Pleasant Hill's Struggle For Education
Energy laid the groundwork for Pleasant Hill's growth and prosperity, but the resources supplied first by the coal mines and later by electric and gas properties were matched by the energy of area residents. Pleasant Hill residents were willing to sacrifice and fight for worthwhile goals, as illustrated by the history of the Pleasant Hill school district.
Residents Form A School
The Independent District of Pleasant Hill and school disputes existed even before the coal mines attracted clusters of families to the area. According to information acquired from J. B. Warnock, residents of the Four Mile Creek area-namely Jim Fredregill, Sr., Lysander Harvey, Steven Brown and his father-in-law Grandpappy Knox, J. C. Taylor, George Prentice, A. W. Doane, Manuel Fisher, Harvey Dean, Yankton Morey, James Shakleford, and a family named Runyon - decided to form an independent district since they did not have the school facilities to which they felt they were entitled. Warnock wrote that some of the people in the township were not in favor of forming a district, but that the ones that were engineered their district lines to include favorable voters and posted the election notices in "very inconspicuous" public places, winning voter approval for the district about 1870.
The first recorded reference to the Pleasant Hill school is in the Annual Report of County Superintendents of 1873. Sometime before then the residents had bought a site for the school building.(The original school land is on the hill across Oakwood Blvd. from the cemetery.) On this site a one-room frame school house was built. Together, the site and building cost $432.60.
School was confined mostly to the winter months when the boys would not be needed for farm work. In order to fit in education between the harvest and planting seasons, classes only lasted six
By 1876 the school population had grown to 56 students. To accommodate that many students, a second teacher was hired. The male teacher was paid $55 per month and the female teacher received $35 per month. The residents had increased per pupil spending to $1.98 per month. The school year was expanded to eight months in length.
Then in the early 1880's coal mining was heading towards the area as the mines in the center of Des Moines were abandoned. As the mines moved closer, more people moved into the Four Mile Creek area. By 1883, the one-room school was holding 69 students. There were still two teachers, one man ($40/month in pay) and one woman ($28/month).
Growing With Energy
In 1889, Christy Coal Company run by Joseph Christy sunk a mine near what is now the end of Christie Lane between the railroad tracks. A mining camp with company store, shanties, and boarding house became Youngstown, named after Youngstown, Ohio, where many of the people had come from. To handle the increased school population which totaled over 75 students, Christy Coal, in 1891, paid for a new, two-room, two-story brick school house for “primer” through eighth grades. The Fredregill Brick Company in Youngstown furnished the bricks and in 1891 or 1892 built the building. It included a school bell tower and was valued at $3,000. The old frame school was retired to serve as a rental hall where Good Templers, Bryan Silver Club, and visiting ministers such as Rev. Bogt and Rev. Clark held meetings.