Orders Road School / The Orders Family

Educational standards for rural children did not exist during the early 1800s, but by the 1870s most states had enacted compulsory education laws. In rural areas, township school districts built schools like this one and assessed local citizens for upkeep and teacher’s salaries. Teachers passed a county examination for certification. Besides instruction duties, they kept records, cleaned the schoolhouse, and kept it heated during the cold months. In 1879, Allen and Mary Orders deeded one acre of land to the Jackson Township Board of Education to build Schoolhouse No. 10, known locally as Orders Road School. Three generations of Jackson Township students between ages five and sixteen received their primary education here. Following consolidation, the school district deeded this building to the farm’s owners in 1928. It was restored in 2000-2002.

[Side B]: The family that farmed this land in the 1800s typified nineteenth century Ohio settlement and emigration patterns. After serving with General Anthony Wayne at Fort Greenville in the mid-1790s, English immigrant Jonas Orders came to central Ohio from Virginia in 1805. Neighbor Sarah Ford nursed him through a frontier illness. They married and established a farm here in 1829. Of their ten children, one son, Allen, and his wife Mary Galion Orders farmed here through the mid-1800’s, raised seven children, and provided land for the school. Their son Jonas Orders II served in the 113th Ohio regiment during the Civil War and was wounded at Chickamauga. He married Sara Knagi and lived here with their eight children. By the turn of the twentieth century, the family had left the farm.