USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland, (Vol. 1) > Part 57
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These books were of a high order and became strong competitors in the road of other publishers of school text books. Cleveland was a battle ground. The agents of the various publishers of school text books were salesmen of no mean ability and used every means to advance the interests of the houses they represented. Mrs. Rebecca Rickoff had assisted in the preparation of the text books referred to, and a very clever man by the name of Ruggles represented the publishers. Regardless of the merits of the books, which could not be denied, the agents of other publishers began a campaign against Mr. Rickoff, inaugurated to create sentiment against him. They started the cry that Cleveland had gone back to the three R's of the schools of the early days, "Rebecca, Ruggles and Rickoff." This senseless slogan had its effect among the unthinking and some measure of sentiment was created to the annoyance of the superintendent and bringing about a lack of cordial relations between him and the board with whom he had worked in harmony for fifteen years.
The board of education elected as his successor the president of Hiram College, B. A. Hinsdale, who served for four years. In his first annual
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report he says: "The end of the school is the education of the pupil- his growth in knowledge, in mental power, and in character. As promotive of this end, a school or system of schools may be looked at from two stand- points-one external and one internal. On the outside we see buildings, apparatus, books, a course of graduated studies, a scheme of classification, and an organization of teachers; on the inside we see the intellectual and moral qualities of the teacher." In this first year of Mr. Hinsdale's administration J. H. Schneider was president of the board of education and he recommended that all classical studies be abolished in the high schools and that the course be made purely an English-German one His recommendations were never carried out. In this year the books drawn from the public library averaged 456 volumes per day. Wil- liam H. Brett assumed his duties as librarian of the public library September 1, 1884, and this was the beginning of a most efficient adminis- tration which closed only with his death. During his first year in office there were in round numbers, 199,000 books issued, 22,266 membership cards were out and there were about 46,000 books in the library.
There was still opposition to the high school, it being charged on the street, in the store, and over the bar room rail that the high school existed for the rich, while it was supported by. the men of less means. Superin- tendent Hinsdale investigated and made a report showing that the patrons of the high school came from all walks of life. In Central High alone a large number were children of day laborers. Superintendent Hinsdale brought about the change of name of the Normal to the Normal Training School, built up the night school, and during his administration the Board of Education put itself on record as in favor of free text books. He modified the high school system in this that while heretofore a pupil enter- ing the high school was practically in charge of one teacher, under the new order, the pupil was assigned to various teachers, as in a college. E. A. Schellentrager, president of the Board of Education, said of his adminis- tration at the time of his retiring: "I regard the period of his administra- tion as one of the most beneficent in the history of our schools."
L. W. Day succeeded Mr. Hinsdale and found in a growing city a growing school. The most outstanding achievement at the start was the opening of a manual training school in connection with the others. This idea had been formulating for some time. In February, 1885, as related by Mr. Akers, a small carpenter shop was started in a barn on Kennard Street, near Euclid Avenue, for the benefit of some boys, then pupils in the Central High School. This was brought to the attention of a number of business men of the city and the manual training idea in connection with the schools was discussed. A stock company was formed capitalized at $25,000 to equip a building and charge a tuition fee just sufficient to cover the running expenses. This was incorporated June 2, 1885, as "The Cleveland Manual Training School Company." A board of directors was chosen consisting of Samuel E. Williamson, Thomas H. White, N. M. Anderson, Samuel Mather, L. E. Holden, J. H. McBride, E. P. Williams, William E. Cushing, Alexander E. Brown, Charles W. Bingham, S. H. Curtiss, J. F. Holloway, Ambrose Swasey, Thomas Kilpatrick and S. W. Sessions. Judge Williamson was chosen president, Thomas H. White vice- president, and Newton M. Anderson, who had organized and conducted the little school in carpentry on Kennard Street, was elected principal of the school. The site on the north side of East Prospect Street was selected and a building erected and ready for occupancy in January, 1886. The opening was in February and although not yet, in actuality, a part of the Cleveland school system, Superintendent Hinsdale delivered an address at the opening. The principal made his annual report to the board of direc-
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tors and not to the school board. Other schools were established and dur- ing the administration of Superintendent Day, the board of education set apart a fund of $6,000 for the operation of these schools. During the school year in 1887-88 the board of education had a loss of nearly $200,000 by reason of a defaulting treasurer. Some of this was recovered.
During the last years of Superintendent Day's administration the East Manual Training School was in charge of E. A. Dillon, Mr. Anderson hav- ing accepted the principalship of the University School, which was just opened. This school was a private venture and relieved to some extent the overcrowding in the high schools. W. E. Roberts was principal of the West Manual Training School. In 1892 the library under the efficient management of Mr. Brett established its first branch on the West Side. It was located at 562 Pearl (West 25th) Street and began with 5,000
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WEST TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL
volumes, but before the end of the year the number had increased to over 72,000. Superintendent Day retired with the close of the school year and in his last annual report he said: "It has been my great fortune to be connected with the work of public education in our city for twenty-four consecutive years. During that time the cause of education has steadily advanced everywhere. Especially is this true of public school work in the larger towns and cities. It has been the ambition of our city to stand well in all that is meritorious-to lead, as far as pos- sible, in all legitimate directions. That we have succeeded, in a measure at least, is shown by the many comments of leading educators, both American and foreign, by the diplomas of honorable mention received from various quarters and by the medals received on several occasions."
A new school law was passed in 1892 reorganizing the school system) of Cleveland. It provided for a school council of seven members elected at large, and by this act all executive authority was vested in a school director elected by the people. The two departments by this act were to work in harmony. It was the Federal plan. The director was given power to make contracts but all involving expenditures of an amount above $250 must be approved by the council. The school director must attend all meetings of the council and approve all acts of that body involving the
Vol. I-14
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expenditure of money, or veto the same as the case might be. A veto could be made inoperative by the vote of two-thirds of the council. The build- ing, enlarging, repairing, or furnishing of any school building, the cost of which would exceed $1,500 must also be determined by the council. The director was given the appointment of the school superintendent, he to appoint the teachers. At the first election under this law H. Q. Sargent was elected school director. Mr. Sargent appointed Andrew S. Draper, of New York, superintendent of instruction. Mr. Draper was previously commissioner of schools in New York. He was immediately active in bringing up the teaching force to a higher standard; but was radical and insistent. He did not consider the work in the attitude of Mr. Hinsdale, who said that all changes, no matter how numerous or important or radical, to be beneficent must be made opportunely and prudently, and must con- sume time.
Mr. Draper was dynamic in his reforms. None of the supervising force were reappointed except Edwin F. Moulton. His reason as given was that their ways were not his ways. The supervisors thus removed had served in the Cleveland schools for many years. He introduced and insisted upon new methods of teaching in the classroom and gave little time to the teachers to become familiar with them. Nervous prostration was a preva- lent disease, epidemic in the teaching force. During his two years in the Cleveland schools he retired nearly one hundred teachers. He employed various methods, meetings, clubs-brought eminent speakers, to instruct the teachers in pedagogical knowledge and at the end of his first year required each teacher to report to him in writing what professional advance- ment had been made. Of the 850 teachers, 761 responded. The beginning of kindergarten work in the school came under his administration and at his request. The school council authorized the establishment of a kindergarten department in the Normal Training School and a special teacher was secured for the purpose. During the administration of Super- intendant Draper corporal punishment, which had long been abolished in the school generally, was abolished in the unclassified schools. In 1893 the schools sent an attractive exhibit to the World's Fair at Chicago, and diplomas and medals were awarded in its preparation. The supervisors appointed by Mr. Draper were Edwin F. Moulton, Henry C. Muckley, Ellen G. Reveley, Emma C. Davis, Joseph Krug and William S. Roberts and N. Coe Stewart, Frank Aborn and Ansel Clark were special teachers in music, drawing and penmanship.
Before the end of his second year Mr. Draper tendered his resigna- tion as superintendent of schools to take effect at the close of the school year, he having been elected president of the State University of Illinois. His resignation was accepted at once.
He was followed by L. H. Jones, who began his work during the summer vacation of 1894. The new superintendent made no radical changes, kept the supervising force and announced that he would follow the work as mapped out by Superintendent Draper. The annexation of Brooklyn and West Cleveland villages brought Landon, Watterson, Deni- son, and Ray schools into the city. Continuing the public library, as identified with the school system-we note that this year the Miles Park branch was formally opened and that, in the year, 64,590 volumes were issued, the earlier West Side branch issuing in the same period 128,240 books. As showing the rapid growth of the schools, thirty three new school rooms were completed this year and they were immediately filled. Free kindergartens as a part of the public school system were opened in 1896. In the following year eleven were in suc- cessful operation. Director Sargent continued in the position at the head
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of the business department of the schools, of which he was the first incum- bent, for eight years, and was followed by Thomas H. Bell.
The administration of Superintendent Jones was characterized by ability and thorough unremitting attention to the duties of the position. He fol- lowed more on the lines suggested by Superintendent Hinsdale. He car- ried on the work with an endeavor to constantly increase the efficiency of the teaching force. In his first annual report he suggested that the teachers should continue to study, while teaching, in order to avoid becom- ing formal and artificial. In 1896 Herman Woldmann was appointed Supervisor of German in place of Joseph Krug, who was compelled to retire because of ill health. In 1897 the director appointed another truant officer in addition to McBane and Kiefer.
Director Bell was succeeded by Starr Cadwallader and Superintendent Jones by Edwin F. Moulton. Mr. Moulton's appointment was in the nature of a promotion, he having been for some time in the work and familiar with the needs of the Cleveland schools. In 1905 Charles Orr took up the reins as director and Mrs. Sarah E. Hyre, destined to be for many years a prominent figure in the administration, was elected a member of the school board. Mr. Moulton was succeeded by William H. Elson, who for five years served with great ability at the head of the educational department of the Cleveland schools. His term expired January 7th 1912, in the midst of a school year, and Harriet Keeler, the first and only woman superintendent of the Cleveland schools, was appointed to fill the vacancy. She served until the close of the school year August 31, 1912. In this short time she demonstrated her ability, and filled the position with credit to herself and to the satisfaction of the public and the school authorities. In this connection it may be appropriate to mention other women, outside of the teaching force, who have been identified with the school administra- tion, May C. Whitaker. prominent club woman and social settlement worker, Mrs. B. F. Taylor, widow of the famous author and poet, Mrs. Elroy M. Avery, whom we have mentioned, and Mrs. Virginia D. Green, a present influential member, have been prominent in the public eye by rea- son of their efficient services on the school board.
There came a change in school director January 15, 1912, when Director Orr, after a service of nearly eight years, resigned and F. G. Hogen was appointed. This occurred during a general shakeup in the business and educational administration of the Cleveland schools. Miss Keeler was serving as superintendent and Mrs. Sarah E. Hyre as clerk of the school board. On September 1, 1912, J. M. H. Frederick, former head of the Lakewood schools, was chosen superintendent. Mr. Frederick entered into the work with experience gained in a smaller field but with a keen percep- tion of the needs of the greater school system he was called upon to head. His annual reports were the most complete and far-reaching that had ever been presented. He saw the great changes that had come to the city by reason of the immense foreign immigration and took up the question of Americanization that had only been casually referred to before. The American school must be the American melting pot. This timely con- sideration will become more to his credit as we later give data, that will show the condition of the school enumeration as he found it, changed somewhat with the years. He served until 1918, when a new school board elected F. E. Spaulding, an educator who came to the Cleveland schools with a national reputation. So much was he regarded that he was given a salary about double that previously. paid to Cleveland superintendents. Mr. Spaulding remained some two years, when he resigned to take up educational work in connection with the American soldiers engaged in the World war over seas. He was succeeded by R. G. Jones, the present
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superintendent. And now as to the Americanization work, that so strongly appealed to Superintendent Frederick and to his successors as well-a survey of the schools, made in the school year of 1921-22, shows that fifty seven nationalities were represented in the public school enrollment and that only 35410 per cent were pupils born of native white parents. The survey in detail gives the enrollment as follows : Of native white parents, 42,158, Russian (which leads) 11,200, Italian, 10,215, Hungarian, 8,952, Polish, 7,182, Czecho-Slovakian, 6,877, German, 6,681, Austrian, 6,317, United States Negro, 5,959, Jugo Slavian, 1925, English, 2,767, Canadian, 1,227, Lithuanian, 1,160, Scandinavian, 926, Scotch, 900, Irish, 894, Roumanian, 885, all others, 2,924. Thus the children in the public schools, of foreign born parents, far exceed those of native born, a very significant fact in this great army of nearly 120,000 pupils.
EAST TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL
After serving for several years as clerk of the school board, Mrs. Hyre was made both clerk and treasurer and her last report on file gives, in its aggregate, the growth to which the great system of the city has attained. Its items in detail would be interesting here but would occupy much space. In brief, the total expenses of every kind for the school year amounted to $12,531,204.91, and of this great aggregate $7,184,950.54 were paid to teachers and $414,971.15 to former teachers in pensions. For the promo- tion of health was paid $77,010.62, and for transportation of pupils $24,- 288.10. Classes were organized for the deaf, for the blind, and for the mental defectives. There are ninety six kindergarten schools. The pres- ent Board of Education consists of E. M. Williams, president, Reese M. Davis, vice-president, Mrs. Clara T. Brewer, F. William Steffen, Mrs. Virginia D. Green, Oscar J. Horn, and J. H. Harris. G. A. Gessell is clerk and treasurer, and Mrs. Sarah E. Hyre, who formerly held that position is now a deputy. There are in the whole school system 149 schools.
The public library has grown in the same proportion as the schools. The present public library board consists of president, John G. White, vice-president, Arthur A. Stearns, secretary, Carl Lorenz, Clarence J. Neal, W. A. Harshaw, Emil Joseph, E. R. Grasselli, and E. G. Tillotson, and the librarian is Linda A. Eastman. For the main library a beautiful
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new building is now under process of construction, east of the Federal Building on Superior Avenue. Its present location is the Kinney and Levan Building at Euclid and East Fourteenth Street. In the main and branch libraries are 775,262 volumes exclusive of a special collection of 70,000 under the care of the librarians, and the number of books drawn annually attains to a proportion hardly dreamed of by those who have not given the subject much attention. For the fiscal year ending March 31, 1923, 4,797,- 688 books were drawn out and 3,238,442 visitors were counted reading in the main library or its branches. It is, therefore, estimated that the total use of the books including the consulting of reference volumes amounted to 11,000,000 volumes. Of the nearly ninety branches, the Broadway, Lorain, Woodland, Brooklyn, Carnegie West, Glenville, St. Clair, Quincy, and Hough Avenue lead. Very much of this wonderful growth has been due to William H. Brett, who was librarian of the Cleveland Public Library for thirty four years. Born in Braceville, Ohio, in 1846, when only four- teen years of age he was appointed librarian of the Warren, Ohio, high school library. He entered the army under age as a musician and is listed in the official army records as a private in the One Hundredth and Ninety- sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Following the war, with his love for books, and his dynamic energy, we find him in the book store of Cobb and Andrews of Cleveland. Here he became known to the book lovers of Cleveland, and in 1884 he was selected to take up the work at the head of the Cleveland library. From that time on, for thirty-four years, the history of the public library was to quite an extent his history. In 1914 he received this characteristic letter from Andrew Carnegie :
"Dear Mr. Brett :
"First, cordial congratulations upon your noble work. You give me the value of the libraries, but if I were going to assess your value to Cleve- land, I should have to add a cypher or two.
"I am wondering what work you are so deeply interested in. I thot library work was to be your certain passport into heaven, and I hope you have no reason to be disconcerted in regard to your future prospects in the next field.
"Remember what Franklin says : 'The highest worship of God is service to man.'
"Long life to you, who have done so much to make it a heaven.
"Yours ever, "ANDREW CARNEGIE."
"November 19, 1914."
Mr. Brett died while in active service as librarian and his death was greatly deplored. A beautiful bust by Luello Varney Serrao now adorns the rooms of the main library. This was presented by former members of the Cleveland Library Board.
An incident connected with Mr. Brett's work may be of interest. The writer was familiar with the matter at the time and the facts have never been publicly told. Mr. Brett had secured Rabbi Gries to speak at the South Side branch on the value of books and the community were invited and a large audience was present. Among them was a young banker, who was not a book lover but confined his reading largely to the stock reports and financial columns of the daily papers. The next day he ordered two large bookcases for his home. The banker builds his vaults for the recep- tion of currency and valuables before he opens for business and in like manner this one, convinced of the great value of books to the family, had prepared for their coming.
A
WILLIAM H. BRETT
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The new library building referred to in a previous paragraph will cost including equipment $4,000,000. Under the Bender law, passed in 1921, the funds of the library board are not subject to control by the budget commission and the board can depend upon a more certain income.
John G. White, president of the library board, has given to the work much time and has donated to the library many valuable books. He is entitled to unstinted credit. Miss Eastman, who succeeded Mr. Brett as librarian, and who is ably assisted by the vice-librarian, Miss Louise Proutv, began as an assistant in 1896 and is carrying on the work with the same energy and care as her predecessor.
The beginning of Case Library extends way back. In 1811 some seven- teen Clevelanders established a small library for the public use, but in the excitement incident to the War of 1812 it was lost sight of altogether. These men in 1824 organized the Cleveland Forum, which was devoted to debates, and in 1833 it developed into a lyceum and some of the old books were gathered up and a few new ones added and a reading room was main- tained. In 1836 a young men's literary association grew out of this and was maintained for a while. They had lectures at which an admission fee was charged and the profits applied to the purchase of books. In 1851 they were meeting in the Herald Building, in 1856 at 221 Superior, and in 1862 in the Case Building. The first lift came when William Case's heirs gave the organization a perpetual lease of their quarters in the build- ing. Having previously incorporated, in 1870, the charter was changed to provide for five directors and Samuel Williamson, James Barnett, H. M. Chapin, William Bingham, and B. A. Stannard were chosen. The back- ing of these men of prominence gave stability to the enterprise and Leon- ard Case endowed it with a gift of $25,000 and in 1876 gave the associa- tion Case Block, valued at $300,000. It then took the name of Case Library. The growth of the library has been constant since that time. Charles Orr served as librarian for many years. It has never been abso- lutely free to the public; a small annual membership fee is charged. It is now located at 3005 Euclid Avenue with John W. Perrin as librarian and has on its shelves over 100,000 volumes. Mr. Perrin, who succeeded Mr. Orr, has been in charge for nearly twenty years. The dues are $2 per year.
In 1871 The Cleveland Law Library Association was incorporated "not for profit" and, under the law, supported by fines collected in the police court. It is an adjunct of the courts. It is located in the new court- house with a fine equipment and has 45,000 volumes. It is the largest of its kind between New York and Chicago. It is in charge of E. A. Fea- zel, librarian, and Thomas Shaw, assistant, and is open daily. It is now supported by direct draft upon the county treasury and by sale of stock and membership dues. Members are required to own a share of stock and pay $12.50 per year in dues.
As schools and libraries go hand in hand (and we are combining them in this chapter) we will mention here The Cleveland Law School, which is a department of Baldwin University, but located in Cleveland. It has 577 students and as showing the larger participation of women in new fields forty three of them are women. As we have said Judge Willis Vickery of the Court of Appeals is dean. Its location is the Engineers Building. A memorable occasion in the history of the school was that when it was addressed by William H. Taft, then President of the United States, now Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
Prominent in the educational advantages of Cleveland are Western Reserve University and Case School of Applied Science. Near together on University Circle, Euclid Avenue, they are as yet separate institutions,
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