USA > Indiana > Johnson County > History of Johnston County, Indiana. From the earliest time to the present, with biographical sketches, notes, etc., together with a short history of the Northwest, the Indiana territory, and the state of Indiana > Part 35
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92
" She fed the old hen. The old hen was fed by her. See how the hen can run."
This was the first lesson. After the book had been read through a half dozen times, another was in demand. There were ยท few, or no, readers, accessible. A few copies of the "English reader," or of the " Columbian," might be had, but in general, such books as could be picked up in the neighborhood, were used. The " Life of Marion" was not an uncommon school reading-book in those days. Histories, the Pilgrim's Progress, "dream books," and even sermon books, were used. The Bible and the Testament were very common. About 1835, B. P. Emerson's readers came into use, and his " third class reader" was often met with in the schools of the county. About five years after, McGuffey's Eclec- tic series appeared, and ultimately occupied the field, to the ex- clusion of all others. The introduction of the eclectic series marked an era in the schools of the county, and they were of in- calculable advantage to the people of the western country.
378
JOHNSON COUNTY.
It was the custom in those days for a pupil to study one thing at a time. I have already adverted to the practice with regard to the spelling book. The pupil was kept in that till he could pronounce all the words it contained, at sight. He might have actually learned in the meantime to read fairly well, but the teacher would ignore his acquirement. He must go through the spelling book in the manner I have indicated. After that he was set to reading, and thence on, that was his chief study. He continued to spell, it is true, as long as he went to school, but until he finished his course in reading, his two or four lessons a day were reading lessons. During the interval his teacher might consent for him to take a copy book to school and learn to write. Learning to write was a very simple exercise in that day. The copy book con- sisted of a few sheets of foolscap sewed together. The teacher made and mended all the pens. This work he usually did while hearing a boy or girl read a lesson. The pen made, he wrote a line of pot hooks, or a, b, c's, or a sentence for the pupil to reproduce, on the lines below. Whenever, in the judgment of the teacher, the scholar could read and write well enough, he was permitted to fetch an arithmetic and slate, and begin to cipher. Pike's Arithmetic was the one generally used in the beginning. This book consisted of "sums" and "rules." There were other arithmetics to be met with, however. I have heard of Dilworth's, and Smiley's, and Bennett's, as being in use. There were few definitions, and no methods given. The scholars recited no lessons in arithmetic, no matter what book he used. He committed the rules and multipli- cation table, and " worked the sums." When he failed to get the true answer, he went to the teacher, who " worked the sum " for him, and if not too busy, explained the process. A bright boy might study arithmetic for weeks, and the teacher never give him a word of instruction.
The practice of pursuing one study at a time doubtless had its advantages. The course of studies was so limited that it was well for a scholar to have one fairly learned before beginning another. The same plan was pursued in the only college in the state. In 1828, Doctor Andrew Wylie was elected president of the Indiana College at Bloomington, and into that institution the learned Doctor introduced a like practice. The student therein studied languages and nothing else, until he had completed the language course; mathematics and nothing else, until he had completed the mathe- matical course, and so on. But the plan has long since given way in both college and common schools to what is now considered the better one of " mixed courses of studies." Whatever the faults of the modern method, the old was faulty in this: scholars were some-
379
SCHOOLS.
times kept back to an unwonted degree. The writer could read so as " to make sense of his reading" before his teacher allowed him to read in school; he could write a hand that could be read, and read writing readily before his teacher allowed him to write after a copy in school; he learned to read numerals, add, subtract, mul- tiply and divide in short division before his teacher would recognize his slate. Indeed, he ciphered in school for two weeks before his teacher showed him any attention. And there were many others who in some sort went through a like experience.
A picture of the early school days in the county would be in- complete without an allusion to the efforts of the old masters to teach good manners. There was a vast deal of bowing and cour- tesying (crutchcying it was called) in the early days. Every boy had to doff his cap and bow to the assembled school, on entering in the morning, and every girl had to make her courtesy. In some schools every pupil, on re-entering the school-room after going out, had to go through a like ceremony. In some, the children were required, on the entrance of a visitor, to rise to their feet and salute him by bow and "crutchev." Some teachers, on entering the school-room, would bow to their scholars, thus teaching them by example. John R. Smock, an old-time pedagogue, before dismiss- ing school in the afternoon, had his scholars collect their belongings and march out of the school-house, and form in line with the tallest at the head, and by his side, the next tallest, and so on, down to the very least, who stood at the foot, when they awaited his com- ing to the door. While the line was forming, he covered the fire with ashes and righted the room, after which he appeared at the door, when all hats. including his own, were doffed, and after an in- terchange of formal bows and "crutchies," the little folks broke ranks and scattered for home. It is remembered that one very cold evening a big boy refusing to wait for the fire to be covered and the bowing to be done, left for home. The next morning the teacher called him out and inflicted such a severe punishment that, no matter how inclement the weather, he never after failed to re- turn his master's bow from his place in the line.
It was the rule in those days for all scholars to be "loud scholars." The silent schools were few and far between. The odds in the argument were believed to be in favor of the loud school. The man who can carry on a train of abstract thought, amidst noise and confusion, has a great advantage over one who must seek privacy and quiet. The business man must learn the secret, and so must the lawyer. All the old school-masters had it. Franklin Hardin, it is said by his old pupils, " could hear a class recite, work a sum in arithmetic and keep one eye on the school,
380
JOHNSON COUNTY.
all at one time." Charles Disbrow could hear a class, make a pen, and watch the school at once. " A celebrated Scotch teacher, Alexander Kinmont, of Cincinnati, as late as 1837, would conduct a school by no other method. He claimed that it is the practical, philosophical system, by which boys can be trained for business on a steam-boat, wharf, or any other place." And so the schools in Johnson County were very generally loud schools. The boys and girls spelled and read oftentimes at the tops of their voices, and in favorable days the noise of their lesson-getting could be heard half a mile off.
How incomplete this review would be without some reference to the school sports of the pioneer days. The boys played with a dash and vim worthy of imitation yet. No half-acre or acre school lots bounded their play grounds, for hardly a school-house that did not stand in an unenclosed woodland of from forty to many hun- dreds of acres in extent. Every sport was calculated to call for the utmost endeavor of the player. The races run in " prisoner's base," sometimes covered miles. There was "cap ball" for the little boys- a game of short, quick dashes, and admitting of bois- terous talking and hallooing by all at once. The leading games for the larger boys were "cat," " town-ball " and " bull-pen." The first two were played with the bat and ball, and out of the second has come our modern base ball. The third, " bull-pen," was the best pioneer game. It had an element suggestive of warfare in it. To become a proficient player in " bull-pen," required a quick eye, physical activity, speed on foot, good bottom, nfanly courage, good throwing powers, quick perception, good judgment, and last, but not least, the ability to maintain one's position in the innumerable arguments that were sure to arise in the course of the game, for there were no umpires in those days. How earnestly the pioneer boys would debate questions on the play ground, and how apt were they to come to blows before a conclusion was reached. The moral sentiment of the country took high ground in the early day against turbulence, and the teachers labored to repress it among their scholars. The fathers and teachers, too, would fight on small provocation, but every effort was made to repress the tendency among the boys, but, in spite of it all, the boys were quite often as quick to assert their manhood as the testiest father or school-master in the county. The usual thing when a fight took place in school, was for the teacher to whip both combatants by way of punish- ment, but there were instances when whipping carried with it no repressing tendency. A Washington County school-master had two boys who, disliking each other, often fought to the teacher's great annoyance, but without a decisive victory attending the
38I
SCHOOLS.
banner of either. Both had been punished time and again by the teacher without avail. The usual fight occurring one day, the teacher bethought him of a new scheme. He cut a bundle of good switches, and bade the boys stand up in the school-room and switch each other till one cried " enough"! The temper of the lads was yet up, and they were not sorry of the opportunity given to still further punish each other, and so they fell to with a will and kept at it till one under the pain cried out the word, and the switching ended. Ever after there was peace between those two boys.
An old student of Franklin Hardin, says that quite a number of large boys and young men attended his school, many of whom would fight with each other on the slightest provocation, to the great vexation of their teacher. Hardin always played with his scholars, which, indeed, was the custom with nearly all the school masters of the early day, and he was thus ever present to quell dis- turbances on the play ground. The turbulence of the young fel- lows greatly annoyed their teacher. Hardly a day passed that he was not called upon to exercise his office as peace maker. There came a time, however, when he wearied in well-doing. Two lusty boys, ringleaders in all quarrels, disagreed for the tenth time, and showed fight. " Boys," said the teacher, " we have had enough of this, I think you had better now settle it once and for all. You may fight it out, and I will see to it that there is fair play." " lIere," to the bystanders, " let us form a ring and see it out." The prop- osition was no less unexpected than novel. The ardor of the lads cooling down they concluded not to fight. After that the practice of fighting fell into neglect in that school.
Among the other school practices in the early days was the one of " turning out," or " barring out the master." This occurred at Christmas time, and the event was usually not less enjoyed by the teacher than his scholars. The custom was for the big boys to bar the school-house door against the entrance of the teacher, and keep him out till he agreed to furnish a treat, usually of apples, for the school. Sometimes cakes and cider were furnished, and in some parts of the state whisky, even, was demanded, but I never heard of a Johnson County teacher treating his scholars to any thing stronger than cider. Of course the teacher resisted-there would have been no fun else, and sometimes by superior skill or strength, he managed to make his way into the school house, when the victory was his. In the effort to do so, it was allowable for the scholars to seize his person if they could, when, if he still held out, they might tie him and carry him to a neighboring creek and duck him till he promised the treat. Not many teachers held out thus far, but instances have been known, when, after cutting a hole in the
382
JOHNSON COUNTY.
ice, teachers have been immersed once-nay, twice, and held under till they were glad to give in. All this, be it remembered. was done in fun and taken in good part by the teacher, who held no ill-will against any one on account thereof. Instances. it is true, have occurred in the county, where the effort of the scholars to force a treat was resisted in good earnest by the teacher and bad blood followed, but the general rule was otherwise.
Many amusing stories are told of turning the teacher out. On one Christmas occasion, William Surface's scholars barred the school-house door against him. On reaching it he demanded en- trance, which, of course was refused, unless he would agree to treat. He declined, however, to answer to an oral proposition. " Some dispute," he said, " might arise, as to what was said," and so he demanded that a written proposition be presented to him. It was done, and pen and paper passed out to him with it. Beneath the boys' scrawl he wrote:
" I except to the above proposition.
WILLIAM SURFACE,"
and passed the writing back. The boys were satisfied, and at once admitted the master. " You had better read with care what I have written," said he to his scholars. "It is one thing to accept a prop- osition, and quite another to except to it." The boys acknowledg- ing that the tables had been turned upon them, the teacher im- proved the occasion, " Were I sure," said he, " that you knew not the difference between the meaning of the words, I would be ashamed of you. I think you do, but your carelessness is not much less reprehensible, than your ignorance would have been. Unless you mend your ways in this respect, you will be fleeced all through life by every scoundrel who meets you." The treat followed the lesson, and all was serene in that school.
A teacher by the name of Groves, who taught in the early day, in the northern part of the county, was barred out one Christmas morning. Living in a cabin hard by, he called on his wife to assist him. The weather was extremely cold, and it occurred to him that if he could drown out the school-house fire he could freeze out the meeting, and accordingly ascended to the top of the chimney, and his wife, handing him up buckets of water, he poured it down into the fire-place. But the effort was in vain. The boys raking the coals upon the ample hearth defied him. He next thought to smoke them out, and to that end laid boards over the chimney top; but the boys had thought of that contingency and were provided with a long pole with which to remove the boards. The teacher, not to be outdone, replaced the boards, and calling upon his wife, who entered with spirit into all his plans, had her mount the roof
383
SCHOOLS.
of the house and take her seat upon the chimney top, while her lord went below to be ready to enter the house as soon as the boys should leave it. Once more the youngsters resorted to the pole, and with such vigor did they heave at the obstruction above, that they not only removed the boards, but upset the dame, who, at the risk of limb and life, came tumbling to, the earth. The obdurate master, abandoning all hope of taking the fortress by direct attack, sat down before it in siege. As the girls and younger scholars arrived that morning, he sent them to his own cabin, where his wife, turning school-mistress for the occasion, kept watch and ward over them. The " stars fought for Sisera" that day. Nature asserting her claims, one by one the garrison had to go out, and each one became the captive of the besieging master, who, march- ing him off in triumph, left him under the charge of the madame. By the time for dismissing the school in the afternoon came around, every boy had been taken in, and the school was in full blast in the master's cabin.
He who investigates the history of the common schools of John- son County during the early years of its existence, cannot fail to find evidence of their growth in usefulness as he goes over the ground. The growth may not be very marked, taking one year with another, but the evidences of it are to be seen nevertheless .. There is an influx of better teachers and of better methods. Geography is in- troduced into the schools quite generally, and also the study of English grammar. In geography, Olney's and Smith's are the books in general use. Murray's grammar was the first, but it was soon superseded by Kirkham's and Smith's. New arithmetics took the place of the old, first Smith's, and next, Ray's, and a series of read- ing-books. McGuffey's Eclectic, was by degrees introduced into every school. A partial uniformity in text-books was attained, and this allowed to some extent, the organization of classes. Elsewhere, reference has been made made to the eclectic series of school books as potent factors in the advancement of the schools of the county.
There was another factor deserving of mention in this connec- tion. In 1837, the "Indiana Baptist Manual Labor Institute " was opened to students in Franklin, and, notwithstanding the fact that poverty hung like a cloud over the infant institution, it was so managed as to keep its doors open to the youth of the land in search of opportunity for achieving a higher education. Doubt- less, its work seemed of little consequence to the general run of people of that day, but looking back from our "coigne of vantage " now, we see that Johnson County reaped a rich reward from the infant college, even then. Numbers of young men, attending the institute in its early years, went forth to teach in the district schools
384
JOHNSON COUNTY.
of the county. They took with them not only a knowledge of the rudiments of the elementary English branches, but they taught in such a spirit of enthusiasm as to implant in the minds of their scholars far higher ideals of education, than had been the case be- fore. They did much to leaven the lump and prepare the people of the county for what was to follow. The people of Johnson County have done well by Franklin College, the lineal successor of the institute, since that day, but what they have done has been less a benevolence than the payment of a first debt. How much is owing to the colleges of the country by the beneficiaries of the pub- lic schools, in general, we are slow to concede. But in the blessings brought to the people of Johnson County by the Eclectic school- books, and by the masters sent out by the Baptist Institute, we have the lesson brought home to us. The books were prepared and perfected by the professors who taught for their daily bread in the Miami University, and the old Cincinnati College.
In this place it may be proper to refer to the old county semin- ary at Franklin. By an act of the legislature of February 4, 1831, every county was authorized to establish a seminary in which a higher education than the common schools afforded, was to be taught. Under this law steps were taken looking to the establish- ment of such a seminary in Franklin. A two-story brick building was begun about 1840, and finished in the summer of 1842. But no school of the kind contemplated by the legislature was ever es- tablished therein. In September, 1842, the Rev. William Sickles, a Presbyterian clergyman of the town, began a subscription school in the new seminary building, which continued for a year. After him, two young women, the Misses Atell and Merrill, taught for a brief period. Afterward, it was used by the Methodist congrega- tion of the town as a preaching place for a year or two, and ulti- mately the county sold the building, and it was turned into a private residence.
In IS50, a convention was called to frame a new constitution for Indiana. Two college professors were members of that conven- tion when it assembled, one of whom was John I. Morrison, who represented Washington County, and who was made chairman of the committee on education. He had quite recently been a pro- fessor in the Indiana University at Bloomington, but had returned to his old home in Salem, where he had long been principal of the Washington Academy. Professor Morrison was at heart a thor- ough-going free school man, but he did not believe that free schools in Indiana could ever be successfully inaugurated, without such a systematic organization of all the school forces, as could only come from a state department of education. To that end he framed a resolution providing for the office of a state superintendent of edu-
385
SCHOOLS.
cation, and presented it to his committee; but his committee promptly rejected it. Thereupon, with a courage worthy of all praise, he presented his resolution to the convention itself, which not only gave him a patient hearing, but approved of his proposi- tion and framed it into the new constitution. The office of super- intendent of public instruction was thus provided for, which meant systematic organization, equality of means and uniformity of methods throughout the state. It required many years to put the department in full command, but the fact has been accomplished.
During the years that have come and gone since 1851, the pub- lic schools of Johnson County have steadily grown in usefulness and publie favor. The public school fund has been constantly aug- menting; courses of study have been greatly enlarged; uniformity in text-books and consequent classification of pupils has become a fact, and schools are kept open, free to all, and within convenient distance to all, from not less than five to eight months in the year. In addition to all this, a system of township graded schools has been established, wherein a higher education may be had than is taught in district public schools. One of these is in the center of White River Township; one at Trafalgar, in Hensley; one at Will- iamsburg, in Nineveh; one at Hopewell, in Franklin, and one at Whiteland, in Pleasant. To these add the city schools of Franklin, and the Edinburg and Greenwood schools, wherein more extensive courses of studies are introduced and taught, and we have an edu- cational system in active operation in Johnson County, which is the pride and glory of its people. The following table presents a view of the condition of the schools of the county at this time:
Enumeration of Children, ISSS.
No. of School- Houses.
Value of School I'ro perty.
White River Township
682
I I
$7,500
Union Township.
407
IO
8,750
Hensley Township.
487
IO
7,000
Pleasant Township
409
12
5,400
Franklin Township ..
408
9
10 000
Nineveh Township.
508
-0
S,000
Clark Township
451
9
7,000
Needham Township.
393
9
9,000
Blue River Township.
232
7
6,000
Totals.
3,977
SS
$69,150
Franklin City.
1,257
3
$36,000
Edinburg Town.
69.4
I
15,000
Greenwood Town.
275
I
3,000
Totals.
2,226
5
$54,000
69,150
$123,150
386
JOHNSON COUNTY.
Whole number of children in the county within the school age 6,203 Whole number of pupils enrolled in 1887. 4,988
Whole number school-houses .. 93
Total value school-houses and grounds. $123,150
FRANKLIN COLLEGE.
This sketch would be incomplete without some reference to Franklin College. Early in the history of the state, the leading men of the Baptist faith saw the necessity of founding a school of higher education, which should be under the control of their de- nomination. In 1834 the first steps were taken looking to that end. A meeting was held in Indianapolis, of Baptist ministers and laymen, and an educational society organized, the chief purpose of which was to "establish one or more literary or theological sem- inaries." At the third meeting of the society, held at Indianapolis, in January, 1835, the plan for a college was so far developed that four places were selected from which to receive bids, two in De- catur County, and the others at Indianapolis and Franklin. In the following June, the location was made at Franklin, and the " In- diana Baptist Manual Labor Institute," was formally established on paper.
This was the age of manual labor schools. About this time Hanover College was staggering under a name indicative of the manual labor carried on in shop and field by the youth who went there in quest of knowledge: and during the same period, not a few of the legislators of the state sought to graft upon the state college at Bloomington something of the same sort. The reader of the Senate and House journals for 1830 up to 1840, will find many resolutions and reports referring to " glebes" and "farms " and "Fellenberg" and " Lancastrian" systems of education in con- nection with the Indiana College. It was in the air, and the foun- ders of Franklin College could not well help beginning with a Manual Labor Institute.
In 1837 a frame building was completed on the chosen site, at a cost of $350, and a school seems at once to have been opened therein by the Rev. A. R. Hinckley. In 1843, a large and com- modious brick building was begun, but was not completed for four years. It is what is known as the North Building. The year fol- lowing its beginning, the Manual Labor Institute, by a legislative enactment, gave place to Franklin College, and soon thereafter the Rev. G. C. Chandler became its first president, who served as such
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.