The Barber School & Neighborhood
The Polk Township District No. 2 School is located a quarter mile south of U.S. 6 at the intersection of Tamarack and 2 A Roads. The school was constructed in 1901 and was known locally as the Barber School due to its connec- tion to the Barber family who lived in the area. The Barber Family came to Polk Township in 1847. Joshua Barber was born in 1810 in New York where he married Mary O’dell. They moved with their first four children to Marshall County via the Erie Canal, then overland through Ohio. He filed his land claim in Section 33 of Polk Township in 1848.The Barber homestead was located on Sage Road, south of present U.S. 6. The area they settled became known as the Barber Neighborhood and a family cemetery and Brethren church were established on 2A Road, just south of the original Barber School location and just east of District No. 2 School.
The condition of the Barber Neighborhood in 1858 was described as almost a wilderness, with no drainage, and no established roads or railroads, and the settlers had to raise their crops among stumps. The Barber Cemetery was established in 1870 for use by farming families. The church was known as Barber Evangelical United Brethren Church; it was constructed in 1878 and was closed in 1923. The church is gone, but the Barber Cemetery remains. Joshua Barber died in 1874 and Mary died in 1878 and both are buried at the family cemetery.
An 1850 map of school district lines in Polk Township shows nine districts. In 1852, Stephen Butler conveyed a piece of land in the northwest corner of section 33 for use as a school site in District No. 2, Polk Township. Butler included a provision that the building could be used by Methodists, United
Brethren, Baptists, Camelites, Presbyterians, Universalists, and religious uses, and should it ever stop being used for school purposes it would revert back to him. Other records state that the first schoolhouse, made of logs, was constructed on the Joshua Barber farm in the 1850s. It was located near the center of Section 33 at its northern boundary on the southeast corner of present U.S 6 and Sage Road. This may be the same building.
In 1864, the trustee ordered the construction of a new frame building which remained in the same general location on the Barber farm. The “Barber School” remained at this location until the new school was constructed southwest of it in 1901. The prior schoolhouses no longer exist. By 1880, Polk Township had developed ten district schools with a total value of $3,300. The number of school districts increased to twelve by 1887, then back to ten just prior to school consolidation. Statistics from 1880 show there were 490 students enrolled in the district schools of Polk Township. The Barber School hosted the first grade school commencement in 1887.
The Walkerton Independent stated in 1901 that Polk Township Trustee Edwin R. Monroe was contemplating building a new school house in the Barber settlement on Wesley Ruple’s farm near his residence, with the patron’s consent. Plans for the new building moved forward and Monroe revealed the bids taken to the Walkerton Independent. Frank Bennett received the contract for carpentry work for $114.50. Laying of brick was awarded to H. P. Mead at $6.50 per cord and stone masonry and plastering were awarded to Joe Burnside for $3 per cord (stone) and 7 cents per square yard (plaster). Two bids for building the school completely were rejected; they were for the sums of $1,390 and $1,196. The new building was completed about five weeks into the new school year with classes commencing on November 11, 1901. The new District No. 2 school retained the Barber name but was located at the northeast corner of Tamarack and 2A Roads, southwest of the former location. The old school was sold at public auction to Sanford Sheaks for $41.00. The township’s schools were consolidated to nearby Tyner and Teegarden during the 1920s.