Absarokee School Bell - Absarokee, MT - Bells on Waymarking.com

Not particularly large, this is an iron 26 inch bell made by the American Bell Foundry Co. at Northville, Michigan. This firm was in business approximately from 1896 to 1920 and sold bells under their own name and also through catalogues like Sears and Henry Field Co., dating this bell to pre 1920. Neither of the two later schools, both described below, have bell towers. This means that, if the bell was used in an Absarokee school, it would have to have been at either the original small log building built in 1903 or the following school, also a log building, built in 1905. No supporting information has been unearthed as yet.

First there was the nearby Sandstone School, built in 1910 as a primary school. It consists of a one story, hip roofed building of rusticated sandstone blocks, originally enclosing two classrooms. In 1915 it was doubled in size, using sympathetic materials and methods, changing only its size and not its appearance. The only other major change occurred in the 1970s when the west entrance was replaced with a steel door and transom. As of 1986 the interior remained almost totally intact, the only real change being the addition of dropped ceilings, with the ceilings above remaining intact. Though the original section of the building was likely built to plans of their own devising by local craftsmen, the design for the addition has been credited to Dominick Rosner, an architect working in the area before establishing a carpentry shop in Columbus. With all new buildings in place, we assume that this school was closed as a school at the same time as the Cobblestone School, 1990.

The Cobblestone School was built in 1921 to a design by W. R. Plew, an engineer at Bozeman's Montana State University. At this time Plew had extensive experience in the design of one and two room rural schools. Absarokee residents picked rocks from Rosebud Creek and volunteers mortared them together, the result being a school. Serving grades 9 to 12, the school was the only one in the southern portion of Stillwater County for many years, graduating about 10 students per year, students coming from as far as 45 miles away, boarding with Absarokee families in the winter. The only real change this building has undergone is the replacement of the windows.

COBBLESTONE SCHOOL

The opening of the Crow Indian Reservation to homesteaders brought settlers to this area who founded the town of Absarokee in 1893. School District #52 was created and by 1903, a log cabin with a potbelly stove served the town’s first children. In 1910, the nearby two-room Sandstone School was built for elementary students, but as the town grew, it soon had need of a high school. Although Absarokee’s high school district was the smallest in the state, the town had high hopes and great determination. Residents joined forces holding dances, bazaars, and bake sales to raise funds. A $20,000 bond issue was established and the work progressed. With cobbles gathered from nearby fields and riverbeds, the school was built on donated land with volunteer labor. W. R. Plew, an engineer at Montana State University at Bozeman who promoted appropriate designs in rural schools, is credited with the plans. Finished in 1921, the Cobblestone School was fully accredited with three full-time teachers. The first five students graduated in the spring of 1922. Pupils came from as far away as Limestone and Nye, 45 miles distant, boarding with local families during the winter months. An outstanding example of a simple school built with locally available materials, the building remained in use as a high school until 1990. Most of its original woodwork and fixtures remain intact. The Cobblestone School and its companion Sandstone School are landmark examples of the importance of public education to rural communities and of Absarokee’s commitment to its children.
From the NRHP plaque at the school