century, and on the 1912 map, was located two miles west of the later Milford Township Consolidated School. Of course, at the time, it was a wood frame one room building. In 1900 there were 226 students enrolled in Milford Township's nine schools with an average attendance of 147.
As a footnote: In 1923, when J.W. Sowers wrote an extremely brief history of the early schools (two) in Milford Twp, he placed this Milford School in the very northwest corner of Sec 20. This, of course, was not the location of the post-1875 school which would have been diagonally across the intersection to the northwest in the southeast corner of Sec 18. He also placed Pleasant Grove School, the first school in Milford Twp, in the very southeast corner of Sec 7. This would have put it a mile south of the Pleasant Grove Church and School site of the late nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. If he would have written Sec 6 in his history, he would have had the school within a few yards of the current location. Since he wrote the southeast of the southeast of the southeast and, very distinctly, wrote Sec 7, how could he have made a simple mistake? It, the present location, would read - the northeast of the northeast of the northeast of Sec 7. So, perhaps, the school was there, in the southeast, for a short time and placed those two schools a little over a mile apart.
Legislation in 1862, when school districts were basically laid out, probably caused the location of the Pleasant Grove School to change so it could more readily serve more families. Pleasant Grove School was labeled as school No. "One" through the summer of 1868, after which time it was referred to as No. "Three" to conform to the standard method of numbering the subdistrict schools.
The names of the subdistrict schools are, at this time very difficult to establish as they had, at various times, different names besides the numbering system. It is possible with detailed research to establish the names of the subdistrict schools, and it would be correct for that school year but the following year it probably wouldn't be accurate as one or more of the directors might have changed. There were geographical names i.e., North, South, East, and Center. Some were named after the teacher (probably unofficially) but most were named for the director of that subdistrict who usually was a nearby farmer or landowner. This director was responsible for the day to day operation of the school. It was he who was responsible to hire the teacher, arrange living quarters for her, keep the supply of heating fuel available, deal with the minor upkeep on the buildings and grounds, etc. There seemed to be a rapid turnover of teachers but this could readily be expected as quite often the teachers were young ladies of marriage age and they were very soon courted and won by the local swains. Also, the school year was divided into two distinct terms. One typically, in the summer of three months and the other usually four months during the winter. Each term of school would require a contract for that teacher.
The schools were, most often, named for the director of that subdistrict. For example, Curtiss School (Center School Number 5) was named after the Curtiss family who owned the quarter Sec across the road to the west. At other times the Center School