Waynesfield Goshen High School - Reflections Yearbook (Waynesfield, OH)

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' 'li A lf , ,A , , the child's laziness. The big boys spent a good deal of time gfvt- ting wood for the hungry fire-place. I have been told by one of the scholars who is still living, that they had a fight nearly every day. The woods were full of Water sprouts and the teachoris principal rule was No licken no larnenf' So you sce figlig 4-'i I lickens played a prominent part in the education of our pion- eer boys and girls. Only four teachers taught in this building, THE FIRST SCHOOL HOUSE lN WAYNE TOWNSHIP naming them in their order, Patience Gilroy, Mary Atkinson, known as Mary Gorden, E. G. Atkinson, son of Mary Gordon, and Henry Whetstone. The iirst school taught in Waynesiield was by Mary Gordon, and was held in a log cabin that stood on the site of Wayne High School building. About this time the school directors secured lot No. 6, on East Wapakoneta street and erected a hewed log school house, with a gobd roof and glass Windows. School was held in 17 l l :wx A .ES was ,Q ,Q WN ,XL S s x N S S sx YS F3 ii N X ,W fc ' Wf' x x ,,! ' fff ffif ff w 5 X X x N ' XWVAW ' A X f W! f - ff' 1 if -

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HISTORY OF THE WAYNESFIELD SCHOOLS By DON W. RANDAL f - - AYNE TOWNSHIP was formed 1n 1834 It was a part of Allen County and extended to the Logan county line In 1836 Goshen township was taken from the south side of Wayne This left Wayne SIX miles east and west and four and one-half mlles north and south In 1848 Auglaize county was formed and by this act Wayne township of Allen county became Wayne township of Augla1ze In 1838 the township was laid off 1n four sub-d1str1cts No '1 lay on the east side No 2 1n the southwest corner No 3 in the northwest corner and N 0 4 on the south side between 1 and 2 Waynesfield at this time did not ex- 1st but the first school house within the v1cin1ty of the village was built in district No 2 on Wm Pepple s farm about three-fourths f a mile southeast of the square It was a log building Wlth a clapboard roof puncheon floor and paper wmdows greased with Qcoon fat. It had an old fashioned fire place with a stick chimney, there was not a nail in the building 5 the roof was fastened on with heavy weight poles and oak pins, and the door was hung on wooden hinges. A huge puncheon board, split from an oak log and hewn smooth with an adz was placed against the wall be- neath the long paper window which served as a writing desk. In front of the blazing fire were long benches made from logs split in two, with the fiat side up, and although they were sup- posed to be hewn smooth they were usually possessed of a suffi- cient amount of splinters to keep the boys awake. Here on these rough benches, without backs, sat the little urchins from morn- ing 'till night, each holding in his hands a broad wooden paddle, on one side of which was pasted his A B C's, and on the other the A B Abs. These were torn from his older brother's book, and if the little fellow did not pay a sufficient amount of attention to his wooden substitute, the Master called him to his side and laying him across his lap, he would apply the paddle as an antidote for 16 I ,, X . up X X Y s . s X.-.. Y. .,.., X . - Q s X ' X ,ug E l ll X s I S X 1 X I N 1,0 +22 s ll X +1 X 1 1 X X I ls, T s l 'ipxh 1 I s 1 X

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X X . ' X X . . Y X X . X X X X Y i X X - X X v . X X . . X X ' : X X 5. .- . X X ' . ' I X X . ' X X . ... N X X X ' X X X X Q - X X - X X , . . . X X X this building until near the sixties and was presided over by such teachers as John Folks, Sealey Dawson, Veniah Hazel, Rob. Beaty and Colby Pepple. These teachers certainly must have worked for the honor of being called master, rather than for a lucrative purpose, for we find that according to the records kept by Nathan Woodbury, Township Clerk, that in 1840, the entire amount of school funds for Wayne township was S60.67, and the apportionment for No. 2 was only 38.32. Compare this with the expenses of the Waynesfield schools in 1915, being S7030.58, or a little over 845 times as much as that of 1840. Near the close of the fifties, a new frame school building was erected on the same lot in front of the old log, this building needs no description, for in 1873 or 4 it was removed to North West- minster street and is now occupied as a dwelling by Ves. Smith. In the new house, new methods of teaching began developing, it was in this building that some of our soldier boys spent their last school days. Old fashioned spelling schools were of frequent occurrence' No licken no larnen was still in fashion and How ard Atkinson insisted that f r u s t r a t e spelled first-rate Here it was that Dick Smith was everlastingly taking the twist out of his scholars The last school taught in the old frame was by Wm Pinkerton the term lasted until the holidays and the year 1874 was begun in the new two story brick building now occupied by E Beng Yale publisher of one of the leading newspapers of our surrounding country Mr Pinkerton was followed by Dr Christopher and Geo Getty who revolutionized the Waynesfield schools they conducted a literary society that surpassed anything of the kind ever held in our community Christopher was a pusher and an organizer and this combined with Getty s scholar ship created a desire for education and the better things of this life that has lasted to the present time It is not necessary to continue this history any farther owing to the fact that last year s Retrospect contains an article written by Mr Edgar Fasig in which all the important events needful to the completion of my story are given ?llC5l--..H 1 Q- Q 3l