History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 79

Author: Williams, L.A., & Co., Cleveland
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : L. A. Williams & Co.
Number of Pages: 814

USA > Ohio > History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I > Part 79

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THE HOME OF THE INNOCENTS.

In 1866 a charter was obtained from the Legislature for an Episcopal institution to be called the Home of the Innocents, and designed in the first instance to provide a residence for the charitable Sisterhood of the church, the Order of Deaconesses. The Rector of each Episcopal church in the city, and two lay mem- bers from each, were to be the Trustees of the Orphanage.

In 1872 a large and suitable tract of land was conveyed to the Trustees for occupation by this charity, and a meeting was called to take steps for a building. Not much interest was evoked, however, and the project dragged until 1881, when a single member of the Church began to erect, at his own cost, the central part of a spacious edifice to be occupied by the Home,

relying upon his fellow-churchmen to aid in its completion. Dr. Craik says, in one of his pub- lished discourses :

It will provide a shelter, a refuge, a home, and a simple maintenance for the devout workers for Christ who ask no more for their arduous and self-sacrificing labors. There they will receive and test the quality of all who believe them- selves called to this lowly and yet exalted station. There all who can stand this test will be trained for their work to nur- ture and care for the orphans, to minister to the sick, to visit, relieve, instruct, and help to raise up the poor and neg- lected. There, too, will be the much needed, permanent, and, with God's blessing poured out as it has already been upon this latest of our charities, the happy Home of the In- nocents. And there, too, will be an infirmary, where all who appreciate the value of skilled ministration by trained nurses, ministering not for hire, but as serving the Master, with all that soothing and helping efficiency which only cultivated in- telligence and love can furnish, will find a salubrious home and grateful repose.

THE CATHOLIC CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS

in the city are the Saints Mary and Elizabeth Hospital of the Sisters of Charity, on Twelfth and Magnolia avenue, with twelve sisters in charge; St. Joseph's Infirmary, Fourth avenue, ten Sisters of Charity; St. Vincent's Orphan Asylum for girls, twenty Sisters of Charity and one hundred and seventy-five orphans, with an Infant and Foundling Asylum in connection ; St. Joseph's German Orphan Asylum, Green street, seven Sisters of Notre Dame and one hundred orphans; St. Joseph's Protectory for Girls, Eighth street, eighteen Sisters of the Good Shepherd, thirty-three "Magdalens," and forty-one children; Penitent Asylum for the Reformation of Fallen Women, Bank street, Sisters of the Good Shepherd, ninety-five peni- tents ; Home for the Aged Poor, Tenth street, ten Little Sisters of the Poor, one hundred in- mates; Home for Young Ladies engaged in busi- ness in the city, Sisters of Mercy, Second street.

We have been favored with the following his- torical sketch of one of the most important of these institutions :

During a visit made by the late Bishop Joseph Benedict Flaget, the first Catholic Bishop of Louisville, to Europe in 1835, he was detained for some time at Angers, in France, by a severe illness. He here became acquainted with the Institute of the Good Shepherd, and while he admired the purpose for which it was founded- the reformation of fallen girls and women-he was forcibly struck by the uniform gaiety and cheerfulness exhibited by the members of that

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

order in performing a task so painful to the re- fined feelings of nature and so revolting to the sentiments of the world. He expressed a wish to have a colony of them for his diocese, where many were giving themselves up to the frenzied excess of mad passions, their contaminating in- fluence extending itself into every grade of so- ciety. Many of these unfortunate ones were not devoid of good qualities. Some could look back to homes of ease and respectability, many of them to homes of purity and virtue. Some had been plunged into these depths through poverty, others again been driven to it because a first fall would not be forgiven. Instead of being told to "sin no more," the erring one was cast forth irreclaimable. And yet it was to one of this class, a great sinner, that our Lord showed him- self especially kind and merciful, the more so be- cause the Pharisees looked on her with cruel, un- forgiving scorn. To her he gave pardon. Among the brightest of His saints in heaven now stands the Magdalen, to whom "much was forgiven," because, repenting of her sins, she loved much and turned to Him in hope and in the full de- votion of her sorrowing heart. It was to this portion of suffering humanity that the benevolent heart of Bishop Flaget inclined with compassion and fatherly solicitude. But where was he to find those who would second his noble design of reformation ? Many indeed sympathized with him, but who would open their doors to receive one of this class so utterly fallen, so truly out- lawed from every decent home? Who could as- sociate with their own families one whose very presence would be an insult, a pollution ? He found that he sought in vain for them among the philanthropic, but did find what he sought in the Order of the Good Shepherd, a num- ber of ladies who had banded themselves together, leaving home and all prospects of world- ly happiness to devote their lives and all their energies to the heroic task of rescuing, of re- forming, of saving the fallen ones of their own sex.

A colony of these Sisters arrived in Louisville December 1, 1842. Much as Bishop Flaget was gladdened by their arrival, his joy at first was mingled with regret, as he had not expected them so soon and had as yet made no arrangement for their accommodation; they were furnished with a temporary abode for nine months and were much

indebted to the Sisters of Loretto during this time.

In the spring of 1843 Bishop Chabrat com- menced the erection of a house for their recep- tion, which they took possession of September 8, 1843. The building was situated on Eighth and Madison streets. It consisted of a three- story brick house for the use of the Sisters, and a similar building separated by a garden for the reception of the penitents or fallen girls and women. Here the Sisters entered into a life of poverty and suffering; they had not the necessary conveniences for house-keeping, and often not even the necessaries of life. They immediately opened their door to receive with outstretched arms those who fled from their accursed haunts to seek an asylum, a home of repentance, where they could atone for past follies, listen to words which they had not heard since last they listened to the sweet accents of their mother. .

These poor frail ones are generally ignorant of any useful occupation, and the first care of the Sisters is to teach them whatever species of em- ployment they seem suitable for. This task is accomplished with much trouble, but that their efforts are at length successful, the tasteful nee- dlework done in all the houses of the institution is a sufficient proof.

In 1866 the State committed to the care of the Sisters those who were convicted and sen- tenced for detention for a certain period of time. The house on Eighth and Madison not being sufficiently large to accommodate them, a tract of land was purchased at Twenty-third and Bank streets, and a building erected there, and the prisoners transferred thereto. In 1873 the State withdrew the prisoners from the care of the Sis- ters; the voluntary penitents or those confided to the Sisters by parents or guardians were re- moved from the house on Eighth street to Bank street. Not being able to obtain a sufficient quantity of needlework to support the inmates, a laundry was opened, where the penitents are employed under the vigilant care of the Sisters. At the present time there are ninety penitents in the asylum.

Besides receiving the fallen ones, and aiding them to escape from the thraldom of sin and shame, the Sisters of the Good Shepherd have likewise a class of preservation. In this are gathered young girls, mostly of the poorer class,

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who are in danger of falling through giddiness of youth, through waywardness of character, or through the special circumstances that surround them. Such girls find here the safety and pro- tection which they need, together with the elements of a plain education and habits of industry and order. So preserved, they may go forth at the proper time, unstained and prepared for the duties of life in whatever sphere Provi- dence may place them.

The Sisters have also another class or depart- ment, which may properly be called a class of perseverance. There are some who are reluctant to leave a home so sweet to them, keenly shrink- ing from any renewed contact with scenes of sor- row or danger, ask the privilege of being per- mitted to remain there their life-long in prayer, penitence, and labor. Like Magdalen, their hearts lead them to stand by the cross and visit the tomb of their Saviour; they live under a rule and are called Magdalens.

Gentleness is the means used to accomplish the work of reformation; they are treated as children and called such by the religious, whom in return they address by the loving and confi- dence-inspiring name of mother.

In 1869 four houses of the comparatively re- cent order of the Little Sisters of the Poor were opened in the United States. Three of these were at Baltimore, St. Louis, and Philadelphia; the fourth in Louisville. Establishments of the kind had only existed previously in this country in Brooklyn, Cincinnati, and New Orleans. In 1870 four other houses of the order were planted in the New World, and they are now somewhat numerous.

THE BAPTIST ORPHANS' HOME.

This originated in the practical benevolence of Professor J. Lawrence Smith and his wife, daughter of the late Hon. James Guthrie. Mrs. Smith made a present of the grounds where it is located, at the corner of First and St. Catherine streets, and promised $5,000 more if an addi- tional $20,000 should be raised. This was rap- idly done, Mrs. Smith's sisters contributing liber- ally, and the building was put up and completed without making a debt. The infirmary or hos- pital attached to it was paid for by the Young Ladies' Society of the Broadway Baptist church. An average of fifty inmates is usually in the

Home, which costs about $6,000 a year, its cur- rent expenses being provided for by voluntary contributions. There is a school-room, of course ; and the children are also taught the various branches of household economy. For some time the matron and assistant teacher conducted an excellent little monthly called The Orphans' Friend.

THE GERMAN BAPTIST ORPHANS' HOME.

This, often known as "Bethesda," is situated near Cave Hill Cemetery, on New Broadway. It was founded on the 20th of August in the year 1872, having been incorporated the 31st of the previous May. The incorporators were J. T. Burghard, Joseph Seigel, A. Henrich, John J. Buechler, Dr. A. Wagenitz, John Horn, W. Ulrich, Charles Ulrich, Paulina Schone, Magda- lena Weimar. The Home was first opened in a temporary building at 234 Clay street, between Jefferson and Green, in charge of Mrs. M. Wei- mar as matron. Mr. Burghard was chosen by the board as its first president, Joseph Seigel treasurer, Rev. A. Henrich secretary. On the 16th of October, 1874, John F. Dohrmann and wife took charge of the Home. The present new institution, comprising nearly four acres of ground, with buildings, was bought and soon after removed into. Seventy-eight children have been taken into the Home since it was opened upto 1882. The institution has been carried on in faith and trust on the promises of God, and is sustained by free donations solely from all over the States. The present number of children in the Home is thirty. It is officered as follows: Joseph Seigel, president; J. T. Burghard, treas- urer; John F. Dohrmann, superintendent and secretary.

There are numerous denominational and other charities in the city-most of them of less im- portance than those noticed-whose history we are unable to include in this chapter, and from which, indeed, no returns have been received in answer to our request for information.

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CHAPTER XVII. PUBLIC EDUCATION IN LOUISVILLE.

Acknowledgment to Colonel Durrett's Historical Sketches- The Pioneer School-houses-A Tale Told out of School- Jefferson Seminary- The City Free Schools - The Free System Abolished - The First Public School-house- Louisville College-The Common Schools Again-Their Status in 1840 - Schools Under the City Charter of 1851-New School-houses to this Day-Progress under the First Board of Education-The Normal School- The Colored Schools-The High Schools-The Girls' High School-Present Status of Organization and Offi- cers of the Schools-The University of Louisville-Biog- raphy of Noble Butler-Personal Sketches: Superin- tendent Tingley and Others.

The materials of this chapter have necessarily been drawn largely from the excellent sketches of Colonel R. T. Durrett, as published in several numbers of the Courier-Journal in January, 1881. No one else has treated the subject with equal fullness and intelligence, or furnished so copious a storehouse of materials to the historian of pub- lic education in Louisville.

THE PIONEER SCHOOL-HOUSES.

In the primitive Louisville, as in the interior, the log-cabin supplied the first rude colleges of the people. At the time Jefferson Seminary was opened, in 1816, a number of these structures still remained in occupation and full use. They were generally about sixteen feet square, with puncheon floor and roof of boards. Only the most elementary branches of education were taught in them. One such school building stood on Sixth street, between Market and Jefferson, and was occupied for a time by a Mr. New; an- other at the corner of Sixth and Market, associa- ted somewhat with the instructions of Mr. Lang- don; one more at Seventh and Market, where Mr. Dickinson taught; and still others at various con- venient points in the little place. In these a tu- ition fee of $2.50 per "quarter " was charged. Rev. Mr. Todd had a higher-priced select school in a small brick building on Market street, be- tween Fourth and Fitth. This street, it may be remarked in passing, seems in the early day to have been associated with the supply of food for the mind, quite as much as with provision for the body.

A TALE TOLD OUT OF SCHOOL.

Colonel Durrett has a good story to tell of the olden time:

On the 28th of April, 1809, the first show, as the boys

called it, occurred in Louisville. It was the exhibition of an elephant, and there was a general nprising in all the schools for a holiday. The Jefferson Seminary and the schools at the head of which were teachers conversant with the habits of the place, gave the boys holidays without trouble ; but there .was a New England teacher, recently come to the charge of one of the log school-houses, who could not un- derstand why the boys were to be permitted to lay aside their books a whole day to see an elephant. He would not grant the holiday asked, and the boys went to work in the usual way to make him yield. On the morning of the 28th the Yankee teacher, as they called him, came to his school-house and found the door well barred with benches, fence-rails, and logs of wood, and the boys all inside laughing at his futile attempts to get in. They promptly told him the terms upon which the fort would be surrendered, which were simply to give them that day as a holiday so they could go to see the elephant. The teacher was indignant, and, not heing able to get through the door, climbed upon the roof and attempted to descend the chimney. For this emergency the boys had prepared a pile of dry leaves, and when the teacher's legs ap- peared at the top of the chimney the leaves were lighted in the fire-place, Down came the teacher, for having once started he could not go back, and the flames scorched bin and the smoke smothered him so that he was the powerless antocrat of the school and knight of the ferule. He gave the holiday and went home to lay up for repairs, as the boys expressed it, and the boys went to the show as if nobody had been either burnt or smoked.

JEFFERSON SEMINARY.

It is an interesting fact that the first public foundation provided for education in any West- ern city, was made in Louisville, by the Ken- tucky Legislature, and nearly eighty-five years ago. On the 10th of February, 1798, a tract of six thousand acres of the lands of the State was granted to John Thompson, William Croghan, Alexander S. Bullitt, James Merriwether, John Hunton, Henry Churchill, William Taylor, and Richard C. Anderson, in trust for the founding of a seminary in Louisville, to take the name then so popular, and still frequently recurring about the Falls of the Ohio, of Jefferson. December 7th of the same year, another act authorized the raising of $5,000 by lottery as a further pecuni- ary foundation for the school. But nothing further was accomplished until 1800, and then rather a step backward, in the formation of a cumbrous Trustee Board of sixteen, doubling its number by the addition to the old board of Abraham Hite, James F. Moore, John Speed, Samuel Oldham, Robert Breckinridge, Gabriel J. Johnston, Fortunatus Cosby, and Abner Fields. So much time was wasted in the dis- agreement of this body concerning the location of the seminary that the close of 1804 arrived and found no real progress. The Legislature

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renewed the grant and appointed a new board of twelve, but containing all the old members ex- cept Croghan, Thompson, Merriwether, Hunton, Taylor, Moore, Speed, and Cosby, in whose stead Jonathan Taylor, John Bates, Thomas Barbour, and David L. Ward were appointed. They were authorized to sell one-half the land- grant, and apply the proceeds to build a school- house and buy apparatus and a library. Quarrels over location still retarded the erection of the seminary, and 1808 arrived without definite ac- tion. Again the Legislature intervened by the appointment of a fourth Board of Trustees of ten members, with ample corporate powers, but unfortunately made up altogether of the old malcontents, save only one new member, Dr. James Ferguson. So the noble project, that promised so much for the rising town, was kept in the drag for five years longer; until finally, July 2, 1813, more than fifteen years after the grant was made, a partial beginning was instituted by the purchase from Colonel R. C. Anderson of a site of two and one-half acres on the west side of Eighth street, between Walnut and Green. It cost but $700, and another quarter- acre, presently bought, but $100. A brick build- ing was put up fronting Grayson street, a story and a half high, with two good-sized school- rooms on the ground floor ; but so slowly were the preliminary arrangements made and the con- struction proceeded with, that pupils were not received into the seminary until 1816. An ex- cellent Principal, Professor Mann Butler, after- wards an historian of Kentucky, was secured, at a salary of $600 a year, with Reuben Murray and William Tompkins as assistants, at $500. A number of the higher branches were taught, and the tuition fee was $20 per six-months ses- sion. Forty to fifty pupils attended at its open- ing.

Meanwhile location had been made of the six- thousand-acre land-grant in Union county. The trustees were authorized by the Legislature in 1817 to lay off a town-site upon the tract, and did so with golden expectations; but the scheme did not catch the public eye, few lots were sold, and three years later (1820) the sale of the land at public vendue was authorized, after due ad- vertisement for one month. The next year legislative provision was made for the gradual re- duction of the Board of Trustees, as terms of

office expired, to seven members. In 1828 the County Court was authorized to appoint a Board of nine, but again a year brought a change, reducing the number to seven.

By this time the seminary had been in suc- cessful operation thirteen years, and many of the older citizens of Louisville have reason to re- member it with gratitude and affection. Princi- pal Butler being drafted from the seminary this year, to take charge of the first city school, a movement was made by the trustees to constitute the seminary also a city institution. Accord- ingly, September 30, 1830, an act of Legislature was passed, directing them to convey one-half the property to the city for a high school. The building and two and three-fourths acres of ground were transferred in pursuance of this law ; and upon this foundation Louisville College, so called, was established. In 1845 the seminary building and its lot were conveyed to William Begg for $2,484, and in 1853 they became the property of St. Joseph's (Catholic) Orphan Asy. lum. The identity of the old edifice was forever lost, but it still forms, the major part of the modernized, two-story structure that marks the historic spot. The receipts for the seminary property went into the fund for the erection of the Boys' High School on Chestnut, near Ninth. Vale, honored old Jefferson !

CITY FREE SCHOOLS.

Jefferson Seminary was rather a State than a local institution, so far as its foundation and care were concerned; though its pupils were almost exclusively of Louisville families. Nothing was done here to provide a system of public primary and free education until nearly half a century from the erection of the municipality had passed. When Louisville became a city, under the charter of February 13, 1823, a section of that instrument provided that "the mayor and councilmen shall have power and authority to establish one or more free schools in each ward of said city, and may secure donations of real and personal estate to erect the necessary buildings and to provide the necessary means for their maintenance, and may supply the funds from time to time by a tax on the ward where such school or schools shall be established."

It will be observed that this provision contem- plated the building of school-houses by private

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benefactions, and the support of schools by taxa- tion in districts, instead of, as now, levying a tax for both purposes upon the property of the city at large. Schools of the popular character indi- cated had as yet very little hold upon the wealthier classes in this region ; and, as might easily be supposed, the liberal clause of the charter was a dormant thing for years. Early in 1829, however, Mayor Bucklin called the at- tention of the city council to it, and suggested in his annual message " the adoption of some well- digested system for establishing a permanent free school." April 24th next following, an ordi- nance was passed establishing such public school, on the monitorial or Lancasterian plan then much in vogue, and free to all white children of the city from six to fourteen years old. Teach- ers were to be employed-a Principal at $750 per year, and assistants at $400, whose appoint- ment by the trustees should be laid before the council for confirmation or rejection.

The first board of trustees under the charter was composed of Messrs. James Guthrie, John P. Harrison, William Sale, James H. Overstreet, Fortunatus Cosby, Jr., and Samuel Dickinson. They elected Professor Mann Butler Principal, and voted him $150 for expenses of a visit to New York, Boston, and other cities, to inquire into the workings of the monitorial system. He returned in August, and reported in its favor. The upper story of the old Baptist church at Fifth and Green was rented for a year, and a free

school opened August 17, 1829, with Edward Baker as assistant to Principal Butler. The place was soon crowded with two hundred and fifty pupils, and many had to be refused admis- sion. A dozen or more monitors, under the eye of their Principals, instructed them in English branches, including rhetoric, history, linear draw- ing, algebra, and trigonometry, presenting a busy and doubtless noisy scene.

THE FREE SYSTEM ABOLISHED.

The first school in charge of the city authori- ties was an absolutely free school, so far as tuition fees went. This feature lasted but a year, however, when, on the 20th of August, 1830, the City Council, instigated thereto by grumbling tax- payers, passed an ordinance fixing the cost of tuition in the primary department of the public school at $1 per quarter, and $1.50 in either of the other two departments. In the night school

provided for at the same time by another ordi- nance, $2 were to be charged per term of four months. Tuition might be remitted, however, in the case of indigent parents. Three depart- ments were founded by the other law-primary, female, and grammar schools, salaries of princi- pals to be $600 per year in the two former, and $700 in the last. Night-school teachers had $30 a month. Mr. Butler was retained as Principal of the Grammar Department; the Rev. Daniel C. Banks took the Girls' School in charge, and Mr. Alexander Ewell the Primary.

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History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 79

Author: Williams, L.A., & Co., Cleveland Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : L. A. Williams & Co. Number of Pages: 814

Author: Williams, L.A., & Co., Cleveland
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : L. A. Williams & Co.
Number of Pages: 814