Staff photo / J.T. Whitehouse Canfield Historical Society Curator Laura Zeh shows the recent Canfield Local School District donation of a book that belonged to Canfield 10th District dated 1827. The book describes the need to raise taxes to purchase land for a school building.

CANFIELD — Over the past few weeks, families gathered and exchanged gifts as a Christmas tradition.

At the Canfield Historical Society’s Bond House, the gifts came as well, with several donations, including much needed display and storage items, and a special book.

The first storage item is a 10-drawer oak flat-file cabinet. The large flat drawers can properly house and preserve oversized documents, photographs, paintings, maps, blueprints and other important large archival materials.

“It is a better way to store as opposed to open shelves,” said CHS curator Laura Zeh.

The oak cabinet was donated through the efforts of Jay Wargacki and the Youngstown State University Surplus Equipment Program.

A second large donation came in the form of a glass display case delivered by brothers Jack and Jerry Dixey.

“For the record, brother Jack donated the showcase,” Jerry said on the CHS social media site. “I was just around for moral support.”

The new glass case will be used to house the Canfield Local School District collection at the Bond House. It already houses several historic school items, including an early 1900s set of football knee pads.

“We truly appreciate this thoughtful contribution and the continued support of local partners who help make our preservation work possible,” Zeh said. “The generosity of the community goes a long way.”

When shelves and cabinets were being cleaned out at Canfield schools and several vintage items were discovered, school officials called Zeh and asked if there was interest in a box of items.

“I went over and picked up the box,” Zeh said. “In going through the items, I stumbled across a book that dated back to 1827.”

The book contained the handwritten notes from meetings of the 10th District, Canfield Township.

According to the Canfield Historical Society archives, the first school session in Canfield was in the winter of 1801 and was taught by Caleb Palmer. By 1820, Canfield was divided into 10 districts and in the early years, school took place in various homes within each district.

Eventually each district built a one-room schoolhouse and teachers were brought in at $1.50 per day and they were boarded with local families. The book that was donated contained the log of District 10.

On the first page, it noted that Benjamin Manchester was elected as clerk of District 10 in 1827. It also mentioned the need to raise a tax to lease land to build a one-room school house.

At that time, there were two boards of education that existed. They were the Canfield Rural Board of Education and the Canfield Village Board of Education. The book will eventually make the display case being assembled for Canfield schools.

Zeh said when she first came to the CHS, the main room at the Bond House was being used for lectures. With the public library allowing the society’s lectures to take place across the street, there was no longer a need for a meeting room in the museum.

“That allowed us to display more of the collection in themed areas,” Zeh said.

For information on the society, visit the Canfield Historical Society’s Facebook page.