Thomas School

The Thomas School was a one room schoolhouse that still sits at the southwest side of the intersection of Cascade Road and Quiggle Avenue in Cascade Township. Early references describe the location as along U.S. 16. Everyone at the time knew where U.S. 16 was. U.S. 16 connected Grand Rapids to Detroit before I-96. In eastern Kent County it runs along Cascade Road.

The Thomas School began with a log cabin building and was a place where the pioneer children attended. The earliest references note that school was only in session for four months a year, as children were needed to help the families survive by clearing land and farming. Land for the school was donated by a Mr. Taylor but named for the neighboring Thomas family.

Native Odawa and pioneers once occupied the area. One source notes that there was a place ‘nearby’ where the native people would sell handmade baskets and maple syrup. Unfortunately, the exact location wasn’t noted.

The current building was built around 1886. For years afterwards the old log building was used as a woodshed.

When rural schools were being annexed into school systems, the Thomas School was first annexed to Grand Rapids Schools, then transferred to the Lowell School District.

When the building was sold to a private individual in 1956, William Thomas shared his memories of growing up attending the school. Standing out in his memory was one teacher, Mr. Zeno Carter, who was a strict disciplinarian. He came when the school had lost multiple teachers due to the behavior of the students. Mr. Carter agreed to the job on the condition that the board would let him handle things his own way. His first act was cutting several beech switches and placed them in a convenient spot in the school room. The switches and a heavy black walnut ruler convinced even the wildest student to study reading, writing, and arithmetic.

The closing and selling of the Thomas school in 1956 was described in the Lowell Ledger, with the author concluding, “Slowly but surely with each succeeding year, the old country schoolhouses are becoming a thing of the past. Many adults in this area can well remember those days before the school buses brought their loads of students to the door, those miles of trampling through deep snow, heavy mud, driving rain and bitter cold. Many modern-day exponents of education look with disfavor on the few remaining one-room schools of an almost bygone era. No one can deny however that many of our country’s greatest men, leaders who will never be forgotten, received their training in the one room schoolhouse. Teachers like Zeno Carter, harsh though they were, taught a respect for authority that helped to build strong characters so necessary for the hardships of the early years of our state and country.”

Today the trees and brush have grown, offering seclusion and privacy to the private residence that once housed the Thomas School.

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The Thomas School, picture from a newspaper