From “The hitching post…” column in the Ottawa Herald, a series of articles about early Franklin County schools researched by Bruce Fleming and written by Herald Editor and Publisher Jim Hitch. This article appeared 5 March, 1992.
Princeton School, District 63, was organized in 1869 and the first school was built on the corner of Park and Main in 1870. That occurred as the Leavenworth, Lawrence and Galveston Railroad completed track between Ottawa and Richmond, and about the time Ohio City ceased to exist.
Ohio City had been located about a mile northeast of Princeton. Some Ohio City buildings were moved to Princeton which then experienced some quick growth.
Mrs. Edith Waddle said in a 1937 interview that the first school term lasted four months in a one-room school that was replaced, in 1878, with a two-story, two-room schoolhouse.
From a Franklin County superintendent of school report dated Feb. 6, 1869:
“Divided railroad tax among the several school districts on the basis of children of school age.
“Amount of railroad tax –$782.03.
“Distribution — .30 1/13th cents per pupil.
This was the first railroad tax in Franklin County and was against the Leavenworth, Lawrence and Galveston Railroad, which ran from Lawrence to Ottawa at the time.