No General meeting for the month of September is planned. The Society is ultra busy planning for the annual Oktoberfest. And --- just in case you should forget the date --- here is a reminder!

Oktoberfest

Sunday, October 2nd
10 A.M. to 5 P.M.

Held on the museum grounds
809 East Lawn Avenue

Curator Dick Virts may be calling you soon asking for your assistance.

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General Robert L. Eichelberger Marker

     A Marker Dedication Ceremony will be held Saturday, August 27, 2005 at 11:00 am. The marker will be placed at 907 Scioto Street ( Mr. & Mrs. Hollingshead's home ), to honor the memory of General Eichelberger for his services to the United States Government during WW II.

Curator, C. R. Virts

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                                                    Recent Acquisitions

      Paul Reif donated to the museum his 2004 oil painting of Urbana University's Bailey Hall. It forms a part of our art collection.

      May Thomas donated a 1982 watercolor farm scene done by Virginia Moore. It now hangs in the art section at the museum.

       The book, A Passel of Dreams, by Mary Craig Printz was donated by Mariann Curl.

      Betty Pooler Driever donated a wealth of paper material regarding the Douglas Hotel. The collection includes many legal documents and newspaper articles. Betty's father, Carl Pooler, owned the hotel at one time.

       Marjorie Botkin Kelch gave us pictures of the old Urbana Campground south of town. Her donation also included a 1901 Camp Meeting program and a 1907 copy of a Chautauqua program that was held at the fairgrounds.

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                                                           Historical Tidbits

The following " Teacher's Term Report to the Township Clerk " for School District No. 6, in Jackson Township, Champaign county, Ohio was filed by the teacher, George W. King. It covered the grading period from September 12, 1881 to March 4, 1882.

The report revealed interesting statistics. School was in session for 120 days and there were a total of 43 students ----- 29 were boys and 14 were girls. The ages varied considerably. One of the boys was 19 years old, four of the boys were 18, and two were 17. Four of the boys were 14 and this included a set of twins.

The oldest girl was 15. The next oldest girl was 13. There were three 12 year olds and nine were between the ages of  11 and 6.

Seven of the children were Breslins. Nineteen year old Thomas Breslin attended school only 5 of the 120 days. Nine year old Roma Breslin attended school 102 days and his eleven year old brother, Joseph, attended school 100 days. Roma ( who was a boy ) spent more days in school than any of the other students. The average daily attendance was 22 students.

Little Lottie Sise, the only six year old, had an older brother and sister and already knew her alphabet when she enrolled in school. Seven year old Willie Breslin, on the other hand, had six older brothers but did not know his letters when he started school. The teacher's report lists Willie as having received lessons in " alphabet ".

Mr. Kind used McGuff's Reader for reading and spelling and a variety of different textbooks to teach arithmetic, geography, English grammar and history. For writing, he used no  textbook and listed himself as the source of instruction.

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The schoolhouse in District No. 6, Jackson Township, was in use from 1858 until 1916 and was located on the southwest corner of Runkle and Slack Roads. Today, the brick schoolhouse in utilized as a residence.

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Joseph Ware, author of History of Mechanicsburg, Ohio, in 1917, wrote:

" The first grade was called the ' A. B. C. class " . They were drilled on learning their letters for months. Then came the ' A.B.ab class '. Then they were advanced to the ' Baker grade ', and still on they progressed through the monotonous grind to words of eight and ten syllables. Then those who had not become disgusted and quit were allowed to put words together, such as ' The ant has legs'.  ' Can the ant run?' All the sentences were droned through without a particle of expression, fixing forever a false habit of reading. The girls with a falsetto straining after effect and the boys with a monotonous style that few recovered from. No one ever thought of teaching the scholars to read first. The old - fashioned manner of spelling was to pronounce each syllable as it was spelled'.

Barbara E. Sour, Trustee / Editor