USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume I > Part 44
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83
The first statistics on sheep in 1840 show that there were more in the
424
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
county then than there are at the present time-29,529 in 1840 as opposed to 13,655 in 1916. By 1850 the number had increased to 47,898, with a reported wool clip of 112,063 pounds. The wool clip in 1840 had been 54,312 pounds with a value of $13,000. In 1916 the county produced 25,291 pounds of wool. The high tide of the sheep industry was in 1876, and since then it has shown a steady decrease. Of course, there is a reason for this sharp decline in the number raised. It is not the cholera, for the sheep is not sub- ject to it, nor to any other sort of an epidemic. The increase in the value of land is one contributing cause; it is not as profitable to raise sheep on one-hundred-and-fifty-dollar-an-acre land as it is on fifty-dollar land. Another factor is the sheep-killing dog, hundreds of sheep being lost from this cause every year. Nor must the tariff be excused from all blame in the matter, since there can be no question that the placing of wool on the free list a few years ago was followed by a sharp decrease in the number of sheep raised in this country.
The Merino was the first sheep brought into the county and for many years was the only breed. It has already been noted that there was an early effort to improve the breed of sheep. A record in the county commissioners' minutes under date of March 2, 1830, notes that: "It was then resolved by the commissioners of Greene county that the act to improve the breed of sheep passed January 13, 1829, be adopted and in force in said county."
It is not known what the commissioners did relative to putting the act in force, but it is significant that they were interested in the matter. Later the Delaine Merinos and Rambouillets were introduced. Still later came the various breeds which are found in the county today.
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 manner 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 discus- sion of the Xenia city schools. Prior to taking up the discussion of the sep- arate 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 su- perintendent 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 super- intendents being as follows: Bath and Beavercreek townships and Beaver
-
426
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
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 Cæsarscreek 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 thir- teen 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 :
Graduates of college or university Undergraduates of college or university Graduates of four-year normal courses Graduates of two-year normal courses Undergraduates of normal schools Graduates of normal training classes Undergraduates of normal training classes Graduates of high schools
47
I2
64
I5
3I
9
I6
6
4
4
II7
II2
6
7
7
4
15
24
Teachers with two-year license Teachers with one-year license
1
I
I
1
I
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
I
1
I
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
I
I
1
I
I
1
1
1
I
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
I
1
1
1
1
İ
1
I
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
I
I
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
!
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Completed three years of high school Completed two years of high school Completed one year of high school Common school education only
Teachers with state life license Teachers with professional license Teachers with provisional license Teachers with three-year license
H
1
1
I
1
1
A
I
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
427
MISCELLANEOUS SCHOOL DATA.
Number of rural districts in county
13
Number of village districts in county 4
Number of exempted village districts in county 0 I 1 1
Number of city districts in county (Xenia) 1
1 1
1
Number of supervising districts in county 1 1
4
Number of districts wholly centralized
1
I
Number of districts partly centralized 1 1 1
I
Number of districts with no centralization
14
Number of school buildings in county
96
Number of school rooms used in county I66
Number of buildings erected in year ending June, '17_ 3
Number of children enrolled in grades 3,597
Number of children enrolled in high school 609
Number of eighth grade graduates 268
Number of high school graduates 1
II2
Number of grade teachers 1 1
I 1 138
Number of high school teachers 1
35
Number special drawing teachers 1 1
I
Number special music teachers
I6
Number special home economics teachers
1
1
1
1 1
4
Number of first grade high schools 1 1
9
Number of second grade high schools
3
Number of first grade rural schools
4
Number of second grade rural schools
77
Number of first grade consolidated schools 1
3
SUMMARY BY TOWNSHIPS AND TOWNS.
Com. Sc. Bldgs.
H. S. Bldgs.
C. S. Rooms
H. S. Rooms
Grades
High School
Bath
II
I
I2
3
. 320
38
Beavercreek
13
I
14
5
441
59
Cæsarscreek
6
I
6
3
I73
23
Cedarville
3
0
II
3
304
63
Jefferson
I
O
6
3
267
36
Miami
4
O
4
0
93
0
New Jasper
8
O
8
O
210
0
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
I
1
I
1
1
1
1
1
i
I
1
1
1 1
1
1 1
1
1
I
1
I
1
1
1 I
1
1 1
Number of special manual training teachers
I
1
1
I
1
1 I
I
I
1
I
I
1 1
1
1 1
I
1
1 1
1
1
1
1 I I
I
I
1
1 1
1 1 1 1
1
1 1 I
1
1 1 I
I 1 1
1
1 1 1
1
1
1
1
1 1
I
1 I
1 1
2
1 1
I
I
1
428
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
Ross
I
O
4
O
I56
26
Silvercreek
7
O
7
O
176
O
Spring Valley
IO
0
13
3
30I
43
Sugarcreek
8
O
9
3
262
49
Xenia
13
O
I5
O
390
0
Clifton village
I
O
3
2
84
18
Jamestown village
2
O
6
3
204
87
Osborn village
I
O
4
3
I54
61
Yellow Springs village
2
O
6
4
234
96
Beaver special
I
O
I
0
28
0
93
3
129
37
3,597
609
96
I66
Total value of school houses
$357,000
Total value of school land
45,925
Total value of school furniture
22,075
Total value of apparatus
8,545
Total value of libraries
6,955
Total
$440,500
1
I
I
1
1
1
1
1
I
1
1
1
1
1
1 1
1
1
1
1
I
I
1
I
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
I
1
1
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 fol- lowing : 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 seven- teen 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.
1 I I 1 1 1 1
1
I
1
I
1
1
1
1 1
429
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
B. Bryson, J. B. Rife, O. P. Mitman and J. E. Hastings. The county super- intendent 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 ques- tions 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 organ- ized school districts. The agitation was carried on throughout 1820, 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 num- ber, as the township grew in population, increased to thirteen districts. By the latter part of the 'zos there were nine hundred school children within the township. At that time Osborn had a four-room building, and the vil- lage 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 town- ship, 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 sys- tem, 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
430
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
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 ser- vices 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 representa- tive 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 town- ship 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
.
43I
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
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 enroll- ment 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 Cæsarscreek 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 Caesars- creek 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 south- west 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 town- ship. 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 struc- ture, also of logs, stood along Massies creek. It had a puncheon floor, while
432
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
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 could build a school house and start teach- ing 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 II, 1806, and died at Jamestown on August 11, 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 thou- sands 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 1848, 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 II, 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
433
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
-
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 Cedar; ville, 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 Febru- ary, 1917, and represents all of the latest improvements in school architec- ture. 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)
434
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
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.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.