Adle property was given by Dorothy and Archie Smith to the Cozad Historical Society in 1960.
It was 80 years old at that time. It was placed south of Cozad for many years, wating for a permanent locations. In the spring
of 1985 it was moved to its permanent location beside "The Little Church By the Park" on the north side of the Cozad
City Park. It was moved by the Robert Henri Museum and Historical Walkway Foundation and will be repaired and restored as
nearly to its original state as is possible. The school contains most of the original furniture; the large curtain was from
the Ringgold School south of Cozad. It contains advertisements from businesses in Cozad. This was a popular item in early
country schools. The school contains the original teacher's desk, students' desks and a map case. Eventually there will be
a piano, a teacher's log, a school bell, a collection of original text books and antique playground equipment.
Teacher materials in the schools of the 1880s were skimpy. There were few books available for the students, perhaps a
reader, speller, an arithmetic book, a geography and history book. The students used slate pencils for their lessons; pencils
were rare and tablets very rare. If a school did not have a slate blackboard the teacher painted a board black and used that,
or if she wanted something more permanent she put black cloth over wood and used chalk on that. There were very few library
books. Each school had a set of wall maps, a globe, a flag, a recitation bench, a piano, pictures of Washington and Lincoln,
and often Rosa Bonheur's Horse Fair, and The Angelus. Since pencil boxes did not exist in the very early days, each child
had a pencil box, a flat cookie tin or a cigar box, and there he kept his personal things, a handkerchief, a pencil and maybe
paints.
The country school teachers if the Cozad community attained their training beyond eighth grade or twelfth grade from
a Teacher Academy at Franklin, Nebraska, a Teacher Training Academy at Broken Bow, Nebraska, and from Kearney College. Often
they taught right out of the twelfth grade if they had had normal training courses.
The teachers' responsibilities were many; sweeping the floor every night, dusting, building fires, washing windows, blackboards
and desks, and she often brought the water. In some schools each child brought his own jug of water, and in later years would
have his cup hung on a string around his neck. The teacher learned to watch weather and if the weather became threatening,
she dismissed her students to get them home before the storm broke. Some schools had storm cellars, but because the school
term ended in early May and didn't start again until late September, the tornado and severe storm season was over. In the
winter time, blizzards were a threat, and some teachers and children were caught by a blizzard and then they just stayed in
the school until help could come.
The early teachers received very little pay, sometimes as little as $25.00 per month, sometimes a cash and room and board
arrangement as part of the salary. The teacher usually lived with a family near the school and sometimes with several families
during the year.
It is the hope of the Foundation that modern children will have some idea of what it was like to attend a country school
100 years ago. Although the old country school may have lacked the modern technology of computers and projectors, it was a
place filled with love and fun and dedication to the learning of the basic skills necessary for all children. An old country
school house is a place of lovely memories.
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