Wayne Township
Armstrong County Pennsylvania
Dayton Soldiers’ Orphans’ Home
A need having arisen for a home for the children of deceased soldiers, Dayton
was suggested as the most desirable location in the county, and in Nov. 1866,
a stock company was organized with a capital of $15,000 and the following
membership: Rev. David K. Duff, Rev. T.M. Elder, Dr. William Hosack, Dr. J.H.
Crouch, Robert Marshall, Wesley Pontius, William R. Hamilton, William
Marshall, Thomas P. Ormond, Thomas H. Marshall, Samuel Good, Smith Neal, John
H. Rupp, William Morrow, William J. Burns, Jacob Beck, John Craig, David
Lawson and David Byers.The school opened in rented buildings with fifty-one pupils. In December,
1873, it was charted as the “Dayton Soldiers’ Orphans’ School
Association.” In 1867 thirty-five acres of land were purchased and three
buildings erected. In 1873 two of these were burned, but immediately replaced.
The average number of pupils in the first five years was 150, and in 1876,
208.As the limit of age at which the inmates could remain in the school was
sixteen years, the result was a gradual elimination, and finally in 1888 fire
destroyed all but one of the buildings, so the few remaining orphans were
distributed among the other schools in various parts of the Union.
Source: History of Armstrong Co., Pennsylvania
If anyone has a list of the children living at this school I would love to
post it along with the school history Amanda
Foringer.Contributed by Amanda
Foringer for use by the Armstrong County Genealogy Project
(http://www.pa-roots.com/armstrong/)Armstrong County Genealogy Project Notice:
These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format, for any
presentation, without prior written permission.
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