Short School is in Section 21 of Cynthian Township on a dirt road off Galley Rd. It can be seen from
Galley. The plaque on the front says, "Short's Schoolhouse, No. 3, Built by R. Luckey, 1883". The building is being used as farm storage and a hole has been cut out of the side but the cupola that held the bell is still on the roof.
Isaac Short had sent his son to a subscription school and decided a school in the neighborhood was necessary. The log school was constructed across the road from the location of the present brick building. The land for the new brick school was bought from John and Elizabeth Short for $50. The deed is dated 28 July 1883. The school closed in 1936 and was merged into the Ft. Loramie School District. There were 25 pupils in the school at the time.
According to Wilma Hoelscher Brunswick, whose father was on the school board at the time, Henry Eilerman, the clerk, turned over the books to the Ft. Loramie District without the knowledge of the other board members. When members called the clerk to ask the time of the next meeting they were told the school was closed.
Local residents hired a lawyer and along with Turner, Grisez and Cynthian Schools petitioned to get an injunction to stop the closing of these schools. A temporary injunction was granted by Judge Mills of the common pleas court to halt the transfer. The petition for a permanent injunction restraining the Shelby County Board of Education from consolidating the former Turner, Grisez, Cynthian, and Short school districts into the newly formed Ft. Loramie Village School District, Russia Rural School District and Houston School District was denied by Judge Hugh Gilmore of Eaton who was assigned to hear the case in the common pleas court. According to Wilma Brunswick there is apparently no record of this case at the courthouse.
On August 16, 1939 the property was sold to Milton A. Jelly for $75. In August of 1983 a reunion was held at the old school for former students. The bell was rehung in the bellfry for the occasion. In 1987 Karen Fullenkamp won first place in her age group in an essay contest held by the Fort Loramie Historical Association for her story about Short School.
Some of the teachers:
James Pilliod - 1884
Ben Pleiman - 1899-1900
John C. Short - 1900-1901, 1906-1908
Florian Notheis - 1908-1910
Eleanora Fleckenstein - 1910-1912
Albert Aselage - 1913
William Eilerman - 1914-1915
Pauline Ernst (Seger) - 1917
Robert Gigandet - 1920, 1923 & 1930-1932
Esther Gigandet - 1923-1930
Ruth Carter Barhorst - 1932-1936
