Beyond the museum parking lot to the east is a one-room school, the Aitken School built in 1865. It was originally established as District One in Troy Grove Township in a deed signed by Horace A. Hickok, brother of “Wild Bill” Hickok. It was located south of Troy Grove. A plaque tells of its beginnings. Utica’s Unimin Corporation donated the schoolhouse to the LaSalle County Historical Society in 1990. On the right side of the school is the herb garden

Every spring, fourth grade students, parents, and teachers participate in a one-day visit to the museum complex to see what school and life was like in the early days. Retired teachers and other volunteers present school lessons, rules, and discipline of more than a hundred years ago.

Each year more than 1,200 children receive lessons and student handbooks that include the history of the area and selections from materials used in the one-room schoolhouses. Local area craftspeople demonstrate old time crafts including quilting, weaving, blacksmithing, barrel making, and rug braiding.