Jasper County Records Center volunteers are assembling a book about the history of the rural school districts in the county and they need the public’s help.
Volunteers Helen Hunter and Marjorie Bull said they would like the public to submit their memories about attending the rural schools that dotted Jasper County and rural Missouri prior to the reorganization and consolidation of districts in the state in the 1960s.
“We need former students to send in their stories about their memories about the schools,” Bull said. “We are putting together a history of the rural schools in Jasper County and people are interested in those schools.”
Hunter said the records center has some pictures and the records of who attended those schools. They are looking for pictures that former students might have and their experiences at those schools.
“We’re getting close to getting this book together,” Hunter said. “We’ve got a lot of pictures of the teachers and students but if people have other pictures or stories about what the schools were like, we’ll take anything we can get.”
The historic Cave Springs School outside Sarcoxie was the first public school in Jasper County and an example of one of the dozens of small rural school districts that educated kids from the pioneer days until the state forced reorganization on the school districts in the middle 20th century.
The records center had the records for many of the rural districts that existed before reorganization.
