History of Marietta and Washington County, Ohio, and representative citizens, Part 26

Author: Andrews, Martin Register, 1842-; Hathaway, Seymour J
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1490

USA > Ohio > Washington County > Marietta > History of Marietta and Washington County, Ohio, and representative citizens > Part 26

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).

She left the mission field and went to Ken- tucky to teach school. After teaching two years, she came back to Ohio with what money she had earned, determined to begin her work as soon as possible. About this time an uncle and an aunt left her two small legacies.

With the money thus accumulated she bought 15 acres of land near Marietta and built what she was pleased to call, her "Chil- dren's Home." and she so named it, to indi- cate its character and what she proposed it should be-a home for homeless children.

ORIGIN OF THE TERM-CHILDREN'S HOME.

This was the first time the term was used to designate a child-saving institution. Prior to that "Orphan Asylum" had been the accept- ed designation, but since that never "Orphan Asylum" but always "Children's Home." Even the reformatories for children are now

called "Industrial Homes." However, it makes little difference whether this was the first time the term was used or not. It was left for Aunt Katie Fay to illustrate what such an institution should be and thereby induce a great State to adopt her system.

Mark right here the tone, the fine tone, if I may be allowed the expression, of her char- acter, her utter unselfishness, the splendid abandon of her purpose! What would most people have done under the circumstances ? Devote legacies, long in expectancy, together with hard earnings, to save other people's chil- dren? No, money that comes in such a way is carefully laid by, to tide over possible dis- asters in life. Not so, however, did Catharine Fay. She devoted her money and her life to absolutely their noblest uses, and left every other contingency to take care of itself.

CHILDREN IN COUNTY INFIRMARIES.

Soon after her arrival in Marietta, she vis- ited the Washington County Infirmary. What do you suppose she found there? Well, I'll tell you. She found what could have been found, in the year 1857, in every poorhouse in the land. Dependent children of all ages as- sociated with and creeping on the floor, among the old, decrepit and vicious inmates. To ful- ly realize what that means, you should visit a county infirmary and became somewhat fa- miliar with the surroundings, see the righteous poor and the vicious poor, the driveling idiots, the trifling meanness of human nature as shown in underlings and half-wits of a com- munity, gathered together and mingling in- discriminately, all at the end of life's ambi- tions, no hope, no expectation, nothing beyond but death and the pauper's grave. Truly you might write over the portal of such a place as this: "Let him abandon hope who enters here," and yet up to the day that Catharine Fay visited that infirmary, throughout all the States and Territories of the land, such a place as that was deemed good enough for children who by the accidents of birth, but through no fault of their own, had been left destitute and could find no other refuge.

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She found 26 children in the Washington County Infirmary, and she registered a vow in Heaven that if her life was spared, such a state of things should not long exist. If the pliglit of these innocent children did not touch the hearts of any others, she would take up their cause single-handed and dedicate her life and property to their rescue. And what has been the result ? Through all the fair State of Ohio it is now against the law to keep children in the county infirmary.

OTHER GREAT REFORMERS.

How singular was Catharine Fay's motive and disposition to that of Florence Nightin- gale, who visited the hospitals and saw the miserable condition of the inmates. It touched her heart and she resolved to do something to reform the methods of conducting hospitals. She devoted her life and means to the work, and what has been the result? The reform has progressed until now we have the most perfect appliances that man can devise for the alleviation of suffering and the cure of dis- ease.

So with John Howard. He visited the prisons, and the woeful condition moved him so deeply that he determined to devote his life and fortune to the work of reforming prisons, and now what has been the result? We have the most humane and enlightened prison meth- ods prevailing the world over.

So with Clara Barton, the great philan- thropist. She hears of a fearful calamity, such as lately overtook the Armenians, and it appeals so strongly to her and arouses her so thoroughly that she goes half around the world to dispense the relief that a Christian civilization gives in money and supplies for the hungry and destitute in that distant land. The work of such self-sacrificing benefactors of hu- statute book of any State. manity does not die with them.

Nor will the work of Catharine Fay Ew- ing die with her. The time is coming when there will not be a State in the Union where it will not be against the law to keep a depen- dent child in a county infirmary, and when

every State will provide by law for the saving of homeless children.

CONDITIONS IN 1857.

In the year 1857, as at present. most peo- ple were too busy with their own affairs to give much attention to the rescue of dependent children. They had children of their own. They, no doubt, said to themselves, when they gave the subject any attention at all, somewhat as follows: "The poorhouse children may not have a very good time, but that was better than nothing, and the taxes collected from all alike paid for their support, and it was not the taxpayers' fault that the children were in the poorhouse. Let those who are paid for keeping the infirmary care for them and don't bother honest, hard-working people with the woes of these little paupers. We have children of our own to support." Such heard-headed and you might say cruel logic held sway in the year of our Lord, 1857.

To better understand the subject, let us in- quire what were the conditions in regard to child saving that year. I refer to the year Catharine Fay began her work. Not a single State in the Union had acknowledged the re- sponsibility of the State for the saving of home- less children. No general law stood on the statute book of any State, providing for the establishment of child-saving institutions, the dependent children of these great common- wealths were relegated to the tender mercies of the poorhouses. If there were such laws I have failed to find them. At all events they were of such half-hearted kind that their rep- utation never got very far from home, and not until the year 1866, the date of the passage of the Ohio Children's Home Act, did any such law, worthy the name, appear on the

THE FIRST HOME.

After buying the land. putting up the buildings, and getting the children from the County Infirmary, Miss Fay's work began. Twenty-six children to be cared for, fed and

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clothed, not for one month only, but for 12 months in the year, and she continued right along for 10 years. She found homes for her children in private families as fast as she could and followed them up year by year. Her ca- reer in this respect shows how a determined spirit makes way for itself. When people saw she was making a success of the move- ment, they came to her aid, and the county au- thorities helped her.

DEVELOPED INTO A STATE INSTITUTION.

Now witness how events developed this first Children's Home into a State institution. The directors of the County Infirmary, hav- ing no power ontside of what the law gave them, had for a number of years been paying Miss Fay money from the public funds to help support the children taken from the Infirmary, and they had no law authorizing them to do it. Then toward the close of the War of the Rebellion, she had 35 soldiers' orphans in the Home, and she thought it was a shame that these children should not have better support than she could give them. So she conceived of the idea of asking the Legislature to make her Home a regular county institution, sep- arating the children entirely from poorhouse control. The county authorities approved of the plan because it would legalize what they had before been doing illegally. The patriot- ic citizens of the community approved of it because of the humiliating situation of the sol- diers' orphans, who, although committed to the care of Miss Fay, were virtually inmates of the Infirmary. Mrs. Ewing resolved to make the effort to induce the State of Ohio to adopt her system and pass a general law authorizing any county in Ohio to establish a Children's Home.

Here was the supreme effort of her life crowned with success. This was the turning point in the history of the great movement, which made it permanent and handed her name down to fame. For her Children's Home, and the benign purposes it involved, if left to itself, in the ordinary course of events might have died with her; but when her Children's

Home was adopted by the great State of Ohio, that established it forever. It also estab- lished the idea that the State is responsible for the homeless child-a great victory for civili- zation. The Ohio law of 1866 was the first of its kind, and the example of Ohio has been followed by other States until now it is the exception to find a State that still allows de- pendent children to be kept in the poorhouse. and nearly every State has now a general law providing in one way or another for the say- ing of homeless children.

HISTORY OF CHILDREN'S HOMES.

( By "Aunt Katie Fay' Eating,-Read before the Chil- dren's Home Convention.)

In the fall of 1853 I was laboring as a missionary among the Choctaw Indians, when one day a physician called to see me to visit a poor family just across the line, where the mother had died, leaving a family of five small children. These little ones she had commit- ted to his care, and he . was trying to find homes for them. The mother was a New England woman, and for the first years of lier married life everything went well; but the husband became a drunkard ; and poverty fol- lowed as the sure result. They removed from one place to another, until these last days of trouble overtook them on the frontiers of Arkansas. A few days before, the husband had taken the only axe they had, and leaving the family without any wood, or any way of getting any, had deserted them. In this sit- uation our good doctor had found them, and hie soothed the last hours of the woman with the promise that he would provide for the chil- dren. He had now found homes for all but a little one, two years old, as lovely a child as the sun ever shone on. My heart was drawn to her at once, and I longed to take her and give her a home. For days I prayed over it, and tried to devise means to accomplish it ; but 1 found it was impossible, for I was but a poor teacher and hundreds of miles from my own home.

The child was finally taken by a man and

WASHINGTON COUNTY CHILDREN'S HOME.

what

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his wife, who soon after began to sell whis- key to the Indians. One day as they were drinking, they ended in a fight, and the dar- ling child was thrown upon the steps of the house and killed. The distress of mind I suf- fered over this sad affair so affected my health, that I was obliged to leave my work among the Indians, and return home; but the desire and purpose had arisen in my heart to have a home where I might care for such or- phaned and homeless children. After this every effort was directed toward that object, every dollar was laid up with miserly care. For two years I taught in Kentucky and with the means thus obtained purchased 15 acres of land, and on this began to build my home. The Lord, knowing my needs. sent me two legacies : one from my uncle and one from my aunt. My aim at first was to have a home where I could take children and support them myself; but one day I went to our Infirmary where I found 26 children of every condition amid older people of the vilest and most pro- fane characters. To see these children, made in God's image, polluted by such contact, was more than I could bear. I went at once to the trustees of the Infirmary, and got their con- sent to give me the children at ȘI a week. They were to find them one pair of shoes and two suits of clothes : they were to pay one-half the doctor's bills, and all funeral expenses, and I was to do the rest. I had begun in the fall of 1857 to build a house upon my place : but there was a small frame house of two rooms on the farm when I bought it. In this I es- tablished myself, and on the first day of April. 1858. I received there nine children sent to me from the Infirmary. They were all under 10 years of age, four of them mere babies. These children, with my hired girl, and the men who were building my house, made a family of 19. The Lord wonderfully provided for us. One barrel of flour, given to me by Jasper Sprague. lasted our large family three months, when I had nothing to get more with, and we had enough, too.

Our neighbors, many of them, were not friendly, and had strange ideas concerning my

work. They thought there could be no good motive in taking children to keep as I was do- ing, and that I must be making money out of it, and out of them, too, as they helped pay the taxes. So they tried every way they could to injure me. Our gates would be opened at night, and hogs and cattle let in upon our garden and fields. Our chickens were often killed. Once when I went away to take one of the children to a home, I found when I came back that all but eight of our 60 chick- ens were dead.

In my agreement with the trustees, I was to send the children to school. Nothing was specified, how or where, but my plan was to have them taught at home during the winter, and send them to a district school in summer. When the term began, I took all the children of the proper age, five in number, and went with them to the school house. I found however. that the trustees of the school had left word that none of them could remain, as they were paupers, and could not be in the same school with their children, so I took them home.

But I did not intend to be scared out of this thing. So, taking twp of the children by the hand, I led them all into the school house. gave the teacher the children's books, and left them there. As I went out one of the trus- tees met me at the door, went with ine through the men and then left me to go home alone; thanking God that he had protected me from harm.

As soon as possible I went into town, and. by the advice of friends was made guardian of all the children large enough to go to school.

The next Monday I took them to the school house, and there I found the trustees. I showed them the proof of my guardianship and told them to reject the children if they could. They had not thought of all this and did not know what to say. So Ileft the chil- dren there. About ten o'clock they came home crying, and said they had been sent home and asked me if I was old "Goody-poor-house" for that was what they called me at the school.

The next week the trustees summoned me to court, where I was kept four days away

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from my home, where there was sickness, and no one there but hired help. One of the chil- dren died the third day after I got back. The case was decided in my favor, and I was al- lowed to send the children to school. So passed away with many trials the first and second years, and after that things began to brighten. In August, 1858, my house was finished and we moved into it, much rejoiced to have at last room enough for the family.

In June of 1860, my family was attacked with diphtheria, and we were not free from sickness from that time till November. I was taken sick among the first, and before I was able to be up. both of my hired girls left me. The day the last one went away I crawled down stairs, and found things in a dreadful condition. The children gathered around me so pleased to have me with them again, and with the help of the two oldest. a girl of 12. and a boy of 13. I went to work to get things in order ; but soon the sick up-stairs needed my attention. I was too weak to walk. I had to creep up on my hands and knees. There lay six dear children very sick, one of whom died the next day. Thus it went on for three weeks. No help could be hired, for all were afraid of contagion. All the help I had in car- ing for these 23 children, eight of them sick, was the aid the children themselves could give me, though Mrs. Clogston, a neighbor, came and did the washing and ironing for me as a favor. Many days I had no one to speak to but the children. The hardest time came one evening when I knew that one of the little ones could not live through the night. I dreaded to be alone, and just at night I sent one of the boys to ask a neighbor to come and stay at least a part of the night with me .- She told the boy to go back and tell "old Kate she was paid for taking care of the children, and now she might do it." When the boy told me this, I broke down and cried until one of the chil- dren came and put his arms around my neck. and said: "God can take care of us." "So

he can," said I, "I will trust in Him." Nor did I trust in vain, for before dark Dr. Beck- with came, bringing his wife with him. When

I told them what had happened, we all three cried together, and after the doctor had prayed with us, his wife offered to stay till he came again. I shall never forget that night, or the kindness of Mrs. Beckwith in staying with me. Four of the children died during this season of sickness. There were many ex- tra expenses, too, during this time, and then came the laying in of winter stores and pro- viding winter clothing, so I was very grate- ful to the trustees of the poor when they sent me a present of $50. During the winter 12 of the children had scarlet fever, but by God's blessing only one died. Hardly were we through with that, when the measles ap- peared and 21 were sick with that at once, one of them my main dependence for help. But the Lord helped me through with it all, and gave me strength according to my day. Many kind friends He raised up for me, who by gifts of money, donations of clothing and provisions helped me to supply our wants.

About this time, however, the war broke out, and people's thoughts and sympathies were so enlisted for the soldiers that we did not receive so many donations, while prices were so high, that one dollar only went as far as fifty cents had . before. The number of children, too, increased, as so many of the sol- diers' families were left destitute. I felt com- pelled to ask from the commissioners, 25 cents more a week, and in Angust, 1864, this was granted. The farm supplied us with many things for our food, and in one of these hard years of the war, our crops were nearly double what they usually were, while all about us were very poor. We had cows to supply us with milk, and a few sheep given to us helped to furnish the warm stockings needed for the little ones in the winter. The health during these later years was better, though often those who came into the family were in poor physical condition, and some times did not live long after they came under my care. No child. however, as late as 1866 had died who had been at the home over a year.

In 1863 the comfort of the family was much increased by sinking a well, making a

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cistern, and building a school house, where during the winter months the children were taught. To meet the expense of these things, I had. at first, $37 given to me by friends for the well ; but a debt remained hanging over me for some time, causing me much anxiety, but $150 given me by friends in Harmar, and $250 raised by an entertainment in Marietta, furnished the means that cleared me of debt, so that on my birthday in 1865, I could say, "I owe no man anything."

Among the pleasant things that the kind- ness of friends brought to me was a visit to some of the benevolent institutions of our State at Lancaster and Columbus, the commissioners paying my expenses, and the ladies of Mari- etta supplying my outfit.

As the number of children increased dur- ing these years, and the expenses were so much greater, it became more and more ap- parent that the means of support at my com- mand were inadequate to the necessities of the case. The connection it held with the poor- house, too, was undesirable. It put the chil- dren under a kind of stigma that was hurtful, as well as unpleasant to them. So many of them, too, were soldiers' children ( at one time two-thirds of the whole number. 35 being of this class ), and these I felt deserved something Letter of their country than had yet been pro- vided.

I became greatly desirous, therefore, that we might be made entirely separate in name and fact from the poor house, and have a dis- tinct fund appropriated to our use. So early as 1864 I conferred with the commissioners about the expediency of applying to the legis- lature to bring about this change. A bill to this effect was therefore presented to the Legis- lature by William F. Curtis, but owing to some misunderstanding in the State institutions, it was laid aside. The next year it was presented again, but rejected. In the year 1866 the mat- ter was again brought forward by S. S. Knowles, who in March of that year wrote to ine to announce that his bill providing for the Children's Home had passed the House by a vote of 72 to 10, and was now a law. So the plan which I had thought of only as a relief for our own Children's Home, became in God's good providence the means by which such in- stitutions have been multiplied all over our State.

The home where I started in was about 10 miles from Marietta. This was thought to be too far away, after it became a county institu- tion, and a place was bought for it two miles and a half from town. Thither on the 3rd of April, 1867, the children were removed, but as my health was poor, I resigned my post, and re- mained at the old place.

CHAPTER VIII.

HIGHER EDUCATION.

EARLY ACADEMIES-THE MARIETTA INFANT SCHOOL-INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION -MANUAL LABOR ASSOCIATION-THE MARIETTA COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE- MARIETTA FEMALE SEMINARY-MARIETTA COLLEGE-HISTORICAL SKETCH OF MARIETTA COLLEGE --- TEACH- ERS AND EDUCATORS-ARTISTS.

EARLY ACADEMIES.

The private school and the academy have performed a very important service for educa- tion in Washington County, as they have in all the earlier settlements in this State. First among these was Muskingum Academy, found- ed in 1797, from which Marietta College is directly descended.

In 1844. Harmar Academy was built on the corner of Franklin and Maple streets. Stu- dents to the number of 166 were in attendance in this academy in 1847. Rev. Henry Bates for a long time was principal. John Crawford. Henry Fearing, Douglas Putnam, Harlow Chapin and Silas T. Jewel were the trustees. When the system of union schools was adopted the Academy building was used for the high school department, and when the high school was discontinued on the west side of the river, it was still used as a public school building until 1891, when it was destroyed by fire, and the Fort School was erected on the site of Fort Harmar.

The Western Liberal Institute was organ- ized by the Universalists of Marietta and char- tered in 1850. The first trustees were G. W. Barker, Owen Franks and James M. Booth. Paul Kendal was first principal. It afforded, for about 10 years, instruction in the higher branches to many students of this and adjoin-

ing counties. The building occupied by the Institute was on the southwest corner of Sec- ond and Butler streets.

Of Beverly College or Academy, for in its time it has been called by both names, we Irave an interesting description in the sketch of the Dodge family, found in Chapter XII. It was formally opened in November, 1842, with J. P. Whitten as president ; Charles B. Barclay, professor of rhetoric: Rev. Milton Bird, pro- fessor of moral science; and J. Loffland, pro- iessor of languages. While the institution was under the charge of Prof. E. S. Cox, who has since won a wide reputation as a city super- intendent and a specialist in English, Beverly AAcademy sent to colleges and universities a large number of very well prepared students. The writer can recall two valedictorians of their respective classes who received their train- ing under the care of Professor Cox. A few years later. when under the charge of Principal R. J. Smith, the Academy won an enviable rep- utation for the large number of well prepared teachers that went from its class rooms to the county examinations.

Bartlett Academy was organized in Wesley township in 1856. Joseph Penrose, Joseph K. Bucy. Isaac Emmons and James King were the first Board of Trustees, and Jefferson MI. Hes- ton was the first principal. For many years a large number of students were gathered here,

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many of whom afterward became teachers. Z. G. Bundy was for a long time instructor in Bartlett Academy, also William Eldridge.

For a few years Prof. Samuel Maxwell taught an academy where the Children's llome now stands. Of Mr. Tenney's academy a description is found in contemporary extracts from the American Friend, appearing in this and the preceding chapter.

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History of Marietta and Washington County, Ohio, and representative citizens, Part 26

Author: Andrews, Martin Register, 1842-; Hathaway, Seymour J Publication date: 1902 Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1490

Author: Andrews, Martin Register, 1842-; Hathaway, Seymour J
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1490