Flatwoods One-Room Schoolhouse
- Mary Mortimer
- May 2
- 4 min read
The Flatwoods settlement in Bokescreek Township was established ca 1854, when Christopher Williams, a Black man from Fayette County, purchased land. Other African Americans soon followed Williams and began a settlement. Some were former slaves who reached Flatwoods via the Underground Railroad. In about 1868, the Flatwoods community built a Baptist Church and a one-room school with Solomon Day being one of the first teachers. Along with teaching at the Flatwoods School, Solomon attended Oberlin College and became a prominent educator in Dayton, Ohio. The school was known as Bokescreek Township School No. 10.
The Bellefontaine Republican newspaper reported in January 1895, there were thirty enrolled in Bokescreek School No. 10. Students were taught reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic, grammar, geography, physiology, U.S. history, music, business, and civil government. The school was well equipped with books, maps, a beacon chart, beacon word cards, flash cards, and a large dictionary.
The Flatwoods schoolhouse is believed to be the only one-room school still standing in Ohio that was used extensively by African Americans. It closed in 1923 when one-room schools began to be consolidated into one township school district. After the Flatwoods school closed, it sat empty for many years. It was eventually moved a short distance, painted red and used for farm storage until it fell into disrepair.
In 1999, Ethel Buchenroth, of Huntsville, visited the former school while doing research on the Underground Railroad in Logan County. The next year, the property owner contacted Buchenroth and told her he planned to tear it down and construct a new outbuilding in its place. Buchenroth said she “hit the panic button” and contacted Bellefontaine Middle School enrichment teacher, Kris Swisher about saving the building. The year before, Swisher’s class had dedicated themselves to saving the Holland Theatre, which led to the formation of the Logan County Landmark Preservation Society Inc.
Swisher and her sixth-grade class visited the former schoolhouse and decided it was worth the effort to save it. They discovered the chalkboard was still there and had writings left by the last teacher. The first thing they needed to do was find someone to move the building. Merkle Heavy Moving, of Van Wert, gave them an estimate of $12,500 to move the building fifty feet out of the property owner’s way. The building then needed to be moved to a new location before the spring planting season. Buchenroth sought information on obtaining state funding to cover the cost but discovered it was going to take too much time.
The Logan County Landmark Preservation Society pledged to help pay for the move. The students tirelessly researched the history of the Flatwoods School and campaigned to save it. In April 2000, they received help from a group of sixth graders from Sam Rayburn Middle School in Bryan, Texas. When the Texas students heard about the Ohio students’ efforts to save the Flatwoods School, they wanted to help. They organized a car wash and raised $645. The Ohio Underground Railroad Association gave $355 to make their donation an even $1,000.
State Rep. Tony Core, of Rushsylvania, presented their cause to Attorney General, Betty Montgomery. She deemed the project to save the Flatwoods School worthy of assistance and presented the class with a check for $15,000 in May 2000. Plans were made to move the schoolhouse to the YMCA Wilson Outdoor Center. However, low-hanging utility wires along the path would have necessitated the roof being removed before transport. Swisher and her students then contacted the village of West Mansfield about moving it to the Veterans Memorial Park.
Along with their fund-raising campaign, Swisher’s class won first place for their project at the Future Problem-Solving International Competition at the University of Athens, Georgia in June 2000.
In August 2000, the West Mansfield Village Council voted unanimously to allow it to be moved to the Veterans Memorial Park in the village. By this time, Swisher and her students had raised the estimated $18,000 needed to move the building.
On September 26, 2000, employees of the Logan County Engineer’s Office, the Merkle Moving Co. and local utility providers worked together to move the Flatwoods School to the park. Once the school was moved, Architect Karen Beasley began work on the restoration. Mr. Concrete donated the cement blocks for the foundation and Thomas & Marker donated the labor to lay the blocks. Former Logan County Historical Society Trustee and Building Committee Chair Ralph Wood, with the help of Swisher and her students, oversaw the restoration of the school.
In 2002, the Ohio Bicentennial Commission, The Longaberger Co., Logan Co. Commissioners, Bellefontaine Middle School sixth-grade enrichment class, and the Ohio Historical Society erected a Flatwoods Schoolhouse Ohio Historical Marker at the schoolhouse site. Several former Flatwoods students attended the dedication ceremony and shared their memories of the school.
The Flatwoods schoolhouse is now part of the Logan County Historical Society and is used as a living history museum. The Flatwoods schoolhouse opened for field trips in 2003 and is one of the stops on Logan County Schools 3rd Grade Landmark Tour each year sponsored by the Logan County Historical Society.
Swisher and her students developed lesson plans that can be used by teachers so students can experience what it was like to attend a one-room schoolhouse. Historical Society staff/volunteers, or the classroom teachers, can “teach” the students the “Three R’s,” just as our ancestors learned them. This program gives an overview of the history of one-room schools, and compares them to modern-day schools, as well as telling the history of the Flatwoods School.
The Flatwoods Schoolhouse is also used by the West Mansfield Baptist Church for special services, and reunions have been held there by Solomon Day family descendants.
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