History of Dearborn County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions, Part 45

Author: Archibald Shaw
Publication date: 1915
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1123

USA > Indiana > Dearborn County > History of Dearborn County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions > Part 45

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The class of 1915 numbered twenty-seven, and their names are Philip Wymond Braun, Anna Margaret Buchanan. Ethel Jeannette Cole. Thomas Clayton Collier, Helen Jane Colt, August Dietrich Cook, Agnes Louise Dober. Joseph Neiman Foster, Lucy Ruth Guard, Josepha Mary Hassmer, Agnes Louise Heverseik, Walter D. Herrler, Paul Benjamin Houston, Mary James, Anna Mary Kammeyer, Gertrude Eugenia Kennedy, Elmer Herman Leien- decker, Chester Stewart Males, Roland Terrill McWethy, Thomas Hayes Miller, Jean Elizabeth Pound, Cortes Gilbert Randall. Florence Rector, Ben- jamin Schusterman, Floy Mildred Slater, Frank Luther Taylor and Floyd Philip Winegard. The board of trustees are Meredith Bruce, president : Philip C. Braun, treasurer, Archibald Shaw, secretary. Jesse W. Riddle. superintendent ; Lydia A. Sembach, principal; Clayton J. Slater, teacher in high school English; John H. Roudebush, teacher of high school science.

TRADITION OF AN EARLY COLLEGE.

During the decade from 1830 to 1840 there seems to have been a great interest in the cause of education in the town of Lawrenceburg. Public schools as we have them now were unknown, and most of the children, if they received any schooling, were sent to a teacher whom the parents paid so much a month per child. A person desiring to open a school would head a paper with his proposition-saying that he proposed to open a school provid- ing he could obtain sufficient patronage, and that he would charge a certain price for children under ten years, while those who could figure as far as the rule of three, and to whom he would have to teach the higher branches, he would charge more. Sometimes it was difficult to obtain a sufficient number of subscribers to justify his commencing the school. Many children grew up without learning to read or write, and such acquirements were thought not to be absolutely necessary but more of an acquirement, much as the cultivation of music now or being able to play the piano. People who

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were in comfortable circumstances or who knew the value of education thought otherwise, however. Such were very anxious to have their families obtain all the knowledge possible. Captain Vance died in 1828. and in 1831 his heirs had undertaken to establish a college in the property he left. Many of the citizens of the town had emigrated from localities where educational advantages obtained. and they were ambitious that Lawrenceburg establish an educational concern that would enable their children to have advantages equal to their parents'. Listening to these sentiments. Dr. T. B. Pinckard, a son-in-law of Captain Vance, undertook to establish a college in the Vance property (the Tousey residence). ' In the Western Statesman of June 17. 1831, appears this advertisement :

"Prospectus of Washington Agricultural School. in the vicinity of Law- renceburg, Indiana. The subscriber wishes to establish a school for the pur- pose of educating his own children and some near relatives, and to make it a permanent and useful institution he has made arrangement to receive as boarders, thirty pupils. To give habits of industry and vigor to the mind and body, a certain portion of each day will be devoted to agricultural pursuits and athletics. The important principles of industry, temperance, economy, morality and disinterested patriotism, so nobly practiced by our immortal Washington, will receive the attention they so justly merit. The site of the Washington Agricultural School is pleasant, retired and healthy. Surrounded by twenty-five acres of rich soil, which extends to the Ohio river, and which is intended as a model farm and Botanical Garden, to be cultivated in the best manner by the Superintendent and Pupils. The subscriber feels grate- ful in the commencement of the Institution to have as a coadjutor Henry Johnson, an excellent Mathematical and Belles Lettres scholar, whose zeal and devotion to the interests of education, experience and success in teaching, guarantee the most favorable results. Course of study includes, history, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, surveying, rhetoric, logic, French, Latin, Greek. Rev. Sylvester Scoval, a graduate of Williams college. will have charge of the department of Language. Chemistry will be taught by T. B. Pinckard. Arrangements have also been made for boarding twenty girls. to be in a separate part of the building and under the tutelage of Mrs. Pinck- ard."

It is thought by some that this school was kept in what is called the Tousey house, which was at that time held by the family of Captain Vance. T. B. Pinckard married Catherine Vance, daughter of the Captain. The twenty-five acres was probably the ground about the residence which at that

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time was not sold for lots. In 1835 the residence was sold by T. B. Pinckard. as administrator of the estate of Captain Vance, to Omer Tousey, and about the same time the Washington Agricultural School is found advertising no more in the papers of that time. No one now living in Lawrenceburg has any recollection of this school, but no other location answers the description.

Another school, the history of which is obscured by the lapse of time, is the one that was located on the hill west of Homestead. The foundation is there today, and tradition says that a school was there called "Farmers College." The records at the office of the county recorder show that on the thirty-first of August, 1836, Abram Roland sold two hundred and fifty acres in section 3, town 5, range I, which includes the ground where the old foundation of the college building now stands, to John Clark, of Greene county, Ohio, John Haughton and William Disney, of Hamilton county, Ohio, for the sum of $12,500. January 17, 1839, John Clark, for the sum of $50, gave a release to Haughton and Disney of all his interests in the property. In 1841 the property was sold by Milton Gregg, sheriff of Dearborn county, to satisfy a claim of Isaac Dunn. W. W. Whetstone, of Cincinnati, purchased the property for $5,300, and he, in 1844, sold it to Samuel Morrison. The tradition is that some anti-slavery interests were back of the undertaking and were endeavoring to build up an institution of learning that would foster an- tagonism to the slavery question. It is said the building burned and that the college was not patronized sufficiently to make it profitable.

These early ambitions of the inhabitants had their final harvest when the new constitution was formed in 1851, and the free schools were secured.

AURORA SCHOOLS.

The founders of the city of Aurora were well aware of the importance of educational facilities. They made provision for such matters in the original plat by setting apart lots Nos. 210, 222 and 288, for school purposes. The first school was taught in a log cabin on Fifth street. This building was also used by various denominations for church purposes for several years. A square was also provided in the original plat for a seminary, and a donation was also made for seminary purposes by the founders, and among the first institutions of learning incorporated in the state was the Aurora Seminary. In 1826, at the solicitation of Judge Jesse Holman, a Presbyterian minister by the name of Rev. Lucien Alden, of Boston, Massachusetts, was employed to take charge of the seminary. Mr. Alden was a man of fine mental equipment,

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scholarly and accomplished. He was paid the magnificent salary of $399 per annum, but it seems that the salary did not discourage him, for he taught and had charge of the college for three or four years very successfully. It is claimed that his principal assistant for several years was Stephen S. Hard- ing, a brother of Dr. Myron H. Harding, and during President Lincoln's administration governor of the territory of Utah. He afterwards became a very prominent anti-slavery advocate and member of the Republican party at its first entrance into power. Mr. Alden was a Presbyterian preacher, as well as a teacher, and spent his time when not engaged with teaching in filling the pulpits of his denomination that were without a pastor, preaching at Dillsboro and other places within a day's ride on horseback.

In the winter of 1852-53 L. A. Nine, of Cincinnati, delivered a lecture on the graded school system and an effort was made by the public-spirited citizens of Aurora to establish it in the schools of Aurora. At that time the school board was Dr. A. B. Haines, Thomas Gaff, Dr. Bond, James M. Miller, I. H. Carbaugh, R. S. Baker and George W. Lane. These gentlemen endeavored to establish the schools in a better system but were handicapped by the difficulty of finding a person with the proper training for the task. Two years later the attempt was again made by the trustees, who at that time were George Smith, Dr. George Sutton, N. R. Stedman, B. N. McHenry and Daniel Armel. A superintendent was employed by the name of Bronson, who was a satisfactory person. and the schools from that time have been graded. At first not like the present system in detail or course of study ; but it was an improvement on the old plan of each teacher having classes from the primary grade to the advance student who could cipher as far as the rule of three.

On August 30. 1855, the Aurora Standard contained the following : "The trustees of the school district for the city of Aurora inform the public that the graded schools commence their second session on Monday, September 3, under the superintendence of the same teachers employed last session. They earnestly entreat all who feel desirous of sending to those schools to com- mence with the session. so as to enable the teachers to arrange the scholars as soon as possible in their proper classes. As there is no public money in the treasury the trustees have put the terms of tuition as follow: Primary De- partment, per month. 75 cents : Secondary Department. $1.00: High School. $1.25. To be paid at the expiration of each month to the trustees. Since the last session the superintendent has procured philosophical apparatus. maps, anatomical plates, which will enable him more closely to illustrate the different branches taught in the department. From the success and popularity of the

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schools during the past session, we anticipate a continuance of the public favor, and hope the terms of tuition will be promptly paid at the end of each month. (Signed) George Sutton, N. R. Stedman, B. N. McHenry, George Smith and Daniel Armel."

Some of the trustees whose names are signed to the above were continued in office for a succession of years, and were very closely identified with the development and progress of the educational work of later years and the suc- cess that it has acquired and the good work it has accomplished may. perhaps, be directly chargeable to their interest in affairs of education.

School was opened in the South building in the fall of 1863, and the superintendent was Rev. A. WV. Freeman, a Presbyterian clergyman. Mr. Freeman had charge of the schools and they were successfully conducted and established. Following Mr. Freeman, the superintendents were men of capacity, and training, so that the Aurora school system is at this time second to none in the state. The equipment is up-to-date and the school buildings amply ade- quate to accommodate the children of the city and vicinity.

Prior to 1880, the children of Aurora who attended the public schools were crowded into a single building, situated on the south side of town, but in that year a splendid new building was completed on the north side of town under the direction of the school board, consisting of Peter Williams, Julius Severin and H. P. Spaeth. This was an epoch-marking event and was a great stimulus to the public school work in Aurora. The large classes were divided and the number of teachers was increased from ten to sixteen-fourteen in the grades and two in the high school. In 1890 two more teachers were added, not on account of any increase in population, but for the purpose of reducing the size of the classes in order to give better service. The only special teacher of this period was a teacher of German in the grades.

Another epoch-marking event in the history of the school was the erection of the high school addition to the North building, in 1908, under the direc- tion of the school board, consisting of Philip Horr, O. T. Canfield and C. H. McKinzie. Here the high school is at present comfortably housed. This ad- dition furnished ample room for laboratories, manual training. domestic science and a gymnasium. This year Cochran was annexed. and the Coch- ran school became a part of the Aurora system.

At present the program gives the student a choice of three courses, namely : the regular academic course, the manual training and domestic science courses. and a business course. The school is well supplied with equipment necessary to do effective work in all departments.

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The work of the school is done by a force of twenty-four teachers, well fitted for the work they have to do. Eight of these work in the high school three of whom do some work in the grades. The high school teachers and the subjects they teach are : Hal E. Driver, principal, teacher of history and chem- istry ; Huldah Severin, mathematics and botany ; Flora Snyder, Latin and Eng- lish; Laura Cline, German and music; I. B. Mishler, manual training and physics; Laura Craig, business and English; Olive Gillam, domestic science and English; Norma Kuenning, Art. The teachers in the grades are: R. N. Har- gitt, principal of South building and teacher of the eighth grade; Emeline Kerr, seventh grade; Addie Hannah, sixth grade; Jeanette Baker, fifth grade; Mattie Baldon, fourth grade; Anna Dean, third grade; Emma Mendell, sec- ond grade; Emma Taylor, first grade; Inez Kemp and Ada Ward, fifth, sixth and seventh grades, North building; Edna Schafer, fourth grade; Eliza- beth Maloney, third grade; Flora Williams, second grade: Elizabeth Du- Chemin, first grade; Belle Garner, first grade, West building. and principal; Hattie Miller, second grade and third grades; Ordell Cottingham, fourth and fifth grades.

The members of the Aurora school board are. Philip Horr, president; John Poehlman, secretary and Thomas Squib, treasurer.

The following is a list of superintendents of the Aurora schools, with dates of their service : A. W. Freeman, 1863-65; Marcus Hutchinson, 1865-66; O. H. Temple, 1866-68; J. M. Davidson, 1868-69; E. C. Clark, 1869-76; F. H. Tufts. 1876-81 ; R. S. Groves, 1881-83 : F. D. Churchill. 1883-90: Robert Wood, 1890-95; Sanford Bell, 1895-96; J. R. Houston, 1896 to the present time.

The high school principals since 1885 have been. W. W. Norman, Anna Suter, Thomas Records. Levi J. Driver and Hal E. Driver. The high school has graduated five hundred and ninety-three students.

COUNTY ORGANIZATION.

The school system of the county is efficiently organized. with County Su- perintendent George C. Cole in command, and a corps of trained teachers in the schools. There are commissioned high schools in Aurora and Lawrence- burg that prepare the graduates for entry to any of the universities of the state High schools, with a two-years course, are now organized in the towns of Greendale. Dillsboro, Wilmington. Manchester and Guilford. The superin- tendents of the two-year high schools are: Greendale, P. W. Fletcher; Dills- boro. Harry R. Shuter : Wilmington, George P. Dennerline : Manchester. Roh- ert W. Lusk : Guilford, Robert T. Schooley.

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CHAPTER XXXVI.

MOORES HILL COLLEGE.

In 1818 Adam Moore, a Methodist preacher from Maryland, settled in the wilderness near the western boundary of Dearborn county. He was the first inhabitant of the town of Moores Hill-the seat of Moores Hill College. His son, John C. Moore, became a prominent business man in the early fifties. In the spring of 1853 the Rev. W. W. Snyder, agent for Brookville College, called on J. C. Moore to solicit a subscription for that institution. This started him to thinking. Why not put the money in an institution at home, thus pro- viding a college education for our children? Mr. Moore had the thought that the majority of young people would not go very far away from home to se- cure an education. Statistics of colleges and universities today show that his judgment was correct. This was the origin of Moores Hill College. Plans were formed during 1853-54 for erecting a building and providing means for maintaining it. In 1854 the college received its charter from the state and the management was vested in a board of trustees appointed by the Southeast Indiana conference of the Methodist Episcopal church. Thus it became a child of the church. It was called Moores Hill Male and Female Collegiate Insti- tute. It was one of the first colleges to open its doors to both sexes. The building was not completed until December 1, 1856, so that school did not begin until that date.

The board of trustees, selected by the conference, consisted of, Rev. Enoch G. Wood, president; Joseph Mccrary. secretary : John C. Moore, treasurer; Dr. Henry Bowers, Rev. Alexander Connelly, Dr. Erasmus B Collins, Ranna C. Stevens. Rev. T. G. Beharrell was appointed financial agent. The result of his first year's work was three thousand seven hundred dollars in notes and money, the transfer of four thousand dollars in original stock, the sale of four perpetual scholarships and one five-year scholarship, and donations of many books, maps and apparatus.

The first faculty was as follows: Rev. Samuel R. Adams. president : Rev. George L. Charles, professor of mathematics and astronomy; Thomas Olcott, principal of the preparatory department : Martha J. Haughton and Eugenia Morrison, teachers of music : Matilda Smith, Jane Churchill, Valeria Soper and William O. Pierce, assistants in the preparatory department.

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CARNEGIE HALL (REAR VIEW). MOORES HILL COLLEGE

CARNEGIE HALL. MOORES HILL COLLEGE

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The first year showed an enrollment of one hundred and ninety-seven students, with sixty-six in the college department. The first commencement exercises were held July 3, 1857.

The first president was Samuel R. Adams, a graduate of the Wesleyan College at Middletown, Connecticut. The first graduate was Mrs. Jane Churchill Kahler, in the year 1858. She is living now at San Fernando, Cali- fornia. It is interesting to note that Mrs. Kahler is an artist and in November, 1914, presented to her alma mater twenty beautiful paintings in water color of California wild flowers. This is pronounced one of the finest collections of paintings of wild flowers in the country.

As a matter of convenience the following summary of the presidents is here given : President Adams was a successful educator. In 1862 most of the young men went to the war. He could not refuse the call, so he went to the front. Later in the same year he died. William O. Pierce was president in 1863-64. The attendance was small during the war. In 1865 the Rev. Thomas Harrison was elected president. He was a prominent educator and an intense worker. Through his efforts the attendance was increased to three hundred and sixty-seven. In 1870 Dr. J. H. Martin became president for two years; in 1872, the Rev. Francis A. Hester, for four years; in 1876. Dr. John P. D. John, for five years. The Rev. John H. Doddridge, in 1879, was pres- ident during Doctor John's leave of absence for study in Paris; in 1882, the Rev. L. G. Adkinson, for five years; in 1887, Dr. G. P. Jenkins, for three years; in 1890, Dr. J. H. Martin, again for six years; in 1897, the Rev. Charles W. Lewis, for six years, and in 1903-04, Dr. J. H. Martin, for the third term for one year ; in 1904, Dr. Frank C. English, for four years ; in 1908, Dr. William S. Bovard, for one year, and in 1909, Dr. Harry Andrews King became president, being succeeded, in November, 1915, by Dr. Andrew J. Big- ney. These presidents constitute a band of Christian educators of whom any institution might be proud. They planted in pioneer times, nur- tured and developed the young institution until it could take its place alongside of the other colleges of the state and nation.

Much credit is due President Harrison for the work that he did in estab- lishing and building up the institution. His success in gathering students was due largely to his great ability and industry as a preacher and lecturer. He had the happy faculty of creating in the young a desire for knowledge, and this brings them to school.

Among the early members of the faculty should be mentioned Mrs. Han- nah P. Adams, the wife of the first president, who continued to teach for many years and was much appreciated by all. She taught painting, drawing

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and modern languages. Robert F. Brewington was for a time acting president during the war, and for several years one of the popular preachers. Rev. Adin Newton was professor of ancient languages, 1864-1871, and his brother, Prof. Almond S. B. Newton, was professor of mathematics. Charles II. Bennett be- come one of the strongest teachers ; his services extended from 1866-1872. He was, first. professor of mathematics, and then of natural science.

On the resignation of President Harrison, in June, 1870, Dr. J. H. Mar- tin was elected to fill the vacancy. Doctor Martin was then an educator of some prominence. so that he entered upon his work in a new field with great interest and ability. He had a very successful administration of two years, and then resigned, but in 1890 he was again elected to the presidency. in which po- sition he remained for six years, and in 1907, for the third time, he was elected president, which service continued for one year. Much credit is due Doctor Martin for his faithful work as president of the school. During his adminis- tration the school was improved in a material way, the teaching force strength- ened and the attendance increased.

In 1872 Rev. Francis A. Hester was elected to fill the vacancy. Dr. J. P. D. John became vice-president and professor of mathematics, and the Rev. John A. Maxwell, professor of ancient languages. Mrs. O. P. John was teacher of music, and Charles WV. Bennett, professor of natural science. Pres- ident Hester maintained the high standard of scholarship represented by the school.

In 1876 Doctor Hester resigned and Dr. John P. D. John was elected to the presidency and occupied the chair of mental, moral and political philosophy. Professor Maxwell was elected vice-president, and Oliver P. Jenkins, A. M., class of 1869, professor of natural science. Professor Jenkins remained in this position six years, in which time he showed unusual ability as a teacher of science. He later was a member of the faculty of DePauw University, and then professor of physiology in the Leland Stanford University, California, which position he has held for nearly twenty years. He is now one of the lead- ing scientists on the Pacific coast. Rev. Alvah Adkinson, A. B., was profes- sor of mathematics ; Prof. Robert Kidd, A. M., special instructor in elocution ; Professor Kidd became one of the noted elocutionists of the United States. Miss Lizzie R. Hester was teacher of music.

In 1879 Henry F. Showalter was elected professor of mathematics, and Rev. Elisha B. Caldwell, A. M., professor of ancient languages. In the fall of 1879 Doctor John asked for leave of absence to attend school in Paris, France, and during his absence, Rev. J. H. Doddridge served as president.

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In 1881 John H. T. Main, A. B., of the class of 1880, became professor of Latin and Greek. Professor Main continued in the faculty until 1888 and then went to Johns Hopkins University for four years, receiving the degree of Doc- tor of Philosophy. He was then elected to the chair of Greek in Grinnell Col- lege. Iowa. Later he was elected to the presidency of Grinnell College, which position he has held for more than ten years. He has demonstrated his ability as an educator in making that institution one of the strongest colleges of the West. He has received many honors because of his efficient work.

Doctor John resigned as president in June. 1882. to accept the position as vice-president in DePauw University. Later he became president of that great university. On leaving DePauw University, he entered the lecture field. and is now one of the strongest men on the American platform. He was a mag- netic teacher and fortunate were the young people who came under his in- struction. To fill this vacancy the Rev. L. G. Adkinson was elected president. Mrs. Lucy H. Parker, of Cincinnati, was professor of natural science. and Mrs. R. R. Ebright, teacher of music.

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History of Dearborn County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions, Part 45

Author: Archibald Shaw Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1123

Author: Archibald Shaw
Publication date: 1915
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1123