Grape School, first built on Wine Creek Road and later moved down to West Dry Creek Road on Jules Auradou property.

Schools were established early in Dry Creek Valley, because most of the farm families had young children. The Manzanita School was evidently the first to be erected in the valley, when, in January of 1855, the commissioners hired a teacher at the District #2 (the southern part of Mendocino Township) school for three months at a rate of $4.00 per pupil per month. Located a few hundred yards north of the present Manzanita schoolhouse, it was built at a cost of $200, with donated labor (Dry Creek Neighbors Club 1979:1).

The 1861 Report of the School Marshals noted a total of 249 children in Dry Creek, 55 under four years of age, 104 between four and 18, four between 18 and 21; 86 had been born in California. By 1863 four schools had been established in the valley: Dry Creek, Lafayette, Mill Creek, and Manzanita (Dry Creek Neighbors Club 1979:2,9).

Soon thereafter state law encouraged building school houses three miles apart to accommodate horse and buggy transportation, and so that children would not have to walk so far to attend.

Invariably with one room and one teacher, grades were one through eight, and students studied during class and played at recess. Games played at the Dry Creek School included over-the- school-house, tag, run-sheep-run, hide-and-go-seek, marbles, baseball, and red-line (Dry Creek Neighbors Club 1979:13).

As the closest high school was in Healdsburg, students either had to walk or go by horseback or horse and buggy, or stay in Healdsburg during the week. In 1917, however, Frederick Patronak, one of the school trustees, felt so strongly that all the children should have the opportunity of an education that he furnished a bus to take them to school The bus, driven by his granddaughter Elizabeth Allman St. Clair, was a hand-cranked Ford. It was driven for two or three years, and then the children were chauffeured by car (Dry Creek Neighbors Club 1979:34).

Grape School, first built on Wine Creek Road and later moved down to West Dry Creek Road on Jules Auradou property.

Schools were established early in Dry Creek Valley, because most of the farm families had young children. The Manzanita School was evidently the first to be erected in the valley, when, in January of 1855, the commissioners hired a teacher at the District #2 (the southern part of Mendocino Township) school for three months at a rate of $4.00 per pupil per month. Located a few hundred yards north of the present Manzanita schoolhouse, it was built at a cost of $200, with donated labor (Dry Creek Neighbors Club 1979:1).

The 1861 Report of the School Marshals noted a total of 249 children in Dry Creek, 55 under four years of age, 104 between four and 18, four between 18 and 21; 86 had been born in California. By 1863 four schools had been established in the valley: Dry Creek, Lafayette, Mill Creek, and Manzanita (Dry Creek Neighbors Club 1979:2,9).

Soon thereafter state law encouraged building school houses three miles apart to accommodate horse and buggy transportation, and so that children would not have to walk so far to attend.

Invariably with one room and one teacher, grades were one through eight, and students studied during class and played at recess. Games played at the Dry Creek School included over-the- school-house, tag, run-sheep-run, hide-and-go-seek, marbles, baseball, and red-line (Dry Creek Neighbors Club 1979:13).

As the closest high school was in Healdsburg, students either had to walk or go by horseback or horse and buggy, or stay in Healdsburg during the week. In 1917, however, Frederick Patronak, one of the school trustees, felt so strongly that all the children should have the opportunity of an education that he furnished a bus to take them to school The bus, driven by his granddaughter Elizabeth Allman St. Clair, was a hand-cranked Ford. It was driven for two or three years, and then the children were chauffeured by car (Dry Creek Neighbors Club 1979:34).