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Dayton
Soldiers Orphans
School
Established
1867
Closed
1888
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| One of the noble
monuments of the gratitude of the people of Pennsylvania to the dead
soldiers of the republic and their tender regard for the welfare of the
children bereft of fathers by the war for out cherished Union adorns
this municipality. It having been suggested in the summer of 1866 that
there was a need of a soldiers’ orphans’ school either in this or
one of the adjoining counties, Dayton was readily admitted to be an
eligible location for it. Meetings of some of its citizens were held;
the subject was generally discussed, and it was finally determined to
establish the needed school here. Rev. David K. Duff was authorized to
confer with Thomas H. Burrowes, who was then the state superintendent of
the Soldiers’ Orphans’ Schools, who, after having been informed of
this benign movement, came hither, made a parol agreement with some of
the citizens, who had become enlisted in the project, for consummating
it, and selected the present site for the buildings. A joint stock
company was soon organized with a capital of $15,000. Its original
members were Rev. David K. Duff, Rev. T.M. Elder, Dr. William
Hosack,
Dr. J. R. Crouch, Robert Marshall, Wesley Pontius, William R. Hamilton,
William Marshall, Thomas P. Ormond, Thomas H. Marshall, Samuel Good,
Smith Neal, John H. Rupp, William Morrow, William J. Burns, J. W.
Marshall, William Hindman, John Beck, Jacob Beck, John Craig, David
Lawson and David Byers. The school opened in rented buildings on the 1st
of November in that year, with fifty-one pupils. This company was
incorporated December 1, 1873. Its charter name is the “Dayton
Soldiers’ Orphans’ School Association.” It purchased in the fall
of 1867 thirty-five acres of land, on which have been erected three
substantial two-story frame buildings, one of which, 72 x 24 feet, was
occupied in the early part of the next spring; another, 72 x 36 feet,
was erected during the following summer, and the third one, 86 x 40
feet, was ready to be occupied by the 1st of September then next
ensuing. The ones first and last erected were burned in December, 1873,
and within six months thereafter new ones were erected on their sites.
The three buildings have a capacity for the accommodation of 225 pupils.
Rev. T. M. Elder, Rev. J. E. Dodds and ex-County Superintendent Hugh
McCandless, the present one, having successively been the principals of
this school; the principal assistants, J. P. Barber, G. W.
Innes, W. McKiershan, Alex. T. Ormond and M. L. Thounhurst; the aggregate of
different assistant teachers of all grades, 27; superintendents of boys,
8; employees, 29.
The average number of pupils, girls and boys, during the first five
years, was about 150, and from 1872 until 1876, 206. Only three deaths
of pupils have occurred in nearly ten years, and there has been, since
the opening of the school, but very little sickness among them.
Twenty-four have been transferred to other schools, 220 have been
discharged by reason of their having attained the age of sixteen years,
and 38 by order of the superintendent.
The moral, intellectual and physical culture in this schools is such
as is well calculated to make its pupils good, useful and healthful men
and women, and to properly prepare them for their various vocations in
after life. It is gratifying to know that so many of them, as do, find
eligible situations after they pass out from the portals of this temple
of knowledge to participate in the earnest, continuous struggle on the
world’s broad battlefield.
The common schoolhouse, frame, two stories, is situated on the
southeast corner of South and School streets. The school is graded one
of two departments.
The school statistics for 1876 are as follows: schools, 2; average
number of months taught, 5; male teacher, 1; female teacher, 1; salary
of male per month, $33; salary of female per month, 33; male scholars,
50; female scholars, 49; average number attending school, 74; received
from state appropriation, $91.14; from taxes, etc., $626.22; paid for
schoolhouse, $244; for teachers’ wages $297; for fuel, $108.12.
History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, 1883 |
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Western
PA Old Photos