Mt. Cuba's Diamond School District #84

Section of an 1860 map showing the Diamond 
School (red circle), and the Mt Pleasant (left blue)
and Walnut Green (right blue) Schools

In the recent post about the District #77 Marshallton School, I mentioned that over the years we had covered "just about every old schoolhouse that does or did once stand in Mill Creek Hundred". In saying that, I did have in mind one school that we hadn't yet featured and about which I've only recently learned. This may well be the last 19th Century MCH school to cover, and although it was open for over 60 years, it has my vote as the most obscure of the old rural schools in the area. In fact, I was a good bit into my investigation of it before I even figured out what its name was.

This old schoolhouse stood on the south side of the bend in Barley Mill Road, between Mt. Cuba Road and the Mt. Cuba Center. As noted it operated as a school for more than 60 years, and stood as a residence for another 60 or 70 after that (I think). The extent of my knowledge of the history of this school has a bit of a gap in it. It basically boils down to -- I know when it started...40 years of almost nothing...a controversy...another decade of nothing...then a 10 year long crusade to close it. Then at the end there's a connection to a business that some of you probably had contact with at some point over the years. But let's start at the beginning...

Since there are rarely newspaper articles about the openings of pre-1900 schools, I've found that the most reliable way to determine the start date for a school is to find the original deed, wherein a landowner sells a parcel of land to a school district. Sometimes it takes a while, having to narrow down a timeframe, often using maps, and then figure out who the property owner would have been at the time. In this case it was a little tricky, because there was a home very close to the schoolhouse location. The 1849 map has a dot for a structure in the right place, but it doesn't label it, so I couldn't tell if the school was there then or not. (Plus, I had confused myself by having an old deed that I thought was this school but was actually for the nearby Mt. Pleasant School on Old Wilmington Road.)

Beginning of the 1858 deed for the sale of the Diamond School lot

The biggest clue (once I thought it through) was the district number -- 84. Once you got to these higher numbers (after the initial organization of districts in the 1820's and 30's) they were assigned as the districts were formed. So since I knew the #77 Marshallton School opened in 1854, and this school near Mt. Cuba was on the 1860 map, that greatly narrowed down the search. The land in the area changed hands a few times around that same era, but eventually I did find the sale I was looking for. On March 8, 1858, Thomas S. and Hannah Mary Vandever sold 54 perches (about a third of an acre) to School District No 84 for $33.75. I would assume the school was soon built, and open for classes in the Fall of 1854. (Notarizing the deed, incidentally, was none other than our old friend John G. Jackson.)

As for the name, technically it was the District #84 School. One might logically think that it was called something like the Mt. Cuba School, given its location, and later on it was usually described as being near Mt. Cuba. However, as I recently learned, the name "Mt. Cuba" did not exist yet when the school first opened. Although its origins date back to Con Hollohan's "Cuba Rock" estate in the 1700's, by the mid 1800's the name for the area had morphed to Cuba Hill. The name Mt. Cuba was an invention of the Wilmington & Western Rail Road, who wanted a fancier-sounding name for the station along their new line in 1872. (There actually was some amusing back-and-forth in print between the railroad -- saying how awesome and big Mt. Cuba was -- and the newspaper, which basically said no, it was a hill, and the old name was just fine.) The name of the District #84 school, though, was the Diamond School. Whether this was a play on "Diamond State" or if there was some other inspiration, I do not know.

A few of the brief mentions of the Diamond School between 1861 and 1865

So after the founding of the Diamond District School, for about the next 40 years all I can find is just a few random mentions of the school now and again (see above). The first I see is a list of the newly-elected commissioners (Jacob Chandler, Hiram Pierson, and J. Leach) noted in the paper on April 12, 1861. And if that date sounds vaguely familiar to you, it happens to be the day the first shots were fired on Fort Sumter, beginning the Civil War. After that there was a mention in October 1862, a "celebration in the woods of Mr. Gebhart" in 1863, and a temperance meeting in the schoolhouse in October 1865. There really wasn't much more until just before the end of the century, and then it was all about elections.

First, in June 1897, there was mention that Mr. Springer was upset about what he felt was a manipulation of the Italian vote in the school election (they would have been from the Italian Colony associated with the Wooddale Quarry and Delaware Iron Works). From the sound of it, Springer was used to getting the Italian votes, but failed to do so this time. He and some of his friends "went home perfectly disgusted" after the vote.

Then there was the issue of the 1898 school commissioners' election. This affair ended up being dragged out for almost a year, but it began on June 4, 1898 at the Diamond School house. Running for a three year term as a school district commissioner that year were Stephen Armstrong and Cornelius J. Horrigan. According to reports, the vote ended up in a tie, at which point it was agreed to adjourn for one week. However, after Armstrong and his supporters left, Horrigan's cohorts reopened the vote. Unsurprisingly, this time he won easily. Then, per the original agreement, a new election was held the following week, and in this one Armstrong prevailed.

August 1898 account of the events of the June school
commissioner's election (yes Horrigan's name is wrong)

It must be said, though, that Horrigan disputed some of the details of what transpired and the whole thing ended up in court. It was still being hashed out as of May the following year -- I think Horrigan lost, but he was still appealing as of the last report I could find. Then, even before that to-do could be put in the past, in June 1900 there was another controversy over four Italians accused of voting illegally in the school election. (At least one of the accused, Louis Tonga, was also a major player in the Abner Hollingsworth Case from four years earlier.)

It seems like things quieted down a bit for the next decade, until the drawn-out final act for the Diamond School began. By 1910, not only was the 52 year old school in need of repairs, but the district did not have a large number of students. The first proposal for consolidation was for the Diamond District to combine with the Mt. Pleasant District. That idea was ultimately shelved, but two years later in 1912 a new plan was unveiled for a consolidation of the Diamond School with the District #25 Walnut Green School, just over a mile to the northeast. The plan called for a new school to be built somewhere between the existing ones, and there seemed to be a lot of support for the idea. However, reports of the merger faded away later in 1912 (my guess is that there was never any funding for a new school).

Exciting news from July 1915 -- the districts
will merge and a new school will be built!!
 (No they won't, and no it won't)

However, another two years later the idea resurfaced, coming up again in late 1914/early 1915. Again there was a lot of support, and an article from July 3, 1915 stated that it was a done deal that a new school would be built. After that...nothing. Apparently this deal fell through as well, and nothing more was said about a new school. Ultimately, the young scholars of the District #84 Diamond School were saved not by a new building, but by a new concept in education -- bussing. It appears that the 1918-1919 school year was the final one for the Diamond School, but not for the district.

An early member of the O'Neal's Bus Service fleet

By the early 20th Century, the one of the most active families in the districts around Mt. Cuba was the O'Neals, and in September 1919, Michael J. O'Neal was appointed to drive the Diamond School students over to the du Pont school (now AI DuPont Middle School) on Kennett Pike. So even though the district still existed, the old schoolhouse was no longer needed, and in April 1920 it was sold to O'Neal. There were some other family members involved in the business, but this was the beginning of the long-running, family-owned O'Neal's Bus Service, which I imagine some of you have crossed paths with over the years.

The district continued to exist (presumably mostly for taxation purposes) for another six years, until, finally, it was consolidated with the Mt. Pleasant District #34 in 1926. As mentioned, the schoolhouse was sold to Michael J. O'Neal, but he quickly sold it to August Medici. Medici had recently returned from serving in WWI and worked for the O'Neals (John F. O'Neal is listed as his emergency contact when he returned from France in July 1919), but I can't find anything on him after 1920. I don't know if the school was torn down back then, or if it was used as a residence, as so many of these old, rural schoolhouses were.

In February 1986, the photos below were taken of a structure that is labeled as a "former school on Barley Mill Road." However, it does not appear to me to look at all like the kinds of schools being built in the 1850's. I feel it's more likely that this was the Thomas Springer House, shown on the maps just east of the school. It's also noted that the structure had been demolished, likely soon after the photos were taken.  There are, today, some foundations visible along the road just before the bend in the road (as you come north from Red Clay Creek), which I think are more likely to be part of the Springer farm. As best as I can tell, the school was a few hundred feet up the road, just around the bend. 

Photos from 1986 of what was reported to be "a former school house". I have my doubts.

Whatever its final fate was, the District #84 Diamond School is a great example of a rural school that was formed when the need arose, and which served for as long as it was needed. Being in a fairly remote section of the hundred, it seemed to have had a pretty quiet life (other than the few incidents mentioned). I'll be sure to update this post if I ever find any more information about the Diamond School or if I find a picture that I think is more likely to be it.