USA > Indiana > Historic Indiana : being chapters in the story of the Hoosier state from the romantic period of foreign exploration and dominion through pioneer days, stirring war times, and periods of peaceful progress, to the present time > Part 29
USA > Indiana > Historic Indiana : being chapters in the story of the Hoosier state from the romantic period of foreign exploration and dominion through pioneer days, stirring war times, and periods of peaceful progress, to the present time, centennial ed. > Part 29
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Mr. Hobbs said: A very accomplished lady teacher who came from a bright centre in North Carolina taught a summer school in southern Indiana in the early days. Many had doubts about her success. It was not considered possible for a woman to govern a school. She had read much and had a happy way of illustrating prose and poetry by anecdotes of history and biography. She stirred within the pupils a love for classic literature, history, and art, and the question was settled that a lady could teach school as well as a man. The compensation received by the early pedagogues was not such as to encourage an over-supply of teachers. Judge Banta says in his reminiscences that seventy- five cents per quarter was a price quite commonly met with as late as 1825, or even later, but the price varied. In some sections $1 per scholar seems to have been the ruling price, in others $1.50, while in a very few instances $2 was paid. Some teachers eked out their earnings by chopping timber at night and on Saturdays. In many cases, probably a majority, the teacher was obliged to take part of his pay in produce. Wheat, corn, bacon, venison hamis, dried pumpkins, flour, buckwheat flour, whiskey, leather, coon skins, and other articles are mentioned as things given in exchange for teaching. At the ex-
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piration of the three-months term, says one old set- tler, the teacher would collect the tuition in wheat, corn, pork, or furs, and take a wagon-load to the nearest market, and exchange it for such articles as he needed. Very little tuition was paid in cash. One schoolmaster of the time contracted to receive his entire pay in corn, which, when delivered, he sent in a flat-boat to the New Orleans market. Another, an Orange County schoolmaster, of a somewhat later period, arranged to teach a three-months school for $36.50, to be paid as follows: $25 in State scrip, $2 in Illinois money, and $9.50 in currency. This was as late as 1842, and there were seventy school children in his district. A large per cent. of the un- married teachers "boarded around," and thus took part of their pay in board. The custom in such cases was for the teachers to ascertain by computation the time he was entitled to board for each scholar, and usually he selected his own time for quartering himself on the family. In most instances it is believed that the teacher's presence in the family was very accept- able, for the isolation was always felt in the wilderness, and as books and papers were scarce the conversation of an intelligent teacher was very welcome. Later it became quite common to have a schoolmaster's house erected by the district, hard by the schoolhouse, for the use of the married masters.
"A few years ago," continues Judge Banta, "I had occasion to look into the standing and qualifications of the early teachers of my own county, and on looking over my notes I find this statement: 'All sorts of teachers were employed in Johnson County. There was the "one- eyed teacher," the "one-legged teacher," the "lame teacher," the "teacher who had fits," the "teacher who
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had been educated for the ministry but, owing to his habits of hard drink, had turned pedagogue," and the " teacher who got drunk on Saturday and whipped the en- tire school on Monday."' A paragraph something like this might be truthfully written of every county south of the National road, and doubtless of every one north of it. The lesson this paragraph points to is that whenever a man was rendered unfit for making his living any other way, he took to teaching. The first schoolmaster of Van- derburg County lived the life of a hermit; and is described as a rude, eccentric individual who lived alone and gained a subsistence by hunting, trapping, and trading. John Malone, a Jackson County schoolmaster, was given to tippling to such excess that he could not restrain himself from drinking ardent spirits during school hours. He carried his bottle with him to school but he seems to have had regard enough for the proprieties not to take it into the schoolhouse, but hid it outside. Wesley Hopkins, a Warrick County teacher, carried his whiskey to school in a jug. Owen Davis, a Spencer County teacher, took to the fiddle. He taught what was known as a 'loud school,' and while his scholars roared at the top of their voices the gentle pedagogue drew forth his trusty fiddle and played Old Zip Coon, The Devil's Dream, and other in- spiring profane airs, with all the might and main that was in him. Thomas Ayres, a Revolutionary veteran, who taught in Switzerland County, regularly took his afternoon nap during school hours, 'while his pupils,' says the historian, 'were supposed to be preparing their lessons, but in reality were amusing themselves by catching flies.' One of Orange County's early school- masters was an old sailor who had wandered out to the Indiana woods. Under his encouragement his pupils, it is said, 'spent a large part of their time roasting potatoes.' " 1
1 Banta, D. D., "Early Schools of Indiana." Articles in the Indianapolis News, 1892.
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Thus we see that an odd character who had a little learning, or a lame soldier who "had seen some schoolin' " in his mother country, or a Yankee tinker who could combine some useful trade with a few months' teaching the three R's to the frontier children, were generally the teachers found in the cabin schools. They solicited their pupils from house to house, telling or submitting in writing, to the parents, where they would hold the school, that they would teach spelling, reading, writing, and arithmetic as far as the single rule of three. They announced what their charges would be, and sometimes added, the discipline would be, for being idle, two lashes with a beech switch, for whispering, three lashes, for fighting, six lashes. The text-books used were not closely graded: as may be imagined. The children learned to read from whatever book the family happened to possess, the Bible, Gulliver's Travels, Pilgrim's Progress, a dream book, or the moral maxims at the foot of the page in the old blue speller. Colonel Cockrum tells a touching story of this dearth of text-books, when parents were obliged to cut up a volume and paste the parts on boards for the different children of the family. A pointed goose-quill was used for the pen and the ink for "copy-book work" was manufactured from oak balls saturated in vinegar.
The children walked miles through the forest to gain the meagre rudiments of knowledge these ec- centric masters might impart to them. This poverty of advantage in youth was another pathetic phase of the tragedy of the frontier. From Georgia to Mich- igan, we may picture to our minds these eager, in- telligent youths, rising in the gray winter dawn to "do the chores" about the farm and chop the wood
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for the cavernous fire-places which required cords of wood a day to warm the open house. After their early breakfast they trudged through the woods with dinner-basket on arm to the little log schoolhouse. "In imagination I can still hear the squish, squish of water-soaked shoes as their wearers crossed the pun- cheon floors to repeat their lessons," writes a pioneer. Many a time these pioneer children encountered the skulking savages, the wild beasts, or were terrorized by snakes, on the way to school. Colonel Cockrum relates a true incident in the school-days of Mrs. Nancy Gulick, who lived near where the town of Hazleton now stands. One of the patrons of the school near White River had started out hunting and gone by the school to see one of his boys. While there the hunter's dogs treed a young panther, not far from the school- house. The children went out to see what the dog was barking at, and the hunter, on coming up, shot it, and told his boy to drag it to the schoolhouse and when he went home to take it with him and save the hide. A short time after "books were taken up," the teacher and pupils were startled by the awful scream of the old mother panther, as she came bounding along the way the young one had been dragged. They had forethought enough to close the door and put the window-bench in place and fasten it there. The furious animal rushed up to the carcass of her kitten and when she found that it was dead she broke forth in terrible screams and howls of lamentation. Looking around for something on which to avenge its death, she made a rush for the schoolhouse, ran two or three times around it, and then leaped on top of it and commenced tearing across the roof from side to side, as if hunting some place where she could get in to the
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imprisoned teacher and scholars. After a while she gave three or four most terrible screams; presently the answering screams of another panther were heard some distance off. It was but a short time before her mate came rushing up; they gave several screams, one after another, and made a rush for the building, bounded on the top of it, and for the next half-hour kept up a screaming such as the helpless scholars and frightened teacher had never heard before. Major Robb had several men working for him at that time. They heard the fearful noise, and by the direction were sure it came from the schoolhouse. Three men took their rifles and hurried to the rescue. Several dogs had followed the men, and they set up a loud barking, which frightened the panthers into a tree which stood near the schoolhouse and they were soon shot to death by the hunters.
At night the school children studied their lessons and "worked their sums" by the firelight, or the feeble flame of a "tallow-dip." This is not alone the picture of the conditions which surrounded Abra- ham Lincoln's childhood and others known to fame; but it was the common lot of all the children in the early Indiana settlements, whose lives afterward went into the foundation of the sturdy commonwealth. They were the men and women who so conscientiously laid the foundation for better conditions of instruction for later generations of Indiana children. Nor did these men and women in after days claim that their early years were a time of woe, unmixed with rural pleasure. The privations and dangers became in memory partly offset by the joys of a vigorous child- hood in close contact with nature. They had found pleasure in the long walks to and from school. They
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had gathered nuts, berries, and acorns by the way. The hunting of May-apples, paw-paws, calamus-root, or blackberries had often beguiled their footsteps from the direct path, to where they knew the biggest and best fruits to be lurking.
" In the fields we set our guileless snares For rabbits and pigeons and wary quails, Content with the vaguest feathers and hairs From doubtful wings and vanished tails." 1
Thus, in later life, reminiscences of early trials and pleasures seemed almost balanced; and "the good old times" became a term of reproach to modern degeneracy.
When the "man teacher" was found to be unne- cessary to cope with the muscle and brawn of hardy overgrown boys who came for the three months' schooling, and the power of personality and gentleness was found to be a more efficient civilizer, then women often became the instructors. Some of these women had a talent for inspiring their pupils with a love of learning which made them invaluable instruments of progress and culture in those crude surroundings. Many of them were of New England birth, and had been thoroughly taught. Often they had received their training from a clergyman father whose classical scholarship and general culture moulded most excellent instructors for the frontier. Some of these intelligent women married soon after coming out West and their descendants were among the especially en- lightened citizens of the State. Sometimes the women continued to teach after their marriage, owing to the scarcity of good instructors. The little libraries
1 Howells, Wm. D., Poems.
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they brought with them were loaned far and wide to eager readers, who were starved for good literature, just as the people on the frontier are now.
Although the earliest schools in Indiana were started and maintained by the parents who were anxious for the development of their own children, the demand for popular education was included in the very first ordinance for the formation of the Territory. In 1785, and in 1787, the famous laws passed for the government of the Northwest Territory declared that "religion, morality, and knowledge being ne- cessary to a good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall ยท forever be encouraged," and provisions were incor- porated in that ordinance, setting aside a thirty-sixth part of all lands for the maintenance of public schools for all the people. This provision was a wise one. By the year 1825, it was estimated that the common school fund consisted of 680,207 acres valued at $2.00 an acre. These lands formed the endowment for the future means of maintaining common schools, but for many years there were no available funds, until the broad acres could be sold or a revenue could be obtained from them. It was during this period that the little "entry" schools, with paid tuition, of which we have been speaking, performed their mission for the strag- gling settlements.
In 1807, the Territorial Legislature passed an act incorporating the Vincennes University, originating the first of those weak academies with the high-sounding titles. This "University," according to the language of the bill, was to be for the instruction of youth in the Latin, Greek, French, and English languages; mathematics, natural philosophy, logic, rhetoric, and
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the laws of nature and of nations! Special provision was made, in the charter, for the education of the Indians. The University was to provide all expenses for them, including maintenance and clothing, to induce them to embrace the opportunity for an edu- cation. At the same time, the frontier was so con- stantly threatened that Governor Harrison, at a later session, earnestly recommended a military branch in every school to instruct the youth in defence against the savage. Only one Indian is said ever to have availed himself of the opportunity of an education at Vincennes University! At the time of granting its charter, the Legislature gave it authority to raise $20,000 by lottery for its establishment. . And this privilege was used for the next sixty years to main- tain the school!
When the first constitution was formulated for the new State government in 1816, it included provision for township schools, for county seminaries, and a State university, ascending in regular order, with free tuition and open to all who wished an education. None of the lands that had been granted to the State, by the Federal Government, for school purposes, could be sold before 1820; and actually none were sold until eight years later. The legislation from time to time for public schools was as advanced as in any of the States, but there were no funds to main- tain the authorized schools. There were many reasons for this,-the sparseness of population, slender school revenues from taxation, lack of qualified teachers, "opposition of the few and indifference of the many," who needed their children to work at the clearing of the forest and the planting and gathering of crops. Superintendent Cotton reminds us that "the settlers
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were busy felling the forest, draining swamps, and making homes. They exhausted their time and en- ergies, in providing for their families the necessities of life, and in baffling malaria. They had no leisure for the contemplation of educational problems, and the spiritual life had to wait. The day of free schools was afar off and illiteracy grew apace."1 Even the elementary schools were left to private enterprise.
At this very early point in the history of the edu- cational affairs in Indiana there occurred within the borders of the State the most brilliant experiment that could be found on the national soil; that is, the schools established at New Harmony, by David Owen and William Maclure, which are described in the chapter on that socialistic community. From those short-lived schools, there went out teachers over the whole West, whose influence on education cannot be calculated.
In 1824, a law was passed providing for county seminaries and about fifty counties availed themselves of the provision, but the schools were all supported by private tuition fees, and money was so scarce that many of the children were not able to attend. The prevailing theory of that time, all over the country, was that parents alone were responsible for the edu- cation of their children; the rights of a child and the necessity of the State requiring and providing elemen- tary education in its own defence had not yet been accepted. It was during this period of half a century before the full inauguration of public schools over the State that private citizens established those academies and denominational colleges which dotted
1 Cotton, Fassett S., Report of Supt. of Public Instruction, 1904. Indianapolis.
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all of the districts then populated. These schools must be borne in mind, by the student of the State's history. They are an enduring testimony to the intelligence of the pioneer settlers. They were de- termined that their children should have the advantages of which they had been deprived, and for which they had hungered in their youth, and tried to supple- ment by solitary studies. While the conviction ne- cessary to the establishment of public schools, for all of the youth, was slowly coming to the people, the more enlightened men and women subscribed the funds necessary to establish what were known as "pay schools." There were fully seventy of these seminaries opened before the middle of the century.
It was commonly held, that the various religious denominations should undertake the higher education of the young and each sect tried to provide a school for its own following. Many of these institutions did good work for their time, and have passed into oblivion with their founders. They served the purpose of their day and generation, and deserve honorable remembrance. They were a large part of the up- lifting influences of the frontier, and were built and supported at great sacrifices on the part of the parents of two generations ago. As they have so entirely passed beyond the ken of the present generation, they must be embodied in every history of the State, or due justice will not be rendered to the pioneers' in- telligence, and the wise provision for their children.
These schools educated the men and women who, in their turn, established the State universities, the public school system, and provided for the denomi- national colleges. In that early time many a tow- haired youth, barefooted, and with his scanty outfit
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tied up in a "meal-poke," kissed his mother good- bye and walked the distance to the seminary. In his ears rung his mother's benediction, and the father's urgent counsel to "get learning while he had the chance." At home the father chopped and tilled, and the mother spun and wove, to pay the slender price charged at these academies for board and tuition. The principals and teachers who supplied the thorough, if limited, instruction have long since gone to their reward, but their place in the annals of the States, and in the esteem of posterity, is by the side of the self-sacrificing parents. As General Wallace intones, for many others, the praise of one, in his autobiography :
"Step by step Prof. Hoshouer led me into and out of depths I never dreamed of and through tangles and ap- preciations which proved his mind as thoroughly as they tried mine. That year was the turning point in my life, and out of my old age and across his grave, I send him, Gentle Master, hail, and all sweet rest! Now I know wherein I am most obliged to you-unconsciously, per- haps, but certainly you taught me how to educate myself up to every practical need." 1
Several of those early foundations have survived. Vincennes University, which was the first college established in the Territory, has suffered throughout its history on account of its endowment. First because its wild lands were unremunerative, and later because of the lottery feature, which hurt it when that form of raising funds was no longer approved of; then in 1830 the Legislature assumed control, sold the land grants, and put the proceeds into the general treasury of the State! Thirteen years later the trustees brought
1 Wallace, Lew, Autobiography, page 58. New York, 1906.
A Scene near Hanover College. From a photograph
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suit to recover their rights, in hopes of resuscitating the school; and after years of litigation and at a cost of one third of the sum in attorney's fees, they gained their suit, and the school was reopened with the good wishes of all who recall its ancient foundation that the new century may be kinder to Vincennes Uni- versity and bring it greater prosperity. If it were called an academy it then might live up to its name.
The State was still in its infancy and the material resources for maintaining the population still un- developed, when the first settled district along the Ohio River began to establish advantages for higher education. In 1827, the Presbyterians, who always stood for an educated ministry, made the beginning of Hanover College, in a little log cabin at Hanover village, on the Ohio River, near Madison. The college has continued its existence through a most honorable history; and in the present day attracts many students on account of its excellent instruction, high standards of scholarship, healthful location, and the marvellous beauty of the incomparable scenery which surrounds it. Only five years after establishing the college, on the southern line of the State, the Presbyterians started another school at Crawfordsville. This little town was then on the very edge of civilization; but Wabash College has had a continuous existence, in the little city which has always been known as a centre of culture. This school on its beautiful wood- land campus welcomed its first students under the guidance of Caleb Mills, the man who afterward did so much for the cause of public schools in Indiana. Wabash College has been most fortunate in its pres- idents and through the poverty of the pioneer days, the vicissitudes incident to the Civil War, and the
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later competition with more richly endowed schools has been known as a strong institution sending out useful men. It is hoped that the new course to be offered in pedagogy will help to raise the standard of teaching in the State.
The Society of Friends, which was always foremost in the agitation against slavery, and against oppression and ignorance, was among the first to aid in the cause of education in the State. Being opposed to the support of schools from the military fines from the enforced militia system of that day, they estab- lished schools of their own immediately. Settled in large numbers in the southeastern part of Indiana, they established many minor schools as well as Spice- land Academy in 1834, the Bloomingdale Manual Labor School in 1845, and the well-known Earlham College, for both men and women, which was opened at Richmond in 1847, and has always stood in the front rank. The graduates of this school have been a valuable teaching force in many other institutions. All these schools, and other seminaries founded by the Friends in other localities, at later times, are recognized as giving practical and thorough edu- cational facilities.
In 1834, the Baptists founded Franklin College under the leadership of such representative members as Henry Bradley, Reverends Eliphalet Williams, Reuben Coffey, Ezra Fisher, Moses Jeffries, William Rees, J. V. A. Woods, and the two brothers, Reverend Nathaniel Richmond and Dr. John L. Richmond- the latter had already, on his way toward the West, lived long enough in Ohio to help establish Dennison University. Franklin College was organized as a manual labor institute; and fulfilled that provision
From a photograph.
Consolidated School in Union Township.
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many years, for most of the students supported them- selves by real toil. In an old letter written by a student at Franklin in 1842, we get a real breath of the prim- itive conditions surrounding the student as he wrote:
"DEAR BROTHER:
"I found I could earn 40 cents a day by chopping beech timber at 20 cents a cord. So I rolled up my sleeves and went at it. I walked two and a half miles to the place and every Saturday I earn that much. I want to stay on for another term if possible. I never felt the impor- tance of trying to get an education before. My landlord offers to board me for fifty cents a week, and find every- thing and candles in the bargain. I can get shoes for $1.50 a pair and Mr. Lancherson will make a coat for me for $3.75 and take it in old scrip. A cloth coat will not cost any more than a jange coat which I am now wearing. I want to go to school as long as I can and if you can send me the cloth for a coat instead of the money, you can send it by the stage coach. I must close now as it is after ten o'clock and I have 21 pages to commit for to-morrow."
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