Locust Grove School
The school is named after a grove of black locust trees planted by Jeremiah Rice to qualify for a government grant of a "timber culture" quarter that is one mile west of the school. Some of those trees are still alive behind the dilapidated school house.
Mom, Phyllis Plaster Carlson, had gone to the Locust Grove School for a year or two before being transferred to Reardan. She remembers being taught for a year in the one room school on Plaster road on the east side of the road. This school served very few families: Otto Mahrt, Roy Plaster, Wentlandt, Burns. She was taught by Evelyn Dobbler who boarded with Otto and Meta Mahrt place on the Rice road a mile and a half away. Evelyn did not board with the Plasters (Albert, Luella, and son Edwin) across the road. Edwin and Evelyn did court and marry.
On the first day at Reardan she remembers being part of a book brigade to move books from the old grade school to the new grade school. [If this was 1930, Phyllis and Doris would have been 9 years old (third graders?). I believe that she went to the Locust Grove school for only one year, which aligns with the 1929 consolidation date. Another thing that does not quite jibe up is that when she graduated college, the Davenport Times-Tribune made a point of saying that Doris and Phyllis, Mary Hanning and Gus Magnuson had gone to school together for 16 years. Although Mary and Gus lived less than five miles away, it is doubtful that they would have attended the Locust Grove school as the Fairview School was closer to their homes.]