A Letter About School Days in Western Defiance County

After an article about schools in 1889 appeared in the Sherwood Chronicle, Mrs. J. E. Etchie wrote a letter to the paper telling of some of her educational experiences in the area.  The writer was most likely Josephine Ellen Etchie, former owner and publisher of this same paper, who often contributed items even after she was no longer in the business.  This letter, which was reprinted in the paper in April 1948, found the writer reminiscing about her attendance at several different schools in the county.  

"SCHOOL DAYS

Editor, The Chronicle:

In remembrance over my early school days, I can recall when I read in the primer.

My first teacher that I can remember was an elderly man by the name of Crowell.  Because of the small salary paid teachers in those days, he boarded among the scholars.  When in our house, I recall when supper was ready and he was yet in the school house, mother would send me to tell him that we were ready to eat.

The little white school house stood at what are now Sherwood Corners, where the Jones filling station is located.  It was called the Collins School, as that was the name of the party father bought the farm from.  Our house was just west.

The school house was the scene of many activities.  As I grew older and read in the sixth reader, there were spelling bees, and singing was taught there, too  Religious services, and now and then, a show would come along for a night's entertainment.  Some rough stuff was also occasionally pulled off.  Can recall one time in a singing school a man opened the door and rode in on horseback.

I also went to the Shoestring School, north of the corners.  The teacher, who had been a Confederate soldier and lost a leg to the service, taught us to sing a little song, the first verse of which I still remember:

'Forty little urchins coming through the door,

Pushing, crowding, making a tremendous roar,

Can't you be more quiet, can't you mind the rule?

Bless me! This is pleasant, teaching public school!'

I also went to school in my 'teen days in Mark Township, when the late Mrs. Elta Kyle, mother of Homer Kyle and grandmother of Mrs. Ethel Croyle, was the teacher.  The little school house, located north of Mark Center, was nearly surrounded by woods.  That was in the time immediately after the building of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad.  A little boy was asked by Mrs. Kyle to repeat a word he had just read, and he said, 'The train makes so d___ much noise (It was nearly a mile away) that I can't tell what it is!'

Before Sherwood was on the map, the nearest trading post was over ten miles away, and the nearest grist mill was in Brunersburg, where farmers took wheat to have it ground into flour.  Many changes have occurred since then.  Many new faces have taken the places of the early pioneers who came here to a new country of woods, stumps and muddy roads.  Folks didn't have much money, but I believe they lived happier and were more content than they are today in this 'cockeyed,' messed up old world, where wind, storms, floods, tornadoes are taking such a heavy toll of life and destruction of property, leaving so many homeless and without food.  To say nothing of the high 

cost of living, and another war in the making.  Seemingly, the end is not yet.  What think ye?

Mrs. J. E. Etchie

*The original letter was written before World War II which was then on the horizon.

Mrs. Etchie lived on North Harrison Street In Sherwood for many years and at the time of her death at the age of 87, her obituary appeared on October 5, 1950, in The Chronicle:

"Mrs. Josephine Ellen Etchie, who died at her home here Friday, is shown at work in The Chronicle office in this photograph taken some years ago.  Mrs. Etchie owned and edited The Chronicle for 36 years.

          MRS. JOSEPHINE ETCHIE, FORMER EDITOR DIES

Mrs. Josephine Ellen Etchie, former owner and editor of The Chronicle, died at her Sherwood home Friday evening.  She was 87.

Mrs. Etchie was buried Monday in Sherwood Cemetery, a scant half dozen steps from the grave of the late Charles Dickey, who founded  the Chronicle in 1902 and sold the paper to Mrs. Etchie eight years later.

Mrs. Etchie was born in Crawford County on February 8, 1863.  She was the daughter of Henry Rock and Elizabeth (Shawstoll) Rock.  She became a resident of Sherwood as a small girl - one of nine brothers and sisters - and was later married to Frank Etchie, who died in 1903.

In 1906 Mrs Etchie became the manager of the old Bell Telephone office here.  She held that post until 1910, when she purchased The Chronicle from Mr. Dickey.

Although several other attempts at publishing a newspaper here had failed, The Chronicle flourished under the guiding hand of Mrs. Etchie.  She remained at the paper's helm until her printer, the late Seth Noffsinger, died.  Unable to secure anyone in his place, Mrs. Etchie was finally forced to cease publication.  Her familiar pose, perching on the high stool, and her even more familiar, 'And that's that!' disappeared for a time until she sold the paper to Judson W. Arnett in 1944.  Mrs. Etchie never again entered the newspaper's office, although she was a frequent contributor of news items.

In addition to her editorial duties, Mrs. Etchie found time to be active in the Women's Relief Corps The Women's Christian Temperance Union, and the Methodist Church.

Last week, Mrs. Etchie caught cold.  It developed into pneumonia and resulted in her death at 6:15 p.m. Friday.  Funeral services were held Monday at the Moats Funeral home with the Rev. Anthony Drake officiating.  Mrs. Etchie is survived by two daughters, Mrs. Ora Lehman, Sherwood, and Mrs. Ray Porath, Alvordton; a son, Floyd, Defiance; eleven grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. One other daughter, Blanche, preceded her in death, as did all of her brothers and sisters."