USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > History of the city of Cleveland : its settlement, rise and progress > Part 17
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256
HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
ent interesting points of view from 1836 to 1886, mn- clusive, at periods of five years .
Year.
Enumeration of Youth.
Number Registered.
Average Daily Attendance.
Number of Teachers.
1836
3
1841
*
229 *
*
*
1846
3,455
1,500
936
15
1851
6,742
2,304
1,650
32
1856
12,998
4,734
3,310
68
1861
14,625
5,081
3,962
83
1866.
18,607
8,315
5,333
115
1871
34,544
13,184
8,174
188
1876
47,043
20,771
14,069
326
1881.
52,401
24,836
17,016
448
1886
61,654
32,814
23,595
603
* No reports can be found.
The report of the president of the Board for 1885 con- tains a very interesting table showing the receipts and expenditures of the Board of Education from 1870 to 1885, with other information. It appears that in that period the tax duplicate increased from $36,553,522 to $86,285,845; the school levy from four mills to six mills ; the local tax from $141,834 to $498,521, and the total income, not counting bonds sold, from $189,948 to $589,- 469. The salaries paid to teachers and officers, not count- ing janitors, grew from $124,491 to $364,199. The Board's gross revenues for the sixteen years were $6,327,- 769, and the gross expenditures, $6,401,827. The Board paid an aggregate of $3,858,223 to teachers, counting by years, 347,584 pupils were registered in the schools, and the average tuition per year was $11.00.
The same report gives some interesting facts in regard to school-house building. Prospect building, 1840; Ken- tucky, 1852; Mayflower, 1854; Eagle, 1855; Hicks and
,
257
HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
Alabama, 1858; Brownell, 1865; Bolton, 1868. The other buildings are arranged under their respective years.
1869.
1870.
1873.
1874. 1876.
Orchard,
Garden,
Tremont.
Outhwaite. Case.
Rockwell,
Detroit.
-
Warren,
St. Clair.
1878.
1879.
1880.
1881.
Central High.
Walton.
Tremont Addition.
Rockwell Relief, Broadway.
1883.
1884.
1885.
Buhrer,
Dunham,
Clark,
Dike.
Fowler,
Kinsman,
Hicks Relief, Sibley,
Lincoln,
Stanard,
Marion,
Sumner,
West High.
Waverly.
At the present time five buildings that will contain sixty rooms and accommodate three thousand children, are going up in various parts of the city.
The Clerk's report for 1886 shows that he keeps account with sixty different schools. We have no statement of the number of school buildings owned by the Board, or the estimated value of the real estate in its possession ; but the first are numbered by the score, and the second by several millions.
For the school year 1885-1886 the total income of the schools from taxes was $614,526, the total income from all sources $789,957, the difference between the two amounts being mainly derived from bonds sold. The expenditures for the same year were $700,622.
258
HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
Two schools that belong to the city, but that do not be- long to the jurisdiction of the Board of Education, are the Industrial School on Detroit street beyond the city limits, and the House of Refuge School at the Work-House; both of them well managed and of great usefulness.
For many years there were small school libraries in nearly all the public school buildings, provided by the enterprises of pupils and teachers. The Public Library originated in the legislation of 1853 making provision for school libraries throughout the State; and although it has for many years had an independent legal footing, its relations to the schools are still intimate. The Board of Education appoint the Library managers. The home of the Library and the educational headquarters are very appropriately in the same building. Thecirculation and reference depart- ments reach a large number of school children and teachers, and do a vast amount of good. At present the income of the Library is twenty thousand dollars annually, and the number of volumes is somewhat less than fifty thousand.
Such a history as this cannot enter very deeply into the inner life of the schools; it must necessarily deal mainly with external facts. Mr. Freese, in his history, touches some phases of the subject in a way that is, to a teacher, both suggestive and amusing :
Schools and their methods are varied, like many other things, to conform to popular notions, or to what is, for the time, the prevailing style. There was a time when Parley's histories were a "new discov- ery " in adaption, and every child capable of reading was set to learning the history of the United States. The style of imparting oral instruction to children was, in imitation of "Peter Parley." Then there was a period of mental arithmetic-great attention was given to the study.
259
HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
The book of books was declared to b Colburn's 'First Lessons,' and his method was universally adopted as the true method. There was, too, a black-board era, when black-board exercises were made a great feature in every school, and the eye was constantly addressed. Of the Cleveland schools, it may be said that the Peter Parley period reached from their organization to about the year 1846. Mental arithmetic held its way for twenty years, reaching its culmination in the years preceding 1860. Black-boards, wide and long, for the simultaneous exercises of whole classes, began to be used in 1845. They were used with great enthusi- asm in 1850, and reached their highest appreciation and widest use a few years later. In each of these periods, teachers fancied they had hit upon a very excellent thing, and that it would, without doubt, be an abiding good. In the succession of changes it was lost, or went out of fashion -- none could say when, or how, or for what reason.
This history, covering the ground occupied by the fifty annual school reports, reveals, at least on the material side, the grand proportions to which the system has at- tained, and it shows, to a degree, the hold that the schools have on the intellect and heart of the people. These are made an invaluable power in the life of the city by the labors of a cultivated and devoted corps of teachers. Superintendent Hinsdale said in 1886:
The public school, teachers of this city now are six hundred strong. To build up this corps of teachers-to choose its material, to give it discipline, to establish its traditions, to create its atmosphere and esprit de corps- has been the work of fifty years. A few years, or even months, might suffice to impair its usefulness or even to destroy it altogether. If politics or favoritism be allowed to recruit its ranks, or to regulate its discipline, the results will be disastrous. In the work of no other equal number of persons-neither business men nor professional men-has the city a greater interest.
As a pendant to this history of the public schools, very brief accounts will be given of other agencies that have
260
HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
contributed to carrying on educational work in the city.
First, the parochial schools of the Catholic church. These occupy a large number of school buildings, com- monly located near the churches; they employ a large corps of teachers, and provide instruction for about twelve thousand pupils. The education furnished in these schools is supplemented by other schools under the control of the church, as the Ursuline Academy on Euclid avenue. The diocese of Cleveland stands well among Catholic dioceses for its educational facilities.
There are also parochial schools in connection with some of the German Protestant churches. About two thousand children are taught in these. Before German was taught in all the grades of the public schools, the attendance upon these schools was relatively much larger than now.
Private schools have also done a good work in Cleve- land. We find in the annals of the city mention of many such schools that no longer exist. Cleveland Seminary for Young Ladies, on Woodland avenue, long presided over by Mr. Sanford, and Humiston's School, on the South Side, are well remembered. Of living schools the most promi- nent are the Cleveland Academy, at one time under the charge of Miss Guilford, later of Mr. I. P. Bridgman; Miss Mittleberger's School for Young Ladies, and Miss Brown's, formerly Miss Fisher's school. It is believed that less than one thousand pupils attend private schools of all kinds in the city.
Brooks School, named for its founder, Rev. Frederick Brooks, at the time rector of St. Paul's church, was or-
261
HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
ganized in 1874, and has done an excellent work in the fields of primary, grammar, and academical instruction. A considerable number of Cleveland boys have been fitted for college at this school. Professor A. H. Thompson has been for some years the efficient Principal.
About the year 1850 the Cleveland University was launched. Dr. Asa Mahan, who had been president of Oberlin College for many years, was its president. At first the university found a home in a building on Ontariostreet ; but a new building-and a fine building for those times- wasconstructed for its accommodation on the South Side. Dr. Mahan brought great ability and enthusiasm to his work; he was supported by an able corps of teachers, but the university lacked financial backing, and after a struggle of two or three years, and graduating one class, it ceased to exist. The building was afterwards occupied by Hum- iston's School, and then by the Homoeopathic Hospital. One of the wings still stands on University street.
In 1876 Mr. Leonard Case executed a deed of trust set- ting apart certain real property to establish and endow a school to be called the Case School of Applied Science. After Mr. Case's death in 1880, the school was incorpo- rated, and in 1881 was organized on a small scale on Rock- well street. In 1885 it was transferred to an elegant building provided forits accommodation at the East End. This building was nearly destroyed by fire in October, 1886, but is now again approaching completion. The name of this school describes the field that it occupies. Its superior material facilities, fine faculty, and large endowment are its promise of great usefulness in the future.
262
HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
In 1880 Mr. Amasa Stone offered to give Western Re- serve College, that had been carrying on collegiate work of a high order at Hudson since its foundation in 1826, five hundred thousand dollars-one hundred and fifty thousand dollars to be used in the erection of suitable buildings, and three hundred and fifty thousand dollars to be added to the permanent endowment funds of the col- lege-provided: (1) the college should be removed to Cleveland; (2) the citizens of Cleveland would give suita- ble grounds for its use; and (3) the name should be changed to Adelbert College of Western Reserve Univer- sity. These considerations were all complied with, and in the autumn of 1882 the old college with a new name, a strengthened faculty, and largely augmented funds, moved into the beautiful building that it now occupies at the East End, where it holds high aloft the standard of superior instruction.
The Medical College on Erie street, founded in 1844 under the charter of Western Reserve College, now a part of Western Reserve University, has long ranked with the best medical schools of the West. Its greatly enlarged accommodations, provided by the generosity of Mr. J. L. Woods, will enable it to take a higher rank in the future. The Homeopathic Hospital College, founded in 1850, is one of the best schools of that practice in the country. It is also the second in respect to age. The Medical Depart- ment of Wooster University is much younger than either of its competitors, but is, no doubt, destined to grow with the institution of which it is a part.
For many years there was a law college in Cleveland,
263
HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
but it never flourished and some years ago becameextinct.
Of business colleges, first and last, there have been sev- eral; but mention can be made of only the Spencerian Col- lege, the strongest of them all, and never more flourishing than now.
Cleveland has much of which to be proud-her location, railroad facilities, manufactures, trade, streets, homes, and churches; but of nothing has she greater reason to be proud than of her educational institutions, public and private.
264
HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
MUNICIPAL FINANCES.
FROM STATISTICS FURNISHED BY THOMAS JONES, JR.
P RIOR to 1871 the duties now pertaining to the office of City Auditor were discharged by the City Clerk, and were regarded by the coordinate branches of the city government and by the incumbent of the office as wholly clerical in character. The clerk was a mere pay-master, issuing his warrants on the treasury on the mandate of the City Council, without question and without responsi- bility beyond such as might incidentally attach to any merely clerical duty ; and we find periodical groans in the annual messages of two decades of mayors, as well as in the reports of more than one Special Committee of Inves- tigation, because no records were kept from which the exact financial standing of the city or thecondition of any of the funds could be ascertained. 1 *
Each of the several departments of the city government
* See notes beginning on page 2 --.
265
HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
was managed by a Standing Committee of the City Council, or by a Board of Directors, Trustees or Commissioners, and these subsidiary bodies, acting entirely indepen- dent of each other and practically without accountabil- ity, check or restraint, not only disbursed the funds appro- priated for the maintenance of the department under their control, as their judgment or caprice might elect, but unhesitatingly incurred obligations far in excess of legalized expenditure. Under such a system-or rather entire lack of system-the exact, or even an approximate showing could be made only at the end of each fiscal year.
Under such conditions a history of municipal finance must be sought for in fragmentary entries, carelessly made in indifferently kept records of the departments; we shall look in vain for comprehensive or satisfactory data else- where, and inasmuch as a narrative compiled from such sources would convey no moral whatever, and be at best but a compendium of statistics, without significance, the date referred to may be justly regarded as that at which a financial policy was inaugurated.
It is no serious reflection upon any officer or body of the corporation, occupying place prior to the time named, to thus summarily dispose of their stewardship; many of them were men of sterling worth and high standing; they but followed precedent; the business had been conducted in the same manner since the incorporation as a city in 1836, and the necessity for, or even the advisability of a change had not occurred to them, at least not with suffi- cient force or directness to incite a reformation. The cry for "Reform " had not yet been heard in the land, and the
266
HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
local magnates regarded their personal integrity and the excellence of their individual judgments as an ample guar- anty of able management and honest administration, without the restraints of a systematic conduct of affairs. A liberal, open-handed, "go-as-you-please" spirit pre- vailed; any question as to payment of the debt being accumulated annually was met with the scriptural injunc- tion, "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof," and bonds became a panacea for the evil when the day of pay- ment arrived.
In April, 1871, the office of City Auditor was created, and Thomas Jones, Jr., was elected to the position. Hav- ing been for a number of years a member of the Board of Education and of the City Council, he had acquired a fair knowledge of municipal business, and was keenly alive to the defective manner of administering the public trust. With his experience, supplemented by rare executive abil- ity, inherent integrity, an indomitable will power and an abundant self-reliance, the newly elected auditor entered upon his duties, and the history of Cleveland's municipal finances had a beginning.
Mr. Jones' eminent fitness for the position demonstrated itself at the outset in the energy displayed in organizing the department. Hisclear understanding of the situation, his immediate adoption of means to remedy existing defects, and his unswerving adherence to sound business principles were invaluable in that emergency, and to him is due the credit not only of devising a systematic man- agement but of rescuing the city from a course which, if
267
HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
persisted in, must have culminated in disaster and bank- ruptcy.
The prejudices engendered by long usage and precedent, and the tenacious grip of "time honored custom " invited lively opposition to the radical innovations proposed by Mr. Jones, and greatly retarded the work; to such an ex- tent, in fact, was this hostility to change or modification persisted in that in one notable instance, that of the Water- Works department, the changes and reforms then urged by Mr. Jones, as requisite to a unified system, are still being urged upon the attention of the Legislature, the Council and the public generally, but with the ever recur- ring, strenuous and, thus far, successful opposition of the Water-Works directory and officials. That this depart- ment must sooner or later be brought into line, and be held to some accountability is inevitable; that it should so long have maintained its independence from restraint or supervision, is a striking example of the power of per- sistent and determined effort in a given direction, when exercised by adepts in the science of manipulation. 2
Opposition to the new order of things developed in every branch of the service, extending even into the City Council, where remarks, tinctured at times with acrimony, engen- dered by disappointment at the failure of a pet measure, were not infrequently directed at the auditor. The press of the city indulged at times in adverse criticism, but the course marked out was rigidly adhered to. It has stood the test of time, and in its essential elements is still the rule of management in the department of city finance. The system of records and accounts, the devising of which
268
HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
was but a detail of the labor involved, has triumphantly withstood the test of expert investigation and inspection, instigated by no friendly animus.
To limit the annual expenditure in every department to the amount appropriated to its use, constitutes the key- note of municipalfinances. This principle has been accepted in theory from the outset, but had never been adopted as a factor in the practical administration of city affairs. Mr. Jones, however, essayed the task of reducing the theory to practice, and this aroused the opposition already re- ferred to.
It was not until the fall of 1873 that a fitting opportu- nity presented itself for an open attack upon the prevalent custom, and an explicit announcement of a purpose to follow a given line of procedure. On the ninth of Sep- tember, 1873, a resolution was introduced into the City Council and referred to the City Auditor, providing for the issue of bonds to the amount of sixty-four thousand dol- lars, "which was expended from the Fire Department fund for improvements therein, in the Sixteenth and Seven- teenth wards, by reason of the terms of annexation of said wards (the village of East Cleveland) to the city." After showing that the terms of annexation had been agreed to subsequent to the date at which the amount appropriated for fire department purposes had been fixed, and that, consequently, no provision had been made for this expenditure, the auditor, in his report upon the resolution, says: "The fact of these contin- uous overdrafts from the various funds3 points to one of two legitimate conclusions, namely: that the vari-
269
HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
ous departments specified are either too expensively managed, or that the levy for municipal purposes is too small to meet the necessary current expenditures of the city. Hence the deduction is inevitable that the Council must either curtail the ordinary current expenses, or that an increased levy must be authorized to provide for them. In any case the financial credit of the city demands that no expenditures be made, or liabilities of any kind incurred, beyond the authorized means of liquidating them. It is a clear and unmistakable violation of our municipal code for the Council to incur any liabilities in excess of the cur- rent revenues of the city, and no warrants on the treasury can legally be drawn by the auditor, unless the money to pay such warrant is already in the treasury, and to the credit of the proper fund to which it should be charged. 4 The embarrassment under which I have labored in meeting this question hitherto, has arisen from the very fact that when I first entered upon the duties of my office the funds of the departments referred to (Fire, Police, House of Refuge, Infirmary, Street and Gas funds) and of some others, even including the interest account at times, had been continuously overdrawn for years. . . But if the plain letter and spirit of the law shall continue, as hereto- fore, to be violated in incurring liabilities for any depart- ment, for the payment of which there are no funds in the treasury, the auditor, in the plain and legal discharge of his duties, will feel obliged to take his stand, as it is his determination to do, and refuse to issue warrants on any fund whose resources are exhausted."
In order to impress this matter more fully upon the minds
270
HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
of heads of departments, and to caution them against a violation of this principle, a full statement of the condition of each fund, showing the resources, was prepared by the auditor and published, before the expiration of each fiscal year, with such comments as seemed pertinent at the time.
In 1875 the principle was fully vindicated, and in his annual report for that year, under date, March 21, 1876, the auditor gives utterance to the following :
Thus, in spite of the prophecies adverse to the system, and to its prac- ticability of restricting the current expenditures of the city to a point actually below current revenues, the result of the past year has estab- lished, for the second time only in the history of this city, not the prac- ticability alone, but the complete success of the principle adopted two years ago, in exact conformity to the requirements of the law.
The costly result of departing from this principle is shown by the accu- mulating, from a comparatively small overdraft at first, of a funded debt against the city, which by the continued increase, occurring within the past ten or twelve years only, consisting almost exclusively of these overdrafts for current expenses, now amounts to no less than $1,822,000! The penalty which the city pays annually in interest for this so-called "liberal" style of managing city affairs is no less than $127,400.
Such was the clearly expressed sentiment of the auditor, in his annual report for the year 1874.
The following compilations will, in a measure, illustrate the practical results of the change brought about :
On the first of January, 1872, the overdrafts aggregated $269,766.31.
In 1873 the expenditures exceeded the receipts by $248,362.78, the overdrafts in twelve of the funds amounting to $416,612.05, as follows:
271
HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
Fire Department
$95,760.26
Infirmary. 6,196.71
House of Correction 36,195.51
Cemeteries 5,265.45
Streets
39,798.43
Gas.
79,516.00
Bridges.
21,964.30
Police Court
31,085.11
Dredging
27,269.45
Parks
599.66
Superior Court
2,229.07
Police Department
70,773.10
In April and May, 1874, funded debt bonds to the amount of $400,000 were issued to cover the deficit, and on January 1, 1875, the city started in with a credit bal- ance to all the funds, the Cemetery and Superior Court funds excepted, amounting to $261,048.48.
The net credit balances, cash in the treasury, on the first day of January, and the expenditures for each year are shown in the following table :
Year.
Cr. Balance.
Disbursements for Ordinary Expenses of City Government.
Total Dis- bursements for General Funds, Including Interest.
1876
$ 274,444.84
$ 930,748.12
$1,683,634.36
1877
253,927.33
888,488.29
1,464,329.13
1878
220,557.22
783,392.35
1,679,003.61
1879
273,224.79
732,200.44
1,343,770.81
1880
2,464,897.22
784,017.62
1,369,671.17
1881
2,124,817.15
811,651.08
1,377,121.12
1882
1,817,738.86
845,306.19
1,466,438.53
1883
1,683,311.29
909,301.80
1,605,567.72
1884.
666,960.27
1,060,282.32
2,345,316.06
1885
809,955.28
1,127,577.30
2,306,586.66
1886.
766,711.50
1,133,344.08
2,004,286.39
1887
891,002.28
272
HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
Another practice, alike pernicious and subversive of law and a proper consideration of the rights of the taxpayer, had been freely indulged in, namely that of directing by simple Council resolution the payment of public money for purposes entirely foreign to that for which it had been levied, and which were in no sense included in thecatalogue of municipal obligations. Of this character was a resolu- tion unanimously adopted by the City Council, October 31, 1871, instructing the auditor "to place all bills for the purchase of such articles as have been made for the benefit of the sufferers by the Chicago fire, when properly approved by the appointed committee, in the next claims ordinance." Sentiment and finance did not assimilate, and the auditor promptly declined to draw the warrant, because there were no funds in the treasury for the purpose. The urgent de- mand of the mayor, of the president of the Council and of the chairman of the Finance Committee preferred in some- what arbitrary terms, failed to secure the requisite signa- ture of the auditor." The visitation of the plague at the city of Memphis in 1873, and the appeal for aid in that behalf, brought forth a resolution, adopted by the City Council, October 28, 1873, after receiving the approval and recommendation of the Committees on Finance and on Judiciary, directing the auditor to draw a warrant on the city treasury for three thousand dollars in response to the appeal. The press of the city commended both of these measures, and a heavy pressure otherwise was brought to bear upon the auditor, but the result was identical with that of the Chicago project; the warrant was not drawn.
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