Brown Township Building

The attention paid to education is evidenced to the stranger by the size, location and character of the school buildings. The new school building in Dallas is located on two acres of ground in Hulse's Addition, in the northwest part of town. There is a fine three-story brick structure, 34x56 feet, erected in 1873, at a cost of $10,000. The builders were Robinson & Frybarger, of Greenville. The contract was for $8,400. Extras amounted to $1,600. The upper story is used as a school hall for lectures, entertainments, etc., is well seated and supplied with accessions to these ends. The second story is the high-school department, and the first or lower, the primary and intermediate. The first Superintendent was J. M. Syckes, who, with his wife as assistant and a good staff of teachers, secured to the community an efficient school. He was succeeded by the present Superintendent, John S. Royer, a man of marked ability and great popularity as a teacher. He is one of the County Examiners, and by his influence, experience and presence has done much to give the school the excellent reputation it now enjoys. 0. J. Holloway was the last teacher in the grammar department, Miss Lizzie McAlpine, intermediate, and Flora Riffle, primary. Miss McAlpine has taught in the same room continuously since the school began and is in good repute. A fair supply of customary school apparatus has been provided. The officers of the present School Roard are Dr. W. E. Hoover, S. Riffle and J. R. Knouff. There are two organizations or lodges of secret societies in Dallas, the Ansonia Lodge, A., F. & A. M., chartered on October 21, 1874, by the Grand Lodge of Ohio, and the Odd Fellows, Ansonia Lodge, No. 605, instituted June 18, 1875. The former received their charter from Asa H. Ratten, G. M., and Ferdinand Wilmer, Chairman of the Committee on Charters and Dispensations. The first officers were John S. Royer, W. M.; S. A. Hostetter, S. W., and W. E. Hooven, J. W. The lodge thus started gained rapidly and has a present membership of seventy-one persons, elected from the very best men of the vicinity. The charter members were J. S. Royer, S. A. Hostetter, W. E. Hooven, David Riffile, J. E. Leas, Jacob J. Pohlman, L. C. Anderson, M. W. Rurtch, James McFarland, John R. Wertz, Phillip H. Cromer, Robert Davidson, E. M. Crick, Alexander Loppen, Joseph Smith and Orlando Porter. The present officers are Joshua Herring, Master ; S. A, Hostetter, Senior Warden ; James Abbott, Junior Warden ; J. S. Royer, Secretary ; James White, Treasurer ; Charles Harmon, Senior Deacon ; O. F. Johnson, Junior Deacon, and William Davison, Tiler. The place of meeting alternate Friday evenings, is at Hostetter's Hall.

Passage source: The History of Darke County, Ohio, Containing a History of the County; Its Cities, Towns, Etc.; General and Local Statistics; Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men;, published 1880.

The place has the usual accessories of shops for blacksmiths, saddlers, butchers, shoemaking and groceries. There are two hotels - the Miller House, on the corner of Main and Weller streets, kept by Henry E. Miller, and the Ansonia Hotel, by Messrs. L. and C. J. Wolf. This latter house was built in 1854-55 by John Hathaway, who was its first landlord. A number of persons have had charge prior to present owners.

Passage source: The History of Darke County, Ohio, Containing a History of the County; Its Cities, Towns, Etc.; General and Local Statistics; Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men;, published 1880.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Brown Township - 18,754 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.