Strawberry School

When the first Territorial legislature convened in Prescott in 1864, Governor John Goodwin asked that a system of public education be established in Arizona. A firm believer in learning, Goodwin advocated the notion that universal education and self-government were inseparable. He informed the territorial assembly that Sections 16 and 36 of each township had been set aside, by the Organic Act that organized the Territory, to generate income to support public education. Goodwin also urged legislators to allot a small portion of funds raised through taxation to create public schools. The legislators took the Governor’s request for a small amount of funds quite literally, allotting only $1,500 to establish institutions in San Xavier del Bac, Prescott, Tucson, Mohave, and La Paz. Because of the miniscule portion of funds, only San Xavier and Prescott benefitted from the allotment.  

Public education developed at an unsteady pace under Goodwin’s successor. In 1865, Governor Richard McCormick temporarily postponed the initiation of a school system, stating that he found existing provisions for schools in the Territory to be adequate. Despite McCormick’s opinion, the 1867 territorial assembly enacted a law giving towns the option of collecting taxes for schools. Tucson was the only community that took advantage of this provision. In 1867, Tucson established a small school which only operated for six months due to a lack of funds. 

It was not until President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Anson P. K. Safford as Governor of Arizona in 1869 that the outlook began to change. Safford was mortified by the results of the 1870 census, which showed that Arizona had almost two thousand children between the ages of six and twenty-one, but not a single public school. Safford’s mission to change the situation earned him the reputation of “the father of Arizona schools”. Safford crafted a public-school bill that provided for a Territorial school tax of ten cents on each hundred dollars of property. The public-school bill authorized counties to collect school taxes not to exceed fifty cents per one hundred dollars of property. Three public-school trustees were to be elected in each district. The responsibilities of the trustees were to provide and furnish schoolhouses, take a school census each year, and to levy special taxes if the district was unable to keep the school open for at least three months a year.  

The first prominent EuroAmerican settlers arrived in the Strawberry Valley towards the end of Safford’s administration. The small community of farmers, ranchers, and freighters realized the need to educate its young children. Thus, in 1884, Strawberry Valley generated a petition to organize a district and establish a school. The petition was taken to Prescott and submitted to county school superintendent, William “Buckey” O’Neill. O’Neill was a good friend of LaFayette Nash, one of the earliest settlers of Strawberry Valley, and it is believed that the close relationship between the two men facilitated the rapid granting of a school district for Strawberry Valley. Local legend states that O’Neill told the families of Strawberry’s children to build the schoolhouse, and he would provide its furnishings.  

Families were eager to begin construction but could not agree on a site for the new school. Homes were scattered throughout the three-and-a-half-mile length of the valley and parents were concerned about the distances their children would have to walk. Another local legend tells that this issue was resolved by two cowboys using a rope to measure the distances from the homes on the furthest eastern and western areas of the valley in order to construct the school at the midway point. Construction began in early 1885.  

Superintendent O’Neill fulfilled his promise to the settlers. He sent furnishings that included glass windows that could be raised and lowered, factory-made desks, the latest edition of Webster’s Dictionary, a current world globe, a large slate Blackboard, two overhead gaslights, a wood-burning stove, a clock, textbooks, and even a pump organ. The school opened in the Fall of 1885. It was the pride of Strawberry Valley – the building would serve not only as a school but also an occasional dance hall, church, and meetinghouse for Valley residents. Mollie Burgett was the Strawberry School’s first teacher. The teacher received a salary averaging $30 a month, plus room and board with meals for them normally being provided by the families of the children who attended school. 

The Strawberry School remained in operation every school year, except for 1908-1909 due to inadequate enrollment, until its closing in June 1916. Since 1916, Strawberry’s students have attended public school in neighboring Pine County within the Pine-Strawberry consolidated school district. For the next half-century, the School found occasional use as a temporary residence for newcomers to Strawberry as they built their own homes or for transients passing through the area, but it was never used again for instructional purposes. 

Strawberry School, National Register of Historic Places. Accessed December 17th 2020. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75609847.

Strawberry Schoolhouse, Pine-Strawberry Archaeological And Historical Society. Accessed December 17th 2020. https://www.pinestrawhs.org/schoolhouse.html.