The Campbellville Schoolhouse 
 
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"while words of learned length  
and thundering sound amazed 
the gazing rustics ranged around: 
and still they gazed, and the wonder grew, 
that one small head could carry all he knew" 
 
by Master Gibson - the village schoolmaster. 
 
Education in the mid 1800's was vastly different between the big cities and the small rural villages located deep in the pristine countryside where pioneers were hard at work laboring to establish their new farms and business trades. Working from sunrise to sunset the whole family engaged together in making their farms and trades successful.  
 
The First Campbellville Schoolhouse:  
 
On May the 6th in the year 1853 a one-half acre piece of land of Thomas Coggins was purchased by the Forks Township School District Directors for the amount of five dollars. The school house was located viz:- "Beginning at a post on the line separating John Campbell's land from the said Thomas Coggins where said line crosses the state road."  Those directors being; Rev. Richard Bedford, John Little, William Molyneux, Richard Rowe, William Lambert and Edward Rindbold all  residents of the township. Basic education was finally coming within reach of all the pioneers establishing themselves in the county. Though some thought schooling was not needed, most welcomed the chance for their children to be educated. Other parents saw the importance for schooling, but needing their children's labor, found it difficult to send them everyday. Generally, more girls attended than boys. But as the years went by, more boys would find time to attend. Their parents were starting to realize that just being able to read and write was going to be of great benefit to them.  
 
The schoolhouse was very small wIth only two windows opposing each other and a solid front door as an entrance. Pegs were placed along two walls where the children could hang their coats in the winter. It had a small wood-burning stove and small benches and desks for the children to use. It was bare and rustic, but sufficient. This one-room schoolhouse was used for teaching, church services and other community meetings for over three decades. 
 
Then on Friday, the 8th of June in the year 1884 the first Campbellville schoolhouse that had been built in 1853 caught fire and burned to the ground. The cause was unknown, but it was suspected to have been purposely set on fire, leaving the building unfit for use and considered an inconvenient and dangerous location for rebuilding.  
 
 
The Second Campbellville Schoolhouse: 
 
  
 
1884 - 1924 
 
Powell & John W. Norton, the current owners then of the Campbellville mill property, Gristmill, General Store and Post Office, offered to build a new schoolhouse closer to the mill on their property. On the 31st of July in 1884 Powell Norton was granted an indenture from the Forks Township School Board for the amount of twenty-five dollars. The following month Powell Norton and neighbors cleared the small parcel on his land of eight rods square and erected the new Campbellville schoolhouse. The entrance to the new schoolhouse was on Kelly Hill road just above the millhouse.  Classes commenced in September. This schoolhouse taught local students for the next four decades. The last class held there was May the 12th, 1924.  
 
Then around the year 1935 the old Campbellville schoolhouse, which had been vacant since 1924, burned down. When the township was widening the road, a fuse was lit to a charge of dynamite, the match dropped into the dry leaves, which caught fire. The worker did not dare approach the fire until the charge had exploded. By that time the fire was out of control. It burned part of Kelly Hill and the schoolhouse before it was brought under controll. 
 
 
Some teaching tools used included: 
 
The New England Primer, Dilworth's & Fenning's Spelling books, Dilworth's Arithmatic, McGuffey's Reader and the Blue Back Speller all  taught them " 'read'n, 'rite'n and 'rithmatic taught by the rule of the hickory stick." 
 
  
* * * * * 
 
Teachers 
The Conveyors of Knowledge 
To teach is to touch a life forever 
 
TEACHERS PHOTO GALLERY
 
 
 
Agnes Leahy -1913
 
Miss Leahy,  
 
one of twelve siblings, was born and raised on the family farm in Sugar Ridge not far from the Campbellville schoolhouse.  Agnes was twenty six years old and lived at home when teaching there. Two years later she married Lawrence E. Cullen and moved to New Albany. Many of her pupils were distant relatives. 
 
click link below to see her 1913 school report 
1913 School Report
 
 
Genevieve Marshall 
1923 - 1924
 
Miss Marshall,  
 
Any information available about Miss Marshall 
would be most appreciated. Info such as, where 
she was born, when & who she married, any 
personal type things like shown of the above teacher. 
 
    Email to:  campbell9695@sbcglobal.net
 
 
 
Teachers and their pupils 1913 to 1917. 
 
1913   1st - 7th grade
1914   1st - 8th grade
1915   2nd - 8th grade
1916   1st - 8th grade
1917   1st - 8th grade
Miss Agnes Leahy
Miss Mary McIntire
Mr. Claude J Shaffer
Mr. C. J. Shaffer
Mr. C. J. Shaffer
 
Cletus Kester 
Regis Kelly 
Valeria Bahl 
Albert Kester 
Francis Kelly 
Florence Kelly 
Alice Kelly 
Raymond Kelly 
George Bahl 
Jerome Kelly 
Erma Kester 
Rebecca Keeny 
Grace Bahl 
Julia Kelly 
James Kelly
 
Jerome Kelly 
Raymond Kelly 
Albert Kester 
Cletis Kester 
Francis Kelly 
Regis Kelly 
Willie Kelly 
Rebecca Kenney 
Julia Kenney 
Florence Kelly 
Alice Kelly 
Erma Kester 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Grace Bahl 
George Bahl 
Earma Kester 
Florence Kelly 
Valeria Bahl 
Alice Kelly 
Raymond Kelly 
Francis Kelly 
Albert Kester 
Vincent Bahl 
Cletuis Kester 
Regis Kelly 
Willie Kelly 
 
 
 
 
Erma Kester 
Florence Kelly 
Alice Kelly 
Valeria Bahl 
Genevieve Frawley 
Mary Kelly 
Albert Kester 
Cletius Kester 
Vincent Bahl 
Regis Kelly 
Willie Kelly 
Raymond Kelly 
Francis Kelly 
Ivan Frawley  
 
 
 
Alice Kelly 
Valeria Bahl 
Raymond Kelly 
Albert Kester 
Vincent Bahl 
Willie Kelly 
Cletius Kester 
Ivan Frawley 
Genevieve Frawley 
Ethel Wank
 
The spelling of the above students names are as they appeared on the actual school  report. 
 
 
Teachers and their pupils 1918 to 1924. 
 
1918   2nd - 8th grade
1919   1st - 7th grade
1922
1923
1924
Miss Marcela G. Scanlin
Miss Julia Kelly
Miss Myrtle Hansknecht
Miss Genevieve Marshall
Miss Genevieve Marshall
 
Raymond Kelly 
Albert Kester 
William Kelly 
Cletius Kester 
Vincent Bahl 
Ethel Wank
 
Albert Kester 
Raymond Kelly 
Cletius Kester 
Vincent Bahl 
Willie Kelly 
Lewis Wank 
Ethel Wank 
Margaret Gabriel 
Jeanatta Gabriel
 
Ethel Wank 
Lewis Wank 
Edith Shaffer 
Winifred Keeney 
Ilene Keeney 
George Gabor 
Gerald Shaffer
 
Ethel Wank 
Winifred Keeney 
Ilene Keeney 
Edith Shaffer 
Hazel Rinehold 
Edna Shaffer 
Anna Rinebold 
Neta Rinebold 
Lewis Wank 
George Gabor 
Gerald Shaffer 
Philip Shaffer 
Charles Hunsinger 
William Brown
Ethel Wank 
Hazel Rinebold 
Anna Rinebold 
Pauline Shaffer 
Edith Shaffer 
Edna Shaffer 
Neta Rinebold 
Ilene Keeney 
Winifred Keeney 
Marion Driscoll 
Lewis Wank 
Gerald Shaffer 
Philip Shaffer 
George Gabor 
Carl Driscoll
 
The spelling of the above students names are as they appeared on the actual school  report. 
 
 
[click to view the 1913 year report ] 
 
1913 School Report  
 
 
From a school report published in the Sullivan Review for the month ending April 2nd 1896, 
Teacher Cora Warburton reports: 
 
The Fifth grade reading class was: Maynard Warburton, Josephine Kelley, Ettie Faucett (Fawcett) and Sumner Warburton. 
The Fourth grade reading class was: Agnes Kelley, Freddie Clark, Newman Warburton, Katie Warburton, Minnie Mullenix and Joseph Bedford. 
The First grade reading class was: Amos Wank and Joseph Kelley. Students that attended class  every day during the last six months were Ettie Faucett, Amos Wank and Newman Warburton. 
 
Note: Bob Sweeney submitted this interesting item.  Student Agnes Kelley remarked years later that she would walk to school barefoot in march with snow still on the ground. She remembered coming home to eat a big pot of potatoes that had been cooking all day long.
 
 
 
 
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