Collected and posted by BILL
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North Chase - Roosevelt School
Highway "C"
and Holowinski Road.
town of Chase
Oconto County, Wisconsin
Photo above
contributed
by:
Bob Reim
The above photo is of the 1890s
when the building was named Sampson School before it was moved from the
original site and renamed North Chase. The bell tower was removed
before the move in the summer of 1905 and afterward replaced with a
different one. Oconto County rural schools were often seen to each have
a unique bell tower style. New door, paint, heating stove and desks were
among the changes and additions as well as the name North Chase after
the move in time for opening in the Fall for the 1905 - 1906 school
term. In 1908 the school name was again changed to Roosevelt School
after President Theodore Roosevelt. Read more below:
 Postcard mailed to Mrs. Peter Holl in 1905
contributed by grandson Gene Heezen President Roosevelt and Family
by publisher Rotograph & Co. printed 1903
This is the president's second wife. His first wife died shortly after the birth of his oldest daughter, seen standing at center. The children of the president often rode a cart drawn by a pet goat, inside the White House. The press printed many stories of the children's menagerie and activities, much to the public delight (and sometimes consternation). |
 Postcard mailed to Margaret Holl of Hayes, Oconto County, Wisconsin in 1908 President Roosevelt by publisher Rotograph & Co. printed 1904 |
The North Chase School replaced Sampson School, town of Chase, in Fall,1905. It was later renamed Roosevelt School in 1908 after then president Theodore Roosevelt. Please also see the Sampson School click here
Although there is some local lore that says Roosevelt School was built in 1908, school records show classes being held in the building in the Fall of 1905. Other descendants of local residents remember being told that Sampson School was open until the spring of 1905, closing at the end of the 1904 - 1905 term. To save the expense of constructing a new building when Sampson School building was not old, during the summer of 1905 a new foundation for Sampson School building was constructed at the Holowinski and County "C" Roads corner and the building was moved east along highway "C" to that new spot. The building was then renamed North Chase School.
When the North Chase Schoolhouse name was changed to Roosevelt in 1908, there was great fervor for the "president of the common man" as he was already well known for becoming the youngest president in the United States at age 42 when assuming the position from being vice president after the assassination death of President William McKinley in 1901. He was elected to his own first term as president and continued his earlier work as an avid opponent of monopolies and price fixing by prosecuting under the Sherman Antitrust Act, seeing himself in a position to protect the average citizen using his first term "Square Deal" domestic program.
In 1906 President Theodore Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in negotiating an end to the Russo-Japanese War and established himself as a powerful environmentalist by signing the National Monuments Act, protecting the Grand Canyon and preserving many other precious wildlife sanctuaries, national forests and reserves. He also had extensive repairs and renovations done to the crumbling Presidential Mansion for the first time since it was set afire by the invading British Navy and hastily rebuilt in 1812. At the same time he had the name officially changed to "The White House" out of respect for the building belonging to the people of the country.
In a 2006 interview with a Christenson family member, whose family lived on the property adjacent to where Roosevelt School stood, the site and name of the school were identified. The person remembered living next door and attending the school as a young boy in the late 1930's. As attendance dropped to the point that Roosevelt School, town of Chase, could no longer be kept open, it was closed in 1940 and he was sent to another elementary school. He vividly remembered watching the bell tower being removed and the building lifted onto a trailer the following year (1941). It had been sold to doctor and moved to Pulaski. It was converted and used as a doctor's office until being remodeled into a private residence after the practice was closed. Please see the Sampson School click here
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