Freeman School
The Freeman School, built of foot-thick red brick with carved limestone lintels, was the longest continuously used one-room school in Nebraska history (1872–1967). The school also served as a Lutheran church, a polling place for Blakely Township, and a community center for debates, clubs, and box socials. The National Park Service has restored the school to look as it did during the 1870s.
The Freeman School was the focus of an early, influential judicial decision regarding separation of church and state. In 1899, Daniel Freeman sued the school board after a teacher, Edith Beecher, refused to stop praying, reading the Bible, and singing gospel songs in her classroom. In Freeman v. Scheve, et. al. (1902), the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that Beecher’s activities violated provisions of the Nebraska constitution.
Read more about this topic: Homestead National Monument Of America
Famous quotes containing the words freeman and/or school:
“I am a freeman and jolly as a beggar.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“It’s a rare parent who can see his or her child clearly and objectively. At a school board meeting I attended . . . the only definition of a gifted child on which everyone in the audience could agree was “mine.””
—Jane Adams (20th century)