| Number of teachers in county, | Males | 22 |
| Females | 28 | |
| Amount expended for teachers' wages | $7,800.00 | |
| Amount for buildings, exclusive of voluntary contributions | 2,500.00 | |
| Value of school property | 19,488.00 | |
| Census of school children | 481 | |
Movements looking to graded schools for Dayton were in progress soon after county establishment. After various rebuffs the advocates of progress were gratified by the fulfillment of their aspirations. An excellent building was erected and furnished in 1880, at a cost of $8,000.00. The women of the town bestirred themselves and, as is usual in such cases, they made things go by the formation of an Educational Aid Society. By means of festivals, "feeds" and other allurements such as ordinarily play havoc with the hearts, stomachs and purses of the masculine citizens, this society raised sufficient funds for equipping the rooms and improving the grounds.
When the tasty building was opened to the children of Dayton in October, 1880, it provided for the first graded school in Eastern Washington. The schools of Walla Walla were, of course, larger, but up to that time had not been graded. Supt. C. W. Wheeler of Walla Walla County called attention to that rather discreditable fact in 1881, and within a year the mother county followed the daughter. The teachers in that first graded school in Columbia County were: Principal, F. M. McCully; assistants, J. S. Windell, Sina Coleson, Stella Bowen. During the summer of 1881 two additional buildings were erected and a high school department was added, in charge of S. G. Burdick and Lizzie Geary and Emma Kinnear.
SCENE ON MAIN STREET, DAYTON
CENTRAL SCHOOL, DAYTON
In 1882 the principalship was conferred upon a teacher destined to become a prominent educator, Prof. J. H. Morgan, subsequently superintendent of public instruction for the state, and for many years afterwards connected with the Normal School at Ellensburg.
For the sake of topical clearness we will take a long step in time and present here the essential features in the report of the superintendent of schools for the county, and that for the superintendent of the Dayton schools for 1917.