USA > Ohio > Hardin County > A twentieth century history of Hardin County, Ohio : a narrative account of its historical progress its people and principal interests, Vol. I > Part 21
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proprietors. For several years it was printed at the Record office, but later was able to put in a plant of its own. Though bearing the name of a school organ, the university is in nowise connected with the paper, which starting as a monthly, was made a weekly many years ago. It is now owned by Parlette and Snyder.
In 1897 A. N. Rice, who had been connected with the Record a dozen years or more, thought there was a field here for another local paper and started the Ada Independent, but it took less than a year to convince him of his error and another little form was laid in Ada's newspaper graveyard.
Several religious publications also had their birth, and death, in Ada. In 1883 Reverends S. Rice and C. E. Rowley started the Holiness Conservator, the aim and object being indicated by the title of the journal. It was a monthly and printed at the Record office. It survived about a year. In 1886 John M. Atwater, then pastor of the Church of Christ at Ada, began publishing the One Principle, a monthly magazine. Both the foregoing publications were ably edited but neither seemed to fill a "long felt want," and soon the One Principle went the way of the world.
Fraternal societies have always found Ada a fertile field. Two of these own their own halls-the Masons and Odd Fellows. The date of the charters or the instituting the several living societies here are as follows: Ada Lodge No. 344, Free and Accepted Masons, August 24, 1863; Ada Lodge No. 426, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, July 6, 1869; Ada Chapter No. 138, Royal Arch Masons, July 13, 1874 ; Plymouth Lodge No. 172, Daughters of Rebekah, May 22, 1885; Ada Encampment, I. O. O. F., on June 26, 1882; Richie Lodge No. 241, Knights of Pythias, May 20, 1887. This lodge honored Hon. Walter B. Richie of Lima, in selecting its name. Carman Post No. 101, Grand Army of the Republic, was organized July 5, 1883; Ada Camp No. 6902, Modern Woodmen of America, August 21, 1899; Ada Chapter No. 6, Order of the Eastern Star, April 3, 1890; Ada Tent No. 205, Knights of the Maccabees, in 1894. Other orders, such as Knights of Honor, Pathfinders, Union Veterans' Union, Sons of Temperance, Sons of Veterans, Daughters of Veterans, American Protective Association, and perhaps others have been organized here, but for one reason and another have not thrived and are now no more, locally.
The first efforts at lighting the streets of Ada at public expense was by a gasoline vapor system put in use in 1887. In January, 1899, an electric light plant, backed by local capitalists, was put in operation, using twenty-five arc lights for the streets and incandescents for commer- cial and residential use. The number of street lights has been increased to thirty and all-day service is furnished for power and incandescent lighting. In connection with this plant a fine water works system is operated which was installed in 1902. The water supply is obtained
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HHISTORY OF HIARDIN COUNTY
from four six-inch diameter wells drilled into the limestone roek to a depth of 250 feet. Five free public drinking fountains, located at differ- ent points along Main street and one on Buckeye, furnish man and beast a constant supply of pure water. The water company also operates a Yaryan heating system, whereby hot water is forced through pipes under the street, encased in non-conducting conduits, and through the radiators of the customers, making an ideal system of heating without any attention whatever from the patron. The heat is turned on October Ist and the contract calls for cessation of service on April 1st, but if the weather is unfavorable it is continued.
In 1905 a fire alarm system was installed by means of which alarms can be sent in from any of the twelve public boxes, and in addition to this, the users of any of the three hundred telephones in use in the village can send in an alarm from his phone, on the box of which is a label giving the number of the fire district in which that particular phone is located. A call to central, giving this number, is instan- taneously followed by a publie alarm by means of a mechanism connecting the phone station with the fire alarm mechanism bell. This fine system, together with the water works system and a live volunteer fire department. has made the annual fire loss practically nothing, and the pure water has made the death rate phenomenally low.
Ada's commercial interests are fostered by two banks and a Build- ing and Loan Association, which are treated in another chapter.
Other publie improvements are a city hall, ereeted in 1881; a township house, erected in 1889; in Woodlawn cemetery, its nicely kept city of the dead, is a neat public-receiving vault of cut stone, and adjacent to these grounds is a mausoleum erected in 1909 by private capital and containing 240 crypts.
The first schools of the township were subscription schools; that is, they were supported by contributions from their patrons. After its organization in 1837, the township began to build schoolhouses as their need and funds therefor increased. The Ada district is No. 5, the center one of the township and its first sehool building was erected in 1852, a small one-room frame that cost a few hundred dollars. It is yet standing and is used as a dwelling, having been supplanted in 1868 by a four room brick structure erected on a new site two blocks north-the one now in use for school purposes.
The first teacher in this little frame was Miss Anna Stewart, now Mrs. Huffman, of St. Marys. Her term began December 19, 1853, and elosed March 14, 1854; she had twenty-seven pupils enrolled. The brick building furnished adequate housing until 1875, when a two-room wing was added. The town was growing and in a few years more room was needed and the board bought two lots on the west side of Johnson street, at the corner of College street, and in the summer of 1894 a
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HISTORY OF HARDIN COUNTY
four room brick structure was erected thereon, and known as the South Side building.
The village school district was organized as an independent district in May, 1862.
In 1880 the Normal school authorities were needing more room to meet the demands of the throngs of students, and Dr. Lehr proposed to the people of the school district that if they would purchase part of their campus and erect thereon a school building and equip the same, the total outlay to be not less than $30,000, the Normal would receive all pupils above the eighth grade and who could pass a reasonable examination and allow them to attend the Normal until they were of
00 111
HIGH SCHOOL, ADA, OHIO
legal age free of tuition in the literary department, this contract to remain in effect for thirty years, at the end of which time the building and ground should revert to the school district. The people took kindly to the idea, and by a handsome majority authorized the board of education to enter into such a contract and carry it out. The building was erected in the summer of 1880 and, while it added a large debt to the shoulders of the taxpayers, it has been the means of adding a great impetus to the school: it showed the world that the Ada Normal, as everybody ealled it, was growing, and it also started an emigration Adaward that has not yet ceased.
With the incoming of the Belt administration that gentleman conceived the idea of the school owning the buildings and grounds, and proposed to the school board that if it would deed him the same
204
he would make perpetual the terms of the existing contract, and on August 24, 1901, the board submitted the proposal to the vote of its constituents, and by a vote of 540 to 41 it authorized the board to enter into such contract.
While yet bearing the burden of the Normal building debt the people of the district, with the willingness that has ever characterized their attitude when public welfare was at stake, authorized in 1892 the board to expend $30,000 in erecting a fine pressed brick twelve-room school building on the site of the old one. The designs were made by F. L. Packard of Columbus, and the beauty and utility of the building has been the subject of much favorable comment.
The gentlemen who have been superintendents of the public schools since their organization into an independent district are the following : H. S. Lehr, 1866-71; Robert L. Souder, 1871-72; J. W. Zeller, 1872-74; D. S. Pence, 1874-75; Kenton E. Shuster, 1875-76; H. E. Laccy, 1876- 78; W. F. Hufford, 1878-84; Alex Comrie, 1884-89; E. E. White, 1889-92; W. F. Hufford, 1892-94; W. B. Carter, 1894-96; W. C. Ewing, 1896-1903; O. O. Vogenitz, 1893-97; C. H. Freeman, 1907-09; E. H. Brown, 1909-10.
Since the first class was graduated, in 1879, over 600 have received
The enumeration of the children of school age in the school dis- triet the past decade has shown the following figures: 1900, 796; 1901, 828; 1902, 794; 1903, 802; 1904, 865; 1905, 780; 1906, 728; 1907, 682; 1908, 666; 1909, 656. These figures show that the influx of people who came here to give their children a college education have supplanted those with growing families.
The table that follows shows the expense of conducting the public
schools the past fifteen years, including teachers' salaries, incidental
expenses, bonds and interest paid. The figures are for the school year which ends on August 31 of cach year :
1894
1895
1896
1897
1898
1899
1900
1901
1902
1903
1904
1905
1
1
1
I
1
1
1
1
I
1
1
1
1
I
1
1
I
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
L
1
I
1
1
1
1
1
I
I
1
1
I
1
1
1
I
1
I
1
1
1
1
I
1
1
1
1
I
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
I
Ť
1
1
1
1
I
I
I
I
I
1
1
13,684.87 9,804.83 10,038.64 8,990.18 8,491.85 9,544.25
10,785.15 9,745.67 9,782.09 10,002.55 9,137.99
$16,722.57
1
1
1
1
I
HISTORY OF HARDIN COUNTY
its diploma. In 1905 the state school commissioner gave it a certificate of rank of the first class.
Z
DUKES MEMORIAL.
BROWN AUDITORIUM,
A. E. SMITH. PRES
ADMINISTRATION BUILDING
OUNDER,
Copyright of Paragler Studio.
AOR. O.
H. S.LEL
E
H. S. LEHR MEMORIAL OHIO NORTHERN UNIVERSITY ADA. O.
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HISTORY OF HARDIN COUNTY
1906
8,701.85
1907
12,317.10
1908
1
I
1
L
1
11,495.59
1909
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
13,005.11
1
1
I
1
1
1
1
1
I
1
1
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1
1
1
1
Ada has never been noted as a manufacturing center, her early industries being confined to lumber, staves and heading. When the suitable timber was exhausted the enterprises of course ceased. About ten years ago the Buckeye Stave Company installed a large plant here that continued about five years, or until the elm was exhausted within hauling distance. A few years prior to this George H. Kephart had moved his handle factory here from Spencerville, and to this flag and rocket sticks, trunk slats, etc., have been added, and it is now turning out a large amount of finished product which finds a market in the United States and foreign lands. The factory burned three years ago, but was rebuilt more substantially and larger than before.
In the fall of 1909 the Ada Clay Company erected a plant for the manufacture of agricultural tile, that is one of the most modern of these industries, being built to operate throughout the year contin- uously. This year the Ada Knitting Company was organized and bought a plant for the manufacture of knit underwear located at present at Wapakoneta, but which will be moved here as soon as suit- able buildings can be erected.
The American Magnetic Fire Alarm Company is located here, and manufactures an electric system that small towns can afford to install, and the system has some novel features that make it a most desirable and effective system that can be installed and maintained at a small cost.
ADA'S INSTITUTION OF LEARNING. The humble home and the early privations of Henry S. Lehr, the young man who came from Wayne county to find suitable soil for the implanting and growth of his idea, has been told elsewhere. He had been a student at an academy con- ducted at Marlborough by the late Alfred Holbrook, who soon after went to Lebanon and established a great school of which our young German friend was later to be competitor and who lived to see his own thrive and his rival's go down. Dr. Lehr had begun the study of medicine but at his father's earnest solicitation he took up the academy idea but gave it a new name, having in mind a Normal school when he became reconciled to school work for his life work.
In preparing for teaching in Wayne county the first certificate issued to young Lehr was signed by the great John McSweeney, who became one of the famous criminal lawyers of the state. Mr. Lehr first went to Elkhart, Indiana to seek a school. They employed him to teach but when the private school question came up they refused to consider it.
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HISTORY OF HARDIN COUNTY
Among his comrades in the Civil war were some men from Dunkirk and they wrote him to come there. En route there he stopped at Crestline and at Bucyrus, but they were supplied with a teacher. Nevada took no interest in his plans and Forest did not want any such a luxury as a three-dollars-a-day teacher, while Dunkirk said they could get a good man for a dollar a day, and the little man journeyed on.
When en route to Johnstown (now Ada) the train waited at a siding at North Washington, changed a few years ago to Dola, and a man came up carrying a wild eat he had killed on the marsh and said there were hundreds of deer there. On arriving at his destination, he found that the school directors were S. M. Johnson, William League and Daniel Judd. He also found the most unfavorable prospect one could imagine ; the west side of town was covered with a lake of water; Main street, little more than a highway, was a sea of mud and the only north and south street then opened. The grounds now occupied as a campus were part of a farm owned by S. M. Johnson ; two rows of pine trees led to the house which stood in the middle of what is now Gilbert street and which has since been moved back, remodeled and is now known as The Terrace. To reach the Johnson home the prospective pedagogue was obliged to "coon" the fence several times to avoid wading water.
Mr. League was in Chicago on cooperage business and now lives there. Judd was opposed to paying such extravagant prices for teachers but the alert Mr. Johnson approved all the plans suggested by Mr. Lehr. So active a man could not sit in idleness awaiting Mr. League's return ; so he went to Lima, Delphos, and Van Wert but found all had arranged for a teacher.
He then went to Monroeville, Indiana, but $2.50 a day was their limit for a teacher.
The young man returned to Johnstown with a little less hope, and after a consultation he agreed to yield a point and was employed by the board here for $2.75 per day for three months, and if he taught a suc- cessful school the price was then to be increased to his original figure; in addition to the wage he was to have free use of the school building for a select school if he would make some stipulated repairs.
On April 9, 1866, H. S. Lehr begun his life work in Ada when he opened here the spring term of the village school, then but little more than a large rural district, as all the pupils were taught in one room. The schoolhouse, a small frame, stood at the southwest corner of Main and Montfort streets and is now occupied as a dwelling, standing on Montfort street but a few doors from its original site. Dr. Lehr testi- fies that the social element was a prominent feature of local life in those days and the very first evening spent in the village he was invited to one of these primitive social functions which no doubt was one of those play parties largely devoted to kissing games. The village then contained about 250 inhabitants. The school had a bad reputation, as the young master was told no teacher had been able to hold on more than a second
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HISTORY OF HARDIN COUNTY
term. His predecessor was big Jack McCoubrey, father of Cashier M. D. McCoubrey, of the Alger bank.
On the Saturday prior to the beginning of his work here Mr. Lehr passed the county examination at Kenton. Owing to a break-down of the vehicle in which he was journeying to Kenton, he did not reach there nntil several of the branches had been gone over; they tried to rule him out, but with the bull dog tenacity that has characterized his life he per- sisted in being allowed to take it and won his point. At this time he suggested to the teachers present the idea of having a teachers' institute and it met with favorable consideration, and thus began the influence of this big little man in Northwestern Ohio. His first term closed on June 29 and a second one began August 6.
Abraham Ream became enthusiastic over the Normal school idea and wanted to start the project at once, offering three acres of land and $200. With the opening of the fall term, Mr. Lehr was given an assistant, Miss MeManima, who taught the primary pupils. (Dr.) R. L. Souder and his wife, then Jennie Melhorn, were among his pupils this second term. The first term of the select school. the germination of the seed of this young man's overpowering idea, opened November 12, 1866. In the meantime the young man had returned to Wayne county and married Miss Albina Hoover, who has ever proven a worthy helpmate. This select school began with 56 pupils and among the number were R. S. Shanks and C. W. Runser, now esteemed farmers of this vicinity.
Following another year's work in the village school he opened the second term of his select school in August, 1867, with 38 pupils among whom were William Guyton, George F. Henry and Myron J. Ewing. One of Mr. Lehr's early acts was to organize the Ciceronian Literary Society, the forerunner of the three literary societies now in existence in the university. It furnished food for its founder's idea-growth and continued until 1871.
In the summer of 1867 the people of the school district had erected a new four room schoolhouse of brick and for this a new site was purchased, the one now occupied by the beautiful twelve room structure. That spring politics waxed rather warm in the school board election, the issue being Lehr, and the Lehrites won out by the election of David Binns to succeed S. M. Johnson who had sold his farm to John Dobbins. who was a noble successor to Mr. Johnson, the latter moving to Lima. Dr. Lehr ascribes his success at this election to the fact that Dr. Walters came out as an independent candidate, which fact divided the regular party vote.
By 1868 the schools had made such advancement that a geometry class was maintained, Bob, (now Dr. Souder) and Hazen Shinn being the members thereof, and they recited at 5 A. M. Dr. Lehr asserts that in the summer of 1868 he was called to Kenton by a committee of its citizens among whom were General Robinson, Judge Bain, Dr. Rogers
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HISTORY OF HARDIN COUNTY
and others. They wanted him to come there and open his Normal school. Dr. Rogers admitted in later years that he would not take any part in the plan because of the fact that Mr. Lehr's clothes bordered on shabbiness.
In May, 1868, another select term opened and in the following August it was followed by a teachers' training class with 63 enrolled and among whom were such esteemed present citizens of the community as Professor J. G. Park, State School Commissioner Zeller, Alex Carman, Perry Dempster, Stephen Bigger, Isaac Garwood, R. C. Eastman, the Melhorns, Reams, Leagues, Gilberts, Eliza Davenport and his niece, Ida Lehr. The John and Hugh Dobbins families had moved here from Lima and were liberal patrons and warm supporters of the schools. Young Lehr was teaching ten hours a day and following the closing of one term on Friday with the opening of another on Monday.
The spring of 1869 he got $80 per month and the free use of the school building in which to conduct a select school. The following August he had 82 students; the tuition was then $6 per term. The spring term of 1870 opened auspiciously. In June of that year a committee came from Findlay to induce the young educator to become superintendent of their schools at $1,400 per year for two years. Del- phos and Bluffton had now begun to take notice and also wanted him. The Findlay proposition looked good but they would not consider the Normal school idea. Mr. Lehr asked for a week in which to consider the matter and he went there to look over the field.
In the meantime the people of Ada began to bestir themselves and the evening he returned from Findlay a committee, consisting of C. Young, W. L. Reece and the late Abraham Ream, waited upon Mr. Lehr to notify him that his presence was wanted at a public meeting arranged for that evening and when he appeared in the town hall he was asked to make a proposition. He agreed to do so inside of a week and the proposition was made but like all momentous questions it took some time for a consideration of the same.
By autumn the proposition and the counter proposals had been sinmered down and it amounted to about this: the people were to donate a campus of not less than two and a half acres and erect thereon a building to cost not less than $6,500, of which sum the citizens were to raise $3,000. All subscriptions of less than $20 were to be considered donations ; all sums above that were to be repaid to the subscribers after five years at the rate of ten per centum per annum. The subscriptions were to be paid as follows: one-third in April, 1871; one-third in August, 1871 ; and the remainder in the following April. Stockholders were to have a vote in the selection of two trustecs. Farmers as far north as Reed's Corners and south to Huntersville helped along in the good cause.
The fall term of 1870 enrolled 119 students; the idea was growing
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IIISTORY OF HARDIN COUNTY
but it was yet known as a seleet school. Among the students of this term were A. M. Tidd and the late G. W. Rutledge. In the meantime the good work of getting subscriptions was progressing. Professor Lehr is on reeord as saying of the people of Ada that, considering the population, there was not a eommunity in Ohio with so many intelligent, progressive and enthusiastic citizens. Splendid soil for the growth of an idea. Other students who entered the school about this time and have sinee become leading eitizens here and elsewhere were O. P. Wilson and sister Lida who afterward beeame the wife of Professor Park; the Marshal sisters; the Steiner sisters from Kenton; Maggie Irvine, Orenna Holland, the Freeds and Freets from the vicinity of New Stark ; Horace Nelson, the Guytons, Ab. Henry, and others.
It required only about five days' labor to secure subscriptions amounting to $5,500 for the new Ada Normal Academy as the new school was to be ealled, according to the heading of the subseription papers. The matter of a location for the building now became the absorbing theme, this having been wisely kept in the background up to this time. Four sites were tendered. Mr. Lehr favored at heart the high ground at the east end of Long street; another site offered was the elevation at a point west of Montfort street ; another was on East Center street and a fourth was the front of the John Dobbins farm, the latter being the one finally selected.
The little man's hours were now filled to overflowing with labors, his regular work being added to by the details of this new enterprise and he east abont for some one to share his labors and the $3,500 he had assumed toward this new building and succeeded in interesting JJ. G. Park, then a young Ilaneock county man who remained his partner all the years Professor Lehr was connected with the sehool and who is yet one of the corps of instructors, teaching two elasses a day. B. F. Niesz, who had recently. graduated from Mt. Union College, also became financially interested, he having been assisting Professor Lehr in teaching.
The matter of a location was decided in September, 1870, by a voting eontest in which each $20 subscription was entitled to a vote. At the last moment there was a heavy vote cast for the Dobbins site and this eaused great dissatisfaction, the friends of the other locations thinking they had been duped. Some refused to pay their subscriptions and the board of trustees resigned and altogether the days were gloomy for the man with the idea he was anxious to promulgate. However a new board of trustees was chosen in November, consisting of the following: John H. Mustard, Cornelius Pugh and Leonard B. Vickers. These had the duty of letting the eontraet for the new building and eolleeting the subscriptions.
They let the contract for the structure, which should be of brick and cost not less than $8,000, to a Canton man, Abraham Ream being
Vol. I-14
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HISTORY OF HARDIN COUNTY
later connected with the erection of the building, the eastern man having flunked on his contract. This building is now used as a library and for the College of Commerce and is to be replaced in a few years with the Lehr Memorial building.
The selection of a site caused the founder of the sehool many troubled hours as those favoring the other sites did not take their defeat kindly. Messrs. Lehr and Park obligated themselves to open the Normal in August, 1871. Professor Lehr has paid a high tribute of praise to the board of trustees who had the work of ereeting the building, but they came in for much criticism at the hands of the disappointed ones.
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