Taylor twp. No. 3 - 1872
T.F. Healey, county superintendent of schools

Thursday, March 7, forenoon, visited School No.3, same township; John I. Shew, teacher; number on roll, 28; present, 22. Mr. Shew is himself a well educated man of 23, but his scholars are not even up to the Harper's Ferry children in ordinary intelligence. Somebody is to blame. Who? Parents say, "of course it is the teacher." Teacher says, "it is the children, to be sure." Children say they "don't know." At the district meeting none attend but Mr. Calvin Dodds, who seems to be the only citizen in this district who takes any interest in educational affairs.

~Source: The Mirror and Chronicle, Thursday, March 14, 1872, Lansing, Iowa, Page 3
~Transcribed by Cindy (Maust) Smith

Note: Unfortunately no children are named in the above article to make it somewhat easier to determine exactly which school this is. On the 1872 J.G. Ratcliff Plat map, Joseph Dodd, father of Calvin Dodd is shown as landowner near this school location. Anyone knowing for sure, please contact the coordinator of this website.

Note: The two articles transcribed below appear to be about the same school, but there are conflicts of names and dates. Plat maps show Livingston, Corrigan & Donahue families in the vicinity of the Paint Creek / Paint Rock school district. The 1940 U.S. census also enumerates these families in Taylor twp. Additional information or assistance with clarification would be appreciated.

1947

Harpers Ferry Ia. - "Good-bye, Bobby" "Good-bye, Teacher!"

And eight-year old Bobby Livingston, lonesome for his lost schoolmates, trudged disconsolately down the road to his farm home, and Mrs. Jack Boardman, teacher, with a bit of a lump in her throat, locked up the school house and went home to Harpers Ferry.

It was the drop of the curtain for Paint Rock district school two miles west of Harpers Ferry. After more than 60 years of service, ti has become just another of the hundreds of little white school houses by the road that have been closed for lack of attendance.

With the Paint Rock school, it was a case of Corrigans. The James Corrigan family, long residents of the district, have 11 sons - some young men now, others still of elementary school age. For nearly 20 years a half dozen or so of the Corrigans have gone to school at the Paint Rock school. When attendance from the rest of the neighborhood dwindled, directors and teachers could always count on the Corrigans.

Then it happened. The Corrigans sold their farm and moved away. Came school time the next day at Paint Rock, and there was but one pupil, Bobby, to answer the bell.

So Paint Rock school was closed and arrangements made for Bobby to take a school bus to Waterville.

"Maybe there will be enough children so we can open it some day." said one of the directors. But he spoke none too hopefully.

~La Crosse Tribune, La Crosse, WI; March 20, 1947, pg 49

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1953

Hundreds of Iowa's one-roomed country schools have closed in recent years because enrollment dropped below 10 pupils. The Paint Rock district school near Waukon Junction, Ia., however, closed because there were no pupils at all. The knockout blow came about three years ago when the Edward Donahue family moved away. They had 12 children.

In the succeeding years a thicket of trees and underbrush has grown up around the school and the only approach is a tangled path. The building hasn't been sold because residents of the area feel there will be a need for it in future years as a number of pre-school age children live in the district

~Dubuque Telegraph-Herald, October 18, 1953, pg 13 (the photo of the school at the top of this page appeared with this article)