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/)

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