Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 1, Part 84

Author: Greve, Charles Theodore, b. 1863. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1020

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Another incident of early Methodist days is told concerning the Conference in 1813. The crowds were so large that no church was able to hold them and the meeting was adjourned to Lower Market street between Sycamore and Broadway. Here at eleven o'clock the services began, being participated in by Rev. Learner Blackman and several other ministers. Among the latter was the John Collins of the carlier days, "who, from the same butcher's block whereon the preachers had stood, commenced, with a soft and silvery voice, to sell the sham- bles, as only John Collins could, in the market. These he made ciblematic of a full salvation, without money and without price. It was not long till the vast assembly were in tears at the melting, moving strains of the eloquent preacher."

The first named minister, Rev. Learner Black- man, was one of the most brilliant of the carlier Methodist preachers. He was a brother-in-law of Collins and in the fall of 1815 was crossing the river with his newly married young wife

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to Covington on the way to his new station in Kentucky. The ferry boat was a crazy craft with sails and paddles. The hoisting of the sails frightened Mr. Blackman's horses and they plunged overboard dragging him with them. Although a good swimmer, he was" entangled in the harness and was struck by the heels of the animals and sank at once.

Other churches established during this period were those of the New Jerusalem Society found- ed in 1811 by Rev. Adam Hurdus, and the Friends whose meeting house was west of West- ern row between Fourth and Fifth streets on a site part of which is still owned by that organi- zation. The first meeting house was built by Peyton Short of Kentucky in the year 1800 (this date is disputed). The people are said to have wondered "why he built those two nice hewn log houses away out in the woods there." After a time one John Arnot rented the one toward the west and "cut wood on the lot and with a cart and two oxen hauled the wood away down town." This house was bought by the Friends in 1813. A frame structure was put on the east and with a few changes the building served its purpose until 1859 when it was replaced by the brick building so familiar to our contemporaries. Before this time the Friends had held their gath- erings in private houses, particularly that of the late Oliver M. Spencer, and a public meeting had been held in the Court House on Main street south of Fifth street in the year 1812, which was attended by the celebrated English Quaker, Elizabeth Robson.

The first Baptist Church was a log house on Front, street, where, in 1813, II members wor- shiped for a time. By 1815 it had increased to a membership of 30 and the congregation augmented in a corresponding degree. The first baptism by immersion was performed in the sum- mer of 1814. The church soon moved to its brick building at Sixth street and Lodge alley, where it had been presented with a lot by Gen. John S. Gano. The church divided in 1816 and the minority party for a time existed as the Enon Baptist Church.

The German Christian Church was started in 1814 by Rev. Joseph Zesline who died in 1818. Father Burke's church known as the Wes- leyan Methodist Church was incorporated in 1817. It worshiped for a long time on Vine be- tween Fourth and Fifth streets.

The first Protestant Episcopal Church known as Christ Church was formed at Dr. Drake's house on East Third street on May 18, 1817.

Among the original members were General Har- rison, Griffin Yeatman, Jacob Baymiller and Ar- thur St. Clair, Jr. The congregation met about from place to place at first, at times in a large cotton factory in Lodge alley between Fifth and Sixth streets, then in the old Presbyterian Church and finally in the Baptist building on West Sixth street . which was bought by this church. Rev. Samuel Johnson was the rector at this time. In 1818 the society purchased a burial lot for $3,000, which was afterwards sold to the city in 1860 for $35,000 and now formis a part of Washington Park.

The Catholic Church continued to increase in numbers, but seems to have had no fixed place of abode. A frame church had been built for it in the so-called "Northern Liberties" but as yet no priest had been assigned to it.

Several of the churches had cemeteries at- tached to them. The only. public cemetery was that of the First Presbyterian Church, which by 1810 had become so nearly filled as to make neces- sary the purchase of one of the out-lots on the site of Washington Park. The Methodist Church had a small cemetery attached to it but the Bap- tist Church by reason of the smallness of its lot was without any special burying place. The same is true of the Society of Friends.

THE EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS.

An act passed February 3, 1807 (5 (). L., '120), appointed John Riddle, Joseph Van Horn, William Stratton, Ethan Stone, Stephen Wood, Samuel Hildritch, Luke Foster, Matthew Nim- mo and Daniel Symmes, commissioners to raise by way of a lottery a sum not to exceed $6,000 for the benefit of the Cincinnati University. At least $1,500 of this sum was to be expended for books and astronomical apparatus. The com- inissioners were to be sworn before the clerk of the court and to publish their scheme of the lottery in three or more newspapers and enter into a bond for the sum of $50,000 cach. The result of the drawing was to be published in the newspapers of Cincinnati and Chillicothe and filed with the clerk of the Court of Common Pleas of Hamilton County. The commissioners were not permitted to retain more than 15 per cent of the whole prizes obtained in said lottery.

By a subsequent act passed February 17, 1807 (7 ()> L. 195), the commissioners were given greater powers with regard to the details of the scheme and William Ruffin, William Ramsey. Martin Baum and Jacob Burnet were appointed commissioners in place of Ethan Stone, Samuel

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Hildritch, Matthew Nimmo and Daniel Symmes who had refused to act.

In the year 1806 an association under the name of the Cincinnati University had been formed which was incorporated in the following year by special act of the Legislature. Un- fortunately it was without endowment and per- mission was obtained from the Legislature to obtain money by this lottery. A large number of tickets were sold, but the lottery for some reason never took place nor was the money re- funded. The school house which had been erected was blown down on Sunday, May 28, 1809, and the Cincinnati University slumbered for some time longer. (Drake's Picture of Cin- cinnati, p. 157.)

A more successful attempt to establish an in- stitution for the instruction of the youth of the city was made a little later. In 1814 Dr. Daniel Drake and Rev. Joshua L. Wilson became in- terested in the system of education which passed under the name of Joseph Lancaster, an Eng- lishman, although really the suggestion of An- drew Bell, a Scotchman. The fundamental prin- ciple of this system was the use of the elder pupils as monitors and to some extent teachers, in whose charge were placed the younger schol- ars. It had been for a time very successful in England and seemed particularly adapted to a new community where there was a great scarcity of properly qualified teachers.

In 1814 one Edmond Harrison from Tennessee who had received instruction in the system from a pupil of Lancaster came to Cincinnati for the purpose of undertaking a school on this plan. He first made a proposition to the Metho- dist Church of which he was a member to es- tablish a denominational school on the Lancas- terian plan. The proposition was at once ac- cepted and Rev. Oliver M. Spencer drew up the articles for the government of the association but made no provision for the so-called higher instruction. To this omission and also to a re- quirement that a majority of the trustees should be members of the Methodist Church, exception was taken by a number of citizens and a rival institution was organized to which was given the name of the Cincinnati Lancaster Seminary.

The two institutions were very soon united into one and on February 4. 1815, an act was passed incorporating Oliver M. Spencer, William Lytle, Martin Baum, John Kidd, and others under the name of the Lancaster Seminary. By this act power to acquire property to the extent of $10,000 was given as well as authority to cin-

ploy teachers. No political, religious, moral or literary association was to have an ascendency in the directory nor were the tenets of any particu- lar sect to be taught. The first trustees named were Jacob Burnet, Nicholas Longworth, Davis Embree, William Corry, Charles Marsh and Daniel Drake.

The Presbyterian Church executed a 99-year lease of the school lots at Fourth and Walnnt as a site for the building, reserving the privi- lege of selecting 28 poor children each year who should be instructed without compensation. The seminary was fo consist of a junior and a senior department, each in turn to have separate pro- vision for the education of males and females. The junior department was to be organized on the Lancasterian plan and its surplus revenues were to be applied to the purchase of books and philosophical apparatus for the senior department. The price of schooling in this department and junior department was $8 a year and the chil- dren of a shareholder who died without leaving provision for their education were entitled to the regular course of instruction in the lower department. Jacob Burnet became the president from the outset.

The erection of a building upon a plan pre- pared by Isaac Stagge had been begun in 1814 and by April 17, 1815, one of the lower rooms was completed and a school composed of children of both sexes was opened. Within a fortnight 420 were admitted which was the limit of the capacity of the institution and subsequent appli- cations had to be rejected. "By the indefatig- able exertions of the teacher, order and method were at. length introduced, and the proficiency of the scholars has equalled all reasonable ex- pectation. A second school on the same plan for females only has just been commenced and prom- ises to be well filled. The Board of Directors by a late resolution have decreed the establish- ment of a school for children of color, in a sep- arate house; but no teacher has yet been pro- cured." ( Picture of Cincinnati, p. 157.)

Liberty Hall on Tuesday, March 7, 1815, con- tains the following notice: "Opening of the Lancaster Seminary. The directors of this in- stitution are happy to inform the inhabitants of Cincinnati and its vicinity that they will com- mence a school on Monday the 27th instant. The terms of tuition are, to frecholders resident in the town who are not shareholders in the Seminary and to those shareholders who are in arrears $2.50 per quarter for each scholar-to all others $2.00. Those persons who wish to

CINCINNATI IN 1810. ( From Cutler's "Topographical Description," 1812.)

CINCINNATI IN 1840. ( From Shaffer's Directory of 1810.)

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489

enter as scholars will please to apply at an early period to Jacob Burnet, Charles Marsh, William Corry, Nicholas Longworth, Davis Embree, and Daniel Drake and procure a certificate of ad- mission which must be immediately presented to the teacher, Mr. Edmond Harrison, who may be found in the Seminary or at his dwelling near the Methodist meeting house. By order of the Board of Directors, D. Drake secretary.

A few weeks later it became necessary to an- nounce that the opening of the school had been postponed by reason of the illness of the teacher. Coupled with this announcement is also the an- nouncement of the annual meeting for the elec- tion of directors. This called forth a number of communications to the newspaper complain- ing of the delay in starting the school and other grievances.

There had been subscribed for the benefit of the seminary about $12,000 in shares of $25 each and provision was made by which the banks loaned sufficient money to erect the building. The building itself was described in the Direc- tory of 1819 (p. 34) as "a capacious brick build- ing, two stories in height, consisting of two parallel wings 90 feet in length and connecting by an intermediate apartment 18 by : 30 fect, in which is a staircase leading into the rooms of the second story of each wing. This connect- ing apartment supports a handsome dome de- signed for an observatory and a bell and is placed between the wings 12 feet back of the front in order to admit of a gallery and rows of Tuscan pillars which the proprietors intend to erect. The wings are divided into convenient apart- ments for the different branches of science." (Sce also Drake's Picture of Cincinnati, pp. 136 and 155.)

As finally completed, the lower rooms had accommodations for about 900 children and the whole .for 1,400. In the upper story was a large room which was used for apparatus and the general purposes of a philosophical hall. The building was considered the finest public edifice west of the Alleghanies.

An Englishman, Henry Bradshaw Fearon, who visited the city in 1817 described the condition of education in the village at that time as fol- lows :

"The school house, when the whole plan is completed, will be a fine and extensive structure. In the first apartment, on the ground floor, the Lancasterian plan is already in successful opera- tion. I counted one hundred and fifty scholars, among whom were children of the most respect-

able persons in the town, or, to use an American phrase, 'of the first standing.' This school house is, like most establishments in this country, a joint-stock concern. The terms for education, in the Lancasterian department, are to share- holders eleven shillings and threepence per quar- ter, others thirteen shillings and sixpence. There are in the same building three other departments (not Lancasterian) ; two for instruction in his- tory, geography, and the classics, and the supe- rior department for teaching languages. Males and females are taught in the same room, but sit on opposite sides. The terms for the histori- cal, etc., department are, to shareholders, twenty- two shillings and sixpence per quarter; others twenty-seven shillings. There were present twenty-one males and nineteen females. In the department of languages the charge is, to share- holders, thirty-six shillings per quarter; others, forty-five shillings. Teachers are paid a yearly salary by the company. These men are, I be- lieve, New Englanders, as are the schoolmas- ters in the Western country generally.

"I also visited a poor, half-starved, civil schoolmaster. He has two miserable rooms, for which he pays twenty-two shillings and sixpence per month; the number of scholars, both male and female, is twenty-eight; terms for all branches thirteen shillings and sixpence per quarter. He complains of great difficulty in getting paid, and also of the untamcable in- subordination of his scholars. The superintend- ent of the Lancasterian school informs me that they could not attempt to put in practice the greater part of the punishments as directed by the founder of that system."

One of the incorporators, Capt. John Kidd, (lied February 16, 1810. By his will executed the year before he directed his executors, Joshua I. Wilson and Oliver M. Spencer, to apply and expend for the education of poor children and youth in the town of Cincinnati the rents and proceeds from a perpetual lease of the lot at the corner of Front and Main streets to John Smith and David Loring. This was the first. of the gifts of citizens to the cause of education. This fund amounting to $1,000 a year was paid for six years to the Cincinnati College that suc- ceeded the Lancaster Seminary and tipon its proceeds during this time from 75 to 100 were educated upon the Lancasterian plan. After- wards when the tutition was reduced, some 325 children received its benefit. In 1825 an adverse claim was made against the property and finally the city lost the bequest.

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An interesting adjunct to the cause of educa- tion was the School of Literature and the Arts, an association for literary and scientific improve- ment composed chiefly of young men organized in 1813 with Joshua Meigs as its first president. The exercises of the meeting included an address from the president, an essay from one of the members and a poetical recitation from another. The first anniversary was held on November 23, 1814, at which an oration was delivered by appointment from which says Dr. Drake it ap- peared that many interesting lectures and essays had been delivered and that infant institution was probably the germ of a permanent and re- spectable society. This organization is not men- tioned in the first directory. Speaking of it, Judge Charles D. Drake, in the admirable biog- raphy of his father prefixed to the latter's letters to his children, says :

"That there should have been a School of Literature and the Arts organized in Cincinnati in 1813, when its population could not probably have exceeded four thousand, and it was still in the Far West, will be regarded as a fact of interest by those who have known that place only as a central object in a region inhabited by millions, among whom knowledge and intelli- gence are well nigh universally diffused.

"It is curious to know what, in that carly period, the School of Literature and the Arts did. It appears from this address that during the first year of its existence it had assembled more than twenty times for literary exercises. He (Dr. Drake) says :

" 'The essays of the members equalled all rea- sonable expectation. Some of them consisted chiefly of original matter, while others manifest- ed a degree of research which is honorable to their authors and auspicious. to the school. It would be amusing to review their contents; but, being restricted to limits too narrow for the undertaking, I will substitute a catalogue of their titles, that by a single glance we can see the number and diversity of the subjects to which our attention has been directed. I shall enumer- ate them in the order of their delivery :

"'1, An Essay on Education ; 2, On the Earth- quakes of 1811, 1812, 1813; 3, On Light; 4, On Carbon ; 5, On Air ; 6, On the Mind; 7, On Agriculture ; 8, On Caloric ; 9, On Gravitation ; 10, On Instinct ; 11, Notices of the Aurora Bore- alis of the 17th of April and with of September, 1814; 12, An Essay on Water, considered chem- ically and hydrostatically; 13, On Common Sense ; 14, On Heat; 15, On the Mechanical

Powers; 16, On the Theory of Earthquakes; 17, On Enthusiasm; 18, On the Geology of Cincin- nati and its vicinity, illustrated with mineral specimens and a vertical map; 19, On the In- ternal Commerce of the United States; 20, ()11 Hydrogen ; 21, On Rural Economy ; 22, On the Geology of some parts of New York; 23, On General Commerce.

"'The third and subordinate portion of our exercises, poetical recitations, has been strictly performed, and our album of poetry already ex- hibits specimens indicative of a cultivated taste. The proposition to connect with the pieces re- cited such critical remarks as they may suggest, lias received some attention, and promises to give to this branch an interest and dignity which were not originally anticipated.'" ( Pioneer Life in Kentucky, p. XVIII. )

Mr. Mansfield, who lived at the place of Col. Isaac Bates, attended a school in 1811 at a log school house which was located nearly opposite the present House of Refuge. At the close of the quarter in July there was a spelling battle and lie came off at the head of the school. The pupils were then formed in a column and marched to a tavern near the present House of Refuge where the schoolmaster treated them to cherry bounce which was very strong and made Mansfield's head reel.

Mrs. Williams' school for young ladies at the house of Mr. Newman, saddler, was opened in the spring of 1802.

Another academy was that of Edward B. Han- negan opened on October to, 1805. Hannegan's school is said to have been kept in Fort Waslı- ington. Maj. Daniel Gano was one of the pu- pils.

Another teacher of the early days was Oliver C. B. Stewart, who kept a Latin and English school in the first years of the century.

A boarding school some distance west of the city on the present site of Sedamsville was kept in a single room log cabin about 15 feet square by a couple named Carpenter in the year 1805. Major Gano also attended this school.

A number of other schools are referred to in advertisements in the papers of the day, but they were in the, main quite short lived.

In the Western Spy and Hamilton Gasette of October 23, 1805, appears an advertisement of books, largely school books, offered for sale by Thomas Dugan, nearly opposite the Court House. Among those mentioned are "Marshall on Sans- tification, Guthrie's Arithmetic, Pike's do. Sheridan's Dictionary, Entick's do. Gibson's

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Surveying, Clerk's Magazine, Scott's Lessons, Lyle's Grammar, Kentucky & Other Hymn Books, David's Psalms, American Preceptor, Bibles, Testaments, Music Books, Blank do. and a variety of chap books, &c. &c."

S. S. L'Hommedieu tells us that in the years 1810, 1811 and 1812 there were but thrce or four small schools. One of these was kept in the second story of a frame building on the south- west corner of Sixth and Main by Thomas H. Wright. The stairs to the school room were on the outside of the house on Sixth street. John Hilton had a school over a cabinet-maker's shop on the cast side of Main between Fifth and Sixth and David Cathcart held forth on the west side of Walnut near Fourth. Each school had about 40 scholars. "There was a custom in those early days, when the boys want- ed a holiday, to join in 'barring out' the school- master. Providing themselves with some pro- visions, they would take the opportunity, when the schoolmaster was out at noon, to fasten the windows, and bolt and doubly securc the door, so as to prevent Mr. Schoolmaster from obtain- ing entrancc.

"In the years 1811 and 1812, my father lived ncarly opposite the school of Mr. Wright, and I remember, on one occasion, to have scen him on his stairs, fretting, scolding, threatening the boys, and demanding entrance; but to no pur- posc, except on their terms ; namclv a day's holi- day and a treat to apples, cider and gingercakes. There are, probably, those present who attended this school.

"There was still another custom among West- ern schoolboys in the early days of Cincinnati. At that time every one who came from east of the mountains was called a Yankee, whether from Maryland or New England. The first ap- pearance of the Yankee boy at school, and during intermission, was the time for the Yankee to be whipped out of him. When I first witnessed the operation, I was too small to be whipped ; but my elder brothers caught it. Not long after- ward, I helped to whip the Yankee out of the Hon. Caleb B. Smith and his brothers, who came from Boston." (Cincinnati Pioncer, No. III, p. 30.)

T11E MEDICAL PROFESSION.

The medical fraternity is treated in a separate chapter of this work but no account of the life of Cincinnati during its existence as a town would be complete without special reference to Dr. Danicl Drake whose name has appeared many times in these pages. The bare outline

in the facts of his life gives no adequate im- pression of the influence he exerted.

Arriving at Cincinnati December 18, 1800, a boy of 15 years of age, he very shortly ob- tained prominence in the young community and for a half century until the time of his death, November 5, 1852, he was one of the few men who could dispute the claim to the title of the most prominent man of the placc. He was born at Plainfield, New Jersey, October 20, 1785 and came with his parents to Kentucky when he was but two and one-half years of age so that his life in the West began with that of the West itself.

In his letters to his children published nine ycars after his death is given the best account . we have of the pioneer life of Kentucky and the West during those days. His father was a poor man and in fact affluence never fell to the lot of Drake for any considerable period of his lifc. The family's first residence was a sheep pen and from Drake's earliest boyhood he was obliged to perform the severest labor of the farm as his father was not able to hire any assistance. The so-called strenuous life of modern days fades into insignificance and the term becomes onc of ridicule as compared with the labor that fell to the lot of the carly pioneer.

Drake tells of his mother, tired out with the diet of bread and meat, making a call in a neigh- boring cabin where a woman was churning. She had fixed her heart on a drink of buttermilk and as the butter was ladled out and the churn set aside with the delicious beverage for which she was too proud to ask and which the other per- haps did not think of giving, she hastily left the house and took a good crying spell. ( Pioneer Life in Kentucky, page 11.)

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Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 1, Part 84

Author: Greve, Charles Theodore, b. 1863. cn Publication date: 1904 Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1020

Author: Greve, Charles Theodore, b. 1863. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1020