History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 81

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 81

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The principal story contains a general and private othice for the Principal, a class-room thirty by twenty-seven feet, two class-rooms twenty-five by thirty feet, and two twenty by thirty-one feet, a lecture-room thirty-seven by fifty feet by twenty-five feet high, arranged as an amphitheater, with seats for two hundred and sixty persons. This lecture-room con- nects with the laboratory, twelve by twenty-four feet, by large folding sash-doors and by a large arched opening, and with the museum, twelve by twenty-four feet.

The second story is divided into a class-room thirty by thirty-seven feet, and two class-rooms twenty-five by thirty

feet, in the main building. The back building on this story is devoted to the chapel, which is fifty by seventy feet, inde- pendent of the rostrum, which is twelve by twenty-four feet, and is capable of seating six hundred and fifty persons, allowing full-sized aisles and entrances. The roof of the chapel is finished in open timber work, the spaces between the trusses being paneled in light anddark oak and ash. The side-walls are finished with pilasters and arched above the windows, and finished in marble panels. The walls are wainscoted in panels, in imitation of light and dark marble. The third and fourth stories of the main building each con- tain four class-rooms twenty-five by thirty feet.

The corridors are thirteen feet wide in each of the stories. The stairs are wide, of easy ascent, and thoroughly protected against accidents. There are three of these stairways located at different points in the building, giving three different means of egress from the building from the upper stories, four from the principal, stories and five from the basement.

The extension of the building is designed in what may be termed "The Franco-Italian." The main front is faced with Bowling Green stone, and the quoins and helt-corners and window trimmings of the sides and rear of the building are of the same materials. The walls, both external and in- ternal, are of brick, well built, with broad foundations, and special attention is given to the strength and durability of the whole structure.

The front entrance is through a Corinthian portico having eight coupled columns standing upon pedestals, and the en- tablature is surmounted by a balustrade, the whole of Bowling Green stone. The side entrance porch, which is intended as the pupils' entrance, is also of stone.

There is a full supply of gas and water fixtures, washstands, etc. on each story of the building. The whole house will be [is] heated by steam on the most approved principle, with every precaution taken to insure perfect ventilation. There are speaking tubes connecting the principal's office with every class-room in the building, and also connecting the chapel with the class-rooms. There are large blackboards (of slate) in each of the class-rooms.

The front part of the lot, which is 140 x 200 feet, is inclosed by a heavy balustrade of stone and iron, and the sides and rear are inclosed by a paneled brick wall capped with stone, with gates of ample width both front and rear. The walks through the yard are of brick curbed with stone, while the surface of the lot is so graded as to carry the drainage from the building in every direction.

This fine structure was regularly occupied at the opening of the school year September 1, 1873.

THE STATUS.

Colonel Durrett gives the following sketch of the schools as they were when he wrote in the early days of 1881. The facts and figures have not greatly changed since:

There are now thirty-one public schools in Louisville, with an annual income approaching $300,000 for their support. Some of them, like the Second, the Fifth and Tenth-ward schools and the Duncan and Madison-street schools, have each a thousand or more enrolled pupils. The average at- tendance in all the schools last year was 186 in the male high school, 367 in the female high school, 12,292 in the white ward schools, and 2,077 in the colored, making a total of 14.922, while the aggregate attendance was much larger. For the instruction of this army of little ones in the tactics of

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

popular education were employed 257 white teachers in the English schools. 31 in the German, and 40 colored teachers in the colored schools, in all 328 teachers with graded salaries as follows: Principals of the high schools, $2,000; professors of the male high school, $1,500; principals of the intermedi- ate and secondary schools, $1,350; principal of the central colored school, $1,080; teachers of the male high school, preceptress of the female high school, and principals of the eastern and western colored schools, each $900; teachers of the female high school, $700; principals of the primary district schools and first-class assistants, teaching first grade, each $650; first-class assistants, English and Ger- man, $600; second-class assistants, teaching second grade, $550; second-class assistants, English and German, and colored teachers, first grade, each $500; third-class assistants, English and German, and second-class colored assistants, each $450; fourth-class assistants, English and German, and third-class colored, each $400; fourth-class colored teachers, $310. The superintendent gets a salary of $2,400, the secretary and treasurer the same, and the German superin- tendent $1,350.

The public schools are under the government of twenty- four trustees, two of whom are elected by the qualified voters of each of the twelve wards in the city. They have a presi- dent, vice-president, secretary and treasurer, superintendent, assistant superintendent and attorney, and for the purpose of facilitating the business that comes before them, they divide themselves info standing committees upon finance, salaries and supplies, buildings, escheats and school property, ex- amination and course of studies, high schools, intermediate schools, eastern district schools, western district schools, Ger- man, penmanship and drawing, grievances, rules, printing, sanitary affairs, colored schools and such other committees as circumstances may require.

The organization of the schools, apart from the High Schools, is as follows: District inter- mediate schools - First, corner Market and Wenzel streets; Second, corner of Floyd and Chestnut streets ; Third, corner of Center and Walnut streets ; Fourth, Seventeenth and Madi- son; Fifth, corner of Thirty-fourth and High avenue, Portland.

District secondary schools-First, and branch- es, Cabel street, between Main and Washington; Overhill Street, Overhill street, between Broad- way and Underhill; Second Ward, Market, be- tween Campbell and Wenzel; Third District, Broadway, between Clay and Shelby ; Fourth, Walnut street, between Jackson and Hancock ; Main Street, Main street, between Jackson and Hancock ; Fifth, corner Floyd and Chestnut streets ; Sixth, Gray street, between First and Second; Seventh, corner Fifth and York streets; Eighth, corner Walnut and Center streets; Ninth, corner of Ninth and Magazine streets ; Tenth, corner Thirteenth and Green streets; Thirteenth Street, Thirteenth, near Maple street; Duncan Street, corner Seventeenth and Duncan streets;

Madison Street (district secondary), corner Mad- ison and Seventeenth streets; Grayson Street, Grayson, between Twenty-second and Mercer streets; Montgomery Street, corner Montgomery and Twenty-fifth streets, Portland; Portland (dis- trict secondary), corner Thirty-fourth and High avenue.

District, primary, and branch schools-New Jerusalem; Germantown; Fifth Ward Branch, Floyd street, between Breckinridge and St. Cath- erine; Sixth Ward Branch, St. Catherine, between First and Second; Bullitt Street Branch, Bullitt, between Main and River; California, corner Kentucky and Seventeenth streets; Shippingport.

Colored schools-Fulton Primary, Elm and Pocahontas streets; Eastern Secondary, Jackson and Breckinridge streets; Central Intermediate, Sixth and Kentucky streets; Western Secondary, Magazine street, between Sixteenth and Seven teenth ; Portland Primary, Twenty-eighth and Lytle streets.

Mr. H. C. Lloyd is president of the board of trustees; Mr. F. C. Leber, vice-president ; Major William J. Davis, secretary and treasurer; Pro- fessor George H. Tingley, Jr., superintendent of the schools ; and R. H. Blain, Esq., attorney.

THE UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE.

This institution was chartered by the General Assembly of Kentucky February 7, 1846, under the corporate title of " President and Trustees of the University of Louisville." It was principally the result of the consolidation of the Medical Institute of Louisville, incorporated in February, 1833, and the Louisville College, chartered Janu- ary 17, 1840. April 20, 1846, the President and Managers of the Institute were formally re- quested by the General Council to convey its property, virtually the property of the city, to the new University ; which was done four days after- wards. This included the square lying between Chestnut and Magazine, Eighth and Ninth streets, now occupied in one-fourth part by the University, and which had been conveyed by the city authorities to the Institute November 21, 1837, under covenant that, if a charter for a col- lege or university should subsequently be ob- talned, the President and Managers of the In- stitute would convey back the property, with all buildings and other improvements thereon, upon formal request.

noble Butlers

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

In September, 1855, the Board of Education of the city were granted permission to use the building erected by the city for the Academical Department of the University; and a High School has since been maintained therein, now the Boys' High School. It was originally intended that the Law Department should meet in this building ; and it was occupied for some years by the in- mates of the Asylum for the Blind, after the burning of the Asylum building.

The charter of the University made provision, in part, as follows :

SECTION I. And the said President and Trustees of said University of Louisville shall have full power and authority to establish all the departments of a university for the pro- motion of every branch of science, literature, and the liberal arts; and also may establish faculties, professorships, lecture- ships, and tutorships, and alter or abolish the same at pleas- ure; and may appoint lecturers and tutors thereto, and may remove any one or all of them at pleasure, and appoint others in their stead.

SECTION 2. And the said President and Trustees may grant and confer all degrees usually conferred in colleges or universities, and generally shall have and exercise all power and other authority necessary and proper for an extended university of learning.

The Academical Department, however, long since was merged in the city public-school sys- tem; and only schools of law and medicine have been established in the University, which will be noted fully in subsequent chapters.

PROFESSOR NOBLE BUTLER.

Among the distinguished dead of 1882 in the city of Louisville was one who had been identi- fied with her educational affairs for nearly half a century, and had won eminent repute among men as a teacher and writer of text-books for the schools. Noble Butler was a native of Washington county, Pennsylvania, born July 17, 1810, and was at the time of his death aged sev- enty-one years, six months, and twenty-eight days. His American ancestors were immigrants to that part of the country which became Chester county as early as the time of colonization under Penn, and had come from Bristol, England. From his grandfather he took his own suggestive and justi- fied name. Jonathan Butler, his father, was also a Pennsylvanian born, and followed the callings of merchant and farmer. The mother, whose maiden name was Nancy Hopkins, was a native of Maryland. In 1817 the family removed to 53

the wilds of Indiana, and settled in what is now Jefferson county. The boy was then seven years old, and his elementary education, apart from the invaluable training of the fireside, began here, in the primitive log school-houses of the wilderness. · He early evinced a decided apti- tude for learning, developed rapidly in scholar- ship and mental power, and for nearly twenty years pushed his way energetically through the various grades of schools accessible to him, grad- uating at length in 1836, at the age of twenty- six, from the well-known Quaker institution known as Hanover College, at Richmond, Indi- ana. His attainments were so marked, and his personal habits so approved, that he was promptly offered the chair of Greek and Latin in the same institution. He had, in the pursuit of the higher Education, cherished the hope of entering the Christian ministry; but finding himself, as he always was, singularly lacking in the power of public speech, he abandoned this purpose, ac- cepted the post in the College, and served it ac- ceptably for three years, when, in 1839, he came to Louisville for a broader and more congenial field, which he occupied with signal usefulness and success during the next forty-three years.

He opened at first a private school ; but the attention of the governing Board of the Louis- ville College was soon attracted to his pedagogic abilities ; and the next year, when the College received its charter, he was elected to its Faculty as Professor of Ancient Languages. It was an able corps of instructors to whose association he was invited, and his was one of the brightest and best names among them. They are all mentioned in the preceding narrative. The last of them to go over to the silent majority was Professor Butler.

After leaving the College, most of the labors of Mr. Butler as a teacher were expended in select and private schools, in which he was greatly influential in moulding the minds and manners of many of the finest young people of two generations in Louisville and much of the entire South. Some years ago he received, in recognition of his fame, the honorary degree of Master of Arts from Harvard University. His alma mater also bestowed upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws.

Soon after young Butler came to the city, he was requested by Messrs. Morton & Griswold,

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

publishers here,-of whom the senior partner, Mr. John P. Morton, still survives,-to begin the preparation of a series of text-books for the schools, which they would issue. The fruit of this was in due time manifest in the appearance of the renowned "English Grammar," which secured an immense sale both North and South, and is still standard in many of the schools of Kentucky and elsewhere. His continued studies of the language, through many years more, cul- minated in the publication of his "Practical and Critical Grammar," and his original work re- ceived thorough revision and publication in a new edition about a year before his death. He also prepared, many years ago, a revised edition of the school readers of S. G. Goodrich ("Peter Parley") which were issued as "Noble Butler's Goodrich's Readers." About twelve years since his publishers began the issue of an entirely in- dependent and original series of his preparation, entitled "Butler's Readers," which likewise ob- tained wide popularity. He wrote a theory of Hebrew tenses for Bascom's Quarterly Review, which has since been made an integral part of Nordheimer's Hebrew Grammer. He also wrote much on other and more general themes ; and a volume of his poems and essays was collected some years since, and published under the title of "Butler's Miscellanies." His literary and pedagogic character were thus admirably sketched by a graceful writer in the Louisville Commercial, shortly after his lamented death :

He was peculiarly an educator, having the rarest faculty of imparting his knowledge and possessing a perfect purity of mind and thought that made him the most valuable of in- structors. He did more to plant a high taste for literature and a love of study in the minds of those who have been educated in Louisville during the past thirty years than could well be estimated. His education was almost universal in scope. Among his pupils was Marv Anderson, the actress, whose first studies in elocution were pursued under his care. He was a close and reverent student of Shakespeare, and taught the ambitious girl to read it correctly and to un- derstand its meaning. All the brilliant young men of this city bear the impress of his pure taste and clear intellectual perceptions.

As a writer he did not rank as high as a poet as he did in prose, though he wrote much verse. Some years ago, when the ever-recurring argument as to the capabilities of the English language was revived, he wrote some poems to demonstrate that English was sufficiently plastic to carry the Latin and Greek hexameters. These specimens were correct and felicitous; but there was no particular fire in his poetry, and he was not creative. His prose was spirited and excel- lent in style. It will be as an educator that he will be longest remembered.

Prof. Butler was a student to the last. He had an almost complete knowledge of the text of Shakespeare, and was fond of demonstrating the poet's intentions. There were few subjects about which he had not considerable and ac- curate knowledge. Never brilliant, he was a tireless worker and a producer of valuable results. His place was peculiar in the public heart, and his gentle and kindly nature will be remembered long after his familiar form shall have passed out of thought.

Prof. Butler was married, just after his gradua- tion in 1836, to Miss Lucinda Harney, sister of John H. Harney, afterwards his associate in the Faculty of Louisville College, and then for many years the brilliant editor of the Louisville Dem- ocrat. Mrs. Butler survives her husband, with five children, all that were born to them, also living-Mrs. B. A. May, Mrs. E. S. Hewes, and Miss Minnie Butler, all of Louisville ; J. S. But- ler, a lawyer in Rock Island, Illinois ; and Wil- liam P. Butler, also of Rock Island, and its Mayor for a time.

PERSONAL NOTES.

Prof. George H. Tingley, Superintendent of Public Schools in the city, has been connected with the schools here, in various capacities, for more than half a century. He was a pupil in the first district schools established here and in the old Louisville College; an assistant teacher in the Boys' Grammar School on Jefferson street in 1844, Principal of the Boys' Primary School on First street in 1849, Principal of a Boys' Grammar School the next year, a School Trustee in 1854-55, and then a teacher again until August 10, 1863, when he was elected Superin- tendent of the Schools, and has since remained in that position, serving a term), now nearly twen- ty years, unexampled, we believe, in the educa- tional history of any laige city in this country.

Mr. Joseph M. Allen, principal of the First- ward school of Louisville, is a native of Friend- ship, Alleghany county, New York. Entering Alfred College, in his native county, he pursued his studies until the close of his junior year, then became principal of the Forrestville Union School, in Chautauqua county, New York. Af- ter remaining at this post for two years, he re- turned to college, graduating in 1856. In the autumn of the same year he came to Kentucky, and in Kentucky and Cincinnati, Ohio, he has ever since followed his chosen profession, and his engagements have been numerous and such as to give him an unusually varied experience. Com-' mencing in Shelbyville, he taught in that city for

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one year, then, removing to Covington, was for two years there principal of a public school ; dur- ing the nine years following he taught in Cincin- nati-one year as first assistant in the Fourth In- termediate School, then for seven years as princi- pal of the Thirteenth District School, then for one year as principal in the First District. Coming to Louisville in 1870, Mr. Allen became principal of the Sixth-ward School, which he left in 1875 to assume his present post.

Mr. W. M. Marriner is a native of Louisville, where he was born in 1831. He attended first the common schools of the city, then the Louis- ville High School, pursuing his studies until he reached the second year in the latter institution, when, in the year 1858, he was withdrawn to as- sume the position of principal of the Secondary Department of the Second Ward School, which then combined the grammar and secondary courses. He retained his position until early in 1861, when he was admitted to the practice of the law, having pursued his legal studies while a teacher. He at once " put out his shingle," and was still a candidate for the favor of clients, when the outbreak of the civil war called him into the service of the South. He entered the Confederate army as a private in the First Ken- tucky Infantry, and speedily rose to the cap- taincy of Company H. When his term of en- listment was expired, he re-entered the army as captain of Company C, Twelfth Battalion Ten- nessee Cavalry. Resigning his commission, he became adjutant of the Twelfth Confederate Cavalry, and from that time until the close of the war was engaged in various staff service. He served in Virginia and with the armies of the West and the South, finally surrendering with the Sixth Cavalry at Mt. Sterling, Kentucky. After the war he first engaged for a time in mercantile business. In 1869 he became a grade teacher in the Eighth-ward School, and, in 1871, be- came, as now, principal of the Second-ward School.

Mr. J. T. Gaines, now principal of the Third- ward school of Louisville, was born in Anderson county, Kentucky, in September, 1841. His father was K. C. Gaines, a native of Virginia ; his mother, Mariam Pullian Gaines, came from a Kentucky family. The subject of this sketch was educated in the country schools of his native township and at the Kentucky Military Institute

in Franklin county, near Frankfort. The out- break of war caused the closing of the school, nearly all the students entering the Confederate army. Young Gaines joined the Ninth Ken- tucky infantry, as first lieutenant of company K. That company was afterward transferred to the Fifth Kentucky infantry, and Mr. Gaines was promoted to the captaincy. His service was al- most entirely with the Western army, his com- pany following the fortunes of Generals Bragg and Johnson. About three months before the sur- render at Appomattox, Captain Gaines resigned, being one of that brave body of men, one from each company in the brigade, who volunteered to penetrate the Federal lines for the purpose of recruiting. He reached his field of operations, near his birthplace, but a few days before the surrender, and found his occupation gone. He commenced teaching at Bridgeport, Kentucky, almost immediately after the close of the war ; in 1868 he became assistant in the graded schools of Frankfort, but then organized, under S. W. Browder as principal. For five sessions he taught at Frankfort, then assumcd charge of the Harrison graded school at Lexington, from which position he resigned in 1877 to accept his present place as principal of the Third-ward school of Louisville.

William O. Cross was born in Wayne connty, Illinois, on the 20th day of August, 1842. He was the son of a farmer, and like most of his class, obtained his education in the intervals of his labor and in the common schools of the neighborhood, and as he grew older he obtained his first experience in what was destined to be his profession, by teaching one of those same schools in the winter season, and thus he con- tinued to be engaged at various places and times until, in 1869, coming to Kentucky, he took charge of a school at Campbellsburg. He re- mained in Campbellsburg for one year, then removing to Louisville was in 1871 appointed assistant in the Fourth-ward school. In 1872 he became principal of the same school and has since continued in that relation, having, during twelve years of residence in Louisville, made it his only field of labor. Mr. Cross is president of the Louisville Educational association.

William J. McConathy, principal of the Fifth- ward Intermediate school, was born at Lexing- ton, Kentucky, July 19, 1841. He attended the

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public schools of Lexington and the preparatory department of the University of Lexington, fin- ishing his studies in 1857. In 1858 he com- menced teaching in Louisville, as assistant in- structor in grammar in the public schools. In 1858 he removed to Sacramento, McLean county, as assistant principal of the academy in that place, but soon became principal of the same school, which he only left in 1861 to enlist in company A, of Morgan's famous cavalry squad- ron. He took part in the famous raid over the border, was captured during a skirmish in July, 1863, and was confined as a prisoner of war, first for a time at Camp Morton, then for eigh- teen months at Camp Douglas. He was then paroled and saw no more active service. Imme- diately upon the close of the war Mr. McCon- athy began the study of the law, was shortly licensed to practice, and for six years following pursued his profession in Bullitt county, and was for six years master commissioner of the circuit court in that county. In 1873 he resumed teaching in a private academy in Bullitt county ; in 1875 he removed to Louisville and was ap- pointed principal of the Fifth-ward intermediate school, the largest in the city. This place he still retains.

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History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 81

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