Ball Prairie School Traditional Geocache
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The Schools of Ball Prairie
"The School Near John Cattons"
Nancy Davis, one of the district's teachers in the 1870's described the first Ball Prairie School: In the spring of 1848 the settlers had increased in number so that it was thought best to build a schoolhouse. The men made what was termed a bee, and each man was to bring a log to the raising. Those who stood at the four corners of this building as the logs were rolled up were W.C. Calkins, Stephen Allen, John Cross, and Silas Allen. A little four sided room, with windows facing each cardinal point was this building. In the northeast corner was the door, hung on wooden hinges, four desks against the four walls and in front of each desk a bench. This left a space in the middle of the room for the stove and teacher, and toward this space the pupils faced when reciting. Communal home schooling probably occurred earleir, but it is believed this was the first public school building in what is now the Winneconne Community School District. Although trading posts existed at Butte des Morts and Winneconne prior to 1848, the village of Winneconne would not be platted for another year, and the very first white settlers (Bells, Champions,Wrights,Ashbys, Calkins, Allens, and others) came to the area only two years earlier.
School No. 2
The first log building was only used until 1852, at which time it was replaced with a 22 by 30 foot frame structure, built one half mile due north (on north side of the current County G one tenth mile west of Hyw 110).
School No. 3
A proposal to build a new school caused considerable debate in the early 1880's. A harbinger of a struggle to occur almost a century later (decision to build 9th Street high school), it was voted down five times over a four year period, before finally being approved in 1885. The building, completed in 1886 was located one half mile west of the previous school, where it still stands.
The Ball Prairie School is on private property and this cache was place there with the owners permission. There are brochures at the school which provide a little more information on the school and the area around it.
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