Early pioneer schools weren't always built in villages. The pioneer parents had to get together to build a school and then pay for the teacher's salary. If the pioneers couldn't build a schoolhouse, the kids were taught in someone's home or the general store or the church.

When the schools were built, they were just a basic log cabin. It had a big stove in the middle. This stove kept everyone warm. There were two or three rows of wooden tables with benches for the kids to sit at. It had a coat rack to hang coats on. There was a teacher's desk in the front of the room. The teachers sat on stools and had a wooden desk.

The floor was made out of dirt and the windows were covered in greased paper. Later they had windows, but they got broken by the students. The roof was made out of logs and wood. The schoolhouse kind of looked like a barn.

The pioneer schoolhouse taught students of all ages. Parents paid the school teachers with food, clothing, and firewood. The subjects that were taught at the pioneer schoolhouse were reading, writing, and arithmetic. They did not have much paper, so they used slates to write their work on.