Tuesday, March 16, 2021

School days in Union Township's Goshen district

Several items that had belonged to veteran educator Ella (McCann) Herald arrived at the museum on Monday, courtesy of her daughter, Jan Herald Conradt. Among them were these two photographs taken at Goshen School in Union Township, Lucas County, not long after the turn of the 20th century.

Ella's grandparents, Lawrence and Anna (Dunn) McCann, lived just across what now is U.S. Highway 65 east of the school and the McCanns in the photographs were their children, including Ella's father, Thomas.

Judging by the apparent age of the McCann children in the photographs, the older of the two was taken about 1905, when Anne and Julia would have been 5 and 6 years old, respectively; and their oldest brothers, twins Edward and Thomas, about 14.

The scholars are identified as (first row from left) Anne MCann, Julia McCann, Zella Barger, Marie Stearns, Billy Williams, Lola Barger, Hal Barger and Bruce Brown; (second row) Tessie Williams, Belva Lee, Marie Stearns, John Jones, Eldon Jones and Elmer McCann; and (third row) Lucy Stearns, Cora Delmar, Ed McCann, Ora Barger, Fred Newsome (teacher), Tom McCann, Ralph Jones and Lonnie (Lawrence) McCann.

The second photo probably was taken about 10 years later, about 1915. By this time, Ed McCann, just 19, had been killed during 1911 by a deadly combination of measles, flu and pneumonia while teaching the Pollard School, west of Goshen.

The students in this photograph are identified as (first row from left) Noel Roberts, Leota Roberts, Floyd Johnson, Fern Humphrey, Lela Wheeler, Herman Cottrell, Willard Woods and Gerald Barger; (second row) Earnest Swanson, Hal Barger, Roy Woods, Vada Wheeler, Alberta Woods, George Pulley, Carl Cottrell, Zella Barger, Fern Mundell and Claude Humphrey; (third row) Anne McCann, Edith Roberts, Olive Woods, Ethel Sanders (teacher), John Jones, Julia McCann, Lola Barger and Clell Woods.

The land ownership map below, showing the location of Goshen School and Church, dates from 1912.




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