In 1841, when Richland County was formed, one of the first four schools already in existence there was a primitive log school known as McsBurg, located four miles north-northeast of Olney at what is now the intersection of North Silver Road and East Tank Farm Lane and thought to have been named for the McWilliams family, several of whom lived in the neighborhood. After several years, that log structure was replaced by a frame building constructed in 1874-75. Records show McsBurg School reached its highest attendance of 40 students in 1913-14, then closed at the end of the 1943-44 term because enrollment had fallen to eight pupils and county-wide school consolidation was approaching. In 1947, the building became a summer cabin for the Kowa family, who donated it to the Olney Garden Club in 1964 for restoration and relocation to Olney City Park. In 2015, the Garden Club deeded the schoolhouse to the Richland Heritage Museum Foundation, which carried out a second restoration and moved it to its present site beside the Heritage House Museum. In the Midwest, education began in the home, then shifted to subscription schools in which families paid teachers directly, often through barter, before state education laws and taxation led to one-room schools. In Richland County, the rural one-room school era lasted more than 100 years and reached a peak of 87 schools in operation in the early 20th century, with schools placed no more than two miles apart so students would not have to walk long distances. At their height in the late 19th century and early 20th century, rural one-room schools contributed greatly to American democracy and to the growth years of the Midwest, and an estimated 65,000 such schools dotted the Midwestern countryside.