Before 1915, children living in the northern Munich District of Madera County had to ride the train to Chowchilla for school. To provide local education, Dairyland opened in September 1915 in the DeSpain house. School trustees and the Dairyland Ladies' Improvement Club planned a two-room schoolhouse with a bell tower, and when it was completed in 1916 it was considered one of the finest schools in the valley because of its large grounds and park-like setting of sycamore and eucalyptus trees. Four more schools were later built in the area—Alamo, Ashview, Bethel, and Central—and over the years all five schools merged to form the Alview-Dairyland School District. One hundred years later, the original bell tower still stands.