262 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY
CHAPTER XVI
EDUCATION
Lack of Educational Facilities in Early Days—The Old Log Schoolhouse —Introduction of Graded Schools—The Schools of Sidney and Shelby County—Superintendents and Teachers—The New High School.
SCHOOLS
While the pioneers had a high appreciation of the value and necessity of the education of their children it is amazing how crude were their ideas of the essentials in the furtherance of it. With forests that were an encumbrance all around, they erected small, squatty school houses out of the logs, crowding the pupils together on inconvenient and excruciating seats, paying no regard to their comfort.
With land cheap and boundless in extent no yard which ought to have consisted of an acre or more furnished a play ground for the children, but the house was set as close to the highway as possible with a stake and ridered fence high and strong enough for a bull pen or a buffalo corral.
The fact is the fathers and mothers did not stop to think that conveniences and beauty played any part in the right development of the mental and physical man, and it is only in later years that parents have struck the right track.
Public schools paid for by taxation were not known and teachers were remunerated by subscription and the fathers of large families kept up the schools while childless homes took no part in defraying the expenses. Large families were looked upon as blessings and were in the sparsely settled country but the burden of their educational support rested upon the comparatively poor and when a fund for the purpose was proposed it was largely antagonized by men of property. Happily things have changed and the children of the poor are educated without money and without price in buildings commodious and beautiful.
Prior to the 2d day of January, 1857, all the schools of Sidney were taught in private houses or churches in different parts of the town, except one that was taught in a log house erected on the school lot given by the proprietor of the town (Mr. Sterrett). They were supported by private subscription, with the exception of a small fund from the state and a fund arising from the rent of a farm donated to the Sidney schools by Wm. Covill in 1843. There was no system of graded schools until after the erection of the present Union school building in 1856. In 1855 the board of education of the school district
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determined to take steps toward the erection of a Union school building. Accordingly it was ordered that the clerk of the board should give the requisite notice to the voters of Sidney and the territory thereto annexed for school purposes, to assemble at the courthouse and vote upon a proposition to levy a tax of $12,000, payable in three annual installments, commencing in 1856, and to issue corporation bonds therefor, bearing seven per cent. interest, for the purpose of building a schoolhouse in said village and buying the necessary grounds upon which to erect it. It was also stipulated in the notice through the public prints that if the school tax should carry, the qualified voters of the district should have the right of voting on the location of the school building. Accordingly, as per notice, a vote was taken on the 3oth day of April, 1855; the result of the vote was 134 in favor of school tax and 79 against. There was a great strife in the selection of the site. A number of propositions were made by different persons in different parts of the town, and it was some length of time before a site was selected ; finally, lot No. 106 and the west half of lot 105 were selected and purchased from Birch & Peebles at a cost of about $2,100. The east half of lot 105 had been given to the town by its proprietor for school purposes. Upon these lots a brick building, 90x64 feet and three stories high (beside basement) was erected at a cost of about $18,000. The building was not ready for occupancy until the 1st of January, 1857. At the completon of the building only eight rooms ( four in the first and four in the second story) were fitted for schoolrooms ; the third story was used as a hall for several years. As soon as necessity demanded, the third story was divided into four rooms, making in all twelve rooms. In the year 1828 Wm. Covill came from England to the United States, and for a few years stopped in the state of New York, but prior to 1840 he came to Shelby County, 0., and bought the northeast quarter of section 26, in Clinton township. Some time prior to his death (which occurred in July, 1843), he bequeathed to the common schools of the town of Sidney this piece of land, which the board of education accepted, and gave a lease of the same for ninety-nine years. The fund arising from the lease of said land has, since that time, been used in the maintenance of the schools in the town of Sidney.
In the fall of 1860 Gideon Wright (an early settler of Shelby county) gave to the Sidney school district (by verbal will) $500, with the expressed desire that the principal should be safely invested, and the interest arising from the same should be used by said district for tuition purposes. The condition of said donation was, that the schools were to grant to the descendants of said Wright one perpetual scholarship in the Union schools of said district. This donation was accepted, and the clerk was ordered to issue a certificate of scholarship in favor of the heirs of Gideon Wright. The above $500 were invested in United States bond No. 9427, bearing six per cent. interest.
The first superintendent employed in the schools was Joseph Shaw of Bellefontaine, Ohio, at a salary of $800 a year. The schools were opened on the second day of January, 1857, with J. S. Driscoll at the head of the Mathematical department, Miss Harriet Chapin, teacher of sixth room, Miss Louisa Knox of the fifth, Miss Mary Nettleton, fourth, Miss Charlotte Swan, third,
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Miss Martha Crowell, second, and Miss Arnett, primary. Although no room had been set aside especially for high school work yet a course had been arranged at the commencement of school and the records give the names of Jennie K. Cummins and John B. McPherson, now United States district judge at Philadelphia, as having completed the curriculum of study but either from a scarcity of funds or lack of interest no diplomas were issued.
Superintendent Shaw was succeeded by Ira W. Allen and he in turn by W. H. Schuyler. Then in succession came Benjamin S. McFarland, S. S. Taylor, N. S. Hanson, W. C. Catlin, J. M. Allen, J. D. Critchfield, A. S. Moore, J. C. Harper, George Turner, R. E. Page, A. B. Cole, Van B. Baker, J. N. Barns, P. W. Search, M. A. Yarnell, E. C. Cox, M. E Hard and the present superintendent, H. R. McVay, who took the management of the Sidney schools in September, 1902, and has had the longest term of service in their history. Mr. McVay was born April 14, 1865, on a farm in Athens county, and graduated from the Ohio University at Athens in 189o.
The schools of Sidney have never taken backward steps ; they are therefore today in better condition than ever before. The common schools have grown to exceed the wildest guess of those in charge but a few years ago. At the present time there are more than 1,200 pupils enrolled in the various buildings with an attendance which will reach 250 in the high school this year of 1912, showing an increase of more than a hundred per cent in the last ten years. There are 4o teachers employed, to making the high school faculty. Mr. McVay has a most efficient assistant in Lee A. Dollinger, principal of the high school now entering on his seventh year in that capacity. Genial and sympathetic he is a boy with the boys but always maintains his dignity and has the respect and love of his pupils.
Besides the building described above which is known as the Central school now we have the first, second, third and fourth ward schools, all taxed to the extent of their capacity.
In 1904 the high school was removed from the Central building to the fourth ward school as a precautionary measure on account of the unsafe condition of its upper story which was condemned by the state department.
In 1911 the city council recognizing the need of a new high school building gave to the board of education the title to the grounds a little less than two acres, of the old Presbyterian graveyard long since abandoned, just east of the church of that denomination. The consideration was $1,500 and all expenses incurred in exhuming of the bodies. This ground was donated to the town of Sidney by Charles Sterrett, September 24, 1819, in a proposition which he made to the commissioners of Shelby county in which he gave 7o acres of land to the county, the consideration being that the seat of justice be moved from Hardin to Sidney and that he be given one-half the proceeds of the sales of the lots after the said county laid them off and sold them—a good business proposition considering the fact that the land had been worth about $8.00 an acre. In a reservation made December 14, 1819, one acre each was set apart for two different religious societies for graveyards.
At the regular election Tuesday, November 7, 1911, the voters of Sidney,
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after a vigorous campaign, conducted by Superintendent McVay with the help of the teachers and pupils voted to issue bonds to the extent of $100,000 for the purpose of erecting a new high school building on lot 113, better known as the old Presbyterian graveyard. Sidney's school property now is listed at $74,000; after June, 1913, when the new high school is to be completed, it will probably be valued at more than $200,000.
The architect selected for the work is Frank L. Packard, of Columbus, with H. L. Loudenback, of Sidney, as superintendent of construction. The style affected is a modified type of English Gothic enabling the free use of large window areas, straightforward architecturally, representing and expressing from the outside the purpose of the interior. There are two openings to the south and two to the north, at the extreme ends of the stair corridors which are 14 feet wide, extending through the building from south to north. The main facade of building has a frontage of 166 feet and will face south. The east and west pavilions will be 104 feet over all and 44 feet wide. The extreme depth north and south will be 170 feet.
The plans as proposed make provision for the following rooms with their minor sub-divisions : two study halls with total provision for 400 students ; seven recitation rooms ; a large room for mathematics ; commercial department; domestic science department and manual training department ; offices for the board of education, superintendent and principal ; laboratories for chemistry and physics with lecture room between laboratories for biology, botany and agriculture, a gymnasium with locker rooms and shower baths ; retiring room for men and women teachers ; toilet facilities and coat rooms ; an assembly hall seating B00 inclusive of the balcony; drinking fountains, electric clocks and everything that is pertinent to education.
The materials contemplated for the exterior of the buildings are Egyptian tapestry brick set in dark mortar with stone copings, sills, water tabbs, approaches, etc
The floors throughout will be reinforced concrete or tile arch construction, the finished floors of hard wood, the stairways of iron or reinforced concrete. The heating and ventilating apparatus installed to be of an approved mechanical system, guaranteeing 40 cubic feet of fresh air per pupil per minute, and to be operated by automatic regulation. The high school building is being made as attractive as possible to compete with the attractions offered in a business way to the young people for boys and girls have no trouble in getting employment in the factories and the temptation is great to stop school.
The character of the teachers employed in these schools is better with each succeeding year. All of the later additions have been recruited from the Normal schools. These bring with them the latest ideas which soon permeate the whole school, it being frequently found that the older teachers can make better use of these than can those who introduce them. All are required by regular and systematic reading of the newest and best things in school literature and by attendance at state and county teachers' meetings to keep up-to- date and to meet the ever growing requirements of an increasingly intelligent citizenship.
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The broader meaning of the value of school property is being recognized and school property in out of school hours is being devoted to the public good. Mr. McVay has done much in furthering things that are useful in socializing the children and their parents in the community.
That the work of the school is done according to generally accepted standards is proved by the fact that it is ranked by the state commissioner of common schools as of the first grade, that the school holds membership in the Northwestern Association of College and Secondary schools and that the colleges of Ohio accept its graduates without examination.
TOWNSHIP SCHOOL STATISTICS
Clinton township : Number of schoolhouses, 5; teachers, 5; enrollment, 150; total tax levy for 1912, $0.002; local taxes for school purposes, $2,784.88; received from state common school fund, $382.00; received from other state funds, $153.01 ; total receipts, $3,319.98; total expenditure, $3,136.45; valuation of school property, $4,000.00.
Cynthian township: Number of schoolhouses, 2; teachers, 3; enrollment, 81; total tax levy for 1912, $0.0038; received from state common school fund, $146.00; local taxes for school purposes, $635.00; received from other funds $23.83; total receipts, $891.88; total expenditure, $934.19; total value of school property, $1,800.00.
Dinsmore township : Schoolhouses, 7; teachers, 7; enrollment, 180; total tax levy for school purpose in 1912, $o.0028; local taxes for school purposes, $3,687.80; received from state common school fund, $428.00; received from other funds, $191.02; total receipts, $4,472.14; total expenditure, $3,904.95; total valuation of school property, $12,000.
Franklin township: Number of schoolhouses, 8; teachers, 8; total enrollment, 167; total tax levy, $0.0024; local taxes for school purposes, $4,777.32; received from state common school fund, $442.00; received from other funds, $113.77; total receipts, $5,379.32; total expenditure, $4,555.33; total value of school property, $27,500.00.
Green township; Number of schools, 5; number of teachers, 5; total enrollment, 183; total tax levy for 1912, $0.002; local taxes for school purposes, $4,094.65; received from state common school fund, $528.00; received from other funds, $279.18; total receipts, S5,204.60; total expenditures, $4,993.93; total value of school property, $9,700.00.
Jackson township : Number of schools, 9; number of teachers, 9; total enrollment, 235 ; local taxes for school purposes, $1,491.00; received from state common school fund, $676.00; total tax levy, $0.001 ; total receipts, $2,516.77; total expenditures $4,987.26; total valuation of school property, $12,000.
Orange township : Number of schoolhouses, 6; number of teachers, 6; total enrollment, 165; total tax levy for ,1912, $0.002; local taxes for school. purposes, $2,681.77 ; received from state common school fund, $362.00; received from other funds, $135.85; total receipts, $3,701.88; total expenditures, $4,763.29.
PICTURES: HIGH SCHOOL, SIDNEY, O.; CENTRAL SCHOOL BUILDING, SIDNEY, O.; THIRD WARD SCHOOL, SIDNEY, O.; CATHOLIC SCHOOL AND CHURCH, SIDNEY, O.
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CITY, VILLAGE AND SPECIAL DISTRICTS VALUATION
NOT SHOWN
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Perry township: Number of schoolhouses, 7; teachers, 8; total enrollment, z00; total tax levy for 1912, $0.0028; local taxes for school purposes, $6,380.36; received from state common school fund, $450.00; received from other funds, $178.95; total receipts, $7,279.02; total expenditures, $5,471.48,
Salem township: Number of schoolhouses, 7; teachers, 7; total enrollment, 112 ; total tax levy for 1912, $0.0021; local taxes for school purposes, $2,476.75; received from state common school fund, $384.00; received from other state funds, $82.69; total receipts, $3,126.31; total expenditures, $4,006.91.
Turtle Creek township : Number of schoolhouses, 7; number of teachers 7; total enrollment, 161; total tax levy for 1912, $0.003; local taxes for school purposes, $3,360.72; received from state common school fund, $380.00; received from other state funds, $64.53; total receipts, $3,862.45; total expenditures, $3,750.27.
Van Buren township. Number of schoolhouses, 10; number of teachers, 10; total enrollment, 495; total tax levy for 1912, $0.0017; local taxes for school purposes, $4,075.44; received from state common school fund, $996.00; received from other state funds, $373.96; total receipts, $5,481.10; total expenditures, $5,054.67; total value of school property, $15,000.00.
Washington township. Number of schoolhouses, 6; number of teachers, 6; total enrollment, 118 ; tax levy for 1912, $0.0016; local taxes for school purposes, $1,741.78; received from state common school fund, $312.00; received from other state funds, $415.79; total receipts, $2,562.85; total expenditures, $3,379.32; total value of school property, $7,200.00.
Superintendents or principals of schools in Shelby county: H. R. McVay, Sidney; A. A. Hoover, Anna; W. C. King, Botkins; W. G. Polan, Jackson Center; O. L. Simmons, Houston; Mary L. Patton, Lockington.