Johnson School

Johnson School is known to have been in existence as early as 1865. It was located on a hill on the Piqua pike about midway between Piqua and Mt. Olivet. The home of Russell Brumangen now stands on that site. It was called Chyreler School.

The land was donated by Mr. Bill Johnson, great-gradefather of Arthur Wells. The building was built by his parents. A huge fire place heated the building and the fuel was provided by the parents. Since the area around was wooded this was a simple matter. If they did run short, the big boys were more than happy to be excused from school to gather broken limbs for the fire.

The first seats were made of logs split in half and had no backs. A recitation bench was placed near the teacher's desk for classes. Water was carried by the children from the spring in the hollow nearby. A common drinking cup servedthe whole school. Lunch was brought in small tin buckets or baskets.This usually consisted of side meat and blackberry preserves on biswit. Some had only plain cornbread.

One Sunday afternoon about 1890 fire destroyed the first building. Because most of the area was covered with trees and fences were made of rails the fire soon scattered over the entire neighborhood.

The surrounding land was sold at this time and the school It was moved to a nearby location now owned by Howard Caldwell. The name was changed to Johnson The same building serves as a residence. A long iron woodstove heated this building. The trade name of this stove was "Climax." One Friday when the weekly spelling bee was being conducted the teacher gave out the word Climax. One boy glanced at the stove and spelled the word, after several others had tried and gone to the end of the line. They were just a little unhappy over the occasion but the boy explained that it was bold and plain so everyone could have seen it.

New mordern seats and blackboards were soon added to the room and later the pot-bellied coal stove took the place of the wood stove.

At this time the attendance was around eighty. The first eight grades were taught by one teacher. Ray's arithmetic and McGuffey's Reader were two of the most important that were studied. Ages ranged from six to twenty and lots of times students were larger the teacher. This proposed no problem because most of the teachers were men and when he twirled his long hichory (withe) stick against the ceiling discipline prevailed.

The School had Trustee that tended to the census and saw that a teacher was hired. Some of the first trustees were Mr. Lafayette Wood, Mr. John Wood, Mr. E. N. Reed. and Among the early teachers were: Miss Bina Dailey, Mr. John Sims, (father of Thaxter Sims), Mr. John McDowell, Mr. John Dotson, Mr. John (Kate) Zoller, Mr. Clarence Mullikin, Mrs. Lemuel (Mary) Wood, and Mr. Helm Woodward. Mr. Woodward was the first teacher in the new building. These teachers had singin, scripture reading and prayer every morning. The children were taught to read music along with the three R's. Most of the teachers walked long distances and built the fire after they arrived. Some paid pupils living closed by to build them.