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Owensville
Historical Society P.O. Box 743 Owensville, Ohio 45160 Preserving Our History for Our Future |
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Our School The concept of the local school district took form before County, State or Federal levels of organization became involved in education. Social growth on the local level helped to make the one-room independent school house obsolete. From the start of schools in Ohio, a form of consolidation has always been in progress. In 1879, Clermont County had 158 buildings in use. By 1900, the number had reduced to 129. By 1920, the number was 113, and from 1920 to 1935, 66 more buildings had been closed. Continued improvements in transportation encouraged mergers and speeded it up. Anything big or new was called innovative and considered good. It went forward with breakneck speed, each High School trying to out-grab the other one. After 25 years of bigness, many social and other educational problems have made some in the profession stop and wonder; until some of them are saying that it may have all become too large. According to Rocky & Bancroft, the first school built in Stonelick Township was a long structure near the east door of the floral hall on the Boston Fair Grounds. It was built in 1805 and was 15 by 20. The fireplace took the whole east end, and windows ran along the sides made by removing logs and covering with oiled paper. The first teacher was a man named Edmunds. Other buildings such as this came and went fast. The first brick was built in 1931. One called the " Old Stone Pile" was built in 1830. Would like to know more of it. Early names in education included such as: Shields, Roudebush, Patchell, Miller, Shulte, Muchmore, Marsh, McGee, Graver, Rapp, Hill, Williams, Carr, Hathaway, Harrison, Combs, Cook, etc. Be they teachers, School Boards, land-donors, district principles or what, all were interested in education and ancestors of some of us.
Location of outlying schools that made up Owensville High School:
Other
links to below Madeline (Benton) Houser The first school was a log building located on Main Street which later became John Rapp's Store. A High School was first placed in the Temperance Hall on Short Street (Alley). It became the home of Mayme Ulrey. The first large building erected for a school was built in 1893 on East Main Street. This side of town was called Texas. When it closed in 1924, after children all were moved to the new building on South Broadway, the land was bought by Dr. Allen Rapp. The building was torn down and a lovely residence built there. The first class to be graduated from the new building was in 1924. In the teens and early 20's, the 6 lower grades were housed in various and sundry buildings around town. The Odd Fellows Hall, over the Post Office, Jail, (now Fire House), U.B. Church (Dale McKay's garage), Rapp's Store at the corner of Alley, to name a few. Playgrounds, sanitary facilities, and drinking water were limited but adequate (?) In 1953, consolidation of Clermont Northeastern was completed, the High School moved into a large, new building on Hutchinson Road & Route 50 about 1 mile east of Owensville, and this signaled the death of Owensville High School. Hail and Farewell! Nora Graver This was a one-room building located on Galley Hill Road in Stonelick Township. My dad started at Galley and went through the eight grades. That would have been in the 1870's. I remember stories that he told about it. I have listed the names of some of the teachers down through the years with the date if I knew it: Grace Snider, 1902; Conrad Wessel; Ester Hill; Bertha Graver; Mabel Barrow, 1910, Ruth White, Bernice Meek, Zola Tucker, and Galen Swartz. Gladys Clemments drove her buggy and horse when she taught there, leaving her sister, Irene, at Mt. Zion. Elsie Davis walked from Stonelick. Nora Graver This school is named for the road it is built on, and about 1/2 mile south of Apgar Road. Following is a list of teachers who taught in the school: Frank Patterson, Frank Duchman, Mary Marsh, Theresa Brinker, Irene Clemments, Marcella Brinker, Marcella Eimer, Charles Brown, Evelyn Devine, Carl Anstaett, Mayme Ulrey, ? Jones [John Walter Jones], and Irene Galliger. Irene was the last one to teach there. When the building was closed, the children were hauled. William Duchemin and Eunice Duchemin Leach Ground to build the Hartman School was given by a scholarly family named Hartman who desired education for the community. It is situated at the corner of Bucktown Road and Highway U.S. 50. There is also a Hartman Cemetery, not visible from the road, but lying east of the school and entered by a private drive. In spring when the wild flowers were in bloom, we would take walks through it. The school was later made a part of Marathon and at last became a part of Northeastern. A small building previously used as an election poling place, and a barn were located across the road. The barn housed the Township Road Equipment. On rainy days and in winter, when it was empty, the children could play in it. We would play church. We sang, prayed, preached and baptized. The choir did an outstanding job also. One time four kids fell through the ice while skating on Pleasant Run. Their clothes froze on them before they could get back to the school house. That was the morning that the county Superintendent made his visit. He found four kids with red faces and in their steaming long underwear, sitting around a pot-bellied stove, as well as an embarrassed teacher. Then there was the baseball game when Monterey came to Hartman, and Hartman won. Monterey then practiced real hard for a revenge in the spring. The last of the ninth inning, score tied, Hartman pitcher turned to speak to the umpire who was from Monterey, and the winning run came across home plate for Monterey. Precious are the memories of the games we played. Who didn't have fun playing Fox & Geese, Tag, Bones, or Dare Base? There was always a coal shed for Ante-Over. Some of the teachers that we remember who taught at Hartman were: Lloyd Harlow, Evelyn Devine, Golda Hutchinson, Jenny Snell, Marie Meek. Greta Thirey, Van Knight, Louise Curlis, Everett Hauck, only to name a few. Mary Caldwell and Dorothy Fomorin Greenberry School named for Reverend Greenberry, Minister of Methodist Church there. It was built in the early 1900's. Marathon closed two small schools and built a new school for eight grades in the early 1930's. It was later consolidated with Clermont Northeastern. Modest School was know as No. 1. The school was built around the 1870's. Frank Hoggatt taught there. He later became County Superintendent of Clermont County Schools. Newtonsville School was built in the early 1900's. It later expanded to several rooms and is now consolidated with Northeastern. It is the only outlying building that is still used in that district. All of the kindergarteners go there. •* Stonelick District #1, Mt. Zion was called McGu? Helen Sutton The brick school house that still stands in Marathon was erected in 1891. Jackson Township was formed in 1834 from parts of Wayne, Williamsburg, and Stonelick Townships. The first school was built then in 1847, from land secured from John Ferguson, and built at a cost of $457.00. John Chapman was the first teacher at a salary of $1.25 per day. (See Rocky & Bancroft History of Ohio). There were two buildings at one time here. The other house grades 1 to 4. It burned in October of 1931. The children finished that year of school in the Jones Store Building on Rt. 50. Marathon boasted a High School until 1911. After it closed, those wishing to attend a High School rode the traction line to Milford, attended Owensville, or went to Williamsburg. About 1930, school bus transportation was provided by the School Board for the first time and the students had an option of Owensville or Williamsburg. In 1932, a new building was erected in Marathon for all eight grades. It was remodeled in 1950, and closed in 1967, when it was consolidated in the Northeastern District. The building was torn down during the 1970's. Lee Bushelman owns the lone or should we say, lonesome one landmark left, and it is used as a storage building. Louetta Thirey Edman The Monterey School was built in the year 1903 and located in Monterey, Ohio, south of Route 50 on Monterey-Maple Grove Road in Jackson Township. This building housed the Elementary children of the area, and most of them chose Owensville for their High School. In 1940, the district consolidated with Stonelick and others to form a big new one called Clermont Northeastern, when our building was then closed. The building was later sold and made into a residence. It is still occupied. As the years passed, the population grew which increased the attendance in the school. In order to give the students more opportunity for a better education, the Jackson Township School Board made the decision to consolidate. Three of the teachers who taught here in the teens or early twenties were: Alma Hunter Glancy, Emma Schultz West, and Jennie Snell Balzhiser. MBH These two names have appeared in our research. McGee with Modest and McGu with Mt. Zion. Could they be different spelling for the same name? Does it belong to either of them? Irma Graver Ireton, Norma Graver Marlow, and Emma Schultz West, all think that McGee was the name for the school on Benton Road. Then is that one Deller also? Emma knows for a fact that an Alice McGee taught there prior to 1920, and later at Owensville. ''Still sits (he schoolhouse by the road A ragged beggar sleeping Around it still the sumac grow And blackberry vines are creeping." Ida Mae Gall Bach Perintown School was built in 1889, on land donated by the Ragland Family. It was located in the triangle at the intersection of Rt. 50 and Wolfpen-Pleasant Hill Road. The building consisted of two large rooms downstairs and one large room upstairs. The "Little Room," as it was referred to, housed Grades 1 through 4. The Big Room had grades 5 through 8. The large room upstairs served as a Community room for Church and community functions; and also served as a voting place for Miami Township. Eighth Grade graduates first attended High School at Milford, and after 1932, went to Owensville. ; The first school house in Perintown still stands in the rear of the Woodward Home, now know as the "High Chaeral." It has been remodeled into a home by Lawrence Seibert. Clarence Hill 1929 Sorry, but I could not find an early history of this school. It is located at the intersection of two roads, Routes 132 and 131. The school and that crossroads has always had the name of Williams Corner; named for three farm owners named Williams. The building still stands there but is a sort of saloon and has undergone lots of change in its looks. W.A. (Bill) Burdsall 1933 Here are a few interesting facts about the Shumard School and Community. It is located at the intersection of Weaver and Bergen Roads in Stonelick Township, Clermont County, Ohio. The building that we knew and attended, sits on about an acre of ground, is a one room construction, is still in good repair and has been converted into a residence. This building was erected in 1882. My grandmother, Phoebe Shumard Burdsall, was a direct descendent of the folks for whom the school was named. The road of the same name came later. Grandmother Phoebe liked to tell of one account in her school life there when the School Master told the students they could stand and look out the window; but none were to leave the room. When they were all on their feet and looking out the window, they saw a man leading an ELEPHANT up the road. She said she never knew where it came from nor where it went. My father, his older brother and his two sisters also recalled many happy days they spent in that same school. I started my education there in 1921. I was young then and time didn't matter. Let me hasten to say that even after more than 60 years two of my early teachers are living, Mrs. Gazzela Seebree Crider Coy in Florida, and Mrs. Norma Graver Harlow in Bethel, Ohio. Highlights that I recall are winter months of sled-riding, skating, walking a mile each day both morning and night. Yes, I can recall very vividly, one day in May when we boys went to school barefooted, for it seemed so warm. By evening, we had one of Ohio's weather changes, and we walked home barefooted in about an inch of snow; yet no one got sick. We must have been tough kids! One morning we were greeted by the carcass of an opossum hanging in Hie door handle. No one ever told who would do such a trick. One day the janitor threw too much slack coal in a the old Jumbo stove and when he went to stir it with the poker, it blew up and the room was filled with a sulfur-like smoke that caused an outbreak of coughing. Was all this accident or design? We played the usual games: rabbit, ants over and watermelon. It was during this game that there was a collision and a boy recorded the first broken nose I had ever seen. Now that years have passed, I truthfully feel sorry for a generation that did not have the opportunity to share the many joys and sorrows that we experienced in by-gone years in our beloved SHUMARD SCHOOL! Notes From a School Directory 1927-1928 Mabel Benton Wilson Stonelick School District: Superintendent: J.W. Frump Principal: Ralph Lemon H.S. Virginia Taylor, Harriet Fealy, Ruth Owensville Grades: Mary Marsh, Carrie Utter, Helen Taylor, and Mabel Benton Music: George Cadwell Williams Corner: John W. Jones Stonelick: Olive Behymer Shumard: Hazel Carpenter Mt. Zion: Evelyn Devine Florence Sapp Schultz Carlier & Leo Carlier The Stonelick School Building, which still stands near the intersection of Routes 50 and 222, was erected in 1898. This school was one of the larger county schools in the area, having about 25 to 30 students. In 1916, the school was known as the Model School and was under the sponsorship of Miami University, of Oxford, Ohio. The Batavia Normal School for teacher training, required all their students to visit and observe this "Model School" periodically. This lasted until 1920. Domestic Science was one of the extra courses included in their curriculum. The teachers for the Domestic Science were Nancy Mount and Betty Baines. Some of the other teachers through the years as recalled by the writer were: Walter Bauer, Carl Ansteatt, Mary Marsh, and Fannie Buxton. Some of the families living in that area, and whose children attended school were: Pauls, Voght, Ragland, Leming, Carpentar, Loup, Carlier, Sapp, Patchell, and McAfee. Mary McAfee Saunders later taught there. The school closed about 1934 and all children bussed to Owens-ville. Since that time, the building has found varied uses. A motel was built on what was the school play ground. At this date, it is used for subsidized housing. Kenton Atwood 1932 Around 1850 Lerado was called either Logtown or Brownsville. Marshall's store had a copper plated dated 1950, giving one or the other of these names, which the town was given in 1850. Around 1890, the local school teacher, Mrs. Kellum (1853-1943) renamed the town Lerado after Laredo, Texas. She may have heard the song, "As I was walking down the streets of—." Even the best spellers can be fooled if they do not see new words in print. I never discussed the school with Mrs. Kellum, although I knew her quite well. Her connection with teachings must have stopped not long after 1890, since her only child, Lulu, was born in 1893. I assume that she had a teaching career for 15 or 20 years before she married, but probably did not teach after that. The date on the old Lerado School, the Jackson Township School, is around 1888. Mother and I were there last about 3 years ago, but I can't be sure of the exact date. Two nights ago, I dreamt of going back to check. The yard was overgrown with huge trees and the building was reduced to rubble, rather strange after only 3 years. Perhaps the dream was for 200 years in the future. A fragment of the name plaque had two eights on it, for whatever that is worth. In any event, it seems likely that Mrs. Kellum had taught for some years in whatever they had before the present building, and she may have presided over the construction of the school and taught in it for a few years before retiring from teaching in 1891 orl892. I can't say much for the years from 1892-1922. An early teacher could have been Jack Ridings, who lived near Lerado. Anna Chaney may have taught there in those years. Hoadly Omaha Hawk (1909-) who attended from 1915-1923 still lived in Lerado 3 years ago. A school about 3 miles from Lerado was damaged by lightning the Saturday before Labor Day in 1922; so all the schools in the district were started the Monday after Labor Day so that repairs could be made to the victim of the storm and all the schools could start at the same time. Howard Snell was the teacher for the 1922-1923 school year for my first grade. In 1930, he started driving the Owensville School bus that began its run in Lerado. Anna Chancy (1876-1967), "Miss Anna", taught in the Lerado School for the 1923-24 and 1924-25 school years. She was an extraordinary person, a great teacher who exerted a very beneficial influence for many years in our corner of Ohio. Her parents had a farm next to ours, and her teaching career started a few years after 1890. Lucille Ridings, daughter of Jack Ridings, taught in the 1925-26 and 1926-27 years, while Miss Anna was again the teacher for the 1927-28 session, my last year before Owensville. Miss Anna continued to teach at Lerado, but after a few years had to retire from teaching. Around 1933-34 was the last year the Laredo School was open, after which those pupils were bussed to the consolidated school at Marathon. Miss Anna may have retired just before the school closed. I cannot remember the name of any other teacher if there was one. Although Miss Anna stands out, as she would in any group of people, the other teachers I encountered seemed to be very competent. In my opinion, we were quite fortunate in Clermont County during our time in the public school system. The Lerado Church is across the street from the school. Around 1930, the church parsonage burned down the Ladies' Aid, which had the insurance policy, collected $2,000.00. This was extraordinary wealth for such a church in those days. It enabled the Ladies' Aid to buy the school and the grounds from the county when the school was consolidated. For a number of years, the school was used for church functions, but around 1940 it was sold to one of the members, Bert Carr, who converted it into a home. The Carrs left long ago, but I think the building is still used for a home. Martha Davidson and Mary Jane Welker Ansteati For many years the students around Newtonsville went to a school that consisted of two rooms. These students either walked, rode horses, or came to school in buggies. A new, large building was built in 1915 on the same land, only nearer to the road. From the time it was built until the early forties, there were five classroom teachers and one music teacher. Teachers with longevity were: Carl Ansteatt - Principal (29 years) 7th & 8th grades Nellie Russell - 5th & 6th grades Lucille Ridings Jordan - 4th & 5th grades Rebecca demons - 2nd & 3rd grades Marie Meeks - 1st & 2nd grades Ada Fender was also a primary teacher before teaching in Cincinnati. There was a flour mill where the present fire house is. When a teacher needed paste to use, she would send a pupil over to get some flour (free of course) to make her own paste. The mill pond was a favorite place in the winter to slide on at recess time. In the late twenties an attempt was made to have a lunchroom. The food was prepared at her home by Mrs. Mabel Grossnickle and transported to the school. Plate lunches were ten cents each. This lasted for one year. Later a lunchroom was operated at the school by Mrs. Emma Rogers. She operated it for many years. As the school grew, so did the lunchroom, having four cooks at one time. Early students rode the traction line to Blanchester and then to Milford to attend high school. High school students continued to attend Milford or Owensville High Schools until the consolidation. The auditorium was built in 1937. It was constructed with a lot of volunteer work. Later it was used for classrooms, some on the stage, the balcony and some in the main part using temporary partitions. Prior to this the programs were held in the church across the street. Some important outside activities in which the pupils participated were the Farmers' Institute and the Monthly Community Meeting. Eighth Grade Graduation was a big event because a lot of the students were unable to attend High School. This was held at the Methodist Church before the Auditorium was built. The first P.T.A. president was Mrs. Manly Hill. The P.T.A. was very active for many years. Another building was constructed in 1955 as the school was getting over-crowded. It held the 7th and 8th grades for a few years. For several years after the new Middle School was built (at Owensville), only the first four grades were held at Newtonsville. In 1973, the older part of the school was demolished and today only the Kindergarten for the entire Northeastern District is held at Newtonsville in what is considered the New Building. ***** ***** ****** This booklet is neither complete nor documented. If can add to it, write it down for next year. We need it all. This was compiled and edited by Madeline Benton Houser - Class of 1932. Compliments of Owensville Alumni School days, school days, |
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