History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 48

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co.
Number of Pages: 666

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IN EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FIVE

Miss Elizabeth H. Appleton, associated with Professor Horatio Wood, a New Englander and graduate of Har- vard, opened a private school for girls. It was first on Fourth street, between Elm and Plum; then on Elm, be- tween Fourth and Fifth. The school was maintained successfully until 1875, when Mr. Wood returned to New England and became a writer for the magazines; and Miss Appleton, after a European tour, became librarian of the Ohio Historical and Philosophical Society, which post she now holds.

The other principal schools for young women and girls in the city were at this time Professor McLeod's, which had been removed from Tennessee to Cincinnati in 1853, upon the destruction by fire of the buildings it occupied in that State; Harding's female seminary; the Cincinnati female seminary, now in charge of T. A. Bur- rowes, A. M., and in a building of its own; and the Ro- man Catholic nunnery, which had been established for many years, and acquired a very extensive reputation.

For boys there were Herron's seminary; St. John's college, formerly in charge of the Rev. Dr. Colton, but, too ambitious in its aims, it had been reduced to an academy, and was flourishing in charge of Charles Mat- thews, formerly a professor in Woodward college; R. B. · Brooks' academy; J. B. Chickering's select school, now the Chickering institute; Professor Lippitt's institute; and several commercial colleges.

A Pestalozzian school for both sexes had just been started by Dr. Cristin, formerly of the public schools, and a graduate of the Miami Medical College.

The Mount Auburn young ladies' institute was found- ed in 1856, and prospered for nearly twenty years, when it closed for a time, re-opening hopefully in 1878. Its president is the well-known Christian worker, Mr. H. Thane Miller.

Miss Armstrong, from the school formerly kept in the city by Mme. Fribel, also opened upon Mount Auburn a successful family and day school.

Miss Clara E. Nourse's family and day school on West Seventh street was established in 1860, and has been eminently successful.

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Professor Bartholomew's English and classical school, at the corner of Fourth and John streets, dates from about 1875.

KINDERGARTENS.

In Miss Nourse's school building, on Seventh street, is the private kindergarten of Miss Helene Goodman, started in 1875. Other institutions of the kind are Miss Lizzie Beaman's, Miss Katherine Dodd's, and Miss Ida Stevens', which, with the free kindergartens and those attached to the Wesleyan female college and the Cincin- nati orphan asylum, number thirteen in all in the city. The free kindergarten movement, so hopeful in its devel- opment and present situation, deserves a history by itself, and we take pleasure in extracting the following from the last report of the secretary of the association :

The first meeting of the ladies interested in the establishment of a charity Kindergarten was held on the thirteenth of December, 1879, This meeting resulted in the appointment of two committees, one for the nomination of officers and the other to draw up a constitution and decide upon the name of the organization. The second meeting was the following week, December roth; the constitution and by-laws adopted, the name of the society being the Cincinnati Kindergarten association. The officers were then elected as follows: Mrs. Alphonso Taft, president; Mrs. Robert Hosea, treasurer; Mrs. J. D. Brannan, secretary. Committees upon instruction, finance, and publication were also appointed.

On the third of January, 1880, a lecture was given at College Hall before the association by Professor Harris, of St. Louis, upon the Kindergarten as established in that city.

During the months of January and February meetings were held fortnightly, either at the Hughes or the Woodward High school build- ings, all of which were well attended, and there was a constantly in- creasing list of membership and a more active interest manifested in the school soon to be opened. Subscriptions were obtained, and the chair- man of the instruction committee was authorized to correspond with Miss Blow, of St. Louis, in reference to a teacher for the Kindergar- ten. This resulted in the engagement of Miss Shawk, for four months from the first of March, and the decision was made to open the school at that time.

After much search in various parts of the city, it was decided to rent rooms in the Spencer house, Front 'and Broadway, and three new com- mittees were appointed-a house committee to purchase school furni- ture and apparatus, a decorative committee to ornament the rooms, and a visiting committee to recruit the pupils. About this time also a com- mittee was appointed to investigate the subject of kitchen-gardens, as it had been suggested that a class in this work might be connected with the association. On March 2d the school was opened, and an informal meeting was held the same afternoon, when Miss Shawk was introduced to the members of the society. Six pupils were present at the opening of the school, and the number increased to fifty during the first fort- night of its existence. Early in April a reading was given by Mme. Fredin and Mrs. Hollingshead for the benefit of the school, and at this time the treasury contained about eight hundred dollars, thanks to the efforts made by many friends. The May meeting was rendered especially interesting by the presence of Miss Blow, who gave many details of her experience.

On the twenty-eighth of May the children were given a picnic under the supervision of some of the ladies of Clifton, assisted by Mrs. Taft and others. During the month of June Miss Shawk was rc-engaged for the ensuing year, and it was decided to close the school during July and August. In September the rooms were re-opened with a large at- tendance of pupils, and nearly the same assistant teachers.

In November it was found that the treasurer held only three hundred or four hundred dollars, and further sums being necessary for the main- tenance of the school, it was concluded to hold an entertainment in the Music Hall during Thanksgiving week. This was successfully given November 29th, by the children and teachers of the private kindergar- tens, and secured for the school over four hundred dollars.

Another free kindergarten, to accommodate a more remote part of the city, has just (March, 1881) been start- ed in the Exposition buildings, on Elm street.

CINCINNATI COLLEGE.

In the year 1815, as we have seen, the Lancasterian seminary was chartered as a college, with the privileges of a university. By the contributions of a few citizens it soon obtained an endowment which, sacredly preserv- ed and judiciously invested, would have made the young institution in time enormously wealthy. General Lytle gave toward it ten thousand dollars' worth of land and a considerable sum in cash; Judge Burnet pledged five thousand dollars and other property to a large amount, while about fifty others, including citizens of the promi- nence of Ethan Stone, William Corry, Oliver M. Spencer, General Findlay, David E. Wade, John H. Piatt, and Andrew Mack, gave additional sums which carried the endowment up to fifty thousand dollars-certainly a large sum for those days and for a village not yet fairly out of the woods. The organization of a faculty of arts was effected, including a president, vice-president, professors of languages and of natural philosophy, and tutors. A liberal course of study, similar to that of other colleges of the time, was marked out. The college, with its ele- mentary or Lancasterian department, went into very hopeful operation, and maintained itself well for a few years. In the graduating classes were some young men who afterwards became highly distinguished, and it is said that young women also took their diplomas in some of the classes. But the college had by and by its share in the financial troubles that came upon the city, had to sacrifice all its property except the real estate it occupied, and when the building burned many years afterwards (in 1845) nothing was left to the institution but the bare ground. For a number of years the college existed only in name.

In 1836, when the medical and law departments of the college were established, Dr. Drake and other public- spirited citizens who were specially interested in those, also sought a more thorough revival of the college by the re-establishment of its literary branch, or faculty of arts. This was successfully accomplished, with the following- named gentlemen as the corps of instruction :

W. H. McGuffey, president, and professor of moral and intellectual philosophy.

Ormsby M. Mitchel, professor of mathematics and astronomy.

Asa Drury, professor of the ancient languages.

Charles L. Telford, professor of rhetoric and belles- lettres.

Edward D. Mansfield, professor of constitutional law and history.

Lyman Harding, principal of the preparatory depart- ment.

Joseph Herron, principal of the primary department.

It was an exceedingly able faculty for the period, and worked together in harmony and efficiency for a number of years. Mr. Mansfield says of its head :

Mr. McGuffey entered Cincinnati college with the full knowledge that it was an experimental career; but he came with an energy, a determination, and a zcal in the cause of education and the pursuit of high and noble duties which are rarely met with, and are sure to com- mand sucecss in any pursuit. His mind is more purely metaphysical, and therefore analytical and logical, than that of any one I have known

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or whose works I have read. In his discourses and lectures before members of the college he disentangled difficulties, made mysteries plain, and brought the obtuse and profound within the reach of com- mon intellects. Hence his Sunday morning discourses in the col- lege chapel were always numerously attended, and his manner of treat- ing metaphysics was universally popular. I thought then, and think now, that Dr. McGuffey was the only really clear-headed metaphysician of whom it had been my lot to know anything. In addition, he was a practical teacher of great ability. In fine, he was naturally formed for the chair of intellectual philosophy, and in Cincinnati college put forth, with zeal and fervor, those talents which were peculiarly his own.

A large number of students- at one time as many as one hundred and sixty-gathered into the literary depart- ment of the college from year to year. It had no en- dowment, however-not even an available revenue from its valuable property; indeed, it had no revenue what- ever, except from tuition; and that was never enough, in an institution of that class, to support a faculty of even moderate size and pay the incidental expenses of the school, which are apt to be large. Says Mr. Mansfield :

Had the college been only so far endowed as to furnish its material ap- paratus of books and instruments, and also pay its incidental expenses, I have no doubt it would have sustained itself and been, at this moment, the most honorable testimony to the intellectual and literary progress of the city. Such, however, was not its future. After lingering a few years, its light went out; the professors separated; and the college name attached to its walls alone attests that such an institution once existed.

After the decease of the literary department of the college, and the burning of the old building, an arrange- ment was made with the legal representatives of the First Presbyterian church, by which a title in fee-simple to the college lot was obtained, and a large and, for the time, elegant structure was erected thereon. This has since undergone various modifications, through another fire and the demands of business, but is still the property of the college corporation, and is mainly devoted to the purposes of literature and education. The lower store is rented for stores and offices; the second is occupied by the hall or audience-room of the building (formerly used by the Chamber of Commerce), and the literary and reading-room of the Young Men's Mercantile Li- brary association, and the other two stories contain the collections of the Ohio Historical and Philosophical society, the School of Design of the University of Cin- cinnati, and the Law school, and various smaller schools and offices. The Law school is, and has been for many years, all that remains of the college, as an agency for formal instruction. It will receive due attention in a coming chapter on the Bar of Cincinnati. The college corporation is maintained, and receives and disburses the revenues from rents in the building and from any other source.

ST. XAVIER COLLEGE.

A parish school, about 1821, was established in con- nection with the first Roman Catholic church founded in the city. It continued about ten years, and was then merged, by Bishop Fenwick, into the "Athenaeum," a school of a higher grade, which was opened October 17, 1831. The three-story brick building erected for it, with its old-fashioned architecture and its modest cupola, and its Latin inscription, "Atheneum Religioni et Artibus Sacrum," inscribed in large letters upon its front, was

quite inspiring in those days, but is now sadly dwarfed by the splendid and stately Catholic structures which neighbor it on either side. It stands an interesting relic of the middle period ab urbe condita, on the west side of Sycamore street, between Sixth and Seventh. Notwith- standing the interest the institution attracted, however, it did not prove a financial success, and in 1840 Bishop Purcell placed the property in the possession of the Jesuit Fathers, under whom it took another step up the classic heights, and became St. Xavier college. This, in 1842, was regularly chartered by the State legislature, and received the usual powers and privileges of a uni- versity, At that time, and for several years, the college maintained dormitories and a boarding department, receiv- ing likewise day pupils from the city; but the former were closed in 1854. Corporal punishment was retained . here with something like the old-time sternness; and this feature, the college historians hold, "induced many Protestants to prefer it to many of their own seminaries for the education of their sons."

In 1867 a beginning was made of a new college build- ing, and the structure partly erected, now occupied on the southwest corner of Sycamore and Seventh streets, in the close neighborhood of the Athenaeum. It is a superb brick edifice, sixty feet on Sycamore by one hun- dred and sixty-six on Seventh street. The centennial volume on Education in Ohio says: "The entire build- ing, completed according to the design, will be a struc- ture of architectural beauty and of great size, quite eclipsing the glory of the former Athenæum, so honored in its day. The motto over its door, 'Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam,' grandly dedicates the whole." About one hundred and thirty thousand dollars were contributed to the expenses of this building by the savings from the management of the college finances; ten thousand dol- lars were given by one Catholic clergyman, and smaller sums by other priests and laymen; and so the institution was given a notable and worthy home.

The instruction in this school is mainly classical and commercial. In the former course the classes common- ly known in the colleges as freshman, sophomore, junior and senior, are here designated respectively as philosophy, rhetoric, poetry, and humanities classes. The degree of Bachelor of Arts is conferred at gradu- ation, and only after two years more in literary pursuits or one year in the study of philosophy, is a graduate en- titled to the degree of Master of Arts. The commercial course is designed to equip students thoroughly with the technicalities of a business career. The revenue from tuition- sixty dollars per annum for each student-con- stitutes almost the sole income of the college, which is enabled to exist comfortably upon it, since the professors are paid no salaries, although supported in all respects by the institution. About twenty teachers-nine scholastic and eleven lay brethren-constitute the college faculty. The number of pupils, year by year, is not far from two hundred and seventy in all departments; and the total number of graduates to 1876 was two hundred and thirty. The college library has about fifteen thousand volumes, many of them rare and valuable. The

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museum is well equipped for purposes of illustra- tion in natural history, and a good apparatus for teaching chemistry and physics is provided. Special teachers of music and drawing, residing elsewhere in the city, are employed by the college.

The theological department, attached to the college, but having its home in a pleasant situation on Walnut Hills, was in operation for a time, but then discontinued, and a college class was substituted for it.

St. Joseph's college, at No. 269-71 West Eighth street, is a flourishing institution, founded October 2, 1871, chartered May 3, 1873, and maintained by the priests and brothers of the congregation of the Holy Cross. It is a Catholic school, but pupils of all denomi- nations, or of none, are received.

THE CINCINNATI UNIVERSITY.

So long ago as 1806, an educational association was formed in Cincinnati, and the next year was incorporated, for the erection of a university. The procuring of an ad- equate endowment was a harder matter, however. Only small contributions could be obtained, and the legislature was appealed to for authority to hold a lottery for the benefit of the enterprise, after a custom then singularly prevalent. The application was granted, although con- trary to the settled policy of the State then and since. Many tickets for the university lottery were sold ; but it was never drawn. Money enough had been obtained, however, to build a modest school-house; but this was blown down in a tornado on Sunday, the twenty-eighth of May, 1809, and with it vanished in air the hopes and very existence of the first Cincinnati university.

The splendid institution of the same name now in pro- cess of formation is founded upon the beneficence ot Charles McMicken. Mr. McMicken was a native of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, born in 1782; removed to Cincinnati in 1803, with his sole property in the clothes he wore, and the horse, saddle, and bridle used upon his journey; engaged in flatboating; became a merchant at Bayou Sara, Louisiana, but kept a summer home in Cin- cinnati; accumulated a fortune of probably more than a million of dollars; and died in this city, of pneumonia, March 30, 1858, in his seventy-sixth year. He was not a man of liberal education, but prized it in others. A few years before his death he subscribed ten thousand dollars to endow a professorship of agricultural chemistry in Farmers' college, at College hill. The crowning act of his lite was the preparation of a will, two and a half years before his death, under the provisions of which the university has received by far its greatest endowment. The sections of this elaborate document containing the grant and its conditions are as follows :

XXXI. Having long cherished the desire to found an institution where white girls and boys may be taught, not only by a knowledge of their dutics to their Creator and their fellow-men, but also receive the benefit of a sound, thorough, and practical English education, and such as might fit them for their active duties of life, as well as instruction in all the higher branches of knowledge, except Denominational theology, to the extent that the same are now, or may hereafter be taught, in any of the sccular colleges or universities of the highest grade in the conn- try, I feel grateful to God that through his kind Providence I have been sufficiently favorcd to gratify the wish of my heart.

I therefore give, devise, and bequeath to THE CITY OF CINCINNATI,

and to its successors, for the purpose of building, establishing, and maintaining, as soon as practicable after my decease, two Colleges for the education of white Boys and Girls, all the following real and per- sonal estate, IN TRUST FOREVER, to wit:

I. All that piece of land called the "Davenport Tract," and situated in the Parish of East Baton Rouge, on the River Mississippi, about fourteen miles below the town of Baton Rouge, in the State of Louis- ana, being about fifteen arpens in front and eighty in depth, and con- taining about twelve hundred acres.

2. All my property in the City of New Orleans, and Town and Parish of Jefferson, in the State of Louisiana, which, as well as that called the Davenport Tract, above devised, shall be sold by the said City as soon as it may be deemed prudent, and upon the most advan- tageous terms, at public or private sale; and the same, if sold at pub- lic sale, shall be sold in the months of January or February, for which purpose the said city is empowered to make the necessary conveyances. The said lands shall be sold upon the usual credits of one to three or four years, with a payment in cash, on account of the purchase- money, of ten to twenty per cent .; the balance of the purchase-money shall bear interest from the day of sale at the highest rate of conven- tional interest, which interest shall be secured in the Notes given, as a part of the principal sum, and the Notes after becoming due shall con- tinue to bear the same rate of interest. The whole balance of the pur- chase-money shall be secured by a mortgage on the premises.

3. All the Tract of Land in Delhi Township, in the County of Hamilton and State of Ohio, containing one hundred and twenty-four acres and three-tenths of an acre. And I hereby authorize the said City to lease or sell the same, and also to sell any other property here- after acquired by me, in the County of Hamilton and State of Ohio, or elsewhere, except-as hereinafter particularly stated-Real Estate in the said City of Cincinnati.

4. All my real estate in the City of Cincinnati, subject, first, to the payment of the legacies and annuities with which it is charged, which, as I have directed, shall be paid out of the rents and profits derived from the said estate.

5. All my real estate and personal property which I may acquire af- ter the date of this my will,

6. All my Railroad Bonds and Railroad, Insurance, and other Stocks. All Notes, secured by mortgage on property I may hereafter sell. All moneys on deposit in any Bank, and dividends due at the time of my decease. And all rents due at my decease from my Estate devised to the said City.

7. All taxes, claims, etc., to which my Estate devised to the said City may be subject at the time of my decease, shall be paid out of the rents of the said Estate.

8. All surplus of funds at any time hereafter accruing beyond the amount necessary to maintain the said Colleges, and all rents, divi- dends, and interest accruing between the period of my decease and that at which the said Institution shall go into operation, or any sur- plus which may at any time hereafter accrue beyond the expenses and requirements of the Institutions, shall be judiciously invested, for the benefit of the said Institutions, in real estate or mortgage securities in the said City, or in good Railroad or Bank Stocks, or Railroad Bonds.

9. All the residue of my real or personal estate, not hereinbefore de- vised or given, as well as any legacy, etc., which from the death of any legatee, etc., or failure of any condition on which the same is given, may hereafter lapse.

XXXII. I. None of the said Real Estate, in the said city of Cin- cinnati, above devised to the said corporation, whether improved or un- improved, or which I may hereafter acquire in the said city, or which the said city may purchase for the benefit of the said colleges, shall at any time be sold; but any building or buildings thereon shall be kept in repair from the revenues of my estate. And I hereby authorize the corporate authorities of the said city, should they find it necessary or expedient, from dilapidation, fire or other cause, or for the purpose of securing the largest income, to take down any house or houses, and to rebuild the same out of the income of my estate. And I further cm- power the said authorities to build upon any vacant lot, lots, or grounds I may possess, or which they may under the authority of my Will here- after purchase; and as there will be a considerable space upon the cast- ern boundary of the grounds devoted to the College for the Boys, it would be a suitable and convenient place for erecting Boarding-houses for the accommodation of students, from which a rental might be de- rived.

2. The College Building shall be erected out of the rents and in- come of my real and personal estate, and on the premises on which I now reside, in the city of Cincinnati -- by me purchased from the ad-

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ministrator of Luman Watson, deceased-and which shall be plain, but neat and substantial in their character, and so constructed that, in conformity with their architectural design, they, from time to time, may be enlarged, as the rents of the estates devised will allow, and the ends of the Institution may require.

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History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 48

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co. Number of Pages: 666

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co.
Number of Pages: 666