School Days in Defiance - Defiance, MO
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 38° 37.805 W 090° 46.784
15S E 693264 N 4278066
One of three markers at the trailhead in Defiance.
Waymark Code: WMYMW8
Location: Missouri, United States
Date Posted: 07/01/2018
Views: 0
County of marker: St. Charles County
Location of marker: Darst Bottom Rd., MO-94 & The Katy Trail, Defiance
Marker Text:
School Days In Defiance
"Known as "Sycamore School," the first public school in Defiance was organized around 1881. Located in the floodplains of Darst Bottom, this one-room schoolhouse provided first-through eighth-grade instructions to students living within a two-and-a-half- mile radius. Before the start of the 1897 school year, the school was renamed "Walnut Grove School," and 19 girls and 20 boys from 15 local families attended.
Students who attended the school received a well rounded education. The school was a lively place where students of all grades would participate in spelling bees, recite multiplication tables and practice their writing on the blackboard. During the cold winter months the class would huddle around the room's pot belly stove to stay warm.
The entire school day was not dedicated to learning, recess was as popular then as it is today with students. Classmates would often engage in mud-ball fights, in a game of "Shiney" or "Pig in the Hole," and occasionally a game of baseball was played with a string ball and a stick. During the winter months, a large snowball fight was the recess norm.
In February 1910, the Walnut Grove District was organized and designated "St. Charles County School District No. 68." On Tuesday, June 2, 1950, the patrons of Walnut Grove School District No. 68 voted 17-4 in favor of annexation with Consolidated School District No. 2 of St. Charles County, now known as Francis Howell R III School District. The old, one-room school closed and the building was sold in April 1951 to Mr. and Mrs. Elmore Meyer of Defiance.