Revised 8-10-2015
5th
Coordinator
grade program
MEET CHILDREN AT THE BUS OR AT THE FLAG POLE (5 minutes)
 Welcome them to the oldest house in Springfield that used to be five miles south of the
town, etc.
 Identify the five buildings, divide them into 4 groups, assign numbers to the buildings and
to the groups for the purpose of the rotations, and make sure there is a minimum of one
adult per group.
School House (20 minutes)
 Children can sit in the chairs and on the stage if you run out of chairs.
 Ask for the number in attendance so you can write it in the guest register.
 Give a brief history of the school. “During the Colonial Time period, a law was passed in
1642 that required children to be educated, and that children could be removed from the
parent’s homes if they were lax in their responsibility to educate their children. The law
required that if a town had fifty families they had to hire a school master to teach their
children to read and write. The mail goal was that the children would be able to the Bible
and thereby live good and moral lives. In the south, the planter class hired tutors and the
poor were homeschooled. Only a few private schools existed. Public schools came much
later. Up until 1900, the highest education level would be 8th grade, but after that the 34
states required 14 year olds and higher to also be educated. By 1910, 72% of America’s
children attended school. One-half of them were in one-room school houses. By 1910,
every state required children to at least complete 1-8 grade. By 1906, Greene County had
124 school districts. If school houses were made of boards, the Missouri law required them
to be painted white. Many of these one-room school houses also served as the local church
on Sunday, the meeting place on Saturday, and where citizens came to vote on election
day. Children either walked or came to school on horseback or in a horse-drawn hack or
sulky.”
 “Liberty school was founded in 1895 for the price of $10.00. It was located next to the
Liberty Baptist Church which was organized in 1845. This one-room school was sold
when City Utilities of Springfield purchased land to dam up the Sac River to form Fellows
Lake. Liberty School sat where the boat dock was to go in so it was moved a mile up the
road. From 2008 until the grand opening September 2014, many people worked to move
and restore Liberty School to its present location and condition who children like you can
experience what school would have been like in the one-room school house.”
 Give a brief history of the founding of Springfield as it relates to the house. “Missouri
became a state in 1821, and this area was Indian Territory. In 1829, a treaty was signed,
moving the Indians to Arkansas, Kansas, and Oklahoma which opened up this country for
settlers like John P Campbell. He arrived in 1829 when he put his initials on the tree, and
returned the next year with his family. Junius Campbell, John’s younger brother, came in
1831, and married Mary Blackwell, and had eleven children. Uncle John and Aunt Susan
Gray Campbell, whose brother built the house. One of their children, Mary Frances,
married Charles Doling. Where have you hear the Doling name? Of the five boys, Robert
Bruce stayed on the farm-he had two children, June and Bob Campbell, who was still alive
when restoration began of the house.”
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Revised 8-10-2015

“Notice how families are smaller now. Why? One reason, technology provided simple
machinery that took over many jobs children performed.”
 Get the flag from on top of the bookshelf and take the children outside to raise the flag.
Ask, “Why does the flag only have 34 stars?” Appoint three children to help raise the flag.
Talk about how Lincoln went to war to preserve the union. Say the pledge of allegiance.
Ask, “What word describes why Lincoln started the Civil War?” Indivisible
RULES
 Don’t touch anything unless you are told to
 Stay with your group – which applies to the adults and the children
 Please ask questions.
Remind group leaders that they are responsible for discipline, not the docents. Also, that we
have some potentially dangerous and breakable artifacts (knives, fire, etc.)
RING THE BELL AT 30 MINUTE INTERVALS
CEMETERY (15 minutes)
(Children can sit on the ground if it’s not too wet.)
“First of all, this is not a real cemetery. The Yarbrough/Gray cemetery is located south of Highway
M near Quail Run development. When first see, the stones were mostly torn down. The family
thought it would be a nice memorial to have it on these grounds with the house. We marked where
we thought the burials had been, but it is doubtful if there were any remains after 150 years in
wooden coffins. There were originally around 25 burials in the cemetery, but people had
vandalized the site, and stole most of the stones.”
Ask “Has anyone moved since they have been born? One, two, three times? The differences
between 1860’s and now are the when people were born during the 1860’s time period, they were
raised, married, and often returned to live in the family home, died and buried on the same
property. Today we are a mobile society, and we move from house to house, town to town. Usually
they only knew neighbors and school mates. Many married neighbors. The Yarbrough’s lived
across the road from the Grays. Most people did not travel far. Trips were taken in wagons (like
the one we have in the barn) with ribs and a canvas cover. Two days to go as far as Branson over
winding rough roads, not straight and smooth and cut through the hills like today.”
“How often do you see your grandparents? Do any of you have grandparents that live with you?
Grandparents used to help raise the children, know and love them. They could tell stories of the
family heritage. Ask your grandparents about their childhood, etc. If they tell you stories about
their youth, what are they giving you? Part of your family heritage.
“The stone boxes are not common for this part of the country. Mrs. Yarbrough probably did not
want her baby buried underground and asked someone to make a stone coffin for her. Also, if
someone died in the winter, it’s possible the ground could be too frozen to dig a burial spot.”
“Go inside the cemetery, and without leaning on the stones, find out who lived the longest: (Elijah),
who lived the shortest (Mary), who was born first? (Elijah). Who was president in 1799?”
Let them look it up at school. Let children examine the stones, make sure they don’t lean on
the stones.
Check all doors, shutters, windows, (including the barn), and privy. Be sure the pump box is
closed and locked. Make sure the flag is down and folded and put back on top of the bookshelf
in the school. Check all areas to be sure nothing was left out.
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