USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > History of the city of Columbus, Ohio, from the founding of Franklinton in 1797, through the World War period to the year 1920 > Part 28
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and State streets in 1888 by Charles E. Moore, and later conducted for five or six years by Frank T. Cole.
In 1822, Governor Trimble appointed a state commission to devise and report a system of common schools for the state. Caleb Atwater and Rev. James Hoge, of Columbus, were among the active members. Their report, while not adopted by the General Assembly, led to the school act of 1825. Under this law, each of the townships in Franklin county was divided into school districts, in which school directors were elected. In that part of Columbus which was then Franklinton, there were two districts, while in Columbus east of the river there were six. The two Franklinton districts were found to have 40 and 37 householders respec- tively, while the six in Columbus showed a total of 273 householders with 405 children from five to 15 years of age. Among the earliest directors in the Franklinton districts were Winches- ter Risley, Wm. Badger, Samuel Deardurff and Horace Walcutt. Among the earliest in the Columbus districts were Wm. T. Martin, Dr. Peleg Sisson, David Smith, Otis Crosby, Wm. Long, D. W. Deshler, Orris Parrish, Andrew Backus, Rev. Chas. Hinkle, Thomas Car- penter and Joseph Hunter.
In April, 1826, the Court of Common Pleas appointed as the first county school cxam- iners: Rev. James Hoge, Dr. Charles H. Wetmore and Rev. Henry Matthews. They exam- ined and granted certificates to teachers as follows: Joseph P. Smith, W. P. Meacham, C. W. Lewis, Eli Wall, H. N. Hubbell, Nancy Squires, John Starr, Robert Ware, Margaret Liv- ingston, George Black, Kate Reese, Cyrus Parker, Lucas Ball, Ira Wilcox and Caleb Davis. Other early county examiners were Dr. Peleg Sisson, Bela Latham, Samuel Parsons, P. B. Wil- cox, I. N. Whiting, Rev. George Jeffries, Wm. S. Sullivant, Timothy Lee, Joseph Sullivant and David Smith-all names that stand out in local history.
The first public schools to be opened were those in the second district of Franklinton where Caleb Davis taught, using the log building that Lucas Sullivant had erected near the river in 1806, and in the third district of Columbus, where H. N. Hubbell taught, using the Academy building that Lucas Sullivant and 20 other citizens had built in 1820. The first teachers in the other Columbus districts were Starr, Wall, Lewis, Smith and Meacham. The reason for this precedence was that in the two districts named buildings were at once availa- ble. Nineteen days after the organization of the Columbus third district, the directors-Otis Crosby, David Smith and Wm. Long-bought the Academy lot and building, January 30, 1827. A peculiar historic interest thus centers in that site and building. The lot was the northeast corner of Town and Fourth streets, and extended back to the alley. The building stood on the north end facing east. It was a two-room frame '31x18 feet, and was distin- guished by a belfry in which hung a bell that was said to be second only to that on the State House. A large wood-burning stove stood in the center of each room. The other furnishing consisted of board benches, a few of which had low backs, a few writing shelves, a plain boxlike desk for the teacher and a small blackboard. The building was used as a school till 1836, when the school directors-John L. Gill, Ichabod G. Jones and Jonathan Neereamer-sold the lot to Orris Parrish, reserving the building which was later converted into a blacksmith shop, then into a feed store and was torn down in 1870.
In the other districts schools were opened at different dates and at places not identified. School funds were derived from taxation and the interest on the fund created by the sale of school lands. The amount for the several districts was meager, amounting in 1826 to 60} cents to each householder. A teacher's pay was approximately $15 a month and the term of employment was three or four months. In the third district, in 1837, school was main- tained four months, while the private schools ran seven; in the fourth district, there was no public school that year, while three private schools ran four months each. In the ten years (1829-38) D. W. Deshler was treasurer of the first district, he received a total of $1,621.22, or about $160 a year. Others had less. These facts indicate the uncertainty and irregu- larity that marked the work of the first public schools. Many preferred the private schools and clung to them, and even in that day. according to the record, there were parents wholly indifferent to their children's education. In 1826 an observer wrote: "There are many children growing up amongst us whose parents entirely neglect their education. They are wholly illiterate and enjoy at home neither the benefit of precept nor example. Youth nightly infest our streets with riot and din, accompanied with the most shocking profanity." Ap- parently there were bad boys and wayward girls even in those "good old days." The same writer adds: "Teachers see to the morals of the little ones entrusted to them no further than
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the hours of exercise, and even then sometimes suffer a state of insubordination wholly in- consistent with improvement." Criticism of teachers is evidently no new thing.
There were women among those to whom teachers' certificates were first granted under the law of 1825, but all the teachers first employed under the law, both in Columbus and Frank- linton, were men. Miss Kate Reese, who taught a public school near Third and Long streets in 1835, was the first woman teacher in public employ. Elizabeth Williams (afterwards Mrs. Abel Hildreth) was the next, in 1837, her school being held in the building at Front and Court, the second structure used by Elder George Jeffries and his Baptist church.
In its first twelve years the public school system traveled a hard road. It had little money and much opposition. But in Columbus it found stalwart advocates. Among them was Alfred Kelley who, as a representative in the General Assembly, offered in 1837 a reso- lution instructing the standing committee on schools to inquire into the expediency of creating the office of State Superintendent of Common Schools. The office was created and Samuel Lewis was its first incumbent. Happily he was an enthusiast. In his first year he traversed the State, mostly on horseback, visiting 40 towns and 300 schools and covering a distance of 1,200 miles. He reported to the General Assembly that there was a deep interest in public schools, especially among parents, and that where schools were free to rich and poor alike, they flourished best. He recommended the creation of a State School Fund, the establish- ment of school libraries, the publication of a school journal and proper care of the school lands. He asked and was granted authority to call upon county auditors for information.
Superintendent Lewis found no stronger support anywhere than in Columbus. Among those earliest at his back were Rev. James Hoge, Alfred Kelley, Mathew Mathews, P. B. Wilcox, Smithson E. Wright, David W. Deshler, Joseph Ridgway, jr., R. Bixby, Joel Buttles, Wm. Hance, Noah H. Swayne, Col. John Noble, Lewis Heyl and Rev. Frank R. Cressy. Columbus in 1838 became a separate school district, with its own directors elected for three years and with authority to establish schools of different grades and to "provide (annually ) at least six months good schooling to all white unmarried youth in the district." The clerk of the city became the clerk of the school board. The receipts for school purposes ran from $3,502.10 in 1838 to $2,174.80 in 1844, the decline being due to hard times and leg- islative permission to reduce the levy. W. H. McGuffey, of school reader fame, spoke in the churelies on education in 1838, and in December of the same year, the Ohio Educational Convention was held here, with Rev. James Hoge as chairman. The local newspapers also greatly helped to popularize education in free public schools.
As a result of three meetings of citizens, all in September, 1838, Dr. Peleg Sisson, Adam Brotherlin and George W. Slocum were elected the first Columbus school directors and a tax of $3,500 was anthorized to buy three lots and provide buildings-one at Long and Third, one at Rich and Third and one at Mound and Third streets. The first namcd lot was bought from Lyne Starling in the following January for $500 and in April the other two were acquired-a lot at Mound street for $525 and the north half of the present school site at Rich street, with the Hazeltine school building on it, for $1,200. Thus in 1839 the school directors owned four lots and two school buildings, the Columbus Academy property at Town and Fourth having already passed into their hands. The number of pupils in that year was 100 and the number of teachers twelve. Most of the schools were maintained in rented rooms at a rental of $600 annually. This showed progress, but it did not satisfy; already strong sentiment was finding expression in the newspapers that all public schools should be held in buildings municipally owned; it was better economy to pay the $600 in interest than in rent.
In 1841 Dr. Peleg Sisson, James Cherry and P. B. Wilcox were elected directors. The report of 1812 shows that 13 schools, one German, were maintained till the funds were exhausted ; five of them were taught by men for seven months at $80 a quarter and eight by women for eight and a half months, at $50 a quarter. The number of pupils ranged from 600 to 750, though there were 1.598 children of school age in the city. In 1842 there was organized a teachers' association which was maintained for many years.
Early in 1815 Joseph Ridgway, jr., a representative in the General Assembly, intro- dueed and secured the passage of a bill for the better regulation and support of the common schools. It created for Columbus the Board of Education of six members, and after popu- lar election and subsequent organization, the board appeared thus constituted: Wm. Long president, Smithson E. Wright secretary, H. F. Huntington treasurer, P. B. Wilcox, James '
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Cherry and J. B. Thompson. At the same election a proposition to levy a tax to build school houses was defeated: Yeas 404, nays 211, blanks 501. But at the election in 1846, when Thompson and Wright were re-elected, the tax proposition prevailed: Yeas 776, nays 323. A tax that would yield $7,500 was levied by the City Council, and the board erected three buildings on the sites previously purchased. These buildings were all of a style called "Lan- castrian," of one story and built of brick. Each was 1873 feet long and 21 feet wide and contained six rooms, furnished for primary, secondary and grammar grades. When they were finished the city had about $14,000 invested in school lots, buildings and equipment.
In January, 1847, the board elected Asa D. Lord, M. D., the first superintendent of public schools, and he began his work May 15 following, assuming general oversight of the schools, the examination of teachers and the arrangement of the course of study. Dr. Lord was then 31 years of age, having been born in Madrid, St. Lawrence county, N. Y., June 17, 1816. He taught his first school at the age of 16 and at 23 became principal of the Western Reserve Seminary, Kirtland, Ohio, one of the earliest normal schools in the country. While at Kirtland he took his degree in medicine and organized there, in 1843, the first teachers' institute in Ohio. In Columbus he organized the first graded schools in the State and, besides his regular duties, edited at different times four school papers, the Ohio School Journal, the School Friend, the Public School Advocate, and the Ohio Journal of Education. He served as superintendent for seven years, beginning at a salary of $600. In 1863, having completed a course in theology, he was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Franklin. For several years he was superintendent of the Ohio Institution for the Blind and in 1868 was called to a similar position in Batavia, N. Y., where he died in 1874.
Dr. Lord's administration was one of vigorous growth. At the outset he organized the staffs at the three buildings thus: North building (Third and Long), D. C. Pearson, princi- pal, Miss Lavina Lazelle, Miss Roxana Stevens, Miss A. N. Stoddart; Middle building (Third and Rich), Charles J. Webster, principal, Miss Catherine Lumney, Miss Roda Sinnel, Miss E. Fally, Dr. and Mrs. Lord; South building (Third and Mound), Orlando Wilson, principal, S. S. Rickly (teacher of German), Emily J. Ricketts. Principals were paid $100 a year, the other men teachers less, women teachers $140 a year. Each building had primary, secondary and grammar grades; the total enrollment was 1.750, average attendance 798.
The tide of sentiment was running in favor of the public schools, and there was call for instruction in the higher branches. There was long discussion of the question out of which came the conclusion that the demand was just and that, if it were not met, the prof- fered favor of many would be lost to the public school system. So, in November, 1817, a high school department was opened in the Middle building, with Dr. and Mrs. Lord in charge. The attendance the first quarter was 25, the second 33 and the third 50. The growth was such that the department was taken to the Covert building on East Town street, where S. S. Rickly was one of the teachers for a year ; then to the basement of the Reformed church across the street, where E. D. Kingsley began teaching in 1849; and in 1853, to the State street building where it remained till 1862. The first high school class was graduated in December, 1851, in the Reformed church, James L. Bates making the address.
One school for colored children had been maintained since 1839; in 1853 there were two such schools. German was taught as early as 1839; in 1845 there were two German schools and in 1847 there were three, occupying the South building and a rented room. In 1850 these schools had an enrollment of 207; in 1851 there were four German schools with 316 pupils; in 1852 the board bought a lot at Fourth and Court streets and at a cost of $3,000 erected a frame building to which the German schools were removed.
The site of the present Sullivant school building on State street was bought in 1852 and a plain brick building of three stories and a basement was erected at a cost of $15,000. In 1853 the high school department was housed there, in connection with other schools.
At the resignation of Dr. Lord, February 21, 1854, to accept another position, David P. Mahew became superintendent of the Columbus schools and served till July 10, 1855, when he resigned to accept the chair of chemistry and physics in the Michigan State Normal School, of which he was afterwards president. In his year as superintendent here the schools included three grammar, eight secondary, nine primary, three German, four colored schools and the high school. Night schools were also maintained. J. Suffern became the first special teacher of music, Mr. Folsom the first special teacher of penmanship. The organi- zation of the colored schools caused much enthusiasm among the people of that race; of the 336
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colored children enumerated, 312 were enrolled. Two of these schools were on Gay street, one on High and one on Town. The teachers were C. H. Langston, J. A. Thompson, T. N. Stewart and A. E. Fuller. The high school showed an enrollment of 150, average attend- ance 100.
Dr. Asa D. Lord came back to the superintendency at Mr. Mahew's departure, and served another year to July 11, 1856, when Erasmus D. Kingsley was elected, Dr. Lord going to the superintendency of the Ohio Institution for the Blind. Mr. Kingsley was a native of Whitehall, N. Y. In 1848 he was graduated from the New York State Normal School in Albany. For one year he was principal of Aurora Academy; he taught one year in Colum- bus in 1849 and for seven years thereafter was superintendent of the Marietta public schools. From Marietta he came to the work here, served for nine years and, after his retirement was a merchant and useful citizen in Columbus. He died May 13, 1907.
When Superintendent Kingsley's administration began, Columbus had five school buildings -the three on Third street, the German building on Fourth and the State street building Adding those that were rented, the total number of school rooms was 36. When he retired, the number of buildings was 12, the number of rooms 57 and the number of teachers 63. The number of youth of school age was 7,759 and the enrollment 4,148. A lot adjoining the German school, one adjoining the Rich street school and the Douglas school site were bought in 1856-57. The Broad and Sixth street site, with a foundation that Trinity Episcopal church had laid for a proposed house of worship, was bought in 1859, and the high school building was crected in 1860-61 at a cost of $23,400. The Middle building in 1859 was con- demned, and a plain two-story brick structure was erected at a cost of $15,000. S. B. Phipps became special teacher of music, Mr. Rittenberg of writing and Adolph Mott of French. The courses of study and rules of administration were revised; an intermediate department was put in between the secondary and grammar grades; playgrounds were rearranged ; special attention was given to the elementary branches and the word method of teaching read- ing was introduced. Night schools and teachers' meetings were maintained.
In 1864, the method of electing members of the board on a general ticket was aban- doned and one member was chosen from each ward. Of the first board thus elected, Fred- erick Fieser was president and Henry T. Chittenden secretary. In 1865 William Mitchell, A. M., was elected superintendent and served six years. He had been graduated from the Ashland (O.) Academy and had received his master's degree from Kenyon College. He had been superintendent of schools at Fredericktown, Norwalk, and Mt. Vernon, and had been a captain in the Civil War. Leaving here in 1871, he practiced law for a time in Cleveland and was afterwards State Superintendent of Instruction of North Dakota. He died in March, 1890.
During Superintendent Mitchell's administration, lots were bought on Park street, Spring street, Fulton street and Third and Sycamore, and buildings were erected, all patterned after that at Rich and Third streets. In 1870 the State street building was condemned and on the same site another, named in honor of Joseph Sullivant, was erected at a cost of nearly $69,000. In 1871 all the colored schools, which had been variously located, were assigned to a recon- structed building at Long and Third streets which, because of his earnest advocacy of the project, was named the Loving building for Dr. Starling Loving. In the German schools of this period, German was first taught, then English, after which the two languages were used in the instruction.
Robert W. Stevenson, A. M., was elected and began his service as superintendent, July 13, 1871. He was a native of Zanesville and had served as superintendent at Dresden and Norwalk. He served here 18 years, resigning in 1889 to become superintendent of schools at Wichita, Kas. IIc died March 6, 1893. Prior to 1875 one of the board members had served as secretary, but in that year Granville A. Frambes was elected to that position and served also as assistant superintendent, continuing thus for ten years, when O. E. D. Barron became clerk. In 1875, the first normal training school was opened in the high school, with the principal in charge and with the assistance of teachers of his staff. Classes were held on Saturday, In 1883, this school was formally organized in the Sullivant building with Miss L. Hughes as principal and was reorganized in 1889, with Miss Margaret Sutherland as principal. Superintendent Stevenson's administration was one of rapid extension and much building. In 1872, extension of the city boundaries took in the Franklinton school which had been maintained in the old Court House and eight suburban schools, the Fieser building,
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the Miller avenue, the Douglas avenue, the Northwood, the Garfield, the Fifth avenue, the Eighth avenue, the Front street, the present Mound street, the Siebert street and other build- ings were erected. The Loving school was abandoned and sold in 1882, and the colored pupils were distributed to other buildings according to residenee. The position of super- intendent of buildings was created in 1884 and Henry Lott was elected to the place; Frederick Schwann followed in 1888; Frederick Krumm in 1890; Edward J. Aston in 1894. In 1883, a branch high school was established in the Second avenue building, with C. D. Everett as principal, Rosa Hesse assistant.
When Superintendent J. A. Shawan began his administration in 1889, there were 25 sehool buildings with an average attendance of 13,504 and a corps of 279 teachers. The annual eost of running the schools was $364,826.52. W. S. Goodnough was supervisor of drawing and W. H. Lott supervisor of musie. In 1890 the compulsory sehool law became operative and David O. Mull was appointed truant officer. Mr. Mull died in 1891 and John E. Jones was appointed, serving until his death in 1918. In 1891, Mr. Goodnough resigned to accept a position in New York, and was succeeded by Miss Helen Fraser who served for 12 years. Miss Lillian Bicknell, who took up the work in 1903, was followed by W. D. Campbell in 1912.
The first departure from the one-high-school plan was in 1891-93 when the North High sehool was ereeted and occupied. In 1895 a high school for the South Side was temporarily
Indianola Public School.
located in the Ohio avenue building and in 1898-99 high school buildings for both South and East Side were provided. West High school soon followed, and the original high school at Sixth and Broad was given over to commercial courses for the entire eity. With the extension of the city boundaries, Clinton and Milo High schools were added and junior high schools were organized in four grade buildings in 1913.
A school savings plan was begun in February, 1902, with the idea of showing the children how pennies saved will grow into dollars. Two savings banks co-operated, teachers receiving deposits and the banks making weekly collections and opening accounts with the children depositors. The plan was a suceess from the start. In five months the collections aggregated $8,665.30. The next year 3,291 aecounts ranging from 50 cents to $2.11 showed a total of $11,721.21. The first five years showed a total savings of $66,500. The total for the year 1911-12 was $17,028.82; in 1913-14, it was $19,140.47. In August, 1916, the total of deposits was $228,494.40 and there was then on deposit $80,658.71.
Manual training and domestie economy began to be taught in 1893. In 1906 this was broadened into manual training, industrial art, shop work and domestic science, and a trades school was established in the building at Front and Long streets, and was there maintained till 1916 when, the site having been sold to the Y. M. C. A., the school was moved to a new building on the Spring street site. W. B. Dee was first director of manual training and J. H. Gill of the trades sehool.
Kindergarten work in Columbus dates back to 1838, when Caroline Louise Frankenburg,
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who had been an instructor under Froebel, conducted a school for a short time. Subse- quently she went again to Germany and, returning in 1858, opened a kindergarten on the south side of Rich, just east of High street. There was for a time in the 1870's on Fifth street, north of the Cathedral, a school for the training of kindergarten teachers. Kinder- gartens were maintained in the publie sehools for a time in 1892-93, with the aid of Women's Educational and Industrial Union, that organization paying the teachers. The work was resumed and made a part of the sehool system in 1912.
David Riebel was made sehool arehitect in 1893 and Edward J. Aston beeame superin- tendent of buildings January 1, 1894, to meet the continuous building operations and the eall for eare and repair of the numerous buildings. There were then more than 30 buildings and new ones were being ereeted at the rate of two or three a year. Now there are 60 sehool sites and 57 buildings valued with contents at approximately $1,500,000.
To meet the working conditions and make possible eomplianee with the compulsory edu- eation law, evening sehools were reorganized in 1893, running four or five months with an average attendanee of 150. Evening trade sehools were added in 1913. A special sehool for truants and ineorrigibles was opened in 1906; special attention was given to baekward students with medieal adviee for the physically and mentally defective. In 1912 a psycho- logieal elinie for retarded pupils was held showing that, by the Binet test, they were from 23 to 7 years younger mentally than physically. Physical inspection of pupils to determine defects was formally inaugurated in 1913, Dr. H. M. Platter in charge and assisted by four school nurses. Dr. Platter was sueeeeded in 1917 by Dr. C. P. Linhart.
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