This is one of two known views of the second schoolhouse in Forestville. (The other view shows a caved-in building after its demolition.) The building's disrepair is evident in this photograph, probably from 1899 or 1900. Standing in the foreground is Thomas Meighen, born in 1855, who by the 1890s owned most of Forestville. Behind the building is one of Meighen's large farm fields.

In 1855 a log schoolhouse was built in South Forestville. By the next year, taxes were appropriated for Fillmore County schools. In that year, $1 for each scholar in regular attendance went to the regular school districts in Minnesota Territory. Forestville's school boasted 48 students in early 1856, so it received $48. In September 1857 the Forestville school district approved a new 26- by 20-foot, one-story brick building in North Forestville. Brickmaker John Gill supplied the locally mined and fired brick, and Major Foster completed the building by December for $500. (Major Foster was brother of Robert Foster, one of the partners in the Foster and Meighen Store until 1868.)

The first teacher in the new school was Milford Benham, who stayed until 1860. Bridget Flynn taught for the next two years. The school was used not only for education but also for town meetings and social events. This building was replaced by a larger frame school house in 1879, then it fell into disrepair and was finally torn down by 1900. All that remains now is a descriptive plaque in the building's former location.