No.4's buildings (and it was buildings, not building, in the newspaper; this included the privies and the coal shed) to the center site. This is the original Milford School that was located in the southeast corner of Sec 18. He maintained that his property rights were being overlooked in that the law provided that the schools, if no longer being used for educational purposes, would be appraised and sold to the owner of the land upon which they sat. He charged that the school was going to be used as a cottage for the teachers at the Sec 15 site and this was not an educational purpose.
Perhaps he was correct in that one of the one-room schools was to be converted into a "teacherage" in the summer of 1924, however, it seems as though the cottage became the residence of the janitor for years rather than a place for the teachers to live. Another school, Tarman, No.7, was also involved in a similar law case; but this situation did not generate the news items that the Randau case did. We don't know if Mr Randau was against the consolidation or, as he stated in his lawsuit, simply looking out for his property rights as he saw the law written. He probably felt as though this building would have been one of the most valuable as it should have been in quite good shape since it was built anew in the summer of 1903. (as was No. 5) It would have been just 17 years old.
This stalemate was the origin of the "schools being moved at night" scenario as some of the proconsolidation men went to the location late at night to move the school. Someone called the Sheriff who sent a deputy to the location. The deputy spent the night there to make sure the building didn't somehow "disappear" into the night. That night the school got no further than the edge of the field.
Some folks question the entire legend of the moving of the schools to the center site in the night "to avoid conflict with the folks that were against the consolidation". They point out that this work had already been hired out to a contractor who, even if he did move the schools at night, may have done so to avoid much of the traffic and to take advantage of the lessor winds that generally exist at night. Also, it would have been literally impossible to move a building in any degree of secrecy with all the lights it would have taken to have even the slightest degree of safety. Every farm probably had a dog or two and these barking dogs would have awaken everyone in the neighborhood. There would have been telephone wires and in some places electric wires to contend with and, it would seem, this would have been more than a group of nonprofessionals would have felt capable of doing in the dark. (We know that, at the time, Dayton Park received their electricity from Nevada.) There seems to be no question about the attempt to move No. 4; but, it was moved no more than about a hundred feet.
1920 Aug 5- Court rules that school board of directors can move schools.
1920 Late summer- Four one room schools and the privies moved to the Center School location and Abel Holveig (sp) received $975 to move the schools. Board voted to build a four team horsebarn.
