Shiloh School
1913-1914 School Year

On Monday, September 8th, Shiloh school opened for the 1913-1914 school year with Miss Julia Sigmon of South Lake Weir as teacher. The following students attended:

1913-1914 Shiloh Grade book with Julia Sigmon as teacher
Provided to me by Jerome Feaster in 2025
Click to see full Grade Book

Julia L. Sigmon

*Superscript numbers are Mixsonian genealogy reference numbers and persons are Mixson descendants.

Rosalie Anderson is my grandmother and is named after her father Tobias Anderson’s first wife Rosa Lee Mixson#749.  Rosalie wrote in her memoirs , “While at school, the girls were given time to write the boys at war, so I wrote a letter to Wilbur in France but never got an answer.”  Rosalie married Wilbur Darlington Mixson#842, my grandfather,  seven years later in 1920.  Rosalie also wrote in her memoirs, “We children walked three miles to Shiloh to school. I never had but two or three dresses for school.” 

Many of the children at the school were related in some way. Ella and Lola Mixson are the daughters of Miles Benjamin and Lillie Dantzler Mixson#831.  Albert and Eulu are children of Daniel Remshart (D.R.) and Dora Leitner Zetrouer. The Feaster children, Lynn (Jacob Lynn), Lizzie (Elizabeth) and James are children of Mary Telula (Lula) Mixson#836 and Jacob Wesley Feaster. Annie, Alex (Alexander) and Feaster (Jacob Feaster) Wyche are the children of Mary Leila Feaster and Alexander James Wyche. Albert (Henry Albert), Cecil, Ruby Pardee are children of Esther Leona Mixson#847 and Willis Henry Pardee.

At the end of the five-month school year both Rosalie and her brother Andrew had very good grades but for some reason neither was approved for the 5th grade the following year which was probably disappointing for Rosalie as she was a year older than Andrew.  The likely reason for their delayed advancement was Rosalie and Andrew took grades one through three while their family was living on the east coast in Bonaventure where they were taught by a private home schoolteacher.

 

In November it was reported that, “Miss Julie Sigmon is doing nicely with her school.  At the monthly school board meeting Mr. D.R. Zetrouer, supervisor of the Shiloh school, discussed the particulars of having a special tax district in the Shiloh community.  In December a formal petition for a Shiloh special tax district was officially filed and as required by law, notice was posted in the paper for the election to be held January 13, 1914. The petition formally defined the Shilo district as: 

Signers of the petition were A.J. Wyche, J.W. Feaster, D.R. Zetrouer, E.A. Smith, E.S. Kennard, W.H. Pardee, Tobias Anderson, G.H. Whittington, E.F. Neil, W.R. Dreher, S.P. Geiger, H.H. Harrell, F.H. Dreher, and J.J. Gladney.  Many of the signers had children in the Shilo school including my great-grandfather, Tobias Anderson. While all the other men were listed by their first and middle initials, Tobais was mentioned by name because he had no middle name. An interesting note is, like her father, my grandmother Rosalie also had no middle name.

The reference to the Arrendondo Grant has considerable history. The Arrendondo Grant was a 289,645 acre parcel of land granted to Don Fernando De la Maza Arrendondo by the King of Spain in December of 1817, three years before Florida was ceded to the United States.  The grant was described as being, “Four Leagues of Land to each Wind” from “the Sink”, being the Alachua Sink on what is now Paynes Prairie.

School ran during the winter months when the boys were not needed on the farm and, even in Florida, there are winter days that are cold and the schoolhouse was heated by a single wood stove that barely kept the schoolhouse warm.  School boys would take turns going outside to the woodshed to get wood giving them a break from their schooling. In January of 1914 the School Board paid Mr. Zetrouer $2.25 to replace the stove pipe and add window lights to the school. The school did not have electricity, so the lights were likely kerosene lamps.

The election for a special Shiloh tax district was held as planned on January 13th and at the February school board meeting the results presented with the majority of the votes in favor of creating the district and for a levy of three mills to be assessed. D.R. Zetrouer, A.J. Wyche and W.R. Dreher were the elected trustees.  But not all were happy, at the March meeting the boundary was questioned as the newly established boundary would take students away from the Central school. From the meeting notes:

Families and their farms were relatively far apart, that one mile change was likely due to the “two other gentlemen” wanting their children to go to Central school.

In June Miss Julia Sigmon married William Rober Dreyer of Micanopy. The wedding took place in Ocala, being about halfway between Micanopy and the Sigmon home on Lake Weir.  William’s parents were William Robert Dreher Senior and Mary Zetrouer. Julie Simon, now Mrs. William Dreyer would not teach school again in Marion County and sometime in the 1920’s they moved to Edgewater, Florida.

Come June the question the special Shiloh tax district boundary was still not resolved, and a petition was signed by 25% of the Shiloh special tax district voters asking the board to call another election to whether or not the west boundary of the tax district should remain as it was or to have the west boarder changed. The  board ordered the petition be advertised in the paper as required by law.  Mr. C.R. Curry, supervisor of the Central school, still was not happy about the new proposed boundary.  The announcement ran in The Ocala Evening Star on July 24th and was signed by the following:

B.F. Leitner, H.H. Harrell, J.W. Feaster, E.F. Neil, A.J. Wyche, R.R. Whittington, W.H. Pardee, W.H. Whittington, J.I. Whittington, E.F. Neil, W.R. Dreher, F.H. Dreher, S.P. Geiger, W.O. Messer, J.A. Lewis, K.E. Ausley, D.L. Geiger, S.P. Geiger, C.F. Jones, J.J. Leiner and E.S. Keanard. 

The special election was to be held on August 29, 1914.  It is not clear if the election was ever held as the same announcement ran each week in the paper throughout September and there was never any posting as to the results of the election.

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