Middlebranch High School - Memoir Yearbook (Middlebranch, OH)

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OUR TOWIV - MinDlEBR lIVCH This, folks, is our town - - and I ' d like to tell you about it. It; is not a very big place, not a very famous place, but somehow it has figured, pretty big in our lives. It belongs to us and it ' s important. You enter our town around a curve, and across from the sign MIDDLE- BRANCH UNINCORPORATED is Bircher ' s Dairy and the confectionary where high school kids like to hang out. You pass a cheese factory and the Grange Hall on your way to the school. Over to the left are the railroad tracks where the kids like to walk; behind the school, the creek, where in the spring- time they go wading. Beyond the school a little piece is Tommy ' s store where the boys go to eat their cakes and pop at noontime. If you go farther, past the railroad crossing into the heart of the village, there ' s the Diamond Cement Factory, the principal industry of Middlebranch, and there ' s the Little Flower Chapel. And that ' s about all there is to it, except for the houses and the farms. Like I said, it ' s not a very big place. Middlebranch back in 1811 was just a main street with a Grist Mill and a general store when the Junior Hall is now. The rest was just farm houses, v ide apart. Then the railroad came through, and Middlebranch bagan to grow. At the lower end of the village, where the square is udw, lots were laid out. The first school house was situated beyond the present site, back of the creek. It was a little one room affair, with the traditional water pail and the bell. It was there that the sons and daughters of the neighboring farmers went to school. Then in 1884 a new school was built at the lower end of Middlebranch. That building is now the Little Flower Chapel. The postoffice, which had been part of the general store, was moved by Mr. Hill, to the square where it still stands today. The general store kept on handling mail though, and so with this division, two towns came into being. Middlebranch was the district and the square, and the section by our school today was called Oval City. No one knows where the boundary between these two towns was, and no one knows when they ceased being separate end joined into the present Middlebranch. The Diamond Portland Cement Company was first cons ' .ructed in 1892. Some of the first settlers in Middlebranch bore the names, Phillips, Housel, Brown, Wise, Bair, Cocklin, Oberlin, Werstler, and Schollenberger - - names that we still know today in 1942. So you see Middlebranch has grown from a little one horse village to a rambling center for a cement works, a supply company, a cheese factory, two dairies, a consolidated high school, and two churches. Middlebranch is the kind of community that we are proud to live in, and proud to know. Everything about it is stamped on our minds clearly - - the falling leaves in autumn, the smoke of passing trains mingling with snow and ice in winter, the mud and frogs by the creek in springtime. We see the big yellow buses, the men swinging lunchpails on the way from work .... This is our town . . .

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OUR SCHOOL This is the high school that the 275 children of our town and surrounding districts attend. From nine o ' clock to four o ' clock there is peace in our vil- lage, until the dismissal bell . . . and then the town wakes. The students start home on the big yellow busses and some of them walk. They go home to farms to do chores; they go home to their families, their lessons, and their suppers. Back in 1929, Middlebranch students were housed in the grade building and two portables. The only teachers were Margaret Rodgers, Dorthea Eynon, and E. S. Hawkins, superintendent. As pupils increased, new de- partments were added - - a commercial department, a manual arts depart- ment, and a Home Economics department. In 1931 the new high school building was erected adding a modern note to the community. Student ' s varied interests demanded organization of clubs and as a result Hi-Y, Booster, Girl Reserves, and Girl Scouts sprang up. With the new build- ing came new teachers and later the new Superintendent, Mr. Kohr. The new school buses had to be bought to get students to our school from all parts of the township. Behind our school ' s success has been the work and interest of the town- ship ' s school board and the P. T. A. They have been responsible for im- provements, sponsoring athletics, helping to build a band, and encouraging us and backing us on many enterprises. Today Middlebranch presents a varied curriculum, keeping up with many interests. It seems as though the whole school just kept growing - - improving, until two years ago Middlebranch was entered in North Central Association of Secondary Schools and Colleges. This was an honor, an achievement, the reward for years of effort, of building and developing. We are proud of our school and its record. Just as it is part of our town, it is part of our lives. It has played its part in the development of minds and characters and now has many who do not forget - - our school. Board of Education MR. M. B. HOMER — — President MR. A. J. WILLAMAN — — Clerk MR. HOMER SCHMUCKER, Vice-president MR. RANSON BARR MR. A. L. GEIB MR. H. W. BENEDICT