The very early records of the school Districts were apparently lost or destroyed, and very little information is available until about 1890.

Please keep in mind that school was held as early as 1863 in various locations throughout this county and long before Montana became a state.

A. L. Stone was the first County Superintendent of Beaverhead County in 1891. Mr. Stone was responsible for numbering and describing the early school Districts.

     The first schools were organized and held in private homes until a schoolhouse could be built. Many of the students were taught by their mothers or by relatives or friends living with them. The wives of the majority of pioneers were from the East and had received an eighth grade or high school education. A person was qualified to teach if she or he had completed the eighth grade, was sixteen years of age and had passed an oral or written examination.

     An example of home teaching was that given by Ernest Orr at the P & O Ranch. Long before there was an established school, Mrs. W. C. Orr taught her sons. According to Ernest Orr, "Their education was punctuated now and then by a sharp tap of a ruler, to get the immediate attention of each and every child."

As time went on school Districts were organized and education flourished throughout the county.

 

Beaverhead County Superintendent of Schools Office Records, Compiled by Josephine D. Eudaily former Beaverhead County Superintendent of Schools, 1970-1978, Beaverhead County School Districts. Pages 23-27