Shiloh

Location Relative to Con. 8: 1.0 mile West, 4.0 miles South

Year of District Formation: 1901-1902

Teachers

George Edge¹ (1909-1910 ?). He definitely taught in 1920-1921 and maybe other years. See discussion in last paragraph of this section.

Mrs. Hibbits (probably before 1920, she taught at Mullins in about 1918).

Miss Bonnie Lou Taylor (1922-1923 and maybe longer.

Miss Minnie (Brannon) Ellis -1926-27.

Sybil Sanford (sometime in the 20’s?)?

Stella Fraley (1928- 1930 and maybe 1927-1930). Miss Fraley was the last Shiloh teacher and then taught at Con. 8 for at least 4 years.

Principle

None Listed

School Board

Warren Dempsey, Leon Messick

Building

None Listed

Bus Drivers

There were no buses or wagons officially operated.

George Dempsey² says that his Uncle Warren Dempsey gave the land with the provision that the school be called Shiloh. Warren’s grandfather, having lost a finger in the Civil War battle of that name.³ George also has an amusing and instructive story about Mrs. Hibbits a diminutive 90 pounder disciplining a full-grown student, over 6 feet tall and tipping the scales over 200 pounds. The punishment was received with grace by the student and his family.

The Kiowa County Web site includes information about Shiloh with their ghost town listing for Centerville. There the story about the name Shiloh is included, and a statement that school was first held there in 1909. The original source for this was probably Lillie Dempsey’s story¹ in which she states that the land was given by W. P. Dempsey in September 1909, and George Edge was the first teacher. Also, it is likely there was a school district from 1902, and classes conducted. I have no information on what schooling arrangements were in that 1902-09 period.

From 1921 to 1929, Shiloh was a “wing school” in the Mullins Union Graded No. 10. In this arrangement, all grades and some high school classes were given at Mullins with three teachers, and grades 1 through 6 were given by one teacher at the wing schools of Lick Skillet (79) and Shiloh (81). Thus, George Dempsey completed the 6th grade at Shiloh, grades 7 & 8 at Mullins, and did all four years of high school at Con. 8, graduating with the first “diploma class” in 1933.

Shiloh may not have fully joined Con. 8 until 1930, but the students above the 8^th grade certainly and probably all above the 6^th attended Con. 8 in 1929-1930 as Mullins and Union Graded No. 10 no longer operated. The evidence for not being annexed in 1929-1930 lies in the enumeration reports on Jan 30, 1930. There are separate reports for Shiloh and Con. 8. In the Shiloh report, M. L. (Leon) Messick enumerator, all student-age children in the Shiloh area are reported in the Shiloh district. That includes ones then in the seventh grade and above who are known to be attending Con. 8 (i.e. Pauline, George and Loyd Dempsey). Dorothy (Estoll) Shelton recalls that she and her sister Alene attended Shiloh that year and Stella Fraley was the teacher. According to her year of graduation Alene would have been in 7^th that year, but she may have skipped a grade after transferring to Con. 8. The Jan. 1931 enumeration for Con. 8, Carl Heien enumerator, includes all the residents of the former Shiloh district.

It is probable that no Shiloh students were served by Con. 8 while it was a “wing school”. Union Graded No. 10 offered about the same amount of class work as Con. 8 in that period.

The school building was bought by Curt Hooser and moved to the home site area of his farm just 3/4 mile north of the school site⁴ Jack Culvahouse may remember seeing the building there in the early thirties when visiting the Hoosers. It was used as an element of or at least provided some materials for the building of the new Hooser house in about 1934 or 35. The Hooser house was only a half mile from the W. P. Dempsey house built from the Mullins school house. In this form, both the old schoolhouses remained a part of Con. 8 until 1964 when the Hooser house then owned by Coy Nichols was moved to Snyder where it still stands. In the year 2000, the old W. P. Dempsey house was still on site near Shiloh corner.

George Edge and Shiloh: Nona (Edge) Murphy’s brief biographical note for her parents⁵ list George’s schools after they arrived in Oklahoma in 1909 as #58, Withrow (or Rusler), #80 Mullins and #68 Gladson.  Perhaps that is intended to be the chronological order. However as noted above, Lillie Dempsey remembers Mr. Edge as the Shiloh teacher in 1909, and with that there is a picture of Shiloh students indicated to be circa 1908. The teacher there does not appear to be Mr. Edge. Also George and Gracie Dempsey have provided a photograph of Shiloh students in 1920 identifying Mr. Edge as the teacher; and there is a very strong resemblance of the person depicted there to those of a somewhat younger George Edge provided by Mrs. Murphy in her article. It appears that in several instances people have referred to teachers at Shiloh as Mullins teachers. This probably arises from the connection of the schools as part of Union Graded #10 from 1921 to 1929. The Mullins History does not list George Edge, but it is admittedly incomplete. The conclusion is that it is very definite Mr. Edge taught at Shiloh in 1920-21, but unlikely he taught there before 1910.

About the 1902-1909 era. It seems likely there was some schooling in the first year arrangement years of this district; but may have been at a different site or it could date the beginning of a new arrangement. A reading of the abstract data for the farm however has not shown any legal transfer of land to the School District, so it was probably not recorded, but was intended.

Sources

1. Pioneering in Kiowa County, v 1, pg 186.  Lillie Dempsey gives her memories of the formation of Centerville and the Shiloh school 1 mile to the west.

2. Short Stories, by George Dempsey (unpublished). Many of these stories contain illuminating insights into life in the community during the twenties and thirties.

3. It seems likely that the family story putting Warren’s Grandfather at the Shiloh battle has been confused to some degree by the fog of time and transmission from generation to generation. According to his pension application Charles Dempsey was born August 11, 1846 and served with the 38^th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment. This regiment was not recruited until March of 1864 whereas the battle of Shiloh was in 1862. The regiment served in Virginia in 1864-1865 and Charles was wounded in this period.

4. Letter from Pauline (Dempsey) Manning, daughter of Warren P. Dempsey and wife of Joseph Manning. Pauline attended Shiloh, Mullins and Con. 8 beginning in 1929.

5. Pioneering in Kiowa County, v 6, pg 112. Nona (Edge) Murphy’s brief note on her parents George and Minnie Edge.