CHAPTER XXVIII.

SCHOOLS OF GREENE COUNTY.

The school history of. Greene county fairly begins with its organization. From 1803 until 1851 there was no provision for a system of free public schools as we have them today. During this period most of the schooling was in the hands of those who conducted what were called subscription schools, although there was a small amount of public money available for public schools after 1838.

The first school houses were invariably log structures, devoid of any comforts, and presided over in many cases by a teacher as meagerly equipped as the schoolroom in which he held forth. That these early schools were appreciated, however, is evidenced by the fact that there were often from sixty to one hundred children enrolled under one teacher. The man who could handle such a number of children and teach them anything at all, must have been a person of unusual physical courage, if not of mental ability. But with the aid supplied by the neighboring hickory groves, this pioneer teacher succeeded in preserving .discipline, and in some mysterious mariner he handled his juvenile army and actually taught them the rudiments of "readin', 'ritin' and 'rithmetic."

In the following pages may be found a brief summary of the schools of the various townships of the county, together with an extended discussion of the Xenia city schools. Prior to taking, up the discussion of the separate township schools, a word should be said about the general system of the schools of the county as they are organized today.

The constitution of 1912 made some very radical changes in the Ohio school system, which, with subsequent statutory changes, has practically revolutionized the educational' system of the state. The office of county superintendent of schools was created, the first . incumbent of this office in Greene county, F. M. Reynolds, assuming the office on August 1, 1914, a position which he still holds. The superintendent is elected by the county board of education, the members of which are elected by the presidents of the various school boards of the county. The county superintendent has supervision of all the schools of the county except those of Xenia.

For the purpose of closer personal supervision, the county is divided into districts for school purposes, the districts, with their respective superintendents being as follows : Bath and Beavercreek townships and Beaver

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Special, D. S. Lynn, superintendent, with thirty-seven teachers under his charge ; Cedarville, New Jasper and Ross townships, and Clifton village, J. H. Fortney, superintendent, with thirty-nine teachers; Silvercreek and Caesarscreek townships and Jamestown village, C. A. Devoe, superintendent, with thirty-six teachers; Sugarcreek, Spring Valley and Xenia townships, D. H. Barnes, superintendent, with forty-five teachers ; Miami township is united with Yellow Springs village, R. O. Wead, superintendent, with thirteen teachers; Osborn village is a district to itself, totally apart from Bath township, Charles F. Hill, superintendent, with eight teachers.

QUALIFICATIONS OF TEACHERS.

The educational qualifications of the teachers of Greene county are being raised each succeeding year. The time has long since passed when the only qualifications needed was the ability to read, write and cipher. If one of the early teachers of the county were to step into a modern school room, he would find very little resemblance to the room in which he taught three-quarters of a century ago. Now there is an increasing number of teachers with college training and no new teachers are being employed who have not had some normal training. The last report of the county superintendent shows that the teachers of the county have attended universities, colleges, normals and high schools as indicated in the following tabulation :

MISCELLANEOUS STATISTICS.

The statistics for the year ending June 30, 1917, give some interesting facts concerning the length of service of the teachers of the county. It would be interesting to know who has taught in the county longer than any other person, but since no statistics of the first half of the county's educational career are available it is impossible to determine. Among the teachers of the county who are known to have taught more than forty years are J. W. Stewart and W. K. Shiflette. Stewart is a colored teacher at Wilberforce; Shiflette has been teaching in Silvercreek township for more than forty-five years.

The report of the county superintendent shows that in the year 1916-1917 there were seventy-two teachers employed in the county who had taught more than five years, of which number twenty were men and fifty-two were women. For the periods of five years and under the records shows the fallowing: Teaching five years, 16; four years, 12 ; three years, 17; two years, 19; one year, 24. There were twenty-one who began their first term in the fall of 1916.

The county board of education is elected by the presidents of the seventeen local boards of the county, the members having a tenure of five years. The members of the board for 1918 are the following : A. L. Fisher, W.

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B. Bryson, J. B. Rife, O. P. Mitman and J. E. Hastings. The county superintendent of schools, F. N. Reynolds, acts as clerk of the board.

BATH TOWNSHIP SCHOOLS.

Little is known of the early schools of Bath township, owing to the fact that no written account of their development has been preserved. Fairfield was laid out in 1816 and had a school house within its quiet precincts at an early date, but when it was .erected or who held sway therein are questions which will probably never be answered. The township was fairly thickly settled by the '20s, and, since most of the settlers had large families, there was a large number of children.

There were no separate school districts until 1820, the schools then existent being what might be called private ventures on the part of the teachers. They were supported by the parents and the teacher was dependent on the patrons for his meager compensation. But in 1820 the citizens felt that the time had arrived when the township should be divided into regularly organized school districts. The agitation was carried on throughout 18,20, but it was not until March, 1821, that the township trustees agreed to divide the township into seven districts. It was estimated that there were three hundred children then of school age, an average of more than forty to the district.

These seven districts had their respective school buildings, which number, as the township grew in population, increased to thirteen districts. By the latter part of the '70s there were nine hundred school children within the township. At that time Osborn had a four-room building, and the village of Fairfield a three-room building.

At the present time the township has ten one-room buildings, one two-room building and one three-room building, the latter being one-half mile east of the village of Fairfield. The village of Osborn has a seven-room building, four rooms for the grades and three for the high school. The township, including Osborn, has a total of twenty-five teachers, twenty-two in the grades and three in the high school at Osborn. Osborn has a separate system, there being no connection between the village and township schools.

The last enrollment for the township shows three hundred and twenty for the grades and thirty-eight for the high school ; the village of Osborn enrolled one hundred and fifty-four in the grades and sixty-one in the high school.

BEAVERCREEK TOWNSHIP SCHOOLS.

Beavercreek township undoubtedly has the honor of having the first school house in the county. Three years before the county was organized in 1803 there was a log school house erected in section 31, about two miles west of Alpha, in the southeast corner of the section. The first teacher in this

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first school house in the county was an Englishman who insisted on being known and addressed as Thomas Marks Davis, the Second. just why this long and high sounding title was appended to his name is 'not known, but it did not make him any the less an efficient pedagogue.. It is said that his meager income from his educational labors ranged from eight to ten dollars a month, a stipend 'which in those days was considered munificent. History is silent as to how long this first building was used, or as to what became of the eccentric wielder of the rod who presided over it.

The second school building, also a log affair, was built on section 27, about two miles northwest of Alpha, the building standing in the southeastern corner of the section. This building, as did many of the first school houses, served also as a church. In fact, many of the early communities in the county erected a building which they intended to be used for both school and church purposes. It is recorded that the German Reformed church was holding services in this second school house as early as 1809. Its subsequent history is unknown, but it undoubtedly served in this dual capacity for several years.

The year 1817 saw the third school house make its appearance in the township, this building being located in section 16, in the northeastern part of the township. Here presided one of the most famous of the early teachers of the county, Amos Quinn, later sheriff of Greene county and a representative from this district in the Legislature, and who, if tradition has a modicum of truth, must have been fully equal to all possible emergencies which might arise in the daily performance of his scholastic duties. He is represented as being a man of even temper, except when some of his refractory pupils aroused his ire, and then punishment was quick to follow and was of such a quality that the same offense was not likely to be repeated.

The fourth school house was erected within a year or two after the third one, and stood on the Xenia and Dayton pike, northeast of Alpha, on the same site later occupied by the so-called union school building: All of these four buildings thus far erected were log structures, and primitive to an extreme. The fifth building was the first brick school house in the township and was erected in 1822 on the site of the fourth school house, northeast of Alpha. As this immediate community increased in population it was found necessary to provide additional room, and accordingly a brick addition was built to the little brick of 1822. This building continued in use until 1888, when it was replaced by a brick building, which has been added to in later years.

It is not profitable to follow the building of the successive school houses throughout the 'township. It is sufficient to state that several years before the Civil War there were no fewer than twelve school districts, each of which

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was supplied with a good building. The township now has twelve one-room buildings, one two-room building, and one five-room building. Beavercreek township has one of the best equipped high schools of the county, a brick structure, standing on the Xenia-Dayton road near Alpha.

The last enrollment of the township shows 441 in the grades and 59 in the high school ; added to this is the Beaver "special" school, with an enrollment of 28. The township has a total of 19 teachers, 16 in the grades, and 3 in the high school.

CAESARSCREEK TOWNSHIP SCHOOLS.

The early history of the schools of Csarscreek township is shrouded in obscurity. With no written records of local historians of the township and with no school records of any kind covering the first few decades of the schools of the township, it is not possible to reconstruct their history at this late day. It is certain, however, that they had at least one school house in use when the county was organized in 1803, since some of the earliest settlers in the county found a permanent home within what was to become Caesarscreek township on May 10, 1803.

The first definite record concerning a school in the township dates from 1825, more than ninety years ago. In that year a term of school was taught by John McGuire in the New Hope church, which stood about a mile southwest of the village of Paintersville. This was a Quaker church and presumably the members of the church established a school as soon as they opened their church. The township was supplied with schools as the population increased, and by the '70s there were seven school buildings scattered over the township. All of these were one-room buildings except the one at Paintersville, which had two rooms.

The year 1918 finds six one-room buildings and a high school building of three rooms in the township, with a total of nine teachers for one hundred and seventy-three grade pupils and twenty-three high-school students.

CEDARVILLE TOWNSHIP SCHOOLS.

Cedarville can boast of one of the very first school houses, in the county, since there was certainly not more than one or two built prior to 1806, the year in which a log, school house was built on the Townsley farm east of Cedarville. James Townsley was the first teacher to hold forth in this rude building, but rude as it was, it sufficed to hold a half hundred of the children of the community. It continued to be used several years after the second school house made its appearance in the township in 1810. The second structure, also of logs, stood along Massies creek. It had a puncheon floor, while

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the first building had only a dirt floor, but otherwise the two primitive cabins were practically identical. One of the McCoys was the first teacher in this second school house.

Although Cedarville was laid out in 1816 it was not until 1823 that there was a school house in the village. In that year a Mrs. Gamble opened school in a hewed-log building which it seems that she had built as a school house. This was, as has been explained, in the days when the subscription school was in vogue, and anyone couluild a school house and start teaching whenever they wanted to or thought they could attract enough pupils to make it a paying business.

LANCELOT JUNKIN.

One of the best known of the early teachers of Cedarville township was Lancelot Junkin. He was born in Kentucky on January 11, 1806, and died at Jamestown on August II, 1883. He came with his parents to Greene county when a small boy, and when still a mere youth began teaching. He taught all over the county and it is not too much to say that literally thousands of early citizens of the county were among his pupils at some time during his long career. The brick school, house which was built in Cedarville township in the '20s about two miles south of the village of Cedarville was first presided over by Lancelot Junkin. He taught there for a number of years. He married Harriet Bower, one of his pupils in this school. His father, James, was also a teacher, and is said to have been the first one in Cedarville township.

When the school laws of the state were changed and all teachers were required to pass an examination, Lancelot Junkin is credited with being the first to receive a license in Greene county. He continued teaching in Greene county until about 184.8, more than a score of years of actual service in the school rooms of the county, and in that year removed to Lima, Ohio, where he remained teaching until the infirmities of old age compelled him to retire from the profession. He then sold patent medicines for a time, but was soon 'forced to quit on account of his health. ,He then went to live with a son-in-law at Jamestown, but a short time before his death on August i 1, 1883, he went to his old home in Cedarville township, where he passed the few remaining days of his life. He was seventy-seven at the time of his death. He is buried near Jamestown.

DESCRIPTION OF PIONEER SCHOOL.

A complete description of one of the typical school houses of the county which were built prior to the War of 1812 was made by Lancelot Junkin a short time before his death. His description of the building is taken verbatim

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from a paper which he prepared to be read before the Pioneer Association of Greene county, and is reproduced here in full :

Come with me away back to 1813, and let me introduce you to that school house of early days, by a description of the first one which it was my lot to attend as a pupil. This house was built in 1812 in Ross township, now Cedarville township, about two miles south of Cedarville and five miles northwest of Jamestown. It was constructed in true log. cabin style in a dense forest. The farmers and citizens within a circle of six or eight miles met on a day previously appointed and with axes they proceeded to cut down trees suitable to be used for the building. The logs were cut into length to make a house twenty-five by thirty feet and these were built to a height of twelve or thirteen feet. The roof was made of clapboards four feet in length split from timber cut the same day. These were laid in courses on slim logs called ribs, and these were held in position by smaller logs called weight poles.

The ceiling was also made of split clapboards laid on joists of round poles, the logs being left in natural roundness with the bark left on, and the spaces between them were closed with clay mortar. Its one window was made by cutting out a log and fastening small pieces of timber perpendicularly about a foot apart, and on these greased paper was pasted, light coming through it.

The floor was made of slabs split from large timbers and made smooth on one side by a large broadaxe and these were laid on joists or sleepers and fastened down by large pins. The door was made from the same material as was the floor, and hung in place by wooden hinges and fastened together by wooden pins.

The fireplace was made by cutting out a section of logs some five or six feet in length and by building up short pieces of timber outside as high as the joists at the point where the logs were cut, thus making a back wall and jambs, which were well lined with clay and mortar mingled with straw to make it more cohesive. A chimney was built up from the back wall by using short split sticks which were covered from within and without by mortar similar to that which lined the fireplace. This house was a type of those generally used in those days and, as was common by a judicious division of labor, was completed in one day. It is probable that William Junkin was the first teacher in the house that I have described.

CONSOLIDATION OF SCHOOLS.

The fourth school house seems to have been the log building erected for the purpose on the Pollock farm, tradition fixing the year 1827 as the date for its appearance. The following year appeared the famous stone school building which was erected adjoining the village. As the population increased new buildings were erected until by the middle of the '70s there were eight buildings in the township, not including the one seven-room building in Cedarville, which had been built in 1866 at a cost of forty thousand dollars.

With the advent of consolidation five of the schools have disappeared and now there are only three left in the township outside of Cedarville. In 1916 the township began the erection of the largest school building in the county outside of Xenia, the approximate cost being eighty thousand nine hundred and sixty dollars. This building was ready for occupancy in February, 1917, and represents all of the latest improvements in school architecture. It is located at the north edge of town, opposite Cedarville College. With the erection of this magnificent new building, three rural schools were

(28)

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discontinued and now four hacks convey the children from their homes to Cedarville. The high school during 1916-1917 had an enrollment of sixty-three. The total grade enrollment of the village and three rural schools is three hundred and four. The village employs a special music teacher and also a special teacher for home economics. The teachers of the consolidated school number thirteen, eight grade teachers and four regular high school teachers, besides the music teacher.

CEDARVILLE SCHOOLS.

The first school house in the village of Cedarville did not make its appearance until 1850, although as early as 1823 a widow by the name of Gamble built a log school building a short distance from the little village and conducted a subscription school in it for a number of years. Five years later, 1828, a stone school house was erected a quarter of a mile from the village which was in use for many years. But it was left to a school teacher to build the first school house in Cedarville.

In 1850 James Turnbull, who was born and reared in the township, and had already taught a number of years, bought from Judge Samuel Kyle a lot in the village on which to erect a school house. Here Turnbull erected a frame structure and in September, 1850, he opened his first term of school. This was a subscription school, and was a private school in every sense of the word, only those being admitted who could ,pay tuition. Turnbull was an excellent teacher and within three years his school had increased to two hundred pupils, but his career as a teacher was cut short by his death. It is said that his funeral was the largest of any ever seen in the town.

Following the death of Turnbull a number of teachers tried to follow in his footsteps, but none had the success which fell to the lot of the founder of the school. The township shortly afterward bought the building erected by Turnbull and started a free public school as provided by the constitution of the '50s. In 1866 the population of the town had increased to a point rendering it necessary to erect a larger building, and a brick structure of seven rooms was constructed at a cost of about forty thousand dollars. This building is still standing and is now being offered for sale by the township. In February, 1917, an eighty-thousand-dollar school building was completed in the town, which, in many respects, is the superior of any similar building in the state in a town the size of Cedarville. It is on Main street, in the north part of town, and is by far the most imposing building in the town.

Since the establishment of the public schools in 1866 there have been fifteen village superintendents, and five of these have been born and reared in Cedarville township : James Turnbull, Hugh Parks Jackson, James Foster,

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John H. McMillan and K. E. Randall. The superintendents of the Cedarville schools have served in the following order since the school was taken over and made a public school: John Orr, Jr., A. G. Wilson, H. Parks Jackson, James M. Foster, G. B. Graham, J. H. McMillan, A. B. Van Fossen, J. H. Brown, J. B. Stewart, T. D. Brooks, C. S. D. Shawan, J. H. Sayers, R. A. Brown, K. E. Randall and F. M. Reynolds. Reynolds was the last superintendent, the head of the school now being known as principal. L. D. Parker was the first principal and is still serving in this capacity.

JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP SCHOOLS.

Jefferson township did not come into existence until the summer of 1858, and for that reason its early school history is a part of the history of Silvercreek township from which township it was cut off in that year. Its separate career as a political unit, therefore, beginning as it did in 1858, found the township well supplied with school buildings ; more than it has today.

The first school house erected within what is now Jefferson township was built in 1813 or the year following. It stood in what is now the town of Bowersville, immediately in front of the residence of pioneer Nicholas Bowermaster, and, so it is said, in the middle of the present road in front of the house of Bowermaster. This was a log structure of the same style of architecture as all the other school houses of that day. In this first building erected for school purposes John Mickle opened the first school in the township, and continued teaching in the building for several years thereafter. He was succeeded by Christopher Stewart, who likewise was in charge of the school for a number of years.

In due course of time this first log structure gave way to a new building, the second standing on the site where Charles Wilson later had a sawmill. David Reese was one of the first teachers in this new building, which, so it appears, was in use until some time in the early '40s. What was known as the Gunnerville school house was built about 1820, and a Methodist preacher, one of the itinerant exhorting kind, became the first teacher. In 1820 this school was in charge of Evan Harris and he continued here until 1824 when he became the teacher of the Bowersville school. At that time, it must be remembered, there was no village there, nor was there any more than a single house on .the site until after 1843.

Gradually the township filled up with settlers and school houses were erected to meet the growing number of children. However, by 1860, there were only three school houses in the township, this apparently small number being due to the fact that the township was cut off from Silvercreek only

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two years before that year. In 1880 the enumeration for the township showed five hundred and ninety-eight white children of school age, and five colored children.

The first two school buildings within the site of Bowersville have been mentioned. The third building was erected in 1866, a one-story building with only one room. Ten years later it was found necessary either to erect a new building or make a substantial addition to the old one. It was finally decided to build an addition, the remodeled building being a structure of two stories, thirty feet wide and fifty feet long. It was arranged with two rooms below and one above. In 1880 the principal of the school was D. F. Donald-. son, the other two teachers being J. S. Thomas and Mrs. Lizzie Thomas. The enrollment in the town schools at that time was seventy-three.

Jefferson township enjoys with Ross the distinction of being one of the two townships of the county with complete consolidation, being the first one to have this honor. The dedication of the fifty-thousand-dollar school building at Bowersville, on September 15, 1916, marks a turning point in the educational history of the township. Whereas, the children of the t0wnship had been attending small, poorly-equipped, one-room buildings for a century, all of the children of the township are now gathered in a modern school building in the center of the township. Seven hacks are used to bring the children from all parts of the township to Bowersville. The enrollment for the school shows two hundred and sixty-seven in the grades and thirty-six in the high school. There are six teachers in the grades and three in the high school. A music teacher is employed on part time.

MIAMI TOWNSHIP SCHOOLS.

There has been but little information preserved concerning the early schools of Miami township, and for this reason it is difficult to follow the course of the educational growth of the township. There were five school buildings in the township in 1845, the year in which the first school house was erected in the town of Yellow Springs. William Mills erected a small frame building for school purposes in the '50s, a private school being conducted in it for a number of years. The building is still standing in the town, a curious architectural monstrosity that always attracts attention.

When Antioch College was started in 1853 it carried an elementary department which enrolled a large number of the children of the town and township. In fact, the central feature of the educational life of the township has been Antioch College, a complete history of which is given in the chapter devoted to institutions of higher learning in the county.

The present school building in Yellow Springs was erected in 1872, the first superintendent in the new building being W. H. Scudder. It has eight

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rooms, with four grade and four high school teachers. There is also another building used for school purposes in the town, a building formerly used as a church. The four rural schools of the township have a total enrollment of 93. The town schools enroll two hundred thirty-four in the grades and ninety-six in the high school. The present superintendent of the schools is R. O. Wead.

NEW JASPER TOWNSHIP SCHOOLS.

The history of the early schools of New Jasper is a part of the history of the five townships from which the township was formed in ;853, namely : Cedarville, Ross, Silvercreek, Caesarscreek and Xenia. The first school within what is now New Jasper township was opened for the reception of pupils in 1816 in a cabin on the farm of the late Samuel Cooper. It was a deserted squatter's cabin, but it sufficed for a temporary place to conduct a school until better quarters could be provided. A man by the name of Shields is credited with being the first teacher in the cabin. How long he taught, or how long the cabin continued in use as a school room are questions which will never be answered.

Some years later, how many is not known, a second school made its appearance in the township. This second building was on the Long farin and the first teacher tradition assigns to it was David Bell. By the time the township was organized in 1853 it had three school buildings, and since then five others have been added. In 1918 the township still has eight one-room rural schools, with eight teachers, and a total enrollment for the township of two hundred and ten. The township has no high school.

ROSS TOWNSHIP SCHOOLS.

Ross township was not settled as early as some other parts of the county and there was no demand for a school house until practically all the other townships had built some kind of a building for school purposes. The earliest record of a school building of any kind in this township places the first one in 1.815, and locates it at what was called "Paddy's Crossing," this being on the land of 'John Harper, the first settler of the township. It was of the customary style of architecture, made of round logs, puncheon floor, plank door on wooden hinges, with a window covered with well-greased paper. n this structure an Irishman, Jerry O'Leary by name, opened school in 1815 nd taught a number of years. O'Leary was also a preacher and divided is attention between the spelling book and Bible, thereby serving the coin, unity in a double capacity. He preached in the homes of the settlers, with at occasional service in the school house.

The next record of a school house shows that a hewed-log building was erected in 1822 on the farm of David Paullin. This second building had a luxury that most of the first school houses did not possess—it had a puncheon ceiling ; most of the early buildings were content with a roof only. In

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this second building Josiah Ballard opened the first term of school in 1822, and here he wielded the rod for several winters. His monthly compensation was often as low as five dollars, but he "boarded around" and thus all his salary might be called clear gain. He must have taught for the love of teaching, since the monetary consideration was so meager that he could not hope to make much more than the merest living out of his profession. Most of these early teachers, however, were farmers and teaching was only a side issue with them.

The third house, or at least the next one of which there is any record, was built on the farm of Jacob Little. No data has been preserved concerning other early school houses, but they were all of the same stripe—all log, all built with fireplaces, but every one filled to overflowing with sturdy boys and girls, the grandfathers and grandmothers of the present generation, and all intent on getting all they could out of the simple education which was offered them. Among the early teachers of the township are the following : Jerry O'Leary, Josiah Ballard, Harmon Browder, Frank Crisman, Samuel Harvey. Isaac Taylor, Samuel McHatten, David Burley and Thomas Loomis —and not a single woman. In those days physical prowess was considered as essential to the teacher's success as educational equipment ; in fact, the teacher of the '20s and '30s, and many years later, was expected to rule with the rod. It was no uncommon thing for the little log building to have a dozen or more young men as pupils at some time during the term. Young people frequently attended school until they were twenty-one, the fact that they had gone over all the work the school had to give making no difference. Old men now living have been proud of the fact that they went through the old arithmetic half a dozen times.

By the time of the Civil War the township had eight school districts, each provided with a building, and each building presided over by one teacher. There was not a single two-room building in the township, due to the fact that there were no villages in the township. A report for 1879 showed a total enrollment of two hundred and seventy-four pupils, of which number forty-nine were between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one. The men teachers at that time received an average monthly wage of thirty-nine dollars, and the women teachers only twenty-seven dollars.

Ross township was the second township of the county to bring about complete consolidation of all its school districts. With the dedication in 1916 of a thirty-five-thousand-dollar building on the Jamestown-Charlestown pike in the geographical center of the township, all of the eight rural schools of the township closed their doors forever. Instead of having eight teachers, eight separate school buildings, and eight small groups of pupils, the township now has one building, where all of the children of the township

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are brought together under the instruction of seven teachers, four in the grades and three in the high school. The enrollment for 1916-17 was one hundred and fifty-six in the grades and twenty-six in the high school, a total of one hundred and eighty-two. Five hacks are used to convey the children to the new school building. There is a house for the principal and a stable on the grounds for the use of any who may drive to school. It will accommodate twelve rigs. In fact the township has one of the best equipped school systems in southern Ohio, considering the amount of money expended. The building itself is located in the midst of a beautiful hickory grove, the school grounds covering seven acres.

SILVERCREEK TOWNSHIP SCHOOLS.

The early school houses of Silvercreek township were not unlike those of the other townships of the county ; they were all log structures and all built on the same general plan. The date of the erection of the first building for school purposes is unknown, but it must have been before 1811, the year the township was organized. There seems to be an entire lack of information concerning the schools as they were prior to 1825. In that year there were four school houses in the township, and one of the number was a brick structure standing on the site of the old cemetery at Jamestown.

The number of school buildings was increased in later years to meet the growing population, although it never has had more than seven buildings, not counting the two in the village of Jamestown. In 1879 there was a total enumeration of three hundred and sixty—one hundred eighty-two males and one hundred and seventy-eight females. At that time Jamestown had a two-story building of four rooms, the town having an enrollment of about two hundred and sixty. The town teachers for 1879-80 were the following: William Reece, superintendent ; J. W. Cruzen, Addie Shigley and Sue M. Zortman, grade teachers. The town also had a separate school for the colored children, the colored church building being used for school purposes.

The township still maintains the seven rural school buildings which it has had for several years, as well as the two separate buildings in Jamestown, one for the white and the other for the colored children. The township enrollment for the year 1916-17 was one hundred and seventy-six, which is less than one-half of the enrollment of 1880. The last enrollment figures for Jamestown give it two hundred and ninety-one—two hundred and four in the grades and eighty-seven in the high school. There are seven teachers in the rural districts, and nine in Jamestown. The colored school employs two teachers, while the other building has four in the grades and three in the high school.

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SPRING VALLEY TOWNSHIP SCHOOLS.

Spring Valley township did not come into existence until after the county had been organized fifty years, and therefore its educational history up to 1853 is a part of those townships from which it was organized—Sugarcreek, Xenia, Beavercreek and Caesarscreek. When the township was organized it contained as many school buildings as it does today, ten in number. There are now seven one-room rural schools, one three-room building at New Burlington, and the four-room building in the village of Spring Valley.

The building in Spring Valley is a handsome cement-block structure, which was erected in 1908. The enrollment for the township includes that of the village also, which in 1916-17, was three hundred and one in the grades and forty-three in the high school. The question of erecting a township high school has been considered during the past few years, but despite the efforts of those who tried to bring it about, it has not yet been effected. The township has voted twice on the question of floating a bond issue for the erection of a high-school building, and during the campaign preceding the election, the matter was thoroughly discussed by the voters. It is probable that the vote might have carried if there had been any general agreement as to where the building should be located. In the fall of 1917 a bond issue of twenty-four thousand dollars was carried, with which there is to be. built additions to the present buildings at Spring Valley and New Burlington and make them first grade high schools. In April, 1918, nothing had yet been clone toward putting the plan into execution.

There are fourteen grade and three high school teachers in the township. The township employs a special music teacher.

SUGARCREEK TOWNSHIP SCHOOLS.

It is not certain when the first school house made its appearance in Sugarcreek township, but it was soon after it was organized in 1803. It is probable that the first one in the township was in the present village of Bell-brook, nearly opposite the present school building. Another early school was located near the southeast corner of the Pioneer graveyard north of Bellbrook. One James Bain taught here, and, so the story goes, he a brewery nearby where he had some of his larger pupils work at times. He lived in a cabin where the late Archibald Berryhill resided and it is said of him that by working early in the morning and late at night, he could make one hundred rails in a day, besides teaching school. He laid out and sold to the Seceder congregation for a burial ground the tract of land known as the Pioneer, Associate or Old graveyard. The consideration for that transfer was three dollars. The church stood on the northeast corner of the ground and later the school house, the one just mentioned, stood on the southeast corner of the ground.

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Several buildings have been erected in Bellbrook for school purposes. The school house of Bain's burned, and this was followed by a brick structure on Maple street, where William Dodge and Dr. William Frazier taught school for a number of years. Still another brick building was erected on Maple street before the first building for a graded school made its appearance in 1854. This latter building was in use until 1894, when a new building was erected, which, in turn, gave way to the present building in 1910.

Among the early teachers of the township were James Bain, William Dodge, Dr. William Frazier, Eliza Patterson, Adamson Talbert, Jennie Perry, John Mills, Abner G. Luce, James Brown, Milton Gerard and Amanda Clancey.

There are now seven one-room buildings in the township and a five-room building in Bellbrook. The Bellbrook schools employ two grade and three high school teachers. The enrollment for the grades in the entire township is two hundred and sixty-two; the high school enrolls forty-nine.

XENIA TOWNSHIP SCHOOLS.

The history of the schools of Xenia township for the past one hundred years, apart from those of the city of Xenia, is similar to that of the other townships of the county. As fast as the township was settled little log school houses arose over the township, later giving way to frame buildings, and still later, in some cases, to brick structures. The first so-called higher institution of learning- in the county was established in this township about 1805 or 1806, an institution which had a career extending over several years. A sketch of this interesting school is given later in another chapter.

In 1838 the schools of the town of Xenia were separated from the township schools, and since that year the town has had its separate school system, although it was not until 1848 that a complete separation was made between the township and town schools. There are now eleven one-room buildings in the township and three two-room buildings, the latter being known as the Goes, Wilberforce and Union schools, respectively. The children of the Children's Home are now under the jurisdiction of the township, an act of the Legislature placing them under its control from and after September, 1917.

XENIA CITY SCHOOLS.

The history of the schools of Xenia in their early days will never be written with any degree of accuracy. The absence of all written records and the fact that the few copies now extant of newspapers published during the first few decades of the city's history make no mention of the local schools, make it impossible to trace their growth from the time the first school opened in 1805 down to the year 1918—a period of one hundred and thirteen years. The first definite beginning of school records which have been preserved dates from the latter part 0f the '40s, but they are not even complete since that year.

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It must be remembered that the present system of free public schools did not come into existence until after the adoption of the constitution of 1851. Prior to that year most of the schools were maintained by subscription, although the town had a small amount of money to be used for school purposes. The thread of the school history from 1805 to 1851 is such a slender one, the facts so unrelated and so confused, that anything like a connected history is rendered absolutely impossible. Such facts as are presented in the subsequent paragraphs concerning the history of the schools for the first half century after Benjamin Grover opened his little school of West Third street have been gleaned from former written accounts, newspaper files, stray records, and interviews with old citizens.

The first school house in Xenia stood on the lot later occupied by the dwelling house of James Kyle. This first school building was a one-room, log structure, primitive in its appointments, but withal a substantial building and fully the equal of any other building in the young village as far as architectural beauty was concerned. Here Benjamin Grover opened the first school in Xenia in 1805 and taught a number of years. In this same building Hugh Hamill, who arrived in Xenia in 1810, taught for a time. Hamill was also the village tanner for a number of years. It seems that Grover and Hamill had a monopoly on the teaching profession in the village until. 1816. the year which introduced to Xenia the man who was to become its most famous teacher during the period before the Civil War.

FOREMOST PIONEER TEACHER.

Thomas Steele was born in Ireland, came to the United States in 1812 and to Xenia in the winter of 1815-16. He had lived for two years in Philadelphia after coming to this country and then spent one year in Lexington, Kentucky, coining from the latter city to Xenia. In the spring of 1816 he opened his first school in a building which stood on the present site of the Central school building. Here he had his dwelling house and his little school building, for in those days the teacher frequently owned his own school house; and it was such a private school that Thomas Steele maintained in Xenia from 1816 to 1848—a period of thirty-two years.

Steele must have been an unusually good teacher to have maintained a school for such a long period. He was a devout member of the Presbyterian church, and did not fail to inculcate his abiding faith in his religion into his pupils as far as possible. He was married in Xenia on October 9, 1818, to Marie Gaff. One of his daughters became the wife of Roswell F. Howard. one of the early lawyers of Xenia. One of his sons, Dr. Ebenezer Steele, was assistant surgeon of the Seventy-fourth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War. There were several other children. In 1848 Steele removed

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to Adams county, Ohio, but in 1853 he returned to Xenia, where he remained until 1860, in which year he removed to Belle Center, Ohio, where he made his home with one of his daughters, Mrs. Elizabeth Torrence, dying there on August 6, 1875, at the age of eighty-four. Such in brief is the life history of the central figure of the educational history of Xenia for a third of a century, a man who labored for a very small pittance because he loved the profession and the good that he was able to do by devoting his life to it. It would seem that nothing would be more appropriate than to have one of the city's school buildings named in his honor. There is now a window in the Central, building appropriately inscribed to his memory.

OTHER PRIVATE SCHOOLS.

There is such meager data concerning the many private schools of the period prior to 1851 that it is impossible to give very much definite information concerning them. The names of Benjamin Grover, Hugh Hamill and Thomas Steele have been mentioned, but there were certainly at least a score of others who taught at different times in the town before 1851, most of these undoubtedly being women.

Few people of the present generation know that the large brick building on the hill south of the Pennsylvania station was occupied as a school building for a number of -years. It appears that it was erected by Lewis Wright, who had been a teacher in the town, but it was his. estimable wife, Mrs. Hannah Wright, who gave the school in the fine brick building its greatest reputation. Here there was in existence in the '40s a boarding school, some of the pupils coming from outside the town and rooming in the building, and for several years the school maintained an enviable reputation for the excellence of its work. There were other teachers connected with Mrs. Wright, notable among them being Dr. Samuel Wilson, who taught Greek and Latin and other higher branches. It is not known how long Mrs. Wright was in charge of the school, but it was evidently in operation until the opening of the '50s.

Another woman teacher who was teaching at the same time that Mrs. Wright had her school was Mrs. Mulligan, evidently of Irish extraction, who conducted a school for girls, particularly young ladies, in a building on East Church street in what is now the Kelly property. This school later gave way to the Xenia Female Academy.

John Armstrong and Rev. Hugh McMillen had schools for boys in the '40s and '50s. Armstrong had his school building on the east side of the lot now occupied by the Central school building, while McMillen occupied the building still standing just east of the Central building of today. Armstrong was a noted mathematician and it is said that at one time he received

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a gold medal from the French government for some independent investigations in the field of astronomy. His two daughters conducted a school for small children in the same building after his death.

YEAR 1838 A TURNING POINT IN HISTORY OF XENIA SCHOOLS.

The school history of Xenia is difficult to trace prior to the adoption of the constitution of 1851. There was .a confused mixture of colleges, seminaries, schools for boys, schools for girls, private schools, public subscription schools, church schools and, finally, some schools that were maintained partly by subscription and partly by public funds. But there were always sch0ols of some kind, and even the poorest citizen could educate his children in the common school branches with little outlay.

The year 1838 may be taken as a turning point in the history of the city schools. The decade from 1838 to 1848 is covered with what was known as a Union school, this comprehensive term being applied to the schools because the town of Xenia and the township of Xenia entered into some sort of an agreement whereby they worked together to maintain a school for the town and part of the township. On September 28, 1838, the town organized a school district within the corporation, the board of education at that time being the following : William Ellsberry, chairman ; David Monroe, treasurer ; Alfred Trader, secretary. That the town did not expect to handle much money is shown by the fact that the treasurer was required to give only a two-hundred-dollar bond. This division of the town into school districts took away from some of the township school districts some of the territory which had hitherto been under the jurisdiction of the township. The next official notice affecting the schools of the township or town of Xenia bears the date of October 6. 1838. On that date the board of the town met with the trustees of Xenia township and discussed the school proposition. The only notation of this meeting now extant says that, "All that territory adjacent to the town of Xenia, which formerly belonged to school districts Nos. 11, 12, 13 and 14 was attached to the school district formed by the corporation 0f Xenia."

There seems to be no question that since 1838 the corporation of Xenia has maintained its schools separate and apart from those of the township in which it is located. The first division made in the fall of 1838 is not on record, but the divisions for the school year, 1839-4o, as established by the board on November 16, 1839, were as follow : "The northeast district shall hereafter be known as sub-district, No. i ; the southeast district shall hereafter be known as sub-district, No. 2 ; the southwest district shall hereafter be known as sub-district, No. 3; the northwest district shall hereafter be known as sub-district, No. 4." This division was made for the purpose of complying

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with the law and thereby putting the town in a position to receive its small share of the school funds. The school board in 1839 was composed of John Alexander, chairman; David Monroe, treasurer ; James Gowdy, secretary.

Official records for this period, 1838-1848, are very meager. It is noted that the board organized on October 6, 1840, was appointed by the township clerk. The Legislature passed an act, March 7, 1842, which provided for four school directors. Pursuant to this act the following directors were elected on September 16, 1842: William Y. Banks, H. G. Beatty, Samuel Crumbaugh and James C. McMillen. The Legislature amended the act of 1842 with the act of March 11, 1843, and in accordance with the amended act a second election was held on September 15, 1843, at which the following directors were chosen : John Alexander, chairman, elected for three years ; David Monroe, treasurer, elected for one year ; Samuel Hutchinson, elected for two years ; Joshua Wright, elected for one year. There were no changes made by the Legislature between 1843 and the time of the adoption of the new constitution in 1851.

CITY SUPERINTENDENTS.

It was in 1848, seventy years ago, that Xenia may be said to have started its present system of having a superintendent in charge of its schools. The contract for a new building for the city of Xenia provided for by the election of September 20, 1847, was let on March 11, 1848. This building stood on the site of the present Central building and was completed some time before the close of the year; at least, the record shows that the board of education on January 1, 1849, elected the first superintendent of the public schools of Xenia. This first head of the city schools was Josiah Hurty and he continued in charge of the schools until the close of the school year, July 11, 1851. During the two years and a half that he was in charge he placed the schools on a more or less graded basis, all the work, so it appears, being confined to the common school branches.

The second superintendent was D. W. Gilfillan, appointed August 16, 1851, but he was succeeded at the close of the first year by James P. Smart, who was appointed by the board on July 7, 1852. Smart was a preacher and was the best of the men who had held the position up to this time. His resignation on July 21, 1855, was very much regretted by the citizens of the city. On the day his resignation was accepted, the board of education appointed P. H. Jaquith to fill the vacancy, and he remained with the schools until the close of the school year in 1857.

J. E. Twitchell took up the burden in September, 1857, and managed the schools with marked success for the following four years. He resigned on June 25, 1861, and left behind him the best record of any of the men

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who had thus far filled the superintendency. The first graduates of the high school appeared in the spring of 1859 : Matthew Allison, Etta Fahnestock (Mrs. John Black) and Mary Heaton. It appears that the high school course was first definitely organized under Jaquith in 1855, but Twitchell greatly strengthened the course and put it on a firm basis.

George S. Ormsby, who was appointed on August 10, 1861, to succeed Twitchell, filled the office very acceptably for a period of eighteen years. He was followed in 1879 by George W. Welch for a period of three years, being replaced in 1882 by Edwin B. Cox, who served until his death on January 22, 1912, after which the board of education elevated George J. Graham to the superintendency. Mr. Graham had been principal of the high school since September, 1886, his connection with the schools of the city being longer than any other man who has ever been in the schools. Mr. Graham remained at the head of the school until the close of the school year of 1915-16, when he resigned to enter the business field. When he became superintendent in January, 1912, Jessa J. Pearson was elected principal and continued in this capacity until September, 1917, when Marion R. Simpson became principal.

Upon the resignation of George J. Graham in the summer of 1916, the board of education elected John R. Patterson to the superintendency. His work during the first year was so eminently satisfactory that at the close of his first term he was elected for a five-year period. Mr. Patterson is one of the ablest educators of the state and is rapidly bringing the schools of the city to the front. His comprehensive grasp of modern school problems is already evidencing itself and if he is given the proper support by the board of education and citizens of the city, there is not a doubt that he wilt soon have the schools of the city where they will command the attention of the entire state.

JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS OF CITY.

The departmental system of instruction in the Xenia schools was started in September, 1917, by Superintendent Patterson. In the McKinley building the seventh and eighth grades are now organized as a junior high school, and in the Lincoln building the sixth, seventh and eighth grades are so organized. At first there were many patrons of the schools who were not certain that the method was for the best interest of the children, but the results of the first year have onvinced the most skeptical that the new departure is going to make or better instruction. In practically all of the cities of this size in the state this system is already in use, while in many states the system has been in successful operation for years. Educators are unanimous in declaring th the departmental system of teaching in the upper grades of the common school is proactive of the best results. For years parents have been saying that the schools are not practical enough, that there was too much theoretic teaching that children were not given the training which they

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ought to have. The idea in the junior high-school system is to remedy this fault and make the schools prepare pupils for their future work. It is well known that only a small part of the children ever complete the high school course, and for this reason it is the effort of the modern school system to do as much for children in the grades as possible. The old idea in education was to make every one a scholar, a thing which it is manifestly impossible to do. The great majority, of the pupils of every school in the country intend to make their living with their hands and for this reason the schools of today are training the hand as well as the brain.

Courses in the industrial arts have been developed for use in schools ; manual training in a wide variety of forms is being given to both boys and girls; home economics for girls' and shop work and agriculture for boys are now taught in the best schools all over the country. In our best schools the girl leaves the eighth grade with the ability to cook as well as her mother, to cut out and sew garments of all kinds, to trim hats, to hang pictures on the wall and do it with a proper regard for artistic effect. In other words, she is given such training that when she leaves school she has had a practical schooling that means something to her in her future life. The same practical education is being given to the boy, not home economics, but such general training in the use of the hand that he can go out into the world and actually make use of the schooling which he has had. Just in so far as the school can prepare its boys and girls for stepping out into the world ready to make their own living, just so far has the school been a real benefit to them. And it is for this very reason that the junior high-school. idea is the right thing; right because it seeks to fit boys and girls to make useful citizens of themselves. Xenia is to be congratulated because it has installed this method of instruction, and each succeeding year will convince the patrons of the schools of the benefits to be derived from it.

SCHOOL BUILDINGS.

The city of Xenia now has six school buildings, while the Catholic church also has a large school building. The oldest building in the city is the East Main street building, now used as the colored high school. The Central building, usually referred to as the high school building, was erected in 1881, while all the other buildings have been erected since that year. The finest school building is the McKinley building on West Church street, which stands on the site of one of the former cemeteries of the city.

TEACHERS.

There are now a total of sixty regular teachers employed in the city schools, divided among the several buildings as follow : Central, 17 ; East Main, 5; Lincoln, 11 ; Spring Hill, 8 ; McKinley, 17; Orient Hill, 2. The

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high school for the white pupils is located in the Central building, and the faculty now consists of: twelve teachers : M. R. Simpson, principal and social, science ; Jean B. Elwell, English ; Fannie K. Haynes, Latin and history; Katherine Schweibold, mathematics ; W. H. Wilson, commercial branches; Janet M. McBane, French and Spanish ; Alice A. Coffin, Latin and history; Alfred Rader, industrial arts ; Dorothy Armstrong, mathematics ; H. Emily Neighbor, home economics; Charles H. Parrett, assistant principal, science and athletics.

The East Main street building is the colored high school of the city, and its five teachers are as follow : B. F. Lee, principal and science ; Lucretia Willis, English; Helen W. Ferguson, social science and modern languages; Ruby A. Martin, Latin and mathematics; Gladys Burton, home economics; Arthur Taylor, principal of the Lincoln school, has charge of the instruction in industrial arts.

This McKinley building, the largest in the city, has seventeen teachers. In this building, as in the Lincoln building, there has been installed what is commonly known as departmental instruction, the local schools using the term "junior high school" to describe this method of instruction. This method means that each teacher has charge of only one branch of study ; that is, that one teacher has all the mathematics; another all the geo,graphy, and others the other subjects of the common-school curriculum. All the seventh- and eighth-grade pupils of the city come under this method of instruction, while in the Lincoln building the sixth grade also comes under the departmental system of instruction. All the boys of the junior school get five hours each week of mechanical drawing and shop work, the girls having the same number of hours per week in home economics. The teachers in the junior high school of the McKinley building are B. C. Donahoo, principal and science ; May M. Harper, assistant principal and history ; Mrs. Frank H. Dean, mathematics ; Mae Stevenson, English ; Ruth E. Barnes, literature; Clara Martin, geography and special coaching; Mrs. Leroy Wolfe, home economics ; Louise Wolfe, home economics ; Austin J. Black, industrial arts.

The grade teachers in the McKinley building are Clara McCarty, principal and sixth grade; Fay Cavanaugh, fifth grade ; Ella Ambuhl, fourth grade ; Mrs. Florence McKeever, third and fourth grades ; Ruth Jackson, third grade; Edith M. Neeld, second grade ; Edith Marshall, first and second grades ; Anna B. Morrow, first grade.

The grade teachers in the Central building are Edna Bloom, principal and sixth grade; Katherine Harned, fifth. grade; Gertrude Heeg, third and fourth grade; Pauline Smith, second grade; Ella R. Hudson, first grade.

The grade teachers in the Spring Hill building are : Eleanor Tresslar, sixth grade; Opal Barnes, fifth and sixth grades; Mary H. Hopkins, fifth

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grade; Harriett Sears ; fourth grade ; Mary Gretsinger, principal and third grade ; Henrietta Evers, second grade; Winifred Savage, first grade ; Laura A. Loyd, special coaching.

There are only two teachers in the Orient Hill building, Mamie E. Barrows, principal and third and fourth grades; Mary Evers, first and second grades.

The Lincoln building is devoted exclusively to the colored children. It has the departmental system of instruction for the sixth, seventh and eighth grades, the teachers of the junior high school being Arthur Taylor, principal and industrial arts ; Beulah Underwood, mathematics and geography ; Rilda E. Phelps, history and English ; Elizabeth Hampton, English ; Margaret Watkins, assistant and sewing; Virginia Thomas, spelling. The department of home economics is in charge of Gladys Burton of the East Main high school. The Lincoln grade teachers are May Summers, fifth grade; Nellie Nichola Ellis, fourth grade ; Bertha H. Booth, third grade ; Minnie P. Maxwell, second grade; Lucretia Jones, first grade.

Harriet M. McCarty is supervisor of music for all the schools of the city.

ENUMERATION AND ENROL1NENT IN CITY SCHOOLS.

The enumeration taken May, 1917, shows the children (unmarried) between the ages of six and twenty-one. No record is made of those between these ages who are married. The enumeration follows : Between ages of 6 and 8, 554; between 8 and 14, 1,054; between 14 and 16, 322 ; between 16 and 21, 575; total, 2,508. Of this total there were 1,279 males and 1,229 females.

The September, 1917, enrollment was 1,729, of which number 1,355 were white and 374 were colored. The Central high school had 298 pupils enrolled in September, 1917, while the East Main high school (colored) had 76 pupils. It should be added that the Catholic parochial school enrolled 130 pupils.

BUSINESS MANAGER OF CITY SCHOOLS.

In the spring of 1918 a new official was created in the public school system of the city, his title being that of business manager. He performs the duties heretofore in the hands of the clerk and treasurer of the board of education, and also those of the truant officer. He is also treasurer of the sinking fund of the school city. He buys all the supplies used by the schools, keeps charge of them and has general charge of their distribution. The first official in the new office was John R. Beacham, who took his office on March 5, 1918.

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