The education of the young was always a prime concern of new settlements. The district was petitioned on April 6, 1881 and the first Woodstock school was organized in the fall of 1881. Children attended school in a small building erected by Ed Wilkins in 1882. The temporary home was vacated the following year, 1882, when a schoolhouse, 24x40, was completed. To erect the building the district issued bonds to the amount of $1200.00. The first session of school began on January 8, 1883. In the January 18, 1883 edition of the Pipestone County Star, it was stated: Under the able tutelage of Lou Taylor, who was the first af many women to teach in the district, there is this account, to whit: “Our school commenced on the 8th of January with Miss Lou Taylor as principal. There were twenty scholars enrolled which is not bad start for Woodstock,” An addition was built with the same dimension as the original, 24x40, in 1888. A substantial two-story, four room, wood-frame school building was erected in 1901 for $7000.00. The first school term in the new building was conducted by Frank O’Neill, principal, and Misses Dixon and Morton, the grade school teachers. The old school was sold and the original half formed the rear part of Charles Lindsay’s store; in 1936, when Lindsay’s store was razed, this part was moved to a local farm site west of Woodstock, where it was used as a granary. In 1937 Woodstock began bussing high school students to Pipestone. The school then had two teachers, each having four grades. In 1954 Common School district No. 33 – the Woodstock district was attached to the Pipestone district and the district was under the management of Pipestone. In 1954 7th and 8th graders were taken to Pipestone, leaving only six grades in Woodstock. Enrollment of those grades was 70 to 80. Shortly after 1954-1955 an all brick structure was built, with three classrooms, library, storeroom, lavatories, kindergarten room, kitchen, gym, furnace room and stage. The staff included four teachers, a cook, playground supervisor and janitor. The two story, 60x52 school was bought at auction on July 11, 1957 by Chis Veldhuizen and razed in the fall of 1959 and the spring of 1960. Following eighteen years being attached to District 583, the kindergarten children from the Woodstock school were bussed to Pipestone in the spring of 1971. In 1974, in a decision strongly protested by many in Woodstock, the school was closed. In late January 1975, the all brick school building was sold at public auction to a former “Woodstockite. He converted the building into apartments for students attending Pipestone Area Vocational Technical Institute. Later in the 1970’s, the building became The New Life Treatment Center and is still in operation today. For more information about all the country schools located in Pipestone County please feel free to visit the Pipestone County Museum. This is a small container just holding a log, so bring your own writing tool. TOTT may also be needed.