New Vienna School c1893, 1910 and Duchemin House

Duchemin House c1910? New Vienna Ohio, now demolished, twin (with improvements) to house on corner of College & 2nd Sts.  Image Courtesy of Hayward Crone via Mike Whited.  [See further details about Duchemin House below.]

School New Vienna Ohio c1910 with Duchemin House and School Barn in background.  

Image Courtesy of Hayward Crone via Mike Whited.

School New Vienna Ohio, 1893 Elementary Students.  Image Courtesy of Hayward Crone via Mike Whited.

Duchemin? Duchmein? DuChemin?  In the census records it is also spelled Duchman and Deucheman.  Evidently this was a name in transition.

Two graduates of NVHS are listed with the last name of Duchemin, both members of the class of 1886: Lizzie Duchemin and Stella Cox Duchemin, though we can assume that Stella married a Duchemin rather than being born into the family.

Mary Elizabeth "Lizzie" was born in New Vienna in 1868.  She married William Edwin Dunn in Clinton County in 1893.  In 1920 they were living in Indianapolis.  She was the youngest child of Abraham (1814-1891) and Mary Elizabeth Woodmansee Duchemin (1833-1887).

Mary Elizabeth "Lizzie" Duchemin Dunn, 1886 graduate of New Vienna (Ohio) High School

Other children of Abraham and Mary Elizabeth included: John (1852-c1919), Florence (1853-1950), Martha (1854-?), and Frank (1857-1901).  To confuse matters, Martha married Robert Cox and became the step-mother of Stella Cox Duchemin (1866-?), the other graduate of NVHS.  Stella married the oldest brother, John, her step-mother's older brother.  Stella died in St. Louis sometime after 1930.  Her son, Robert Harold lived in Clinton/Highland county as a boy but moved to Missouri.

Four of the Duchemin family are buried in New Vienna's IOOF Cemetery:  Abraham and Mary Elizabeth on the East Side, and Frank, their youngest son, and his wife, the former Elizabeth M "Lizzie" Turner, on the West Side.  All of Frank and Lizzie's five children were born in New Vienna, one died at childbirth, two moved to California, one to Illinois, and the fate of the youngest, Edith born in 1897, is unknown.

From the NVHS Memory Book 1881-1963:
In the summer of 1876, Abraham Duchmein built a three story residence on the lot adjoining the present [now former] school house.  The Wilmington News-Journal stated that it was the largest private residence in the country.  [Did they mean county??]  Mr. Duchmein was a brick mason and a brother-in-law of Francis Woodmansee who built the large home across the street, facing the school house.  Mr. Duchmein died in 1891 and sometime later it was acquired by the school.  In 1918 when the present building was built, the High School held classes there and the grades were held down town town in rooms over the business houses and the first and second grades were held in the opera house, now the site of the Senior Citizens.  Later it [the Duchemin House] was used as the residence of the superintendent.

Due to a scarcity of teachers, a Clinton-Highland Normal school was opened in New Vienna High School in 1914.  The students did their practice teaching here also.  It was moved to Wilmington College in the fall of 1925.  Their last teacher Mary Hoskins also went to Wilmington College.

1962 - First Grades New Vienna Ohio School

1962 Tiger Tales - Yearbook of New Vienna High School 1961-62.

First graders in 1962 would become part of the East Clinton class of 1973.  Here are their first grade pictures:

Mrs. Fenwick's 1st Grade New Vienna Ohio School 1961-62.  First row: Debra Roehm, Candy Davis, Sherry Fulton, Paul Bernard, Jeff Streber.  Second Row: Ronnie Smalley, Danny Knisley, Randy Ferguson, Beverly Brooks, Daniel Lawson.  Third Row: Cindy Fulcher, Carl Palmer,Debbie Davis, Mrs. Fenwick,  Charles Fisher, Linda Conyers, Peggy Curtis.  Not pictured: Timmy Penn, Matthew Zimmerman, Sheryl Blackburn, Julia Murphy, Lissa Rupp.

Mrs. Laughlin's 1st Grade - New Vienna Ohio School 1962-62.  First Row: Teresa Clear, Catherine Dean, David Marshall, Mary Lou Dean, Linda Allen.  Second Row: Paul Berwanger, Kim Michael, Aaron Burton, Barbara Bernard, Ruth Ann Johnson.  Third Row: John Custis, Ethel Rollins, Mrs. Laughlin, Serena Uible, Don Smith.  Not pictured: Randy West, Donnie Behling, Dorothy Harris, Charles Dayton, Mashell Laymon.

The 1962 Tiger Tales was dedicated to Mary Fenwick:

• because she has started so many of us on our journey through New Vienna High School
• Because of her many years of laying the foundation for our higher learning
• Because of her understanding interest for each pupil's needs and aspirations

New Vienna School 1878-1917 postcard

New Vienna School post card from the early 1900s is unmailed but addressed to Miss Mildred Pearl, New Vienna, Ohio, Clinton Co. Message says "To Mildred, From Mumma, 1907. This postcard is of the "old, old" New Vienna School. Not sure why the card labels it as plural buildings, as only the one is visible. Perhaps they are including the outhouses which are hidden in the back?

Public School Buildings, New Vienna, Ohio

According to the 1900 Census, Mildred, born in New Vienna in 1898 was the daughter of Edward (1858-1903), a carriage painter, and Valeria (b.1871) Pearl.  In the 1910 census, Valeria and Mildred are shown as living with Valeria's parents, Thomas J. (1846-1920) and Margaret Ann Pitzer (1850-1920) McCune.  Thomas is listed as having his "own income."

Mildred married Dennis Cook (1853-1936) in 1920.  His first wife, Flora Terrell, had died in 1905, leaving him with seven children, most of whom were grown by 1920.  Mildred died in Wilmington in 1977.

This School was built in 1878.  It was torn down in 1917.  

The above picture is from New Vienna High School Memory Book, 1881-1963, page 8

According the the Memory Book:  In 1878 a new square brick building was erected with four rooms below, two rooms and a hall, called Whittier Hall, above.  This hall was afterwards converted into two rooms, and they were used as the laboratory.  

This building was removed from the school lot in the summer of 1917, when a new modern fireproof building was constructed and was ready for the school term starting in September 1918.

The high school was organized in 1878 and the first class graduated in 1881.  This class had three members: Hallie Baum, Will Rayburn and Charles Blackburn.  Charles was the father of Joseph and Mary Blackburn and Charles Blackburn, Jr.  

The board employed J.F. Fenton as principal for that year.  It was with him that Commencement Exercises were inaugurated and the first Commencement was held in the spring of 1881 in Whittier Hall.

Due to the scarcity of teachers, a Clinton-Highland Normal school was opened in NV High School in 1914.  The students did their practice teaching here also.  It was moved to Wilmington College in 1925.

[During that time] The children were taken to school by horse drawn wagons, and sleds in the winter time.

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This post slightly modified from one originally published in the Uible Family Blog, 24-Feb-2011.

2nd Grade class 1971-72

These students would have been members of the East Clinton Class of 1982.  They not only survived the NV playground, but a year with Miss Purtee.  [I had my own experience with Miss Purtee, and I understand she did not mellow too much with age.]   Can you help name those who are not yet identified?

2nd grade class 1971-72

New Vienna School, New Vienna, Ohio

Top Row: Jimmy Morris, Melanie McCune Lamke, Linda Lacy, Kirk Michael.  

2nd Row: Jim Wolfe, Chuck Larrick, Chris Dodd, Mr. Jim Luck, Miss Aleda Purtee, Terry Smith, Kelly Walker Ely, Mary Uible Crowson.  

3rd Row: Van Pratt, NYI, NYI, NYI, Steve Cluxton, Dale Robinson, Joe Throckmorton, NYI.  

Bottom Row: Allen Pinkerton, NYI, NYI, Shari Flint Hufford, Mike Lowman