The first Saline School was constructed of logs and was built around Civil War times. The second building was constructed around 1876 on property belonging to Reinhold Schlecht.
In 1888, the school board hired someone to clear an acre of land around the school house. The board planned to have the entire school grounds fenced in. They even went so far as to get the county surveyor to mark off the boundary lines, but when it came to a vote of the community, it was rejected.
After much debate, it was then decided to fence in a 20 foot square around the school. Miss C. Wohlschlaeger was the teacher that year. During the following year, George Staat was hired as the teacher and the school term was increased to seven months.
For a short tiime following Schlecht’s death in 1906, the school was known as Berresheim School, named for George Berresheim who was at one time president of the school board. That name was short lived and eventually it was again renamed Saline School after the creek that flowed nearby.
In 1901, the third school was built with the front addition being added in 1928. The school had a stone foundation with no basement and was 500 feet above sea level after being moved to the highest point in the area by the McClain family. In 1918, the school bell, which could be heard for many miles, was donated to the school by George Schneider who originally purchased it from St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Fenton.
Saline School was not located within the city limits of Arnold, but was built along Old Highway 141, between Fenton and Arnold. It was one of the origianl five school that consolidated to form the Fox Consolidated School District in 1948. The school closed when the Fox School District formed. The property was claimed under “squatters rights” by the Fox C-6 School District. The land had never been recorded by the original owner. The property was sold and the school was torn down. The flagpole at the Saline School site was removed and installed in front of the Fox Elementary School on Jeffco Boulevard.
I believe that Ruth Schad from Kimmswick was a teacher at the Saline School. She died in 1936.
Do you have any pictures of students with their teachers that could includeher?
thank you for any research you can do.
Barb