How about Jim English, son of pioneer Thomas
Edwin English? The elder English moved from Sidney "to his farm adjoining the
town" in 1828 (Sutton, History of Shelby County, 1883, p. 353). The
English property comprised two tracts, one just north of the Sidney corporation line near
the railroad and the other on the southeast corner of the Russell Road-Wapakoneta Pike
intersection, at the time a considerable distance from the Sidney line (Page & Smith, Historical
Atlas of Shelby County, Ohio, 1875, p. 29). A turn of the century atlas has
"Jas. B. English" listed as a "freeholder" in Clinton township and a
property map in the same publication delineates 20.25 acres belonging to J.B. English near
the Russell-Wapak intersection, the Jimtown area (Atlas and Directory of Shelby
County, Ohio, 1900, pp. 19 & 61).
"The land for this school was donated by Jim English" (Barbara Adams and
Betty Bevans, Shelby County, Ohio One-Room
Schools, Book 2, 1996, p. 24). However, the 1875 atlas map shows a school
there before Jim English is listed as a property owner in the area. The school property
was on the southwest corner of the intersection, surrounded by land owned by Jno. Johnston
and W. Doering.
According to local land transfer and tax records in the Recorder’s Office, the
Jimtown School property was purchased Aug. 10, 1868, for $250 from Wm. and Elizabeth
Doering by the Clinton Township Board of Education. The school was built soon after. The
Doering family had paid taxes on the land since 1846.