District #28 – Deschutes/Morehead

District #28 – Deschutes/Morehead

Local historians claim that the Deschutes School was first held in a log cabin in 1876. Renny Pollard was an early teacher at the school. The earliest document from the school is a postcard communication from 1884. In 1894 there were 19 students enrolled at the school. L. J. Byrne was serving as the teacher at that time. Three years earlier Edith Corbett, of Mt. Rainier fame, taught at the school.

The Deschutes school, District #28, was operating in 1886. Documents show that Elcaine Longmire, the clerk received a note from the county superintendent that the school’s annual report had not yet been submitted,

1894 records from District #28 tell a little more about the school. Nineteen students were enrolled that year. The students were divided into five groups with each being designated according to the “reader” they were using. The school term ran for 77 days and the school maintained a 96 percent attendance rate. The district supervisors made no bones about it, their school was not well equipped. The school did not even possess a Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary. Needless to, say the school did not follow the curriculum prescribed by the state.

The Deschutes/Morehead district was absorbed by the newly created Lackamas District. What happened to the Morehead school immediately following this in uncertain. In 1929, however, the building was sold to private hands. The highest of the three bids was for one hundred dollars. The school building still stands and it currently used as a private home.

Documents – District #28

School Districts – The Old Fashioned Way – Map – Find the Morehead District among the other districts of the area.