Abandoned School in South Dakota

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The Hetland school served to educate the local children and the children from out-laying agricultural areas from 1904 until 1971.

The town of Hetland was originally surveyed and platted in June 1880 by a railroad townsite agent, Asa Y. Felton, who along with his wife named the town Felton. However, when the application for a Post Office was made, the Postal authorities disqualified the name because there was already a town in the state named Felton. The citizens thought that the town name should honor someone who had taken part in homesteading the community and decided on John Hetland, who was the first homesteader in the district in the fall of 1878.

The Dakota Central branch of the Chicago Northwestern Railroad was the foremost contributing factor to the establishment of Hetland. The Railroad was active in publicizing Dakota by distributing brochures, pamphlets, and newspaper stories relating the favorable conditions of the area. After 1880, settlers could come by immigrant cars on the railroad instead of covered wagon. The railroad even ran Homesteader's Excursions, and the area was rapidly populated as settlers expanded the townsite of what was then still Known as Felton. At times during 1882, as many as 18 trains a day passed through Felton, transporting immigrant freight westward. By 1883, the railroad ran two passenger trains a da ay each way with from seven to nine coaches full of newcomers and nine or ten freights with supplies.

The town continued to grow with numerous stores and businesses, including a blacksmith in 1888, a druggist in 1890, a physician in 1892, a hardware store in 1894, and a bank and a Farmer's Cooperative organized in 1896. In November 1897, the Hetland Herald advertised that Hetland had three general stores, a grocery, drug store, doctor, milliner, hardware store, hotel, bank, restaurant, barber shop, machine dealer, blacksmith, wagon shop, lumberyard, coal dealer, three grain elevators, a creamery, harness shop, a weekly newspaper, photographer, school house, two church societies, a civic society, livery and feed stable, dray line, a stone mason and several carpenters.

By 1900, the population of Hetland was 162. Heavy rains in 1903 produced good crops and 1904 saw several new buildings constructed, including several more stores and shops, the current school building, a meat market, and another restaurant. By this time, Hetland had every kind of business common to western towns, including the Hetland Telephone Company which had been organized in 1902. By 1905 the population had increased to 240 and continued to grow.

The first school for Hetland students was a two room building, constructed in 1891, in a rural district located one mile east of town, north of the railroad tracks on private land. In 1892, this schoolhouse was moved one mile north and became District #44. A schoolhouse was built in town on lots donated by Lewis Boyd. The school board met in August 1892 and decided to have at least nine months of school to begin the first week in September. They also decided to levy $400.00 for general school purposes for the coming school year. The first teacher, Lois Bates, was hired for $40.00 a month.

The community grew so rapidly that within a year the schoolhouse was already too small, so an addition was added to the building and two teachers were hired. In October, the board bonded the school district for $800.00 to pay the debt caused by building the addition. In September 1903, a ninth grade was added to the Hetland School, once again causing the schoolhouse to be too small, so the board proposed a new four-room brick building. However, by a vote of 63 to 10, the board voted against a brick building and instead agreed on constructing a $4,000 frame building so that additions could be added later.

A special meeting was held on March 15, 1904 of the Independent No. 43 to issue bonds for the $4,000 for the new schoolhouse. C.A. Johnson of Brookings drew up sketches, plans and specifications for the new building. Rock for the foundation was hauled in March, construction began in May, and the foundation was completed in June. On May 14 the old school house was auctioned off for $400 to L.A. Crandall who moved the building to his residence and used it as a five-car garage. The school house was completed in time for the fall term and the school opened with 80 pupils for the 1904-1905 school year. Furniture for the new school was purchased from a store in Arlington for $195.75. Although the school opened in 1904, it wasn't until 1906 that I.J. Bradley of Fairfax, SD was hired as the first Principal with a salary of $70.00.

Hetland was unique in that few schools in South Dakota built belfries. If a community was prosperous enough to afford one, the addition of a bell served as a point of pride for the community. A dance was held in the town hall to raise money for a bell, and the new bell was received and installed in October 1904. Over the years, the school continued to make improvements to the building. In 1913, the old wood sidewalk, which had been constructed in 1893 as part of the old school house, was torn up and replaced by a new cement sidewalk at a cost of 12 cents a square foot. The old wooden sidewalk was put in the basement and used for kindling. In February 1919, the schoolhouse was wired for lights, and in the fall of 1920 city water was piped into the building.

In March 1920, bonds were issued for $10,000.00 for the purpose of building a 28' x 52' addition to the building and to overhaul and remodel the heating plant for the entire building. The contract for the work was given to M.A. Melstad for $6,900.00, which included all the carpenter work, painting, insurance, all materials and excavating. The addition to the north end of the building added two additional classrooms downstairs and the gymnasium upstairs. At a special meeting on October 4, 1920, it was decided to insert a balcony and seats in the gymnasium on each end and the south side. The balcony was constructed, but it was decided to postpone installing the seats until a later date, as the district was likely to be short of money that year. It is unknown when the seats were finally installed. The Hetland School gymnasium was the first hardwood basketball floor in the county.

In October 1929 a new maple floor was installed over the old floor in the gym, and in 1937, the ceiling in the gym was raised to facilitate sporting events such as basketball. 1937 was also the year that the school had a telephone installed. Although the school had had running water since 1920, it was not until 1939 that the PWA constructed a sewage system and installed indoor toilets and separate girls and boys dressing rooms and showers. In 1949, the lower hall was partitioned off and two bathrooms were installed for the grade school classrooms.

The first class to graduate from the Hetland School was in 1913 and had seven students. Another class did not graduate until 1922. The Commencement was held at the Opera House/Town Hall on May 23, 1913 with an admission of 15 cents and 25 cents charged to help defray expenses. Students could graduate as a Classical or English graduate with four years of high school or as a Commercial graduate with three years. The graduation tests for the commercial students consisted of adding five sums of ten, four digit numbers each, in five minutes, plus a speed of forty words per minute in typing and one hundred words per minute in shorthand. The commercial classes offered were Commercial Arithmetic, Commercial Writing, Commercial Spelling, Rapid Calculation, Bookkeeping, Shorthand, and typing. The classical courses offered included Science, Algebra, Geometry, Latin, English and others.

Over the years, the enrollment of students continued to grow. In 1933 there was a large increase in enrollment in the high school and the school had to hire a fourth high school teacher. In 1935, the School District set up a dormitory project so that students from the surrounding country side could attend school. A girls dorm was housed in the Jackson house at the north end of Main Street on the west side. During that first year there were eighteen girls staying in the dorm during the winter months and twelve for the entire school year. The boys dorm was housed in the Charles Barstow house located on the south end of Main Street. Rent for the dorms was $15.00 for nine months and $10.00 for 3 months. The meals for both dorms were served in the house used as the girls dormitory. The dormitories were discontinued in 1946, but noon lunches were Still served in the Intermediate room at the school until 1948, when they too were discontinued.

In 1943, the school dropped back to three high school teachers due to a decline in students, and in 1945 there was even discussion of discontinuing High School. By the fall of 1947, there were no seniors returning to school so no class graduated in 1948. In 1949, the last class of six seniors graduated, bringing to a close the Hetland High School. The grade school continued, and it was at this time that the lower hallway was partitioned off and the two bathrooms were installed. Space heaters were installed in the hallway and the two lower south rooms and they were used for the first eight grades. In 1965 however, it was decided to send the 7^th and 8^th grades to Arlington or Lake Preston, depending on the choice of the student. One teacher was retained for the six remaining grades. This continued until 1971 when the Hetland Common District #43 joined the Lake Preston Independent District. Thus, the school that originally began with one teacher closed its doors with only one teacher.