-
- Morton
School - ca 1917
-
-
- Brief
History of Morton One Room School
-
-
- First
Schools in the Morton District
-
- The
first school in the Morton School District was built in 1833.
It was
- located
to the West of the current schoolhouse. It had a mud / stick
- chimney
on the outside, forming a fireplace on the inside that was large
- enough
to lay two logs side by side. The seats consisted of logs split
in the
- center,
and hewed on one side, with two holes bored in each end with
pegs
- driven
in for legs. The desks were wide boards fastened to the walls.
The
- windows
were single panes placed across two sides and one end. In the
- winter
of 1841, this school house burned down.
-
- The
second schoolhouse was also built to the west of the current
location
- and
was used for two years until the district was divided in two.
In 1843, a
- third
building was constructed on the opposite corner from where it
is now
- located
(Gwirtz's
Market is currently located of that previous site). This was a frame
- building,
painted red, with black walnut interior and seats similar to
- the
first school house. It was heated with a stove. This district
had
- as
many as 104 students with a average daily attendance of more
- than
50 for many years during this 28 year period.
-
- In
1871, a brick school house was built on the North East corner
(across
- from
Gwirtz's market),
but due to poor ventilation, the floor deteriorated and
- in
1882, the present Morton building was constructed.
-
- So
the current Morton Schoolhouse is the 5th in a series of schoolhouses
- used
to provide education to the students in this area.
-
- (Most
of the above information first appeared in a 1893 Shelby Times
newspaper article.)
-
-
- More
Morton School Early History
-
- Records
regarding the daily operation of the Morton School as well as
- records from
the other schools in the township are scattered. Due in part
- to
the fact the original school records were intertwined with the
records
- of
the Township Trustees. As each individual school closed,
the records
- from
that school were simply set aside without much concern for their
- future
value causing them to be lost or destroyed.
-
- Fortunately,
some of the forgotten records are now being rediscovered. In
a
- book
donated to the Morton School Museum Project by the late Ira and
Donna
- Reed
/ Clabaugh, the following details regarding the operation of
the
- Morton
School have become known.
-
- On
April 16, 1855 Norman S. Morton was appointed the Librarian for
District 1.
- The
Morton School District. The duties of the Librarian were, to
give out books
- belonging
to the common school library on the first Saturday of the month
and
- recollect
them monthly.
According to records found in the Clabaugh book, the following
books were on
- the
shelves of the District #1 library at the beginning of May in
1857. They were:
- "Buckeyes
Abroad, The Life of Sir Walter Scott,
- Sunshine
on Daily Paths, Beech Nut, Tip Top,
and, The Poor Rich Man."
The "enumeration" or, children in attendance for District
#1 as of September 1,
- 1857
was 78 students. Recording 41 boys and 37 girls. (It is interesting
to note
- that
often times the balance of male to female students in a one room
school was
- determined
by the closeness of the schools to the actual farms. For the
most
- part
it had to be a short and safe walk in order for a girl to attend).
-
- It
was also in September of 1857 that it was resolved that McGuffies's
series
- of
"readers" and "spellers" alone be used in
all the common schools of the districts.
-
- The
above Norman S. Morton Family & Morton School history was
supplied by
- Mr.
Kim Butler Histed -
- kbhisted@yahoo.com
-
-
- If you have further
questions on the history of the early one room schools in the
- Shelby, Ohio area,
or if you would like to add to the page, please email us.
-
-
-
- Copyright
© 2003 Morton One Room School Historical Society. Inc.
