USA > Indiana > Wayne County > Richmond > Memoirs of Wayne County and the city of Richmond, Indiana; from the earliest historical times down to the present, including a genealogical and biographical record of representative families in Wayne County, Volume I Pt. 2 > Part 15
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The Wayne County Board of Education was established in 1873 and the following have been superintendents of Wayne coun- ty : T. C. Smith, 1873 to 1875; John C. Macpherson, 1875 to 1887; B. F. Wissler, 1887 to 1891 ; Thomas A. Mott, 1891 to 1895; William E. Wineburg, 1895 to February, 1903; Charles W. Jordan, 1903 to September, 1910; Charles O. Williams, present incumbent.
PRIVATE AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF RICHMOND.
In the settlement of any pioneer country there are always hard- ships and privations and the struggle for existence is of necessity the foremost thought in the lives of the settlers. This was true of the early settlers of Richmond and vicinity, and yet, like thousands of other settlements in the United States, these settlers planned churches and school-houses at the first possible opportunity. So important a matter as the education of their children they did not defer until they could build convenient houses, but were content with such as corresponded with their own rude dwellings. The early settlers of Wayne county, while not possessed of extraordi- nary scholarship, had among them few ignorant or illiterate persons. Many of them had a good knowledge of common rudimentary learn- ing. These early schools, founded by the early settlers, either as a church or as a community, were the foundation of the present school system, and prepared the way for the high standard of edu- cation now maintained by our city and county. Many of our best educated and most prominent citizens received their early education in the Friends' schools and the early secular private schools of Richmond. The early Friends at first held their schools in the rude log meeting houses, and later they built school houses better adapted to the needs of the school. Other private schools were often taught in the home of the teacher, or in a room rented for the
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purpose. Often the men of a community would combine their ef- forts to erect a house for school purposes. This house would be furnished with the rudest of furniture, and then an agreement would be made with some one in the neighborhood to act as teacher. He was paid by the patrons in proportion to the number of children each sent.
Sometimes subscription schools were taught. A teacher would come into the neighborhood, obtain a house and circulate his sub- scription paper, which set forth the length of time and price per scholar; the patron would sign his name and the number of pupils he would send. The article was written by the teacher to give evi- dence of his skill as a penman, and this was usually the only cer- tificate of qualification presented. In the earliest schools, the in- struction was restricted to the three "R's," with possibly a little Grammar and Geography. Webster's speller was used, and the child who was able to own one was considered fortunate. Classi- fication in the schools of so few pupils and of such variety of ages was quite impossible. It was the custom in this early period among many teachers to conduct "Loud Schools"-that is, to allow the pupils to study aloud. This was supposed to cultivate concentra- tion of thought as well as to aid memory.
ORTHODOX FRIENDS.
To the Friends is to be credited the first organized educational effort in Richmond and vicinity. Elementary schools were estab- lished by them quite early, under the direction of the Whitewater Monthly Meeting. The first record of attention to educational mat- ters is found in the minutes of the meeting held on the 25th of 8 mo., 1810, "When a committee was appointed to dispose of a num- ber of school books which had been received from the Quarterly Meeting." On the 23rd of 10 mo., 1811, Ephraim Overman, An- drew Hoover, Cornelius Ratliff, Jesse Bond, John Smith, Ralph Wright, John Morris, Jonathan Hollingsworth, John Townsend, and John Clark were appointed a standing committee to have care of the schools.
The old log meeting house which stood on the site of the pres- ent brick meeting house, on the corner of North Tenth and G streets, was used as a schoolhouse in these early days. The com- mittee appointed by the Monthly Meeting managed the schools ; they solicited for pupils, collected the pay and hired the teachers. The schools were open to all children in the community. whether
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of Friends' families or not. Robert Brattain, a Quaker who was a native of Ireland, is said to have taught the first school, in the win- ter of 1811-2. One of his pupils said of him, "He was a good teacher, but strict." Dr. John Plummer says in his "History of Richmond" (1856) : "I hold in distinct remembrance the old log meeting house, with its leaky roof, its slab benches with no backs, its charcoal fire kept in sugar kettles." In 1836, a brick schoolhouse of two rooms was built by Friends in the lot south of the old meet- ing house. The first teacher was Isaac Hiatt, who conducted a high school (the first in Richmond), giving instruction in the higher branches, including Chemistry and Surveying. Barnabas C. Hobbs taught in this building in 1843. He was afterwards a teacher in the Earlham Boarding School, and still later the first president of Earlham College. William Haughton, assisted by Dr. William Marmon, taught in 1846. Other early teachers were Jesse Stanley and Daniel Clark.
Hiram Hadley began teaching in 1856 and conducted a high school or academy for seven years. His assistant was Wilhelmina Bell. Then schools were taught by Erastus Test, Matthew and Eliza Charles, and Mary Burson, assisted by Wilhelmina Bell Jones. Lydia and Jemima Burson taught the last Friends' school in this building. In 1873, the Board of School Trustees rented it for the use of public schools. In 1878 the board purchased the prop- erty from Whitewater Monthly Meeting. In 1888, Mather Brothers bought the building for offices. and in 1900 it was burned.
HICKSITE FRIENDS' SCHOOL.
Shortly after the separation of Friends into the two branches, Orthodox and Hicksite, in 1828, the latter branch built a meeting house on the lot where the Warner School now stands, at the inter- section of North Seventh street and Ft. Wayne avenue. About nine years later they built a Yearly Meeting House, and both of these buildings were used for school purposes. Among the early teachers were Jesse S. Wilson, Elizabeth Leeds, Jesse H. Brown, assisted by Mary J. Winder; and Eliza Smith King, who was assisted by Sarah Evans Hutton. Mrs. Hutton afterwards conducted the school alone. Many persons now living in Richmond remember their school days in Mrs. Hutton's school, and all who remember her speak in terms of praise of her success as a teacher. She taught both before and after her marriage, to John Hutton, in 1857. Mrs. Hutton was assisted by Elizabeth E. Haynes and Rachel Ballard.
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In 1868, the Hicksite Friends built the building until recently used for the Business College, on the corner of North Twelfth and B streets. William Jackson conducted an academy in this building from 1869 to 1876. He taught with his wife-Anna M. Jackson- Mary J. Turner, Elizabeth Mendenhall, and others. High school subjects were taught. Many of our prominent citizens of today at- tended this academy, preparatory to entering college.
SECULAR SCHOOLS.
It is always difficult to state with any certainty the time and place of events where the evidence depends so entirely upon tra- dition, which is more or less influenced by the pride of locality. But it may be accepted as true that the first house erected for school purposes in Wayne county was upon the ground now included in the Elkhorn grave-yard, five miles southeast of Richmond. School was taught in this house for the first time in the fall of 1807. Joseph Cox was the teacher. In the winter 1808-9 Isaac Julian, the father of Congressman George W. Julian and of Isaac H. and Jacob Julian, taught a term in a cabin a mile southeast of Richmond, on the present site of the Wernle Home. In 1810 Robert Smith, brother of John Smith, the founder of Richmond, taught a school in a cabin near where D street meets Ft. Wayne avenue from the west. This was the first school taught on the site of Richmond. The second school was Robert Brattain's, in 1811, which has been mentioned before. The old log house which stood for many years on the corner of South Fourteenth and A streets was built in 1812 by Nathan Hawkins. It originally stood a little north of the corner. Nathan Hawkins occupied it for one winter, having moved here from a more unsettled part of the county to seek protection from the Indians. In the winter 1813-14 it was used as a schoolhouse. John Andrews was the teacher. In 1900 it was moved to Glen Miller Park, where it will be preserved as a "pioneer schoolhouse."
About this time a school was opened in the south part of town by a man whose name is not known. Later, Atticus Siddall taught in the same house. In 1822-23 Nathan Smith, a New Englander, taught in a one-story frame house which stood on South A street, and which was still standing in 1857, Dr. Plummer says, on the corner of South Fifth and A streets, southwest corner. Jeremiah Smith taught in the same house a little later. There was a school- house built on the west side of Ft. Wayne avenue near North Sixth street, in 1819. Beulah Puckett was one of the early teachers there.
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James E. Reeves has given the following description of a school- house, which may have been the one just mentioned, and also a little sketch of the schools of the early twenties :
"The log schoolhouse was poorly lighted and, except for a great stone and clay fireplace at one end, insufficiently heated. Desks there were none. In the place of them were half-logs, flat- tened by the adze, fixed against the walls by wooden pins. Long seats of log slabs were in front of the desks, and upon them the scholars sat and learned pothooks from a sample set by the teacher. The light was dim, as the schoolhouse had no windows. In the walls above the desks one log had been left out. Over this aperture thus made was stretched long sheets of greased paper.
"School books were scarce. Few scholars had a full comple- ment of books, and one copy of Webster's spelling-book had to do duty for several boys and girls. The curriculum was literally re- stricted to the three 'R's,' unless, indeed, by special favor of the teacher, a little geography was imbibed by the more advanced scholars. Such was the 'schooling' offered by the village of Rich- mond in the 20's. Manual training was indeed taught, but not as an elective study, and then out of school hours. A near-by brick yard offered an opportunity for a boy to make himself useful. There, during the long vacations, my father helped to load brick for a dollar a month. Chores were to be done, the cows taken to pasture and returned. There was little chance for a boy to exer- cise his ingenuity in planning mischief. Except for a game of town-ball (always called 'tomball') in the long summer twilights after the chores were finished, the boy had little fun. It was all work and very little play, but it did not make a dull boy. He be- came strong and self-reliant; he had resources within himself, and learned to value the spare hours of leisure because they were hard earned."
Beulah Puckett also taught a school in Adam Coffin's house, which stood on the east side of South Fourth street, in the first block, in 1820-21. About this time the Friends built a brick meet- ing house on the ground which was called the Public Square. It was one acre of ground, situated between Fourth and Fifth streets, on South B street, where the Finley School now stands. The ground was given to the city by John Smith. Soon after the Friends built this house the city decided to take it for its own use, paying back the donations that Friends had made for its erection.
This was in 1823 or 1824. It was always spoken of as the brick schoolhouse on the Public Square, and was used for lectures, enter-
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tainments, and later for schools. The first school known to be taught there was by E. H. Buckley, in 1834. Isaac Morris taught in 1833 on Ft. Wayne avenue. A Mr. Brown taught in his own home on the east side of North Fifth street, near Main street, in 1834. The Richmond Educational Society was organized in Jan- uary, 1834, for the purpose of furthering the interests of education in Richmond. A school for girls was held in a room formerly oc- cupied by Mr. and Mrs. Morris, a few doors east of Horner's Hotel. by Miss Whitworth. The Palladium of Sept. 5, 1834, contained the following advertisement of Miss Whitworth's school : "Instruction given to children and young ladies in Orthography, Reading, Pen- manship, English Grammar, and Arithmetic, for $2 per quarter ; Needlework, $2.50; Geography, History, $3; rent and fuel separate charges equally proportioned to the number of scholars. School hours 8 to meridian, I to 4." Laura Phelps taught in the Pearl Street Methodist Church in 1834, and later she taught a school for females and boys under twelve years with Lavinda Root. Francis King taught in 1835 on South A street, in a house owned by the Richmond Educational Society. In 1835 William McGorkin, A. B., Jefferson College, opened an academy for both sexes in the brick schoolhouse. In March, 1835, Dr. Ithamar Warner died, providing in his will that his property on North Fifth street, where the city building now stands, be used for the education of school children. He was a successful physician who lived in Centerville, then came here and built a house on North Fifth street. He was never mar- ried and wished to leave his property for educational purposes. The will was contested by his relatives, so the city compromised by pay- ing the sum of $800 to them.
The building was used for many years for school purposes, and for city offices. The back room and the two upstairs rooms were used at different times for school, lectures, entertainments, etc. The city still pays $250 per year to the School Board for the use of the ground upon which the city building stands. In the east wall of the city building is a slab taken from his home with "I. W., aged 42 years," engraved on it. Dr. Warner's property was known after his death as the "Warner Building" and it was soon used as a schoolhouse. One of the early teachers was Miss Mary Thorpe, who taught in 1836 or near that time. She was a well educated woman, having come here with her parents from Washington, D. C. She was a successful teacher and afterwards taught in the semi- nary at Centerville. Lyman J. Loveland taught, in 1836, in the schoolhouse on South A street, and in 1837 Noah Leeds conducted
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a school. In 1838 there was a convention of teachers of Richmond and vicinity, held at the Warner Building, which must have been the first teachers' association or organization of any kind in the city. The teachers discussed the advantages of using uniform text books. Heretofore the different teachers had used any that they chanced to have or that the pupils might have. About this time McGuffey's school books seemed to have the preference. This con- vention also urged classification in the schools. This organization continued to meet once a month during the next year or two, being kept up largely through the efforts of Rawson Vaile, who, with his wife, opened a school here in 1840. It was a high school, or acad- emy, as they were then called.
Rawson Vaile was a graduate of Amherst and was a very bright man and a successful teacher, teaching in Richmond two years. He was afterwards principal of the Wayne County Seminary at Center- ville. William R. Foulke was president of the teachers' conven- tion, and with the assistance of Mr. Vaile he arranged for an open meeting of the Teachers' Convention in 1841. This meeting was addressed by Dr. J. T. Plummer, S. K. Hoshour, and others. In 1840 the teachers decided on uniform text books. It is probable that the Eclectic school books were adopted. In 1839 J. Arnold taught a school in the public building on the Public Square. He also taught in the Warner Building later. George S. Rea, a prom- inent member of the Teachers' Association, taught in the Warner Building in 1839. Edward W. Kennedy also had a school there in the same year. In 1838 or 1839 James M. Poe, afterwards an in- fluential citizen of Richmond, opened an academy in the basement of Pearl Street Methodist Church. He was assisted by E. A. Bishop, A. B., of Oxford, Ohio. His school was conducted for about ten years. Eliza Rogers was another teacher at Pearl Street church. Elizabeth Stanley conducted a boarding school for girls in 1840; the place is not known. In 1841 Eraline Cox taught a school in a house built for a school on North Fifth street, now No. 33. The house was afterward remodeled by Thaddeus Wright and has been used for a dwelling house since. Miss Cox also taught in the house on the corner of North Fifth street and Ft. Wayne avenue, called the Branson House.
About this time Jeremiah Hubbard taught in a schoolhouse at the corner of North Seventh and C streets. Eliza Ann Smith also taught in the building on North Seventh street. In 1842 there was a school in the Presbyterian church on the east side of South Fourth street, between A and B, taught by Emily T. Knowlton.
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In 1842 Jesse Stanley taught. Milton Hollingsworth, assisted by Phoebe Crawford, taught in the brick schoolhouse in 1850-51. Dan- iel Clark also taught the same year. A small Seceedees church was moved from a lot near-by to the Public Square about this time and was used for a schoolhouse. In 1850 Rev. George Fiske, Rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, built a schoolhouse which is now No. 134 South Seventh street. He taught there, and it was afterwards used as a public school. An academy was opened by William W. Austin and D. H. Roberts in the brick schoolhouse. Mr. Austin also taught, in 1854, in the public schools. These schools and pos- sibly others were arranged for mainly by the teachers, and were usually held for a quarter (3 months) during the fall or spring. The later private schools, opened after the system of public schools had been well organized, are as follows:
First, the Academy conducted by Hiram Hadley from 1865 to 1867. This school came as a result of the solicitation of his friends who had known of his successful work in Whitewater Meeting school some years before. The Academy was held in the Hicksite schoolhouse which Mr. Hadley purchased from the Friends. The meeting house was also used for recitations. The other teachers were Misses Eliza B. Fulghum and Abbie S. Fuller, graduates of Westfield Normal School of Massachusetts. Mr. Hadley was suc- · ceeded by Cyrus W. Hodgin, as principal of the school, who taught for one year, Mr. Hadley taking a position as principal of the high school. Miss Fulghum acted as principal for one year, when the academy was closed. A little later than this Miss Fulghum opened a Select School on Main street, on the second floor of the building later occupied by the Second National Bank. In 1872 James McNeill conducted a private school in Reid's Hall, over Reid's hardware store. In 1883 Prof. Cyrus W. Hodgin opened a Normal School in the Hicksite school building on North B street. This school con- tinued for four years. The teachers were Cyrus W. Hodgin, James B. Ragan, Erastus Test, C. E. Hodgin, Caroline Fuiber, Belle Mor- rison, Mary Anderson, Margaret Kendall, Carrie Lesh, Elmer E. Jones, and E. L. Thomas.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
It is probable that all the legislation, until 1831, was of little or no avail to the people of Wayne county. In 1831 an impor- tant revision of the law was made. Trustees were to be elected in each Congressional township, with sub-trustees in the districts.
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whose duty it was to call meetings of voters who were to de- cide whether there would be a public school in the district or not, and to look after the building, if there was one, and the hiring of the teacher, etc. In 1834 The Common School Fund was established by the State; school sections were also being sold at this time, both of which gave an impetus to educational affairs, and many new schoolhouses were built over the county. It is supposed that Richmond took advantage of this law, and it is known that as early as 1833 a school commissioner was elected to look after schools in the city. In 1848 there was another re- vision of the school law which provided that schools be main- tained in each district for a term of three months each year, to be paid for from the School Fund. Richmond took advantage of this, as is shown from the following announcement :
"The Trustees of the District South of Main Street have made arrangements to expend public money with the different teachers of the city. The term begins the first Monday in September. Job Borton, Trustee."
In 1850 two trustees were elected-for the district north of Main street, John H. Hutton; for the district south of Main street, John Finley. They advertised two free schools-one at the Warner Building, the other at the brick schoolhouse on the Public Square.
Thus we see that Richmond had many good schools, and at one period the excellence of the schools of Richmond and vicin- ity gave it a reputation as an educational center. But there were no schools entirely free until after the new State Constitution went into effect, when the Richmond schools became a part of the system of public instruction of the State of Indiana. The Con- stitution of 1851 provides that there shall be established by law, "a general and uniform system of common schools, wherein tui- tion shall be without charge, and equally open to all." On June 14, 1852, a law was enacted to carry into effect the intention of the Constitution. By that law it was provided that a State tax of ten cents on each $100 be levied annually. The proceeds of this tax, with the interest on the State Funds, became the "revenue for tuition," distributed every year to the school corporations. Cities, incorporated towns, and civil townships were created school corporations and as such corporations were to elect school trustees; and had power to levy taxes for the building and furnish- ing of schoolhouses, "and for continuing their schools after the fund shall have been expended." By that law Richmond became
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a school corporation, separate and independent from the town- ship in which it is situated. A new impulse was given to school affairs in Indiana by that law. Taking advantage of its liberal provisions, the people proceeded to found the school system con- templated. Commodious houses were erected, especially in the larger towns and cities, many graded schools were organized, and everywhere hope, enterprise and enthusiasm in school matters prevailed-nowhere to greater extent than in Wayne county.
In 1853, Dr. Joel Vaile, Dr. James R. Mendenhall, and James Elder (an editor) were chosen trustees to manage educational affairs in Richmond. A high tax was levied, ground purchased, and a building capable of seating 500 pupils was commenced in 1854. The house on North Eighth street, corner of North B (now the Garfield School), is that building. It cost $18,000, and was one of the earliest large buildings in Indiana, erected under the law of 1852. It was completed in the summer of 1855. The first use made of it was the holding therein of the first Teacher's County Institute, in August of that year. The east half of the second story was then one large room, designated "No. 9." In it assembled the institutes and other public gatherings, and when the schools were organized it was occupied by the most advanced pupils. Free public schools were opened in the city of Richmond in the fall of 1855. Josiah H. Hurty, from Xenia, Ohio, was selected as the superintendent. To his administration fell the task of organizing the pupils into a system of gradation. The pre- vious schools in Richmond had been "mixed" schools, with the pupils in all stages of advancement, from the Alphabet to Algebra. To classify these pupils according to a regular and uniform plan was the great task required of the public schools in the first terms. Professor Hurty was superintendent two years (1855-6 and 1856-7). In grading the schools he was quite successful for the time and brought them well forward in that particular.
Prof. William D. Henkle, a man distinguished for his varied and thorough knowledge, who had been connected with "Green- mount Boarding School" (in the vicinity of Richmond), was su- perintendent for the year 1857-8. In the year 1858-9, George H. Grant was at the head of the public schools. He conducted effi- cient subscription schools several years, in the months when the free schools were not in session. Of the teachers employed in these years may be named: Myron Edgerson, Lewis Estes, and G. H. Grant, who at different times had charge of No. 9; Evaline Cox, a much loved primary teacher ; Jane Way; Clara Rogers
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