Prairie Flower School was located west of Webb City at the intersection of MacArthur Boulevard
and Prairie Flower Road. It is said that the school was established in the late 1860s or early 1870s.
Former pupil, James Moss, told that the original schoolhouse was moved to Webb City and another
building was constructed about 1913. Prairie Flower School was annexed by Webb City in October 1949.
Most of the students were sent to the West Side School with the 5th and 6th graders
attending Eugene Field. Before annexation, junior high and high school students attended school in
Webb City on a tuition basis.
After the school closed the building was used to house a church congregation and the Prairie Flower 4-H Club. In
1955 it was slated for demolition to make way for the Joplin Airport. In the end the old schoolhouse was not torn
down and was moved to 332 South Oakland Street where it still stands today.
"About 1955, Oliver and Alene Sandy purchased the Prairie Flower for the lumber for their nice home
at Stone's Corner. Jesse Laban Moss, my father, was a carpenter-building contractor. He may have
built the Prairie Flower for I used to take his lunch while working on it. In 1913, I say Sam Edge and
probably Walt Troup moved the first Prairie Flower school to Webb City where it has since been used
as a house."
Quote from former student James Moss from his book Glen Elm. The original
school building was moved to 4th Street in Webb City.
The Old Prairie Flower School Bows To Progress
The old Prairie Flower school building, at the west edge of Webb City on Highway 57, is being
razed to make way for aviation progress. The one-room frame structure is located on a small
tract which was purchased recently by the airport board from the Webb City school district. The
property was sold following abandonment of the building, so far as school usage was concerned,
about five years ago.
The abandonment came after patrons of the former Prairie Flower school district voted to merge
with the Webb City district. Since that time Prairie Flower district youngsters have been brought
by bus to schools in Webb City.
The exact age of the building now being razed could not be ascertained by this writer today.
However, Prairie Flower is one of the older school districts in the west part of the county and a
school was in operation on that approximate location and with the same name, Prairie Flower,
since at least as long ago as the late 1860's. A. M Wise, grandfather of the Sentinel editor,
was one of the early schoolmaster's at Prairie Flower in the late 1860's or early 1870's, before
the existence of Webb City. Included among his students there and at Franklin school, further
to the south were members of the Webb, Rothenbarger, Cox, Dale and other pioneer district
families. Since that time several generations of district residents, including some children now
attending schools here, received much or all of their education in the eight grades taught by one
teacher.
Since being closed as a school, the building has housed a church congregation, since moved to
another building, a short distance south; and the Prairie Flower 4-H Club.
Article from The Webb City Sentinel, May 31, 1955.
|