This history was taken from “Bolivar Schools”, a speech prepared and presented by Judge J.M. Leavitt at the dedication of the “new high school building” in March of 1927. That building now (in 2021) serves as the District’s Central Office. A much longer, more detailed version of this history is available by contacting the museum’s curator.

Bolivar’s earliest schools were Indian schools or workshops. Those schools taught grinding, whetting, sawing, scraping, drilling, rasping, polishing, engraving, cutting, chiseling, chopping, piercing and chipping.  They also taught zoology, botany, forestry, geology and many other subjects.

The Polk County “North Ward” Museum, located at 201 W. Locust Street in Bolivar, Missouri, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 14, 2011, the second building in the county to be placed on the list. The building was constructed as a combined secondary and elementary school in 1903 to replace the building that stood just to the northwest on the same grounds. Bolivar’s first secondary school. It was later demolished and many of its materials were used for the construction of the present building.

The North Ward building served as a school for many years. The high school occupied the upper story, with elementary classes on the ground floor. South Ward (constructed in 1898), located on the southwest corner of Springfield Ave and Maupin. It was later condemned as a school, sold to a private owner, and eventually demolished. During some of the early years (according to Robert G (Bob) Pufahl (1911-1964), who remembered being a part of that process), the children switched back and forth between the two buildings as they progressed through the grades. North Ward continued to house both high school and elementary classes until the March of the 1926-27 school year when the ‘new high school’ (which in 2021 serves as Central Office for the district), opened in March of 1927. That building now, in 2020, serves as Central Office for the District. North Ward continued as an elementary school (grades 1-7) for Bolivar Students living north of Broadway; South Ward served grades 1-7 for students living on the south side of Broadway. Both eighth grades were housed in the high school building.

The district was reorganized in 1952, incorporating many rural districts into what then became Bolivar R-1 Schools. As the first school district to consolidate in Polk County, the “R-I” designation was then acquired (“R”=Reorganized; “1”= first in the county to do so).   Mitchell Elementary (so named in honor of Dr. Mitchell, who left a fund for the district–his portrait still hangs in the hallway of that building) was constructed at that time to house grades 1-8, and an elementary school to house grades 1-6 was constructed at Polk Town. When Polk Town students reached 7th grade they were assigned to either North Ward, South Ward, or Mitchell. Bus service was provided.  North Ward and South Ward continued to function as before. The school year of 1953-54 opened with all schools in operation.  Bus service was provided to rural students only. By the early 1960s student population had once again outgrown the existing space. In 1963 a new elementary school was constructed and named Leonard Elementary due to a donation by the Leonard family.  At that time both North Ward and South Ward buildings were retired for the 1963-64 school year. The Mitchell Building ceased to be an elementary school and became a Junior High at that time. By 1966 the student population had again outgrown available space and North Ward was pressed into service once again.  Half-Day Kindergarten classes were opened (morning and afternoon) on the second floor.  There was no half-day bus service; the children either walked back and forth or their parents provided transportation. The Polk County Health Department was housed in part of the first floor. In 1963 Leonard Elementary (now (2021) the Primary School) was constructed; both North Ward and South Ward were retired from service beginning in the 1963-64 school year. The Mitchell Building ceased to be an elementary school and became a Junior High at that time. By 1969 student population in the district had outgrown the space at Leonard, and North Ward housed Kindergarten (still half-day), as well as grades one and two. In 1973 Leonard was enlarged and North Ward ended its long history as a school building. Following years of neglect and a monumental effort of clean up and restoration by the then newly formed Polk County Historical Society members, North Ward opened as a museum on July 4, 1982. It has been told, by some who were involved in the process, that three dump truck loads of pigeon droppings were removed from the building during cleanup. The North Ward building stands proudly as it has for over 100 years; if one listens carefully on a quiet day upstairs one can almost hear the chatter of the multitude of children who passed through its classrooms.

An Artist’s rendition of the First School on this site

There are no records of what was known as the Bolivar Academy, built on this lot sometime in the 1850s as “A Male and Female Seminary of Learning”, but it seems that soon after the lease was entered into an academy building was built; the school opened and continued until the Civil War in 1861. During the Civil War, 1861 to 1865, there does not seem to have been any school, or at least any organized school.  In the summer of 1865, a private school was opened in the academy building.

About the year 1866 the Public School District was organized by the election of a Board of Three directors of which Judge T.H.B. Dunnegan and the late George W. Drake were members.

The board had no money, no lot, no house, nor money to build a school building, and they joined with the academy with what funds could be obtained and school continued as before.

Early 1870s

Early 1870s: A bond was passed, and a new building was constructed. It was first occupied in 1873 or 1874. It was the first building the district ever owned. Two stories high, with four rooms on each floor, it stood just to the northeast of where the present building stands. Closed during the Civil War, it reopened as a privately run school until it was torn down and replaced by the present building.

1903 North Ward School

1903: When North Ward first opened, the top four rooms served as high school classrooms, the downstairs as elementary classrooms. You will notice a peaked roof on top of the steeple. That was later replaced by the present flat roof. (A personal note from Jean Pufahl Vincent- As a Bolivar student in the 1950s, I well remember that almost every year the roof on North Ward would catch fire (the heat was generated by a coal burning furnace; the first roof was causing an updraft that was sucking coals up on the roof). The North Ward students were taken outside (or across the street to First Baptist) while the fires were put out. Those of us who were attending either Mitchell or South Ward Elementary schools were quite annoyed that we didn’t get out of school as well!)