History of Medina county and Ohio, Part 25

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Battle, J. H; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926; Baskin & Battey. Chicago. pub
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : Baskin & Battey
Number of Pages: 1014

USA > Ohio > Medina County > History of Medina county and Ohio > Part 25

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This shows there are more collegiate institutions in Ohio than in all New England ; a greater num- ber of college teachers, and ouly a little smaller ratio of students to the population ; a greater number of sueh students thau either in New York or Pennsyl- vania, and, as a broad, general fact, Ohio has made more progress in cducation than either of the old States which formed the American Union. Such a faet is a higher testimony to the strength and the beneficent influence of the American Government than any which the statistician or the historian can advance.

Let us now turn to the moral aspects of the people of Ohio. No human society is found with- out its poor and dependent classes, whether made so by the defects of nature, by acts of Providence, or by the accidents of fortune. Sinec no society is exempt from these elasses, it must be judged not so much by the faet of their cxistenee, as by the manner in which it treats them. In the eivil- ized nations of antiquity, such as Greece and Rome, hospitals, infirmaries, orphan homes, and asylums for the infirmn, were unknown. These are the creations of Christianity, and that must be esteemed practically the most Christian State which most practices this Christian benefieence. In Ohio, as in all the States of this country, and of all Christian countries, there is a large number of the infirm and dependent classes; but, although Ohio is the third State in population, she is only the fourteenth in the proportion of dependent classes. The more important point, however, was, how does she treat thiem ? Is there wanting any of all the varied institutions of benevolence? How does she compare with other States and countries in this respect? It is believed that no State or eoun- try can present a larger proportion of all these institutions which the benevolence of the wise and good have suggested for the alleviation of suffer- ing and misfortune, than the State of Ohio. With 3,500 of the insane within her borders, she has five great lunatie asylums, capable of accommodat- ing them all. She has asylums for the deaf and dumb, the idiotie, and the blind. She has the best hospitals in the country. She has schools of reform and houses of refuge. She has "homes" for the boys and girls, to the number of 800, who are children of soldiers. She has penitentiarics and jails, orphan asylums and infirmaries. In cvery county there is an infirmary, and in every public institution, except the penitentiary, there is a

school. So that the State has used every human means to relieve the suffering, to instruct the igno- rant, and to reform the criminal. There are in the State 80,000 who come under all the various forms of the infirm, the poor, the sick and the criminal, who, in a greater or less degree, make the dependent class. For these the State has made every provision which humanity or justice or intelligence can require. A young State, de- veloped in the wilderness, she challenges, without any invidious comparison, both Europe and Amer- ica, to show her superior in the development of humanity manifested in the benefaction of public institutions.

Intimately connceted with public morals and with charitable institutions, is the religion of a people. The people of the United States are a Christian people. The people of Ohio have man- ifested their zeal by the erection of churches, of Sunday schools, and of religious institutions. So far as these are outwardly manifested, they are made known by the social statistics of the eensus. The number of church organizations in the leading States were: In the State of Ohio, 6,488; in the State of New York, 5,627 : in the State of Pennsylvania, 5,984; in the State of Illinois, 4,298. It thus appears that Ohio had a larger number of churches than any State of the Union. The number of sittings, however, was not quite as large as those in New York and Pennsylvania. The denominations are of all the sects known in this country, about thirty in number, the majority of the whole being Methodists, Presbyterians and Baptists. Long before the American Independ- enee, the Moravians had settled on the Mahoning and Tuscarawas Rivers, but only to be destroyed ; and when the peace with Great Britain was made, not a vestige of Christianity remained on the soil of Ohio ; yet we see that within ninety years from that time the State of Ohio was, in the num- ber of its churches, the first of this great Union.

In the beginning of this address, I said that Ohio was the oldest and first of these great States, carved out of the Northwestern Territory, and that it was in some things the greatest State of the American Union. I have now traced the physi- cal, commercial, intellectual and moral features of the State during the seventy-five years of its constitutional history. The result is to establish fully the propositions with which I began. These facts have brought out :

1. That Ohio is, in referenec to the square miles of its surfaec, the first State in agriculture

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of the American Union; this, too, notwithstand- ing it has 800,000 in cities and towns, and a large development of capital and products in manu- factures.

2. That Ohio has raised more grain per square mile than either France, Austria, or Great Britain. They raised 1,450 bushels per square mile, and 10 bushels to each person. Ohio raised 3,750 bushels per square mile, and 50 bushels to each one of the population ; or, in other words, five times the proportion of grain raised in Europe.

3. Ohio was the first State of the Union in the production of domestic animals, being far in advance of either New York, Pennsylvania or Illi- nois. The proportion of domestic animals to each person in Ohio was three and one-third, and in New York and Pennsylvania less than half that. The largest proportion of domestic animals pro- duced in Europe was in Great Britain and Russia, neither of which come near that of Ohio.

4. The coal-field of Ohio is vastly greater than that of Great Britain, and we need make no com- parison with other States in regard to coal or iron; for the 10,000 square miles of coal, and 4,000 square miles of iron in Ohio, are enough to supply the whole American continent for ages to come.

5. Neither need we compare the results of commerce and navigation, since, from the ports of Cleveland and Cincinnati, the vessels of Ohio touch on 42,000 miles of coast, and her 5,000 miles of railroad carry her products to every part of the American continent.

6. Notwithstanding the immense proportion and products of agriculture in Ohio, yet she has more than kept pace with New York and New England in the progress of manufactures during the last twenty years. Her coal and iron are pro- ducing their legitimate results in making her a great manufacturing State.

7. Ohio is the first State in the Union as to the proportion of youth attending school; and the States west of the Alleghanies and north of the Ohio have more youth in school, proportionably, than New England and New York. The facts on this subject are so extraordinary that I may be excused for giving them a little in detail.

'The proportion of youth in Ohio attending school to the population, is 1 in 4.2; in Illinois, 1 in 4.3; in Pennsylvania, 1 in 4.8; in New York, 1 in 5.2; in Connecticut and Massachusetts, 1 in 8.7.

These proportions show that it is in the West, and not in the East, that education is now advanc-

ing; and it is here that we see the stimulus given by the ordinance of 1787, is working out its great and beneficent results. The land grant for educa- tion was a great one, but, at last, its chief effort was in stimulating popular education; for the State of Ohio has taxed itself tens of millions of dollars beyond the utmost value of the land grant, to found and maintain a system of public education which the world has not surpassed.

We have seen that above and beyond all this material and intellectual development, Ohio has provided a vast benefaction of asylums, hospitals, and infirmaries, and special schools for the support and instruction of the dependent classes. There is not within all her borders a single one of the deaf, dumb, and blind, of the poor, sick, and insane, not an orphan or a vagrant, who is not provided for by the broad and generous liberality of the State and her people. A charity which the classic ages knew nothing of, a beneficence which the splendid hierarchies and aristocracies of Europe cannot equal, has been exhibited in this young State, whose name was unknown one hundred years ago, whose people, from Europe to the Atlantic, and from the Atlantic to the Ohio, were, like Adam and Eve, cast out-" the world before them where to choose."

Lastly, we see that, although the third in pop- ulation, and the seventeenth in admission to the Union, Ohio had, in 1870, 6,400 churches, the largest number in any one State, and numbering among them every form of Christian worship. The people, whose fields were rich with grain, whose mines were boundless in wealth, and whose commerce extended through thousands of miles of lakes and rivers, came here, as they came to New England's rock-bound coast-

" With freedom to worship God."

The church and the schoolhouse rose beside the green fields, and the morning bells rang forth to cheerful children going to school, and to a Chris- tian people going to the church of God.

Let us now look at the possibilities of Ohio in the future development of the American Repub- lican Republic. The two most populous parts of Europe, because the most food-producing, are the Netherlands and Italy, or, more precisely, Belgium and ancient Lombardy ; to the present time, their population is, in round numbers, three hundred to the square mile. The density of population in England proper is about the same. We may assume, therefore, that three hundred to the square

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mile is, in round numbers, the limit of comfortable subsistence under modern civilization. It is true that modern improvements in agricultural maehin- ery and fertilization have greatly increased the capacity of production, on a given amount of land, with a given amount of labor. It is true, also, that the old countries of Europe do not possess an equal amount of arable land with Ohio in proportion to the same surface. It would seem, therefore, that the density of population in Ohio might exceed that of any part of Europe. On the other hand, it may be said with truth that the American people will not become so dense as in Europe while they have new lands in the West to occupy. This is true; but lands such as those in the valley of the Ohio are now becoming scaree in the West, and we think that, with her great capacity for the production of grain on one hand, and of illimitable quantities of coal and iron to manufacture with on the other, that Ohio will, at no remote period, reach nearly the density of Belgium, which will give her 10,000,000 of people. This seems extravagant, but the tide of inigration, which flowed so fast to the West, is beginning to ebb, while the manufactures of the interior offer greater inducements.

With population comes wealth, the material for education, the development of the arts, advance in all the material elements of eivilization, and the still grander advancements in the strength and elevation of the human mind, conquering to itself new realms of material and intellectual power, acquiring in the future what we have seen in the past, a wealth of resources unknown and undreamed of when, a hundred years ago, the fathers of the republie declared their independence. I know how easy it is to treat this statement with easy incredulity, but statistics is a certain science ; the elements of civilization are now measured, and we know the progress of the human race as we know

that of a cultivated plant. We know the resources of the country, its food-producing capacity, its art processes, its power of education, and the unde- fined and illimitable power of the human mind for new inventions and unimagined progress. With this knowledge, it is not difficult nor unsafe to say that the future will produce more, and in a far greater ratio, than the past. The pictured scenes of the prophets have already been more than ful- filled, and the visions of beauty and glory, which their imagination failed fully to describe, will be more than realized in the bloom of that garden which republiean America will present to the cyes of astonished mankind. Long before another century shall have passed by, the single State of Ohio will present fourfold the population with which the thirteen States began their independence, more wealth than the entire Union now has; greater universities than any now in the country, and a development of arts and manufacture which the world now knows nothing of. You have seen more than that since the Constitution was adopted, and what right have you to say the future shall not equal the past ?

I have aimed, in this address, to give an exact pieture of what Ohio is, not more for the sake of Ohio than as a representation of the produets which the American Republie has given to the world. A State which began long after the Declaration of Independenec, in the then unknown wilderness of North America, presents to-day the fairest example of what a republican govern- ment with Christian civilization ean do. Look upon this picture and upon those of Assyria, of Greece or Rome, or of Europe in her best estate, and say where is the eivilization of the earth which can equal this. Ifa Roman citizen could say with pride, " Civis Romanus sum," with far greater pride can you say this day, "I am an American citizen."

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CHAPTER XIV.

EDUCATION *- EARLY SCIIOOL LAWS -- NOTES - INSTITUTES AND EDUCATIONAL JOURNALS- SCHOOL SYSTEM-SCHOOL FUNDS -- COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES.

W HEN the survey of the Northwest Terri- tory was ordered by Congress, March 20, 1785, it was decreed that every sixteenth seetion of land should be reserved for the "maintenance of public schools within each township." The ordinance of 1787-thanks to the New England Associates-proclaimed that, " religion, morality and knowledge being essential to good government, schools and the means of education should forever be encouraged." The State Constitution of 1802 declared that "schools and the means of instruc- tion should be encouraged by legislative provision, not inconsistent with the rights of conscience." In 1825, through the persevering efforts of Nathan Guilford, Senator from Hamilton County, Ephraim Cutler, Representative from Washington County, and other friends of education, a bill was passed, " laying the foundation for a general system of common schools." This bill provided a tax of one- half mill, to be levied by the County Commis- sioners for school purposes ; provided for school examiners, and made Township Clerks and County Auditors school officers. In 1829, this eounty tax was raised to three-fourths of a mill; in 1834 to one mill, and, in 1836, to one and a half mills.

In March, 1837, Samuel Lewis, of Hamilton County, was appointed State Superintendent of Com- mon Schools. He was a very energetie worker, trav- cling on horsebaek all over the State, delivering ad- dresses and encouraging school officers and teachers. Through his efforts much good was done, and

* From the School Commissioners' Reports, principally those of Thomas W. Harvey, A. M.

NOTE 1 .- The first school taught in Ohio. or in the Northwestern Territory, was in 1791. The first teacher was Maj Austin Tupper, eldestson of Gen. Benjamin Tupper, both Revomtionary officers. The room occupied was the same as that in which the first Court was held, and was situated in the northwest block-house of the garrison, called the stockade, at Marietta. During the Indian war school was also taught at Fort Harmar. Point Marietta, and at other set- tlements. A meeting was held in Marietta, April 29, 1797, to con- sider the erection of a school hinilding suitable for the instruction of the youth, and for conducting religious services. Resolutions were adopted which led to the erection of a building called the Muskingum Academy. The building was of frame, forty feet long and twenty-four feet wide, and is yet (1878) standing. Thebuilding was twelve fret high, with an arched ceiling It stood upon a stone foundation, three steps from the ground. There were two chimneys and a lobby projection. There was a cellar under the whole build- ing. It stood npon a beautiful lot, fromting the Muskingum River, and about sixty feet back fion the street. Some large trees were

many important features engrafted on the school system. He resigned in 1839, when the office was abolished, and its duties imposed on the Secretary of State.

The most important adjunct in early education in the State was the college of teachers organized in Cincinnati in 1831. Albert Pickett, Dr. Joseph Ray, William H. McGuffey-so largely known by his Readers-and Milo G. Williams, were at its head. Leading men in all parts of the West at- tended its meetings. Their published deliberations did much for the advancement of education among the people. Through the efforts of the college, the first convention held in Ohio for educational purposes was called at Columbus, January 13, 1836. Two years after, in December, the first convention in which the different seetions of the State were represented, was held. At both these conventions, all the needs of the schools, both com- mon and higher, were ably and fully discussed, and appeals made to the people for a more cordial support of the law. No successful attempts were made to organize a permanent educational society until Deeember, 1847, when the Ohio State Teach- ers' Association was formed at Akron, Summit County, with Samuel Galloway as President; T. W. Harvey, Recording Secretary; M. D. Leggett, Corresponding Secretary; William Bowen, Treas- urer, and M. F. Cowdrey, Chairman of the Executive Committec. This Association entered upon its work with commendable earnestness, and has sinee

upon the lot and on the street in front. Across the street was an open common, and beyond that the river. Immediately opposite the door, on entering, was a broad aisle, and, at the end of the aisle, against the wall. was a desk or pulpit. On the right and left of the pulpit, against the wall, and fronting the pulpit, was a row of slips. On each side of the door, facing the pulpit, were two slips, and, at each end of the room, one slip. These slips werestationary, and were fitted with desky that could be let down, and there were boxes in the desks for holding books and puper -. In the center of the room was an open space, which could be filled with movable seats. The first school was opened here in 1800."-Letter of A. T. Nye.

NOTE 2 -Another evidence of the character of the New England Associates is the founding of a public library as rarly as 1796, or before Another was also established at Belpre about the same time. Abundant evidence proves the existence of these libraries, all tend- ing to the fact that the early settlers. thongh conquering a wilder- nos3 and a savage foe, would not allow their mentel faculties to lack for food. The character of the books shows that "s.lid" reading predominated.

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never abated its zeal. Semi-annual meetings were at first hield, but, since 1858, only annual meeting's oecur. They are always largely attended, and al- ways by the best and most energetic teachers. The Association has given tone to the educational interests of the State, and has done a vast amount of good in popularizing education. In the spring of 1851, Lorin Andrews, then Superintendent of the Massillon school, resigned his place, and be- came a common-school missionary. In July, the Association, at Cleveland, made him its agent, and instituted measures to sustain him. He remained zealously at work in this relation until 1853, when he resigned to accept the presidency of Kenyon College, at Gambier. Dr. A. Lord was then ehosen general agent and resident editor of the Journal of Education, which positions he filled two years, with eminent ability.

The year that Dr. Lord resigned, the ex officio relation of the Secretary of State to the common schools was abolished, and the office of school eom- missioner again ereated. H. H. Barney was elected to the place in October, 1853. The offiec has sinee been held by Rev. Anson Smyth, elected in 1856, and re-elected in 1859; E. E. White, appointed by the Governor, November 11, 1863, to fill the vacaney caused by the resignation of C. W. H. Catheart, who was elected in 1862; John A. Norris, in 1863; W. D. Henkle, in 1868; Thomas W. ITarvey, in 1871; C. S. Smart, in 1875, and the present incumbent, J. J. Burns, elected in 1878, his term expiring in 1881.

The first teachers' institute in Northern Ohio was held at Sandusky, in September, 1845, con- ducted by Salem Town, of New York, A. D. Lord and M. F. Cowdrey. The second was held at Char- don, Geauga Co., in November of the same year. The first institute in the southern part of the State was held at Cincinnati, in February, 1837; the first in the central part at Newark, in March, 1848. Since then these meetings of teachers have occurred annually, and have been the means of great good in elevating the teacher and the public in educational interests. In 1848, on petition of forty teachers, county commissioners were author- ized to pay leeturers from surplus revenue, and the next year, to appropriate $100 for institute pur- poses, upon pledge of teachers to raise half that amount. By the statutes of 1864, applicants for teachers were required to pay 50 cents cach as an examination fec. One-third of the amount thus raised was allowed the use of examiners as trav- eling expenses, the remainder to be applied to in-

stitute instruction. For the year 1871, sixty-cight teachers' institutes were held in the State, at which 308 instructors and lecturers were employed, and 7,158 teachers in attendance. The expense incurred was $16,361.99, of which $10,127.13 was taken from the institute fund; $2,730.34, was contrib- uted by members; $680, by county commis- sioners, and the balance, $1,371.50, was ob- tained from other sources. The last report of the State Commissioners-1878-shows that eighty- five county institutes were held in the State, eon- tinuiug in session 748 days; 416 instructors were employed; 11,466 teachers attended; $22,531.47 were received from all sources, and that the cx- penses were $19,587.51, or $1.71 per member. There was a balance on hand of $9,460.74 to com- mence the next year, just now closed, whose work has been as progressive and thorough as any former ycar. The State Association now comprises three sections; the general association, the superintend- ents' section and the ungraded school section. All have done a good work, and all report progress.

The old State Constitution, adopted by a con- vention in 1802, was supplemented in 1851 by the present one, under which the General Assem- bly, clected under it, met in 1852. Harvey Rice, a Senator from Cuyahoga County, Chairman of Senate Committee on "Common Schools and School Lands," reported a bill the 29th of March, to provide "for the re-organization, supervision and maintenance of common schools." This bill, amended in a few particulars, became a law March 14, 1853. The prominent features of the new law were: The substitution of a State school tax for the county tax ; ereation of the office of the State School Commissioner; the ercation of a Township Board of Education, consisting of repre- sentatives from the subdistricts; the abolition of rate-bills, making education free to all the youth of the State; the raising of a fund, by a tax of one- tenth of a mill yearly, " for the purpose of fur- nishing school libraries and apparatus to all the common schools." This "library tax" was abol- ished in 1860, otherwise the law has remained practically unchanged.

School journals, like the popular press, have been a potent agency in the educational history of the State. As early as 1838, the Ohio School Director was issued by Samuel Lewis, by legisla- tive authority, though after six months' continu- ance, it ceased for want of support. The same year the Pestalozzian, by E. L. Sawtell and II. K. Smith, of Akron, and the Common School

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Advocate, of Cincinnati, were issued. In 1846, the School Journal began to be published by A. D. Lord, of Kirtland. The same year saw the Free School Clarion, by W. Bowen, of Massillon, and the School Friend, by W. B. Smith & Co., of Cincinnati. The next year, W. H. Moore & Co., of Cincinnati, started the Western School Journal. In 1851, the Ohio Teucher, by Thomas Rainey, appeared; the News and Edu- cator, in 1863, and the Educational Times, in 1866. In 1850, Dr. Lord's Journal of Educa- tion was united with the School Friend, and became the recognized organ of the teachers in Ohio. The Doctor remained its principal editor until 1856, when he was succeeded by Anson Smyth, who edited the journal one year. In 1857. it was edited by John D. Caldwell; in 1858 and and 1859, by W. T. Coggeshall; in 1860, by Anson Smyth again, when it passed into the hands of E. E. White, who yet controls it. It has an immense circulation among Ohio teachers, and, though competed by other journals, since started, it maintains its place.

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History of Medina county and Ohio, Part 25

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Battle, J. H; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926; Baskin & Battey. Chicago. pub Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago : Baskin & Battey Number of Pages: 1014

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Battle, J. H; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926; Baskin & Battey. Chicago. pub
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : Baskin & Battey
Number of Pages: 1014