"The History of the Big Bend Country", published in 1904 there appears a quotation from a letter written by a Mr. H. B. Drifting, dated November 30, 1901:

The church building referred to was for the German Methodists. A number of German speaking Methodists had settled in the community, including several ministers, both active and retired. The took the initiative of erecting the first church building, again as squatters, on location approximately coinciding with the western end of the present Columbia Apartment. The parsonage was also built on this site. Later, after the town site was platted, both church and parsonage were moved to the location where the Methodist Church now stands. Much later this first German Methodist Church was sold to the Catholic Church. It serves as the Catholic Church to this day and it must be one of the oldest if not the very oldest building still standing in the town.

The German Methodist Church building was finished by January 1902 and was used as a school even before it was dedicated as a church. The church was dedicated on Sunday, March 29, 1902. "The History of the Big Bend Country" reports that the church was crowded with the morning services in German and the afternoon services in English. Presiding Elder Lange was in charge, assisted by the Reverends Buehler, Beckley, Fiegenbaum and Sohm. Buehler, Beckley and Fiegenbaum had taken up farms in the community. Gus Sohm, a cousin of Henry, Ernest and Herman, was for a time a partner in one of the general stores. Even Presiding Elder Lange had taken up a homestead on Paradise Flat.

Reverend W. J. Beckley became the first pastor of the new church, but since he was also a farmer in the community, there was need for a full-time minister. Reverend P. J. Sehert came to the community as pastor in the fall of 1902, together with his wife Amalia, the daughter of Reverend George Hartung, who some years later succeeded him as pastor of the church. The change soon developed two preaching places, one in the church in Connell and the other in the newly built schoolhouse near the Buehler farm home. The German Methodist Church also provided the cemetery on the brow of the hill northwest of the town. It received the name of Mountain View Cemetery and came to be know far and wide for its excellent location.

As we have seen, even as the church was being planned and built, it was intended to also be used for the first schoolhouse. The Connell School District, know as Number 7, was organized and its boundaries fixed on July 1, 1901, but as yet there was no school building nor funds to run the school. However, there were already several families with children. A number of citizens, led by R. L. Olds, father of Otto Olds, decided to build a schoolhouse by subscription and volunteer labor and to pay for a teacher the same way. It is reasonable to suppose that with this in view, they helped considerably with the building of the German Methodist Church. At least for a year, and perhaps more, that building served the dual purpose of church and school.

Classes in the new school commenced in January 1902 with 40 pupils reported as enrolled. The first teach was a man by the name of Nagle and he received a salary raised by subscription of thirty dollars a month. Later Elsie Fiegenbaum, daughter of retired minister, real estate man and farmer, Rudolph Fiegenbaum, was hired as a second teacher and classes were also held in the back room of the furniture store. Among the early pupils were the Olds', Larsons', Janosky's. Lindner's, Montford's, Braden's, Younce's, Panhorst's and Sohm's.

The first formal school election was help on February 15, 1902. R.  l. Olds, M. M. Taylor and C. F. Younce were elected directors, and without a dissenting vote, $2,500 in bonds was authorized for the erection of a school building. On August 8, 1902, another election was held at which it was decided to accept a two-acre site just east of the southeast corner of what is now Klindworth Addition as the location for the new school building. At the same time, it was decided to advertise for bids to build the school with proceeds of the bonds which had been previously authorized. Mr. H. W. Brummond, a farmer southeast of town who was also a carpenter, won the contract and built the two-story schoolhouse with the $2,500 proceeds of the bonds.

We do not know just when the building was completed, but we know that it was ready for the beginning of the school term in September, 1903. That was apparently the beginning of the operation of formal schools in Connell. A recent graduate of the University of Oregon by the name of C. V. Ross was the first principal and Miss Minnie Langdon taught the primary grades. That first year there were only two school rooms and the whole upper floor was used as a roller skating rink. However, the school grew rapidly and in subsequent years it expanded quickly, first to three rooms, then to four, and eventually to five rooms before the school was moved to the new brick building in 1914. Early teachers who followed Mr. Ross and Miss Minnie Langdon included Mabel Langdon, Zoa Ferguson, Elsie Welch and Anton Manlig.

At first the curriculum of the Connell Schools comprised only the first eight grades, but after a few years two and three years of high school were added. Anton Manlig and O. E. Faulkner were the first teachers of high school subjects. Among those who graduated from the two and three years of high school were Myrtle Welch, Elbert Sohm, Clayton Kelsey and Otto Olds. During the years prior to the First World War, with the coming of J. F. Santee as principal, and with the addition of another high school teacher, four full years of high school studies were offered. The Class of 1917 became the first class to graduate from the four year course. It consisted of Clara Manlig, Agnes Cervin, MildredGehres and Edward Klindworth.