History of the Con. 8 School and Community of Southwest Oklahoma

This site is dedicated to the collection and distribution of information about Consolidated No. 8 school and the community, about 20 miles south of Hobart in Kiowa Co., OK.  The land was opened for homesteading in 1901 and in the first half of the last century a rural consolidated school developed to embrace most of eight original rural districts. In the process, the school defined a diverse community bounded on the West and South by a bend in the North Fork of Red River, extending north to Camelsback Mountain, and east to include the Twin Mountains.

The late Jack W. Culvahouse (1929 – 2006) researched, collated and created the content on this site, along with help from multiple sources, including teachers and classmates of the Consolidated Dist. No. 8 school, as a historical record of the school and the community. Jack’s son, Jeff Culvahouse, has taken the helm in bringing the content to this website built with modern software, as a lasting historical record, and invites additions and corrections here.

From the inauspicious Con. 8 beginning at the first building completed in 1911, which burned before the start of school, to the last class (1956-47) in the brick building, the school and surrounding community was privy to a lot of environmental, historical and industrial change, which is documented here.

The material is of most interest perhaps to those with Kiowa County roots for  whom the names and places are to some extent familiar. Perhaps in a more general way, it will be appreciated as a sketch of the rapid transition of American rural life in the last century. In this example, from homesteading to highways, zip codes, and television in little more than fifty years!

Making A Place To Live

The Land Run of 1889 began the disposal of a two-million-acre region in Oklahoma. Under the provisions of the Homestead Act of 1862, a legal settler could claim 160 acres of public land, and those who lived on and improved the claim for five years could receive a title. Tradesmen, professionals, farmers and common laborers alike looked to capitalize on the opportunity offered by settlement of the long-withheld lands of Indian Territory. See who lived in the Con. 8 area.

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Schools

Even before Oklahoma became a state, settlers were organizing schools, with terms of 3-4 months to fit around farming. Some were held in homes and even out buildings. There were 110 by 1907, when Oklahoma reached statehood. Through annexation and consolidation, the number dwindled, but terms eventually grew longer. Between 1911 and 1929 eight district schools were consolidated into the new Consolidated District 8.

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Religion

Source material for most of the area churches and Sunday schools is very sparse, but the Community Friends Church has a well-documented history. The physical development of the church was very much a byproduct of the spiritual life of the people, and their unwavering commitment to building and nurturing community in the Con. 8 area. This church continued to provide that emotional and spiritual sustenance, even after the school closed in 1957.

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Rural Electric

Over 18 months, the Con. 8 community worked to obtain an average of two subscribers per mile that would allow the installation of electric power through the government program then called the REA. The pages of the Student Review Newspaper eloquently record the community efforts and reactions as electric lighting grew from a dream to a reality on May 18, 1939. Read the exciting accountings of progress, written by a Con. 8 School student reporter.

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