This writer has written numerous times in the past that the pages of the book of history relevant to the articles written remain open for new information that may come to light succeeding the articles printed previously. Such is the case with District #4 - Village which was in the article of Oct. 27, 2010. I received from the Greene historian, Margaret (Peg) Ross a photo of the Greene Village Academy on Monell Street. To allow all readers a view of this early education building, the photo is printed in conjunction with the District labeled above. At this time the research previously done reiterated that after 1868 there was no further information regarding the Select Schools in Greene which were in existence from 1857 to 1869. At that time we are assuming that District #4 school was adequate.
Suddenly in 1941 change took place in the education system of New York State when Centralization went into effect, climaxing ten years of agitation with the residents of the Township of Greene. Greene High School was the last school in the county to centralize and one of the last ones in the state with the final vote being 590 for and 386 against the proposed centralization.
As the district schools were abandoned and closed, one by one, the majority of them were sold for dwellings. Windham School in the Town of Smithville was the last one-room school to close in the Greene Central School District in 1955. By that time some two hundred schools in the county were compressed into nine Central School Districts.

DISTRICT #7
The historical information relevant to the above district is frustrating as there is very little documented history regarding this district. The photo which accompanies this article shows the school after it was converted to a dwelling and had the tragic end of burning to the ground in later years with the loss of three children.
Mrs. Folsom in her extensive documentation of the schools of the township of Greene documented that District #7 was located on Ichabod Merriams’ in Smithville and Greene however the location of #7 was off County Road #32 — up Hotchkiss Road at the top of the hill. In addition to the above information in 1832 lots 119 and 101/Alot. D -from #9 to #7 and Lot 16E from #19 to 7, additionally new district #1 from #7 (Greene and Smithville). Confusing to say the least! Greene districts have had the unique opportunities to change district numbers, add and subtract land, all this conveys to the new historian or researcher - more research to be done!
District #4 was open from 1844 to 1948 nearly a century of service to the township of Greene. The earliest date from the school records record’s the fact that there was a school in existence in 1830 with a pupil count of 7 and by 1834 a pupil count of 15. However, the average pupil count was usually less than ten which was gentler on the teachers at times rather than some of the districts in other townships which were at time 100 pupils in all grades. One cannot wonder how the teaching population of this modern age would handle that situation.
Trustees who chose to serve as “wardens” of this district include George Wenn, Archibald Birdsall, Samuel Mervin, Charles B. Miller, Ebenezer H. Cole, H. Comick, A. McDonald, J. Marshall, S. Ives, Joseph E. Smith, G. W. Christie, Henry Cornich and Mathew Cook.
How the school was erected, who actually did the building, how much was the cost, these facts are unknown at this time, but as written above, the pages will remain open.
Thus we close another chapter of the Township of Greene school history with the weekly request that if anyone in Chenango County has historical information, not only on schools, but any subject relevant to county history, do not destroy it, pass it to your local historian, library, County Historical Society, local historical society or Chenango County Historian. An alternative is to e-mail it to news@evesun.com. It will be passed along for safe keeping to the correct person(s).