Looking Back: Grain Valley's Early Schools

by Marcia Napier Grain Valley Historical Society

Missouri became a state in 1821, and Jackson County was purchased from the Osage Indians in 1825 and divided into nine townships. In those early days, long before the Civil War, there were no public schools in Eastern Jackson County.

Schools that did exist were called subscription schools, meaning parents had to pay for their children to attend. If folks were poor and had no money, their children did not have the opportunity to read and write.

As small communities sprang up, these subscription schools began to dot the landscape throughout the county including those of Sni-A-Bar Township. Classes in these early schools were set up for grades one through eight. There were not enough interested students to warrant a high school in those early years.

Grain Valley was established in 1878, and the first school was located on the Corner of Walnut and Capelle Street in 1887. In 1908 four students became the first graduates of a two-year high school, and by 1919 Grain Valley School included a four-year school.

I hope to tell you about the oneroom rural schools that eventually became a part of the Grain Valley Reorganized School District #5 in 1949. While Capelle School was the oldest recorded Grain Valley School, there were schools at Stony Point and Pink Hill prior to the Civil War.

If you drive around the area you see Owens, Murphy, Oakland, and Oak Hill School Roads, all a testament to the importance education has always been to the citizens living in and around Grain Valley.

While the Grain Valley School district is growing and changing rapidly in the new millennium, what hasn’t changed is the commitment to make education a priority for the children of our community.

Next week: Read about the Stony Point and Pink Hill schools.

Photo credit: Grain Valley Historical Society