Dayton School

This Institution is located in the town of Dayton, a village containing about four hundred inhabitants, and occupying a beautiful site in the extreme north-east part of the county of Armstrong. The town is in the midst of a thrifty agricultural community, and people of both town and county are noted for their morality, intelligence, and devotion to the cause of education.

When it was first known, in the summer of 1866, that an orphan school was needed somewhere in this or the adjoining counties, it was very generallly conceded that Dayton was the proper place for its establishment. Her citizens having been apprised of this fact, promptly took the subject under consideration, and after holding one or two meetings, and determining to engage in the enterprise, deputed Rev. D. K. Duff to confer, in reference to the matter, with Hon. Thomas H. Burrowes, then Superintendent of Soldiers' Orphans. Dr. Burrowes, having been advised of the movement here, visited the place, and, after making a verbal agreement with some of the leading men for the opening of a school, selected the site on which the buildings now stand. A company was then formed with a capital of $15,000, and was composed of twenty-two members; namely, Revs. D. K. Duff and T. M. Elder, Drs. William Hosack and J. R. Crouch, and Messrs. Robert Marshall, Wesley Pontius, William R. Hamilton, William Marshall, T. P. Ormond, Thomas H. Marshall, Smith Neal, William Morrow, W. J. Burns, J. W. Marshall, Samuel Good, J. H. Rupp, William Hindman, John Beck, Jacob Beck, John Craig, David Lawson, and David Byers.

During the fall of 1866 the company bought thirty-five acres of land, and immediately proceeded to the erection of buildings. Three two-story houses were built, as may be seen by reference to the engraving preceding this sketch. The first house, 72X24 feet in size, was ready for use in the early part of the spring of 1867; the second, 72x36 feet, was built during the summer and fall of the same year; and the third, 86x40 feet, was ready to be occupied by the 1st of September, 1868. These houses were all substantial frame structures, well suited to their purpose, and, together, capable of accommodating about two hundred and twenty-five children. In December, 1873, two of these houses, the first and the last built, and nearly all their contents, were destroyed by fire; but were replaced within six months by two others, one of which--the smaller--was eight feet wider than the one it replaced; while both were better and more convenient than the former ones.