Pictured in this photo is a school souvenir from days gone by.
This token from the past came from Chest Township’s Welshdale School, located between Five Points and Westover on the west side of Chest Creek.
The teacher, Miss Ida White, was the daughter of Paul and Margaret (Kinley) White. According to Caldwell’s 1878 Atlas, they lived on a 237-acre farm near Harmony Chapel.
Paul was listed as a merchant and huckster. Per census and cemetery records, Paul, born in 1826, was a blacksmith in the 1880 census living in Westover.
He died Feb. 21, 1900 and is buried in Westover. Paul was a veteran of the Civil War.
In 1900, his wife, Margaret, (1838-1918) was living on the farm with her son, Harry (1870-1934) and daughter, Ida.
Margaret was the mother of six children, five living to adulthood. In the census, Harry is listed as a farmer and Ida as a school teacher. Margaret and Harry are also buried in Westover.
Ida, born in December of 1876, married Thomas E. Hartzell of New Washington, son of Samuel and Nancy, on June 20, 1903 in New Washington.
In 1910, Ida and Thomas were living in Barnesboro, Cambria County with two children, Marie and Myrtle.
By 1920, they had moved to Akron, Ohio with four children, Marie, Myrtle, Gladys and Louise. Ida lived in Akron until her death in 1961, aged 84 years.
