These Happy Golden - Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder

     Belden School was built in 1859 out of limestone from the area. It is a unique school not only because it is constructed of stone, but because it is located in the beautiful hills of the Galena Territory. This little schoolhouse taught lessons to the local children from the surrounding farms. You might not see the farms in its entirety now, but some of the old barns are scattered around Belden School and throughout the Territory.

     There were many advantages to attending a one room school house in the country. The community was small, and close to each other as they worked and played. Many of the children that went to school here became friends for life. Teachers were also close to the children and gave individualized instruction. Though not highly trained, the teachers were often patient and needed to be when teaching a large class of students. Students were often grouped according to needs and once one group had their assignment, the teacher would quick change course and tend to another group. Quite often, the older children would help teach the first and second grade children providing their own studies were completed by the end of the week. The children needed to be very quiet as others recited their lessons. By the time the younger children advanced to fifth grade and beyond, the lessons that were taught were familiar to them from years of listening quietly. They learned their lessons quite well!

     There were no libraries in one room schoolhouses. Any available books were often shared by the children and usually stacked in piles on the floor or put in a cabinet. One such cabinet is behind you in the back corner.

     Many students of one room schoolhouses remember how cozy the schoolhouse was in fall and winter. The wood or coal in the stove would heat up quickly and the lucky children who sat close were toasty warm. Looking through the large windows of Belden School and watching the snow fall while listening to the winds howl, made each child happy to know they were tucked safe and warm inside, at least until school was dismissed. Those same windows would be open in spring with the fragrant smell of sweet daffodils blowing in.

     After arriving on horseback, or walking through the woods, and down the hills into the valleys, the children would enter the front door of Belden School hang up their coats and place their tin pails on the floor or bench, and tend to their chores. It might be the chore for one older student to fetch the cold water from the spring that was across the creek as classmates might want a drink from the dipper and bucket during the day. Coal needed to be in the coal bucket by the stove for those cold days. In earlier years, it was the wood that needed to be brought in from the stack on the side of the school.