LOOKING BACK
Oil & Water Mix in Copan
Lakes & Oil a Boon to District
by Kay Little, Little History Adventures
When the Delaware moved to this area in the mid-1800s, many of them settled in Copan. The community was first called Lawton, then Weldon, and finally changed to Copan in 1904.
In 1896, Mrs. Dell Martin held school in her home north of Copan. She taught her children and a few other area children. In 1899, they went to the St. Louis School.
In 1899, the first subscription school in Copan was established where the city hall and park are now. It was a one-room school and was for the in-town students. The teacher, Nell Truskett, from Caney, drove her horse-drawn buggy to school every day. The building was also used for church whenever a circuit rider preacher came through town. Most families lived in the surrounding country, and the children attended one of the many one-room schools close to them.
A small one-room school, Cotton Valley, was built in the 1880s, east of Copan. In 1954, the students went to the newly-abandoned Pleasant View School. In the 1960s, a new school was built for Cotton Valley, ¼ mile east of the former school. Eventually, it consolidated with the Copan Schools and the “new” building was transformed into a home.
The first school in the area was a sod house on Pooler Creek, north of Copan. On Sundays, the building was used as a Baptist Church.
Pleasant View was established June 1909 in District #2, but by October, the community petitioned to be separate from District #2 and became District #20. They built a nice two-room brick building, the first of its kind in the county. The school met for 44 years before annexing into Copan in 1953. Before statehood, the Antioch School was held in the home of A.C. Kneisly. After statehood, residents built a one-room school east of Copan. As the community grew, an additional room was added and a 3-room home was built for the teacher. In 1941, they built more additions, but the last class met in 1956, because of annexation to Copan. The building burned in 1966 and all that is left is a marker. Owen School was established in 1907, two miles south of the Kansas border and five miles north of Copan, on old Highway 75. The school met there for 45 years, annexing to Copan in 1952. Pleasant Grove was built on Falleaf Land, just south of Cotton Creek, in 1911. In 1916, it became Blackbird School. Classes were suspended in 1947, and the students assimilated to the Cotton Valley School. In 1952, the entire area annexed to the Copan School District. This building eventually became the Pleasant Grove Church and is still standing. It sits empty now, just waiting to be used. The St. Louis School was an early subscription school established in 1894, three miles northwest of Copan, and was
60
bmonthly | AUGUST 2021
