Oakport
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Students of Oakport (Des Plaines) School The
research of the students of Oakport Township has taken us to a variety of
documents. These documents consisted
of school census from 1916 to 1928. Students that attended school were between
the ages of six and sixteen.
In the spring the school children would rake and clean up the school grounds, holding a picnic afterwards. Hot chocolate and soup was made on the kerosene stove for the students. Children
of the following families attended the school; Ed Melby, Carius Jacobsen,
Christian Jacobsen, Fred Knuth, Fred Fischer, Monson, Van Raden, George Gilbery,
Hokanson, Anderson, Sanger, Reeser, Hegland, Oscarson, and Fleming. The Jacobsen and Knuth children walked to school and on the cold winter days
they might be driven by horse and sleigh. In
the 1940’s Bill Rood drove a small panel vehicle (no windows on the sides)
transporting students from west of the school near the Red River.
Later a small new V-8 Ford bus was purchased and driven by Ray Jacobsen
(son of Carius and Nora Jacobsen) and also driven by Ray Dahl.
Students from west of school district #23 had attended a small red school
on the North Dakota side which was closed then these children who lived near the
Red River were driven by Bill Rood to school district #23 which was then located
on the Jacobsen farm. The
ethnic background of the students from Oakport consisted of Americans,
Bohemians, Canadians, Danish, English, German, Irish, Norwegian, and Swedish.
However, the Germans were the most populous in Oakport School during 1916
and the Irish being the least populous. From the graph below you can see the
history of ethnic backgrounds of Oakport School from the period between 1916 and
1928.
The
average number of students that attended Oakport during 1916 and 1928 was 20.5
students. Although there was not a
cut off or a limited number of students that could attend a school: the number
of students seemed to be on average around the low 20’s.
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This web page was created by Senior American Studies Students at Minnesota State University Moorhead Janet Hohenstein and Vusala Bentley. |
