History of Oak Lawn District Number 18

Because of the fact that there are no old settlers residing today in the Oak Lawn District, it has been impossible to ascertain definite facts relating to its early history. It was probably originally a part of the old Catclaw District. The oldest resident of the community recalls that several miles to the east of the present school site there sat, in the early days, a little one-room white school house of the style of the buildings of that day, being forty feet by sixty with two doors in the east or front side; but so little attention was paid to this little school, to which came the children of a few ranchers, that the name was not generally known and seems now to he forgotten. The district now known as Oak Lawn, because of its nearness to "Old Lawn" and because of the beautiful oak trees growing here and there over the adjoining country, was organized in 1891, re-organized in 1900, and the old building was erected on the present site. In 1919, with the increase in the number of children in the district, a small bond was voted and a fifty cent tax levied; a modern two-room building was erected and equipped, but it soon became evident that this building was inadequate for the needs of the fast-growing district. In 1921 an additional bond for an eighteen hundred dollar improvement was voted and taxes raised to the limit of one dollar. It is expected that the bond will be disposed of in some way now in order that Oak Lawn may have a three-teacher school 1922-1923. This plan materialized will show a marked growth because, until l919-1920, there was only one teacher employed for the school. Much of the development of the district has come about the two years just past, during which time Floyd Blankenship and Miss Artie Blankenship (now Mrs. Copeland) have been in charge of the school.

Class Roll