USA
- Neuchatel, Kansas
Bonjour and allied families
Perrussel and allied families
Simon
and allied families
USA
- Athens, Ohio
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Neuchatel,
KS - School...
Neuchatel
School, Dist 14, Nemaha County, Kansas (inside view - 1995)
Neuchatel
School, Dist 14, Nemaha County, Kansas (school on the right,
village hall on the left). Picture taken by Nicolas Junod
on July 1, 2010
...In
the matter of education, the Swiss nation is not behind any
of
Europe, and the settlers were not here long, until they began
to agitate the question
of a school for their children, who were beginning to grow up. A meeting to
see about the erection of a school house, was called
for the 21st of March, 1863.
The matter of funds troubled the pioneers more, perhaps, than anything else.
There
had not been money enough raised by taxes to build
a schoolhouse and to have a school taught, so a subscription
list was
passed around, to which $41
was subscribed, and as their being able to carry on a school, they held another
meeting on the 14th of May following, when district number 14 was organized,
with Fred Bonjour, director, Alfred Bonjour, clerk, and Aime Bonjour, treasurer.
James
Cooper was hired to teach a three months term of school,
commencing the end of June, the same year. He received
the munificent sum of $9 per
month, or
$27 for the term, for his
services.
The school was held in Louis C. Simon's house (Louis Constant Simon"one
yed Simon"), southwest of where Zelim Bonjour lives, there being a spring near,
which furnished
water
for the
use
of the
school. Mr. Simon's mother, who was the head of the family, received
a dollar as rent for her room.
The same fall the old log school house, which stood on
the hill a little north and across the road from where Tom Kelly lives,
was built. Most of the work was done by donation, some hauling the logs, others
helping in the erection of the building.
Among the teachers who taught
in this
school house were: Mrs. Hal, now Mrs. Brat, of near Centralia; Mrs.
John Irwin, Peter Leroux, Clara Utzy, Miss Ensign, and Flora Preston, afterwards
Mrs. Rev.
Hogbrin, of the Sabetha Congregational church.
In 1871 the district
was changed by cutting off district No. 46, and the school site of the
Neuchatel district
was changed to its present one, and the present stone structure
was built. The district then became joint district No. 5, of Nemaha and Pottawatomie
counties.
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