9. Remembering Wayne High School In Randolph County, Indiana

By Mrs. Chester (Thelma Smith) Stump, 1991 News Gazette

 When I was a child there were eleven one-room school houses in Wayne Township. I was the only daughter of W. R. and Jennie Smith and I had four brothers, Claude, Harry, Don and Elvin. They went to school #5 which was located on the corner of State Road 227 and the South Salem-Jerico road. Bernard Good now resides there. My brothers graduated from the 8th grade school #5. At that time. we lived on the State Line. one mile east, so we had to walk approximately 1 1/2 miles to school. I started to school the year my brother Elvin graduated in 1912, and I had to miss a lot of school that winter because of bad weather. Don Ward was the teacher at school #5. Any of the children who graduated from one of the one room schools had the opportunity to attend the Union City High School. They had to provide their own transportation. A few years later, as I remember in 1917, the Union City school burned Down. The school had an iron fence around the school yard and it was decided that the fence was too dangerous and not safe for the children. The fence was put up for sale before the new school was built, and my father purchased the iron fence. He and my four brothers took down the fence and installed it out on our farm where it still stands. Early in 1912, plans were made to build the Wayne Township school which at that time was known as school #6. In July of that year, the building contract was awarded to G.W. Carson at a total cost of $23,000. C.C. Shultz was township trustee and when his term expired, Jim Frazier was elected. During that time a local farmer, Bert Thornburg, made a school hack from wood. It was made at a local lumber yard here in Union City and was put on a Ford chassis. The remainder of the new motor busses were built at a local factory. Prior to the more modern motor busses, I rode to school in the horse-drawn hacks. My father was one of the eleven drivers. Back in those days, the horse-drawn hacks had a "pot belly" coal stove in the front to keep the children warm. Marvin Heuss, a senior in school, was my hack driver. I still remember when I was age 7 and on a very cold day, Marvin got too close to the edge of the road and our hack went in the ditch and rolled over on a picket fence. The picket fence came up through the side windows. No one was hurt, only terribly frightened. Marvin held his foot up against the stove to keep it from falling over until we children could get out. He burned a hole in his shoe during this frightening experience. The hack driver furnished us with a board to put on our laps and we would play cards and jacks stones while riding to and from school to pass the time. The next year, 1913, Uncle Dave Gettinger drove the hack and he was eventually replaced by Ennis Bennett. When the weather got bad and we got too much snow, he would hitch up to a "bob sled." I still remember the time we slipped off the road and upset. We got on the hack at 6:30 and didn't get to school until 8:30. Two hours was a long time to ride back in those days. It wasn't until my senior year, in 1922, that I rode on the more modern motor bus. Another point I should mention is that even though Wayne school was grades one through twelve and the township had gone from eleven one-room schools to one high school, there were residents who lived in the northern part of the township who felt their children had too far and too long to travel to school. Then in 1917, the Wilson School, grades one through eight was erected on the old Union City-Winchester road to help solve the dispute. Children residing north of the Union City/Winchester road attended Wilson school up to the eighth grade, and those residing south of the road attended Wayne High School. This continued until 1938 leaving only one school in the township. Wayne School continued to progress until the "consolidation times" hit our area. The last graduating class was in 1957. Jim Frazier later purchased the Wayne School and raised chickens in it. Apparently this didn't prove successful and the school was eventually torn down. Only the old school #6 still stands and it was made into a dwelling. My oldest son, Carl, graduated in 1947 from Lynn High School during the time we farmed in the southern part of Randolph County. Later that year we moved back to the "home place" on the Arba Road and my twin sons, Donald and Ronald graduated from Wayne. I am proud to be a member of the 1923 graduation class of Wayne High School. Other members of my class were Mabel Burk, Ralph Shockney, Herbert Wisner, Herman Heuss, Blanche Jeffery and Juanita Ingle. Herman Heuss, Juanita (Chenoweth) Ingle and myself are still living.