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 20 September, 1990.
Victory School, District 95, was located two miles south and three miles east of Princeton on the northwest corner of the intersection (see locator map).
It was constructed in 1889 and closed in 1947.
According to Evan Lloyd, Princeton RFD 1, the district was divided as to where the school should be built. Lloyd said his grandfather and others wanted it to be built in the center of the district. But others wanted it a half mile south of that point.
After considerable argument, it was decided the school would be in the middle of the district. The winners of that argument obviously had the clout to name the school also, and thought “Victory” would be fitting.
When Lloyd saw the accompanying picture of the old schoolhouse, he pointed to the hole in the foundation and said “That is where we used to crawl under the schoolhouse to hide.”
The last teacher was Elizabeth Wilhite. Other known teachers were Josephine (McDonald) Straufuss, Hollie Pearson and Dorothy (Ferguson) Harrison.
The last pupils were Phyllis (Brockus) Rossman, Mary (Gorton) Stevenson, Deloris (Vallier) Welton and Georgia Faye (Hutchison) Whiteford.
The last school board was Evan Lloyd, John Faden and Earl Gorton.
Some former pupils not previously mentioned, who still live in the county are Merle Brockus, Marvin Vallier, Gordon Hetzel, Pearl Lloyd, Eunice (Lloyd) Lantz, Blanche (Killion) Landers, Kelly Lloyd, Roy Gorton, Betty (Gorton) Koch, Dale Bones, Eleanor Lloyd and Albert Dunbar.