(The following was originally published in the July 28, 1939 edition of the Columbus Dispatch and is reprinted from “Reflections II”, a collection of local stories available at the Grove City Welcome Center and Museum. Any opinions made in the article are from the author.)
NOTE: The present-day Darbydale was then called “Little Pennsylvania”.
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Green expect to have a marvelous time Sunday afternoon for the 101st anniversary of the founding of Pennsylvania School District in Pleasant Township near Harrisburg, Ohio. Along with their enjoyment will be a note of sorrow for the one-room schoolhouse, which was used as an educational center for five generations of their family, and will be officially retired from service at the reunion.
The Little Old Red School House is always had a tender spot in the hearts of the Green family all through their entire history. Some members of the family have always been closely connected with it. Mr. and Mrs. Green who are 79 and 75 are in charge of the reunion which is expected to attract 1,000 people.
Just 66 years ago Mrs. Green, then Ella Hay and her husband played together in the schoolyard. She was the granddaughter of Edward Hey who had to quit the site to the Pennsylvania School District when the land was settled by members of the state that bears its name.
She recalls when she and her husband would participate in the neighborhood snowball fights, go sleigh riding and many other fun activities. All their lives the Greens have resided in Pleasant Township and nine years ago the couple purchased a grocery store in Harrisburg. They’re both active in the store and have built up quite a cordon of friends in their 18 years of residence there.
The Green’s seven sons and two daughters all attended the school. Through the ages when her grandfather, Edward Hay lived in the school district, there have been three changes in the school. First it was a log cabin and then the one-room edifice that stands in the corner of the property with a new coat of white paint ready for auction by the school board. Up until June the red brick one room school building, the last one in this part of the state served the Pennsylvania School District, but now is being closed and the pupils moved to the new school in Harrisburg. After Sunday the land goes back to the Greens as direct descendants of Edward Hay.
From noon to sundown there will be a basket picnic on the old school grounds under the direction of the Greens and their committee consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Lovingshimer, Mr. and Mrs. Reiter, Mr. and Mrs. McFarland, Mr. and Mrs. Ringer and Mr. and Mrs. Hughes.
They will have a reading of minutes for the first meeting of the school board to follow with a roll call of former scholars by former teachers. included are Della Spangler of Green Hill, John Hare, Hattie Collins, Eva McNinch, Mary Keyzer, Ora Bodle and Belle Leiter of Columbus, Percy Rider of Grove City, and his wife Mina (last teacher at the school), Mrs. Gordon Sabina of Philo, Effie Redmond and Hester Haenszel of Harrisburg, Ruth Schilling of Georgesville, Mary Brynum of Galloway, Gladys Beavers of Commercial Point, Fletcher Andrix of London, Clyde Breckonridge of Pleasant Corners and others.
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