Conemaugh Township Area High School - Connumach Yearbook (Davidsville, PA)

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HISTORY OF SCHOOLS early evening. Plans were then laid for the erection of a twelve room building which was outgrown by 1926-27, when four additional rooms were added. Again in 1929-30 this building was outgrown by an enrollment of 724 students, and a two room portable building was added. The Ierome School is still used as the largest center for our elementary schools. Mr. Robert Haynes, now a teacher in our high school, served as principal of the Ierome School for a period of twelve years. Mr. Iames W. Spory is the present principal. KAUFMAN SCHOOL Although the Kaufman School of Conemaugh Township, located about a mile north of Davidsville on route 219, is still a typical two room country school house, there have been many improvements and advances made since the first log building was erected. This one was located one mile southeast of the Kaufman Mennonite Church. In 1860 a new building was erected on the site where the present Kaufman school stands. During the use of this building in 1869, the free schooling system was established in Conemaugh Township. Before this time, schooling was all by subscription. Iohn Brubaker was the first teacher after its instal- lation. In the first year there were only three months of school with no com- pulsory school laws. This building was furnished with old fashioned heating stoves, home- made benches, and wooden black boards. School was attended by thirty boys and fifteen girls, their ages ranging from five to nineteen. In 1885 a new building was built. It was a small white frame school. E. L. Swank was the first teacher in the school. The building that now stands, a two room brick structure, was erected in 1922 by Mr. Ioe Miller, a local contractor. SAYLOR SCHOOL Prior to 1870 the pupils from the Saylor school district attended school at Thomas Mills where an enrollment of 76 was recorded during the 1869-1870 school term, the year of the first free public school in Conemaugh Township. In the spring of 1870 the school board erected a school at the crossroads on a farm owned by Iohn Thomas. This school known as Saylor School is approximately one and one-half miles north of Thomas Mills. The land was nonated by Iohn Thomas as long as it was used for school purposes. During the first term, 1870-1871, there were 39 pupils. Mr. Merley, the first teacher, taught only a few weeks and then resigned. Mr. George W. Horner succeeded him and taught only until the middle of the term when he resigned. Herman A. Walker who finished this first term taught the following year at Saylor School. This first building served its purpose until 1887 when it was replaced by a larger and more modern building placed diagonally at the crossroads on land given by Daniel Thomas in exchange for the former site of the school. This building was vacated and sold at the end of the 1937- 1938 term to Lawrence Thomas, present owner of the surrounding farm, thus completing sixty-seven years of public education at this location.

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HISTORY OF SCHOOLS CZXLJITH the building of the new Conemaugh Township High School, one of the largest and finest rural high schools in Pennsylvania, a climax to over one hundred and five years of education was reached. Actual construction on this modern educational plant was begun on Ianuary 1, 1938, sixty-nine years after the first free school system was adopted by the township. Located on a thirteen-acre plot, the building is four hundred and eight feet long. It is approximately one-quarter mile around the exterior perimeter of the building. Mr. C. Yenter, the general contractor, reports that more than 125,000 man hours of labor went into the building. The structure required 580,000 bricks, 80,000 tile, 13,300 sacks of cement which was mixed with 266,000 shovelfuls of sand and 1,064,000 shovelfuls of stone, 90,000 feet of lumber, 6,000 cubic yards of excavation, 18,000 square yards of plastering, 32,000 square feet of wood floors, 7,000 feet of steam pipe, 5,600 square feet of radiation, and 522 electric lights. Water is supplied from a two hundred foot well with an 11,000 gallon pressure supply tank. The cost. of which forty-five percent was contributed by the Federal Government through the Public Works Administration, for the building and equipment was more than flS350,000. The building contains 34 class rooms including vocational agriculture shop, industrial arts shops, library, music room, labora- tories, home economics rooms, gymnasium, auditorium and conference rooms. DAVIDSVILLE SCHOOL The new high school building is the newest school plant in Davidsville. The first school in Davidsville was made of log construction in 1835. This structure was used for both school and church purposes. Nelson McMillen was the first teacher in this building under the free school system which was adopted in 1869 by Conemaugh Township, one of the last in the county to have free schools. Prior to 1869 only subscription school was held. About 1870 a new school building was erected at the south end of the town. A. F. Swank taught in this school. Later the school site was moved to the other end of town north of the Lutheran Church. ln 1913 the school was moved to its present location on land bought from Charles Yeoman. IEROME SCHOOL The town of Ierome is situated on the farm of the late Iacob Blough. The mine was opened in 1904 and many of the houses were erected at once. The building of a town and the moving in of families necessitated the building of a school. About this time the Conemaugh- Township School Board erected a two room building which was soon outgrown and two additional rooms were added. Later this was vacated and an eight room building was erected on the site of the present structure. During the winter of 1920-21 while the board of directors were planning to add four additional rooms to the building, it was destroyed by fire in the

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HISTORY OF SCHOOLS THOMAS MILLS SCHOOL The Thomas Mills school is located about five hundred feet from the Somerset Pike. The first free school there in 1869 was taught by David Hummer. The term started November 8, 1869 and ended March 9, 1870. Seventy-six pupils of whom four were twenty years old were included in this first free public school. Previous to 1869 subscription school was held. WERTZ SCHOOL The Wertz School, a one room brick building located south of the North Fork Dam, at one time was located where now lies sixty-feet of Iohnstown drinking water. The school was sold at the end of the 1937-38 term to Mr. Frank Eash who plans to make a home out of the structure. LIVINGSTON SCHOOL The Livingston School is a one room wooden building located on the Somerset Pike adjacent to the Grange Hall. At one time this school was located directly across the highway from its present location. Mr. Griffith, who bought the building, plans to turn it into a recreation hall. TIRE HILL SCHOOL The Tire Hill school was built about 1860 along the Davidsville Pike at the Tire Hill Crossroads where the Tire Hill garage is now located. The school was large enough to accomodate the farming community and Krings Station until the mines opened and a larger building was constructed in 1909. EASH SCHOOL The first Eash school constructed in 1878 was a one-room building and housed between 65 to 70 pupils. Samuel Shetler was one of the first teachers at this structure. The second building, a two-room school, was constructed in 1910. Nine years later in 1919 the present school was constructed. It con- sisted of four rooms, but two rooms were added later on. MAPLE RIDGE SCHOOL In 1913 the Maple Ridge school was built to alleviate the overcrowded conditions in the Eash school. An arbitrary division line was made and pupils attended the Eash or Maple Ridge schools on the basis of this division. The first classes were held in the Maple Ridge building upon its completion in 19141. MILLER SCHOOL The latest Miller School was built in 1903 after two structures had previously been used. The first school was located on ground given by Mr. Miller. Later the school was moved up the hill to ground given by Shetlers. During the past four or five years approximately forty pupils have been in attendance each ye-ar. KEAFER SCHOOL Land for the Keafer School was obtained from Henry Keafer on the condition that the land be used for school purposes. At one time the school was located further up the hill from its present location. Only thirteen or fourteen pupils have gone to the school each year during the last five years.