Williams County history (May 2, 1938): The wooden frame Cogswell one-room schoolhouse at the northwest corner of the intersection of U.S. Route 20 and County Road 11.50 in Bridgewater Township was destroyed by fire. Students completed the last three weeks of the school year at the vacant Dean schoolhouse, located one and one-half miles south of U.S. Route 20 on County Road 10. In the summer of 1938 the former West Bridgewater or Waterston schoolhouse (located at the intersection of County Roads 8 and P-50), was moved to the site of the burned schoolhouse at Cogswell’s corners. In 1957, the Williams County Board of Education combined the Bridgewater Local, Kunkle, Pioneer and part of Jefferson Local school districts into the new North Central school district. With creation of the North Central school district, the remaining Bridgewater Local one-room schoolhouses were closed, including the Cogswell school. The former school building was converted into a residence. This circa 1994 photograph of the former Cogswell one-room school is from the Kevin Maynard collection.
