Oak Grove School Endowed Fund

Goal: $19,210.00

Specific Need

The work to restore the 1877 Oak Grove School has been completed. Donations are now needed to help finalize the readiness of the school site for area elementary schools to safely conduct field trips to Oak Grove where children will learn about Kansas history and experience what it was like to attend a one-room school in the 1870's. To complete this readiness, we need to add a handicap access ramp to the front porch and a covered activity pavilion and restroom facilities on the south side of the school. This will complete the physical readiness of the site for the education and enjoyment of area elementary school children.  

Note: The Oak Grove School Historical Society is a 501(c)(3) charitable, non-profiit organization. All donations are tax deductible. All donated funds are 100% utilized for the site restoration and development projects. There are zero overhead costs deducted from any donations received.    

Mission

The mission of the Oak Grove School Historical Society is to provide southeast Kansas elementary school children with a memorable hands-on learning experience in early Kansas history that will instill in them a deeper understanding and appreciation for their heritage! This they will do at a restored 1877 one-room stone schoolhouse on its original site on the Kansas prairie. 

Oak Grove is unlike any other former one-room school -  it is historically unique - and has been listed on the both the Kansas and National Historic Site Registers. Oak Grove was built on what was once the Osage Indian reservation - and was built directly on the Osage Trail, the only road available for travel in the early 1870's.  Children will be able to experience not only what it was like to attend a rural one-room school in 1877 Kansas (writing on slate chalk boards, playing pioneer games, and reviewing U.S. history of the period), but they will also have the chance to walk along the original Osage Trail - and learn about the people who traveled it. They will learn about the history of the Osage prior to Kansas statehood, the struggles of the early pioneers in settling an untamed frontier, and the contributions of the railroads, farming, and entrepreneurship to the development of the region. All this they will experience for themselves on an original 1877 historic site just 6-1/2 miles northeast of Parsons!

Profile

The Oak Grove educational field trip program will provide for southeast Kansas area schools an opportunity already offered by the Kansas Historical Society for schools in the Topeka area. The Kansas Historical Society is very interested that this field trip experience will now be offered at Oak Grove for schools in the southeast Kansas area and has offered to provide all of its curriculum materials for use in the Oak Grove program.