USA > Ohio > Guernsey County > History of Guernsey County, Ohio, Volume I > Part 12
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From the primitive settlement of Byesville, the children attended school at Oak Grove school house, in Riddle Grove, near the White Ash mine. Later it was moved to Lucasburg, and some years later the Byesville settle- ment had a school of their own, the date of the latter being about 1881. The Byesville school occupied a two-room building that stood on the site of the Beckett's livery barn. This cost one thousand dollars. John A. Bliss was the first principal. In 1886 two more rooms were added to the vest side of this building at a cost of one thousand two hundred dollars. In 1892 more room was needed and after renting awhile, in 1894, when two more rooms completed the T-shaped building; this last cost one thousand five hun- dred dollars. It was soon found that the growth of the town was so great that still better accommodations must be had, and the present site was chosen and the present fine school building was erected at a cost of twenty thousand dollars. It stands on a sightly hill overlooking the place. It was first used in January, 1903. But not yet did the place have sufficient room, and in 1906, at a cost of one thousand two hundred dollars, the North Side school of the Ideal addition was built and still rooms had to be leased for the accommodation of the pupils.
A township high school was first organized out of the village graded school in 1890, then in 1893 it was made a special district, and in 1894 was raised to a second grade, and finally under the new classification of high schools was made first grade in 1904.
In 1907 there were eight hundred pupils enrolled out of the one thou- sand two hundred school population.
PIONEER SCHOOL DISCIPLINE.
In the early days in Guernsey county the whipping of children at school was a common practice, and one case in point will illustrate the effect it sometimes produced upon teacher, pupil and parents :
In Liberty township the first school was taught by a New Englander named Austin Hunt, who believed the rod was to be freely used when needed to correct children. The late venerable James Gibson relates this concerning this practice and was his own experience in "tannin' ":
"I went to keeping school, and kept school here in Liberty. Some of the boys from over the creek began to run off and stay around the creek to hunt mussels and crawfish. I found it out and brought them back and gave them a tannin'. They went home and told their parents that I had whipped them. The next day their fathers rode up to the school house, called me out
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to the door and said they had come to give me a tannin' for whipping their boys. I replied : 'What color are you going to tan me? If you have any business you can attend to it now, but if you come into this school house I will do the tannin'.' There was no tannin' done. I think a good tannin' never hurt a boy when he needed it."
PRESENT SCHOOL STATISTICS.
The official report made to the secretary of state for the year just ending (1910) has the following figures concerning Guernsey county schools :
The elementary teachers of the county have cost $40,911 ; high school teachers, $9.905 ; supervision exclusive of teachers, $2,700.
The buildings and grounds purchased in the county are valued at $28,- 149.47.
There are 19 elementary buildings, two high school buildings erected in the year; 101 elementary school rooms and 29 high school rooms. The value of the school property is placed at $347,250. The average term taught throughout the year is 33.35 weeks, with an average daily attendance of 86.91. The largest number of pupils was those taking arithmetic, 4,463 being enrolled in this study during the year.
In 1908 the reports show the following: Guernsey county contained 19 township districts and 133 sub-districts; 12 separate districts; total number of members of boards of education, 155; cost of new buildings, $2,890. There were at that date, in the county, 253 separate school rooms. The value of school property was estimated by the authorities at $123.300 in township districts ; $263,650 in separate districts ; total of $386,950. The total num- ber of teachers was 256; average wages paid to men, $41 in the elementary schools, and $40 to women. The wages paid to high school instructors was, for men, $50, and about the same for women. The total number of teach- ers was 267, of which number 121 were men.
The county at the last report had the following village, special and town- ship district high schools :
Byesville, salary $1,000 for the superintendent, $560 for high school principal.
Cumberland, salary for principal. $765.
Pleasant City, salary of principal, $520.
Quaker City, salary for principal, $720.
Senecaville, salary for superintendent, $650; for principal, $480.
Washington, salary for superintendent, $400.
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Westland township, salary for principal, $400.
The county examiners in Guernsey county are as follows: Worthy Dyson, clerk, Kimbolton, term expires August 31, 1910; W. O. Moore, Senecaville, term expired August 31, 1909; T. A. Bonnell, Cambridge, term expires August 31, 19II.
OTHER EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS.
One of the earliest educational institutions in Guernsey county was the Cambridge Seminary, and the Guernsey Times of May 21, 1825, has the fol- lowing advertisement of the school :
CAMBRIDGE SEMINARY.
"The subscriber has the pleasure of informing his friends and the public that he has procured the best books, globes, maps, charts, etc., and has com- menced a regular course of Geography and Astronomy, which is taught upon the interrogative plan.
"The English grammar is taught agreeably by 'Hull's System' (by lec- tures), which is acknowledged to be the best in use, and for which from two to five dollars has generally been paid to teachers of that plan for forty-eight hours' services.
"After ten years' experience, the subscriber can with confidence assure the public, that he is fully prepared to teach all the useful branches of an English education correctly, and with as much speed as the nature of the branches, and the capacity of the pupils will admit.
"He pledges himself that no exertions on his part will be wanting, to render his institution as respectable and useful as any of the kind in the state. The terms are very moderate.
"WILLIAM SEDGWICK, Teacher. "Cambridge, April 16, 1825. "N. B .- A few female boarders would be taken on moderate terms."
THE OLD CAMBRIDGE ACADEMY.
The old Cambridge Academy was incorporated by the Legislature in its session of 1837-38, with a capital stock of five thousand dollars, divided into five hundred shares of ten dollars each. Of this stock, seven hundred and forty dollars was subscribed by the citizens of Cambridge. The old Masonic
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lodge building on North Seventh street was purchased by the trustees for the academy building. This public announcement was made September 22, 1838. The board of trustees were William W. Tracey, Esq., president; Moses Sar- chet, secretary ; Ebenezer Smith, Esq., Dr. Thomas Miller, Dr. Samuel P. Hunt, Nathan Evans, Esq., Hamilton Robb and William McCracken. The institution was conducted under the general management of Rev. James Mc- Gill. The students were under the immediate care and instruction of William T. Ellis. The course of instruction embraced all those branches of a thorough and extensive English education, usually taught in the best high schools and academies, and the Latin and Greek languages. The academic year was divided into two sessions of twenty-two weeks each, with a vacation of four weeks at the close of each session. Terms were: Tuition in all branches of instruction at eight dollars per session, one-half to be paid in advance, the bal- ance at the close of the session.
Another scholastic advertisement appeared in the Times, in October, 1842. It was concerning the college at Antrim and reads as follows :
MADISON COLLEGE.
"The ensuing session will commence on the first Monday in November. Alexander Clark, A. B., and Thomas Palmer, Esq., will continue to conduct the interior operations of the college. Boarding can be had at a very low rate in respectable families in town and country. Tuition, ten dollars per session. As a report has gone abroad that Antrim and neighborhood are unhealthy, the trustees feel it their duty to say that such is not the fact, that we are not subject to any prevailing diseases, more than the most healthy neighborhoods.
"By order of the Board, "M. GREEN, Secretary. "Antrim, September 17, 1842."
The history of this college, in short, is as follows: When Madison town- ship was organized, there were four sections of land reserved by the state and set apart for public school purposes, numbers 1, 2, 9 and 10, situated in the northwest part of the township. These lands were directed by law to be leased to suitable persons for a certain period ; they were to be built upon and improved that the value thereof might be increased and that a revenue might in time be derived to meet the object intended. The lands were leased and settled upon and the improvements made. When the term of the leases ex- pired the Legislature passed an act ordering the lands to be appraised and sold
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to the highest bidder at not less than the appraisement. Under this arrange- ment the lands were sold, and were bought principally by the lease-holders. The proceeds of these sales went into the general state fund for schools. The same rule held good in the other townships of Guernsey county, too. The northwest quarter of section 10 was purchased by A. Alexander. The old road from Cambridge to Steubenville passed through this quarter section. Alexander was a man of much enterprise and conceived the idea of platting a town site on this land. Accordingly he surveyed out twenty-four lots, twelve on each side of this road. This was the beginning of Antrim. Sub- sequently, James Welch platted and laid off six lots as an addition to the place.
Doctor Findley bought the quarter lying west of Alexander's land and took up his residence in a log cabin there. When he was fairly well settled he began to make arrangements to start a school at the new place. Either in May, 1835, or 1836, he succeeded in enrolling the names of eight boys and young men of the vicinity as students. He used his cabin as a reci- tation room, and thus it was that Madison College had its establishment.
The people around Antrim gave their hearty support, and the students increased in numbers rapidly, so it was resolved, at a meeting of the town, that a united effort be made to provide suitable buildings for the embryo col- lege. Subscriptions were made in money and material, as well as in work, many giving far beyond their means, so much were they interested. A site was chosen for the building at the east of the village, on the most elevated ground about it. David White, a resident, was the contractor. The building completed was a respectable two-story brick structure, containing two rooms on the first story, and one large room or hall on the second floor. The name given the new born institution was "Madison College." The board of trustees appointed under the laws of Ohio chose Doctor Findley as president, and Milton Green, M. D., secretary, who was the father of Mrs. Samuel J. Mc- Mahon. The institution prospered wonderfully. In 1846 Rev. Samuel Mehaffey, pastor of the Old-School Presbyterian church here, became pres- ident and this, possibly, became the means of the downfall of the institution. His successors were A. D. Clark, D. D., Rev. W. Doal, Rev. Thomas Palmer, and others who were employed as tutors. Then new members were added to the board of trustees and a college charter was obtained. Rev. Samuel Find- ley, Jr. (son of Doctor Findley), was chosen and installed president of the newly planned school. At this time the school was opened for both sexes, and seemed to prosper until the plan of erecting a large, costly building was adopted. There was much opposition to this move, but the new building was
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erected, completed and occupied. Rev. H. Wilson succeeded Doctor Findley as president, and his successor was Rev. William Lorimer, during whose term the crisis was reached. The creditors of the college were beginning to press their claims hard, the mutterings of the great Civil war cloud were heard, and finally, when that storm burst, Madison College and its plans for a future existence were carried down, never more to rise, like the slavery question, over which the war was so successfully fought out.
CHAPTER IX.
CHURCH AND DENOMINATIONAL HISTORY.
The first settlers in Guernsey county were not all Christians, or members of any religious organization, but it is quite certain that a majority of the pioneer band were of some special religious faith and adhered to some particu- lar church creed. The Methodist and Presbyterian churches had the greater majority of those who first came here to make for themselves homes. The Methodist Episcopal church, of all others, had a peculiar origin here, especially at Cambridge, where first it existed in the county. Like the good old Pilgrim church, it was transplanted from beyond the big seas to the wild forests of this county. It was in 1806 and 1807 that there came from the beautiful island of Guernsey, Europe, Thomas Sarchet, William Ogier, James Bichard, Thomas Lenfestey, Daniel Ferbrache and Thomas Naftel, with their wives and children, who settled in Cambridge and immediate vicinity. All these parents were members of the Methodist society, when they left Guernsey, in the old country, from which this county took its name. They came into the wilder- ness, indeed. In the year 1808 these emigrants and their wives organized themselves into the Methodist Episcopal church of Cambridge, Ohio, being as- sisted by Rev. James Watts, a preacher of the Western conference. As far as is now known, this was the first attempt at church organization within the ter- ritory now known as Guernsey county. This being the case, very naturally the history of this denomination in the county will take the first place in this chap- ter, and here follows:
THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
The church at Cambridge, formed in 1808, held its services for the first few years in the house of one of its founders-Thomas Sarchet-on the cor- ner of Main and Pine streets; later at the court house, and in the lower room of the old Masonic Hall, a building then occupying the lot opposite the Presby- terian church. Late in 1831, the trustees, Jacob Shaffner, James Bichard, Jolin Blancipied, Nicholas Martel, Joseph Neelands, Joseph Wood, Joseph Cockerel, Joseph W. White and Isaiah McIllyar, purchased a piece of ground sixty feet square. It was located on Turner avenue, west of where the Ham-
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mond opera house stood many years later. No better history of this pioncer house of worship can be given than was given by the pen of the author of this work, and which was published in the Jeffersonian in 1899, and reads as fol- lows :
The first Methodist Episcopal church was built in 1832-33, and was dedi- cated in 1835 by Rev. Joseph M. Trimble. He took for his text, "The Lord of Hosts is with us, and the God of Jacob is our refuge." The church had been occupied for some time before being dedicated. The church was located on what is now Turner avenue, of Cambridge, on the south side and west of the Hammond Opera House. The lot was sixty feet square, the church a frame thirty-six by forty feet, costing four hundred dollars. We look back at this old church. It stands before us in all its simplicity. The front, on the north, had two doors and two windows, and a quarter circular window in the gable. On the east and west sides, three windows, and on the south side three, one being in the centre above the pulpit. The lot was enclosed with a board fence, with two gates opposite the doors. The females entered at the west gate, and the males at the cast. In the church there were two centre aisles and a cross aisle in front of the altar rail and pulpit. The seats to be right and left of the pulpit ran north and south. These corners were desig- nated as the "Amen corners," and were occupied by the older men and women, who often responded "Amen" and "God grant it" when the preacher was preaching. To the right of the west entrance door were the seats for the women, and to the left of the east entrance door were the seats for the men. The sheep and goats were separated. Between the aisles were short seats, where old men and women, with their children, could sit, but there was no general indiscriminate sitting. If a stranger took a seat on the women's side, he was politely notified that he was "in the wrong pew."
The pulpit was five or six feet above the main floor, and was reached by a flight of steps and entered through a door. The preacher, when seated, was out of view of the congregation. On the front of the pulpit was a circular sounding board. for the preacher to pound on to awake his drowsy hearers. There was a book board in the centre, and a foot board for the short preach- ers, and when one of these missed the footing he was out of sight until he re- gained his footing. The hymns were lined out, a stanza at a time, by the preacher. The congregation singing at the last stanza, all turned around to kneel in prayer. Some of the preachers often sang alone a favorite hymn. Dr. James Drummond, who preached in the church, had two which he often sang: "The Chariot, the Chariot, its Wheels Roll in Fire." and "Turn, Sin- ners, Turn, for the Tide is Receding, and the Saviour will Soon and Forever
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Cease Pleading." The church was at first heated with a large tin-plate stove, in which was burned cordwood, and was lighted by candles suspended around the walls. There were movable ones on the pulpit for the convenience of the preacher. There were no young people's meetings or Sunday school until 1835, and then it was only a summer school. Most of the scholars came from the country barefooted, the boys with straw hats and in their shirt sleeves, the girls with sunbonnets and cottonade dresses. It was a day of small things. There were no Sunday school books nor Berean leaves. The John Rogers primer and the Testament were the text-books. This is but a meagre descrip- tion of the first church and the manner of worship. We close with this pioneer verse :
"We felt that we were fellow men; We felt that we were a band, Sustained here in the wilderness By Heaven's upholding hand. Yet while we linger we may all A backward glance still throw, To the days when we were pioneers, Sixty years ago."
The preachers that preached in this first church were Revs. James Mc- Mahon, Samuel Harvey, Cyrus Brooks, David Young, Henry Whiteman, Gil- bert Blue, Moses A. Milligan, B. F. Meyers, Andrew Carroll, Harvey Camp, Jeremiah Hill, Luman H. Allen, John M. Reed, I. N. Baird, James Drum- mond, John Grimm, Thomas Winstanley, Thomas R. Ruckle, J. D. Rich, Ludwell Petty, R. Stephenson, David Cross, J. Phillips, E. G. Nicholson, David Trueman, Isaac N. Baird, Robert Boyd, A. J. Blake, J. A. Swaney, J. D. Knox, S. P. Woolf, James McGinnis, Andrew Magee, T. J. Taylor, Wil- liam Gamble. Presiding Elders: Robert O. Spencer, Edward H. Taylor, S. R. Brockunier, James C. Taylor, James G. Sansom.
The second church was built in 1852 and 1853, a two-story brick located in Gaston's addition, on the lot now owned by J. F. Salmon. This church was dedicated January 2, 1854, by Rev. James G. Sansom, Andrew Magee, the preacher, in charge of the Cambridge circuit, Pittsburgh conference. The preachers who preached in this church were, Andrew Magee, T. J. Taylor, John Huston, W. Devinney, F. W. Virtican, James L. Deens, W. B. Watkins, Tertillis Davidson, James Henderson, Edward Ellison, A. L. Petty, J. D. Vail, Samuel Crouse, J. H. Conkle, James H. Hollingshead, Ezra Hingeley, W. H. Locke, J. R. Mills.
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Presiding elders: John Moffit, W. F. Lauck, W. A. Davidson, James Henderson, S. F. Minor, A. L. Petty, John Williams, Allen H. Norcross, James R. Mills, W. L. Dixon. The third church, located on North Seventh street and Steubenville avenue, was erected during the pastorates on Cam- bridge Station, East Ohio conference, of W. H. Locke and James R. Mills.
The edifice, costing thirty-two thousand dollars, was finished in 1885, and was dedicated January 9, 1886, by Bishop Edward G. Andrews, assisted by Dr. Joseph M. Trimble and Dr. C. H. Payne, James R. Mills being the pas- tor. The preachers who were on the station were J. R. Mills, John Brown. Sylvester Burt, J. M. Carr, and R. B. Pope. Presiding Elders: W. L. Dixon, John I. Wilson, John R. Keyes. The trustees and building committee were G. J. Albright. Joseph D. Taylor, T. H. . Anderson, John C. Beckett, C. P. B. Sarchet, Alfred P. Shaffner, J. O. Mcllyar, B. F. Fleming and W. M. Scott.
On Thanksgiving day, November 25, 1896, the union services were held in this building. Saturday afternoon, November 27th, it was discovered that the structure was afire. The flames had been at work for some time before discovery, and continued their destructive course with great rapidity. In spite of the fire department, which responded very quickly, in the course of half an hour portions of the roof began to fall in, and it became apparent that the building was doomed. Doctor Pope, the pastor, also lost much of his household goods, which were not protected by insurance in the burning of the pastorage, but managed to save a rare library of books, the accumulation of a lifetime. In the end nothing was left but the main tower and belfry, com- paratively uninjured, and the stone walls. Insurance on the church and its contents amounted to twelve thousand three hundred dollars. For some time the dispossessed congregation was accommodated by other churches of the city, and later services were held in the opera house, and in the assembly room in the Taylor block, the free use of which was given by the late Col. J. D. Taylor.
At a meeting on December 6, 1896, less than ten days after the fire, the officials of the church, without a dissenting voice, formally resolved to re- build the church, upon an improved and enlarged plan. December 10, 1897, Architect S. R. Badgley, of Cleveland, was employed, at once viewed the site. and submitted a rough outline of a plan for its reconstruction. On February 4, 1897. the plans were finally approved. The contract was let to Vansickle Brothers, of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, April 14th, to be completed by November Ist, following. This firm began work the last week in April, and on the even- ing of May 7th, without any previous warning, abandoned the undertaking. and the member of the firm who was on the work left town in the night, and never returned. The work was continued under new contracts made for
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separate parts of the work, the carpentry and joiner work being done by the day. W. C. Carlisle, of Cleveland, was superintendent on behalf of the build- ing committee.
In April, 1898, the building committee took up also the matter of build- ing a new parsonage, a work which was in contemplation when the church burned. The contract was let to Hoyle & Scott, of Cambridge, and the work progressed rapidly. The entire cost of construction of the church and parson- age is in round numbers, thirty-six thousand five hundred dollars. The former church building cost about thirty-five thousand dollars, including site. The first meeting held in the new church was Sunday, November 26, 1899, when a long and impressive service was held, at which spoke many of Cambridge's foremost pastors.
The pastors of this church since the list above mentioned have been : Revs. R. B. Pope, from 1897 to 1903, six years ; W. B. Winters, 1903 to 1905; Edwin Jester, from 1905 to 1908; C. N. Church from 1908 to the present time ( fall of 1910), to serve under present appointment to close of conference year of 191I.
The present membership of the church is twelve hundred and forty-six; number in Sunday school, thirteen hundred and fifty. The church is in a prosperous condition and will soon be aided by an assistant to the pastor in way of a lady who has been employed for special work in the community, the time of her coming being fixed at January, 1911. The present pastor receives one thousand eight hundred dollars per year and house rent, four hundred dol- lars. The estimated value of the church property of this church is sixty thousand dollars.
Besides this church in Cambridge, there is the Second Methodist Epis- copal church, in the Glass-plant addition, which was formed a few years since. It has a neat frame building and is laboring hard to free itself from debt. It is supplied by the present pastor at Lore City, Rev. Bevington.
The African Methodist Episcopal church is now under the charge of Rev. Beck, recently appointed to this charge. They have a modest, but well arranged edifice in the city and a good congregation of colored people of the Methodist faith.
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