McMillan school was originally located near the southwest corner of Hwy. 92 and 195th place. After the school closed the building was moved to 1934 Old Hwy 92 and converted into a farm building.

In the early days the country school was the center of community life as well as being a place where children were taught. For several decades one of the popular evening activities was “the literary.” The Jan. 12 , 1901 Knoxville Journal reported that the question for the McMillan literary will be “Resolved that the present method of paying road tax in labor should be abolished and the same be paid in money and the supervisors asked to hire the work done.” There would have been 2 or 3 debaters on each and a panel of judges would declare the winner.

Nancy Loynachan Johansen sent a letter describing an incident that happened to her while she was in 2nd grade at the McMillan school. Driver Don Harsin was using an old gray Oldsmobile (1938 or 39 model) which they called the “school bus” to drive Nancy, her brother Bob, and cousins Ted and Tom Loynachan to school. One evening after being dropped off she walked behind the car and was hit by a pick up and knocked unconscious. She spent two day in the hospital. Her mother kept her two-toned green dented lunch box for years after the accident because the doctor told her it had saved Nancy’s life. When she first saw the pickup she threw her hands in the air. The lunch box came down right between her head and the pick up.

Not long after that the parents decided to paint the Oldsmobile yellow and put a sign on the top with big letters which said SCHOOL BUS. Another student Dixie Loynachan remembers the time she got locked in the toilet at recess and no one missed her. She also said one of her teacher used cement blocks as steps to get across a fence where she had her trailer parked. The liked to tease her by taking away the blocks so she couldn’t cross the fence. One day when the 8th grade boys were helping a teacher move the piano it tipped over and almost fell on the teacher. No one was hurt but the piano did ruin the baby buggy one of the girls had brought to school.

I also talked with retired Knoxville teacher Joan Anderson who attended this school. Joan, Linda Bachman, and Jewel Woody all started school there and graduated together in 1967, She recalls that in 2nd grade someone helped her cheat because she was having trouble with the words two, too, and to. She also said that on days when it was really cold one of their teachers would gather the students around the stove and read to them all day.

No one seems to remember this but at one time there were two schools called McMillan North and McMillan South.

Teachers at the North school included Miss Emily Copland 1875, S. E. Moore 1878, Miss Clara Banks,1882, Emma Jones, Alice Ran 1886, Miss Alice Waln 1891, Mrs. Alice Warren, Miss White 1892, W. H. Lucas 1894, Marye Sharon 1895, Della J. Rietveld 1898, Ollie Gelderblom, Alta Marsh, Mrs. Hettie Britton 1900, Mella Rankin 1904, Emma Gilchrist, Orpha Woody 1905, Mella Rankin, Ethel Curtis 1906, Susky Woody 1907, Chester A. Metz, Eva M. Cory 1908, Armina Ferguson, Bertha Woody, Eva Cory 1909, Nellie Wilson 1910, Mary Woody 1911, Faye Cummings 1912, Beulah Jones 1913, Edna Townsend 1914, Mrs. Ollin Freeman, Erma Kinser, Myrtle Sharon 1916, Helen Osborne 1917, Mary Sims 1919, Frances Conrey 1920, Helen Harrington 1921, Dorothy Clark 1922-25, Paulina Stittsworth 1925, Bertha Augustine 1926-27, Susie Orcutt 1928, Mary Ghrist 1930, Ruby Seaman 1931-31, Miss Ruby Penland 1933, Helen Harsin 1935-38, Helen Adair 1939-40, Ruth Thomas 1941, Martha Louise Whaley 1943, Barbara Coffman 1944, Rena Fee Welch 1945, Norma Jean Emerson 1947, Norma Jean Cummings 1948, Miss Elizabeth Black 1949, Mrs. Evelyn De Joode 1950, Gene McCombs 1951, Mrs. Gene McCombs 1952, Gene McCombs 1953, Maxine Adams 1954, Mrs. Mildred Gurney 1955-57.

Teachers at McMillan South were G. L Hackert 1898, Myrtle Sharon 1903, Myrtle Sharon, Lucy Ward 1904, Lillie Mick. Mella Rankin 1905, Mollie B. Nolan, Mary Rogers, Helen McConahey 1908, and Anna McMillen, Myrtle M. Sharon 1907.

The next school will be Scott in Knoxville township. Contact me at 641-628-4716 or helenboertje@iowa telecom.net