History of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Part 77

Author: Johnson, Crisfield
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.B. Lippincott & Co.
Number of Pages: 716

USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > History of Cuyahoga County, Ohio > Part 77

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).

Soon after, the board of school managers prescribed a uniform list of text books for cach grade, but the teachers could divide the schools into such classes as they saw fit.

The furniture of the school room was hardly changed at this time from the most primitive form ever used; consisting of two lines of long seats extend- ing around the room, a short distance from the wall, the rear ones having no backs and the front ones no fronts. The backs of the front row, with their at- tached shelves, served as desks for the occupants of the benches behind. It was not until 1845 that the two- seated pine desks which are still common in country schools, eame into use; each matching with the other,

and consisting of a seat, a back, a writing desk, and a book shelf combined. These were really quite an in- genious and convenient invention.

The salaries of the male principals at this period were ten dollars per week: those of the female assist- ants were five dollars per week-a school week then comprising five and a half days.

Until 1846 no important change took place in the constitution of the sehools, and no new school build- ings appear to have been erected, though rooms were rented in various localities to meet the wants of the growing eity. In that year Mayor Hoadley in his in- angural address recommended the establishment of a high school, composed of the best scholars of the common schools. The council adopted the recom- mendation, leased the basement of a church on Pros- pect street, and made Andrew Freese, principal of the Prospect-street school, principal of the new academie department. It went into operation on the 1st of July 1846, with thirty-four pupils; a number increased during the year to eighty-three.

This "new-fangled " arrangement, however, was strongly opposed by many of the citizens, who held that the council had no legal right to establish such a school, and also that it was unjust and inexpedient to tax people for the maintainance of higher education. A warm diseussion was the consequence, both in the council and among the people: but it was settled in favor of the continuance of the high school. A girl's department of it was also opened in the spring of 1847.

The school was not a very expensive institution at that time: the total annual cost for several years be- ing about nine hundred dollars; of which four hun- dred constituted the salary of the principal, and two hundred and fifty that of his sole assistant. Another assistant was added in 1852. All the higher English studies were taught there, but the languages were not vet made a part of the course.

The boys who went to the high school under Mr. Freese during those early years were an energetic, restless set, many of whom have since made their mark in the world, including Senator John P. Jones, of Nevada, Governor Lucius Fairchild, of Wisconsin, and several others but little less famous. They were ready to overcome almost any obstacle. They gave lectures on chemistry and other subjects, from which they obtained money to buy philosophical apparatus for the school. They bought materials, and them- selves laid up a small brick laboratory; they made some of the apparatus they desired with their own hands; they edited and published a monthly called the School Boy for two or three years, and by their pluck and perseverance contributed largely toward breaking down the lingering prejudices against the high school.

On the opening of the new decade in 1850 the ne- cessity of more school-room could no longer be denied, and in 1851 the Brownell-street school-house was erected; similar in size and form to the Prospect and

313

SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES.

Rockwell-street houses already described. When it was opened for use in January. 1852. under Principal E. E. White, it was immediately filled to overflowing. The quandary of the board of managers as to how relief should be afforded-whether to put on a third story, erect a new building, or employ some other means-was settled in a very peenliar manner. A high wind blew off the roof of the new school-house. Whether the members of the board looked on this as a providential decision or not. they at once accepted it as literally opening the way out of their difficulty, and directed the addition of a third -tory before the roof was replaced. Such was the accidental origin of the first three-story brick school-house in Cleve- land. This in time became too small for the con- stantly increasing number of scholars, and in 1863 it was sold: the school being removed to a newly erected edifice of ample proportions, on the opposite side of the street-commonly known as the Bradburn school- house.

The Brownell-street >chool was followed in 1:52 by the Mayflower-street school, which opened in a small wooden building of two rooms on the corner of Or- ange and Mayflower streets. Three-fourths of the children were Bohemians, who could harldy speak a word of English. The teachers had considerable dif- ficulty at first. but it is said they eventually learned their Bohemians to speak English principally by turning them out to play with the English-speaking scholars-certamly a very pleasant method of instruc- tion. The population in that vicinity increased so rapidly that in 1854 a large three-story brick school- house. capable of seating five hundred pupils, was erected. In 1869 it was enlarged to a capacity of a thousand.

About the time the Brownell and Mayflower-street schools were set in operation, it was determined to have something better than a basement for the use of the high school. A lot was accordingly purchased on Enclid street, on which in 1851 a cheap wooden building was erected for temporary use. It was not vacated, however, until the spring of 1856, when the large three-story brick struetnre. sixty feet by ninety. occupied by the high school until the present year. was dedicated with appropriate ceremonies.

It was at this period. too, (in 1853) that a superin- tendent was placed in charge of the schools. Ilitherto the work of supervision had been carried on entirely by the board of managers, the members of which re- ceived no pay, and merely spared what time they could from the various kinds of active private business in which they were all engaged. George Willey, a prominent lawyer, and Charles Bradburn, an active merchant, both began service as managers in 1841, and both served with few intermissions. until 1859, usn- ally associated with but one or two others. Both gave a very large share of their time to the schools, and they bore a very great part in the work of strengthening and developing the public school sys- tem of Cleveland in its infant years. Harvey Rice.

Esq., who was a member of the city council during much of the same period, was also a very active friend of the schools.

But the time had come when the amount of super- rising work to be done made it absolutely essential that some one should be employed especially to do it.

In May. 1853. R. C. Parsons, Esq .. introduced into the council an ordinance establishing the office of superintendent of instruction, which was passed on the 1st of June following. The board of managers was to fill the office, but the council was to fix the salary. Andrew Freese, principal of the high school since its establishment, was at once appointed to the newly created position. The salary voted him by the couneil was three hundred dollars per year. It should be understood, however, that for awhile he gave only half his time to the work of supervision, and the other half to the high school, of which he still re- mained principal-receiving his old salary of $1,000 per year. Afterwards, for a year, he gave five hours a day to his supervisory work: still retaining his posi- tion and salary in the high school. At length, how- ever, it was found necessary for him to concentrate his whole attention on the work of supervision, and with considerable difficulty the council was persuaded to allow him a salary of $1.300 per year. Mr. Freese held the office eight years, giving to his duties the most enthusiastic energy and the most unwearying attention, and stamping his impress deeply upon that great institution. the public school system of Cleve- land, with which he was so long connected.

The year after the superintendeney was established, Ohio City was annexed to Cleveland. It then had two thousand four hundred and thirty-eight children considered to be of "school age," of whom about eight hundred were registered in the public schools and some two hundred were in church or private schools. The public schools consisted of one on Penn street with a hundred and ninety-five scholars; one at the "old Universalist church," with a hundred and sixty-two: one at a small brick house on Vermont street, with fifty-four; one at the "Seminary build- ing," with a hundred and seven; and one at a small wooden school house on church street, with a hun- dred and eighty-two. The houses on Penn, Vermont and Church streets were owned by the city: the others were leased.

The schools on the West Side were generally un- graded, though there was a central school in the " seminary building " for the higher classes. There were also in process of erection three three-story brick school houses-one each on Pearl, Hicks and Kentucky streets-and these were completed at a cost of 82,000 each in the"autumn of 1854, and given over to the management of the authorities of the united city. All the schools above mentioned except the one on Plum street were then transferred to the new school-houses.

At this time. too, the West Side Central School, which was merely a kind of advanced common school,

314

THE CITY OF CLEVELAND.

was transferred to the upper story of the Kentucky street school house. The people on the West Side were desirous that it should be brought to an equality with the East Side High School. As, however, the law under which the system of publie instrnetion in Cleveland was organized provided that there should be but one central school, the council, with dubious legality, provided that there should be a branch of it established on the west side of the river. Though called the " Branch High School," it was entirely independent of its competitor on the other side: its principal being responsible directly to the superin- tendent of instruction and the board of managers -- a lesson in deception and evasion of the law hardly counterbalanced by the increased convenience of having two high schools instead of one, or by saving the trouble of having the law changed.

The Hudson street (now the Sterling) school was opened in the spring of 1859. in a small wooden structure which soon became so crowded that a cheap, detached building was speedily erected, and this was subsequently supplemented by the addition of another room. All these were finally succeeded by a large, new brick school house, completed in 1868, and then reputed to be the finest in Ohio.

In 1859 also, the okl " board of managers" was ex- changed for a " board of education," consisting of eleven members, elected by the people. The first one thus chosen consisted of Chas. Bradburn, Allyne Maynard, Chas. S. Reese, William HI. Stanley, Nathan P. Payne, W. P. Fogg, Lester Hayes, J. A. Thome, F. B. Pratt, Daniel P. Rhodes and Geo. R. Vanghan.

We have thus brought down this condensed history of the public school system of Cleveland to the time when it had, to a great extent, assumed the form it has since retained. In 1859. there was a board of education elected by the people, controlling the schools on both sides of the river, a superintendent intrusted with the immediate management; an East high school and a West high school where the more ad- vanced branches, including the languages, were taught, and finally a number of graded common schools, under male principals and female assistants, which, by a pedantie imitation of the name of an altogether different thing, then began to be called " grammar schools."* Moreover, music and drawing had both been introduced into the schools several years before. but were temporarily suspended at that period, on ac- count of the "hard times" induced by the financial crisis of 1857.

Since that time the change has been one of devel-

*The appellation of "grammar school" was given to an institution in England and New England, above the grade of a primary school, in which grammar was the principal subject taught. As soon as a boy was at all advanced in his English grammar he was put into Latin gram - mar, and everything else was made subordinate to the study of lan- guage. or "grammar." It is natural that, in the regions mentioned, the old name should be retained, but it is provoking that the same name should have been plagiarized within the last twenty years and applied to a new institution, in which grammar is considered of less consequence than mathematics, and of scarcely more importance than each of sev- eral other studies.

opment rather than of fundamental characteristics, though a few additions of considerable consequence have been made to the system.

During the war for the Union, (in which many of the graduates of the Cleveland schools engaged, and some gave up their lives) notwithstanding the heavy drain upon the resources of the people, the school system was maintained at a high grade, and expanded rapidly in harmony with the constant growth of the eity.

In 1867 the village of East Cleveland was annexed to the city of Cleveland. The former had a school system of its own, with a high school, which it was agreed should be retained until half the councilmen from the annexed distriet should vote for its abolition. In accordance with this agreement three high schools were maintained in Cleveland for over eleven years. Eight years later Newburg was annexed, and it too, had a high school, which became a part of the Cleve- land system.

Meanwhile the needs of the Central high school were rapidly outgrowing the accommodations of the building in which it had been domiciled. It was deemed best. instead of increasing its size or building a new one in the same locality, for the use of the same district. to erect one of ample size near the centre of the whole district east of the river. The consent of " half" the councilmen from the old territory of East Cleveland having been obtained, a resolution to that effect was unanimously adopted by the council on the 2d day of April, 1827. The work was completed in less than a year and a half, the new building being dedicated on tho 3d day of December. 1828.

The point selected was on the west side of Willson avenue (the old line between Cleveland and East Cleveland) near Cedar avenue, an open, healthful, central and most desirable location, although it would seem as if a larger amount of land should have been secured, even if it was necessary to put up with a smaller amount of building.

The general arrangement of the edifice was planned by Andrew J. Rickoff, superintendent of instruction, while the architectural design, selected from those of six competitors, was that of Captain Levi T. Seofield of Cleveland. The extreme length of the building is one hundred and sixty-two feet and the extreme width, including both wings, one hundred and thirty- eight feet eight inches. The hight from the ground to the eornice is seventy-two feet four inches, and to the top of the spire one hundred and sixty-eight feet.

The style of architecture is South German Gothic, of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, while the material is principally of the various kinds of sand- stone found in Cuyahoga connty and vicinity. There are twenty-five rooms in the building, of which four- teen are school rooms, each thirty-seven by thirty, and sixteen feet high, and one of the others is an as- sembly room, ninety-four feet by fifty-six, and about thirty-eight feet high. Great care was also paid to the subjects of ventilation and heating, and taken al-

315

SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES.

together the building may be considered one of the model school houses of the United States.

In the year 1868 "supervising principals " were appointed to take the immediate direction of the teachers in the " grammar" and primary schools. The city is now divided into two districts. under the charge of supervising principals: one comprising all east of Erie street, and of Brownell south of the sonth end of Erie, the other embracing all west of that line, on both sides of the river. This is the most impor- tant change which has been made sinee 1860. The supervising principals do all that principals ordina- rily do except teach. They assign scholars to classes, direct the studies and maintain the discipline of the schools-acting on the reports on the teachers. By this means the board of education is enabled to em- ploy ladies as heads of the schools, whose time is em- ployed principally in teaching. A normal school, for the sole purpose of training teachers to take charge of the city schools, was established in 18:4. The system is now very complete as to organization, and the schools are well supplied with buildings: so that no important changes in regard to either are likely to be made for many years to come.

We close with a brief account of the schools as they now are. Of the lower grades there are thirty-eight. with a total registered attendance of twenty-one thousand seven hundred and twenty-one, according to the reports of the present year, as yet unpublished. for which we are indebted to the courtesy of Mr. Rickoff, the present superintendent. The number of scholars just mentioned is distributed as follows: Bol- ton school, 384: Brownell, 1,682: Case, 1,333; Char- ter Oak, 125: Clark, 251; Crawford, 38; Detroit, $18; Dunham, 68; Eagle, 381; Enelid, 216: Fair- mount, 287; Garden, 222: Gordon, 212: Ilicks, 833: Independence, 40; Kentucky, 934: Kinsman, 151; Lovejoy, 60: Madison, 153: Marion. 44: Mayflower, 1303: Meyer, 69; North, 630; Orchard, 1482; Outh- waite, 1834: Quiney, 124; Ridge, 42: Rockwell, 1,160; St. Clair, 1,08 ;: South, 161; Sterling, 1,508: Tre- mont, 1,196; Union Mills, 211: Wade, 923: Walunt, 226; Warren, 172: Woodland, 15: York, 52.

Besides there were sixty-five in the Normal school, seven hundred and forty-seven in the Central high school, and two hundred and eleven in the West high school, making a total in the higher grade schools of one thousand and twenty, and a grand total of twen- ty-two thousand seven hundred and forty-one.

To give instruetion to this great number of chil- dren, no less than three hundred and ninety-four teachers are employed: two in the Normal school: seventeen in the Central high school, nine in the West high school, and three hundred and sixty-six in the grammar and primary schools. It should be un- derstood that many of these are special teachers, (in drawing, music and penmanship) who do not give. and are not paid for giving, their whole time.

The principal salaries paid are as follows: The sn- perintendent receives 83,300 per year; the principal

of the Central high school, 82.400; his first assistant, 81,600: the principal of the West high school. 82,000; his first assistant, 81,500; supervising princi- pals, $2,000; principal in German. $1,500; principal in music, 82,000: principal in drawing, $1,200; prin- cipal in penmanship, $1,500; principal of the normal school. 82,100; assistant in normal school, $1,000; principals of the grammar and primary schools, from $1,000 to 8:50: teachers of German, from 8:00 to 8650; teachers in gramma. and primary schools, from 8625 to $400, according to grade of service, experience and merit.

Of all the teachers but thirty-five are males, while three hundred and fifty-nine are females. The pres- ent superintendent is Andrew J. Rickoff: the principal of the Central high school is Z. P. Taylor: of the West high school. J. H. Shults; of the normal school, Oliver Arey. The supervising principal of the first district is H. M. James: that of the second district is L. W. Day. The superintendents of instruction since Mr. Freese, who elosed his service in 1861, have been L. M. Oviatt, who served two years; Anson Smyth (ex-State commissioner of schools) who served four years, and the present superintendent, who has been at the head of the department twelve years. The Normal school was four years under the charge Alexander Forbes, and one year under that of Elroy M. Avery (previously, for many years at the head of the East high school).

We have thus given an outline history (we couldl do no more) of one of the very foremost institutions of Cleveland: one which has contributed very much in- deed to its past welfare, and upon which it must de- penil for its future welfare to a still greater extent as the period of its extraordinary growth necessarily merges into one of more moderate and steady pros- perity, as the remarkable facilities for money mak- ing becomes somewhat less fruitful, and as the peo- ple naturally address themselves with more earnest ness toward the deeper problems and higher enjoy- ments of life.

THE URSULINE ACADEMY.

This institution was organized by Bishop Rappe. in August, 1850. The first Ursuline Sisters, four in number, came from Boulogne sur mer. France. In the same year the property on Euclid avenue was pur- chased, at a cost of 812,000, since which time many changes and improvements have been made. The present Mother Superior has had charge of the acad- emy since its foundation, with the exception of two intermissions of three years each.

The institution was incorporated in August, 1854. and chartered as a college, with the power to grant diplomas and confer degrees.

la June. 1824, the corporation purchased thirty- seven acres of land on the lake shore, in Euclid, upon which a spacious boarding-school and college is in course of erection. In the academy the Ursuline Sisters conduet a day-school. They also feach in sev-

316

THE CITY OF CLEVELAND.

eral of the female schools attached to the different Catholic churches throughout the city. Of the Catholic schools for boys and girls there are no less than sixteen, viz: Immaculate Conception parish school, St. John's parochial school, St. Augustine's school, St. Bridget's school, St. Columba's academy, St. Columbkill's school. St. Joseph's school. Church of the Holy Family school, St. Malachi's school, St. Mary's school, St. Mary's of the Annunciation school, St. Patrick's school. St. Peter's school. St. Prokop's school, St. Stephen's school and St. Wen- ceslaus' school. Besides these there is St. Mary's theological seminary, a flourishing institution for the instruction of candidates for the priesthood.

THE BROOKS SCHOOL.

A stranger who should chance to be passing the Ontario Street Tabernacle on an exhibition night, and should be attracted by the ringing sound of mil- itary command and the sturdy tramp of time-keep- ing feet, would perhaps be surprised, on entering the building, to find all this martial elamor emanating from a few score of school-boys, many of them mere children and none having arrived at man's estate. Yet, as he watched the accuracy of their movements with the rifle, observed the energy with which they wheeled their heavy cannon into position, and gazed admiringly on their muscle straining exereise with the saber, he would be compelled to admit that, though not men, they gave ample promise of being competent to play well their part when the responsibilities of man- hood should rest upon them.

Yet the Brooks School, at one of the exhibitions of which we have supposed the stranger to be present, is by no means a military institution, but a classical and English school, whereof martial training is only an adjunct. Its originator was the late Rev. Fred- erick Brooks, from whom it takes its name, but he did not live to carry his design into effect. Ilis un- finished plans were taken up in 1874, and with such modifications and improvements as were deemed necessary, were carried out by Mr. John S. White, a graduate of Harvard University, and for three years a master in the Boston Public Latin School. His success has been of the most pronounced character, not only in securing a numerous attendance, but in maintaining the best discipline and imparting the most thorough instruction. An officer of the United States army is detailed to take charge of the military instruction of the students.

OTHER PRIVATE SCHOOLS.

There are several other excellent private schools in the city, including the Cleveland Female Seminary, a boarding and day school for young ladies, established in 1854, under the auspices of the Protestant Episco- pal Church; the Cleveland Academy, on Huron street, a day school for young ladies, founded in 1861; Lo- gan Avenne Seminary, and several others.

THE CLEVELAND LIBRARY ASSOCIATION.

This beneficent society traces its ancestry along a line in which there are several long breaks, to the year 1811, when an attempt was made to establish a small library by an association of seventeen Clevelanders. The war of 1812. and the .. hard times " which followed it, soon caused the overthrow of this well meant in- stitution.

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 Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Part 77

Author: Johnson, Crisfield Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Philadelphia : J.B. Lippincott & Co. Number of Pages: 716

Author: Johnson, Crisfield
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.B. Lippincott & Co.
Number of Pages: 716