History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 54

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

USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 54

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

NATHAN GUILFORD.

In the winter of 1821-2, the Ohio house of represent- atives of the general assembly appointed a committee on schools and school lands. In their report the appoint- ment of seven commissioners was recommended, who should devise and report upon a common school system. The report having been accepted, Governor Trimble ap- pointed seven men, one of whom was Nathan Guilford. Mr. Guilford declined to co-operate with the other com- missioners, however, claiming that their proposed plans were inadequate for the needs of the State. He pub- lished a letter on free education, in which he urged a general county ad valorem tax, but the assembly was not wise enough to risk advanced school legislation. An ap- peal to the people resulted in the election of wiser men, among whom was Nathan Guilford as senator from Cin- cinnati. Having been made chairman of a joint com- mittee on school legislation, he made an able report, ac- companied by a bill which required a tax of one-half mill on the dollar for school purposes; which bill passed both houses without amendment.

In 1850 Mr. Guilford was elected superintendent of the Cincinnati public schools.

CALVIN E. STOWE.

Professor Stowe was born at Natick, Massachusetts, in 1802. Like many New England boys, his early life had a record of many and continued struggles to satisfy an overpowering thirst for knowledge. He finally graduated at Bowdoin college, Maine, in 1824. Succeeding this, he finished a theological course at Andover, and after- ward filled the chair of professor of languages at Dart- mouth. In 1833 he became professor of Biblical litera- ture in Lane theological seminary ; and here his connection with Cincinnati begins. In common with Samuel Lewis, Dr. McGuffey, and other public-spirited citizens, he set him- self to work to advance the cause of the common schools. In 1836, while on a visit to Europe on business connected with the seminary, he received an official appointment by the legislature to examine into the system and manage- ment of European schools, particularly those of Prussia. On his return he submitted his noted report on element- ary education in Europe. A copy was sent to every school district in the State, and it was republished and circulated by the legislatures of other States. In this re- port he urged freedom from routine and from slavish sub- servience to text books. At the State educational con- vention of 1838 he delivered an able address upon the training or normal schools. He was a valued member of the Western college of teachers. In 1850 he returned to Andover, Massachusets, where the greater part of his life has since been passed.

DR. WILLIAM H. M'GUFFEY.

Dr. McGuffey, the well known author of the Eclectic series of readers, was born in 1800, in Trumbull county, Ohlo. By most severe and unrelenting toil he succeeded in graduating from Washington college, Pennsylvania, in 1825. Soon after he became professor of ancient lan- guages in Miami university, and remained until 1836, when he was called to the presidency of Cincinnati col- lege. Three years after this time he accepted a similar position in the Ohio university. In 1845 he removed to the university of Virginia, where he remained till his death, which occurred in 1873. During his life he was always active in the cause of popular education, render- ing efficient aid in teachers' conventions, both by his presence and pen.

DR. JOSEPH RAY .- The name of Dr. Ray is held in grateful remembrance by many for his mathematical works, which made simple and attractive what had been only a terror to the young beginner. He was born in Ohio county, Virginia, in November, 1807. From early youth he showed a great fondness for study. Supporting himself by teaching at intervals, he passed some months at Washington college, Pennsylvania, but left without taking a degree. Devoting his attention finally to medi- cine, he became a graduate of the Ohio Medical College at Cincinnati; but in October of the same year began teaching and continued through life. He was first pro- fessor and then president of the Woodward college, af- terward Woodward high school, which position he held till the time of his death in April, 1856. He was promi- nently identified with the leading teachers of the State, and became president of the State Association in 1852.

RUFUS KING was born in 1817. His father, Edward King, coming to Ohio at an early day, became a leading lawyer at Chillicothe, and then at Cincinnati. His grand- father's name, also Rufus King, is found among those of eminent statesmen and earnest patriots of the revolution- ary times. The subject of our sketch graduated at Har- vard university, and has for many years been a leading lawyer in Cincinnati. For fifteen years Mr. King was a member of the board of education of this city, and for twelve was its president. He gave material aid in the re- organization of the public schools, and also in the forma- tion of a great central school library. He was for some time president of the board of trustees of the Cincinnati university, which has under its care the McMicken fund, the school of art and design, and the Cincinnati observa- tory.

ALBERT PICKET began in New York City, early in 1811, a periodical called the Juvenile Monitor, or Educational Magazine. It is thought to have been the first periodical of the kind published in the United States.

Through the exertions of Mr. Picket and Alexander Kinmont, there was organized in Cincinnati, in the year 1829, the western academic institute and board of edu- cation, before spoken of, from which originated the famous western literary institute and college of professional teachers. Before the latter, in 1834, he delivered the opening address. He afterwards delivered addresses on such subjects as Education, Parents, Teachers, and

Omarpri

20I

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

Schools, Formation of Character in Individuals, Reforms in Education, Qualifications of Teachers, and the Want of Education. He was at one time president of the Cin- cinnati Female seminary; afterward he became a resident of Delaware, Ohio. The following is found in The Ohio School Journal of September, 1848, edited in Columbus, Ohio, by Dr. Lord:

Albert Picket, sen., for many years principal of the Manhattan school in this city [New York], one of the most efficient and enterprising teachers of our country, is still at Delaware, in Ohio. This gentleman, now in his seventy-ninth year, taught half a century, and was always twenty years in advance of the profession. He is still quickening and eomforting those who labor for the cause of education .- [Teachers' Advocate, New York].

We rejoice to meet, from the scene of his former toils, this just trib- ute to a veteran teacher. It has been our privilege, in addition to oc- casional correspondence, to enjoy the privilege of several cheering in- terviews with Father Picket, as he is affectionately and reverently styled here in Ohio, and, last autumn, to labor with him for a week in the instruction of a class of some hundred teachers. . . Let others wear laurels and receive the plaudits of mankind, but give me the retrospect of the famous teacher.

JOHN L. TALBOT was born October 20, 1800, near Winchester, Frederic county, Virginia. With his parents he emigrated to the Redstone settlement, in Washington county, Pennsylvania, in 1806, from which place he re- moved to Mount Pleasant, Jefferson county, Ohio, in 1816. Three years after he descended the Ohio river on a raft and took up his permanent abode in Cincinnati. During his residence in Pennsylvania he usually attended school one quarter each year, studying mainly spelling and arithmetic. In Cincinnati he attended a night-school while serving an apprenticeship to the carpenter's and joiner's trade. Here he studied arithmetic, trigonometry, surveying, and navigation. Subsequently he became an assistant teacher in the school which was taught by Cor- nelius King. In 1822, having made his school furniture, he opened a school of his own, which was largely at- tended, and not a few of his pupils in subsequent years filled honorable and important public positions. In 1823 he aided in forming a society for the elevation of teach- ing as a profession, and in 1828 in founding the Ohio Mechanics' institute. About the same time he took ac- tive part in the establishment of the Academy of Fine Arts and the Academy of Natural Sciences. In all these organizations Mr. Talbot was an active member, and, much of the time, an officer. From 1829 to 1845 he was a member of the Academic institute and its suc- cessor, the College of Professional Teachers. Mr. Tal- bot was the author of an arithmetic, with the title, The Western Practical Arithmetic. He long since retired fom the teacher's life.

MILO G. WILLIAMS was born in Cincinnati April 10, 1804. His career as a teacher began in 1820, and ended in 1870. His early education was limited to the merest elements of learning. His first efforts at teaching were made in the village school where he had been a pupil. At this early period he began to think earnestly on the prac- tical education of the people at large. Here, too, he be- came conscious of his own deficiencies. In his nine- teenth year Mr. Williams began a private school in Cin- cinnati, which grew to be such a success that he finally graded his classes, organized four departments, and pro-

cured assistant teachers. The study of constitutional law was successfully introduced into his school. In 1833 he accepted the position of general supervisor of a man- ual-labor institution at Dayton. At the end of the sec- . ond year it was deemed expedient to close this school, and Mr. Williams became principal of the Springfield High school. About 1840 he was made principal of a school in Cincinnati, opened by the friends of the New Jerusalem church (Swedenborgian). Subsequent to this time he was successively professor in the Cincinnati col- lege, principal of the Dayton academy, and president of the faculty of Urbana college, filling at the same time the chair of science. In 1829 Mr. Williams aided in organiz- ing the Academic institute, which became, mainly through his effort, the College of Professional Teachers. For ten years he was corresponding secretary, and took an active part in its proceedings. He was prominent also at the educational conventions held at Columbus, begin- ning in 1836, up to 1852, when his duties at the Urbana university made regular attendance impracticable. He is still a resident of Urbana.

STATE SCHOOL COMMISSIONERS.

It seems not to be forgotten that Cincinnati furnished the State with two of its earliest and ablest chief superin- tendents of education. Mr. Samuel Lewis, of the city bar and also a local preacher in the Methodist Episcopal church, a speaker of no ordinary force, had evinced a very active interest in popular education, several times addressed the Western College of Teachers, and was mainly instrumental in securing from Mr. Woodward the large pecuniary foundation of Woodward college, now part of the consolidated fund supporting the Woodward and Hughes high schools. Such was the confidence re- posed in him as a practical educator that although not a teacher or even a "liberally educated man," his education in the schools having ceased when he was ten years old, he was elected by the legislature as the first superintendent of common schools in Ohio, when that office was created in 1837. He began with a salary of five hundred dollars per annum, which was presently increased to one thou- sand two hundred dollars, but at this rate no more than paid his official expenses. Hon. John Hancock, in his lucid and instructive chapter on school supervision, in the Centennial volume we so often cite, gives this testi- mony to Mr. Lewis' service :

His work was severc enough. Almost all his journeying was done on horseback, most of it on bad roads and through a sparsely settled country. After averaging twenty-six miles per day of travel, he spent, as he tells us in one of his letters, three or four hours a day in conversa- tion on school matters, and frequently spoke, in addition to all this, at night. Much of his work, too, was done with the drawback of im- paired health. Everywhere, as he says, men agreed with him, ap- plauded his speeches, but did nothing. The first year of his superintendency he traveled more than one thousand five hundred miles, and visited three hundred schools and forty country scats. Much time and zeal were also devoted to the organization of associations of teachers.

In reading over his reports, one is surprised at the breadth and com- prehensiveness of the views entertained by this pioneer in western edu- cation. Nothing seemed to escape his attention ; and almost all the plans for the improvement of common schools since advocated were distinctly enunciated by him.

Mr. Lewis' sympathies were always with the poor, and lie heartily en- listed in the scheme of establishing a system of schools which should

202

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

give these children a fair chance in life with the children of the rich. He was utterly opposed to the idea of having one kind of education for those favored by fortune and another kind for those who earn their bread by the sweat of the brow. He labored not only to make the schools entirely free, but to make them good enough for all ; "for," said he, "a school not good enough for the rich will never excite much interest with the poor. They will receive its benefits, if at all, with jeal- ousy, and the effect will be to build still higher the wall that separates the sympathies of different classes of society."

Like Horace Mann, Mr. Lewis placed high among the functions of the common school the duty of instructing youth in sound principles of Christian morality. He seemed, too, to have little faith in the final success of the schools, unless teaching was made a profession.

He advocated such an education for women "as would be adapted to their sphere in life, and be likely to elevate their views, refine their tastes, and cultivate that delicacy of sentiment and propriety of con- duct which the good of the country, no less than their own happiness, requires." He recommended the appointment of county superintend- ents to look after school property, to visit all the districts, examine teachers, and settle controversies. He recognized also the value of libraries as instrumentalities for educating the people, and recom- mended the establishment of a free library in every township, the State giving a certain amount on condition that the township should raise an equal sum. He pointed out, too, the advantages of union graded schools for towns and cities, years before anything of the kind had been attempted in the State outside of Cincinnati; and township high schools were one of his favorite measures for promoting educational progress.

His eye seemed to cover the whole field. He was not satisfied to restrict his attention to the organization of a school system and the furnishing of the necessary means for carrying it into operation. Meth- ods of instruction did not escape his animadversion. He condemned most forcibly that exclusive reliance on the memory, to the neglect of the cultivation of the reasoning powers, then almost universal with teachers in all classes of schools.

Finally, Mr. Lewis still further exhibited the breadth and compre- hension of his educational views by his advocacy of a State university and a State normal school.

Mr. Lewis left the office with high honor. By his investigations of the management of school lands he had saved enough money to the State to pay his salary many times over-indeed, his friends claimed that sixty thousand dollars had been thus secured. The number of schools during his three years of service had risen from four thousand three hundred and thirty-six to seven thousand two hundred and ninety- five; the number of scholars from one hundred and fifty thousand four hundred and two to two hundred and fifty-four thousand six hundred and twelve; the amount paid for tuition from three hundred and seven- teen thousand seven hundred and thirty dollars to seven hundred and one thousand and ninety-one dollars; and the cost of school-houses from sixty-one thousand eight hundred and ninety to two hundred and six thousand four hundred and forty-five.

When the office held fourteen to sixteen years before by Mr. Lewis was revived by the legislature, under the present title of State school commissioner, and made elective by the people, Professor H. H. Barney, first principal of the old Central High school in Cincinnati, was placed in nomination and elected the ensuing fall, and served until 1856. Says Mr. Hancock:

Mr. Barney was largely occupied during his administration in execu- tive work and in explaining for the benefit of school officers the mean- ing of the new law and the best methods of executing it, giving special consideration to those features of the law which differed from those of preceding acts. Of these district school libraries were the inost import- ant and gave most care. The distribution of good books over the whole State is an object of importance as an educational agency second only to the schools themselves. That district school libraries did much good cannot be questioned; but had the law provided for township libraries instead, as recommended by Samuel Lewis, there can be but little doubt that the results would have been far more satisfactory, and the permanency of the law have been secured. No adequate provision was made under the law for taking care of the books, and the few that came to the rural sub-districts one year were scattered and gone by the time the next year's supply came to hand. This arose from the diffi- culty of finding a suitahle place in each sub-district for a library and a

qualified person to take charge of it. In addition to this many of the books were never called for at the office of the county auditors, and others remained unused in the hands of the township clerks. The fate of this feature of the law, with all these defects and difficulties hanging about it, notwithstanding its excellent design, was pre-ordained. Mr. Barney decided, at an early period in his administration, that the books for cities inight be collected into one library, instead of being scattered among the several districts. Boards acting on this wise decision then formed collections of books, that have been the foundation for those notable institutions in cities called public libraries, and which are doing so inuch for the culture of the people.

Not long after Mr. Barney had entered upon the duties of his office, decided hostility began to exhibit itself in the legislature against many of the most valuable features of the new law, the commissionership among them. He was indefatigable in his efforts to prevent the pas- sage of any amendment that would embarrass the successful working of the act. In these efforts, with the aid of educators and the petitions of the people from all parts of the State that the law should be left un- touched, he was completely successful.

By the time Mr. Barney had fairly established himself in his new position, he had so far secured the confidence of educators in his ability and prudence that the agent of the State Teachers' association was withdrawn from the field, as being no longer necessary to the interests of the schools.

CHAPTER XXII.

PUBLIC CHARITIE .

THE institutions supported by the city first claim at- tention under this head.

THE CITY INFIRMARY.

This institution was built in 1851-2, and was opened for the reception of inmates in 1852. Before that the paupers of the city were provided for, under the law of January 22, 1821, at the old Commercial hospital, and by a costly system of out-door relief. In the financial year 1849-50, the cost of provisions, medicine and medical "attendance furnished the poor was $10, 197.60, and of firewood $11, 124,75, making a total of $21,- 322.35. In 1851-2, while the new plan under directors had not yet come into operation, the sev- eral sums, corresponding to the above, were $10,- 486. 12, $11, 115.40 and $21,601.52. Under the new system, introduced the next year, and directed to the same objects and the same class of persons, they were respectively but $3,920.58, $2,815.34, and $6,735.95. The original board of directors, in their first annual re- port, make an equally economical showing, in a com- parison between the old and new systems of in-door relief. For the two years designated, the expenses of the hospital, including provisions, medicines ($1,483. 13 for wines and liquors under this head), dry goods, fuel, groceries, and oil, but excluding cost of pest house, orphan asylum, interments, salaries, and other wages, were severally, $24,411.31, and $20,432.70. For the next year the cost of the city infirmary, including, also, sums paid to the Commercial hospital, and expenses of con- veyance to infirmary, furnishing it with stoves, iron bed- steads, bell, etc., (these items alone amounting to $4,- 785.66}, was but $13,271.71. Thus auspiciously, in

203

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

point of economical management, at least, did the first board of directors open their work under the new ar- rangements.

The old system had secured, by taxation and duties imposed upon auctioneers, the following amounts for a series of years, for use in relieving the poor of Cincin- nati : In 1844-5, $29,965.27; 1845-6, $30,609.80 ; 1846-7, $33,422.60; 1847-8, $39, 174.02 ; 1848-9, $61,- 998. 14 ; 1849-50, $61,074.09; 1850-1, $65,570. In the year 1852-3, when the new plans were in full operation, the entire expenses of in-door and out-door relief, at both the hospital and the infirmary, excluding cost of permanent improvements, were but $25,892.57.

For a number of years the Cincinnati orphan asylum, mentioned in the above statistics, had received, annually, a liberal grant from the poor fund of the city, although the charter of that institution was silent concerning such subsidies, from and after the year 1840. The tenor of the charter, as explained by the infirmary directors, was "that said institution should maintain itself, like similar institutions, by private enterprise and benevolence." In 1849-50 the orphan asylum drew $2,214.21 from the poor fund of the city, and $1,498.64 from the auction duties, the next year $3,801.44, and $1,832.03 from these sources, respectively. The claim of the asylum to a share of the funds continued to be set up after the in- firmary directors came into office, but was not allowed by those authorities, for the reason given above-the ab- sence of legal authority in the asylum to make the de- mand.

The infirmary board of directors came in under an act of the general assembly, dated March 23, 1850, entitled "An Act to authorize the City of Cincinnati to erect a Poor-house, and for other purposes." Their duties were further prescribed by the law of March 11, 1853, "to provide for the organization of cities and incorporated vil- lages," which abolished in such corporations the offices of township trustees and township clerk. January 14, 1857, the city council passed an ordinance "to regulate the management of the City Infirmary, Commercial Hos- pital, Pest-house, City Burying-ground, and the granting of out-door relief to the poor." It prescribed that the directors of the infirmary should be elected in conformity with the legislative acts before mentioned; that they should give bonds, in the sum of five thousand dollars each, for the faithful performance of their duties; that they should have charge of the charities specified in the title of the ordinance; and made sundry other provisions in regard to their duties-among them that they should appoint the officers of these institutions and others deem- ed necessary, subject to the approval of the city council. April 15, 1864, a similar ordinance, but restricting the authority of the directors to the management of the city infirmary, city burying-ground, and the granting of out- door relief to the poor, was passed by the council. Un- der such enactment by-laws and regulations were adopted by the board for the government of the institutions under their charge and the grant of out-door relief.

In the regulations of 1852-3, each ward of the city was made a district for providing victuals for the poor, and

one grocer from whom provisions were to be purchased for that purpose was contracted with in each ward. He was to be paid the usual prices charged to his regular cash customers. For medicinal purposes the city was divided into six districts, each comprising two or more physicians appointed therein for visitation of the sick poor, one of whom must be a German. Each was to re- ceive twenty-five cents for every necessary professional visit. Two or more apothecaries in each district were also to be contracted with, prescriptions to be paid for at two-thirds the usual rates. Two medical districts consti- tuted one directorial district, to be under the especial care of one of the infirmary directors, who were three in number. Each of these districts should have an under- taker, for the burial of the pauper dead; and the prices of the undertakers were to be uniform in all the districts. The regulations of 1857, under the ordinance of that year, were identically the same, as regards this scheme of organization. Those of 1864 divided the city into seven districts, each with one overseer of the poor, who must devote all his time to the duties of his office, and was not allowed to prosecute any other business; one district physician-if practicable, a man who could speak both English and German, and he must speak both if a major- ity of the population in his district speak the German language; also as many apothecaries as were willing to comply with the rates regulating the furnishing of medi- cine for the out-door poor. From the seven districts were formed three directorial districts, in each of which, if possible, one undertaker for the burial of the dead poor was to be secured. In these regulations provision was made for a soup-house, to "be kept in operation as long as economy and circumstances warrant it." A soup- house was opened by the board in 1861, by virtue of a resolution of the council May 29th of the same year, and supplied within eight months three thousand and forty- nine families with wholesome food, to the amount of six hundred and thirty-one thousand eight hundred and thirty-three rations, at an expense of about one and a half cents per ration, or ten thousand seven hundred and eighteen dollars and eighty-one cents for the whole.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 54

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