If this schoolhouse could speak Traditional Cache
If this schoolhouse could speak
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
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Ammo box. Level terrain, mowed yard.
If this Schoolhouse could speak.
The Cave Spring schoolhouse was founded in 1838 and got it’s name from the nearby cave. The settlers were a group of 30 wagons going west, with supplies for a Trading Post and Blacksmith shop.
The Indians called it “ The Land of Many Bulls” which some interpreted to mean “Land of Many Boils and Springs.”
This building has served many different purposes. It’s been a girls academy, a church, and a funeral parlor before becoming a school. Unless you were wealthy, girls only attended to the 8th grade and boys were lucky to go that long. The bricks were made from clay found by the cave, east of the schoolhouse.
During the Civil War Jasper County was divided. The Union troops from Company C, camped here. One night while they were sleeping, a 12 year old girl, who was living near by, over heard a band of Confederate soldiers, who had stopped at the home for food and water, say they would “surprise the Yankees in the schoolhouse”. She ran along the path in the woods to the school and warned the soldiers that they were in danger. Some ran away so fast they left their clothes while others surprised the “Rebs” and fought them. There were holes knocked in the walls for musket fire.
Guerillas and Bushwackers caused lots of damage too. They killed and ravaged the area and some of the people killed are buried in the cemetery.
During the War the school was used as the county courthouse because Carthage, the official county seat at that time, was burned by Union troops that were led by the Governor of Missouri. The county papers were moved to Neosho and Cave Springs was used because of it’s brick walls. After the War, the courthouse was moved back to Carthage because they had room for a jail and better roads. The school was so badly damaged during the war, that poles held up the walls. It was torn down and rebuilt with the same bricks. The walls are 2 bricks thick. One version of history, has the walls being rebuilt by reversing the bricks, inside brick being used on the outside and outside on the interior walls. But some prefer the history of the patches on the wall being caused by bullets that struck the outside during fighting. One child claimed to have found a bullet in a brick.
The school was used until 1966 when the state reorganized school districts and the kids were sent to Sarcoxie. It served as a Mennonite school for a short time after that before the doors were closed for good.
The school has recently undergone major restoration by the Eastern Jasper County Historic Sites Association thanks to funding by the Pat and Carolyn Phelps Foundation along with the Community Foundation.
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Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Ab uvag arrqrq. Gbb rnfl!
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