This completes our account of the Ossian Public School through the period of coverage. Today (1982) the old school house is being razed. The consolidation feared by our citizens in 1949 eventually occurred. The South Winneshiek School, formed from the Ossian—Calmar--Spillville districts, maintains an Elementary Middle School in a new building south of the old schoolhouse. The high school was lost to the Calmar community

DE SALES PAROCHIAL SCHOOL

The first Catholic school, although perhaps not church sponsored, certainly encouraged and assisted by Father Tierney, was taught by Miss Christina Wictor.

It was conducted in the Wictor home located just north of the old Ossian Gleaners (present Bushman apartment complex). The school seems to have been in session from 1871 till 1880, when the Franciscan Sisters of La Crosse were engaged to teach the children of the Ossian Parish. After three years, this order was replaced by the Third Order of Saint Francis from Dubuque.

The parochial school built by Father Tierney, the fall of 1880, was a frame structure located across the street from the present church complex. It served, as well, as a chapel and dwelling for the Sisters.

On February 16, 1882, Father Tierney arranged a "grand entertainment" at Hampson and Padden's halls for funds to liquidate the school debt.

The very next year its facilities became inadequate for the steadily increasing enrollment, so it was decided to build a larger school house near the church. The contract for stone work was let to Mr. Lutz; for woodwork to Mr. Geising of Calmar. Work on the foundation was started in the spring and the new edifice was ready for occupancy by September. Attendance grew steadily reaching 120 pupils by I896.

It was the Rev. Theodore Warning, successor to Father McCarthy, who built the three story brick structure that was to house Ossian's parochial school for the next two generations. Anton Zwack was the contractor for this $11,000 building. The basement was dug by men of the parish with volunteer labor. It contained five class rooms, a chapel and living quarters for the Sisters. This school opened its doors to high school students in September of 1902. The first graduating class of 1905 consisted of three students: Rose Fleischer, Arthalinda Meyer and Mary Cavanaugh .

The new school was dedicated in a simple ceremony with Father Warning in charge. A high mass was celebrated in the chapel of the building. The editor of the Ossian Bee expounded enthusiastically on the features of the new facility:

"The new schoolhouse is a credit to the community. It measures 36' X 62' and is a brick structure finished with southern pine and floors of hard maple. The construction cost is $13»000--two thousand of this figure represents the furnishings and steam heating plant. At least six to seven hundred dollars of labor was donated by parish members.

The Sisters' annex is 40' X 40' . The first and second stories contain four