Mace School 1951-1952
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School Registers: Mace School
Teacher's Register: 1948-1951, 1951-1955

Teachers: Judge Jenkins lists the following teachers from 1874 to 1901:

Later teachers included:

Resident Taxpayers in 1871:
John L Arnold, Marshall Allen, Chris Birthright, Jas. M. Castleman, Jeremiah Clark, H.P. Gardner, H.P. Gardner Sr., Allen Gardner, Paulin Gardner, James Long, George Long, Isaiah Lachem, William Lawless, Henry Lawless, Wilson Landers, John Melrose, James S. Martin, Franklin Rook, J.C. Stone, J.B. Stone, M. Shackleford, Jno. C. Thompson, Frank Schell, Burton Scinten, and A. Miller.

The Eldon Advertiser and Miller County Autogram-Sentinel
1976 Bicentennial Salute

On the west edge of Iberia on Highway 42, stands a home that is full of history. In or around the year 1854 a man named Thomas Mace donated the land for a school to be built and be known as the Mace School. This school was a one room building with a wood stove for heat and two outhouses, one for boys and one for girls, that became mighty cold on snowy winter days.

Mace School around 1918-1920

1st row L-R: Charles Laden Berry, Earl Jarrett, Elmer Golden, Floy Groves, Dorsey Wilson?
2nd row: Maud Jarrett, Belle Hensley, Mae Sooter, Sarah Adams (Jarrett), Beulah Wilson (between 2 boys heads), Edna Farnham (Pemberton), Lucy Adams (Atwill), Grace Golden, Eula Groves (Groff).
3rd row: Oscar Wilson, Sam Jarrett, Lev Adams, Elmer Wyrick, Basil Stone, Herman Golden (hat but no face), and the teacher Goldie Wall. Standing in the door is Clarice Shackleford (Tracy).

The school stood until the year 1927. At that time the original Mace School was torn down and a new school erected on the same spot. This school was also a large one room building complete with woodstove and two outhouses.

Many students passed through the doors of Mace School and there were many teachers who took on the almost impossible task of teaching all grades in one classroom. Among those teachers were Goldie Wall, Oliver D. Agee, Marie Adams, Ruby Ferguson, Edna Jones, Lois Thompson and Verdon Rook.

In the late 1950's the one room schoolhouse had outlived its usefulness when Iberia consolidated. Mace School was sold to Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Wilson. The Wilsons turned the one room school into a modern home, preserving the large windows, light globes, and such incorporating these into the home. It was then used as a rental property for several years.

In the spring of 1975 the Omer Creech Jr. family purchased, remodeled and redecorated the home.

MACE SCHOOL
District #73
by Peggy Smith Hake

On 3 March 1855, the U.S. Congress enacted a new law, which read..."An act in addition to certain Acts granting bounty land to certain Officers and Soldiers who have engaged in the Military service of the United States." Immediately thereafter, 120 acres of Miller County land was awarded to a man named Samuel Bogan who had been a private in Capt. Egbert's Pennsylvania Militia in the War of 1812. Samuel apparently did not want this land so he signed it over to a man named John Darrong.

Well, John didn't want it either for some unknown reason and he in turn, assigned it over to James Long in 1860. James owned other land in the area, so it is possible when he had attempted to get a patent, he learned it was already owned by some unknown person named John Darrong.

James Long became the legal owner of the 120 -acre tract on 1 November 1860. James and his wife, Harriett, donated a one-acre tract from the land for a schoolhouse to be used by the black children of the Iberia area and a one-room log school was built on the land in 1869.

On 9th March 1885, a second school was built just a short distance east of the other school that was used to educate the black children. The Directors of the new school were William C. Mace, George Johnston, and George W. Arnold. When the school was established in the district it was called School No. 4 for some time. There is an old school still standing today, converted into a private home. Everyone will remember it as the old Mace School which sits on a prairie land about one mile west of Iberia.