Summer break officially ended for Deerfield’s students yesterday when the U.S.D. 216 Spartans started back to school. In the early days of our county, school typically did not start until September and sometimes even later as children were often needed to help on their family’s farms. The first school for the children of the Deerfield community was a subscription school located a half mile east of town in the home of H. Charles and Belle Nicholls. According to their granddaughter, both Mr. and Mrs. Nicholls taught that school term of 1885-1886.
Mr. Nicholls was serving as the secretary pro. tem. of the District 3 school board in August of 1886 when the decision was made to build a school house in Deerfield. The area had experienced a large influx of settlers, and a frame building was erected that was large enough to be divided into two rooms when needed to accommodate all the children. The school opened in October of 1886 with Miss Sallie Eastham as the teacher. In March of 1911, voters approved bonds to build a new brick school house in Deerfield. The old school building was sold to the Baptists and moved two blocks south of the school grounds where it served as a church. Later the building was used as a first-grade classroom, then as an industrial arts class room for the high school, and finally as a community building and grange hall for the Deerfield and Pomona Granges.
Deerfield’s first brick school house was constructed for an approximate cost of $12,000 and was available for the 1912-1913 school year. Although the building itself was very modern for that time, the school lacked the conveniences of running water, electricity and gas heat. The first heating system used was a coal furnace, and drinking water was provided by large water cans in each room with each student providing his or her own drinking cup. Part of the recess period was spent in refilling water cans. No lighting of any type was used. That school year a covered wagon drawn by a team of horses and driven by Bert White was used for Deerfield’s first organized mode of transportation for school children.
The school housed both grade and high schools with the high school faculty consisting of only one teacher, C. Edgar Funston, who taught Latin, algebra, English, ancient history, geometry, medieval and modern history to freshmen and sophomores. Funston also taught a full course of eighth grade subjects. His classes were conducted on the upper story while the two lower rooms were used for the primary grades. The following year, the high school classes were moved into the west room upstairs which had been partitioned to provide for a class room and to accommodate an additional teacher. By the end of the 1914-1915 school year, Deerfield had become a fully accredited three-year high school. The first graduating class in May of 1916 had three students.
The school term of 1915-1916 saw many improvements made to the school building. Among these was the addition of electricity and running water. Wells were drilled and equipped with automatic electric pumps, and pressure tanks were installed in the building. By the end of the 1919-1920 school year, Deerfield’s high school had become an accredited four-year school. Enrollment increased significantly necessitating the need for a new high school building. A new brick building was ready for classes in the fall of 1920 at a cost of about $33,000. The new building had the added bonus of a gymnasium. At this time, there were approximately 30 students and three faculty members in the high school. Rosamond James Eves and Oscar Maddux were the first two graduates from the new high school in the spring of 1921.
Coal-burning furnaces gave way to more modern gas heating systems in the 1920s, and 1948 marked the end of the school system’s private water system as water was then provided by the Deerfield’s city water system. Indoor rest rooms were installed and first used in the old grade building in 1951.
In 1946, the rural Prairie View and Harmony schools consolidated with the Deerfield Grade School while Pleasant View School District was added to the Deerfield district the following year. With added students and overcrowded conditions, Deerfield High School District No. 3 voted to build a new high school. In February 1950, 46 students and faculty moved into the $330,000 building.
Meanwhile, more space was badly needed at the grade school. A lunch program was added which required space for a kitchen and dining room, and the addition of a music room further depleted the available classroom area. More elementary teachers were added which ultimately provided a teacher for each grade. Since there were not eight classrooms available, the seventh and eighth grades were housed in the old brick high school from 1951 until 1957. After considerable groundwork, a bond election was held in January of 1956 in which bonds in the amount of $294,000 were approved for building and equipping a new grade school which would house kindergarten through eighth grades as well as a lunch room. Construction began in September of 1956, and the school was ready for occupancy in October of 1957. An estimated crowd of 300 people attended the dedication of the building on November 11, 1957. The school’s all-purpose hall was also dedicated that day in memory of Rex Miller, a member of the school board who had perished in an explosion in August of 1956.
The two old brick school buildings were razed, and recently city crews uncovered some of the bricks from the buildings when they were installing a new sewer extension for lots north of Deerfield’s tennis courts and swimming pool.
SOURCES: History of Kearny Co. Vol. I; archives of The Advocate and Lakin Independent; “Deerfield School Advancement” by Norval Gray, Supt. Of Deerfield Schools 1951-1962; information provided by the late Mary Russell, granddaughter of H.Charles and Belle Nicholls; and Museum archives.