USA > Indiana > Grant County > Centennial history of Grant County, Indiana, 1812 to 1912 : compiled from records of the Grant county historical society, archives of the county, data of personal interviews, and other authentic sources of local information > Part 45
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what the historian of the second century will record in reference to William James and the first school in the territory now known as Grant county ? More than four score years had gone into history before this information came to hand about the vanguard of civilization in this part of the heritage.
XLI. ANTEBELLUM EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS By Captain J. W. Miles
[Editorial Note .- When the historian asked Captain J. W. Miles (see chapter on Civil Government ), quartermaster at the Soldiers' Home, for an article under the above caption, he said what so many others have said- that it had been so long ago, and there was so little record of those institutions from which to obtain information. For that reason alone this chapter has value and should have place in the Centennial History, and then so many whose school days were contemporary with Mr. Miles and who hark back in memory to the Marion Academy and the College of Indiana, say that subsequent schools have not surpassed them -that there were exceptional educational advantages in Marion before the Civil war, and that those antebellum institutions had the requisite patronage-that they drew young men and women from other com- munities-the Mellette brothers and others, and then had not Brust Guenin who had charge of the music been court musician and played for kings and queens- - and old time Marion and Grant county appreciated the educational talent in its midst. |
When a chapter in history has been written from inner personal knowledge, it means so much more than one gleaned from a cyclopedia, and Mr. Miles-has done the community a service in writing this chapter. It is a garment made from whole cloth, as he had nothing at hand only memory, and when it was written and ready for the historian he changed his mind, saying it had been so long ago and after laying aside the copy other facts had come to mind, and he would write it again. Among the families who patronized the schools of that day-before the war-are: Neal, Brownlee, Webster, Miles, Jay, Wolf, Sanford, Buchanan, Lenox, Thompson, James, Wallace, MeClure, Spencer, White, Shively, Thomas (and gossip has it that Jeanette Thomas became the wife of Professor J. R. Spurbeck ) Swayzee, Goldthait, Eward, Stout, Horton, Cary, Sweet- ser, Frazier, Seegar, Dunn, Ayres, Pilling, Steele, Badford, Leas, login, Ilartan, Hockett, Davis, MeKinney, ad infinitum, and they must have been schools of distinctive type -- special worth in the community.
Mr. Miles says: In the year 1850 the building that formerly stood at Adams and Eighth streets was built under a law of the state estab- fishing seminaries in the county towns. It was called the Marion Seminary, and for a short time a school of a higher grade than the ordinary three months' winter school was taught there, the principal being Nathan Doane of Wayne county. Who his associates were I am unable to say except that John C. Harlan, afterwards auditor of Grant county, was one of the teachers. This school bid fair to prosper and become a center of learning in the county, but for some reason it soon closed and the building was sold to a private citizen. And again the only educa- tional facility was the ordinary winter school, such as prevailed through- out the county.
There had been, however, some private schools with a limited number of pupils. Prominent among these was a school for young ladies taught
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by the Rev. Alfred Hawes and his wife. He was the Presbyterian minister at the time; his school was at his residence, at the southeast corner of Boots and Eighth streets, and at that time on the extreme outskirts of the village. About the year 1856 Sammel MeClure, a pioneer citizen and prominent merchant of the town, conceived the idea that Marion should and must have better educational facilities. He had children of his own to edneate, and he fell an interest in the children of his neighbors. Accordingly he began agitating the matter and enlisted the interest of some of the prominent citizens who had children to edu- cate, and plans were made to inaugurate a school in which the young people of Marion and vicinity could seeure a liberal education without going abroad to get it.
The old seminary building was secured, and the next problem was to secure competent instructors. John R. Spurbeck, of New York state, was employed as principal. T. D. Tharp, a Grant county young man and a graduate of Indiana University, was secured as one of the instructors. They sent for him while he was yet at Bloomington. In the meantime a private school of some pretensions was being taught in the Presbyterian church, a small frame building just across the alley east of the present Indiana theater building. The teacher was James R. Smith. He was a graduate of Ft. Wayne College and a man of superior attainments. His services were also seenred and he became a teacher of mathematics in the new academy, Professor Tharp being teacher of ancient languages. Miss Georgiana Law, of Massachusetts, a graduate of an eastern female college, was scoured as a teacher of modern languages and rhetorie. Miss Sarah Spurbeck became teacher of the younger pupils, and Miss Emily Ward, who afterwards became the wife of Judge R. T. St. John, was the teacher of music. With this force the new academy was launched, and it very soon became a success. It soon be- came known throughout the county, and also the surrounding counties and the state that Marion had a first class school or academy, and many young men and young women were attracted to the school from various counties in Indiana, and a few from outside of the state.
Changes were occasionally made in the personnel of the teachers, and some were added to the faculty. George W. Lee, of Charleston, Indiana, a graduate of Indiana University, was employed and for a while he taught the languages. Samuel C. Miller, a graduate of Genessee College, New York, and a teacher of ability, also became a member of the faculty. Samuel Sawyer, a Presbyterian minister and a graduate of Princeton University, was also added to the faculty. He had been teaching in a college of Rogersville, Tennessee, but he was compelled to leave the slate because of his expressed attitude toward the institution of slavery. After teaching a short time in the academy Mr. Sawyer withdrew and started another school, with himself at its head, and the old Riverside hotel building was secured as the home of the new institution. Il stood on the southeast corner of Washington and Second streets. The new school was named the College of Indiana.
Reverend Sawyer soon gathered about him a corps of teachers of ability. Among them was William A. Woods, a graduate of Wabash College, and a man of signal ability who afterwards became a judge of the United States court. He was professor of mental and moral science in the new college. George W. Barlow, a former student of the academy and afterwards a graduate of Wabash College, was a teacher of ancient languages. Robert Spelhan, also a graduate of Wabash College, was a teacher of mathematics. Horace Hitchcock, of Western Reserve College, was a teacher of natural science, and Robert Mitchell, abna mater unknown to the writer, was also a teacher of natural science. Miss
407
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Francisco was a teacher of modern languages, and W. H. Harlan and wife, teachers of music.
Here were two schools with able instructors, cach with a large number of students of more than the ordinary capacity, and of course there was a considerable degree of rivalry between the schools. What. the onteome would have been cannot be more than conjectured; it was the opinion of many persons that a union of the two schools would have resulted, and Marion would have become the seat of a college that would have taken rank with the best in the country, but grim visaged war intervened and the schools were soon abandoned. But as it was, much good was accomplished by the schools. Young men and women went forth from these schools better prepared for their life work, and many filled enviable stations in public and private life. Of all the teachers herein named, I know of but one now living-our honored fellow citizen, Thomas D. Tharp. There may be some of the others living; I do not know. Most of them, I do know, have joined the "silent majority," as have also many of their old time pupils. James R. Smith of the academy, a man universally loved and esteemed, was an officer in the Eighth Indiana Infantry in the War of the Rebellion. He was wounded at the battle of Pea Ridge in northwestern Arkansas; he was only slightly wounded, however, and was fixed as comfortably as possible by his com- rades, but on their return he was found to have been butchered by Albert Pike's Indians. This brutal ending of a gentle life produced a general feeling of horror and of profound sorow here, where he was known and loved. Up to within the last three years there was an organization of old academy and college students, meeting once each year to renew ohl associations and talk over old times. The meetings were very much enjoyed; the old life was lived over again in stories and song, but in some manner the organization has become a thing of the past in Grant county.
XLII. GRANT COUNTY EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
Whatever may have been the high standard of the Marion antebellu colleges, the pioneer educators and the public school system, private institutions of learning seem to flourish and they are a component part of Grant county history. Fairmount Friends Academy and Wesleyan Theological Institute have been so well taken care of in the history of Fairmount township that only passing mention is given them in this resume of educational interests. There is a statement in the Atlas of 1877 that one of the first normal institutes in Indiana was held in 1872 in Grant county, conducted by T. D. Tharp, then at the head of local edneational interests, and while these summer normals were later held in all Indiana counties, Grant was among the first to take advantage of them.
It is a matter of history that while superintendent of Grant county schools Mr. Tharp prepared and read a paper before the Indiana State Teachers' Association entitled "Economy in School Management," and later State Superintendent of Public Instruction. James M. Smart, sent to him for it and it was incorporated in his annual reports -- and it was the beginning of the agitation of the grading system now in use all over Indiana. Thus Grant county has always occupied advance ground in an educational sense, and writing about the carly summer normals Mr. Tharp says: "These terms have been pleasant and profitable, and the schools have been brought to a higher standard as the result. Teachers
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in these normal institutes were T. D. Tharp, J. II. Ford, G. A. Osborn; Cyrus Hodgin, William Russell, HI. A. Hutchins, 1. O. Spurgeon, J. W. Lacey, J. W. Legg, E. C. Murray, S. J. Harrison-and the maisie was in the hands of Miss Fanny Behymer." In 1880 Mr. Tharp opened a spring term of school in his residence that was really the beginning of the Marion Normal Institute of today.
G. A. Osborn had just succeeded Mr. Tharp as county superintendent of schools, and they were associated in this preparatory school for teachers. Later Mr. Tharp disposed of the school to Dr. Joseph Tingley, who continued it in the Tharp block, now Hotel Manitou, at the corner of Brauson and Fourth streets, and finally he suggested to Mr. Tingley's successors that the school should be located in the vicinity of "College Corner, " the site of a district school at the corner of Morton Boulevard and Washington street, where Dr. William homos had an interest in it. Then came Dr. T. W. Jonason and Prof. A. Jones, who erected the college building farther south, and then came C. W. Boucher and finally the
OLD SEMINARY
present organization-the Marion Normal Institute. Through all these agencies a great many students have been attracted to Marion in search of higher education. Through all its changing history the Normal Insti- tute has advertised the county, and there were many acquaintances formed at the Tharp Normal in 1880 that have resulted in lasting friend- ships. It was the county historian's first venture ontside of common school and Jonesboro High School, and since J. O. Spurgeon taught grammar in that early normal effort, "split infinitives" have been a con- timons "stumbling block and rock of offense" to him. Mr. Osboru taught history, William Russell was instructor in physiology, and Miss Frone A. Case introduced the Philadelphia School of Oratory methods in reading. L. V. Wheeler and son, Elmer Wheeler, and Henry Fields, had the musical department, and some of the students learned to sing that long ago.
While a good deal is claimed for the antebellum schools, there was a splendid student body in that first "spring normal" in 1880, Mr. Tharp's earlier schools having been held later in summer. Mr. Tharp always had a way of explaining delayed attendance: "We're still in the midst of harvest," and scores of autograph albums of that day contained the Vor 1-29
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entries : "We're still in the midst of harvest, " and "Why is T. D. Tharp like the Indicative mode ? Because he asserts a thing as a fact." The same social spirit seemed to follow the later development of the school through its Marion Normal College history and its present organiza- tion. When it was first located at "College Corner, " debt became its handicap, until Dr. Johnson "financed" it, and then it had an era of prosperity continued throughout the Boucher administration when finally President and Mrs. C. W. Boucher abandoned the field, and September 1, 1912, the Marion Normal Institute was opened with Lawrence V. Jackson as president, citizens of Marion and Grant county standing behind the enterprise with a cash bonus sufficient to place the school in working order.
Article IH of the Articles of Association of the Marion Normal In- stitute reads: "The objeets and purposes of this corporation are to establish and maintain an educational institution in the city of Marion; to establish and maintain therein classical, scientific, law. medical. com. mercial and business departments : to confer all the usual and necessary degrees therein; and to advance business and collegiate eduration on broad and practical fines; and to buy and own real estate for school purposes, and do and perform such acts as may be necessary to carry ont the purpose of this corporation." The board of directors is: G. A. Osborn. A. Jones, Robert J. Spencer, G. P. Butterworth. A. Wood Wil- son. Eli Coggeshall. James L. Barley. M. L. Lewis, John W. Kelley, I. V. Jackson and W. H. Charles. The slogan of the school under the new management is everything better, and although there have been changes in its management, it has been maintained for so many years at its present location that there is a characteristic school community in the vicinity of the institution. Within the year the Normal Institute property has been purchased by a corporation consisting of representa- tive citizens of Marion and Grant county, and there is a commendable loyalty to the reorganized educational institution-the Marion Normal Institute. "Efficiency is the burning question of society today. Efli- cieney is a component of two factors-knowledge and power. We offer liberal courses of study in a wide range of subjects that our students may become familiar with the elements of a number of studies, and find out those for which their mentality is best suited." and an able faculty has been secured to work out its future.
While in its carly history local instructors were found in the Marion school, some of the faculty is still "home talent," as C. C. Thomas and Miss Ada Wright, and in addition to the business course conducted by Mr. Thomas there is the Marion Business College, one of a chain of Indiana business coffeges, located in the Columbia block, which has ex- cellent patronage. It has been in continuous existence since in the carly '90s. and although J. D. Brunner, who owns it, is nonresident, Ora E. Butz is manager and a citizen of the community. Miss Nellie Wright, teacher of shorthand and typewriting, is a Marion woman and among the graduates are many Marion young people who have been state ful in positions which this training enabled them to occupy, and m addi tion, since 1908, there has been an agency of the International Corres- pondence Schools of Seranton, Pennsylvania, maintained in Marion. Correspondence school graduates are found in many business places, especially draughtsmen, and the local representative claimed 250 students in Marion, with a total of 400 in Grant county.
The following history of Taylor University is from the pen of Presi- dent Monroe Vayhinger, and while he mentions Dr. T. C. Reade in con- neetion with the school, he overlooks the fact that its first president after it became a Grant county institution lies buried on the university campus.
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Taylor University has been known locally through student ministers who have filled many pulpits while securing their education, and although sometimes spoken of as "preacher factory." there have been some splendid young people graduated from the institution. As in the ease of the Marion Normal College, Muncie and Delaware county once attempted to locate this Upland institution, but did not succeed as with the Marion school. and "cosmopolitan" is the term that describes the Taylor University student body. President Vayhinger says:
Taylor University, Upland. Indiana, began work at this place in 1893. It was moved from Fort Wayne, at that time and was the suc- cessor to the Fort Wayne M. E. College and the Fort Wayne Medi- cal School. It is under the control of the National Association of Local Preachers. Dr. C. B. Stemen, now of Fort Wayne, was the first president after the school was named Taylor University. Dr. T. C. Reade, a member of the Central Ohio Conference, was president at the time of removal to Upland. Rev. J. C. White, now of Kokomo, then
TAYLOR UNIVERSITY AT UULAND
pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church at Upland, was largely respon- sible for the removal of the college to this place.
The institution is located in the corporate limits of Upland, about one mile south from the railway station. The school buildings are on a beautiful ten acre campus which is located upon the highest point be- tween Columbus, Ohio, and Chicago, Minois. The first building that was erected was the Maria Wright building, which is the main college building. T. C. Reade was a tireless worker and through his energy and self sacrifice he built up a school that became nation wide in its influence.
The school is named after Bishop William Taylor, the great mis- sionary bishop of the Methodist church. He always took a great interest in Taylor University and did very much to send students from the four corners of the earth. His prayers are still a blessing to the institution. Samuel Morris, prince of the Krue tribe of Africa, became a student at Taylor University and because of his devoted life did much to raise the spiritual standard of the school. His life has been read by thou- sands of people, who have been blessed by a knowledge of his great character. A dormitory has been erected in honor of his memory. There
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are four dormitories in all, one the Sickler on the campus and four just off the campus.
Doctor Reade was succeeded by Doctor Shilling, who was acting president for a year. Dean Ayres succeeded him as acting president for a short time. Doctor Winchester was elected president in 1903, and held the position four years. Under his administration one of the dormitorios was erected and other very valuable improvements were made to the buildings. He was succeeded by Dr. A. R. Archibald, who was acting president for ten months. He was succeeded April 1, 1908, by President M. Vayhinger. The school has grown rapidly in the past few years. In the summer of 1911 a new heating plant that furnishes heat for the two school buildings and four dormitorios was erected upon the northeast corner of the campus. The same year the new music hall and chapel was begun on the southeast corner of the campus. This is a fine two-story and basement brick building 50x70 Feet. Mrs. Helena Gehman gave $7,000 to start the building. The second story is the chapel, which was completed in time for the commencement exercises of 1912, and is named after Israel B. Shreiner, who gave $2.400.00 for its completion. The first floor is the music hall, which consists of five studios and nine practice rooms. This was ready for use at the opening of the school year of 1912. The basement is a fine gymnasium with shower baths.
On April 1, 1912, a campaign for an endowment of $200,000 was started with J. C. Everson and O. W. Outland in the field.
In 1911-12 the student body came from twenty-two different states and eleven different countries. Many from foreign countries are here preparing to go back to their native countries as missionaries. The enrollment to date is more than one hundred larger than four years ago. The growth has been constant during that time.
Taylor University has always maintained a high spiritual standard. The evangelistie and missionary spirit of Bishop William Taylor seems to have fallen upon the entire school. The life of faith led by Samuel Morris and other students have been a great spiritual uplift to the school, so that many of the objectionable features of the ordinary college are eliminated, the moral sentiment of the student body being against such abominable practices as hazing and the use of tobacco and other demoralizing features that prevail in some places. The revival spirit prevails at Taylor University, so that the young people who go out from here are evangelistie and helpful in lifting the people Godward.
The faculty consists of a body of men and women who are graduates of the best institution and experts in their departments, so that any student here will find the best possible advantages for any line of work he may wish to pursue.
Taylor University is an honor to Grant county. Because of this institution people from all over the world are looking this way.
XLHI. AN EDUCATIONAL PANORAMA-VIEWPOINTS OF OTHERS
One who has distinctive remembrance of the three r's as the educa- tional curriculum in the Grant county public schools is inclined to take some note of the passing show-the evolution in educational methods. Along in the early seventies, when there were few rural churches, the country schools were the social centers, and in the eighties the historian has distinct recollection of frequently cleaning out schoolhouses on
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Monday mornings that had served as social centers on Sundays. Now the educational leaders are entering a plea for the return of similar conditions the school property to be utilized by the entire community. That long ago the teacher who taught the three r's successfully was doing his duty by the community, and if the child did not learn it was not the teacher's Fault -but today there is individual instruction and if a pupil is backward it is the teacher's duty to find out why -to know the child's environment, and while advancement may have been made there were some good results From the old-fashioned methods.
"With the introduction of manual training and industrial work the discipline of the school became an easy problem," said one who had been studying methods for half a century, "and since that time it has never been difficult. In carlier days, when a child was disobedient, he was whipped, and when he reached the point where whipping did no good he was sent home, which in many cases meant turning him loose on the streets. Then his surplus energy, undirected, inevitably soon became misdirected. Corporal punishment was abolished, or became obsolete, soon after the industrial training was introduced." That certainly is a strong plea for modern methods-the training of the hand as well as the intellect, the discipline that comes with occupation-and years ago it was the teacher who was busy. When the historian "kep! school, " there was grammar, composition, literature and history, but a quarter of a century later all are included in English, but they do not get away from arithmetic, although nature study and other fancies find place, and the teacher who is still a student usually accepts the theories as practical, and would not block progress by clinging to traditions methods of the past.
To show the trend of thought the following Chronicle editorial is used :
The one movement that perhaps comes nearer to the way the Chron- icle thinks and feels about things in general is the gradual growth of a disposition to use the school buildings as social centers. The spirit back of this movement is exactly the one thing most needful to assure the most desirable future of this republic, including of course the most desir able condition of the people.
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