From “The hitching post…” column in the Ottawa Herald, a series of articles about early Franklin County schools researched by Bruce Fleming and written by Herald Editor and Publisher Jim Hitch. This article appeared 12 March, 1992.
LeLoup School, District 85, was located 1½ miles south and 4 west of Wellsville.
The district was organized in 1879 and the first teacher was Cyrus Jenkins.
The town originally was called Ferguson, after the original landowner, but was changed to LeLoup around the turn of the (twentieth) century.
The town was named, apparently, for Wolf Creek, which runs to the west. Le Loup means “wolf” in French.
The original school building was replaced, in 1916, with a two-room brick building over a full basement. It served until 1965 when the district was consolidated with Wellsville District 1.
Wilma Higbie of Wellsville taught at LeLoup for two years, ending in 1942.
“The upstairs consisted of two classrooms divided by sliding doors, but I was the only teacher at that time, so we used only one side for a classroom.
“When the weather was bad, we used the basement for our recess and noon recreation. The kids were having so much fun roller skating that I bought a pair and learned how.”
The late Lou Young was quoted in an Ottawa Herald article in 1964, “Few houses were within the town site when the Young family moved to LeLoup in 1880, One was a log house which was later used as a barn. There was a section house and a school house.”