USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Dayton > History of Dayton, Ohio. With portraits and biographical sketches of some of its pioneer and prominent citizens Vol. 1 > Part 24
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1882
431,603,000;
1,182,474
1.495
347 3 11|
4,519 96 144.358
1883
431,611,830,
1,182,589.
1,342
10; 2 64 8,674 75
*1884
500,244.170.
1,366,788, 1 628
1.155| 2 76' 4,509 26
153.552
1885
600,036,780;
1,643,937; 1,700
1,640
300: 2 12: 3,983 58 184.678
1857
675,620,700
1,851.015
2,120
442, 2 81 5,961 41
1888
725,620,700
1.982.535
2,086
235' 2 53 5,903 63
1,465| 2 51 4,264 20 176.406
1886
606,814,880.
1,662,506
3 13;
4,710 76.
165.79
155.045
152.5131
146.2438
Gal's of water!
182 5943
215
MUNICIPAL HISTORY.
The Dayton postoffice was established in 1804 or 1805. Benjamin Van Cleve being then appointed Postmaster, opened the office in his residence on the southeast corner of First and St. Clair, and held the position until his death, in 1821. He was succeeded by George S. Houston, who re- mained in office until his death, in 1831.
From 1831 to 1843 David Catheart was postmaster, when James Brooks for six months served, by executive appointment. During the latter part of 1843 Thomas Blair succeeded Brooks, and in the spring of 1845 I. W. McCorkle, subsequently a member of Congress from Califor- nia, and for some years a prominent figure in the stormy politics of the Pacific slope, was appointed and held the office until the appointment by President Taylor of General Adam Speice, a veteran of the Mexican War, in 1849.
General Speice, was displaced, in 1853, by Polk, and Colonel E. A. King succeeded him, remaining in office until another change of National politics gave the place, in 1861, to William F. Comly.
In 1868, Major W. M. Green succeeded Comly, and in 1875 Colonel Fielding Loury succeeded him, the latter giving place, in 1882, to A. D. Wilt, whom W. H. Gillespie succeeded in 1886. Lewis J. Judson, the present incumbent, was appointed by President Harrison August 17, 1889.
The migrations of the postoffice during the last forty-five years have been as follows: From the south side of Third Street, between Main and Jefferson, to a building one square further east; from thence, about the beginning of the war, to the northwest corner of Third and Jefferson, under the Beckel House, now occupied by the Third National Bank; under Major Greene's administration, from the Beckel House corner to the southwest corner of Fourth and Jefferson; and in 1884, during the term of A. D. Wilt, from Fourth and Jefferson to the northeast corner of Fifth and Main.
Below is presented a statement of the business during 1888:
RECEIPTS.
Postage stamps, postage due stamps, stamped envelopes, letter sheet envelopes and postal cards sold.
$$9,788 37
Special delivery stamps sold 286 70
Newspaper and periodical stamps sold.
4,503 20
Fees on money orders and postal notes issued 1,333 45
Box rents ...
424 50
Waste paper sales.
20 86
Total receipts $96,357 08
EXPENSES.
Postmaster's salary.
$3,200 00
Assistant postmaster and ten clerks' salarios ..
10,149 45
Twenty-one letter carriers' salaries .. 14,992 36
101 81
Two special delivery messengers' fees.
265 12
Total amount paid to eniployees.
$29,00$ 74
Three substituto letter carriers' salaries
216
HISTORY OF DAYTON.
Ront, heat, and light 3,267 32
Office incidental expenses 86 62
Letter carriers' incidental expenses 1,007 47
Total expenses $33,370 15
RECAPITULATION.
Total receipts. $96,357 08
Total expenses 33,370 15
Net income to the government $62,986 93
MONEY ORDER BUSINESS.
10.471 domestic money orders issued $112,307 39
1,175 international money orders issued 15,520 21
6,795 postal notes issued. 13.088 90
26,034 domestic money orders paid. 250,377 61
290 international money orders paid 4 849 39
17.472 postal notes paid .. 34,370 41
Fees on domestic money orders issued .. 930 50
Fees on international money orders issued 199 10
Fees on postal notes issued 203 85
Total amount of cash transactions 8431,847 36
REGISTERED LETTER BUSINESS.
Registered letters and parcels mailed at this office 4,510
Registered letters and parcels received for delivery at this office ... 14,787
Registered letters and parcels handled in transit ... 10.449
Total number of pieces handled 29,746
FREE DELIVERY BUSINESS.
Number of carriers employed.
21
Delivery trips daily
3
Collection trips daily ..
4
Registered letters d livered ..
12,782
Letters delivered.
2,805,015
Postal cards delivered
676,973
Newspapers, circulars, and all printed matter delivered.
2,135,094
Local letters collected.
282,341
Mail letters collected
1,646 774
Local postal cards collected
221,435
Mail postal cards collected
400.911
Newspapers, circulars, and all printed matter collected
612,011
Total number of pieces handled by carriers ..
8,792,196
Total number of pieces handled per carrier. 418,690
SPECIAL DELIVERY BUSINESS.
Number of letters and parcels delivered by special messenger.
3,314
MAILING DEPARTMENT.
First-class mitter ( letters and pos al cards ) originating at Dayton
4,065,576
Second-class matter ( newspapers and periodicals to regular subscribers ) ) pounds originating at Dayton .. picces
3,152 240
Third and fourth-class matter, circulars, transient newspapers, printed matter, merchandise, etc., originating at Daytou
2,244,498
Number of letters and postal cards received from railway postoffice routes and other p: stoffices for distribution and dispatch .. 3,318,63 )
Number of packages of papers and merchandise received from railway postoffice
routes and other postoffices for distribution and dispatch 2,947,175
Total number of pieces handled. 15,758,124
Number of pouches dispatched.
17,31%
Number of tie sacks dispatched.
52,208
Number of pouches received
16,899
Number of tie sacks received.
32,331
Total number of pouches aud tie sacks handled. 118,759
Mail trains departing daily
Mail trains arriving daily .. 21
Total income of office in 1887
$79.018 49
Total income of office in ISSS
96,357. 08
Net income of office in 1-87 50,891 60
Net income of office in ISSS,
62,986 13
450,320
0
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1
CHAPTER XIII.
Educational-Early School Legislation-Great Interest in Public Schools 1835-1838-Dayton Academy-Lancasterian School-Early Private Schools-Francis Glass-Milo G. Wil- liams-E. E. Barney-Dayton Public Schools-German Schools-Night Schools- Colored Schools -- Instruction in Music-High School-School Law of 18 3-Superin- tendent of Instruction - Intermediate School - Normal School-Penmanship and Drawing-Night Industrial School-Comparative Statement-Public Libraries-First Library Incorporated in Ohio-Dayton Lyceum-Mechanics' Institute-Dayton Library Association - Dayton Public School Library-Cooper Female Seminary-Emanuel Parochial School-St. Joseph's Parochial School -- St. Mary's Parochial School-Holy Trinity Parochial School-Holy Rosary Parochial School -- St. Mary's Institute-Deaver Collegiate Institute-Miss Anna L. J. Arnold's Select School for Girls-John Truesdell's Select School for Boys-Miami Commercial College-Union Biblical Seminary.
THE celebrated ordinance of 1787, so potent in molding the thought and institutions of Ohio, provided that "religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of instruction shall forever be encour- aged," and the first constitution of Ohio declared that this shall be done by "legislative provision." In the ordinance of 1785, regulating the sale of lands in the West, Section Number 16 of every township was reserved "for the maintenance of public schools within the said township." While the declaration of the ordinance and the constitution, and the munificent provision of land, owing to the then small value of the land and the com- parative poverty of the people, remained for a long time inoperative, they were the germs out of which time and favorable circumstances were only needed to develop our splendid free school system. It was not until 1825 ยท that the first act establishing free schools was passed by the legislature. A citizen of Dayton, Judge George B. Holt, was a member of the legislature that year, and was an earnest and active advocate of the measure. The tax levied was but one mill on the dollar, and being inadequate resulted in little immediate good. It was, however, an important step in advance, for it established the principle of direct taxation for the support of schools. How insignificant the sum realized was will appear from two facts.taken at random from the books of the auditor of Montgomery County. In 1829 the total amount for school purposes apportioned to Dayton Towu- ship, at that time embracing a very large territory, was one hundred and thirty-three dollars. In 1833 the school fund for Montgomery County was only eighteen hundred and sixty-five dollars.
16
217
218
HISTORY OF DAYTON.
From 1835 to 1838 occurred in Ohio a wide-spread and intense interest on the subject of public school education analogous to a revival of religion. Conventions were held and addresses made on the subject of education in every part of the State. Samuel Lewis was elected the first superintendent of instruction, and the Rev. Calvin E. Stowe, D. D., was sent by the legislature to Germany to investigate and report on the system of public education in Prussia. An elaborate report was made by Dr. Stowe to the legislature, which was printed, widely circulated, and made a profound impression on the public mind.
A memorable convention was held in Dayton in August, 1836, in the interest of free schools, the proceedings of which were published in full in the Dayton Journal. A committee of arrangements was appointed; consisting of E. E. Barney, R. C. Carter, R. C. Schenck, George B. Holt, and Milo G. Williams. Delegates were present from Cincinnati, Dayton, Oxford, Springfield, Hamilton, Lebanon, Middletown, and Franklin, and visitors from Bellville, New Jersey, and Detroit, Michigan. Rev. E. Allen was elected president and D. A. Haynes secretary. The convention remained in session three days. Able addresses were made by Rev. W. H. McGuffey, D. D., a man of remarkable ability as a speaker and after- wards the compiler of the famous readers that bore his name, and Dr. Harrison, an eloquent and distinguished professor in the Cincinnati Medical College. The discussions took a wide range and were parti, cipated in by some of the most distinguished educators in the State. What advanced views were held may be learned from the resolutions adopted which favored the establishment of normal schools that teaching might become a profession; the introduction in the schools of the studies of geology and physiology; and the publication of a periodical to be called the Teachers' Magazine.
The Dayton Journal, at that time edited by R. N. and W. F. Comly, warmly and ably advocated the cause of public schools, and freely opened its columns to the discussion of the subject. But how inadequate the school fund was as late as 1837 to support free schools appears from a statement in the Journal that the taxes available that year for school purposes in Dayton amounted to only eight hundred and eight dollars and forty cents. It was the remarkable popular uprising in favor of free schools, that extended throughout the State that insured the passage of the school law of 1838 which rendered an efficient school system possible.
But while the time for free schools had to wait for the development of the country, the pioneer citizens of Dayton were not insensible to the value of education for their children. As early as 1799 a school was
5
219
EDUCATIONAL.
taught in a block house located near the river bank, at the head of Main Street, which had been built for protection against Indians. Benjamin Van Cleve, so prominent in the early history of Dayton, was the teacher, and the school was continued through parts of the years 1799 and 1800. It is probable that Dayton was at no time without a school, but the names of only a few of the teachers have come down to us. Cornelius Westfall, a Kentuckian, opened a school in the fall of 1804 and taught a year in a cabin on Main Street, south of First. He was succeeded in 1805 by Chauncey Whiting, of Pennsylvania.
Fortunately the records of the old Dayton Academy were carefully preserved by the late John W. Van Cleve, and have been deposited in the Public Library. From this source we may trace the history of that institution. In 1807 an act incorporating the Dayton Academy was obtained from the legislature. The incorporators were James Welsh, Daniel C. Cooper, William McClure, David Reid, Benjamin Van Cleve, George F. Tennery, John Folkerth, and James Hanna. In 1808 the trustees erected by subscription a substantial two-story brick school- house on the lot lying north of and adjoining the Park Presbyterian Church. Mr. D. C. Cooper, the proprietor of the town site, a man of large and liberal views, donated, in addition to his subscription, two lots and a bell.
William M. Smith, afterward for many years a prominent citizen of Dayton, was the first teacher employed. In his contract with the trustees . he proposed to teach "reading, writing, arithmetic, the classics, and the sciences." Training in elocution was made prominent, one of the rules of the school requiring that "for the improvement of the boys in public speaking a certain number, previously appointed by the teacher, shall at every public examination pronounce orations and dialogues in prose and verse, to be selected or approved by the teacher, and familiar pieces shall be recited in the presence of the teacher by all boys in rotation who can read with facility, every Saturday morning." In 1815 Mr. Smith had for an assistant Rev. James B. Findley, who afterward became a distinguished Methodist preacher. Mr. Smith continued principal of the Academy for many years, and was succeeded by Gideon McMillan, a graduate of the University of Glasgow. If we may credit the claims made by Me- Millan, in his advertisements, he must have been an accomplished scholar, as he offers to teach both the ancient and modern languages.
In 1820 the Lancasterian, or " mutual instruction" system of educa- tion, was exciting great interest. Joseph Lancaster, an Englishman, deeply impressed with the advantages of the system, which had been introduced into England from India by Dr. Bell, in 1789 opened a school for poor children in Southwork. The success was great and liberal con-
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220
HISTORY OF DAYTON.
tributions poured in to enable him to extend the schools to other places. Dr. Bell now appeared, claimed the system as his own, and being a churchman and having the support of the clergy, supplanted Lancaster, who was a Quaker. Lancaster, disheartened, emigrated to the United States in 1818 and soon succeeded in awakening a wide-spread interest in his methods, and Lancasterian schools sprang up in every part of the country. The system no doubt was characterized by some valuable principles, which have been embodied in present methods of instruction. It was claimed that by promoting scholars in each class to the position of monitors or instructors on the ground of good, scholarship and conduct, one teacher, who only needed to act as general supervisor, might control and instruct five hundred scholars, thus saving great expense. Corporal punishment was never resorted to, and tickets of merit to be given or withdrawn were the sole reward or punishment for scholarship or con- duct. No public examinations were held and pupils were expected to be governed only by a sense of honor. The high hopes excited by the Lancasterian system of education, its general adoption in the towns and cities of the United States, and its entire abandonment, is an interesting episode in school history, and may serve to moderate our enthusiasm for new methods of instruction until thoroughly tested by experience.
Sharing in the general feeling in favor of the Lancasterian methods of instruction, the trustees of the Dayton Academy determined to intro- duce it in, that institution. The trustees at that time were Joseph HI. Crane, Aaron Baker, William M. Smith, George S. Houston, and David Lindsly. It was necessary to erect a building specially adapted to the purpose. The house was built of brick on the north side of the academy and consisted of a single room, sixty-two feet long and thirty-two feet wide. The floor was of brick and the house was heated by "convolving flues" underneath the floor. The walls were thickly hung with printed lesson cards, before which the classes were marched to recite under mon- itors selected from their own number as a reward for meritorious conduct and scholarship. For the youngest scholars a long, narrow desk, thickly covered with white sand, was provided, on which, with wooden pencils, they copied and learned the letters of the alphabet from cards hung up before them.
The school was opened in the fall of 1820.
A few of the rules adopted for the government of the school may illustrate some of the peculiarities of the system:
"The moral and literary instruction of the pupils entered at the Dayton Lancasterian Academy will be studiously, diligently, and temper- ately attended to.
1
221
EDUCATIONAL. .
"They will be taught to spell and read deliberately and distinctly, agrecably to the rules laid down in Walker's Dictionary; and in order to do that correctly they will be made conversant with the first rules of grammar. The senior class will be required to give a complete gram- matical analysis of the words as they proceed.
" They will be required to write with freedom all the different hands now in use, on the latest and most approved plan of proportion and distance.
"There will be no public examinations at particular seasons; in a Lancasterian school every day being an examination day, at which all who have leisure are invited to attend."
In 1821 the trustees adopted the following resolution, which would hardly accord with present ideas of the jurisdiction of boards of education or the authority of teachers:
"Resolved, That any scholar attending the Lancasterian school who may be found playing ball on the Sabbath, or resorting to the woods or commons on that day for sport, shall forfeit any badge of merit he may have obtained, and twenty-five tickets; and if the offense appears ag- gravated, shall be further degraded, as the tutor shall think proper and necessary; and that this resolution be read in school every Friday previous to the dismission of the scholars."
Gideon McMillan, who had previously been employed in the academy, and who claimed to be an expert, having taught in a Lancasterian school in Europe, was appointed the first principal. In 1822 he was succeeded by Captain John McMullin, who came with high recommendations from Lexington, Virginia. In connection with the school while under his charge occurred in 1823 a unique Fourth of July celebration. A pro- cession, composed of the clergy of the town, the trustees, the teachers, and two hundred scholars, marched from the school to the Presbyterian church, where the Declaration of Independence was read by Henry Bacon, and a sermon delivered by Rev. N. M. Hinkle. It seems that Captain McMullin had served as a soldier, for the Watchman, in a notice of the celebration, says: "Captain John McMullin appeared as much in the service of his country when marching at the head of the Lancasterian school as when formerly leading his company to battle.", Captain Mc- Mullin was succeeded in the school by James II. Mitchell, a graduate of Yale College, who taught for several years, but after a fair trial discon- tinued the Lancasterian methods. Mr. Mitchell afterwards followed the profession of civil engineer and was a highly esteemed citizen of Dayton for many years.
In 1833 the academy property was sold and a new building erected
222
HISTORY OF DATTON.
on lots purchased on the southwest corner of Fourth and Wilkinson streets. At this time the trustees were Aaron Baker, Job . Haines, Obadiah B. Conover, James Steele, and John W. Van Cleve. Mr. E. E Barney, a graduate of Union College, New York, was elected principal in 1834, and remained at the head of the school until 1839 when he retired and engaged in business. Mr. Barney was a remarkable teacher and man, and fuller notice of him will be given. By the introduction of the analytical methods of instruction he exerted an important influence on our public schools. Teachers educated by him carried these methods into the schools in advance of most places in the West and gave them in their early history a high reputation.
In 1840 a school was taught in the academy building by Mr. Collins Wight. In 1844 the trustees placed the academy in charge of Mr. Milo G. Williams, a teacher of large experience and reputation, who remained until 1850 when he removed from the city. By this time the public schools had been successfully established and a high school organized. The trustees, believing that a separate academy was no longer needed, after obtaining authority from the legislature, deeded the property to the city board of education.
Numerous advertisements of schools taught outside of the academy appear in the Dayton papers between 1815 and 1834. Mention may be made of a few of the most prominent. In 1815 Mrs. Dionecia Sullivan opened a school for girls, in which were taught reading, writing, sewing, lettering with the needle, and painting. Mrs. Sullivan and her husband, William Sullivan, were prominent and influential in the carly history of the Methodist Church in Dayton, and were highly esteemed. In 1823 Francis Glass, A. M., the author of a "Life of Washington" in Latin, opened & school for instruction in the ordinary English branches, mathematics, the classics, and modern languages. Mr. Glass was so remarkable as to deserve a more extended notice, which will be given on a future page. In 1829 Edmund Harrison, a competent and successful teacher, taught what he called the Inductive Academy in a building which he erected for the purpose. Mr. Harrison was followed by Norman Fenn, who for several years was a popular teacher. In 1832 Miss Maria Harrison, a daughter of Edmund Harrison, an accomplished woman,. taught a school for young ladies. In 1831 T. J. S. Smith, afterwards an eminent member of the Dayton bar, taught a school for boys in the stone building on Main Street, known as the old Bank building.
To illustrate how soon new ideas penetrated the West it may be mentioned that Dr. and Mrs. Foster in 1829 advertised a school to be conducted on the method of Pestalozzi.
223
EDUCATIONAL.
Advertisements of singing schools and writing schools appear fre- quently. The flaming advertisement of D. Easton, teacher of penmanship, recalls the day before the invention of steel pens, when no small part of the time of the teacher was consumed in making and mending quill pens. HIe offers to teach "the round running hand, the ornamental Italian hand, the waving hand, the swift angular running hand without ruling, and various others, both plain and ornamental, and will also give lessons in making quill pens."
If we may believe that the teachers were competent to teach what they professed in their advertisements there was no branch of study from the simplest rudiments to Hebrew that was beyond the reach of the pupils of Dayton at that early day.
A few of the carly Dayton teachers are worthy of special notice. Francis Glass, A. M., who taught here in 1823-1824, was born in London- derry, Ireland, in 1790, and came with his parents to America when he was eight years old. His father was engaged as a teacher at Mount Airy College, Philadelphia, where he remained until his death. Francis Glass was educated at the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated in his nineteenth year. He married young, and, pressed by the wants of an increasing family, he emigrated in 1817 to Ohio in the hope of improving his fortunes. Better adapted to a professor's chair in a college than to the rude schoolhouses of the West, he met with no great success as a teacher. He removed from place to place, teaching the first school taught in Clinton County, Ohio, and having schools at various times in Warren, Miami, and Montgomery counties. There is something pathetic in the story of this enthusiastic and guileless scholar, who, amid the hardships of pioneer life and the bitter privations of poverty, never for a moment lost interest in classical study. Mr. J. P. Reynolds, one of his pupils, who was instrumental in securing the publication of the "Life of Wash- ington" in Latin, in an introduction to that work, gives a graphic description of a pioneer schoolhouse and of its teacher, Francis Glass. Wishing to pursue classical studies, and having heard of Glass as a competent teacher, Mr. Reynolds sought him out. He says: "The school- house now rises fresh in my memory. The building was a log cabin with a clap-board roof, but indifferently lighted-all the light of heaven found in this cabin came through apertures made ou each side of the logs, and then were covered with oiled paper to keep out the cold air, while they admitted the dim rays. The seats or benches were of hewn timber, resting on upright posts placed in the ground to keep them from being overturned by the mischievous urchins who sat on them. In the . center was a large stove, between which and the back part of the building
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