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Volume 6 Relation of U.B/EUB Virginia Conferences to Shenandoah University Dec. 26, 2013
Shenandoah Press, with more modern printing equipment, Ruebush’s business now focuses primarily on
commercial printing.
A. P. Funkhouser, a leader in the U.B. Church, and J. N. Fries, one of Dayton’s first mayors,
organized Shenandoah Seminary in 1875 as primarily a private school for children of members of the
United Brethren in Christ Church. In its early years, the School held classes in a frame store building on
Main Street. Around 1879, the school moved to the old Stinespring Tavern at 250 College Street. The
U.B. Virginia Conference Board, desiring a church school, purchased the school in 1884. A year later,
the college enlarged the original building with a large brick addition and purchased the campus land
between College and Main streets. In the ensuing years, the college built several major structures,
including Howe Memorial Hall in 1899, the Administration Building in 1910, and Kieffer Alumni
Gymnasium in 1930, along with several smaller frame auxiliary buildings. Several other houses were
utilized as dorms and for overflow activities. The college advertised a curriculum from classical and
commercial studies to English and scientific instruction. However, from its inception, music played a
major role in the school’s programs. An 1877 broadside advertised that “Music is a special and
prominent feature of the school” [S.C. Broadside, Undated53]. In the 1880s musical instruction included
choral singing, cornet, harmony, organ, piano, violin, and voice culture, with banjo, guitar, harp,
mandolin, and composition being added by the first decade of the 20th century. The school also
sponsored a brass band and orchestra. As early as 1892-93, 110 students were enrolled in the music
department. By 1902 the college had a new name—Shenandoah Collegiate Institute and School of
Music—which clearly reveals the importance assumed by the music programs. In 1937, the School of
Music was incorporated separately as Shenandoah Conservatory of Music. According to local historian
John Wayland, the “institute has really inherited the musical traditions and tendencies that so long
distinguished the school of Joseph Funk and sons at Singer’s Glen.” [Wayland 1972, p. 296]
Meanwhile, the state had accepted the college into the Junior College system in 1922. As the enrollment
in both institutions increased in the 20th century, the school outgrew its Dayton campus and moved to its
present site in Winchester in 1960.
With both the Shenandoah College and Ruebush-Kieffer Company, the town of Dayton
prospered in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and attracted numerous other businesses and
commercial enterprises. Many stores sprang up along Main Street during these years. Keiter Brothers
Store and William H. Carpenter’s Cash and Trade Store both boasted businesses averaging $5,000
annually in the 1880s. C. J. L. Bryan had a successful confectionary, soda fountain, and general
merchandise store on College Street in the 1880s, serving the college community. Throughout the early
20th century, a variety of lunchrooms and restaurants were established to cater to the college trade.
G. W. Hedrick opened Hedrick’s Carriage Company, one of the town’s largest businesses in the early
1880s, and by 1888 he employed 10 men and grossed $7,000-8,000. Other local enterprises included
Dayton Creamery and Dayton Harness Factory along the railroad, Miller’s Furniture Factory at the
corner of Bowman and High streets, the Shrum Brothers’ brickyard on South Main Street, and several
livery stables. Aldine Kieffer established the Virginia Organ Company in 1882, but it burned in 1888
and was never rebuilt.
By 1904, Dayton began pumping water for public and private use from nearby Silver Lake. In
1906, Dayton became the third town in Rockingham County to have electricity, served by the North
River Electric Company in Bridgewater.
A number of the larger, more stylish, turn-of-the-century houses presently lining College Street
were built for college faculty, including the J. H. Hall House, the J. H. Ruebush House, the J. W. Howe
53 Shenandoah College Broadside, J. K. Ruebush College, Special Collections, Eastern Mennonite College, Harrisonburg,
Va., Undated.
Davis on History of S.C., 1982-2008 94
Shenandoah Press, with more modern printing equipment, Ruebush’s business now focuses primarily on
commercial printing.
A. P. Funkhouser, a leader in the U.B. Church, and J. N. Fries, one of Dayton’s first mayors,
organized Shenandoah Seminary in 1875 as primarily a private school for children of members of the
United Brethren in Christ Church. In its early years, the School held classes in a frame store building on
Main Street. Around 1879, the school moved to the old Stinespring Tavern at 250 College Street. The
U.B. Virginia Conference Board, desiring a church school, purchased the school in 1884. A year later,
the college enlarged the original building with a large brick addition and purchased the campus land
between College and Main streets. In the ensuing years, the college built several major structures,
including Howe Memorial Hall in 1899, the Administration Building in 1910, and Kieffer Alumni
Gymnasium in 1930, along with several smaller frame auxiliary buildings. Several other houses were
utilized as dorms and for overflow activities. The college advertised a curriculum from classical and
commercial studies to English and scientific instruction. However, from its inception, music played a
major role in the school’s programs. An 1877 broadside advertised that “Music is a special and
prominent feature of the school” [S.C. Broadside, Undated53]. In the 1880s musical instruction included
choral singing, cornet, harmony, organ, piano, violin, and voice culture, with banjo, guitar, harp,
mandolin, and composition being added by the first decade of the 20th century. The school also
sponsored a brass band and orchestra. As early as 1892-93, 110 students were enrolled in the music
department. By 1902 the college had a new name—Shenandoah Collegiate Institute and School of
Music—which clearly reveals the importance assumed by the music programs. In 1937, the School of
Music was incorporated separately as Shenandoah Conservatory of Music. According to local historian
John Wayland, the “institute has really inherited the musical traditions and tendencies that so long
distinguished the school of Joseph Funk and sons at Singer’s Glen.” [Wayland 1972, p. 296]
Meanwhile, the state had accepted the college into the Junior College system in 1922. As the enrollment
in both institutions increased in the 20th century, the school outgrew its Dayton campus and moved to its
present site in Winchester in 1960.
With both the Shenandoah College and Ruebush-Kieffer Company, the town of Dayton
prospered in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and attracted numerous other businesses and
commercial enterprises. Many stores sprang up along Main Street during these years. Keiter Brothers
Store and William H. Carpenter’s Cash and Trade Store both boasted businesses averaging $5,000
annually in the 1880s. C. J. L. Bryan had a successful confectionary, soda fountain, and general
merchandise store on College Street in the 1880s, serving the college community. Throughout the early
20th century, a variety of lunchrooms and restaurants were established to cater to the college trade.
G. W. Hedrick opened Hedrick’s Carriage Company, one of the town’s largest businesses in the early
1880s, and by 1888 he employed 10 men and grossed $7,000-8,000. Other local enterprises included
Dayton Creamery and Dayton Harness Factory along the railroad, Miller’s Furniture Factory at the
corner of Bowman and High streets, the Shrum Brothers’ brickyard on South Main Street, and several
livery stables. Aldine Kieffer established the Virginia Organ Company in 1882, but it burned in 1888
and was never rebuilt.
By 1904, Dayton began pumping water for public and private use from nearby Silver Lake. In
1906, Dayton became the third town in Rockingham County to have electricity, served by the North
River Electric Company in Bridgewater.
A number of the larger, more stylish, turn-of-the-century houses presently lining College Street
were built for college faculty, including the J. H. Hall House, the J. H. Ruebush House, the J. W. Howe
53 Shenandoah College Broadside, J. K. Ruebush College, Special Collections, Eastern Mennonite College, Harrisonburg,
Va., Undated.
Davis on History of S.C., 1982-2008 94
