USA > Indiana > A history of education in Indiana > Part 8
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* " The Advantages of the Pestalozzian System of Education " consti- tutes an interesting chapter in a volume by Mr. William Maclure, pub- lished from the School Press, at New Harmony, in 1831. The volume is entitled Opinions on Various Subjects, and gives an interesting exposition of the " Industrial System of Education," and other kindred topics. Sce vol. i, chapters x to XXX.
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UNDER THE FIRST CONSTITUTION.
ly for other seminaries as well. The school continued this service under James G. May, and to a degree under other principals, long after our present school system was inaugurated-even up to the time of our State Normal School.
The records of the Randolph, Delaware, and Henry County Seminaries show numbers of teachers enrolled and not infrequent withdrawals during the term to take charge of schools. In these seminaries, as in others perhaps else- where in the State, special classes were sometimes formed for teachers. After its publication, in 1847, Page's Theory and Practice of Teaching was used as a text, particularly by Prof. E. P. Cole, in Winchester, as Hall's Lectures on School Keeping had previously been in a few schools. Be- sides these and other county seminaries, as those at Cen- terville, Danville, Logansport, and Vincennes ; or private schools, as the Beech Grove Seminary, the Cambridge City, Hanover, and Eugene Academies, the Orleans Institute, and Carlisle School-all contributing more or less to the thor- ough scholastic training, and so the fitting of teachers in a way -the La Grange Collegiate Institute, under Rufus Patch, and Liber College, under Ebenezer Tucker and I. N. Taylor, did perhaps most in this respect.
Another worthy service, and one not generally ascribed to the schools of this period in any State, was the fairly sat- isfactory, though by no means adequate provision, made for the education of girls.
Nominally, the county seminaries were open to both sexes ; as a matter of fact, in several counties they were poorly patronized at best, and only by the boys. The con- siderable number of schools for females suggests at least a prejudice against the education of girls with their brothers. The opposition was not peculiar to Indiana or the West. The State, fifty years ago, had no decisive precedent on a large scale commending co-education-certainly, not in ad- vanced studies. Indeed, co-education was the exception
83
PRIVATE AND INCORPORATED SEMINARIES.
rather than the rule in States then having established ele- mentary school systems.
So an impulse was early manifested, and greatly for- warded by most of the leading teachers of Indiana, toward the establishment of separate schools for girls and young women. The records show fourteen such schools for girls prior to 1850. Among the earliest of these was the Green- castle Female Seminary (1830), celebrated for the long, Chris- tian, and motherly, but equally scholarly, service of Mrs. Larrabee, wife of the first superintendent of public instruc- tion in Indiana. It has been claimed, and perhaps justly, by both recent and contemporary writers that "the academy furnished to the young ladies of the community equal ad- vantages to those of the college" (Asbury). Other teachers in the seminary were Dr. J. Tingley, Prof. George A. Chase, and Prof. Dean, after whom the school was closed.
In 1833 was established the Monroe County Seminary. Prior to this at least thirty other counties had secured their acts of incorporation, though not so many perhaps had been put into actual operation. Indiana College (so called 1828- 1838) was open to men only. It provided both secondary and collegiate training. For them no further seminary privileges were either required or asked. The fund was slowly accumulating. July, 1829, it was reported to be $443.89. A lot had been acquired, but no provision had been made either for a building or a school. In the winter of 1832 the people of Bloomington and vicinity memorialized the Legislature to divert the funds set apart for such purpose to the use of a female seminary. This was readily accom- plished through an act of the General Assembly, January 29, 1833. "The said seminary," so the law reads, "shall be exclusively confined to the education of females, who may be taught therein any of the languages, sciences, fine arts, ornamental branches, general literature, and such other branches or departments of education as the said trustees *
The trustees named were John Bowland, John Hight, William Alex-
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UNDER THE FIRST CONSTITUTION.
may authorize." The curriculum and the organization were much the same as in other seminaries. Children of all grades were entered, and after a few years both sexes ad- mitted without discrimination. Drawing, painting, music (instrumental), and French were taught, but regarded and charged for as extras. The training given was not, and was not meant to be, the scholastic equivalent of that offered in the neighboring college, but it was for a quarter of a century a severely thorough secondary training that attracted young ladies from adjoining counties.
Prof. Cornelius Perring, the first principal, was an edu- cated English teacher, but just arrived in America when, in 1833, he took charge of the Monroe County Female Semi- nary. His administration of sixteen years covers most of the history of the institution as a public school. Through- out this period it was a ladies' seminary exclusively, and graduated more than six hundred students, many of whom became teachers. Prof. Perring was followed by Mrs. E. P. McFerson (1849-'57), during whose service the building was disposed of, as provided by the new Constitution, and the school continued only as a private interest. Prof. E. P. Cole had charge of it from 1857 to 1863. As late as 1860 it had one hundred and sixty-nine students, about one fourth of whom were boys. So far as known, this is the only in- stance in the State of such diversion of the public funds from general to special seminary purposes. Few schools, however, show a more satisfactory record of efficiency and prosperous management. It was a school for the State.
The Salem Female Seminary was founded in 1835 by John I. Morrison, and was conducted many years by him as an independent private institution. It was not less efficient, and scarcely less noted among schools, than the Washington County Seminary, which did so much under Morrison to fix the character of academic work in southern Indiana. The
ander, James D. Robertson, F. T. Butler, Austin Seward, Richard Har- desty, Ellis Stone, and John Grabam.
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PRIVATE AND INCORPORATED SEMINARIES.
Female College at Fort Wayne was soon afterward united with the Methodist Episcopal College (for boys) established in the same year, and the work made co-educational through- out. A similar school was opened by the Presbyterians at Charlestown, in Clark County, about the same time (1846), under the influence of the pastor, H. H. Cambern, with Rev. George I. Reed as principal. A like school also was that under B. Leffler, at Covington, whose course included both elementary and higher branches, the sciences, three lan- guages besides English, and had a liberal patronage.
The Rockville Female Seminary (1840), and a similar one established at Crawfordsville in the same year, the De Pauw Female College at New Albany (1845), and the Fort Wayne College two years later, must not be construed either to mean so much an aggressiveness of separate-schools advo- cates as a growing recognition of the right of girls and women to the larger education which they were otherwise denied.
Following these, but still prior to the inauguration of the State system of schools, though late in the period, were the Indiana Female College, Indianapolis (1850), of which Prof. George W. Hoss was president ; the Presbyterian Female College at Valparaiso (1850) ; the Goodwin Fe- male Institute, at Lafayette (1850); the Princeton Female College (1850) ; the La Porte Female Institute (1853),* founded and managed by W. H. Churchman ; and the Martinsville Female Seminary (1854), under the care of M. L. Johnson. Altogether there were perhaps fourteen or fifteen institutions organized prior to 1854 for the exclu- sive education of girls and young women. They were of academic grade, including, however, both elementary and secondary classes, and admitting all ages. Further, they were private or denominational, except the Monroe County Seminary, and all supported by fees. The Indiana Female College noted above was under the control and patronage
* Burned in 1856, and never rebuilt.
7
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UNDER THE FIRST CONSTITUTION.
of the conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Indiana, and was "designed to be the equal of the best female colleges in the United States."
Prominent among the high-grade schools where co-edu- cation was practiced were those in Delaware and Randolph Counties, with thirty-eight per cent of girls in the total enroll- ment for a number of years, and that in Henry County, aver- aging forty per cent. Morgan County Seminary admitted both sexes and was patronized by a considerable territory in central Indiana outside of the county. It was a superior in- stitution, excluding for the most part the smaller children, and being chiefly devoted to advanced work. W. H. H. Terrell, subsequently adjutant-general of the State, and the Rev. Thomas Conley, both well known, were teachers here. The Washington County Seminary was another school of this class. Admitting both sexes to the same classes, "its suc- cess in this respect," says a former member of the school, " has put to rest, in the minds of those who were educated there, doubts of the economy or desirability of co-education."
Altogether, this early seminary period was one of the most important and most fruitful of good to the State of any in our history. The seminary was an inspiration to the ele- mentary schools; it furnished teachers and fed the colleges, and cemented community interests, and invited settlers and civilized the frontier, as almost no other influence could do. Its mission was elevating and sympathetic. Notwithstand ing occasional opposition, its tendency was conservative and wholesome, and its influences remain in the better educa- tional movements of the present day.
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CALEB MILLS AND THE LAW OF 1849.
CHAPTER VIII.
CALEB MILLS AND THE LAW OF 1849.
ONE chapter yet remains in the educational developments in Indiana under the first Constitution. The period was pregnant with great movements. While little had been ac- complished, many things had been attempted. Within thirty years from her organization as a State Indiana had, besides numerous modifications in the way of supplemental and special legislation, enacted four comprehensive and indc- pendent school laws. As yet there was no system. With an elaborate code,* there were few schools. An army of officers effected but a nominal service. Among Hoosiers, even forty years ago, State education had many and vigor- ous opponents. Elementary education was chiefly conspicu- ous through neglect of it, while all other was more or less antagonized. Free schooling of any grade was thought by many to be dangerous to the State and subversive of the highest individual good. It was undemocratic. One mem- ber of the General Assembly, in 1837, is quoted as saying, when taxation for school purposes was under discussion, " When I die I want my epitaph written, 'Here lies an enemy to free schools.'" Three years later, according to the sixth census, in a union of twenty-six States, Indiana stood six- teenth in the scale of literacy. In less than ten years it fell to the twenty-third place.
It was said by a contemporary: "The state of common education is truly alarming. Only about one child in eight between five and fifteen years is able to read. The common schools and competent teachers are few." Of nearly three hundred thousand children of school age in the State less than fifty thousand were in any sort of school. "A sparse population made it difficult to sustain schools," says a recent
* The school law, as given officially in the Revised Statutes of 1843, chap. xv, comprises six articles and one hundred and forty-two sections, covering twenty pages.
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UNDER THIE FIRST CONSTITUTION.
monograph, "even if there had been a strong desire to do so. But since few of the people had enjoyed the advantages of a liberal education, limited instruction in the most ele- mentary branches satisfied their desire for learning. As a consequence, before the first generation (of pioneers) had lived out its time many thousands of native adults could neither read nor write, and many others possessed no higher intelligence than those who know not the alphabet."
A comparison of Indiana with the other States, touching illiteracy, is presented in the following table, adapted from Prof. Mills's second message, in 1847:
Table of Illiteracy by States-Census of 1840.
STATES.
Over twenty years.
Illiterate.
Per cent.
1. Connecticut. .
163,843
526
. 0032
2. New Hampshire.
149,911
942
.0062
3. Massachusetts.
403,761
4,448
.011
4. Maine.
234,177
3,241
.0138
5. Vermont
144,136
2,270
·0157
6. Michigan
96,189
2,173
·0226
7. Rhode Island.
56,835
1,614
. 0284 5
8. New Jersey
166,964
6,385
.0382
9. New York.
1,155,522
44.452
· 0385
1 in 25
10. Pennsylvania
765,917
33,940
.0443 )
11. Ohio
79.000
4,861
.0615
13. Maryland.
154,087
11,605
· 0753
14. Mississippi
73,838
8,360
·1132-1 in 9
15. Illinois.
198,413
27,502
·1386
16. Indiana.
268,052
38,400
·1432
-1 in 7
17. Missouri.
131,679
19,457
· 1477
18. Kentucky
242,974
40,018
· 1647
19. Alabama
130,900
22,592
·1726
20. Delaware
27,629
4,832
·1749
1 in 6
21. Virginia.
329,959
58,787
·1783
22. South Carolina.
111,659
20,615
·1846
23. Georgia
160,957
30,717
· 1908
24. Arkansas
30,552
6,567
.2149
25. Tennessee
248,928
58,531
.2351
1 in 4
26. North Carolina.
209,685
56,609
·2699
Total
6,374,207
544,538
· 0854
·0554-1 in 18
12. Louisiana.
638,640
35,394
· 1 in 40
1 in 5
It appears from the table, as it has been noted elsewhere in this volume, that Indiana stood sixteenth in the list, sur-
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CALEB MILLS AND THE LAW OF 1849.
passed by every other Northern and by three Southern States. To thoughtful contemporaries the exhibit must have been disheartening. The average illiteracy of the twenty- six States was eight and a half per cent; of Indiana, four- teen and one third ! Excluding Indiana and Illinois, the illiteracy of the North was but one in forty; in Indiana, it was one in seven ! Indeed, the average for the three South- ern States, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Maryland, was but little more than half that of Indiana. Further, the average illiteracy of all the Southern States was but two and a half per cent greater than that of Indiana. Prof. Mills esti- mated that while the State was paying not less than $250,000 a year for the legal punishment of criminals there was regu- larly expended less than half as much for the education of her children.
Table of Illiteracy of Indiana by Counties-Census of 1840.
COUNTIES.
Over twenty years.
Illiterate.
Per cent.
1. Putnam (Asbury)
6,091
1,021
·1676
2. Montgomery (Wabash).
5,519
1,058
·1917
3. Fountain
4,331
874
.2011
4. Huntington.
612
131
·2140
5. Hendricks
4,175
924
.2218
6. Tippecanoe.
5,641
1,246
·2208
7. Washington (Salem)
5,932
1,332
· 2245
8. Green
3,071
740
· 2409
9. Daviess
2,668
667
· 2500
10. Lawrence.
4,330
1,085
·2505
11. Park.
5,171
1,314
· 2541
12. Scott.
1,622
470
· 2897
13. Owen
2,014
793
. 3937
14. Warwick
2,441
715
.2929
15. Rush.
6,051
1,789
· 2956
16. Gibson
3,471
1,044
. 3007
17. Orange
3,630
1,167
. 3214
18. Hamilton
3,777
1,271
· 3365
19. Dubois
1,459
532
. 3646
20. Clay
2,006
738
·3678
21. Jackson
3,411
1,412
. 4139
22. Martin
1,490
620
· 4161
23. Wayne.
9,349
42
.0040
Total
88,262
20,989
.2377
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UNDER THE FIRST CONSTITUTION.
The preceding table presents the condition of twenty- three counties, one fourth of the entire State, in all of which the illiteracy is greater than the State's average; and yet in two thirds of them were more or less flourishing county seminaries, two were the seats of colleges, and all belong to the better class, both industrially and politically.
The average illiteracy for the twenty-two counties (ex- cluding Wayne) was more than twenty-six and a half per cent; Hamilton, Orange, Gibson, and Rush Counties, each reported as illiterates one third of their adults; Washington County, nearly one fourth; Montgomery, one fifth ; and Put- nam, one sixth.
Three colleges were founded in this period; two rechar- tered with university powers; the Indiana University * at- tached law and medical schools ; the first local teachers' institute, the Northern Indiana Institute, and the first State Educational Convention held sessions ; institutions were founded for the education and care of deaf-mutes and the blind; more than a hundred schools or societies, educational or benevolent in character, had been incorporated; and the State had spent in fifteen years for public improvements as many millions of dollars; but the general intelligence con- stantly depreciated.
The State was honored by the citizenship of men eminent in letters and science; of soldiers and civilians; of jurists and teachers; men who were ambitious for the largest good of the Commonwealth-unselfish, patriotic devotion to the general welfare; but by the populace, "schools and the means of education " were neither encouraged nor supported. Learning was at a discount. More than sixty per cent of the State's children (five to twenty-one) were not in school a single day for the year 1846-'47. The public funds dis- tributed were thirty-four cents per scholar. It was said by a contemporary writer that "the lowest bidder for a school, with little or no reference to his qualifications, is generally
* So called after 1838.
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CALEB MILLS AND THIE LAW OF 1849.
the successful candidate." And Colonel J. R. M. Bryant, in the Constitutional Convention, himself a stanch friend of education and in ready sympathy with the public-school movement, said of the contemporary teachers (1851), the " large majority of them ought to be seized by the public au- thorities and sent to school themselves." The average wages of teachers for the year was, of men, $12; of women, $6 per month. In a population of a million there were thirty thousand illiterate voters.
Among all those who saw the calamitous ignorance of the people, and who were ambitious of better things for the State, and whose intelligence and enterprise worked out measures for the general improvement, was one whose con- tributions to the question were sufficiently definite and sound to be recognized as the chief factor in its solution.
The thirtieth session of the General Assembly met De- cember 7, 1846. It promised to be a busy one. Members from every quarter came burdened with great problems of government; of finance and defense; of internal dissension and the suspicion of neighboring States; and all clamoring for immediate handling. In the Indiana State Journal of that date appeared a communication, remarkable in many ways. It was entitled An Address to the Legislature of In- diana, and was signed, "One of the People." Its motto was, "Read, discuss, circulate "; its theme was, "Education and the schools of Indiana." After a brief preparatory sentence, commending his message to the consideration of the mem- bers, the author says :
"There is one topic which has not received from the Governor,* nor from any of his illustrious predecessors,t for the last ten years, the degree of executive recommendation which its intrinsic importance demands and the good of the Commonwealth requires. . . .
" I have examined the proceedings of the Legislature for
* Governor Whitcomb.
t Including Governors Noble, Wallace, and Bigger.
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UNDER THE FIRST CONSTITUTION.
the last twelve years, in the earnest expectation of seeing the subject of education discussed and disposed of in some degree as it deserves at the hands of the appointed guardians of the Commonwealth. In this I have been disappointed, and I am not alone in my disappointment; for I often hear my fellow-citizens expressing their deep regret at the ineffi- cient character of our common schools and the wretched condition of our county seminaries, to say nothing of a lib- eral and enlightened policy in respect to our higher institu- tions of learning."
In such words the case was presented. As marking the magnitude of the interests involved, and as justifying his charge, the author continued : "The true glory of a people consists in the intelligence and virtue of its individual mem- bers, and no more important duty can devolve upon its repre- sentatives in their legislative capacity than the devising and perfecting of a wise, liberal, and efficient system of popular education. . . . It is, indeed, a favorable circumstance that appropriate and efficient action on this subject will awaken no sectional jealousies, alarm no religious prejudices, sub- serve the interests of no political party. It is emphatically a topic which, ably discussed and wisely disposed of, will benefit every part of the State, improve every class in the community, give permanency to our civil and religious insti- tutions, increase the social and literary capital of our citi- zens, and add materially to the real and substantial happi- ness of every one. Such a system of improvement ought surely to require no log-rolling to secure its adoption by the representatives of an intelligent people, nor will the burden its operation may occasion be reluctantly borne by a com- munity that scorns the repudiation of a debt incurred for the construction of railroads and canals." *
Here is suggested the burden of the "message"-the bur- den of all the messages,t for five addresses followed this first
* See reference to State debt, p. 39.
t Published about the opening of the Legislature each year: December,
93
CALEB MILLS AND THE LAW OF 1849.
one-the educational need of Indiana, the demand upon the State, the duty of the Legislature, and public taxation for schools. In addition to the two extracts made, this address included an inquiry into the illiteracy condition of the State, general and comparative, and somewhat more detailed studies of the systems of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, and Michigan, as emphasizing the inefficiency of the Indiana policy. The causes of this inefficiency the au- thor designates as (1) want of competent teachers, (2) need of suitable texts, (3) lack of community interests in educa- tion, and (4) want of adequate funds.
Of the five States mentioned, four (New York excluded) had but just established systems. That in Michigan was barely ten years old, those in Massachusetts and Ohio nine, and one in Connecticut only seven. These States were care- fully studied in their school organization, school funds, levy- ing of taxes, supervision, teachers, etc., and their experience largely drawn upon for concrete lessons. In a masterly way for six years these were held before the law-makers, legisla- tive committees, State and local officials, individuals of influ- ence in civil and political life, and the people at large, as a lesson always, sometimes a warning !
Having stated the case in his first message, and fixed the deficiencies of the system, looking to their correction, his recommendations are practical and lucid, including general taxation for the support of schools, the State distribution of a common fund according to the school census, and the elec- tion (or the appointment) of county or other local superin tendents. This all seems familiar enough and intelligible now, and his recommendations have been very generally adopted, not only in Indiana, but in most recent State sys- tems. But the policy urged was little known then.
Caleb Mills-for he was the author of all six messages- deserves to be held in grateful remembrance by Indiana
8, 1846 ; December 6, 1847 ; December 11, 1848 ; January 7, 1850 ; Novem- ber 25, 1850 ; December 10, 1851.
94
UNDER TIIE FIRST CONSTITUTION.
teachers, Indiana children, Indiana Legislatures, and all who have interest in Indiana schools or the public morals inci- dent to intelligence.
Prof. Mills was a New Englander, born and educated in New Hampshire. Graduating (1828) at the age of twenty- two from Dartmouth College, and five years later from Andover Theological Seminary, he removed at once to the West, and became first principal of the Presbyterian School at Crawfordsville, just being opened by E. O. Hovy, Will- iamson Dunn, and others, and that afterward grew into Wabash College. After his graduation at Dartmouth, and before completing the course at Andover, Mr. Mills, then a young man just past his majority, spent two years traveling through the Southwest, including the river and neighboring counties in Indiana, returning to his studies in 1831, greatly impressed with the possibilities no less than the needs of "the western country." His tour had been in the interest of Sunday schools, and revealed to him through long and intimate acquaintance the appalling intellectual and social necessities of the people. Returning in 1833, he brought with him to the State the New England-almost Puritan- idea of education. These two facts-confidence in the re- generations of wisely directed general education and the necessitous spiritual condition of the "Wabash country," coupled with a profound solicitude for the unthinking and indifferent-may serve to explain the very active part of Mr. Mills in the reorganization of Indiana schools in the next twenty years. After 1843, until the time of his death (Oc- tober 17, 1879), the influence of his views may be traced in almost every important legislative act concerning education in the State.
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