Lisbon Township (Sussex), District No. 10 Graded School
South St. (Maple Ave.) and Main St.
Transcribed and Edited by Michael R. Reilly 9/17/2007
Updated 09/16/2007
The first school was organized in 1849 for Lisbon Township School District No. 10. A special meeting was held November 27, 1849 to get the ball rolling on the new school. By June 1, 1850, the first Sussex school was built on a 50 by 100 foot lot donated by William Weaver, Jr. (1802-96).
This wooden school was built in 1854 (or 1851?) for about $1,700 [Note: In an article from May 20, 2003, Fred Keller states the cost was $150 - And in an article from Sept 12, 2007: The original wooden school was built for $80, and in 1851 and additional $71 helped finish it. (The outdoor privie was a steal at $8.50)]. behind what is now Paul Cain's Service Station on Maple Avenue.
The teacher was paid $66 per school year. Later additions to the school included an outhouse for $8.50 and a wood-burning stove for $13.46. The first school teacher, Janette Moyes, started at $1.25 per week in 1850, but her salary rose to $66 a year the next year. Cady took over as the Civil War began.
Students were expected to provide the wood. Children attending school had a charge of furnishing a half-cord of firewood to help heat the school. If they failed to bring it, the following year that student had to furnish one cord.
By 1853, the school building was valued at $150. The original land claimant, William Weaver, leased the land to the school for an annual rent of $2 for 15 years or "as long as needed for school purposes".
Children attended the school until they felt they were done attending school. Few went on to high school. Exhaustive tests were taken to qualify for graduation and the possibility of going on to high school.
The winter term of four months started on the second Monday of November; a four-month summer session started in May.
The student population outgrew the old wooden school, so in 1867 one acre of land next to Sussex Creek, on what was then the extreme eastern edge of old Sussex, was purchased. The second school, a two-room cream brick structure, cost $1,683.41.
Dana C. Ewell of Cincinnati recently called the Sussex Lisbon Area Historical Society to find out more about his great-great grandfather James Marvin Cady, a school-teacher who taught at the Sussex No. 10 School (Sussex Main Street School) during the early years of the Civil War. Cady volunteered for the Union Army but didn't make it back, leaving behind a young wife, Mary Ann Medhurst, and their daughter Margaret. Ewell, it turns out, is the Sussex teacher's great-great grandson.
Sources:
Sussex Main Street School helped earn tuition cost by Fred H. Keller, Sussex Village Historian, Source: Sussex Sun, Tuesday, November 29, 1002
Principal Stier kept School District No. 10 in shape, 1906 by Fred H. Keller, Sussex Village Historian, Source: Sussex Sun, Tuesday, May 20, 2003
SUSSEX HAD FOUR MAIN STREET SCHOOLS by Fred H. Keller, Sussex Village Historian, Source: Sussex Sun, Tuesday, May 11, 2005
Cincinnati man finds family roots in Sussex by Fred H. Keller, Sussex Village Historian, Source: Sussex Sun, Wednesday, Sept 12, 2007