Return to the Darrtown High School page.
to the "mid-to-late 1920s" photo
Lori (Lindley) Clendinning contributed the original image (above, left) on November 18, 2023.
Lori explained that she found the image among the effects of her mother, Donna (Jewell) Lindley Gallagher - who passed November 14, 2023. Lori was uncertain why her mother had the untitled and undated photo.
Return to the DHS late-1920s page
Lori, and others who knew Myrtle (Gault) Jewell, believe they identified her on the right side of the photo, in the first row of standing students.
The following image, lifted from the school photo on the DHS late-1920s page, shows the person believed to be Myrtle Gault.
This page explains how the "mid-to-late 1920s" image was found, identified, and converted from its original appearance (below-left) ........ to its enhanced appearanced (below right).
Fortunately, as shown in the images below, by applying a photo enhancement process three times, a handwritten name appeared along the top margin of the page - above the image.
The handwritten name that emerged from the photo enhancement was "Myrtle Gault" - which was the maiden name of Donna's mother ... and Lori's maternal grandmother.
It seemed logical to conclude that the school photo belonged to Myrtle (Gault) Jewell and that she might be one of the students in the picture.
(1) Could Myrtle Gault be among the students in the photograph?
(2) Where was the photograph taken?
Several images of Darrtown High School, at this website, show the same distinctive brickwork that appears in this "late-1920s" photo.
The school number (#5) seen in this image, also matches other images of the school's main entrance, which faced west Oxford Street in Darrtown.
This seems to confirm that this is a Darrtown High School photograph.
Subsequently, several questions arose:
(3) The Gault family is not known to have lived in Darrtown; so, why would Myrtle have been a Darrtown student?
The high school building, situated in Darrtown, was actually the Milford Township High School - serving all of Milford Township - except for the village of Somerville, which had its own high school.
The 1930 U.S. Census Report (shown below in two parts) confirms that Myrtle (age 16) was a member of the Gault family that lived in Milford Township.
The 1930 handwritten U.S. Census Report (below) cites the Gault family home as living along the "Oxford-Middletown-Somerville Road" and lists a neighboring Wm. C. Buhi family.
A 1930 map of Milford Township shows Wm. C. Buhi as the owner of 32 acres in the southeast corner of the Rt. 177 and Oxford-Middletown Road intersection.