LOUIS MENKE AND THE NEW ERA SCHOOL HE BUILT IN HANOVER TOWNSHIP

jrozek

Jun 5

Mrs. Smith and her students at New Era School. Photo credit to Judy (Bierman) Bartelt

The account in the December 2, 1921 issue of the Daily Herald, under the heading South Barrington News, read:

"The new school in Hanover Township cost about $7,000.00 [to] complete. Louis Menke & Son had the contract for this building. Contract amounted to $4,650.00, balance was donated by district. The building was designed by Edwin Menke and the board of directors. Size of the building 37x39 ft. Brick veneer construction. Size of school room 24x37 ft. Well lighted by windows, equal to one fifth of floor space. Has basement under the whole building. Hot air furnace and a good well in basement. It has a good ventilating system inspected and approved by state inspector."

By 1921 Louis Menke, the main carpenter in Schaumburg Township who built the Turret House at Schaumburg and Roselle Roads, had moved from that same house to Elgin, Illinois. He and his son were still busy in the area, though, and were not just building homes and barns anymore. The question is, though, which school did they build?

Judging by the fact that it was in Hanover Township AND listed in the South Barrington news portion of the paper, it had to be the public school that sat on Old Higgins Road, just west of the intersection with Shoe Factory Road.

A small branch of Old Higgins Road still exists in Schaumburg Township. You can find it today, just north of St. Alexius Hospital, off of Barrington Road.

Back in the day, though, the road crossed Barrington Road and took a more angled direction towards the northwest and Shoe Factory Road. You can see it here on the 1935 Barrington topographic quadrangle.

Taken from the 1935 Barrington quadrangle issued by the U.S. Geological Survey

In this 1935 topographic map, the red line above Old Higgins Road shows how the state intended to straighten out the road. Once they began that process, it would affect the one-room school, School No. 43, that sat off of Higgins Road in Hanover Township. (The dotted line indicates the boundary between Barrington Township to the north and Hanover Township to the south.) This was the school Louis Menke and his son, Edwin, built.

According to an August 3, 1961 article in the Daily Herald, that location had housed a school since 1865. While we do not know the name the school was given when it was built, we do know that, later, this school was known as the Loomis School. This is most likely the case because, as seen on this Snyder's Real Estate Map of Cook, DuPage and Part of Will Counties, Illinois from 1898, it was adjacent to the A. Loomis property. (Almeron's son, Charles, per the Biennial Reports for Cook County, later served as a director for the school and his granddaughter, Esther, attended the school. Esther's obituary, in fact, states that "she was educated in a rural school...")

*Snyder's Real Estate Map of Cook, DuPage and Part of Will Counties, Illinois* from 1898

Another map from Cook County's 1894 Biennial Report of the County Superintendent of Schools shows that the school was officially labeled as School District 11 at this point in time. It was a "Union District" because its boundaries encompassed portions of Barrington, Hanover and, possibly, portions of Schaumburg Township.

From the *Biennial Report of the County Superintendent of Schools*, 1894

By the late 1910s when the Cook County Superintendent of Schools probably deemed it necessary to replace what was, most likely, a simple, wooden frame school with a newer, more up-to-date version, the school was routinely called Loomis School in the newspapers and was formally noted as District 43 in both the Cook County documents and the newspapers.

In an article from the Cook County Herald of February 4, 1921, it states that "Last Saturday a delegation comprising almost the entire citizenship of Dist. 43, the Loomis school, went a few miles south into DuPage County and inspected an up-to-date modern rural school building. Notices will be posted this week for an election in No. 43 for a new building."

By June 24 of the same year, the election had been held, Louis Menke and his son, Edwin, had been chosen as the contractors and Edwin had completed and submitted the design for the school. We know this because a mention in the Cook County Herald states that "the cement wall for the new school building being erected in Loomis Dist. has been completed."

In December, as noted in the article at the top of this post, the school district was celebrating the fact that the new, brick-veneer school was open and operational. Louis Menke, his son, Edwin, and his construction team had, once again, used their skills to change the landscape of rural Cook County.

It was also, at this time, that the name was changed from the Loomis School to the New Era School. Obviously, the school board opted to note that a new era of school design and construction for District 43 had taken place.

For another 40 years the school served the students who lived in the greater area of Barrington, Hanover and Schaumburg Townships. In fact, in her personal history, Schaumburg Township resident Dorothy Jahn Schult said, "The school board agreed and we transferred to New Era School... New Era School was on land between old Higgins Road and the new Higgins Road."

New Era students from the May 23, 1924 issue of the *Cook County Herald.* Photo credit to the *Daily Herald.*

Judy and Jon Bierman who lived in Schaumburg Township on Barrington Road, next to Old Higgins Road, also attended the school. They graciously provided a few photos of the school that depict students and teachers outside of the school building. Note the cement walls with the brick veneer just it was described in the 1921 newspapers. Also, note what might be Old Higgins Road or Shoe Factory Road in the background.

When I asked Jon, who attended 1st and 2nd grade at the school, if he remembered a well in the basement, he said, "I have no recollection of a basement if there was one. I have little recollection of the inside other than it had two two bathrooms. I guess that sticks in my mind because when I went to Hoosier Grove for 3rd and 4th grade we had an out house."

As the older sibling, Judy could recall "that there was a basement in the school as she went down in it on one occasion. She said she had fallen on the swing one day and scraped her knee. The teacher took her to the basement where they had running water and cleaned her wound." Since the school was so close to Poplar Creek, it is likely the water table was very high in the area and would have made it possible to have the well provide running water quite easily.

John also notes that if you take a closer look at the above photo you will note, off to the left, "the large opening at ground line was probably used to shovel coal into a bin in the basement. I'm sure that they used a coal burning furnace, as was common at that time."

I also inquired about the rather rough looking lawn around the school. Jon said, "My most vivid memories relate to recess. The playground seemed okay to me. I imagine they mowed it before the start of the school year. After that the kids kept the grass trampled down. The playground had a swing set with a teeter totter and, farther away, was a merry-go-round which I recall being on a lot. It was great fun with just a few of the young ones but, absolutely terrifying when the big ones got on and got it going so fast you thought surely you would fly off or get crushed between the steel ring and big iron pole in the middle. In the winter we had snowball fights which were fun except when a couple of big guys would absolutely plaster you with hard packed snow balls."

Judy mentioned that, "the back side of the property sloped up to the property line." She remembered playing baseball on it despite the slope. Jon remembers summersaulting and rolling down the small rise.

Other activities Judy remembered was walking down the old road at recess and playing at the creek. (Wouldn't that have enticed any young child?) She also remembered making an igloo one winter that they played in.

By the end of the 1960-61 school year, the decision was made to close Cook County's last one-room school house. An auction was held on August 12, 1961 on the school grounds and the building was auctioned to Richard E. Swanson of Skokie, IL for an amount of $9590. An article from the August 17, 1961 issue of the Daily Herald states that "the schoolhouse is a red brick building standing on a low knoll. The building overlooks Old Higgins rd. which was discontinued as a state route when Higgins was rerouted slightly to the north and widened."

An earlier paper from August 3, 1961 stated that "the site contains approximately two acres and is on high rolling ground. The building is brick veneer and has one large room and several small rooms together with a full basement. There is running water, an oil-fired hot air furnace, inside washrooms and an electric water heater." This description basically matches the accounts that were written in the 1921 issues of the same paper--except for that good well in the basement.

The paper was also fortuitous enough to provide a photo in the August 12, 1961 issue that covered the auction.

Today you can track vestiges of Old Higgins Road on the Poplar Creek Trail in the Arthur L. Janura Forest Preserve. A portion of the trail appears to have, essentially, been laid down the center of the roadbed of Old Higgins Road. Note the old road on either side of the trail as we cross the west fork of Poplar Creek and face the rise where the school was located.

This is where the current trail branches off from the Old Higgins roadbed and is, most likely, near the location of the former school. It is the only portion on the south side of the trail where there is a rise in the terrain that could be described as a "knoll," as noted in the caption of the newspaper photo, or as "high rolling ground" in the other newspaper description.

Louis Menke and his carpenters certainly took advantage of all jobs that came their way. From barn to house to school, they used their skills to advantage, ranging from Schaumburg Township to Hanover Township to Elgin. Who knows what else exists from his building days?

Jane Rozek
Local History Librarian
Schaumburg Township District Library
jrozek@stdl.org

If you can add any further details about the school or, even photos (!), please comment below or send an email. Let's not let the last one-room school disappear.

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