USA > Ohio > Huron County > Norwalk > History of Norwalk township, Huron county, Ohio taken from Williams' History of Huron and Erie counties > Part 10
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INDEPENDENT ORDER OF ODD FELLOWS.
Huron Lodge, No. 37, I. O. O. F., was instituted at Norwalk, April 14, 1845, by authority of a charter granted by the Right Worthy Grand Lodge of Ohio, to the following charter members: Liberty Waite. A. Powers, N. F. Benson. T. C. Evans and Franklin Parker. And the following members were added by initiation: Noah Newton. Jr., E. P. Cheesebrough. Thomas Powers, Timothy Baker, John F. Dar. Hiram K. Steele. Benj. F. Brown. Erastne Gras.
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HISTORY OF HURON AND ERIE COUNTIES, OHIO.
John S. Roby, William D. Perkins and James Sharpe. The lodge having been thus successfully launched on its mission of friendship, love and truth, was pros perons, and included in its membership many citizens of prominence, among others Dr. J. Tifft, C. B. Stiekney, J. M. Farr, S. L. Hatch, W. W. Redfield, ITiram Rose, J. F. Dewey, G. T. Stewart, P. N. Sehnyler, J. H. Rule, W. O. Parker, Franklin Saw yer, M. F. Wooster, John Cline, S. H. Berry, R. A. Pantlind. W. O. Abbott, Edwin H. Brown, B. P. Smith and many others. Since its organization it has admitted three hundred and sixty-one members. and at this date ( May 10, 1829,) has one hundred and ten members. In furtherance of its charitable mis- sion it has expended twenty-one thousand dollars; and has now invested in real and personal property, and in its widows' and orphans fund, abont ten thousand dollars, all of which is pledged to the bene- ficient purposes of the friendly order of American Odd Fellowship.
SONS OF TEMPERANCE.
The Norwalk Division. No. 227, Sons of Temper- ance, was chartered and instituted on the 3d day of June, 184;, with the following charter members; Samuel T. Woreester. Geo. T. Cole. James N. Good- hue, Geo. Gongh, Chas. A. Preston, A. R. Berry, Timothy Baker. Jr., Phillip N. Schuyler. Frastus Gray, Charles E. Pennewell, Henry M. Hotchkiss, A. S. Curtiss, Gideon T. Stewart, Daniel A. Baker and Edwin II. Brown. The first elected officers were, Samuel T. Worcester, W. P .; Daniel A. Baker, W. A .: Gideon T. Stewart, R. S .: E. H. Brown, A. R. S. : A. S. Curtiss, F. S., Timothy Baker, JJr., Treas .; P. N. Schuyler, Con .: A. R. Berry. A. C .: Benj. Ellis. I. S .: Addison C. Brown, O. S.
The organization of this division was mainly due. to the enterprise of Mr. G. T. Stewart, who is and always has been a zealous worker in the temperance cause. The division is its own historian. The record of more than one thousand six hundred meetings. and of thirty-three years of associated life, with all their trials, sacrifices, doubts, fears, hopes and tri- umphs, lies before us. Thirty-three years ago, on the first Tuesday evening of June. 1842, this division was instituted in the Odd Fellows hall, on Meehanie street (now Winttlesey avenue). The division con- tinaed to hold its meetings in that hall for over three years, a bond of fraternal sympathy springing up between the two orders which has continued to this day. During these three years the division had acen- mulated sufficient funds to purchase and fit up a hall for its own use, in the second story of the frame building then standing next door of the Norwalk Branch Bank of the State of Ohio, on Main street, over the store occupied by Jenney & Peters, clothing store, which was publicly dedicated on the evening of August 13, 1850. Here the division held its meet- ings for five years, until the morning of October 13, 1855, when the building was discovered to be on fire. !
and all was redneed to ashes-furniture, library, regalia, books and papers-except the records of the recording scribe, whicle were at his house. The meetings were held at the county anditor's office for abont four months, and on February 6. 1856, a new hall was fitted up over C. E. Newman's store. The former hall having been insured for about six hundred dollars, and the division having an interest in the ground on which it stood, was enabled to lease the new hall on long time, and fit it up in good style. Here it continued to meet for more than eleven years, until June, 186 ;. when it dedicated a fine hall in the third story of C. E. Newman's new briek block, and took a lease for twenty years, which it paid in ad- vance, and expended about one thousand dollars in fitting up, finishing it and publicly celebrating its twentieth anniversary. The number of members in good standing was five hundred and twenty-two. hay- ing nearly one-eighth of the entire population of Norwalk at that time. This number does not include two hundred and twenty members of the Fifty-Fifth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, who were in camp here, and were initiated before they entered the field. Their names, remain in perpetual honor on the records of this division. Of the former members sixty vol- unteered in the Union army, and a number held official commissions.
The apathy which fell upon the temporanee cauze throughout the country, the financial depression and political excitement resulting from the war, caused a decline in the membership. until, in the spring of 1876, it disposed of its hall and suspended weekly meetings. During the year ending May 1, 1842. the division held monthly meetings at the house of Past Worthy Patriarch Erastus thay. who set apart one of his rooms for its use. On the I-t of May it leasel a hall of Mr. Moses Vale, occupied by the locomotive engineers, and resumed regular weekly meetings, and in four weeks increased its inembership to fifty-six. Its trustces deeming it proper leased the large hall in Patrick's block, ad- joining the Methodist church, for ten years, paying . the rent in advance for the whole term, and after suitably fitting it up have saved over five hundred dollars for future operations. The division now numbers over two hundred active members, and is increasing weekly, ranking as the banner division of Ohio, numerically and financially. It has had the honor of having three of its members. David II. Pease. Thomas P. Bishop and Mrs. Harriet N. Bishop, exalted to the office of grand worthy patriarch of the State of Ohio. Mrs. H. N. Bishop, the present grand worthy patriarch, is the first lady who has had this honor conferred upon her in the international juris- dietion. Norwalk may well feel proud of her divi- sion of the Sons of Temperance.
SCHOOLS.
The fiest school house for many miles was built in the fall of 1816. a few rods from the township line
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HISTORY OF HURON AND ERIE COUNTIES, OHIO.
between Ridgefield and Norwalk, on lot number two of Ridgefield. It stood upon the bank on the left hand after crossing the bridge upon the present road to Peru. about half a mile from the bridge, and was made of logs. The first teacher was Charles Seymour Hale, son of General Hale, of Herkimer; the next was Ann Boalt, sister of C. L. Boalt: and the next, Tamar Palmer. The scholars were Asher, James, Miner, Lyman and Manley Cole: David, Isaae, Aurelia and Louisa Underhill: Alanson, Alva and Betsey Pixley; Jonas and Eliza Ann Benedict: Almira, Daniel and John Morse; Mary Ann Morse and others. In September of the same year, Peter Tiee and his son John put up a small framed building, the first framed building in the region, upon the flats in the bend of the road as it turns toward Peru, and used it for a . store. Afterward, when the Tices removed to Nor- walk, it was used by Judge Baker as a dwelling house, and subsequently became a school house, as a sub- stitnte for that above described Oliver Prentiss, Zacharias Marion and Horsee Johnson taught in it at different times. The building was afterward re- moved to Norwalk and used as a wagon shop: then converted into a dwelling, and used by different fami-
- lies, among which was that of the late Hon. J. M. Root and wife, of Sandusky City, whose first house- keeping experience commenced in it about 1835. Again it was removed to the first lot next north of Whittlesey avenue school house, and then used as a dwelling by several different families, among them that of Hon. C. S. Parker. present Ohio State sen- ator. About fifteen years ago it again became restless and changed its location to Prospeet street, where it now rests for a time, the second dwelling house south of the railroad track.
Beside these, school was taught by J. A. Jennings, afterward doetor, in a brick-maker's shanty, on the south side of what is now Seminary street, and a few rods east of Benedict avenue, and later in a framed building standing where the high-school building now stands, but now moved to South street and occupied as a dwelling. School was taught also by Doetor Amos B. Harris, in the old court house, probably parts of two two or three years. but the dates during these first ten years are uncertain, and our information i not posi- tive until. in October, 1826, an association of individ- uals was organized, under the name of .. The Presi- dent, Trustees, etc., of the Norwalk Academy, " having previously purchased of Elisha .Whittlesey foar lots, known then as numbers thirty-eight. thirty-nine, forty and forty-one, and being the same lots now occupied by our high-school building, who erected and partially finished a three story brick building upon these lots. the first and second stories of which were designed for the purposes of the academy, and the third story for a masonic lodge. The first and second stories, though far from complete, were occupied and the academy opened in December of the same year (1826) with Rev. C. P. Bronson. rector of St. Paul's Church, as princi- pal, and Rev. S. A. Bronson. Abram Bronson, Mr. War-
ner and Josiah Botsford, assistants. A female teacher, Miss Bostwiek, was soon after added, who taught ornamental branches-drawing. painting, etc. At the end of the first quarter. the principal reported the unmber of pupils in attendance at ninety. The prices fixed for tuition were as follows: Reading, writing and spelling per quarter, one dollar and seventy-five eents; if paid in two weeks, one dollar and fifty cents; arithmetie and English grammar, two dollars; paid'in two weeks, one dollar and seventy-five eents; higher branches of education, three dollars; paid in two weeks, two dollars and fifty eents: Greek and Latin, four dollars; paid in two weeks, three dollars and fifty cents. Beside the tuition, each pupil was required to furnish one-half eord of wood or twenty-five cents in money, toward warming the building.
At the close of the first year, the trustees reported one hundred scholars in attendance as the average for the year. The academy continued under the super- intendence of Mr. Bronson until May, 1828. when he was succeeded by Mr. Henry Tucker, a graduate of Union College. Owing to the difficulty of sustaining the school, an effort was made to increase the number of pupils by reducing still lower the price of tuition. The salaries of the superintendents and assistants depended upon the amount the principal could collect for tuition, which rendered their compensation very uncertain and generally very unsatisfactory. Mr. Tueker remained until the fall of that year (1828) when he was succeeded by Mr. Jolm Konnan, of Herki- mer, New York. There was no lack of ability in these different principals to establish for the academy a high reputation, but it was evidently premature. The country was too sparsely populated and the people too poor to support the expenses necessary for its suc- cessful continuance, and we find. in October of 1829, a consolidation of the academy with the district schools. with Mr. Kennan as principal. The number of pupils was thus increased, bat even then the salary of the prin- cipal amounted to less than four hundred dollars per year. Mr. Kennan continued in charge of the school until the fall of 1830, when he resigned his position. and Rev. Mr. Johnson, formerly principal of the Classical and Young Ladies' Boarding School, of Utica, New York, succeeded him in the superintend- eney. The population of the Norwalk corporation at this time was three hundred and ten. The board of school examiners was appointed by the court, and consisted at this time of Ebenezer Andrews, Doctor Amos, B. Harris, Moses Kimball and L. Bradley.
In August, 1831, Miss Roxana Sprague was employed to teach the school in distriet number one, and occu- pied a room upon the first floor of the academy build- ing. The studies taught in the academy at this time were all the common branches, including rhetoric, elocution. astronomy, chemistry, philosophy, mineral- ogy. geology, music, engineering and. surveying. and the Latin and Green languages.
In April, 1833, Miss Eliza Ware opened a school exclusively for young ladies. in the academy building.
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HISTORY OF HURON AND ERLE COUNTIES, OHIO.
under the title of " Norwalk Female Seminary." but soon after it was moved to the residence of C. P. Bronson, who then resided on the lot directly west of St. Paul's Church. This school was not of long dura- tion.
NORWALK SEMINARY.
On the 11th of November, 1833, the " Norwalk Semi- nary" was opened in the academy building, under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church, with Rev. Jonathan F. Chaplin as principal. Norwalk at this time had a population of eight hundred and ninety-nine.
The seminary opened with the principal and one male assistant, and three female teachers, Miss Jen- kins, Miss Louisa Hamlin and Miss Anna Langford.
The school was opened successfully, and was prose- cuted vigorously, and, at the close of the first year, showed an average attendance of one hundred pupils. Our population in July, 1834, was one thousand and twenty. During the second year a course of lectures was delivered by Dr. Bigelow upon chemistry, and a philosophical apparatus was procured for the use of the school. The number of pupils rapidly increased as the character of the institution became more widely known, and at the end of the second year they re- ported one hundred and eighty-nine in attendance; and a very large proportion of this number was made up of young ladies and gentlemen of more advanced years, who labored with unusual zeal in acquiring an education.
The seminary burned down on the night of Febru- ary 26, 1836, with a loss of about three thousand dol- lars, and no insurance: school books, library and apparatus were all destroyed. The blow was a severe one to the institution. as it had no endowment nor support from public funds, and the people of Norwalk and the patrons of the institution were in no pecu- niary condition to rebuild; but with commendable energy the friends of the seminary immediately set themselves to work to raise funds for rebuilding, and upon a larger scale than before. Mr. Chaplin, the principal, and Rev. H. O. Sheldon went east to.solicit assistance, while others were laboring amongst our own people for contributions; but means came slow and sparingly. In the intervals, however. the school was not discontinued. The Methodist Church. to- gether with the basement of the Baptist Church, were improvised for the emergency. with an interruption of but four days. Rev. J. E. Chaplin continued as principal, with Mr. Darnell assistant, Mrs. Goshorn. Miss Loveland and Miss Langford in the female de- partment, and Rev. H. O. Sheldon as general agent for raising funds and promoting the general interests of the institution. The catalogue for 1836 showed one hundred and thirty-seven in the male department and one hundred and eighteen in the female-aggre- gate. two hundred and fifty-five.
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The fall term commenced in October, 1836, the
trustees presenting a flattering prospectus. J. M. Goshorn became the agent, and the same corps of instructors were retained. Rev. Dr. Thompson de- livered the commencement address to the students and patrons of the school.
In February, 1837, the trustees issued proposals for the erection of a new building, of brick, forty by eighty feet, and three stories high; and, in December, 1838, they were enabled to re-open the school in the new building for male scholars. the apartment for female pupils not being complete. The former prin- cipal, Rev. J. E. Chaplin, having been transferred by the Methodist conference to Michigan, Rev. Ed- ward Thompson was appointed to fill the vacancy in 1838. Alexander Nelson was his assistant in the mathematical department, and new life was infused into the school.
At the annual commencement in 1842, the cata- logue of the seminary showed three hundred and ninety-one students during the year, and the examin- ing committee spoke in the highest terms of the pro- ficiency of the students and the zealous and faithful labors of the instructors in the various branches.
The financial condition of the seminary was not good. Since the effort to rebuild, debts had accumu- lated upon the trustees, which they found it exceed- ingly difficult to meet, and, for the purpose of relief, a society was organized in the fall of 1842, known as the "Norwalk Education Society." the object of which was to collect funds, and aid in other ways the institution to relieve itself of debt and to increase its usefulness, of which society Rev. Adam Poe was elected president.
The general conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, held in New York City in June, 1844, elected Rev. Edward Thompson. editor of the Ladies' Repository, published in Cincinnati, and, at the close of the summer session in July. 1844, he tendered his resignation as principal of the seminary, which posi- tion he had occupied since the fall of 1838. His resignation was accepted with regret. He was a man of rare literary attainments, of ripe scholarship. of pleasing address. of refined and gentlemanly manners, and purity of life and character, and the vacancy thus created was one of great difficulty to fill.
H. Dwight, who had for some time been the prin- cipal assistant of Docter Thompson. was appointed his successor, and the fall term of IS44 was opened under his supervision, and he remained principal of the seminary until its close. January. 1846.
The seminary had been laboring under heavy in- debtedness from the time of rebuilding in 1838. which . the most strenuous of its friends had been unable to remove; and now that the stronger interests of the Methodist denomination throughout the State had been transferred to the university at Deliware, the local interest of Norwalk was fonad inade mate to the removing of the inemmbrance. and the whole property was sold under execution in favor of the builders.
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HISTORY OF HURON AND ENIE COUNTIES, OHIO.
NORWALK INSTITUTE.
The Baptists of Norwalk called a meeting Janu- ary, 1846, to take into consideration the purchas- ing of the property, and the continuance of the school under the anepiees of that denomination; and ineasures were immediately inaugurated to carry the proposition thus brought forward for accomplishing this into effeet. A board of trustees was elected, con- sisting of J. S. Lowry. Rev. Jeremiah Hall, Rev. R. N. Henderson, Rev. Samuel Woodsworth and John Kelly, and arrangements made to make immediate efforts to proeure subscriptions and donations for the purchase and opening of the school, under the name and style of the " Norwalk Institute."
The institute was opened August, 1846, with Rev. Jeremiah Hall as principal, assisted by Nathan S. Burton, and Miss Martha J. Flanders as principal of the female department. The terms of tuition remained the same as under the seminary management, and pupils rapidly filled up the school. In November, 1847, the catalogue showed the number of pupils for the year to be two hundred and thirty-one hundred and fifteen gentlemen, ninety-three ladies, and twenty- two. primary -- and the numbers continued to increase, till in 1849 their catalogue showed three hundred and six. Rev. J. Hall was succeeded by A. S. Hutchins as principal, who continued to occupy that position till 1855, when the institute ceased to exist.
The legislature of Ohio passed the Akrou school law, February 8, 1847, and under this act and the one amendatory thereto, other towns, by a petition of two-thirds of their qualified voters, could avail them- selves of its provisions. This law authorized and inaugurated the system of graded schools, which were soon after so generally adopted, and which experience has amended and improved till it has resulted in our present efficient system.
March, 1855, the Norwalk institute was purchased by the Union school district, together with library and apparatus, and Mr. Hutchins, who had been principal of the institute, became the superintendent of our publie schools.
FEMALE SEMINARY.
The history of our schools would be incomplete should we omit to mention the Female seminary, established in December, 1837, under the principal- ship of Miss Harriet Bedford. The school was under the control of a joint stock company, and managed by a board of directors, of which David Gibbs was president, and Dr. John Tifft, secretary. The build- ing occupied was the one erected at an early day for our county courthouse, but finding it too small to accommodate the increasing business of the county, it was sold and moved to Whittlesey aveune, and occupied for several years for school purposes. No data can be found from which the text books used, the course of study adopted. or the number of pupil- in attendance can be given. In March, 1839, Miss
Bedford was succeeded by Mrs. M. F. C. Worcester, the accomplished wife of Hon. S. T. Worcester, then a resident of our village, whose love of the occupa- tion, united with educational qualifications of a high order, soon gave to the school an enviable reputation amongst our own citizens, and brought in many pupils from other towns ..
The price of tuition in English branches was five dollars, including drawing, six dollars; Latin and French in addition, eight dollars; mnusie, five dollars extra.
The seminary, however, continued but a short time, though the precise date of its elose we cannot readily determine, as no records have been found. A want of means and peeuniary embarrassment led to its dis- continuanee, and the building was sold. Mrs. Wor- cester, however, continued a private school for young ladies for some time after, which was eminently suc- ceseful.
But the necessity of a good female school amongst our people was still strongly felt, and the matter con- tinued to be agitated until the winter of 1846 and '47, when an act of incorporation was obtained for the " Norwalk Female Seminary," with S. T. Woreester, W. F. Kittridge, C. L. Latimer, John R. Osborn and Rev. Alfred Newton, as trustees, and an effort was made to get the necessary amount of stock subscribed, which was fixed at three thousand five hundred dol- lars. This amount, after considerable labor, was finally obtained, and a beautiful location was selected in the west part of our village, corner of Main and Pleasant streets, which was the generous gift of Hon. S. T. Worcester, and a suitable two-story brick build- ing was erected. which was completed and folly paid for in June, 1848.
It was not until the spring of 1850 that the semi- nary was finally opened under the charge of Rev. J. M. Hayes, a Presbyterian minister of scholarly ac- quirements, who had previously obtained, by purchase and assignment, the interests of the shareholders, with the reservation on the part of some that the building should continue to be used for the purposes originally designed.
Mr. Hayes remained two years, and was succeeded by Rev. Asa Brainard. of New York. He remained but two years, and was succeeded by Miss E. Cook, a graduate of Mt. Holyoke, who had charge of it for the two succeeding years, when she resigned the posi- tion to her sister, Miss C. Cook, who remained one year.
Miss Metcalf, of Hudson, Ohio, was theu (in 185?) employed with Miss Eliza S. Watson as assistant, and they fully sustained the good reputation the school attained under the former instructors. But the com- mereial disasters of the country at this time, com- bined with the growing interests of our citizens in onr Public schools, left the seminary without an adequate support. and in 1858 it suspended. Though its life-was less than ten years. it had exerted a marked influence in our village and its vicinity.
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HISTORY OF HURON AND ERIE COUNTIES, OHIO.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
The history of the public schools of Norwalk, Ohio, from the date of its first settlement in 1809 to the adoption of our present system of graded schools in 1850, presents little of especial interest.
Our district schools were taught for many years in buildings rented for that purpose, but one school house belonging to the district up to 1837. which stood upon the west lot of the grounds now ocenpied by our high school building. It was a one-story wooden structu.e, with but one room. which was removed about 1830.
In 1837, a school house was built on the brow of the hill southwest of the court house, now known as Benedict avenue, and being somewhat pretentious from being painted, was known as the " White school house." Another was soon after built on Seminary street, near the old Methodist church. of brick, and another was built on Whittlesey avenne in 1841-the same building now ocenpied by our public schools.
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