Published: October 22, 2009 02:19 pm      

One-room schools

Local historian searches for more stories

Shelby town history has always interested Alice Zacher.

When she became town historian in 1981, Zacher said she had an immediate interest in the area’s one-room schoolhouses. Over the past 25 years of research, Zacher started a file on each of the 16 school districts in the area, collected pictures and conducted interviews with people who attended the schools.

Taking a break after 1995, in 2006 she was again named Shelby historian and has resumed her search for information. Zacher realized after looking over her files that what she has collected should be in a book so everyone could share the area’s history.

“We support the work that she does,” said Supervisor Skip Draper, who with the other board members gave her the go-ahead for the project. “She is a remarkable lady, and we’re happy she tackled this.”

As she continues with the project, Zacher is now reaching out to the community and looking for any information people may have.

“I really feel it’s important,” she said. “If people have something they want to share, now is the time to do it.”

Zacher worries that after completing the project, she’ll discover information or pictures that were left out — and she wants to avoid that.

The 16 districts include No. 1 on Freeman Road, No. 3 in Shelby Center, No. 5 in East Shelby, No. 6 on Bigford Road, No. 7 in Millville, No. 8 on the corner of Wheeler Road and East Shelby Road, No. 9 on Sour Spring Road, No. 10 on South Woods Road, No. 11 on Maple Ridge Road, No. 12 on Fletcher Chapel Road, No. 13 on Salt Road, No. 14 on Shelby Basin Road, No. 15 on the corner of Ryan and Salt Works roads and No. 16 on South Gravel Road.

Zacher said the districts began in the early 1800s as log schools and switched to the one-room schools in the latter part of the 19th century. She said students in the area continued to use them until 1955, when the Medina School District was formed and children started attending there.

“They’re just marvelous stories,” Zacher said of what she has collected. “But it’s certainly a work in progress. It’s a fun project but is very time-consuming.”

She hopes to have the book finished and out to the public in about a year.

Those who have stories and are interested in sharing may contact Zacher at 798-2779 or by e-mail at azacher@rochester.rr.com.