Built around 1875 during Ulysses S. Grant's presidency, Powell Academy was one of about 100 small community schools in DeKalb County and served students in the Klondike Community through Grade 6. Families in the community raised the money for such schools, which usually cost around $200-$300, and George Washington Powell donated the land. The school closed in 1915 during Woodrow Wilson's presidency, and the building was then moved 150 yards so the new Klondike school could be built on the original site. Children attended in the fall and winter so they could help with farm work during the growing season, often walking long distances to reach class. All grades shared one classroom, with older children helping younger ones, and recess included lunch and games such as tag, jump rope, and hoop-and-stick. Lessons were given verbally or on slates with chalk, and study centered on the three "r's": reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic. Teachers were often young unmarried women who lived with pupils' families or with the preacher's family in town, attended a finishing school after completing grades in a schoolhouse like this, earned around $16.00 a year, and usually stopped teaching when they had families of their own.