Lancaster Central High School - Reflector Yearbook (Bluffton, IN)

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a in H 2-lnl -i 5 if TPL Yi ' W .,-I?- ,L ' hc Beginning of Lancaster' In 1816 the State Legislature of Indiana passed a law providing that upon the petition of 20 householders in a township, there might be ordered an election at which time three trustees should be chosen to manage the schools of the township. In the year of 1845 Lancaster Township was organized as a township unit under the law of 1816. An election was held and three trustees were elected on the 29th of August 1845. The three trustees elected were William Hannah, Allen Clark, and William Montgomery. In 1847 the board met and laid the township off in school districts starting in the northeast corner of range 12 with District No. 1 known in later years as the Daily School, District No. 2 as the Eagleville School, No. 3 as the Donaldson School, No. 4 in the southwest part of the Township, No. 5 as the Center School, No. 6 as the Bender School, No. 7 as the Wasson School, No. 8 as the Toll Gate, No. 9 as the Lamb School, and at a later date a district was made in range 13 known as the Little School No. 10, and No. 11 known as the Craigville School. In 1856 it was decided that district No. 4 was too large and a new district was made which became the Murray School. And the last district was made in the northeast part of the township known as the Swamp or Little Vine School. On May 7, 1853, a petition was filed with the trustees of the township to hold an election for the purpose of levying a tax to build school houses in Lancaster Township. The election was held on June 6, 1853 and a levy was made for fifty cents on the one hundred dollars evaluation to raise money to build the new school houses. The trustees at that time were Allen Clark, Nathaniel Greenfield, and Alexander DeLong. In 1859 three more new schools were built by Enoch High in district Numbers 3, 10, and 13 at a cost of 3320.00 each. On June 6, 1868 the trustees opened bids for a new school building to be built in District No. 12. The lowest bid was S475.00, made by both George Steele and Isaac Shady. The law of 1859 reduced the number of trustees from three to one. On April 4, 1859, Nathaniel Greenfield was elected. The following day, he took office. In later years the frame buildings were f replaced by brick buildings. Several of these one room buildings were built by E. R. Davenport, trustee. In 1895 the two back rooms of Craigville School were built by Andy Reed, trustee. In 1899 a four room building at Murray y was built by Nelson Stafford, trustee. 5 F In 1903 the front part of the building at Craigville, was built by Joel Fry, trustee. In 1910 the brick building' known as the Little School was built by Dan Harsh, trustee. This building was used until 1928 when the students were sent to Craigville School. It came to a time when these one room schools were getting old and not very suitable for school purpose any more. There was 5 started a movement of consolidation of these one room buildings. Some of these were abandoned and the children were hauled to A L A -Q - the Craigville and Murray Schools. In 1920 the 'trustee and advisory board started plans to build a high school and 5 g D x I .1 -1 T-ll? tr Y i C elementary school, and in December 1921 . f ia s 1

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Of ancaster High 3 ov-G Table of Contents History .................... 4 Awards, Graduation . . . . . 23 Prom .......... . . . 29 Administration . . . . . 35 Seniors ..... . . . 45 Students . . . . . . 59 Activities . . . . . 94 Alumni . . .... 130

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Histor of Lancaster WASSON SCHOOL--one mile north and two miles east of Bluffton. the trustee and advisory board met and opened bids for a new school building to be built near the center of the township. Five acres of ground were bought from George Mill- holland for iB1,250. Students were all brought to school by bus. Thirteen busses were used and 23 teachers were employed at that time. The first class, of 14, to graduate from the high school was in the spring of 1923. The first principal was Cary E. Mounsey. The new school was not completed by the time the neighboring schools were opening, so Lancaster's classes began later in the fall. When classes began, the Home Economics Room was still not completed. A water pipe was run on the top of the floor in order to supply water for the classes meeting in this room. This building was built by the following township officers: A.E. Hunt, trustee, A. R. Huyette, Co-Supt.g .Tess Dailey, Charles King, Raymond Wasson, and N..T. Kleinknight, ad- visory board. To the trustee and the advisory board, after having the building built, came the obligation to meet bonds as they came due, and this was done by taxation. The above board met all of these payments as they came due through all their term of office. At the end of the above boards term of office they had paid 335,000.00 of the township indebtedness. In 1927 the following men served as ad- visory board members: Jess Dailey, Raymond Wasson, and Barney Rupright, J.L. Mounsey, L.E. Stimmel, and Barney Rupright served on the board in 1931. After a few years the teachers were re- duced to 19 and the bus drivers were reduced to 11. Six new bus bodies were bought and three new trucks to replace old ones. All three schools were in good repair except the Lancaster gymnasium floor which was in bad condition caused by water coming in under the floor.