USA > Ohio > Delaware County > Century history of Delaware County, Ohio and representative citizens 20th > Part 29
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"March 25 .- ' Resolved, That the right of suffrage ought to be extended to females.' Advocates, P. Bunker, T. C. Jones : Respondents. I. Ranney, R. Hills."
"Evidently this was a question of unusual interest. The discussion six weeks before had aparently not settled the matter in debate; but it had at least wrought conviction and con- version in the mind of one of the champions ; and he now appears in arms in the opposite camp. How the great debate at last termi- nated, the muse of history has not recorded. but the renewed struggle on this question in the Ohio Legislature. in this year of grace. 1880, too plainly declares that the vote upon the occasion should have been put on record for the information and guidance of succeed- ing generations.
"July 12 .- 'Resolved, That the legal rights of women should not be impaired by marriage.' Advocates, T. C. Jones, I. Ranney. Respondents, P. Bunker, C. T. Solace."
"With this notice our extracts must close. but we need not doubt that the discussion of such questions by thoughtful and earnest men. and that listening to such discussions by the reflecting part of the community, must have done as much in directing and molding the
thought as the more recent lecture system. "In regard to popular lectures, this com- munity has been specially favored. For sev- eral years, a citizens' lecture association ex- isted, and was the means of introducing many distinguished men and women to Delaware audiences. These lectures have generally paid well, but the large number of excellent ad- dresses and lectures delivered annually at the University, and free to all listeners. has had a tendency, in recent years, to make a Delaware audience content to pay for nothing inferior to the best. So what has been made matter of complaint against Delaware, is, in reality, when rightly understood, complimentary to the in- telligence and taste of her people. This is a lecture-going community, but it goes to hear only first-class lectures.'
The following notes regarding several of the early schools is quoted from an article entitled, "Pioneer Institutions of Learning." which was contributed to the Western Col- legian by Dr. Ralph Hills.
"The Morgan Academy or High School. was number one of the pioneer institutions. Its first name was derived from the name of its principal preceptor. and the second from its location in the upper story of the house it was in. This was our old acquaintance. the Pioneer Tavern, near the Medicine Water. Soon after the War of 1812. this tavern gave up the ghost-as a tavern-and its spacious ballroom was used for a high school. It had in part, also, the character of a boarding- school, for it is remembered that a family lived in the other part of the old tavern, who kept boarders. etc. *
* The Morgan High School was only of a few years' duration. It was conducted on the Solomonian principles, now so thoroughly obsolete that few under- stand them. The record of its alumni is lost.
"The Female Seminary, the next institu- tion, was a pioneer of the "O. W. F. C."- but was located on our campus, in the old Haunted House-the old brick tannery. This was in charge of a lady principal for some two or three years, and we are inclined to the opinion that it was mainly for that reason that
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it was termed the ladies' seminary, for, accord- ing to most reliable traditions, it had about the usual admixture of the sexes. * *
"Quitman's Academic Grove was an insti- tution that received its name from the proprie- tor, president, preceptor, etc., all in the person of John A. Quitman, afterward governor of Mississippi, major-general in the Mexican War, and also from its being in the actual grove, with its fallen log seats, its tree columns, festooned with their wild-grape hangings, and having the clear canopy of heaven above The exact location of Quitman's Academic Grove was on the promontory of high ground running off south of the present library building. Here was a cosy little opening in the dense woods around, with a little of sun and plenty of shade, as season required. It was here that young Quitman took his pupils, the sons of a queer, eccentric old gentleman, when- ever they could stealthily get there. for they were closely housed in town by the old gentle- man, and only got out for exercise, and when the old man went along, he and the tutor headed the column, marched off a mile or so down the dusty road, and then returned to their prison-like house."
The city of Delaware now has five fine public school buildings. The west building. which was completed in 1904, is notable is be- ing one of four such bulidings that have thus far been erected in this country, all the class- rooms being lighted exclusively from the left. This idea originated in Germany. The theory is, that if rays of light enter a room from two or more directions, they collide, and the interruption thus caused in the waves produces vibrations injurious to the nerves of the eye. The building contains twelve rooms and a base- ment which is a full story in height. This building cost, including furnishings, $42,800. A new addition to the High School building is nearly completed, the dimensions of which are ninety-two feet from east to west by sixty- two feet from north to south ; it is two and one- half stories high, and when completed will cost over $20.000. Besides gymnasium and two locker-rooms in the basement. it will have four
classrooms on the first floor and superintend- ent's offices ; on the second floor it will have one classroom, and a combined study-room and auditorium. As an auditorium, this room will have a seating capacity of 700. On this floor there will also be a teachers' rest-room. With the rooms in this new building, there will be a total of fifteen classrooms in the High School. The last census, in April, 1907, showed 2,626 children of school age in Delaware. There are now ( March, 1908) a total of forty-eight teachers on the pay-roll of Delaware, which amounts to $2,691.74 per month.
DISTRICT SCHOOLS AND EARLY TEACHERS.
No authentic record can be found of who taught the first school in the county or where it was located. The fact is, that schools were started in several of the early settlements about the same time, and within a very few years after the first settlers came to the county.
There were settlements at three different points in BERKSHIRE TOWNSHIP; a school was started as soon as practicable in each one, but it is impossible to say which was the oldest. The first school house at Berkshire Corners was built on the east side of the street. about thirty yards south of the Granville Road. The first two teachers, Miss Clara Thompson and Miss Cynthia Sloper, came from Worthington. Four local teachers came next, the first of whom was Solomon Smith. He was followed by Adonijah Rice, who also kept the first tav- ern at the Corners and was the first postmaster. A man named Jones and Sophronia Brown were the next teachers. The first definite date we are able to find is 1810, in which vear Maria Denton taught a school of ten pupils in a log cabin near the farm at one time owned by Hon. Ezekiel Brown. The history of the first school house and teacher at Sunbury is shrouded in the mists of years. A hewed-log school house stood for many years on the southwest corner of the square as one of the oldest landmarks of that section. Among the names of the early teachers we find Julia Strong and Nathan Dustin, to the latter of whom we have already referred in this chapter.
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The establishment of Berkshire Academy at the Corners during the winter of 1840-41, was the first attempt to provide more advanced instruction. The institution was chartered. and the shares sold at ten dollars each. The money secured in this way was expended in the erection of a small frame building. which cost $300.00 or $400.00. The first term was held the following winter, with an attendance of about thirty students under the instruction of G. S. Bailey, a teacher from Oberlin. The Academy was maintained for about fifteen years. but was finally closed for lack of support. Later the building was used for a dwelling. The good influence of the Academy upon its patrons and the township at large cannot be estimated. A large number of the young men and women trained within its walls achieved more than or- dinary distinction : One became a governor, an- other a congressman, and another gained for herself an enviable position as a lecturer in the temperance and anti-slavery movements.
Until this school year ( 1907-08) there were seven district schools in the township: one of these is now suspended. In 1871 the first brick school house was built at a cost of $1,000. This was in District No. I. Two years later another school house somewhat like it was erected in District No. 2, at a cost of $900. Similar schools have been built in the other districts.
SUNBURY and GALENA are special school districts which were organized in 1868. The school building at Sunbury was built in 1878 at a cost of $5.000. and at that time was the finest school building in the county outside of Delaware. Sunbury has one of the three first- grade high schools in Delaware County. Galena has one of the four second-grade high schools in the county. This was established in 1903. The graduating class of 1908 numbers fifteen. the largest in the history of the school. The statistics of these schools will be found in the table accompanying this chapter.
BERLIN TOWNSHIP. The first school in this township was taught by Joseph Eaton. The cabin in which he gathered the youthful as- pirants for knowledge, stood on the west side of Alum Creek, a little less than a mile north
of the old Baptist Church. In 1810 Lucy Caulkins, who later became Mrs. Ripley, and often is referred to by the name of Julia, be- gan to teach the second school. A cabin stand- ing near the old block-house served as her school room. The first structure erected es- pecially for school purposes stood on a ridge of land just south of the block-house. This was one of the rudest of that type which we have described in this chapter, and was used but little. Another school was taught in a cabin near where the bridge on the Delaware and Sunbury pike crosses Alum Creek. Later. the block-house, which is referred to in the chapter devoted to the military history of the county, when it was no longer needed for de- fence, was used both as a school and church. and was far more comfortable than most of the structures used in that day for such purposes. As early as 1811 Prof. Burr held sway in that "temple of learning."
In 1818 there were about 100 pupils in the township, and four school houses: One opposite the Presbyterian Church, south of Cheshire; one in what is known as the Dun- ham settlement and one in the Eaton neigh- borhood, both of these being in the northeast part of the township, and the fourth school house was located in the northwest quarter. One of the early teachers in Berlin Township was an old Revolutionary soldier by the name of Pelatialı Morgan. He taught in the school house south of Cheshire, and had for his in- separable companion a wooden bottle of whis- key. which, tradition says, received fully as much attention as did his pupils. In 1826 this structure was replaced by a brick school house. in which Joseph P. Smith was the first teacher. In 1837 the enumeration showed 340 pupils : in 1858, 530. Our table shows that there are now 212 pupils in the schools. There were seven school houses in 1837: thirteen in 1853. and ten at the present time.
BROWN TOWNSHIP'S first school house was built north of the cemetery at Eden, or Alum Creek settlement. as it was called at that time. David Eaton was the first teacher, and he was succeeded by Anthony Griffith. It was not un- til 1840 that a school house was erected at
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Eden. Brown Township now has seven school houses and 114 pupils, and Eden School Dis- trict has one school house and thirty-three pupils.
CONCORD TOWNSHIP. The first school in this township was taught in the home of James Kooken, the founder of Bellepoint. The name of the pioneer teacher long ago passed from memory. Later Mr. Kooken donated an old granary, which was made to serve the double purpose of school house and church. Some time after this, one of the early citizens, Henry Cryder, built himself a new house, and gave his old home for school purposes. It was here that John Wilson, who was the first teacher of whom we have knowledge, held forth. Money to pay him was raised by subscription at the rate of $2.50 per pupil. He was not much of a teacher, but doubtless was better than none. His habits were not such as would have recommended him at a later time for membership in the Sons of Temperance. He often fell into a drunken sleep in the school room, on which occasions the irreverent boy's would shoot their pop-guns at him. John C. Cannon, who taught a school at Bellepoint in 1835, was a similar character. He died in an unused cabin in the neighborhood, of exposure, resulting from protracted dissipation. That the youth of those days learned anything at all is a wonder, and that they were not corrupted by such evil examples shows the fine moral fiber of which that generation was made. To- day, this township is not one whit behind the foremost communities in educational matters. It maintains a high school of the third grade at Bellepoint, and is one of the two townships in Delaware County that has a township super- intendent of schools.
GENOA TOWNSHIP. The first school house in this township was built in 1841 on the farm of Ralph Smith. Lawson Gooding was the first teacher here. The first school house on "Yankee Street" occupied a site on land owned by Marcus Curtiss, and here Sanford Bennett was the first to wield the rod and teach the three R's. The time and opportunity for the pursuit of even these elementary studies were so limited in those days that going to school
was treated as serious business, and the young men and young women applied themselves with diligence to their mental tasks. It may be interesting to some to compare these sta- tistics for the school year 1878-79 with those shown on our table. Tax Rate, .0039; total expenditures, $1,803 : number of schoolhouses, 9; total value of school property, $4,500; number of teachers, 9; number of pupils, 305.
HARLEM TOWNSHIP. David Gregory, a brainy man from Berkshire, was the first teacher here of whom we have any record. He became a prominent citizen of this county. serving as justice of the peace, county commis- sioner, member of the Legislature in 1848, di- rector of the State Prison at Columbus. He was a man of much more than ordinary ability. The first school house was erected on the site of Harlem chapel. The statistics for 1907 show that Harlem Township is holding its own in the educational advancement of the present day. It has, at Centerville, a third- grade high school, and is one of the two town- ships in this county that provides township supervision of schools.
KINGSTON TOWNSHIP. There is no rec- ord to show just when the first school house was built in this township, but it was probably about the year 1820. This was known as the Curtis school house, from the owner of the farm on which it was built, on Little Walnut Creek, about a mile from the southern bound- ary of the township. School House No. 4 now occupies the same site. Miss Eliza String was the first teacher here. The next school house was built on the cross road, about a mile west of Olive Green. Those who attended this school were especially favored in having for their teacher, James Wheeler, a young man of about twenty-one years of age, who was well educated for those days, and whose mental ability and high moral principles won the esteem of everybody. He afterwards became a Methodist clergyman. The third school house was built in what became known as the Virginia School District. These schools, like all others of that day, were maintained by pri- vate subscription, but in school affairs Kings-
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ton Township kept in step with the march of progress, and in due time inaugurated a pub- lic school system suited to the demands of the times.
LIBERTY TOWNSHIP. It was not long after the first settlement was made in this township that the first school was started. It was taught by Miss Lucy Carpenter ( who afterwards mar- ried James Swiniton), a daughter of the ori- ginal settler, Capt. Nathan Carpenter. She used for her school-room the log cabin her father had erected to provide shelter during their first summer. Among the early teachers in this township was a native of the Emerald Isle. named Haligan. Besides elementary schools that are second to none, Liberty Town- ship now has a high school of the third grade at Powell, and outside the city of Delaware, Ashley is the only place in the county, the value of whose school property exceeds that of Liberty Township.
MARLBOROUGH TOWNSHIP. Robert Lou- ther was the pioneer teacher in this township, and the scene of his labors was a small log school house east of the Olentangy River from Norton. John Milliken, from South Carolina, taught in a log school house a quarter of a mile north of Norton. This is the school house referred to on a preceding page as having a greased sheepskin window. Beyond the most elementary rudiments of learning, it was not thought necessary to go in those early days. and the acquirement of knowledge was neces- sarily subordinated to the acquirement of the means of subsistence. The value of a record of educational matters to coming generations probably never entered the minds of these frontiersmen, and this accounts for the meager- ness of our information regarding these pio- neer days. The present status of the schools in Marlborough Township is indicated in our table.
ORANGE TOWNSHIP. In 1815, eight years after the first settler took up his abode in this township. Jane Mather, the daughter of an early settler and the widow of a soldier of the War of 1812, opened the first school. This was the beginning of District No. r. The cabin of one of the pioneers, John Wimsett,
served as a school house. Later, as the set- tlement grew, a log school house was built on the east side of the State Road, not far from Wimsett's cabin. Most of the school-books used at this time were brought from the East by the mothers who foresaw the need they would supply in the wilderness, and as may be imagined. they constituted a motley collection. In 1827 this old school house was destroyed by fire, and was replaced by a hewed-log struc- ture fitted with windows, and with such other improvements in its furnishing as were pos- sible to provide. In 1822 Chester Campbell taught a school in the northeastern part of the township, and in 1825, a Mr. Curtis taught a singing-school here. Somewhere about 1850. a frame school house was erected in this neigh- borhood. The first brick school house in the township was built in 1868 in District No. 4. at a cost of about $1,ooo. For many years Lewis Center has been a special school district. The 1907 statistics for both township and Lewis Center will be found in the table accompany- ing this chapter.
OXFORD TOWNSHIP and ASHLEY SPECIAL SCHOOL DISTRICT. It was not until 1826 that the first school house was built in this town- ship. Its location has long been a matter of dispute, and at this late date we do not feel like passing a judgment on the insufficient and conflicting evidence at our command. Rev. Levi Phelps, a Baptist preacher, was the first teacher. The structure was of the log-cabin type, common to those days, 18 x 22 feet in di- mensions. About that time, another school house of the same kind was erected a short (listance south of Windsor Corners. After a few years a hewed-log cabin replaced the first structure, and later, when the times required and facilities permitted, it was replaced by a frame building, which was used until the Methodist Church purchased the property. As is shown by our table. there are five district schools in the township. Ashley was incor- porated as a village in 1855, and seven years later, a special school district was formed of the village and a number of adjoining farms. A new school house containing two rooms was built. This met the requirements until 1877,
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when it became necessary to provide increased accommodations, and a fine two-story school house, with four commodious rooms was erected. In 1901 it again became necessary to have more room, and two rooms were added. at a cost of $3,000. The valuation of school property in this district is the largest in the county, outside of the city of Delaware. It has a well selected school library of 500 volumes, and laboratory apparatus worth about $150.
PORTER TOWNSHIP. The "Block School- house," as the first "temple of learning" in this township was called, was built in 1825 where Sugar Creek empties into Big Walnut Creek. William Wolfe, who took his pay, or part of it. in dried apples, was the first teacher. A pretty little romance in connection with him has floated, on the wings of tradition down to the present time, and we give it as illustrating the directness of the people of those days in their personal relations. Delaware, fifteen miles away, was the nearest point at which Mr. Wolfe could dispose of his apples, and as he had no horse, he was compelled to carry the fruit to market on his back. On the first day out, about noon, having reached a little settlement, he stopped at a small cabin and asked for dinner and the privilege of resting. His hostess, a stranger to him, proved to be a charming widow, who refused to accept any remuneration for her hospitality. On his homeward journey, on the following day, Mr. Wolf stopped again at the little cabin, and as he was leaving the place, informed the kind lady that it would be necessary for him to make another trip to Delaware to sell the bal- ance of his apples. He said he would call again, and that unless on that occasion she consented to become his wife, he would con- sider himself of all men most miserable, and that she must have a positive answer for him upon his return. The next time she saw him she told him she couldn't say no. It is said they were soon married and lived happy ever after. There are now nine excellent school houses in this township, and in the matter of providing for the education of their youth, the
citizens of Porter Township are fully abreast of the times.
RADNOR TOWNSHIP and SCHOOL DIS- TRICT. The following record of the early his- tory of the schools in Radnor was con- tributed by Rev. B. W. Chidlaw to the old County History, and we quote it because we believe he was the best authority of his time and had access to information that is not now available. "The pioneers of Radnor were the friends of edu- cation, and when their children became of suitable age, they united together, built a log- cabin school house, and employed a teacher. No record or tradition points out the spot on which the cabin school house was built, nor by whom the first school was taught. Before the day of the school laws in Ohio, the people of Radnor were a law until themselves, and educational interests were cherished accord- ingly. In 1821 there were three log school houses in the township-one on the farm of John Phillips in the southern part, another on the farm of Ralph Dildine, in the center, and another, in the northern part, near where the old block-house stood on the farm of Benja- min Kepler. The school term embraced three or four months during the inclement season. The teachers received from $9 to $12 a month. and boarded around. Their pay was largely in trade, produce, and goods manufactured with the help of the spinning-wheel and the do- mestic loom in the skillful hands of the mothers and daughters that honored and blessed the early homes of Radnor.
One of the early teachers who taught about 1818 was Roger Penry, a native of South Wales. He was a fair scholar, especially in arithmetic and grammar, and in general knowl- edge. He was in advance of the age, therefore his services among the youth of Radnor were not fully appreciated. Small scholars, both as it regards age and proficiency in letters, were not his delight. But his disciples in Pike's Arithmetic and Murray's Grammar were greatly benefited by his instruction. Another contemporary was Christopher Moore, whose specialties in te iching were orthography and
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chirography, and in these branches of learn- ing he was a genuine enthusiast. In Webster's spelling-book he was at home, and in writing copies he was unexcelled. His spelling-schools and matches were always great occasions, and attracted crowded houses. Gathered on a win- ter evening on the puncheon floor of the log school house, Master Moore with a radiant face. comfortably seated on his three-legged stool. and his scholars on split-log benches ; with the blazing light of a capacious and well- filled fire-place, the work of the evening would commence. The master knew the text-book by heart : with closed eyes, smiling face, and quick ear he gave out the words. It required about four hours to spell from "ba-ker" through the hard words in the pictures and the solid columns of proper names at the end of the book. In a word, the earnest, interested teacher had scholars like-minded ; spelling was a great business, and enchained the attention of all concerned.'
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