The first schools in Eastern Lewis County were constructed with the material available — logs from the abundant Douglas fir trees or the Western red cedar. Settlement in this area didn’t take place until the 1880s; therefore, the history of the earliest schools reaches back only a little more than a hundred years.
It wasn’t long after the pioneers got settled that they wanted to provide their children with an education. They worked together to fall trees, hew logs, split cedar shakes, and construct a one-room building. They tried to locate the schools so that the children didn't have to walk more than a mile and a half. This resulted in many small schools spread out in Eastern Lewis County from Bremer (Butts Road) to Packwood. Some of the earliest schools had as few as five pupils.
Teachers were hired for what was at first a three- to four-month term. All eight grades shared the room. The schools were furnished with handmade benches, pegs for coats, a water bucket and dipper, and a fireplace or wood stove. Two outhouses were out back.
The first school in Morton, according to a history of Morton Schools by Nels Swanson, a former superintendent, opened in April 1894. The two-room Burnap home built of logs and split
shakes, heated by a fireplace, was used for the three month term.
The pupils were all children of the pioneers. The first teacher, Jennie Keady, came by horseback from Napavine.
After the first term, school was held in a dance hall that had been constructed in the summer of 1894. There were no sawmills in Morton; sawed lumber was hauled from Cinebar.
The first schoolhouse was built in 1896 of hand-hewed logs and was located where Gust Backstrom Park is now. In 1910, another room was added to the school, but in two years it was outgrown and replaced with the first building built of lumber. It was located on the present site of Morton Grade School with
four classrooms in two stories.
In 1914, four rooms were added. These served until more room was needed and a gymnasium with classrooms was built in 1925 on the west side of the school. The classroom building served until replaced with the present brick structure in 1948.
Mineral's first school, a small log building, was built on what is now Cemetery Hill. A few years later, a larger log school was constructed on the site of the future Mineral Grade School. It had three windows on each side.
In 1907, a large lumber building replaced the log building. It housed not only the lower grades, but also the high school. It was not accredited; students had to attend Morton High School for periods that varied during the years from several
weeks to two years for a certified diploma.
Mineral's large frame schoolhouse was destroyed in an arson fire about 1944. The gym was being partitioned for classrooms when it was also set on fire by the same student. The present brick schoolhouse was then built.
The first school in the Kosmos region was located a couple of miles downríver from what became the settlement. Old-timers particularly remembered the muddy trails that served as roads.
In Glenoma’s first school, a horse and wagon hauled the youngsters. In all the country schools, quite a few students rode horses that were housed in a barn during the day.
Randle's first school was located in the Joe Chilcoat home which was also the Vance (south of Randle) post office. Taught by Clifford Orr in 1890, it was a subscription school with 10 students.
Four pioneers donated a quarter acre each for the first public school; Mt. View #1 was built in 1890 on Chapman Road. Its claim to fame is that the building was moved down the bank by a flood and turned around. Later high water turned it
around to face the original direction.
In Randle, the first school was a frame building located by the Methodist Church. The first one was followed by a large two-story schoolhouse.
In 1913, 21 small schools became part of Consolidated School District No. 214 which extended from Mineral to Packwood. It was the largest district geographically in the United States.
The distinction was lost in 1955 when the district was split into Morton District No. 214 and White Pass District No. 303, as it is today.
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LaVonnne M. Sparkman has written six books of East Lewis County history.
