History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio; their past and present, Part 15

Author: Nelson, S.B., Cincinnati
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Cincinnati : S. B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1592

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The college gradually ran down, and in 1827 all the departments ceased except

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a primary school which kept the charter alive. There appeared in the Cincinnati Mirror a call dated June 7, 1832, signed by Morgan Neville, then president of the board of trustees, and Peyton S. Symmes, secretary, soliciting public interest in behalf of the college. "The hope is cherished," says the call, "that the Mechanics' Institute, the Lyceum, and the Public Library, may be induced to connect their exertions with the college."

In June, 1835, Cincinnati College was revived, and a medical department was organized with a Faculty of eminent professors among whom were Dr. Daniel Drake, Dr. Samuel D. Gross, Dr. J. W. McDowell and Dr. Horatio G. Jameson. The department was in existence four years, and educated nearly 400 students.

In the revival of the college, in 1835, there was also a law department instituted. The first Faculty of the Law School consisted of John C. Wright, Joseph S. Ben- ham, and Timothy Walker. Some years later Charles L. Telford and William S. Groesbeck became professors, and they were succeeded by Judge James and M. E. Curwen. The present Cincinnati Law School, of which Hon. Jacob D. Cox is the dean, is the outgrowth of the organization of 1835, and is the only department of Cincinnati College that has survived.

The academic department of the college was renewed, in 1835, with the follow- ing Faculty: William H. McGuffey, president and professor of moral philosophy; Ormsby M. Mitchell, mathematics and astronomy; Asa Drury, ancient languages; Charles L. Telford, rhetoric and belles-lettres; Edward D. Mansfield, history and constitutional law; Lyman Harding, principal of the preparatory department; Joseph Herron, principal of the primary department. Writing of the renewed college and its faculty, Mr. Mansfield said twenty years after the revival: "We were all in the early prime of life; its labors seemed light; its cares and sorrows were lessened by the hopes of the future, and we gathered knowledge from every passing event, and flowers from every opening scene." The same pen records of the college that: "After a few years its light went out; its professors separated; and the college name attached to its walls alone attests that such an institution once existed."

Girls' Schools Prior to 1830 .- The first school specially designed for girls, of which we find mention in the early annals of the city, was one started in 1802, by a Mrs. Williams, whose advertisement in the Western Spy states that "she intends opening a school in the house of Mr. Newman, saddler, for young ladies, on the follow- ing terms: Reading, 250 cents; reading and sewing three dollars; reading, sewing, and . writing, 350 cents per quarter."

We learn from Dr. Drake, that of the 420 pupils who were admitted to the priv- ileges of Lancaster Seminary, in 1815, some were girls; and from Mr. Foote that a number of "young ladies" graduated in the early classes of the old Cincinnati College.

Locke's Female Academy .- In 1823, Dr. John Locke, a man of science and of sound progressive views in education, organized in Cincinnati a private school for girls, under the name of Locke's Female Academy. In this school, as in others established about the same time in the Ohio Valley, some of the methods of Pestal- ozzi were followed. It is interesting and suggestive to reflect that just at the time when the old Swiss reformer was nearing the close of his life, dejected from the apparent failure of his toils, enthusiastic teachers on the banks of the Ohio river were putting his wise advice in practice.

Locke's academy grew and flourished, winning the confidence of the public and gaining the patronage of the most influential families. From Foote's Literary Gazette for July 31, 1824, we learn that, at a recent examination, "It was gratify- ing to witness the rapid improvement of the pupils generally, in all the branches of science taught in the institution, and more particularly in those of natural and moral philosophy, and botany. " At the close of the examination, various prizes were awarded-a gold medal to Miss Amanda Drake, for general scholarship; silver med-

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als to Miss Mary Longworth, for excellence in moral philosophy; to Misses Sarah Loring, Jane Loring, Frances Wilson, Jano Keys, Eliza Longworth, Selina Morris, Charlotte Rogers, Mary Rogers, Elizabeth Hamilton and Julia Burnet, for high attainments in several subjects. Those conversant with the genealogy of old Cin- cinnati families will recognize in these "honor pupils" the names of the daughters and wives of distinguished citizens.

The academy was served by a board of visitors, who examined the pupils. The charge for tuition was four to ten dollars a quarter; music and French extra. For several years the school was carried on in a brick building on Walnut street, between Third and Fourth. The number of pupils educated in it, from first to last, was three or four hundred. Mrs. Frances Trollope visited the school in 1828, and in her book on America she speaks of Dr. Locke as "a gentleman who appears to have liberal and enlarged opinions on the subject of female education." Mrs. Trollope and her friend, Miss Frances Wright, did a great deal to set Cincinnati people thinking on the subject of women's education; the latter by her vigorous writings and lectures. They encountered bitter opposition, but they worked some real reforms.

Picket' s Female Institution .- According to Mansfield and Drake's "Cincinnati in 1826, " there were in the city, in 1826, "four or five highly respectable female and other academies, that contained from fifty to one hundred pupils each." Locke's was one of these. A school of similar character, known as "The Cincin- nati Female Institution," was started sometime before 1830, in a suite of rooms in the Cincinnati College building, by Albert Picket, a celebrated educator and schoolbook author of the period. Picket came from New York City, where he had conducted the " Manhattan School." He was assisted by his younger brother, John W. Picket. Albert Picket is deservedly remembered in our educational his- tory as one of the noblest and best of teachers. He devoted fifty years to the chosen work of educating youth. From Cincinnati he removed to Delaware, Ohio.

Flint's Western Monthly Review, for April, 1830, contains a full account of the examination and graduating exercises of the school, which were continued for three days, beginning February 8, 1830. There were about 150 young ladies in the school. Eleven gold medals were given, as in Locke's academy, for proficiency in Latin, Greek, French, mathematics, music, and painting. A crowded audience witnessed the examinations. The prizes were "gracefully distributed with appro- priate remarks, by D. K. Este, Esq." An address was delivered by Rev. Mr. Den- nison, and another by Rev. Timothy Flint, both which eloquent summaries of advice are published in the Review.

Kinmont's Boys' Academy .- Alexander Kinmont, a Scotch scholar and thinker, who came to Cincinnati in 1827, was a man of great force of character, eloquence, and practical sense. He was a classicist and philosopher - a lover of high litera- ture, an apostle of broad and rich human culture. His favorite authors were Plato, Homer, the Greek tragic poets, Tacitus, Cicero, Bacon, Milton, St. Augustine, and Swedenborg. Positive and aggressive, he championed his convictions, and made war on whatever he deemed false. In Cincinnati he encountered Mr. Grimke, a noted orator from South Carolina, in a debate on the relative value of the languages and the sciences, and won a great victory for the languages. Twelve lectures which he delivered on the "Natural History of Man" were issued in book form after his death, and are still published by one of the leading houses of America. Altogether, the man Kinmont was a remarkable personality, and his services to the cause of education in the Ohio Valley were immense. When he first came to the city a pro- fessorship was offered him in Cincinnati College, at a salary of two thousand dollars a year; but he preferred to establish a school of his own and to be independent. Kinmont's "Academy of Classics and Mathematics" was located on Race street, between Fifth and Longworth. It was a live school, surcharged with energy and

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enthusiasm. The motto was: "Sit gloria Dei; et utilitate hominum." One of the maxims of the school was, "Learn to do by doing. " The boys worshiped their guide and master, who showed them how to use freedom without disobedience. When they became men, they still honored and revered the teacher who illustrated before their eyes the dignity and beauty of manliness.

The College of Teachers .- We have now to write of perhaps the most important educational movement in the history of Cincinnati. The time was ripe for the organization of school interests in the West-for the creation of a teaching profes- sion-for the establishment of a system of instruction, public and private. Such men as Albert Picket and Alexander Kinmont were the natural captains of the volun- teer corps of teachers within the great circle of which the Queen City was the center. To them, and a score of others fervently devoted to the cause, and not inferior in learning and ability, belongs the great credit of establishing the College of Teachers, a powerful congress of educators, which continued its beneficent work for about fourteen years, and left the record of its wise proceedings in seven published vol- umes of "Transactions."

The College of Teachers grew out of an association of teachers, organized in 1829, under the name " Western Literary Institute and Board of Education." This body numbered in its membership about twenty persons, and included Albert Picket, Alexander Kinmont, Nathaniel Holley, Caleb Kemper, C. B. McKee, Stephen Wheeler, C. Davenport, Thomas J. Mathews, John L. Talbot and David L. Talbot. The first president was Rev. Elijah Slack, president of Cincinnati College; the cor- responding secretary was Milo G. Williams. The association held monthly meetings and discussed important subjects. At a meeting held in June, 1831, Mr. Williams offered a resolution proposing measures for convening the teachers of the West and South in a general congress. The proposal was carried into effect, and a convention was called to meet in Cincinnati in October, 1832. The object of the convention, as an- nounced in the newspapers, was "to promote the interests of education and to secure the co-operation of parents and the friends of science in the aid of scholastic institutions, whether of a public or private character." A goodly company of teachers responded to the call. The meeting convened October 3, and continued in session four days. A complete organization was effected under the name of "The Western Literary Institute and College of Professional Teachers." A constitution was adopted, in which the object of the society is stated to be "to promote, by all laudable means, the diffusion of knowledge in regard to education, and especially by aiming at the elevation of instructors who shall have adopted instruction as their regular profession." This declaration of the main objects of the association went straight to the heart of education-the improvement of the teacher.

The proceedings of the college in the years 1834-1840, inclusive, are contained in six volumes of "Transactions," a set of books now rare.' The college continued to hold meetings annually for some years after it ceased to publish its proceedings. The sessions of 1843 and 1844 were held in Louisville. The far-reaching influence of the body is indicated by the fact that delegates came to its meetings from the States of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, Indiana, Illinois, Mis- souri, Michigan, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, and the Territories of Iowa and Wisconsin. The people of Cincinnati crowded to its daily sessions, which were held in the largest churches, and all list- ened to essays and addresses with critical attention, and with something of religious enthusiasm. The movement, indeed, was a sort of renaissance in the history of education. It awakened general interest, it formulated public opinion on school matters. There were a gravity and deliberative wisdom in the deportment of the leading members, which remind one who reads the "Transactions" of the dignity and foresight of the fathers who framed the Constitution, and the Ordinance of 1787. The veteran Picket, white-haired and honored, was president, and opened

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each annual session with a formal address. The professional teachers invited to these councils distinguished representatives of the bench, the bar, the pulpit, the press. Lyman Beecher, Calvin E. Stowe, Joshua L. Wilson, Alexander Camp- 'bell, Archbishop J. B. Purcell and other noted clergymen took part in the debates. Daniel Drake, E. D. Mansfield, Samuel Lewis, and Nathan Guilford were partici- pants in the discussions. Several prominent women shared the benefits of the great revival, though their names do not appear on the roll of membership. In the year 1837 Mrs. Caroline Lee Hentz read a poem before the college, in which she speaks of the work of education as being " Woman's Task."

The college encouraged the formation of adjunct societies, being in fact the mother of the western system of teachers' associations and institutes. It gave birth in 1841 to the "Cincinnati Society for the Promotion of Useful Knowledge," the most important section of which survived, under the fostering care of O. M. Mitch- ell, as the Astronomical Department. The energy of the college was transmitted to different institutions-the Mechanics' Institute, various libraries, schools of Medi- cine and Law, the Historical Society, and the Academy of Fine Arts. But espe- cially was it the adjunct and ally of the public-school system which came into legal being in the year 1825. The impulse which the ruling spirits of the College of Teachers gave to popular education spread over the State of Ohio, and throughout the West, and the schools of to-day inherit a legacy of vital force from that vigor- ous and progressive pioneer organization. From it Nathan Guilford and Samnel Lewis, and many others whose hands helped to lay the foundation of Ohio's common schools, drew courage to keep on in the good work.

ORGANIZATION OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

The Ordinance of 1787, and the constitution of Ohio, declare it to be the State's function to encourage education, and to provide means for the support of schools. The means at first relied upon, namely funds derived from the rent or sale of school lands granted by government, proved a broken reed. The income from public lands was scanty, and the lands themselves were often frittered away by careless manage- ment. As time went on, and wise men became anxious concerning the prospects of a State whose children were in danger of growing up without the advantage of free schools, the people discussed the burning question, and Ohio finally organized her school system on a permanent basis. The citizens of Cincinnati were naturally among the first to "agitate " the community on the supreme subject. We have seen that the teachers of the city were, as a class, public-spirited and disposed to unite for the common good. Dr. Thomas W. Harvey records that "the first association of teachers for mutual improvement in the State of Ohio was organized in Cincinnati in 1822. It was probably the second of the kind in the United States." The Col- lege of Teachers became the arena in which the champions of the common school fought and won.

Though there was occasional school legislation in the Ohio Assembly from the very organization of the State, not much was efficacious for the good of the whole people until the year 1825, when Nathan Guilford, senator from Hamilton county, with the aid of Ephraim Cutter, of Washington county, and others, secured the passage of an act authorizing a general tax levy for the benefit of the schools. Nor was it until as late as 1830 that anything like a system of graded schools could be started, even in Cincinnati, then the educational nucleus of the West.

Dr. Alston Ellis succinctly states the facts in his "Centennial Sketch " of 1876, when he says: "From 1802 to 1821, legislative action regarding education, under the power conferred by the constitution, was confined to the passage of acts author- izing the incorporation of seminaries, religious and educational societies, and pro- viding for the leasing of school lands. The law of 1821 carried with it nothing more

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than a moral force. As late as 1825, there were no public schools, properly speak- ing, in Cincinnati."

Nathan Guilford was born in Massachusetts in 1786. He graduated from Yale in 1812, came west, and began the practice of law in Cincinnati in 1816. Always deeply interested in education, he joined hands with Samuel Lewis and other advo- cates of the public-school system. He fought a good fight, and gained a signal victory. In 1822 Guilford published a letter on free education, urging a general county ad valorem tax. This letter was published by the General Assembly of 1823-24; but, to use the words of Hon. W. D. Henkle, "The Assembly was not wise enough to risk advanced school legislation." However, on account of his zeal, Mr. Guilford was elected to the State Senate for the express purpose of securing the enactment of a law that would actually create adequate " means of education." Side by side with Ephraim Cutter, of Washington county, also a Massachusetts man, and the son of Manassah Cutter, founder of the Ohio Company, he labored for the passage of a school bill which authorized the assessment of half a mill on the value of taxable property. This bill passed the Senate January 26, 1825, by a vote of 28 to 8, and the House, February 1, by a vote of 48 to 24. The law of 1825 contains the germ of the present school system.

Opposition to the Law of 1825 .- The law of 1825 was not well received by some of the large tax-payers of Cincinnati, nor by all the proprietors of private schools, nor by a short-sighted class of the "proud poor," who decried the contemplated free schools as institutions of public charity. But the mass of thinking people, rich and poor, hailed the establishment of the "People's Colleges" with joy, and regarded them as bulwarks of civilization. Samuel Lewis, discussing the matter before the Teachers' College in 1835, said: "The people are more unanimous on this subject than on any other, and we are in favor of just as much provision as will make the common schools the best in the country." The reformers made way, surely if slowly, against continued opposition.

The Law of 1828-29 .- The inadequacy of the law of 1825 was remedied by special legislation in the Ohio Legislature of 1828-29. A bill was then introduced into the Senate by Col. Andrew Mack, to amend the charter of the city of Cincinnati. The friends of education seized the opportunity to secure.a State law authorizing the city to organize her own schools and pay for their maintenance by local taxation. The bill became a law. It empowered the city council to "lay off the city into ten (10) districts, and, at the expense of the city, to provide for the support of the com- mon schools; to purchase for the use of the city a suitable lot of land in each district, and to erect thereon a substantial schoolhouse; and in addition to the tax of one mill on the dollar for the purchase of sites and the erection of buildings, the city council was authorized to levy a tax of one mill on the dollar to defray the expenses for teachers and fuel."

The "Model Schoolhouses."-In accordance with the provisions of the law of 1828-29, the city was divided into districts, and a board of directors was chosen. Teachers were employed, and schools were organized in such apartments as could be procured for the emergency. The rooms were not convenient for school purposes, and steps were taken to build. The writer of this sketch recollects a conversation with the veteran George Graham, one of Cincinnati's intellectual benefactors, who related his personal experience in causing proper schoolhouses to be erected. Gra- ham asked the city council for an appropriation to construct a suitable schoolhouse in his ward, then the Second Ward. Said he: "They voted a pittance insufficient to pay for a decent building. I told them I would not have such a house in the dis- trict; I would build one to suit myself. 'Where will you get the money?' I answered that it was none of their business, but that I would make them pay at the last. So I had an architect draw the design of a 'Model Schoolhouse,' and got a builder to construct it on our lot, on the west side of Race street, between Fourth

Mom Strunk

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and Fifth. In order to catch the public eye the house was surmounted by a cupola. When I demanded of the council the cost, $5,500, of the building, they at first refused to make it.good, but finally agreed to pay all, except the price of that cupola."

This first model schoolhouse was completed in the summer of 1833. Nine others, patterned after it, were afterward built, at a total cost of $96, 159.44. They were of brick, two stories high, each floor divided into two rooms. The girls were assigned to the upper floors.

Public School Parade in 1833. - It was George Graham who conceived the idea of bringing the public schools into prominence by showy examinations, speech making, and by a conspicuous parade of school children through the city streets, on the Fourth of July, 1833. The pageant proved very successful, notwithstanding the fact that some of the teachers refused to march, and were discharged for insubordi- nation. The whole number of pupils in the procession could not have exceeded two thousand. Three years afterward, in 1836, the entire enrollment, according to Charles Cist, was but twenty-four hundred, with only forty-three teachers. In 1841, there were only nine public schoolhouses in the city, and only five thousand pupils with sixty teachers.

Public Schools from 1830 to 1850. - For the first twenty years of their history, the public schools of Cincinnati were conducted without the services of a superin- tendent. At first but one trustee was elected from each ward; but in 1837 the number was increased to two from each ward. A board of seven examiners was in- stituted, to determine the qualifications of teachers. Teachers' salaries in the "thirties," ranged from three hundred to five hundred dollars for men, and from two hundred to two hundred and fifty dollars for women. Yet, poorly as they were paid, the teachers had the pride to organize a city association, which met twice a month to discuss professional subjects. Dr. Stevenson, in his historical sketch of "Graded Schools," "states that the first attempts at systematic grading and classifi- cation in Ohio were made in the schools of Cincinnati, from 1836 to 1840." In 1839 the Board of Education made provision for the establishment of orphan asylums. In 1840, by a special act of the legislature, the board was authorized to establish departments of instruction in the German language. and to provide night schools. In compliance with this law the existing system of German teaching was inaugurated, and an efficient organization of night schools was effected. Special teachers of penmanship were employed in the schools in 1840. No very important change took place in the theory or practice of the district schools for the next ten years, though within that period were established the high schools, the history of which we reserve for special treatment on other pages. In the year 1850 the num- ber of public schools under the control of the board was fourteen, with an aggregate attendance of more than five thousand pupils taught by one hundred and thirty- eight teachers.

Superintendency of Nathan Guilford .- A special act of the Ohio legislature, passed March 23, 1850, authorized the election, by a popular vote, of a superintend- ent of common schools for the city of Cincinnati. Under this law, Hon. Nathan Guilford was elected as the people's choice for the important office, at a salary of only five hundred dollars per annum. He held the position for two years. In his annual report for the year ending July 1, 1852, Mr. Guilford said: "No one can visit a school in which the teacher has the art, tact, and force of character, to gov- ern without the rod, and witness the love and confidence existing between the teacher and pupils, and the beautiful order and progress in their studies, without being convinced of the infinite superiority of this mode of government. I am happy to say that we have many instructors of this kind in our schools. Such teachers should if possible be retained and well paid. And all such as find it necessary to have frequent recourse to the rod, and, like so many petty tyrants, can govern only by brute force, should be dismissed as having wholly mistaken their profession."

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History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio; their past and present, Part 15

Author: Nelson, S.B., Cincinnati Publication date: 1894 Publisher: Cincinnati : S. B. Nelson Number of Pages: 1592

Author: Nelson, S.B., Cincinnati
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Cincinnati : S. B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1592