Schoolhouse History
The Ladies Aid Society, a Photograph Courtesy of the UCO Archives & Special Collections
1889 Schoolhouse History
On a summer day in 1889, Jennie
Forster marched into Brown's Lumber Company and ordered enough
lumber, on credit, to build a school house for the new village of Edmond, Oklahoma Territory. The Ladies School Aid Society, consisting of 15
women, had been formed and the ladies were determined to have a proper
school for the local children.
Jennie (Mrs. George) Forster was
the president of the society. Among the other members were Mrs. L.G.
Wahl, Mrs. C.A. Dake, Mrs. Frank Kiedrowski, Mrs. E.W. Erisman, Mrs. H.H.
Moose, Mrs. Peter Wilderson, Mrs. J.J. Shen, Mrs. Alvin Ricketts, Mrs.
John Pfaff, Mrs. Henry Morrison and Mrs. F.S. Peck.
The women set to
work immediately to earn the money to pay back the lumber bill. They
badgered their husbands, as well as the other town merchants and citizens.
Mrs. Forster joked in later years she was sure the businessmen "felt
like running out the back door when they saw me entering the front
door."
Courtesy of the Edmond Preservation Trust
For more information about the 1889 Territorial Schoolhouse restoration and Edmond's Historic Landmarks click on this link: