The Little Red Schoolhouse on East Jefferson Street was the first school built as a result of the Common School Law of 1834 passed by legislators in Harrisburg. The law mandated that each county in Pennsylvania provide schools for its youth. The Little Red Schoolhouse is now a living history museum owned by the Butler County Historical Society.

While the majority of early residents of Butler County were farmers or simple merchants, they were interested in seeing their children provided with an education that would fulfill the age-old goal of American parents: a better future.

But gathering children in one schoolhouse from the far-flung farms of Butler County was difficult at the beginning of the 19th Century, as youngsters would have had to walk a great distance to attend school in precarious weather and without proper shoes or winter wear.

In addition to sharing their agricultural or business knowledge with their offspring, the county's settlers squeezed in what little reading and writing lessons they could to the light of a candle or fireplace.

But thanks to the penchant for education shared by the county's earliest parents, rough school buildings began to pop up here and there.

The first known school in the county was built in 1799 in Clearfield Township near Coylesville.It was known as a “subscription school” because parents paid a dollar or two per year for their children to attend.Fees for subscription schools varied depending on the depth of the curriculum, the area of the county, number of students and the teacher, according to the book “School's Over!” by Pat Collins of Butler.The Clearfield Township subscription school, Collins wrote, “goes to show just how important education was to parents in Butler County even before it was easy to establish, build, (or) maintain a school with a reliable teacher, and have enough money to sustain it.”In 1802, the state Legislature passed a law on subscription schools, which allowed them to begin appearing throughout the county.In 1834, the Common School Law passed in Harrisburg, which charged counties with providing schools for their resident youngsters.

“The Little Red Schoolhouse is the result of that,” Collins said in an interview of the now-historic building on East Jefferson Street. “The government had to provide a school and a teacher.”The Common School Law, Collins explained, resulted in the levy of the first school taxes in the state.Later, the Act of 1854 mandated that a county school superintendent be elected by voters to a three-year term in the position.A man named Isaac Black was Butler County's first school superintendent and was paid a salary of $300 per year.The job of the superintendent was to inspect all schools in the county, and Black's report in 1856 counted 182 schoolhouses within the county's borders.Of those schools, Black deemed 84 “unfit to be entered,” 41 “could be made tolerable” and 57 were “tolerable.”

By 1892, the number of schoolhouses in the county had risen to 289. Three years later, school attendance became mandatory for youngsters, and many truant officers were hired throughout the county.Regarding those early schoolhouses, Collins' book states the buildings were primitive, especially the earliest versions made of rough-hewn logs.Windows made of greased paper let in the cold and damp but kept out much of the light.The county's earliest students did not enjoy the luxury of desks, but sat on split logs.Schools were unevenly heated by pot-bellied stoves in the center of a large classroom, which left students seated next to the contraptions sweating and their classmates one or two rows away shivering.Wood-framed buildings with glass windows eventually replaced the rudimentary early schools.Students were dismissed at 4 p.m. and no homework was assigned, as even the youngest students had chores to complete at home before dark.

Because ink was an expensive commodity, early teachers wrote their lessons in sandboxes, dampened the sand, and had students copy them.“Slates,” or small, handheld chalkboards, were eventually used for lessons, and ink later became available to teachers and students.In winter months, students could be seen breathing on the tips of their quills to defrost the ink inside so they could continue their lessons.In 1893, the state Legislature mandated that textbooks and other school supplies be provided to students across the state.Before the5hers and students brought their own quills, pencils, textbooks, slates and paper to school.Collins' book states that parents across the county were relieved at no longer having to stretch their meager household budgets to include school supplies.While most teachers — who were not required to have any training or college degree at that time — were strict and tolerated no laziness, back talk or insubordination, they enjoyed their students and had a modicum of fun with them at school, according to Collins' book.

One tradition saw students lock their teacher out of the building on the last day of school. The teacher would regain admittance to the school once they promised the students a treat or signed a treaty saying they would provide one at a later date.According to Collins' book, one of the first teachers in Butler County, Johnson McKnight, was locked out by his students.The students watched in shock as he stormed off to his home.Having borrowed his wife's clothes, he returned to the school and tapped on the door.Not wanting to refuse entry to a lady, the duped students allowed “her” inside. It was then that Mr. McKnight removed his wife's clothing and revealed himself, meaning the students received no treat in return for letting their teacher back inside.

While wages for teachers were low, in the 1860s, male teachers earned an average of $40 per month, while their female peers made just $22.Regardless of their differing pay scales, all teachers were expected to carry in wood and coal to light the pot-bellied stove so classrooms were warm when students arrived, sweep and clean their classrooms before the morning bell, and oil the wooden floors at least once per year.Students walked to and from school each day regardless of the weather, sometimes for miles in each direction.Funds for ancillary items for early schools were raised through functions such as “box socials,” where students made up boxes of goodies to be auctioned to the public in the evening.Each box's highest bidder would sit with the student who had made the box, creating a pleasant social setting for students, faculty and the community.“Many school bells were paid for with the money raised through box socials and other fund-raising projects,” Collins' book states.Education continued to evolve in Butler County, which will be the subject of next week's “Building Blocks of History” entry.