OREGON – The Chana School Museum in Oregon recently was gifted with a painting of the Chana School by artist, Linda Auman, of Freeport.
The painting joins the collection of works by such artists as Fred Bushnell, Harry Nurmet, Carol Ubben, and others.
Auman, having grown up in rural Forreston, was influenced by an education received in a rural one room school like her parents. Her father, Ed Hock, went to Prairie Green School, noted for being the last one room school to close in Ogle County in 1964. Her mother, Viola Drake Hoch, went to the Maple Hill School as a child and later taught there.
Like her parents, Auman has fond memories of her school days as a youngster attending the Cyclone Heights School that was located outside of Forreston. The original school was lost to a cyclone. The rebuilt schoolhouse was named Cyclone Heights.
Auman graduated from Forreston High School and then Northern Illinois University. She taught art for preschool through junior college. She taught 22 years at the high school level. Auman has written and illustrated her own books and illustrated books for other authors. She is a multimedia artist currently working out of her home in Freeport. She has broad art experiences and interests such as painting, textiles, sculpture, mixed media works, and much more. She is a practicing artist who welcomes anyone into her home for a visit, lessons, and/or consultations.
The Chana School Foundation thanks Auman for her beautiful painting and appreciates her historical accounts of rural education from the Forreston area.
If others in Ogle County would like to share their school day memories from one room schools or have pictures of any of the 177 schoolhouses that once were in Ogle County, please contact Connie at 815-732-2447 or email to cgstauffer1@comcast.net.
The Chana School Museum would like to preserve the legacy of our one room schools
by displaying a county map showing the location of each school with its picture. We need your help in doing this.
