History of Franklin County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions, Part 37

Author: Reifel, August J
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Indianapolis, Ind. : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1648

USA > Indiana > Franklin County > History of Franklin County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions > Part 37

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The school year was divided into two terms of three months each, one in the winter and the other in the spring. At the end of each term there were special exercises which sometimes included an "exhibition" at Walker chapel. The late Judge Swift, of Brookville, and his sister, Mrs. Marion Crosley, were students here about 1858. Mr. Swift has often related that it was one of his duties to help train the younger students for this "exhibi- tion." A budget or question box was opened on these occasions and anyone could put in a question and indicate whom they wanted to answer. A typical question was, "What letter of the alphabet should a man think of if he doesn't want to get the mitten?" And the person who was asked to solve the question, having gone through the experience, answered, "Letter B."

And what was taught in this academy? The common school branches, algebra, rhetoric, geometry, Latin, Greek, and, in fact, all of the regular collegiate studies. The classes were often called upon to recite and it is remembered that much time was spent in actual recitations. There was little time for amusements, but undoubtedly the fifty to seventy-five young people who attended this school from 1853 to 1865 did not spend all their time in study. It is known that the head master himself was a teacher of unusual ability and a man of great purity and strength of character. His daughter, Mrs. Halley, of Eldon, Kansas, said of him: "Father's greatest ambition was to create a desire for higher Christian living in the future of his students. That they appreciated his efforts was proven by the beautiful letters he received long after they had left school." Mr. Rust offered prayer each morning and followed it with a talk to the students. His words were always full of good advice and he never neglected to emphasize the need of perse- verance in their daily lives. He often said that there was something higher for which to strive than the paltry dollar.

Mr. Rust christened his academy Ingleside, and when he was postmaster of Peoria he succeeded in inducing the United States government to change

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the name of the postoffice at Peoria to Ingleside, although it was later again called Peoria. He continued to teach year after year in Peoria until about 1865 or 1866, and then moved to Hamilton, Ohio, where he engaged in the tile business. Shortly after moving to Peoria he had married Mary Enyert Urmston, a daughter of James Urmston. To this second marriage were born three children : James U., a wholesale grocer of Nashville, Tennessee; Alice Gertrude, now Mrs. Halley, of Eldon, Kansas; Ida Bell, deceased.

From Hamilton, Ohio, Mr. Rust moved to Elwood, Indiana, where lie established a small school, but it did not prove a success and lie soon dis- continued it. About 1870 he moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where he lived until his death in 1901. He was eighty-six years of age at the time he passed away, but was in remarkable health up until a short time before his death.

The history of this famous old academy of Franklin county would not be complete without mentioning the bell which hung in the belfry in Ingle- side. Tradition says it was a wonderful bell, with a clear, strong tone that could be heard for miles. It has been reported that the clapper was removed from the bell by Mr. Rust some time after he left Peoria. At least, it disap- peared and no one knows where it is to be found. The son and daughter of Mr. Rust doubt whether their father ever took it. Of those who were once students there are now only a very few living: Squire Beard, Marion Smith, Mrs. Louise Beard, Mrs. Sarah Dwyer, Martin Sater, Theophilus L. Dicker- son, Clem Conn and John DeArmond.

LAUREL ACADEMY.

There had been an academy at Laurel since 1837 and for many years it was in no way inferior to the county seminary at Brookville. The county seminary was forced to charge tuition rates which would bring it within the reach of the great mass of the people. As a result, it did not have the money to hire a sufficient number of teachers and this resulted in the instruc- tion being inferior to that given in Laurel. At the latter place most of the children attended a public school, while only the more advanced attended the academy. In 1852 this was known by the name of the "Laurel Collegiate High School," and was in charge of Rev. H. B. Hibben.

By 1852 the institution at Laurel boasted a faculty second to none in the eastern part of Indiana. There were six teachers, as follows : Rev. H. B. Hibben, principal and professor of mental and moral sciences ; L. D. Water- man, Latin, Greek and mathematics; Cornelia Belding, preceptress of the female department; Emily Clements, assistant in the female department ;

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Mrs. M. M. Conwell, modern languages; Mrs. H. Fingland Hibben, piano and guitar. With this strong faculty, it is no wonder that the school opened in August of that year with an attendance of one hundred pupils. The school was well equipped with chemical and philosophical apparatus, globes, maps and all the necessary apparatus and appliances for successful collegiate instruction. The sessions were twenty-two weeks long and pupils were admitted at any time upon examination.

The trustees of the Laurel Collegiate High School voted on February 19, 1853, "to change its character by adopting the graded school system recommended by the superintendent of public instruction." At this time, the trustees announced that George A. Chase, A. M., had been elected president of the school to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Rev. H. B. Hibben. Chase resigned in the summer of 1853 to accept the superin- tendency of the Shelbyville schools. It would seem from this notice that this date signifies the end of the old academy at Laurel.

SPRINGFIELD ACADEMY.

An academy by this name was established at Mt. Carmel in the fall of 185I and opened its doors for the first time on December 22, of that year, with George A. Chase as principal. From all the evidence obtainable, it appears that this academy was called Springfield Academy for the two years of its existence. During the first term there were sixty-one pupils enrolled and of this number there were only six under the age of fourteen. The board of visitors reported at the end of the term that about forty had been pursuing the higher branches, including algebra, geometry, astronomy, natural pholosophy, rhetoric, Latin, etc.

In the Brookville American of April 9, 1852, is set forth in an interest- ing manner the history of the academy. its course of study, its prospects and its many advantages to the community in which it is located. Chase was assisted during the first year by W. C. B. Gaston. The board of visitors state in their report at the end of the first term that stock must be sold to provide suitable buildings for the infant institution and that Professor Chase is willing to bear part of the burden in helping to get the academy on its feet. But the fates were against the little academy. The provisions for free education made by the new constitution of 1852 made it impossible to maintain the academies and on June 6, 1853, the Springfield Academy lost its identity and the school was advertised in the Brookville papers simply as the Mt. Carmel school. O. F. Fitch appears as the first principal of the school after the discontinuance of the academy.

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In view of the present condition of the town of Mt. Carmel, it is in- teresting to note what was said of it more than sixty years ago. In the Brookville Indiana American of November 12, 1852, the editor takes occa- sion to remark that Mt. Carmel "is one of the most pleasant places in which to reside in the state, and anyone buying or fitting up property there need have no fear of its ever becoming valueless. The means of education and religious privileges are good." But the editor saw too much of the blue sky and failed to discern the cloud which the new constitution cast over the academies of Indiana. The academy breathed its last within a year, while the town can hardly be said to have fulfilled the prediction of the optimistic -editor of three"score "years ago.

EARLY SCHOOLS OF BROOKVILLE.

It appears that the first school in Brookville was opened in the old log court house by a man named Dennison. The court house served not only as a temple of justice, but also as a school house and a place for religious. services and public meetings of all kinds. No less than thirty pupils received instruction at the hands of this pioneer teacher, and it is true that much of his instruction was literally given or rather enforced by his hand. In those days the use of the rod was felt to be as essential in the management of a good school as the spelling book, and the teacher applied the rod regardless of sex. Before the end of the first school year, Dennison got into some sort of trouble and left the town. The next teacher, a Mr. Mclaughlin, taught in a log building which stood on Fourth street north of the old German Methodist church. In 1818 Solomon Allen became the wielder of the birch and he seems to have been a mathematical prodigy. He taught surveying and the higher mathematics and for many years was the only teacher of the town. He built a dwelling and a school house on Fourth street, and in his own school house conducted subscription schools with great success. He was. followed by a man named Harris, who seems to have been a man of some literary pretentions. At least he advertised the merits of his school in verse in the weekly paper of the town. He seems to have been a better poet than a teacher, since his sojourn in Brookville was very brief. His successor, a man by the name of Haines, taught in the building where the furniture factory is now located. The next teacher, Augustus Jocelyn, was the most famous of the early teachers of the town. He was a man of much ability and a good teacher, although he held strictly to the old Biblical adage, spare the rod and soil the child. He seems to have been a sort of jack-of-all- trades, and could turn his hand with equal facility to teaching, preaching.

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doctoring or editing newspapers. He had been a Methodist preacher in New York before coming to Brookville, and filled the pulpit frequently after locating here. He taught more terms of the school from 1818 to 1830 than any other man, and was undoubtedly the best teacher which the town had up until the time the seminary was established.

The only public school house in Brookville until the seminary was built in 1833 was a log school house, which was used irregularly, until the land office was established in Brookville in 1820. This meant a big change in the history of the town in many ways. There were many who began to leave Brookville and the county for the New Purchase, and within a few years the former citizens of Brookville were to be found in Greensburg, Conners- ville, Rushville and the new capital of the state-Indianapolis. As result of this wholesale migration, there were scores of vacant houses in Brookville, and they were not all log cabins. There were fine two-story frame houses which were left by their owners, and a brick house or two was left empty as result of this migration.

These abandoned houses soon became the sheltering places of sheep, hogs and cattle, which roamed the streets of Brookville at will. In order to secure one of these houses for school purposes, it was only necessary to drive the live stock out, scrub the floors and put in benches. In this way the town had much better school facilities than it had previously enjoyed. The cost of fitting up a house for school purposes was very little. A few benches made of slabs, a wide blackboard fixed to the wall, a chair for the teacher and all of the absolutely necessary equipment was provided.

In one of these abandoned houses Rev. Jocelyn held forth, although he frequently taught in one of the upstairs rooms of his own house. In those days there was no license required for the teacher; anyone who had the required courage could start out with a subscription paper and, if successful in getting enough patrons, start a school. There was more than one girl able only to read and write, probably, who would devote a spare room in her liome to school purposes. Here she would gather around her from half to a dozen children and give them such instruction as she could. There were often three or four of these little schools running at the same time in the town. And as the tuition was usually from two to three cents a day, she had no difficulty in getting at least enough pupils to keep her busy.

As has been previously stated, these schools were all supported by private subscriptions and the most popular teacher always had the largest school. The person wishing to teach went from house to house with a sub- scription papr and secured pupils with the promise to give them instructions

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in certain branches for a definite length of time. The old subscription papers show that some economical parents subscribed for one pupil or more, while others put their names down for only half a pupil. This, of course, did not mean that they halved their children, but simply that the child only got to attend school half a day at a time.

These schools turned out better educated boys and girls than might be thought from the above description of their management. It is true that they did not cost much and this made it possible for the poorer people to get a schooling. It is said that, if parents had three children and subscribed for only one, they would rotate the three children in school so that all three learned to read and write, although they paid for the tuition of only one. For instance, when one scholar was subscribed and there were three in the family, John would go for two or three weeks and then Jane would take his place, followed by Susan. In this way the tuition of one child would suffice to give all three children the rudiments of an education.

We have already mentioned six of the early teachers of Brookville : Dennison, Mclaughlin, Allen, Harris, Haines and Jocelyn. Among others may be mentioned Wilson Terrel, -- Barwick, Margaret White and the Misses Huff and Eliza and Rebecca McClure. Miss White, said to have been the first woman teacher in Brookville, afterwards married a Farnsworth and moved to Liberty, where she died in 1888. Other teachers before the fifties were Clarissa St. John, Catherine Josephine Haile, Isaac John, Joseph Ryman, Isaac K. Lee, F. C. Cooley, C. S. Blanchard and A. B. Line.

Brookville built only one school house before 1912 and that was the little brick building which stood on lot 15 of the Amos Butler plat. Jesse Butler transferred this lot to the inhabitants of school district No. 5, May 23. 1844, for a consideration of one hundred dollars. This lot lies immediately west of the old Kimble mill on Eighth street. This was owned by the school district until it was sold November 8, 1865, by the school trustees of Brook- ville to George Maxwell for five hundred dollars. On this lot was erected a substantial brick building, which was torn down at the time the grade was made through Brookville for the railroad.

From 1852 to 1871, when the college closed its career, the public schools of Brookville were in a rather disorganized condition. The Presbyterians conducted a school in their church for at least half of this period, while the Methodists patronized the college. Other denominations sent their children to one or the other of these two schools until the public school got started in the old seminary building. The town of Brookville bought the seminary building in the fall of 1862, and used it for public school purposes until the college passed out of existence.

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When Brookville College closed its doors in 1873, the town purchased the college building, and used it continuously. from that time down to 1912 as a public school building. The school trustees selected A. W. Bieghle, of Laurel, as superintendent in the summer of 1873, and he had charge of the schools for the following three years. Mr. Bieghle had taught for many years in the county and was well known as an able and efficient instructor. During this period of three years there was little or no high school work done. The attendance during the three years of Bieghle's incumbency increased from one hundred ninety-eight in 1873 to three hundred sixty his last year. There were five teachers besides the superintendent, the latter being compelled to spend practically all of his time in teaching. The school board charged fifteen dollars tuition annually for those living outside of the incor- poration.

In the fall of 1876 the board of education selected as superintendent John E. Morton, who, after being at the head of the schools for five years, resigned to engage in the practice of dentistry, a profession which he has followed for the past twenty-five years in Brookville. He was well educated, a man of wide experience in teaching and had previously had charge of the schools in Frankfort and Hartford City, Indiana. When Mr. Morton came to Brookville to take charge of the school he at once planned to grade all the pupils before the opening of the school year. In order to do this he had the teachers in their rooms for several days before the opening of the term. A notice was placed in the paper asking all those who intended entering school to come to the school house in order to be graded. Superintendent Morton planned a series of questions which would enable him, with the aid of his teachers, to determine the grade to which every pupil belonged. Con- sequently, when school opened September II, 1876, the pupils were all graded, the programs were on the blackboard and classes were reciting before noon of the first day. A start was made in the fall of the same year towards the organization of a four-year high school course, and in 1879 a commission was issued to the high school by the state board of education.

Since 1876 may very fittingly be called a new epoch in the history of the schools of Brookville, it may be interesting to give the names of the teachers who had charge of the schools. In addition to Superintendent Morton, there were the following teachers : M. A. Mess, a graduate of Otter- bein University, later county superintendent ; Henry Showalter, of Kokomo, Indiana ; Mrs. Jennie E. Speer, who was a sister of Alsie B. Dole, another one of the teachers; Kate Davis, who remained about three years; Ella Creswell, who taught in the schools here for several years. During the

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administration of Superintendent Morton the schools were put on a firm basis and when he retired from the superintendency in 1881, he left the schools in a very satisfactory condition.

Hubert M. Skinner came to Brookville in 1880 to take charge of the high school when he was about thirty years of age. He was the eldest son of Hon. John N. Skinner, of Valparaiso, and his early education had been acquired in his native city in the college which his father was chiefly instru- mental in founding. He finished his preparatory and scientific course at the head of his class and then pursued a thorough classical course at DePauw University. His first school work was done in the south as professor of Latin in the Baptist University of Arkansas and subsequently as professor of belles-lettres and history at Little Rock. Returning north, he married Emma Ogden and came to Brookville. His first year's work (1880-81) in Brookville was under the superintendency of Dr. J. E. Morton. When Doctor Morton retired, Mr. Skinner was promoted to the superintendency, a posi- tion he filled with satisfaction until the spring of 1884, when he resigned to accept the position of deputy state superintendent of public instruction.

In Mr. Skinner's experience as a public school teacher many plans suggested themselves to him. While practically doing the work of the superintendent he inaugurated many improvements that are still lifting teachers to a higher appreciation of their position. He was the first secretary and manager of the Young People's Reading Circle of Indiana, a state which still leads all others in membership and influence. He was a regular con- tributor to the School Journal and frequently addressed institutes and other bodies on educational topics. In 1886 he represented Indiana at the meetings of the state superintendents at Washington and delivered an ad- dress before that body on "The Purpose, Plan and Progress of Reading Circle Work of the Country at Large."

The most notable efforts of Mr. Skinner's useful career have been those given to the preparation of school works to carry forward the spirit of that address. His outlines for institute work; his plans for the common school; the study of literature in the common schools; the systematic use of the dictionary; the influence of narcotics and stimulants; the colonial history of Indiana; the noble part borne by Indiana in the Civil War-all bore the imprint of his thoughtful and systematic arrangement. He pub- lished a volume of biographical sketches of the state superintendents of Indiana and a carefully prepared and accurate history of education in the state. In collaboration with John W. Holcombe, he wrote "The Life of

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Thomas A. Hendricks." He also prepared a history of Indiana in chart form which was published by Rand, McNally & Company.

In 1886 Mr. Skinner went to Chicago to accept a position with the publishing house of A. S. Barnes & Company. Later he became associated with the American Book Company as head of the reading-circle work of the company. There was no man better fitted for this than he and in a short time the results of his experience brought a heavy increase in business to his company. He also found time to prepare some volumes for the press, namely : "Readings in Folk Lore," "The Schoolmaster in Literature," and many books of like character were prepared by him from time to time-a list too long to enumerate in a sketch of this nature.

Mr. Skinner has retired from the American Book Company and is now engaged in literary work. He still makes contributions to educational jour- nals and other periodicals. While connected with the Brookville schools he made a special study of the educational and historical interests of the place and published several articles on the subject.

Albert Newton Crecraft, who followed H. M. Skinner as superin- tendent in 1884, was a native of Ohio. Fresh from Princeton College, New Jersey, he taught his first school in this county at Mt. Carmel in 1880. The next year he served as principal of the Fairfield schools. With an attractive personality, affable, industrious and alert to each child's needs, he was soon master of the situation. His work so fired the ambitions of a number of his pupils that they sought a continuation of his services in a subscription term immediately following the short winter term of public school.

The next fall, 1882, although scarcely twenty-three years old, he suc- ceeded to the principalship of the Brookville high school. Before another autumn came, he returned to Fairfield and brought away as his wife one who had probably been a source of much inspiration in his excellent work there, one of his lady assistants of the previous year, Mattie L. Tyner, the talented daughter of Richard Tyner, a Fairfield merchant.

After serving two years as principal, Mr. Crecraft followed H. M. Skinner as superintendent of the Brookville schools in 1884. But he was not to tarry long in that position. Upon the resignation of M. A. Mess as county school superintendent in the spring of 1886 Mr. Crecraft was selected to fill the vacancy. This position he held for five years. In 1890 he purchased the Franklin County Democrat, then edited by Edgar R. Quick. With the assistance of Will K. Bracken, he conducted this paper a year until the close of the term for which he had been elected. During this year he installed many improvements in his printing apparatus, and more than

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doubled the circulation of the paper. In October of 1891 he sold the Democrat to the present editor, M. H. Irwin, and bought the Franklin Democrat, Franklin, Indiana, where he now resides. This paper he still owns and edits.

Some misgivings as to his health caused Mr. Crecraft to quit school work, but he has given to the profession a son, Earl, who, inheriting the talents and personal magnetism of both father and mother, bids fair to sustain with due credit the name Crecraft among educators.

The rapid promotion of A. N. Crecraft from a village school to the most important position in the county is proof enough of his ability as an educator. An indefatigable worker himself, he had little patience with shams, sluggards or disturbers. Any such were sure of a stern rebuke with language and means to suit the case. In a commencement essay in 1900 a graduate of the Brookville high school, who had probably talked with former pupils of Mr. Crecraft, said, "He was a brilliant and inspiring teacher and commanded excellent discipline. He did a great deal for the boys and girls in opening their eyes to the significance of life, and in cultivating an ap- preciation for nature, art and poetry." The tribute would have been com- plete if the young writer had added that Mr. Crecraft's life preached the gospel of hard work and fidelity to duty.

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History of Franklin County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions, Part 37

Author: Reifel, August J Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Indianapolis, Ind. : B.F. Bowen Number of Pages: 1648

Author: Reifel, August J
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Indianapolis, Ind. : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1648