HISTORICAL HAPPENINGS 6-12

By superadmin | June 12, 2025 |

We do not have a list of names for the students in the photos. We would appreciate any information regarding the names for historical purposes, so if you want to mention that, we would appreciate it.

As a child I enjoyed taking evening drives with my parents. It was not uncommon to load my siblings and me up in the back of an open pickup and drive slowly around the countryside. Once the bickering over the coveted seats on the fender-wells was resolved we settled in for a peaceful evening ride. One of my favorite roads to travel down toward the bottom was the “Jimtown Road” which is actually Route H. Along this road one would find an old house that had some wonderful history behind it. This house was once the Jimtown school and was converted to a lovely home by Welcome Berry-Ayers back in the early 1970s. Sadly, she never moved in because it was not quite finished when she passed away. After that, Wally Berry, Jr. and his wife, Jan moved in and completed the conversion. At one point, Troy Collis and his wife, Marion made it their home.
The Jimtown school began when John W. Johnson deeded the land for a school in 1871. The initial building was constructed of logs and was located directly south of the Jimtown cemetery. It was first known as “Shacklett School” but was later changed to Jimtown School, probably once the post office was erected. A new building was built in 1873. R. N. Middleton was the first teacher in the new school. Sam Shacklett was one of the first board members. According to a page from the Secretary’s Record Book of 1898, C.H. Berry, P. J. Lyberger, and Aaron Eason were all elected to the Board of Education.
In 1914 the Jimtown District and White Oak District consolidated in order to build a rural high school which was the site of the last school building in Jimtown. George and P. Gilliland sold five acres to the new school district to accommodate grades 1-8 in addition to two years of high school. Interestingly, Alfred Berry and Aaron Eason determined the center of the new district by counting buggy wheel revolutions from one side of the district to the other.
According to my information, “Irving Hess was the first high school principal. Margaret White taught the grades in the newly organized district.” The article goes on to state that the students in their third and fourth years of high school were bussed to Glenwood High School by Walter Spargur.
Unfortunately, the high school closed in 1933. A short thirty years later, the school was completely closed. Those students were then transported to various schools in Queen City, Lancaster, or Livonia.
There will no longer be any drives by this old building since it was demolished in 2024. Another piece of history has fallen by the way side
Much of the information for this writing was taking from the country school file at the Schuyler County Historical Society. Now that it is open for the summer, feel free to stop by the museum and take a look this file and more for great Schuyler County historical information. Summer hours are from 1-4 pm on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. It is also open on many Monday evenings in conjunction with the new and highly successful farmer’s market held across the street. The new Schuyler County Historical Society “Hometown Kitchen” cookbooks are available at the museum. They are absolutely amazing and disappear quickly for the small donation of $20 to the museum. The recipe submissions from our county are excellent and the volunteers have worked diligently to help make this a success. Cid Redding Hayes utilized her delightfully creative side to make sure this cookbook not only has wonderful culinary appeal, but shares a wealth of our rich history in a well-organized and attractive format. She has spent countless hours typing, designing, printing, laminating, and binding them by hand. They are definitely a priceless treasure that would have been guaranteed to make her mother, Sandra Redding, beam with pride.
There are many interesting events scheduled this summer at the museum. June is our Civil War month. We will have several 1860s era crafts and displays. On June 22 from 1-4 pm we will be having a special event. Drew Bruner, our local expert on the Civil War Battle of Lancaster, will be in attendance to make a presentation about the battle. He will also be available to answer questions. Kevin Fox from Clark County will be here in full Civil War uniform and share information about a soldier’s life. Corbin Bulechek will provide musical entertainment. There will be food and fun exhibits. If you wish to join in the fun of dressing the part, a prize will be given to the best 1860s style costume. Please stop by and enjoy the fun while learning some valuable historic information.