Lake Five Elementary, Lisbon District #3
Lake Five had a school house to cover a big enough area to serve enough children who needed schooling, plus the tax base to support a "free school."
The school which resulted was Lisbon No.3 School, a log cabin building organized in 1843. The initial class ranged from ages 4 to 20. The school was in the area of the present-day roundabout, but soon a replacement school was built down on Hickory Road. Today it is gone without a trace. It was exactly three-fourths of a mile west of Highway 164 and again exactly three-fourths of a mile east of Lake Five Road, on the south side of Hickory Road.
Lisbon District #3 was organized in 1843. At its' closing in 1970, Lake Five was Waukesha County's last two-room school district. The schoolhouse, which had been built about 1890, was destroyed by fire in 1973.
It originally included sections 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 16, 17 and 18. Later 4, 5, 6 and parts of section 8 and the north half of section 9 made up the district. There were about 25 children between the ages of 4 and 20 (Editor's note: anyone under the age of 21 was considered an infant at the time.) in 1843. One of the earliest settlers in District #3 was Augustine Grignon, grandson of Charles de Langlade. Other names listed on the first school register of the year 1850 were McCaugh, Bowel, Tenant, Fischer, Robberts, Thompson, Foster, Palmer and Blood. These were the children of the first settlers. The first school was a log school built on the same ground that the school occupied on Highway Q near Highway J. The first teacher was Daniel Heckkock for a term of three months. There were 13 boys and five girls. The summer term began May 15 with 27 pupils and the teacher was Renee Ellen White.
A new school was built in 1890. Each family brought lumber to build it. The school remained a one-room school until 1961 when an addition was constructed.
In the fall of 1970 the Lake Five Elementary School was ordered attached to the Merton School District. The western 1,300 acres of the Lake Five District went to the Merton District. In March 1973, a blaze completely destroyed the three-room schoolhouse. Arson had been suspected. On the following Saturday bids were to be opened for the sale of the building.
Source: The First 150 Years, Lisbon-Sussex, Waukesha County, Wisconsin, produced and published by the Citizens of Lisbon- Sussex in 1986 to celebrate The Lisbon/Sussex Sesquicentennial, page 52; and the Lisbon 2000 Millennium Book, by Fred H. Keller, 2000, pages 79- 80; and "Little Old Lake Five through old photos", by Fred H. Keller,