Brandville School was the first brick two room, two story school in Oregon Township.
Brandville School was built 1882 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places 1994 by the United States Department of the Interior.
Brandville School has been restored and is now part of the Oregon-Jerusalem Historical Society complex. It sits inconspicuously in an Oregon neighborhood and is easy to miss.
Brandville School houses artifacts from Native Americans who lived in the Great Black swamp area. There is also a military room with artifacts from all the major conflicts in which the United States has been involved, dating from 1812 to the present.
The Carriage House includes vignettes of the old Metzger General Store, a doctor's office and an old post office.
The two room schoolhouse will take visitors back to the turn of the 20th century.
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1 - Visit the Brandville School at the posted coordinates.
2 – Send us the answers to the following FOUR questions.
- On the BACK of the bell structure, what is the name and the city location of the Bell Sign Company?
- Ohio’s Statehood was in 1803; what kind of tree was planted for the Bicentennial?
- What year was the World War I Cannon Rededicated?
- What childhood game is painted on the blacktop between the carriage house and stable?
3 – Post a photo of yourself or a signature item in the FRONT of the bell structure with the bell in the background (see below image) and add to your log.
Please do not include your answers in your log or photos of the question answers.
***Note: Please upload bell structure image with found it logs.
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If you have further interest; below is a synopsis of the Education System in the Oregon Township community as recalled by Josephine Fassett, Donald Bennett, Andrew Posce and James Barnes (two of my history teachers). I have condensed a limited amount of history that I found written in their books.
The first schoolhouses were made of logs. When a sufficient number of families lived in a community the settlers would agree to build a schoolhouse located in the center of the community. At an appointed time, the men with axes, tools, and teams met and the work began. The women would gather at the home nearest the site chosen for the school and begin a busy but happy day of preparing food for the workers.
The first schools established in the Oregon community were established and financed by people who agreed to pay a certain sum for each child sent to school. A family was sometimes asked to pay according to the number of children in the family who were of school age.
The administration of these early Oregon and Jerusalem schools were rather unique. The schools were established by districts. Each district was placed in the hands of three directors who acted as control agents for the early schools. These directors were responsible for hiring teachers, buying supplies, making repairs, and caring for any other business matters pertaining to the school districts.
In 1837 a new budget for supporting the schools was estimated. This total budget for the four school districts came to a grand total of $78.78. the school teachers, were paid $2 a week for their services.
Much of the control of the early school system was vested in the township clerk. The clerk had the power to appoint the directors of each school district. According to the minutes on April 20th, 1840, the clerk appointed the district heads.
In a 1842 a report showed an enrollment of 38 males and 40 were females a total of 78. At the close of 1843 there were 83 pupils enrolled, this was an amazing growth in school enrollment at that time.
The people of the community controlled the school system. By voting frequently, they elected five citizens to serve on the board of education. The board of the board then selects a superintendent who serves as their executive officer. The superintendent recommends other administrators and specialists to the board. Once each month the principles of elementary schools and the principles of the secondary schools meet to discuss some of the challenges that face the schools. Each principal then meets with the teachers and his individual School building.
In April 1882, Thomas Croft and others brought a petition to the Board of Education requesting that a new sub-district be formed and appoint a committee to locate and build a two-story schoolhouse in this district.
This brick building was erected on Grasser Street near Pickle and was known as Brandville. The people were proud of this building. With two teachers it was an improvement over the one room schoolhouse. Parents were interested in sending their children who were in the upper grades to school. Therefore, the Board of Education established standards required for entrance.
At a meeting of the board April 16, 1883, a resolution was passed providing "That pupils and upper grades residing in the township would be given permission to attend the Brandville School after passing an examination determined by the Board of Education."
A meeting of the teachers was arranged to determine the standard qualifications for entrance to Brandville on November 23, 1883.
The standards adopted were as follows; pupils must pass an examination on 5th grade McGuffey reader, Harvey's Grammar, Electric Geographic Book 2, beginning history and arithmetic up to percentage. Their writing must be legible.
Emma Snow, a pioneer teacher at the age of 16 was employed to teach. Her first school was at Shepherdsville. The previous year she had taught at the Howland School as a substitute for her sister.
After completing the year at Shepherdsville Miss Snow was employed to teach the primary pupils at Brandville with an enrollment of 40 pupils and four grades. She remained here for 4 years then went to the city. She recieved a monthly salary of $35.00.
Miss Snow recalls a school located on Brown Road near Wheeling Street. The schoolhouse was a Grange building. Her sister, May, taught in this building in 1879. It was one of the earliest schools of Oregon township.
She boarded at the home of the director where food supplies were difficult to obtain. They were brought in by boat and sledges. Their meals consisted mainly of bread, salt, fish and very little sugar. Part of the year the fish was fresh. Potatoes were not available.
During the years 1854 to 1900 the area around Toledo, which included the community of Oregon, became a marketing town for lumber. As the population began to grow, many of the parents realized the need for additional schools. The parental pressures were so great that the established Board of Education received as many as three petitions a year for additional school buildings.
At that time the schools were established were maintained by levy's placed on taxable property. To build additional schools, a special tax levy had to be voted on by the people of the district. The added levies were to vary from one to five meals depending on the finances needed for the new school buildings.
Along with a change of educational need, other changes in the area became apparent. With the rapid growth of the lumber town, the forest area soon became farmland.
Growth and changes in Oregon became more apparent and in 1915 the population and enrollment in the schools are increasing each year especially in the Brandville and Bayshore districts. A study of the average daily attendance in the population showed a steady upward trend which in time must bring many changes.
The enrollment in the primary grades increased so that it was necessary to relieve the primary teacher was teaching grades from one to four. To take care of the situation the superintendent at a board meeting December 6th, 1915, recommended that the lower room speed divided links wise. But this arrangement grades were one and two were placed on one side of the partition in grades three and four on the other side.
In a meeting August 7th, 1916, a motion carried that a double portable be purchased for Brandville's pupil population. Again in a meeting on April 6, 1918, the board voted to purchase another portable for Brandville School.
As the enrollment of various portions of the township increased especially at Brandville and Bayshore while a few districts did decrease the Board of Education was faced to the question what was the best solution consolidation or centralization.
At that time the Board of Education favored centralization. They considered seriously a site in the center of the township. As a special meeting was held in May 1916, the board pass a resolution that a special election recalled voting on centralized schools and a bond issue of $80,000 to cover the cost of the site and erection of building.
More playgrounds were needed at Brandville and Bayshore. To meet the problem arrangements were made to rent property adjacent to these sites. Action on Brandville situation was taken October 1st, 1923, and on November 5th, 1923, more land was rented for Bayshore.
Due to the closing of several schools, it was necessary to transport children to the schools they were assigned. James Pigeon was given a contract to transport children from Gardner School district to Brandville at the rate of $7 per day. This made it possible to assign not more than two grades to a teacher accepting grades one and two where enrollment was large enough to assign a teacher to each grade. The enrollment increased so that by 1924, there were eight teachers. In order to provide the needed room, Gardener School was reopened, and 6th graders were transported to this building. Pupils profited by this as each teacher had four grades instead of eight.
Another portable was needed for Brandville; so, at a meeting of the board of May 7th, 1923, a motion was made and carried that another double portable be placed at Brandville. The bids were opened on July 2, 1923, and given to Gladieux for $3,225.
On July 8,1924 the bid of Gladieux to build another double portable for Brandville for $2,425 was accepted and the building was ready for the fall term.
During a long campaign to pass the levy, which began in 1916 and continued at various intervals until the Bond issue was passed on November 4th, 1924, after the fifth attempt, with the results as following 561 For - 423 Against.
It was then proposed and voted on by the citizens that three building sites and three buildings be erected on specific selected sites throughout the community.
Each building was located on 10 acre plots of ground. The sites purchased for the schools were named after the original owners of the land.
In 1926, the three modern brick buildings opened, Coy, Clay and Wynn.
Oregon township began as the first district in the state to have all its students housed in modern buildings with large playgrounds. eight classrooms, auditorium and a gymnasium combined home economics and industrial arts room, with a small room at the head of the staircase to serve as the office.
Since there was no high School in the Oregon and Jerusalem schools only a few students were able to enter Waite high School. The Oregon Board of Education paid tuition to Toledo's Board of Education for these students. Transportation was made by Joseph gates for those residents in or near his regular bus routes to the city.
The Board of Education planned to develop Clay High School by adding one grade each year. The 9th grade students started in 1926-1927. The following years the 10th and 11th grades were added and in the school year of 1929-1930 the 12th grade was to be included.
The freshman class of 26 was the first class to enter the new high school building in Oregon township. In 1930, 21 students met the requirements for graduation and received their diploma.
If interested, more information can be found about the Oregon-Jerusalem Educational and History can be found at www.OJHS.org
