Van Zandt School - Exeter, MO, USA - Former Schools on Waymarking.com

This schoolhouse, which is still standing but is subject to weathering, is along Missouri route 37 between Cassville and Washburn on the west side of the route. Not much is known about this school because it would be difficult or impossible today to find anyone who attended it. However, the following can be gleaned from books and historical web sites:

1. The school is not listed in Goodspeed's 1888 History of Barry County, in the schools listed from page 98 to 100.
2. It is shown on the 1909 plat map (click on upper right portion of image - see section 12).
3. A 1922 rootsweb article also mentions the school.
4. In the book Lifetimes of Memories / Voices of Barry County Volume 8 the first interviewee, Jewell (Hutchens) Farwell, who was born in 1921, started school in Washburn in 1926 or 1927 because the Van Zandt school was already closed.  Her older brother, who was in high school when she started grade school (pages 31-32) had gone to the Van Zandt school before it closed.
   On page 32 she talks about the building being used for a Sunday School taught by Clyde White, since it was no longer being used as a school.  The year was not given in this paragraph, but it is only stated that she was a little girl.  So some time after 1922, but before 1926 or 1927, the school was closed.
5. The 1930 Barry County plat map, found at Missouri Digital Heritage does not show the school (T22N R28W section 12); nor does the 1972 plat map (click on Exeter).

The Van Zandt family came to the area late in the 19th century. (See for example Charles Van Zandt's Tombstone.) They are not mentioned in the biographical section of Goodspeed's 1888 History of Barry County, pages 151 to 195); but they are mentioned in articles from 1900 at rootsweb.

There is an on-going project at the Barry County Museum to research the history of the county schools. When information becomes available for this school, it can be added into this waymark description.

Address: State Route 37 Exeter, MO USA 65647 Web Site: Not listed

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Date Logged Log   12/22/2012 MountainWoods visited it