The Lucasville Area Schools -- Learning In the Valley of Opportunity

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”

– Benjamin Franklin

Here is old Ben with a quote so simplistic that it borders on the mundane. Everyone understands the value of a good education. It is the key to a successful life. A superior public education levels that playing field for all youth aspiring to achieve the ideal of the American Dream. It remains a passport to the future. Yet … maintaining a great educational system must never be taken for granted. The challenge is daunting.

How blessed is the Lucasville area to have a community that fully supports its excellent schools? This commitment is firmly rooted in the history of the region. The achievements of the institutions acknowledge the love the community maintains for its local schools. More than any other asset, Lucasville values its strong system of education. It has always supported superior educational development.

History of Local Education

In 1860 four different schools were organized in Lucasville and the surrounding area when Valley Township was cut off from Jefferson Township. They were as follows:

• Johnson School, located north of Lucasville in Clifford. It later became the home of Ora Nickols.
• Lucasville School, located on West Street, was on the site of the Esto Davis home. Later, it was moved to North Street and razed in 1952 when the VonLuhrte Buiding was erected.
• Cockrells Run School, which later became the home of Shirley Lucas.
• Marsh School, located on Rt. 23 in the first house north of Huston Hollow. This later became the home of Mrs. Justice.

A fifth school – the Egbert School – was added in September 1878. And, in 1858. a school was built north of Lucasville. It was described as “a small, inconvenient, two-room building.” No other information is currently available about that institution other than it is known that the structure burned down.

Millers Run School was added in 1878. It was located across from Miller's Run Methodist Church.

Together, the schools were known as the Valley Township Schools. Historian Nelson Wiley Evans wrote in the History of Scioto County, Ohio: Together with a Pioneer Record of Southern Ohio (1903)) …

“Valley Township Schools are among the best in the county. The township pays fair wages to its teachers and has from 8 to 10 months school (assumed length of term). The Lucasville School is a sub-district but arrangements are made by which the principal receives better wages than the other teachers of the township. Pupils from districts near attend the Lucasville School after finishing the shorter terms elsewhere, and the class is quite large for two or three months in the spring … The principal C. D. Walden receives $82.50 per month; the other male teachers receive $40.00 and the females $35.00 per month. The average attendance is 30 pupils for each school. The school property is worth about $4,000.”

1905 marked the first graduating class from a four-year high school. The first graduates were Genevieve Hamilton Marsh and Eva Hemmans Thomas (and perhaps, Alfa Miles?)

Then, in 1909, the school building was moved to the location of the what would become the Legion Hall. It was later moved to the Davis home location. 1909 also marks the year Mr. Frank Alley took charge of the Lucasville schools. It was mainly under his leadership that a new high school building was built. He drew the plans for the structure. Alley is said to have “raised the class of Valley Township Schools from third to first place in the state.”

Local writer and historian Nell Bumgarner recollected …

“By 1910 probably eighty students completely filled the one large room … By 1912, Valley Township consolidated. School buses – big wagons pulled by mules (some with heated bricks for little feet in winter) – brought students from outlying one-room schools to Lucasville.”

In 1911, a new, 12-room Valley Township school was erected on a piece of land north of the cemetery. It was used for both elementary and high school students. The structure had no inside restrooms but “the finest outside facilities.” Heating was still a problem, but the school had three science recitation rooms, three laboratories, and a study hall. The school was impressive for its time – reportedly “huge beyond imagination.” It even had boardwalks out front “to carry the muddy feet inside.” There was no auditorium as the old 1849 red brick Methodist Church served that purpose.

The Lucaville High School's three year course became a four-year course. The first four-year high school course graduated in 1912. Graduation exercises were held in the Methodist Church. Salutatorian was Roy Carley, and valedictorian was Nell Yeager.

Much credit was due to Professor Francis S. Alley, Louis McKinley, and “in a real departure in those days, one lady high school teacher, Miss Eulah Jones of Omega, Ohio.” In that year, a celebration and homecoming was held in the old Masonic Hall, home to “so many Decoration Day dinners, traveling shows, and class reunions.”

I discovered a story about Professor F. S. Alley in Brant's paper The Whittlers' Gazette. The Portsmouth Library has several editions of the wonderful publication on public view. And guess what? In Brant's newspaper I found a true gem for those who hold Lucasville schools near and dear. Allow me to share it with you ...

“I went to our High School Alumni Banquet and had the pleasure of listening to an address by Prof. F. S. Alley. Professor Alley is past 85. He spent 48 years supervising schools in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky, seven at the head of the Lucasville schools. He is now a successful poultry raiser and lives on Cockrell's Run.

“Contrary to precedent, Mr. Alley deliberately left a large city school to devote the rest of his active school life to work in the hills, in response to a call from the forward-looking, local board of education which had asked the head of Ohio State University to recommend the best educator in Ohio to assist in carrying out its revolutionary plans.

“Under his leadership, Valley Township was the first in all Ohio to centralize its schools and establish a first grade, rural high school. Mr. Alley said in his address that he had never known of any other school that supplied free text books. So new and successful was the whole idea, Dr. Graham from Ohio State University paid the school several visits and made *lantern slides which he used in lectures and duplicate sets were sent to colleges in every state in the union, to South America, Canada, Mexico, and even to London, England. Mr. Alley has one of these sets in his possession.

“Dr. Graham is now at the head of a department of our Federal Bureau of Education in Washington and no later than last summer, in a lecture before the 4-H Clubs of Ohio again told the story of the development of the Lucasville Schools.

“It is significant that Mr. Alley who had lived in and was familiar with every nook and cranny of at least two states should choose from among them all to come back to the hills of Lucasville to make his permanent home. And the Whittlers' Gazette for one herewith pays tribute to his exceptional abilities and accomplishments. Proud indeed are we to call him a fellow citizen.”

* Lantern slides – a slide or transparency for projection by a slide projector or magic lantern.

(The Whittlers' Gazette. Official publication of The Whittlers' Clubs of America. National Headquarters Brant's Store, Main Street, Lucasville, Ohio. July 1930 Edition.)

With this link, I soon discovered an article from The Newark Weekly Advocate…

“One of the best examples of what can be accomplished in a centralized school through better trained teachers and more complete equipment is found in the school at Lucasville, Valley Township, Scioto County, Ohio.

“The valuation of this township is but a million and a half dollars. Still, through the leadership of Superintendent F. S. Alley, a centralized school has been erected and a fine equipment for industrial work installed in the building.

“A regular four-year course is given in the high school by three trained teachers, each of whom conducts a particular phase of the industrial branches, manual training, domestic science, and agriculture. A large basement room is divided into laboratories to aid in the teaching of chemistry, physics, biology, manual training, and domestic science. The manual training room contains 15 individual work benches and the domestic science room 10 individual stoves, two sewing machines, dining room table, and dishes. All counters, lockers, and tables were built by the boys in their manual training work.

“There is also a room in the building which is frequently used for public lectures. Three acres of land space for a school garden and plans are being made this spring to set out shrubbery in desirable places about the grounds.”

(“Lucasville Valley A Progressive School. The Newark Weekly Advocate.http://old.minford.k12.oh.us/mhs/history/PortsmouthHistory/Schools/Valley.htm.

May 28, 1914.)

In 1926, Jefferson Township became part of a new Valley Rural School District created by the County Board of education.

A new Valley Local High School was started in 1954 on 12 acres on the Lucasville-Minford Road purchased from Paul Tomilson. The estimated cost was $500,000 aided by a federal grant based on the number of children of federal employees in the district. It opened for classes in the fall of 1956.

Of course, this brief history brings the reader to the Valley Local Schools era of the mid '50s through the renovation of the 1990s and into today. It is evident that the emphasis on education in the Lucasville area has been a vital attraction for its continued growth and prosperity. The schools remain a great source of pride for all residents. With an illustrious past, the schools continue to showcase the talented youth of the area. They are, indeed, the greatest resource of the future.

Move over, Ben Franklin. Allow me to end this entry with a quote from one of my favorite educators …

“The more that you read, the more things you will know, 

the more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”

– Dr. Seuss