R.C. Waters students get taste of local one-room school from owner Norm Witt, including desks with ink holes and long two-mile walks to attend school.

R.C. Waters Elementary School’s first-grade class recently enjoyed a visit to the Old Union Center Schoolhouse the only restored one-room schoolhouse left as a schoolhouse in Ottawa County.

Norm Witt, the owner of the property, began restoring the former Union Center School on his farm on Muddy Creek Road outside Oak Harbor many years ago. The school was an integral part of the Oak Harbor school system from 1899 to 1934.

Witt taught the R.C. Waters first graders that day what school was like long, long ago. The desks that are in the schoolhouse came from the current Oak Harbor Middle School.

The desks have ink holes in them from when students would have used ink pens. The fire stove is original to the school house, as well as the original pump that is still out in the front of the school, where students would have pumped water to drink.

The Witt family has collected many old books that were laid out on the desks for the students to look at from various time periods. Many fun facts were learned throughout the student’s visit, including students having to walk two miles to get to school back in the day!