USA > Ohio > Guernsey County > History of Guernsey County, Ohio, Volume I > Part 11
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38
I22
GUERNSEY COUNTY, OHIO.
comply with their terms, and the gingerbread, cider and apples were passed around. This was a custom of barbarous days, and is happily now no more, but it was no more barbarous than is the custom of hazing, now practiced in the best colleges of the land.
We have now passed over the schools of Cambridge from the first in 1807 to the beginning of the free schools in 1836. We have not given all the schools, having named only those that seemed to be of the most note. During these years there were schools taught by Reverend Mills, a Presby- terian preacher, John McGuire, William Walker, C. J. Albright, Joshua Hunt, A. W. Beatty, J. D. Tingle, Mrs. Rhoda Needham, Miss Mary Hersh, Miss La Baire, Miss Gibbs and perhaps others. These were all the ungraded scholars, and they brought such books as they had, the "English Reader," "Introduction to the English Reader," and the Testament. These were the general reading books. Dillworth's and the "United States" were the spelling books. Arithmetics were the "Western Calculator," Smith's and Parke's. Uriah Parke lived at Zanesville, and his arithmetic was pub- lished, we believe, by himself, he being a printer. Owley's Geography was just coming into use. The Dillworth Speller was a partial geography, giv- ing a description of the earth and its grand divisions, and a more general description of the United States.
The one main feature of these schools was the spelling class, which formed in a line on one side of the schoolroom, and the graduation was from foot to head. The lesson was first spelled by use of the book, then the book was closed, and the strife for head began. If a word was mis- spelled, it passed to the next until spelled, then the speller went up, and the strife was more animated when the lucky speller, if a boy, would chance to be placed between two girls that he liked, and in those days the boys liked the girls, for in the fly-leaves of the spelling-books might have been found this stanza :
"The rose is red, the violet blue, Sugar is sweet, and so are you."
The rod of correction had a more general use then than now, and the idle fool got whipped at school, and the dunce wore the "dunce-cap."
In 1838, William Sedgwick, on the part of the Cambridge lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, deeded to the "Cambridge Academy" lot 82 in Steubenville avenue, now the McConehey lot. This was a corporation under the laws of Ohio. Dr. Thomas Miller, Gordon Lofland, Jacob G. Metcalf, James M. Bell and Moses Sarchet were the incorporators and
123
GUERNSEY COUNTY, OHIO.
directors. This academy was opened in the fall of 1838, William Ellis, principal and teacher. The academy sessions were for five months, and the tuition eight dollars per session. It was expected that the scholarship would pay all expenses, if not, the corporation guaranteed the payment. This school or academy was the first attempt toward a graded school in Cam- bridge, and the boys and girls of this school were supposed to be higher up than the common herd, and were called by way of derision "upper crust," or "college bred." This academy was carried on with varied success, under the principalship of William Ellis, Mitchell Miller and Thomas Brown, until 1844. Thomas Brown, the last principal, brother of Turner G. Brown, of Cambridge, is said to have been the first common school teacher of Guernsey county who received twenty dollars per month for teaching. The writer of this passed out of this academy at the age of fourteen years, with a grade above ninety-five, in algebra, mensuration, geometry, trigonometry, surveying and history, which was the curriculum of the last session, having, as was then supposed, an education high enough for all practical purposes, and has regretted so far in his life that he failed to continue through the years from fourteen to twenty, which are the years of life, whether of boy or girl, that will tell if improved, in the manhood or womanhood of those who are so fortunate as to have the opportunity. A man or woman may educate himself, and this self-education may be of more practical advantage than that of the school, but its acquirement after entering upon the active duties of life means self-sacrifice and labor that but few are ready to make.
The "old lodge," as this academy was called, was embellished with paper on the walls, representing Chinese towers and scenery, grand marches and imposing burials of orders, going back, perhaps, to the days of Confucius, and the border round the ceiling consisted of the pictures of Washington and Lafayette, as the two representative Masons. In this old room was held our Philomathean society, where we orated, declaimed and essayed, as young Ciceros; but following, as this did, the great Morgan anti-Masonic wave, we sometimes sat in awe and trembling, thinking that the ghost of some re- vealer of the "mysterious glorious science" might troop through the room headless, or shackled with clanking chains, as the representative of the dark mysteries which seemed to attach themselves to the order that was then thought to have abducted William Morgan. Morgan lived in the town of Batavia, New York, and, it was said, was about to publish an exposure of the secrets of Masonry in connection with the editor of the Republican Advocate, who, as well as Morgan, had been a member of the Masonic order. While this rumor of the exposure of Masonry, about to be made,
124
GUERNSEY COUNTY, OHIO.
spread through the country, the community was startled by tidings that Morgan had been seized and carried off, no one knew where. The greatest excitement spread throughout the community, committees of vigilance were formed, and an investigation initiated, which resulted in tracing the ab- ductors and their victims out upon Lake Ontario, and led to the belief that Morgan had been consigned to its depths, as no trace of him was further heard. This gave rise to the anti-Masonic party, which sprang up in New York and Pennsylvania in 1827, and later in Ohio. Joseph Ritner was chosen governor of Pennsylvania in 1835 as an anti-Mason. The abduction of Morgan did not prevent the publication of the proposed exposure. Mor- gan's book was published and others that claimed to give the regulations, signs, ceremonies and passwords of the order and its traditional secrets. However true these books may have been, and the political opposition which was the outgrowth of the times, Masonry, for awhile, was under a ban, and it was ten years or more before a lodge could be reinstituted, here in Cambridge, and we know from past experience that the average boy of twelve years of age, at that day, after hearing the wonderful tales about the "Morgan killers," had to whistle up a good deal of courage to sit in a deserted lodge room, dimly lighted with tallow candles, where once the tra- ditional goat bounded from cliff to cliff and the clanking chains were heard that bound the victim to unbrotherly servitude, and no flash of the mystic light shone on his way as he traveled toward the ineffable.
DISTRICT SCHOOL NOTICE.
(Published in the Guernsey Times, January 12, 1838-9.)
"Notice is hereby given to all persons residing within the corporate limits of the town of Cambridge, that a district school will be taught by Mr. Hatton in the Academy for a period of three months, commencing on Monday, the fifth day of November inst. And also that a district school will be taught by Miss Haft in Mrs. McCleary's house immediately east of the court house for the same time, and commencing on the same day. For the present, the male scholars are directed to attend the school to be taught by Mr. Hatton, and the females the school taught by Miss Haft. Said schools will be entirely free to all children residing within the corporate limits of said town, who are by law entitled to attend a district school. No part of the teacher's compensation will be assessed upon the scholars who may attend.
"By orders of the Directors.
"Cambridge, November 3. 1838.
J. G. METCALF, D. C."
125
GUERNSEY COUNTY, 01110.
Nowadays, when the position of teacher in the schools is open, there are countless applicants, but in the earlier days a competent teacher was by no means easy to secure, as the following advertisement from the Guernsey Times of December 7, 1839, testifies :
"A TEACHER WANTED.
"A person who can come recommended, as to character and qualifica- tion as a common school teacher, can get employment by inquiring of the directors of the Tenth school district in Londonderry township.
"JAS. McCOLLOUGH, "JNO. MILLER, "T. G. BROWN, School Directors."
"November 23, 1839.
MORE ON THE SCHOOLS.
Rev. William Wallace, Thomas Beahan, William Allison, John K. Fes- ler, Moses Oldham and William Morton were teachers of free schools in the old lodge before the adoption by the school district of the union school law, known as the Akron school law. There were also women teachers, in connection with these, Mrs. Martha Carnes, Miss Dorcas Reed, Miss Sarah Metcalf, Miss Anna M. Beatty and others.
The union school was organized in 1850 with Robert B. Moore, C. L. Madison, Thomas W. Peacock, Samuel Craig, James Hunter and Matthew Gaston as directors. The school building, the old lodge, was enlarged to four rooms. William M. Lyons was principal, Miss Dorcas Reed, Miss Lou Hill and Miss Kate Mccluskey, teachers. William M. Lyons was a brother of Lord Lyons, once a minister from England to the United States. He took great pride in his high connection, and never tired in letting everybody know that he was the brother of a lord.
"A king can made a belted knight, A marquis, duke or squire, But an honest man's above his might, He's prince of men, and a' that."
Lyons came here as a portrait painter, and it may be that some of his work is yet extant in Cambridge.
126
GUERNSEY COUNTY, OHIO. -
The Methodist Protestant church located a college here in 1850, and began its erection. Its site was the present site of the new school building on Wheeling avenue. This building was three stories in height, but was never completed. It was badly demolished by a cyclone which visited Cam- bridge in May, 1852. This so crippled the enterprise, which was in a critical financial state, that the project was abandoned. The building was bought for school purposes by the directors, raised to a two-story building containing five rooms, and was occupied for school purposes in 1860, John McClen- ahan, principal. He resigned in 1861, entering the army as captain of a com- pany in the Fifteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. This building was enlarged in 1865-66 by two additional rooms, and was destroyed by fire in September. 1871, the school being continued in rented rooms in different parts of the town, until the building and completion of the present central school build- ing, first occupied in February, 1874.
After the burning of the school building, a public meeting of the voters of the district was held in the court house, with a view of instructing the directors as to rebuilding. The question submitted was whether two build- ings, one in the east and one in the west, should be built, or one central building, and a majority favored one central building. The directors bought a hole, the present site, and began to fill it up with earth and stone, but never succeeded, as the present elevation very plainly shows. Of the first directors named, all are dead but C. L. Madison. They were not connected with the last building, and only a part of them with the second. Professor Lyons was followed by James McClain, J. C. Douglass, Levi C. Brown, W. K. Gooderl, C. C. B. Duncan, John McClenahan and Samuel Kirkwood, now professor in Wooster University at Wooster, Ohio. Kirkwood resigned, and his term was finished out by John S. Speer.
John S. Speer was followed by Thomas Smith, and he by Prof. John McBurney. This brings the history of the schools down to a time with which almost everyone is familiar. Great and wise is the provision of the United States setting aside one-thirty-sixth part of all the lands to the state to afford a free education of its youth, with the hope that all the youth of the state may avail themselves of this gratuitous education, that knowledge may abound and truth and righteousness reign supreme in the land, and that intelligence and sobriety shall measure the advancing step toward universal brotherhood.
CAMBRIDGE SCHOOLS.
The following history of the Cambridge schools was written by Wilson McMahon, a pupil in them, and read as an essay in his room. It was pub-
I27
GUERNSEY COUNTY, OHIO.
lished in the Jeffersonian in June, 1880, and is so complete an account of important facts in the educational history of the county that it is worthy of preservation in the public press :
In the winter of 1809-10, the first school in Cambridge was taught by John Beatty, a Virginian, and a brother of Col. Zaccheus Beatty, one of the founders and original proprietors of the town. It was held in one of the several small cabins which stood on the north bank of Wills creek, near where the old bridge crossed that stream. He was succeeded by his sister, Mrs. Sarah McClenahan, who taught a school in one of the rooms of her father's dwelling-house, which stood on Lot No. 62. The next schools were held in a log building, that stood on Lot No. 21, and were taught by John W. Kipp, who afterward compiled a speller that was published; Elijah Dyson, the first sheriff of Guernsey county, and a man by the name of Acheson.
During the winter of 1813-14, a school was taught in the same place by Thomas Campbell, the father of the late Rev. Alexander Campbell, of Bethany, West Virginia. From this time until the organization of the public schools under the act of 1836, there was no regular school building or any system of education established. Anybody who desired to teach got up a subscription paper proposing to teach a school upon certain terms-these usually being fifty cents per scholar for thirteen weeks-and the branches taught were the alphabet, spelling, reading, writing and arithmetic. The parents gave little attention to the schools. The teachers, generally, were not very profound scholars; they went in on their muscle, and if they suc- ceeded in maintaining their authority no one complained.
Upon the organization of the public schools in 1836, Cambridge became school district No. 9. Andrew Magee was the first district school teacher. In 1843, Thomas and William Brown taught what they called the Academy.
William Morton, who taught in the school building now the McConehay property on Steubenville and Pine streets, from 1847 to 1849, is entitled to notice as the best mathematician and most thorough grammarian in the state of Ohio. He taught the boys, and Mrs. Karnes the girls. Mr. Morton had about ninety boys in his classes, the names of most of whom were after- ward borne upon the honorable rolls of the volunteers in the war of 1861. On the original rolls of the school appear the names of Moore, Rainey, Lofland, Metcalf, Grimes, Salmon, Jefferson, Logan, Evans, Tingle, Brown, Bonnell, Hirsch, etc. Lemuel Bonnell was assistant teacher for some time.
The Union school was organized in 1850, and William M. Lyons, a younger brother of Lord Lyons, the late minister from England to the United States, became the first principal, at a salary of thirty-five dollars per month. Mr. Lyons is now living in Zanesville, Ohio, on a pension which
I28
GUERNSEY COUNTY, OHIO.
he receives from his brother. Then the school had but four rooms, the fourth room being taught by the principal. Under Principal Lyons the teachers were Miss Lou Hill, Miss Kate Mccluskey and Miss Dorcas Reed.
The principals from 1850 to 1853 were William M. Lyons, James Mc- Clain, Miss Dorcas Reed and Joseph D. Tingle ; salary, thirty-five dollars per month ; from 1853 to 1857, J. C. Douglass, Levi C. Brown, W. K. Gooderl and C. C. B. Duncan; salary, forty dollars per month; from 1858 to 1861, John McClenahan was principal at sixty dollars per month. In 1861 he resigned his position to recruit a company for the Fifteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, of which he afterward became colonel. In August, 1861, Samuel Kirkwood, now professor of mathematics at Wooster University, Wooster, Ohio, be- came the first superintendent at a salary of four hundred and fifty dollars a year; but Mr. Kirkwood leaving before the year was out, John Speer finished the term. He was succeeded by Thomas H. Smith, at a salary of six hundred dollars a year. In August, 1866, Prof. John McBurney, now pro- fessor of natural science in Muskingum College at New Concord, was elected superintendent, at a salary of five hundred and forty dollars a year, which was afterward increased to one thousand two hundred dollars a year. In 1880 he was succeeded by Prof. J. E. Williams, at a salary of one thousand dollars a year.
The high school was organized in 1869. The following are the names of the teachers, with the time they taught : Prof. John McBurney, four years ; T. H. Anderson, one term; Rev. W. V. Milligan, three years; William Fleming, one month; Miss Means, three years; J. H. Mackey, two terms; I. A. Tannehill, one year; E. L. Abbey, one year.
In 1872, the first class, composed of four girls, was graduated. After the loss of the former school building, and while the present building was in process of erection, the schools occupied such rooms as could be procured for them, and were subjected to every inconvenience. As a result, there were no classes graduated in 1873-74, but afterward they were graduated as follows :
Boys. Girls.
1875
ยท
8
1876
2
7.
1877
3
2
1878
5
6
1879
3
8
1880
5
II
-
Total
18
46
120
GUERNSEY COUNTY, 01110.
In all, sixty-four. This year's graduating class was composed of four boys and seven girls, which, added to the above, will make twenty-two boys and fifty-three girls, making the total number of graduates seventy-five.
Changes in classification, grading, course of study and methods of in- struction and of examining have been made from time to time, as the interests of the school seemed to require. The present course of study embraces all branches of a thorough and complete English education, together with Ger- man and Latin.
In 1860 a building in the east end of town was purchased for one thiou- sand two hundred and one dollars, and finished for school purposes for five thousand dollars, making a total cost of six thousand two hundred and one dollars. It contained five rooms, to which two more were added in 1866. This building was destroyed by fire September 27, 1871. In January, 1872, lots Nos. 126, 127 and 128, on Steubenville street, were purchased and the present building erected, at a total cost of fifty-four thousand dollars. It was first occupied February 16, 1874. There were nine teachers when they first went into the present building, but in a few days another room was fitted up, and another teacher engaged. Now, twelve well-trained and expe- rienced teachers are engaged nine months in the year, in the instruction of six hundred and thirty children, at a cost, for 1876, of four thousand eight hundred and forty dollars ; this year, four thousand nine hundred and seventy- two dollars. The present building contains eleven large rooms, besides the superintendent's office, and his recitation room. Part of the basement is used as a storeroom, and one room is fitted up as a dining room. The build- ing has a seating capacity of about seven hundred, but it has not the capacity for as careful and accurate a system of grading as it should have. However, it is one of the best in the state, and reflects much credit upon the enterprise of the people of Cambridge. The school taxes us at a rate of nine mills, but is worthy of its costly support. The only things it seems to need at present are a small library of the commonest books of reference and apparatus for philosophical and scientific explanation.
With the further growth of the city, other school houses were demanded and were built in about the following order of construction: The Lofland school was erected in 1895, at a cost of fifteen thousand dollars, the same being located on Fourth street, and is in an excellent condition.
The South Side school was erected in 1893, costing twenty-eight thou- sand dollars.
(9)
I 30
GUERNSEY COUNTY, OHIO.
Orchard Place school building was erected in 1906 and opened January I, 1907. Its cost was twenty-three thousand dollars, and two thousand more for grounds.
The same date last mentioned the Glass Plant addition school building was opened; it is a fine brick structure, costing ten thousand dollars.
The latest and by all odds the finest school building in all this section of Ohio was the present Brown high school, containing twenty rooms, all modern throughout, as to heating, lighting and sanitary equipment. It is located on Steubenville avenue, between Eighth and Ninth streets. Its cost was sixty thousand dollars, besides ten thousand dollars for grounds and im- provements of same. It is built of flinty vitralized brick. The building was first occupied for school purposes January 1, 1910. The total valuation of school property in Cambridge is one hundred and sixty thousand dollars.
The schools of Cambridge have been under the charge of the following principals and superintendents since 1850: William M. Lyons, John Mc- Clanahan, James McClain, J. C. Douglass, L. C. Brown, W. K. Goderel, C. C. B. Duncan, John McClanahan, Samuel Kirkwood, John Speer, Thomas Smith, Prof. John McBurney, Prof. Williams, Prof. Yarnell, Prof. Abbe, Prof. O. T. Caron, Prof. H. B. Williams, Prof. C. L. Cronebaugh, Prof. J. M. Carr, Prof. H. Z. Hobson, who came in 1905
According to the 1908 state school reports, Cambridge had an enumera- tion of 3,210 pupils and an enrollment of 2,276. Daily average attendance, 1,935. In the high school there were at that date 76 boys and 88 girls. The population was then fixed at 8,241. The expenditures for that year were $51,807.
THE FIRST COMMENCEMENT.
[The following article was written by request especially for the Guern- scy Times. The author is the venerable Doctor John McBurney, who for many years was connected with the local schools. He was superintendent at the time of the first commencement in 1872.]
The first commencement of the Cambridge high school, held in the old town hall, June 7, 1872, was, viewed from our present standpoint, a very modest affair, though at that time it created quite an interest.
All that was needed to prepare the place in which it was held was to turn the benchies in the west half of the hall to face the east and the stage. This was made necessary because at that time the hall accommodated two schools, separated from each other by having the pupils of the first grammar school face the east and those of the second face the west. At one o'clock
131
GUERNSEY COUNTY, OHIO.
on the 7th day of June, thirty-four years ago, the hall was well filled with an interested audience and the stage occupied by the members of the board, the teachers and perhaps some others. These four young girls, in their neat- fitting and tidy calico dresses, occupying the center of the platform, made a pleasant impression, and modestly received the generous and well-earned ap- plause of their friends.
After the usual introductory exercises, Miss Nannie E. Morton came forward without any announcement and delivered the salutatory. Then came Miss Sadie Jackson, with her essay, subject, "Silent Voices." Miss Dolly R. Suite followed with her essay on "Sunshine," and Miss Maggie McCall had the valedictory. All the exercises were well rendered, and received hearty applause. By authority of the board, the superintendent delivered the diplo- mas. The exercises closed with music and the benediction, and these four young ladies, followed by the well wishes of their friends, stepped forth the first of the long line of bright, happy, hopeful high school graduates who are still going out in ever-increasing numbers from our schools and under much more favorable conditions than existed June 7, 1872.
And now, in closing this brief account of the days long gone by, allow us to step over the intervening years and extend to the large class of splendid young people who received their well-earned diplomas on the thirty-fourth anniversary of the first commencement of the Cambridge high school, a hearty greeting with the earnest wish that success may, crown every right effort of every member through all the coming years.
Among the earliest "free schools" known in this county was the one established in Richland township in 1814. It came in this way: While pioneer William Thompson was in Philadelphia buying goods for the first store in his township, and paying eleven dollars a hundred freight on same, he employed a school teacher there, named Isaac Woodard-a lame man- to come here and teach school for twelve months. William and Robert Thompson agreed to pay the teacher in full for his services. The salt works were then running day and night and many men were employed to cnt wood for the running of the same. These men, many of them, had children and with others in the settlement made quite a respectable little school. The men were told to send their children to this school free of cost. Joseph and Abraham Dilly, having large families each, had small means with which to pay, but said they were willing to do what they could, as they disliked the burden to fall on two men. Later they did each pay their share. This is one of the earliest free schools on record in this country.
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.