Shiawassee County Courthouse
John Peter Shaft founded the village of Shaftsburg. Lyman Mason platted it in 1876 on lands owned by the Shaft family. Other families lived on nearby farms. During harvest, children aided their parents with the farmwork. When they were not needed at home, most children attended a one-room school about a quarter-mile west of here, just north of Beard Road. By the early 1880s, enrollment had surpassed the building’s capacity. In 1884 Harry and Matilda Matteson sold this land to Woodhull School District Number Six, which built this two-room schoolhouse in 1885.
In any given year, two to four teachers, some of whom were Shaft descendants, taught fifty to seventy students in kindergarten through eighth grades, and later, through high school. The students learned such subjects as penmanship, government, geography, algebra, history, and “domestic art.” Woodhull Township was organized in 1838 and named for brothers John and Josephus Woodhull, who had begun purchasing land in this area in 1837. In 1895 the township built a hall northeast of here.
By the 1960s, the building was too small for the government’s needs. In 1962 the township bought this two-room school from Woodhull Township School District Number Six and moved the township offices here, while the school moved to a larger building. Later, the wall between the former classrooms was moved to create a small office and larger meeting space. In 2000 an addition was built on the rear of the hall for new offices. The interior of the original building was converted into a single room for meetings and such community events as parties, musical performances, and reunions.
site number: L366
era: Industry and Invention (1875-1915)
year listed: 1974
year erected: 1974
