Book Description

Started as a scrapbook of memorabilia from a father's one-room school, Lone Star School blossomed into the telling of a how a mighty nation was built from sea to shining sea. Richard Simunek details the history of America as this country crept away from its Atlantic coast beginnings, stumbled over the Appalachians, flooded the old Northwest Territories, spilled into the Great Plains, and raced ever westward to the Pacific coast. Multiply the history of Lone Star School by 190, 000, the estimated number of one-room schools that once existed in America, and the resulting sum is a good chunk of America's history and how America came to be. Lone Star School's story of how America came to be is told from a never before presented perspective, the experiences of the one-room school student. Lone Star School is the only one-room school in America with the history of its students and families intact. Step into the shoes of previous generations of Americans through the stories of John Sipes of the Cheyenne Nation, the Hladik family from Czechoslovakia, and the Taggart family from Scotland. Each family story takes place in very different time periods and locations. Yet each narrative, along with the Hennessey Separate School story, shares the same themes, the search for land and freedom. Discover their continuing relevance in the current arrival of the Mexican-American immigrants in Hennessey.