Callaway County Schools & Districts

Map of locations of Callaway Schools & Districts
Alternate Map of locations of Callaway Schools & Districts

Contrary to popular belief, the public school system in Missouri developed with a plan from the very inception of colonization of the new lands of the Louisiana Purchase, rather than developing haphazardly as a local need arose. Following the purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France, the Federal Government developed plans to populate, and expand into the newly purchased territory. Among those plans were those for the placement and financing of public schools.

The Public Land Act of April 20, 1820, authorized land to be sold for a minimum of $1.25 per acre and tracts as small as 80 acres. Public lands initially offered for sale by District Land Offices, established by the Bureau of Land Management, were sold at pre-announced, scheduled public auction. If any land remained unsold, the parcels would be available for purchase at the minimum price on a first-come-first-served basis. These lands were made available as fractional sections of land determined and defined under a survey system known as the Rectangular Survey System.

The Rectangular Survey System divided the new territory up into a series of rectangles defined by North-South lines known as Range Lines and East-West lines known as Township lines. These lines were six miles apart in both directions creating a square parcel of land six miles wide and six miles long, known as a Township. These Townships consisting of 36 square miles were divided up into 36 smaller squares of land, one mile on each side, commonly known as Sections, containing one square mile or 640 acres. These sections of land within the Township were numbered from 1 to 36 starting at the Northeast corner of the Township and progressing Westward sequentially from one to six stopping at the Western border of the Township, then dropping South one mile and numbering sequentially from West to East stopping at section 12 on the Eastern boundary of the Township. This pattern was repeated two more times completing numbering of the 36 sections of land within the Township. Section number 1 in the Northeastern corner, section 6 in the Northwestern corner, section 30 in the Southwestern corner, and section 36 in the Southeastern corner.

When the lands of Missouri were surveyed off and made available for purchase through patents under the Bureau of Land Management, our Federal Government set aside Section 16 in each Township as lands for which the profits of the sale of that section went toward establishing public schools within that Township. Within the Township, it was further planned that there would be four established school districts. If the Township were divided up into four quarters, three miles on a side consisting of nine sections, each of these quarters was to be established as a school district. The intent of these planners was the district school should be located as near as possible to the center of the center section of this school district keeping the maximum distance from any one residence in the school district to the school to less than two and one-quarter miles. When placing these schools, they would normally be found in the centers of Sections 8, 11, 26, and 29. Other factors might affect the placement of these schools, such as; landowners, topography, existing roads, and location of population centers; but normally in the early days of development of States, Counties, and Townships these general rules were adhered to if possible. The schools were frequently named after the owners of the land on which they were built.

If we look at Callaway County we will discover that it consists of 29 full or fractional townships. The Township lines were numbered from Township 44N to Township 49N and the Range lines were numbered from Range 07W to Range 11W. Fractional townships occurred on the Western boundary of the county along Cedar Creek and along the Southern boundary of the county along the Missouri River. Based on the prescribed location of school districts, Callaway County was subdivided into 116 school districts. They were numbered from 1 to 116, starting at the Northeastern corner of the county moving Westward at approximate three mile intervals until the Western boundary of the county was reached, then Southward by approximately three miles numbering Eastward in the same manner to the Eastern boundary of the county. This sequence was repeated until the Southeastern corner of Callaway County was reached. This was the system of School Districts which held until the early 1940’s when there was an effort, as a result of better transportation and roads, to consolidate school districts to create larger schools which were better equipped to support the needs of a changing world.

The following is a list of the names of those schools and the numbers of the districts which they represent.

The Kingdom of Callaway Historical Society is attempting to document the Historic Schools and Districts of Callaway County by documenting their locations, opening and closing dates, histories of the schools, the names of the teachers and school terms which they taught, and photographs of the schools, teachers, and classes of students. If you can help us with any of this information before it fades into the past forever, your assistance is sincerely appreciated by your fellow 'Callawegians'.