Niles Township’s District 5 school existed as early as 1852. That year, three teachers at Districts 4, 5, and 10 were paid $127.541! Six years later, the first District 5 schoolhouse -probably a log building- was replaced after George Huffman granted the township a portion of his farm to build a new structure2.
Continue reading “Niles Township’s Huffman schoolhouse in Delaware County”
D.B. Moore was a Delaware County farmer and an early advocate for free public roads. A resident of rural Niles Township, Moore was deeply suspicious of big-city big-wigs and their big-time motives! That’s part of what makes his story -and the story of the Dunkirk & Moore Pike1– interesting. That, and gold. Gold makes everything more intriguing.
Continue reading “The Dunkirk & Moore Pike: There’s gold in that thar…gravel?”
One of the earliest roads in Niles Township was laid out a mile west of the the township’s eastern boundary sometime around 1836. Today known as North County Road 800-East, early settlers referred to it as Green Street since most of them came from Greene County, Ohio1. It was on this road that the District 1 schoolhouse, later known as Green or Green Street, was established on land that John Battreall donated in 18402. That last E in “Greene” got dropped somewhere along the way.
Continue reading “Niles Township’s Green Street schoolhouse in Delaware County”