In 1952, Miss Emma Fraine retired after fifty years of teaching, most of them at the Dayton school, where she taught grades one through four. The class lists shown above include only those students whom Miss Fraine had taught, so not all of the members of the upper grades are included. Her classroom was a single large room, on the first floor of the school. Each grade had its turn at recitation, with time to prepare for the next lesson while other classes were reciting. If you listened to the recitations of the classes ahead of yours, you could get a head start on the next year’s work. She was a firm believer in teaching reading by means of phonics and when phonics fell out of favor, she asked the school board to allow her to continue her existing ways, which they were glad to approve.

Her parents were Charles and Clemence Fraine, who were married 11 May 1878 in Ranrupt, France. They immigrated to the US and came to Dayton by 1882, where they raised their family: daughters Addie, who married Richard Thompson, 31 Dec 1901; Jennie, who also taught school in Dayton and surrounding towns; and Emma, and son, Jules.