History of Delaware County and Ohio, Part 41

Author: O. L. Baskin & Co; Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago, O.L. Baskin & Co.
Number of Pages: 818

USA > Ohio > Delaware County > History of Delaware County and Ohio > Part 41

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If we work upon merble, it will perich; if we work upon brass, time will efface lt; if we rear templee, they will crumble into duet, but, if we work npon immortal minde, if we imbue them with pure principles, with the just fear of God and love of fellowmen, we engrave on those tablets something which will hrighteo to all eternity .- Daniel Webster.

I T is a fact highly commendable to the early set- tlers of the county, that with all the trials inci- dent on settlement in a new and undeveloped country, and the numbers of rough and vicious men who always seek the frontiers, the teachings of the Christian religion were felt and realized in the most remote settlements. What a rebuke, too, is given to the ministers of the present, who, rolling in luxury, sleek in broadcloth and pompous from high living, seem totally oblivious of the self- sacrifice, devotion and arduous toil of those men who first planted the standard of the Cross in the sparsely settled frontiers of the West. Without hope of the least temporal remuneration, exposed to danger and disease, subject to the severest trials and most painful privations, they went out forego- ing all the joys of home and the society of loved ones, only to be instrumental in the advancement of the truth and the salvation of men. Often the poineer preacher, with no companion but the faith- ful horse he rode, would start across the country,

with no guide but the knowledge he had of the cardinal points, and, reaching the desired settlement, would present the claims of the Gospel to the few assembled hearers, after the toilsome and lonely day's journey ; then after a night's rest in the humble cabin, and partaking of the simple meal, he again enters upon the journey of the day, to preach again at a distant point. Thus the " cir- cuit " of hundreds of miles was traveled month after month ; and to these men we owe the plant- ing of churches all over our land, and the hal- lowed influences of religion as seen and felt in society everywhere.

At this late day, it is impossible to learn who was the first minister to visit the territory uow embraced in Delaware County. The first of whom we have any reliable account were Revs. Drake and Hughes. They lived in Delaware, but we hear of them in all parts of the county, holding meetings and organizing churches. Rev. Drake was a Baptist, and Hughes was of the Presbytc- rian denomination. The people of the Berkshire settlement were in the habit of attending church now and then in Delaware, and in the eastern part of the county we learn there were only occasional

240

HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.

religious meetings prior to 1815, except by the itinerant Methodists. Says a local chroniele : " Meetings were held in the log schoolhouses or in the largest cabins. Quarterly meetings were held in Deacon Carpenter's barn, a little north of Sun- bury. Bishop Chase occasionally visited Berk- shire and preached in David and Joseph Pierce's barn. In 1818, Rev. Ebenezer Washburn, Pres- byterian, came to Berkshire and settled, and was the first of that denomination to locate in that part of the county. He remained but two or three years, and then went to Genoa Township." The Baptists early formed a society in the present township of Brown. They erected a church north of Eden Village, so long ago that it has already erumbled into ruins. The Presbyterians and Methodists also had churches here in an early day. Another of the early ministers of the county was Rev. Van Deman, of Delaware, a Pres- byterian. He formed a church in Coneord Town- ship, and used to preach at the cabin of Henry Crygder, occasionally. The first preachers noted in Liberty Township-the scenes of the first settlement in the county -- were Revs. Drake and Hughes, of Delaware. The Presbyterians built the first church in that settlement. Rev. Williams was a pioneer preacher of Genoa Township, as also Rev. Wigden, of Kingston.

Thus the Gospel spread throughout the county, until every township, village and neighborhood has its church, with its spire reaching heavenward, and its congregation gathering around its altar on the Lord's day, offering praises to the Most High. We do not purpose to go into a detailed history of the churches in the county. This will be done in the chapters devoted to each town and township respectively. We have intended, only, to notice briefly the introduction of Christianity and the Gospel, and to contrast the past with the present. Those who remember the pioneer preach- er, and his life of toil; how he-

" Through cold and storms of rain and snow, Both day and night, was called to go-"

and how he preached salvation, without money and without price, will not deny the fact, that, in the way of progress, Christianity has kept pace with worldly matters.

As early as 1647, a move was made in the New England colonies, looking to the establishment of common schools. The following law was adopted in the year noted, by the people of that region, the Athens of America : "It being a chief proj- ect of that old deluder, Sathan, to keep men from

the knowledge of the Seriptures, it is determined that every child, rich and poor alike, shall have the privilege of learning to read its own language." Following the promulgation of this law, it was then enacted that "every town or distriet having fifty householders should have a common school;" and, that " every town or distriet having one hun- dred families should have a grammar school, taught by teachers competent to prepare youth for college." A modern writer, commenting on this movement of our New England fathers, extols it as an event deserving of more than mere record. He says : " It was the first instance in Christendom, in which a eivil government took measures to con- fer upon its youth the blessings of education. There had been, indeed, parish schools connected with individual churches, and foundations for universities, but never before was embodied in practice a principle so comprehensive in its nature and so fruitful in good results as that of training a nation of intelligent people by edueating all its youth." One hundred and forty years later, when our forefathers declared in their ordinance (of 1787) that knowledge, with religion and morality, "was necessary to the good government and hap- piness of mankind," and "that schools and the means of education should forever be encouraged " -they suggested the very bulwark of American liberty. About the time that ordinance was adopted, science and literature began to advance in a man- ner they had never done before, and the interest awakened at that time is still on the advance.

In the early development of Ohio, there was a great variety of influences in the way of general education. The settlements were sparse, and money or other means of remunerating teachers was searce, as the pioneers of new countries are nearly always poor. There were no schoolhouses erected, nor was there any public school-fund, either State or county. . All persons, of both sexes, who had physical strength enough to labor, were compelled to take their part in the work of securing a support-the labor of the female being as heavy and important as that of the men; and this continued so for years. In the last place, both teachers and books were extremely searce. Taking all these facts together, it is a wonder that they had any schools whatever. But the pioneers of Ohio deserve the highest honors for their prompt and energetic efforts in this direction. Just so soon as the settlements would at all jus- tify, schools were begun at each one. The teacher or pupil of to-day has no conception of getting

241

HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.

an education under difficulties. It may be of some interest to the rising generation to have a descrip- tion of the primitive schoolhouse. A description of one will suffice for all, as there was but one style of architecture observed in building them. They were erected, not by subscription, but by labor given. The neighbors would gather to- gether at some point previously agreed upon, and, with ax in hand, the work was soon done. Logs were cut sixteen or eighteen feet in length, and of these the walls were raised. Broad boards com- posed the roof, and a rude fireplace and clap-board door, a puncheon floor, and the cracks filled with "chinks," and these daubed over with mud, com- pleted the schoolhouse, with the exception of the windows and furniture. The window, if any, was made by cutting. out a log the full length of the building, and over the opening, in winter, paper saturated with grease served to admit the light. Just under this window, two or three strong pins were driven in the log in a slanting direction. On these pins, a long "puncheon " was fastened, and this was the writing-desk for the whole school. For seats, they used benches made from small trees, cut in lengths of ten or twelve feet, split open, and, in the round side, two large holes were bored at each end, and in each, a stout pin fifteen inches long was driven. These pins formed the legs. On the uneven floors these rude benches were hardly ever seen to have more than three legs on the floor at one time. And the books! They were as primitive as the houses. The New Testament, when it could be had, was the most popular reader, though occasionally a copy of the old "English Reader" was found, and very rarely, the " Colum- bian Orator " was in a family. Pike's and Smi- ley's Arithmetics, Webster's Speller, was first used, and after a while the "Elementary Speller " came in. Grammar was scarcely ever taught ; when it was, the text-hooks used were Murray's and Kirkham's Grammars. The schools were made by subscription, the terms being from $1 to $2.50 per scholar for a term of three months, the schools usually being taught in mid- winter to give the boys a chance to attend, as at that season there was but little work to do on the farm. But we will not follow the description further. Those who have known only our perfect system of schools of the present can scarcely form an idea of their limited extent and capacity fifty or sixty years ago. There are many, however, still living in Delaware County, who can very clearly realize the above picture of the pioneer schoolhouse.

It is a strange but very creditable fact, that schools were begun in the principal centers of the early settlements nearly at the same time, and within a very few years after the first settlers came to the country. It cannot be now stated with any degree of certainty who taught the first school in the county, or where it was taught. But we find that the subject of schools was one that received attention in every neighborhood, and that, too, at a very early period. Sometimes these schools were taught at the cabin of some settler who had a little spare room; sometimes in an abandoned cabin, or an unused shed, and sometimes even in rail pens prepared temporarily for the purpose. In Berk- shire Township, we learn that the first school was taught by Clara Thompson for a term of three months; and that the first schoolhouse erected in that settlement was a small cabin built of rough logs, and located a little south of the Granville road. Cynthia Sloper taught the next school after Miss Thompson, and Solomon Smith taught the first winter school. The first school taught in what is now Berlin Township was in an old vacant cabin in the settlement, by Julia Ripley, nee Calk- ins. The block-house erected in this settlement during the early Indian wars, was, when no longer required for defense, converted into a temple of learning, and in it Prof. Burr held sway, as early as 1811. David Eaton taught the first school in the present township of Brown, in a little house built for school purposes, on the north side of the graveyard, at Eden. Anthony Griffith succeeded him as pedagogue of the Alum Creek settlement, as it was then called. The first school in what is now Concord Township was taught in an old granary donated by James Kooken for the pur- pose; but who was the teacher we could not learn. This was used some time as both church and schoolhouse, when Henry Cryder, removing into a new and better house, gave his old one for a schoolhouse; and John Wilson taught the first school in it. It stood on the site of the present United Brethren Church. In the present town- ship of Troy, a Mrs. Bush taught the first school ; and a man named Goop taught the first winter school in what is now Trenton, while one Clarissa Studyvant taught during the summer. The first schoolhouse in this settlement was erected on Big Walnut, on the Mount Vernon road. In what is now Thompson, James Crawford was the first ped- agogue, and held forth in a small hewed-log cabin on Fulton Creek. Mrs. Nidy taught the first school in the Scioto settlement in a rude hut,

242

HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.

abandoned as a cattle-shed, by James McCune. In what is now Radnor Township, Dr. Dickey takes rank as the first teacher, and occupied a small building which had been erected for the purpose on the "plat of New Baltimore." A block- house erected in this neighborhood during the war was turned to use as a school edifice when the war was over. A Mr. Penny was also an early teacher in Radnor. Elizabeth Heath taught the first school in the present town of Oxford, and Robert Louther, the first in what is now Marl- borough. He taught in a small cabin just east of the river from Norton. In the Harlem neigh- borhood, David Gregory was the first teacher of whom we have any record; and the first school- house was erected on the site of Harlem Chapel. Lawson Gooding taught the first school in what is now Genoa Township, in a cabin erected on the farm of Ralph Smith. In Kingston, we learn that Miss Eliza String was the first school- ma'am. She taught in a small house known as the "Curtis Schoolhouse," from the fact of its having been erected on the land of Charles Cur- tis. Such were some of the early schools in this county, and the difficulties under which they were inaugurated and carried on. The patience required by the teachers to bear them up through the trials and difficulties under which they labored would appall the modern schoolma'am and discour- age her hopelessly in her daily tasks. As we write upon the subject, the following lines float up in our mind:

"The schoolhouse stood beside the way,

A shabby building, old and gray, . With rattling sash and loose-hung door,

And rough, uneven walls and floor;

And why the little homespun crew

It gathered were some ways more blest Than others, you would scarce have guessed ; It is a secret known to few.

* * * *

Only the teacher-wise of heart- Divined the landscape's blessed art; And when she felt the lag and stir

Of her young idlers fretting her, Outglancing o'er the meadows wide, The ruffling woods, the far hillside,

She drew fresh breath of God's free grace,

A gentler look came in her face; Her kindly voice caught in its own An echo of that pleasant tone In which the great world sang its song- "' Be cheerful, patient, still and strong.'"

By way of contrasting the early schools with the present perfect system of education, now in suc- cessful operation throughout the State of Ohio, we

give a few statistics pertaining to this county, as extracted from the last report of Hon. J. J. Burns, State Commissioner of common schools, made to the General Assembly for 1878 :

AMOUNT OF SCHOOL MONEYS RECEIVED WITHIN THE YEAR, Balance on hand, September 1, 1877. $ 46,899 19 State tax 12,701 25

Irreducible school fund 794 39

Local tax for school and schoolhouse pur- poses 44,879 08 Fines, licenses, tuition of non-resident pu- pils, etc 2,897 99

Total receipts

$107,671 88

AMOUNT EXPENDED WITHIN THE YEAR.

Amount paid teachers-Primary

$39,485 28

High 3,898 50

Total.

$43,383 78

Managing and superintending. 800 00 Sites and buildings .. 9,154 16

Interest on, or redemption of bonds. 147 30

Fuel and other contingent expenses. 9,460 55

Total expenses

$62,945 79

Balance on hand, September 1, 1878.

$44,726 09

NUMBER OF YOUTHS BETWEEN SIX AND TWENTY-ONE

YEARS.

White -- Males

4,413

Females

3,962

Total

8,375

Colored-Males.

Females

Total

139

Total white and colored in county 8,514

Number in United States Military District, 7,586

Number in Virginia Military District ...... 928

Total.

8,514

Population of county in 18,70 25,175

Enumeration youth of school age in 1878. 8,514

Per cent. enumeration of population 34

Number of townships in county 18

Number of subdivisions in county.

146

Number of separate districts ....

Suhdivisions included in separate districts 11 ..

WHOLE NUMBER OF SCHOOLHOUSES.

Townships-Primary

146

Separate districts-Primary.

Total

157

TOTAL' VALUE OF SCHOOL PROPERTY.

Townships-Primary ..

$ 95,100 00

Separate districts-Primary

103,300 00

Grand Total.

$198,400 00

DELAWARE COUNTY JAIL, DELAWARE.

HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.

245

NUMBER OF TEACHERS NECESSARY TO SUPPLY THE

SCHOOLS.

Townships. 149

Separate districts. 39

Total 188

NUMBER OF DIFFERENT TEACHERS EMPLOYED IN THE WITHIN THE YEAR.

Townships-Males.

Females 183

Total. 280

Separate districts-Primary-Males 2

Females 30

·High-Males

Females 2

Total

Grand Total

318

NUMBER OF DIFFERENT PUPILS ENROLLED.

Townships-Primary-Boys. 2,793

Girls.

2,298

Total 5,091

Separate districts-primary-Boys

869

Girls. 898

High-Boys

112

Girls 173

Total

2,052

Grand Total

7,143

AVERAGE ATTENDANCE.

Townships-Primary-Boys

1,702

Girls

1,456

Total.

3,158

Separate districts-Primary-Boys.

575

Girls 610

High-Boys

Girls

102

Total 1,351

"Grand Total

4,509

Upon the subject of " Compulsory Education," Mr. Burns, in his report from which we have taken the above statistics, says : "Concerning the right of State or government to pass and carry into effect what are known as compulsory laws, and require parents and guardians, even against their will, to send children to school, there does not appear to be much diversity of opinion. Concerning the policy thereof dependent upon so many known and un- known conditions, there is the widest diversity. I can write no history of the results of the act of

March 20, 1877, for it does not seem to have any. A great good would be wrought if the wisdom of the General Assembly could devise some means which shall strengthen and supplement the powers of boards of education, and enable them to prevent truancy, even if only in cases where parents desire their children to attend school regularly, but pa- rental authority is too weak to secure that end. The instances are not few in which parents would welcome aid in this matter, knowing that truancy is often the first step in a path leading through the dark mazes of idleness, vagabondage and crime.

" Whatever may be said of young children work- ing in mills and factories, youthful idlers upon the streets of our towns and cities should be gathered up by somebody and compelled to do something. If they learn nothing else, there will be at least this salutary lesson, that society is stronger than they, and, without injuring them, will use its "strength to protect itself. While we are establish- ing reform schools for those who have started in the way to their own ruin, and have donned the uniform of the enemies of civil society, it would be a heavenly importation to provide some way to res- cue those who arc yet only lingering around the camp."

This portion of our history would doubtless be thought incomplete, without an extract or two from an article in the Western Collegian, written by Dr. Hills, and entitled " Pioneer Institutions of Learn- ing:" " The Faculty and students of the O. W. U. have a fancy that theirs is the pioneer institution of learning located on our Campus. But they are mis- taken. It happens to be the third, or even the fourth, in chronological order. What its relative position may be in order of merit, we will not stop now to investigate. We can only give a few partic- ulars regarding the true pioneers. These earlier in- stitutions had some advantage over the moderu ones. They had no large building fund to be quarreled over ; no large endowment funds to trouble the treasurer for investment beyond his own wants ; no unwieldy machinery of management, as boards of trustees with their gearings of cams and eccen- trics ; no large faculty, which, on chemical analysis, is found composed of incompatibles, the light- weights getting atop in the test-tube. The curric- ulum of study was soon disposed of, consisting generally of the three R.'s only ; no horde of book publishers and booksellers then annoyed them, as any rebellion against Dilworth, Webster, Murray, Daboll and Pike, would have been a cer- tain failure.

246

HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.

"The Morgan Academy or High School, was number one of the pioneer institutions. Its first name was derived from the name of its principal preceptor, and the second from its location in the upper story of the house it was in. This was our old acquaint- ance, the Pioneer Tavern, near the Medicine Water. Soon after the war of 1812, this tavern gave up the ghost-as a tavern-and its spacious ballroom was used for a high school. It had in part also, the character of a boarding-school, for it is remembered that a family lived in the other part of the old tavern, who kept boarders, etc. * * The Morgan High School was only of a few years' duration. It was conducted on the Solomonian principles, now so thoroughly obsolete that few un- derstand them. The record of its Alumni is lost.

"The Female Seminary, the next institution, was a pioneer of the O.W. F. C .- but was located on our Campus, in the old Haunted House-the old brick tannery. This was in charge of a lady principal for some two or three years, and we are inclined to the opinion that it was mainly for that reason that it was termed the ladies' seminary, for, according to the most reliable tradi- tions, it had about the usual admixture of the sexes.

" Quitman's Academic Grove was an institution that received its name from the proprietor, presi- dent, preceptor, etc., all in the person of John A. Quitman, afterward Governor of Mississippi, Major General in the Mexican War, and also from its being in the actual grove, with its fallen log seats, its tree columns, festooned with their wild- grape hangings, and having the clear canopy of heaven above. * *

* The exact location of Quitman's Academic Grove was on the promontory of high ground running off south of the present library building. Here was a cozy little opening in the dense woods around, with a little of sun and plenty of shade, as season required. It was here that young Quitman took his pupils, the sons of a queer, eccentric old gentleman, whenever. they could stealthily get there, for they were closely housed in town by the old gentleman, and only got out for exercise, and when the old man went along, he and the tutor headed the column, marched off a mile or so down the dusty road, and then returned to their prison-like house.

As the Ohio Wesleyan University, a noble insti- tion of learning, is ably written up in the history of Delaware City, we shall not go into details of it in this chapter, but merely notice it in general

terms. It was chartered in 1842, the Preparatory Department opened in the following year, and the college regularly organized in the fall of 1845. The property, which had become quite noted as a watering-place, was purchased by the citizens of Delaware, and offered to the Methodist Episcopal Church as a site for a college, an offer that was at once accepted. The Legislature granted the institution a liberal charter, and a faculty was or- ganized, of which Rev. Edward Thompson was elected President, an office he filled until 1860, when he resigned. The institution has always en- joyed a high degree of prosperity, steadily grow- ing in numbers, endowment and facilities for learn- ing, and popular favor. Howe has the following in regard to its endowment: "This University re- ceived nothing from the Government, but originated in the liberality of the citizens of Delaware, em- bracing all denominations, who donated the build- ing and ten acres of land, valued at $10,000; five acres adjoining, including the President's house, at $5,000 ; a farm near Marion, at $10,000; other lands at $2,000, and notes, $45,000-all obtained by subscription, making a total amount of $72,000. These scholarship notes were obtained in various parts of the State, each $100 entitling the debtor to five years' tuition, the interest payable annually. Last year the receipts were : interest on notes, $2,500 ; rent of farm, $300; tuition, $1,000; total, $3,800. The expenses for professors' salaries were $3,350. A new and elegant chapel of limestone is now erecting, and will be finished in 1848. Its cost is to be defrayed from the proceeds of a small octavo volume of original sermons, forty-five in number, by the elder Methodist ministers. It has just issued from the press (June, 1847), and the first edition of 5,000 volumes sold in six weeks. This manifestation of spirit, connected with the fact that the first an- nual catalogue exhibits an array of 162 pupils, warrants the conclusion that the institution is destined to flourish remarkably. It must be so, as this is the only college in the State under the control of the Methodists, who, in the same bounds, number 150,000 communicants, just being prop- erly awakened in the important cause of educa- tion." How well the prediction, thus ventured at an early period in its history, has been fulfilled, the present prosperity of the institution affords the best of evidence. There are now four large and commodious buildings upon the grounds. The first one erected was built originally by Judge Thomas W. Powell for a hotel, and was known as

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History of Delaware County and Ohio, Part 41

Author: O. L. Baskin & Co; Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892? Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Chicago, O.L. Baskin & Co. Number of Pages: 818

Author: O. L. Baskin & Co; Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago, O.L. Baskin & Co.
Number of Pages: 818