More than a hundred years ago, the little schoolhouse that we visit in Elk Grove Park was built to serve a growing community near Sloughhouse. They carried their lunches in lard pails, to***co cans or newspapers. Water was brought to the school from the ranch across the road; pupils helped themselves with the common dipper from the pail. Jacks, hopscotch, and Ante-I-Over were favorite recess games
, but most important was education. Not only reading, writing and arithmetic, but music, science and history were taught as well. The school served its pioneer families well. Grades one through eight were taught, and Rhoads always was rated as "first grade":, meaning that the teacher passed the county examination with a very high score. The first Rhoads School was built in the 1850s by pioneer Jared Dixon Sheldon. I was close to the Cosumnes River, which was subject to flooding. Children became sick from mosquito bites, which we now assume was malaria, so the school was closed in 1868. In 1872 the second Rhoads School was built on Sloughhouse Road as a community effort. Its financing was by public subscriptions, cakes and pickle sales, and a benefit ball with tickets at $3.50 each. Total expenditures were $1,312.60, which included the schoolhouse, outhouse, insurance and some furnishings. The furnishings were simple; desks for the students, a desk and chair for the teacher, stove, clock, broom, bucket and dipper. John P. Rhoads
Both schools were named for John P. Rhoads, who had arrived in California from Illinois in 1846. The Rhoads wagon train traveled part of the way west with the Donner Party. The two groups separated near the Great Salt Lake, with the Rhoads party taking the established route through Oregon. The Donner Party elected to try the Hastings Cut-Off - a more southern route over the Sierra Nevadas. History has revealed the tragedy that met the Conner Party as they attempted to cross the mountains in what proved to be an unusually ferocious winter. Rhoads was one of seven men who volunteered for a rescue party to carry supplies to the Donner party and bring survivors to safety. In all, he made three rescue missions. The Rhoads School 1872 to 1946
The school opened in May of 1872 with Agnes S. Jaycoax as teacher. There were 21 students enrolled, with an average daily attendance of 15. All teachers were required to be at least 18 years of age and to hold a valid teaching credential. They were usually young, unmarried women. Teacher's salaries at Rhoads from 1872 to 1906 ranged from $55.00 to $84.80 a month, including room and board at the home of a local family. Drinking water was carried by bucket from the well across the road at the Taylor (later the Murphy) ranch. The bucket, with a dipper in it, sat on a wooden bench in the cloakroom. The children rank from the dipper, and returned it to the bucket. The Taylors and Murphys also allowed watering trough privileges for the horses of the children who rode to school. Besides carrying water, students' chores included hauling wood. The stove stood in the middle of the classroom, and was the school's only source of heat. There was no artificial light, and on very dark days, class was dismissed early. The schoolyard was large, but unimproved, with minimum play equipment and only one outhouse. After the first year, a second outhouse was built. The boys' facility was northeast of the school - the girls' was to the southwest. Graduation exercises were usually school performances and entertainments. Usually no more than 5 or 5 students graduated, and some years none or only one. Students traveled to Sacramento to take the graduation examination to allow them to go on to high school. The Rhoads School served the children of the community until 1946, when the Rhoads, Michigan Bar, Stonehouse and Wilson Districts combined into the Cosumnes River Union School District. A Move to Elk Grove Park
In 1976, the Bicentennial Year, the Rhoads School was moved from its home on Sloughhouse Road to Elk Grove Park. The school was given by the Murphy family to Sacramento County Parks Department. Members of the community contributed hundreds of hours restoring the deteriorating building and returning it to its appearance around the end of the 19th Century. With the school in Elk Grove Park, the newly-formed Elk Grove Historical Society assumed the responsibility of administering it for the community. Today the Rhoads School serves two purposes. It is a Living History Program for school classes in the Sacramento /County area, and it is also a museum that is open to the public several days of the year, when there are special events at Elk Grove Park
