USA > Ohio > Seneca County > History of Seneca County, Ohio; a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests, Vo. I > Part 40
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50
379
HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY
construction, and steady employment is given about seventy-five skilled hands. The products embrace the latest designs of tubular lanterns, tubular dash lanterns, brilliant lanterns, wire cushioned oil cans, flector side lamps, tin hand lamps, molasses jug tops, fruit jar caps and wires, jelly glass caps, salt, pepper and sugar shaker tops, screw tops and other specialties made from tin and wire.
The Webster Electric Company are manufacturers of magnetos for automobile, motor boat and stationary gas engines. T. K. Webster is president ; T. K. Webster, Jr., vice president and general automobile and stationary manager ; R. C. Brinkley. secretary ; M. B. Hawxhurst, sales manager. Along this line, we mention the Webster Electric Company, which was established about one year ago. The business is practically in its infancy but is expanding rapidly. They now employ about seventy-five people.
The milling industry owned and operated by Henry B. Speck is run by water-power. This well known flour mill was established here about sixty-four years ago, as it was built in 1846, and has been conducted by the present proprietor. Henry B. Speck, for the past fifteen years. For over thirty years it has been owned by different members of the Speck family, and has always been a pride and boast of our citizens. The mill has a capacity for seventy-five barrels of flour every twenty-four hours. Most of the wheat ground is grown in this vicinity, thus making a good market for the farmers round about.
The Loundenslager mill is located at the corner of Washing- ton and Hudson streets.
The Beckley mill is one mile north of the city limits on the Sandusky river.
The Enterprise Manufacturing Company is located on East Market street. It is a stock company and they are manufacturers of sash, doors, blinds, etc.
The Ultramarine Manufacturing Company is well equipped for the manufacture of dry paint. The plant is located on North Washington street, in the large brick building which was formerly occupied as a woolen mill.
The Seneca Company. manufacturers of the famous Seneca stock powder, No. 1 to 5 North Washington street, has the following officers: J. W. Geiger, president; C. D. Spitler, secretary; E. C. Stacey, vice president and general manager; Otto L. Gillig, treasurer.
Tiffin Boiler Works are located at No. 274 Water street ; John F. Canty, proprietor. He has been a resident of Tiffin for more than forty years, thirty years of which he has been engaged in the above business.
Hopple's Handle Factory turns out a high grade of handles,
380
HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY
all sorts of logging tools, cant hooks, pike poles, farming tool handles, rake, hoe, shovel, fork, pruning shears, and broom handles, down to the smallest tack hammers. At the present rate of cutting more than 2,000,000 feet of lumber will be made into handles this year. About seventy-five men are employed, many of whom are skilled laborers and expert workmen. The demand for handles is not only confined to the United States and Canada alone, but Mr. Hopple carries on an extensive export trade, with England, Ger- many, South America and other foreign countries.
Among the other industries are the potteries and glass works. the automobile supply manufacturing company. the boiler works. brick manufacturing, broom making, carriage, buggy and wagon manufactories, concrete block manufacturers, culvert pipe manu- facturers, furniture, gloves and mittens, hoops, stock and poultry food, stoves and ranges, umbrellas, etc., are also manufactured in Tiffin. The straw board plant expects to soon resume operation.
CHAPTER XVII
TIFFIN'S EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES
PUBLIC SCHOOLS-FIRST SCHOOL BOARD AND TEACHERS- STATUS OF EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS-HEIDELBERG UNIVERSITY --- WILLIARD HALL-"FOUNDING OF HEIDELBERG," BY DR. J. B. RUST -THE COLUMBUS COLLEGE-TARLTON LOCATION BUT TEMPORARY -- LOCATED PERMANENTLY AT TIFFIN-CAUSE OF THE REMOVAL- FIRST TEACHERS AT TIFFIN-ERECTION OF COLLEGE BUILDINGS-OLD COLLEGE HILL-EARLY DEPARTMENT OF GERMAN-HISTORIC HOUSES -BECOMES A UNIVERSITY-CENTRAL THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY- URSULINE COLLEGE-THE PRESS-JOHN P. LOCKE-SENECA COUN- TY'S GREAT EDITOR (W. W. ARMSTRONG)-SENECA COUNTY POETRY.
No two forces operate more constantly and forcibly in the educational advancement of a community than the school and the newspaper. That this is noticeably true of Tiffin need not be long dwelt upon for the information of those who have ever resided in the city; as it is a typically intelligent and enterprising Ohio municipality, which has always given generous support to both its public, private and parochial schools and its able press.
The first school house erected in Seneca county stood at the northwest corner of Market and Monroe streets, and was erected in 1832. It was a one-story brick building and stood close to the pavement, length-wise with the street, facing on Market street. It had capacity for about sixty scholars. The door was near the southeast corner. There was one window at the east end and back of the teacher's desk, and there were two windows in each of the other sides. Benjamin Crockett was the first teacher in this building.
This school house continued to serve the purpose for which it was erected for twelve years, when in 1844 a more pretentious one was erected upon the same site, but further back from the pavement. This new building was of brick, two stories high, with four school rooms, for which four teachers were employed.
In this latter building the schools of Tiffin were conducted until organized under the union school system, when preparations were
381
382
HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY
made to build a new and larger school building on South Monroe street, which was later used as a high school building.
In 1850 the first school board was elected, when the schools were organized under a graded system. General William II. Gib- son was clerk of the first board of education, and the minutes of the first session, dated November 1, 1850, are in his own hand writing.
The following were the teachers employed by the first school board, in 1850: Miss E. Augspurger-German school -- she furnish- ing her own room, $20 per month; Mrs. Sarah Sands, also furnish- ing her own room, $20 per month; Miss Elizabeth Cronise and Miss C. Coffin, each $15 per month ; William Fitzgeralds, $24 per month ; Samuel Nolan, $22 per month ; Miss Maria Andrew, $15 per month ; Thomas J. Cronise, $24 per month.
The small amount of the school fund was equally divided among the three terms, and for want of sufficient means to pay the teachers, a tax of from one cent to one and one-half cents a day (according to class) was assessed on each scholar in attendance for that term. This mode of taxation lasted only one year and was dropped.
Rev. R. R. Bement was employed to superintend the schools during this winter only, for which the board paid him $12, on the 1st of May, 1851. On the same day the board offered S. S. Rickley, of Columbus, $400 salary as superintendent of the union schools. with the privilege of allowing him time also to teach a class in Heidelberg College. The offer was accepted, and Mr. Rickly was the first superintendent of the Tiffin union schools.
The city is now divided for school purposes into four districts, with four school buildings, one for each district, besides the high school building.
The Columbian high school building was erected in 1893, at a cost of $75,000. It contains thirteen rooms above the basement. besides the superintendent's office. Graduates from this high school are admitted to the Freshmen classes of the best colleges. This Columbian high school building is on the southeast corner of Jefferson and Market streets. C. A. Krout is the superintendent.
The other school buildings are known as the Monroe street, Miami street, Minerva street and College Hill buildings.
A late report of the school enumerater shows that the popula- tion of those between six and twenty years of age numbers 3,617. The latest available monthly report indicates the following actual attendance of teachers and pupils : Teachers, 41; pupils enrolled, 1,376, and average daily attendance. 1,286. Out of the total num- ber of scholars. 154 study German. As an evidence of deep interest in their work and that they are under good control, the pupils of the following grades were not tardy for the month under considera-
W
1
383
HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY
-
x.
-
1
---------
-
FOURTH WARD SCHOOL, TIFFIN.
384
HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY
tion : eighth and seventh grades, high school ; eighth, seventhi, sixth, fifth, fourth, second and first, Monroe street building; seventh. sixth, fifth and fourth, Miami street building; seventh and sixth, Minerva street building; sixth, fifth and second, College IIill building.
Of the thirty-seven grades in the schools, twenty were without tardiness, thirty-four were without truaney and eighteen were with- out either tardiness or truancy.
The highest per cent of attendance, 97.8, was made by the third division, ninth grade in the high school building ; the second highest, 97.6, was made by the second division, ninth grade in the high school building.
The Catholic schools were established by the Rev. Father Molon. John Crowley was the next in charge, and he was succeeded by P. H. Ryan. St. Joseph's Parochial school is on Washington street, near Melmore street.
The institutions of higher learning, outside the public system, are also of a denominational hacracter. Heidelberg University is conducted under the auspices of the Reformed church, and the Ursuline College is an institution for girls whose active guiding force is the well known Catholic order of Sisters by that name.
HEIDELBERG UNIVERSITY.
Heidelberg University is located at Tiffin, Ohio, an ideal city for the location of a college. Six substantial and well arranged buildings adorn the beautiful campus on "College Hill."
Heidelberg College was founded as a co-educational institution by an act of the Ohio Synod of the Reformed church. The synod met in special session at Tarlton, Ohio, in the early part of 1850. The original name was "Tarlton College," being named after the place of its first location. It was felt by the people of the Re- formed church in Ohio that the time had come for the founding of an educational institution in their own state, and they wisely de- cided that the daughters, as well as the sons, should be recognized. Work was immediately begun in the high school building at Tarlton with Prof S. S. Rickly, now of Columbus, Ohio. as president.
It soon became evident that Tarlton was not the proper location for the new institution so auspiciously founded. Therefore, at the regular meeting of the Ohio Synod, held at Navarre, Ohio. in September, 1850, it was decided to remove the newly founded col- lege to Tiffin.
The following resolution shows what prompted the Ohio synod to move the institution from Tarlton to Tiffin : "Resolved. that the proposition of the citizens of Tiffin, tendering a donation of $11,030, and so much more as may have been, or hereafter be. sub-
385
HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY
scribed to the object in consideration of the location of our literary and theological institutions in Tiffin. be accepted, and that these institutions be, therefore, transferred from Tarlton, to Tiffn."
Work was formally begun in Tiffin on the 18th of November. 1850, in rooms rented for that purpose in "Commercial Row." with an enrollment of seven students. but by the end of the first school year the number had inercased to 149. The work of instruction during this first year devolved upon three teachers-Prof. Reuben Good, Prof. Jeremiah H. Good and Mrs. A. M. Lee.
The first building was completed in 1853. It contained the recitation rooms and dormitory facilities for men. The following buildings have been added since : President's House, 1867; Ladies' Hall, 1873; University Hall, containing recitation rooms. the society halls, laboratories. Rickly Chapel. 1886; the Museum and Gymna- sium Building, 1894.
By action of the board of trustees in 1890. the charter of the institution was changed to convert Heidelberg College to Heidel- berg University.
With the election of Charles E. Miller to the presidency of Heidelberg to succeed the scholarly administration of the Rev. J. A. Peters, D. D., the slogan, "Greater Heidelberg" at once became the motto of the new president and his faithful friends. The education- al standard was maintained and special emphasis was placed upon the finances of the institution. Friends came to the help of the new president and he. by prodigious efforts. has just completed the splendid sum of $150.000 as a beginning for "Greater Heidelberg." Of this amount $100,000 becomes productive endowment ; the re- maining $50.000 will be expended for buildings. "Greater Heidel- berg" is possible because friends are constantly saying that they see substantial things taking place which will make the efficiency of the institution greater and its influence broader for all time to come.
The cornerstone of the beautiful building known as "Williard Hall" was laid in June, 1906. At this ceremony the address was given by Dr. Florence Fitch. the Dean of Women in Oberlin Col- lege. It was completed the following year and dedicated in June. 1907. Miss Jane Adams, of Hull House, Chicago, delivered the address on this occasion.
The building is of gray. Bloomville stone, with trimmings of Bedford stone and red tile roof. Its architecture is suggestive of simplicity and strength. The interior is finished in harmonious tones, whose richness delights the eve of all who see it. The per- fection of the woodwork is a testimony to the personal attention of the proprietor of the Enterprise Manufacturing Company and must be seen to be appreciated.
The building is used exclusively for the home life of the Vol. I-25
·
386
HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY
young women at Heidelberg. Hence. the rooms are as varied as possible, in order to avoid the monotony characteristic of so many dormitories. Each room when occupied reflects individuality.
The greatest charm about the building, however, is that every part of it, and almost every article in it. speaks of the personal interest of friends. The people of Tiffin and Seneca county gave
the building. The library, the palms, the table linen, the glass- ware, the gas logs and andirons, the window draperies, and last but not least, the "Grandfather's Clock" (over a hundred years old). are all gifts of individuals who wish thus to show their friendship.
This beautiful college home has been named in memory of Rev. George W. Williard, D. D .. LL. D .- a tribute to the faithful work of Heidelberg's fifth president, a man greatly beloved by the donors of the building.
The Dean of Women of Heidelberg University is Mary J. Park.
FOUNDING OF HEIDELBERG.
By Rev. J. B. Rust, D. D., of Tiffin.
The Reformed church in the United States has always advo- cated the importance of education, literary, theological and scienti- fic. Furthermore, it was firmly believed that theological and literary training ought to go hand in hand, and that the latter. when at all possible. should precede and pave the way for the former. For this reason the two Reformed instituions of learn- ing, within the bounds of the Ohio Synod. Heidelberg College and Heidelberg Seminary, were in 1850. located side by side in Tiffin. Before this time a futile attempt had been made to establish a theo- logical seminary in Canton, Ohio, where Rev. Peter Herbruck lived, and from which place as a center of activity, little more than a village then, Dr. Herbruck did faithful and most fruitful pioneer service for the Reformed church in eastern Ohio.
THE COLUMBUS COLLEGE.
Again in 1848 an effort, somewhat more successful, was made to open a college in Columbus. Ohio. Rev. G. W. Williard and his brother, Mr. John Williard, living in Columbus at that time, were the principal advocates of the plan. Rev. A. P. Freese, said to have been more gifted as a pulpit orator than as a teacher, was chosen professor, but remained only one year. Ile was followed by Rev. J. H. Good, who, through his ability, determination and influence, gave new impetus to the project. Shortly before these events transpired, Rev. S. S. Rickly, a recent graduate from Mer-
£
387
HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY
cersburg. Pennsylvania, and pastor at Somerset, Ohio, gave up his ministerial work to engage in teaching. From Somerset he went to Tarlton and began to teach. The school was a private academy, which was opened by Mr. Rickly. preparatory to the removal of the projected college to Tarlton. In the meantime Mr. Rickly had conceived the desire to give up teaching, and enter upon a business career. He wanted the Ohio Synod to establish the projected col- lege in Tarlton, and take over his school. He was appointed chair- man of the building committee and arranged to erect a suitable edifice. At the time the plans of the synod were changed, building operations were under way, and the material, the stone, already delivered, was paid for.
The Ohio Synod met in Tarlton in special session on April 18, 1850, and declared that the Western church was fully prepared to undertake the permanent establishment of the Theological and Literary Institutions. The citizens of the place became deeply interested in the enthusiastic action of the synod. Ten acres of land were given by the heirs of the Joseph Shoemaker estate to the synod for the purpose designed, and moreover the citizens of Tarl- ton obligated themselves to raise $7.200 in addition. The Tarlton high school was also to be merged with the college. But the town of Tarlton as a permanent location for the classical and theological institutions of the Ohio Synod did not appeal to the church in general.
Many believed that the institutions would be more advanta- geously located with reference to accessibility, future growth, and proximity to coming highways of travel and traffic. Furthermore. already at that time schools, colleges and theological seminaries were being founded in sufficient numbers in the central part of the state.
In the meantime the conviction quietly became fixed in the minds of the leading spirits in the synod that it would be a mistake to locate the institutions at Tarlton. and as a result the Ohio Synod at the regular annual meeting in Tiffin (October. 1849). allowed the impending question of theological and literary education to pass without action. save with one exception. Rev. J. H. Good offered a resolution that a committee of three be appointed to solicit proposals from different points for the permanent location of our theological and classical institutions. In after years Dr. J. H.
Good said : "It was the only action the last synod took with reference to founding Heidelberg College and Seminary. On this slender thread the whole vexed matter hung." Rev. Henry Williard, Rev. Hiram Shaull, and Rev. Jeremiah H. Good were the members of that committee. Rev. Henry Williard. then at Xenia, was the committeeman for the southern, Rev. J. II. Good for the central, and Rev. Hiram Shaull for the northern part of Ohio.
388
HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY
Rev. J. H. Good, then living in Columbus, became convinced as time wore on, that northwestern Ohio offered the best oppor- tunity and the widest field for the educational center of the Ohio Synod. He wrote urgent letters to Rev. Hiram Shaull, pastor of the First Reformed church in Tiffin, who, through prompt action, secured a most favorable proposition from the citizens of Tiffin, just before the meeting of the Ohio Synod at Navarre, Stark county, Ohio, in September, 1850. At that synod it was decided to accept the proposition of the citizens of Tiffin, and to locate the institutions there permanently. Tradition says that at the sug- gestion of Rev. Henry Williard the synod adopted the name, "Heidelberg." Toward the founding of the college, and to secure both the college and the seminary, the citizens of Tiffin gave $11,030 in negotiable notes.
Thus almost entirely through the prompt action of the late Dr. Jeremiah H. Good and Rev. Hiram Shaull, the Ohio Synod was led to abandon the Tarlton idea, and to re-locate our institutions at Tiffin. After events have long ago proved the wisdom of the act. Mrs. E. F. Wiley, the mother of Dr. A. P. Wiley, of Tiffin, and her older sister, still living in Tarlton, remember the earnest discus- sions carried on by Mr. Rickly, Rev. George W. Williard. Rev. Henry Williard. their father and others, concerning the college, so confidently expected. Joseph Shoemaker, who donated the ground for the institution, was a pillar in the Methodist church. Mrs. Wiley says that ground was prepared, and stone and brick for the foundation and walls were on the spot.
The citizens of the town almost to a unit, favored the plan to locate the college in Tarlton. and bitterly resented the influence that wrought its failure, a fact which was for many years an abiding regret among the worthy people of that community. One reason why that location had been sought was that Tarlton lay in the cen- ter of a large territory in which the Reformed church had taken the lead. Another reason was that the great coach line from Zanes- ville to Marysville. Kentucky, passed through Tarlton, and many other towns prominent in the state at that time. Another reason assigned by Mrs. Wiley why the location at Tarlton was preferred, was that the community itself possessed many men and women strong in faith and righteousness. Again a factor which played a part in the choice, was the healthfulness of the locality, and other natural advantages which it offered. Besides, Pickaway county (corrupted from the Indian word "Piqua." the name of a Shawanese tribe) no doubt had its attractions for some of the men in the synod. because of the romance of its Indian history, its pro- ductive soil, and because of the memory of Logan, the last of the Mingo chiefs, who, not far from the town of Logan, and seven miles south of Circleville, delivered his famous speech of sad and
389
HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY
defiant farewell. The cause of the failure of the plan is ascribed to the duplicity and knavery of one man, by the name of Jacobs, who was pastor of the Reformed church in Tarlton, and after a visit in Kentucky somewhere, made shipwreck of the faith, and preached heretical doctrine in his church. This divided the con- gregation into two factions, and greatly helped to ruin the college project.
This is a sad and touching story. The facts are undoubtedly true as related, and yet we may accept the verdict of history that the onward march of events has fully justified the change. Even in 1880 Tarlton had a population of only 425, and in 1888 a school census of but 180. On the other hand the growth of Seneca coun- ty from the very beginning was exceedingly rapid. Already, in 1830, the county had 5,157 inhabitants, and of these 600 lived in the village of Tiffin. At the present time, at a conservative esti- mate, Tiffin has, we dare say, a population of not less than 15,000. What is more, the city never in its history has been on the whole so prosperous as at the present time. Moreover, when our educa- tional institutions were located here, the Mad River Railroad passed through Tiffin, one of the first railways built in the state.
Immediately after the decision of the synod had been rendered, in November of the same year, the college was opened in the third story of the business block called "Commercial Row," the selfsame building, now owned by John A. Hall, which for many years has been occupied by the Fred K. Holderman dry goods establishment. During the first year one hundred and fifty students were enrolled, twenty-five of whom were in the classical department. The head- master of this school was Professor Reuben Good. His brother, Rev. J. H. Good, was associated with him by action of the synod, but gave a large part of his attention to the Western Missionary, the forerunner of The Christian World.
There exisited a deplorable lack of knowledge concerning matters educational. One could hardly expect anything else under the conditions, and as the result of pioneer life. When Rev. J. H. Good moved from Columbus to Tiffin, he brought with him the office of the Western Missionary, and made it part of his task, through the columns of that paper, to enlighten the minds of the people and to create sentiment in behalf of Christian education.
The Rev. S. S. Rickly remained in Tarlton during the year 1850, and after the action of the Ohio Synod at Navarre. whereby the re-location was effected, he moved to Tiffin with his family, and secured a position in the public schools at a salary of $400, a good income in those days. He also served as a teacher in Heidelberg College, but his connection with the faculty seems to have been nominal. He received very little remuneration from the college authorities, and thus demonstrated all the more his generosity of
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.