BlockFrom the record
One of 51 National Register listings published here for Fond du Lac County · listed in 2024 · category: Building.
Sources: the National Register database, National Park Service
Little White Schoolhouse
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2024.
The listing
- What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
- Still standing. The Park Service records this property as extant.
- Address. 1074 West Fond du Lac Street, Ripon, 54971
- When was it listed? July 2024
- Category. building
- Town. Ripon town
- National Register reference number. 100010533 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.
What happened here
An account from the chapter on Ripon town. The inset identifies its exact source book and publication year.
Scraps Of War History
The first man to shed Wisconsin blood on a Southern battlefield in the rebellion, was Lieut. William A. Matthews, of Company G, First Wisconsin Volunteers, who was severely wounded at the battle of Falling Waters, in July, 1861, in Virginia. He enlisted at Fond du Lac, his home. The last Wisconsin blood shed was at the capture of Jeff Davis, in Irwin County, Ga., May 10, 1865, when several men were wounded by volleys fired by a detachment of the Fourth Michigan Cavalry upon a detachment of the First Wisconsin Cavalry.
The ground it stands on
38,693 wordsThe chapter on Ripon Town in The History of Fond Du Lac County, Wisconsin, published 1880 names Ripon. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.
In 1873, David P. Mapes, the "founder of Ripon," published a volume of nearly three hundred pages, entitled, " History of the City of Ripon and of its Founder." The peculiarity of his style may be discovered from an extract, taken from the prefoce :
Passage source: The History of Fond Du Lac County, Wisconsin, published 1880.
The news that Fort Sumter had been fired upon and had surrendered reached Fond du Lac, Ripon and Waupun Saturday evening, April 13, 1861, but was not generally disseminated until Sunday. Everything was dropped, and people rushed to the centers of population and information for the latest news. Newspapers were in demand and commanded almost any price, one man paying a dollar for a copy of the Chicago Tribune. Impromptu meetings to sustain the Government were held everywhere, the first of which any record was left being held Sunday evening, April 14, in the city of Fond du Lac. On Thursday evening, the largest meeting ever held in that city was addressed at Amory Hall, by Edward S. Bragg, J. M. Gillet, S. E. Lefferts and Mason C. Darling. The intensity of the excitement, patriotism and enthusiasm manifested cannot be described. Resolutions upholding the Government, and couched in the strongest possible language, were adopted. About $4,000 was raised to care for the families of soldiers, and pledges were offered on every hand to furnish wood, meat, flour and provisions to soldiers' wives and children. Men offered houses free of rent ; physicians offered medical attendance free of charge, and the City Council voted, at a special meeting, although it had no right to do so, $5,000 to aid soldiers' families. Patriotism and generosity ran riot. War meetings were appointed in almost every schoolhouse in the county, and speakers were in great demand. The demand, however, was supplied, as men who had never made a speech before, and have not since, proved to be fountains of patriotic eloquence. The Reporter, of Fond du Lac, in its issue of April 27, 1861, thus briefly but graphically describes the excitement of the hour:
Passage source: The History of Fond Du Lac County, Wisconsin, published 1880.
Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.
Read the whole chapter on Ripon Town - 38,693 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.
Fires near this property
39 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 39 fires within 5 miles of Little White Schoolhouse between 1993 and 2020, burning about 80 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 23 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 7 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2 |
| Smoking | 2 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 2 |
| Fireworks | 1 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 1 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 August 2000 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 25 August 2008 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 13 August 1995 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 3 July 2012 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | SUNNYSIDE COMBINE |
| 26 July 2012 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | GREEN LAKE COUNTY F |
| 2 July 2010 | Fireworks | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | SECOND TIME FIRE |
| 15 July 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 13 July 2007 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Mines and quarries near this property
2 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Little White Schoolhouse: 2 producers. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nellis Limestone Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| R & R Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer |
Storms near this property
37 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Ripon, the town this property stands in, in 37 storm reports between 1995 and 2026: 22 thunderstorm wind, 10 hail, 3 flash flood, 1 lightning. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2008 | Flash Flood | Ripon | $4,640,000 | Heavy rains resulted in flash flooding across much of western Fond du Lac County. Water depths on road surfaces reached 3 feet or more and there were gravel washouts. Some farm fields remained flooded into early July. The breakdown for residential home losses were: 4000 minimally affected, 2100 with minor damage, 125 with major damage, and 15 destroyed (total of $3.87 million for home losses). The breakdown for business losses were: 35 with minor damage (total of $242 thousand). Crop losses were estimated at $9 million. Public sector damage was about $772 thousand. There were several roads and bridges that sustained damage. |
| August 1995 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ripon | $75,000 | no account filed |
| August 2000 | Flash Flood | Ripon | $50,000 | no account filed |
| July 2006 | Hail | Ripon | $30,000 | About 300 trees were damaged or detroyed by the hail at a tree nusury 3 miles east of Ripon. |
| May 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ripon | $20,000 | Multiple trees and power lines down. Trees down on a few homes. |
| May 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ripon | $20,000 | no account filed |
| July 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ripon | $15,000 | Multiple reports of trees down, snapped power poles, road closures, and power outages in the Ripon area. Sheet metal roofing or siding was strewn in the field on either side of Brandon Street, north of the intersection with Highway KK. Damage was assessed to be due to straight-line winds. A man was killed when he drove his car into a downed tree on a road near Ripon. |
| August 2000 | Lightning | Ripon | $15,000 | no account filed |
| May 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ripon | $10,000 | Several trees and power lines down. Power lines downed across highway 44. |
| July 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ripon | $10,000 | Trees and power lines down. |
| August 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ripon | $10,000 | no account filed |
| July 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ripon | $10,000 | no account filed |
| July 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ripon | $5,000 | Trees and power lines reported down. |
| June 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ripon | $3,000 | Several large trees down. |
| September 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ripon | $2,000 | Several trees and branches down. |
| July 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ripon | $2,000 | A 1.5 foot diameter tree snapped at its base and a 2 foot diameter tree snapped upward from the trunk. |
| June 2008 | Flash Flood | Ripon | $1,350 | Heavy rains resulted in flash flooding across much of western Fond du Lac County. Water depths on road surfaces reached 3 feet or more and there were gravel washouts. Manhole covers popped in Ripon. Some farm fields remained flooded into early July. The breakdown for residential home losses were: 1000 minimally affected, 500 with minor damage, 25 with major damage, and 5 destroyed (total of $1 million for home losses). The breakdown for business losses were: 15 with minor damage (total of $50 thousand). Crop losses were estimated at 17 million. Public sector damage was about $1.3 million. There were several roads and bridges that sustained damage. |
| June 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ripon | $1,000 | no account filed |
| July 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ripon | $500 | Tree down in the road. |
| June 2014 | Heavy Rain | Ripon | $500 | Street and parking low flooding led to water rushing into a business on highway 23 just east of Ripon. One hour rainfall estimated by doppler radar was 1.50 inches. |
| April 2026 | Hail | Ripon | - | Public report of 1 inch diameter hail in Ripon. |
| September 2021 | Hail | Ripon | - | Reports of 3/4 inch diameter hail up to 2 inch hail. |
| June 2011 | Hail | Ripon | - | This hail swath was about 3 miles wide. |
| July 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ripon | - | A trained spotter reported trees blown down by thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at 52 knots (60 mph). |
| June 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ripon | - | Powerful thunderstorms winds knocked down a few large trees. |
| August 2019 | Hail | Ripon | - | no account filed |
| May 2011 | Hail | Ripon | - | no account filed |
| April 2008 | Hail | Ripon | - | no account filed |
| June 2008 | Hail | Ripon | - | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ripon | - | no account filed |
| August 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ripon | - | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ripon | - | no account filed |
| September 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ripon | - | no account filed |
| July 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ripon | - | no account filed |
| August 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ripon | - | no account filed |
| May 2000 | Hail | Ripon | - | no account filed |
| July 1996 | Hail | Ripon | - | no account filed |
Map coverage status
No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 milesOther National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.
| Photograph | Property | Distance | Listed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ceresco Site | 0.4 miles | 1975 | |
 | Jacob Woodruff House | 0.6 miles | 1974 |
 | Ripon College Historic District | 1.0 miles | 1995 |
 | First Congregational Church | 1.0 miles | 1979 |
| Watson Street Commercial Historic District | 1.1 miles | 1991 | |
| Baptist Church | 1.2 miles | 2007 |
Sources for this property
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 100010533 in Record Group 79. |
| Fond du Lac County | All 51 listed properties in this county. |
Provenance
- Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
- Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
- How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
- Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
- Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
- Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.