Who Were the Founders of the Free Union Schoolhouse?

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By Jack

The deeds for the Free Union Schoolhouse were signed on August 6th 1835. They were recorded in the Warren County Deeds Book I-3 page 389. The grantors were Moses H Fleming and his wife, Garrett Smith and Daniel Mixsell. The grantees were John Wildrick, Charles Swayze, and Jesse L Moor, and they all bought the land for the schoolhouse to be built on.

Were these men the trustees? Why were they involved?

We know that Jesse L Moore (who died 11/20/1853 at the age of 51) and his wife (who died 3/27/1878 at the age of 78) had a daughter named Sarah Anne Moore who was two years old when the schoolhouse was established.

In the draft centennial report, the trustees in 1835 were noted as being Jesse L Moore, William Runyan and J H Hendershot.

William Runyan (who died 5/16/1870 at the age of 70) married Letisha Poyer (who died 10/17/1881 at the age of 75) and they had three children: Elizabeth, Nelson and Sarah Runyan. They were 12, 9 and 2 years old when the schoolhouse was established.

Conclusion: The grantors probably had children who had attended the log cabin schoolhouse and weren't interested in becoming trustees for the school because their children had already left school. However, they were happy to sell the land to the grantees. Jesse L Moore was one and he had a young daughter. It is quite possible that William Runyan joined him because he had young children who would have also benefited from the establishment of the schoolhouse. There was oral evidence of the log cabin schoolhouse burning down, so perhaps the trustees thought it was time to build a sturdier schoolhouse to provide education for future generations in the area.