USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume I > Part 66
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.
during the year ensuing;" the question of levying a tax to raise this sum to be submitted to the voters of the district or township. Provision was made for instruction in English grammar and geography when requested by three or more householders. Every incorporated town or city was made a separate district with power to create subdistricts and assess taxes for building schoolhouses. In 1839 provision was made authorizing any district to borrow money to purchase a lot and erect a schoolhouse thereon, and the directors were authorized to levy a tax for such purpose and also for renting rooms for school purposes when necessary. The county commissioners were authorized to reduce the county school levy to one mill and directors of town districts were required to provide evening schools for the instruction of young men and boys over twelve years of age whose occupation might prevent their attendance at the day schools. The directors were also authorized to determine what branches and languages might be taught provided they were such as were "generally taught in common schools." They might employ German teachers when the patronage of such as spoke that language was sufficient. Since 1853 boards of education have been authorized to provide German schools for such youth as may desire to study the German and English languages together.
On February 3, 1845, the General Assembly passed an act "for the support and better regulation of the common schools in the City of Columbus," which pro- vided for election in the spring of 1845 of six directors of common schools, two of whom should serve for one year, two for two years and two for three years, the order of seniority to be determined by lot, but after the first election two directors to be chosen annually for the term of three years. The directors elected in pursu- ance of this statute were declared to be "a body politie and corporate in law by the name of the Board of Education of the town of Columbus." The law provided that this board should employ teachers, establish rules for school government, keep the schools in constant operation except during seasonable vacations, and, should the public money be found insufficient for the support of the schools, provide for the deficiency by levying a tax at the end of each term on the parents and guardians of the scholars, provided that exemption from this tax should be made of such per- sons as might be unable to pay. The law further directed that a vote should be taken on the question of levying a tax for the erection of schoolhouses under su- pervision of the Board of Education, all legal title to property acquired under the act to be in the name of the town of Columbus. It provided also for the enumera- tion of all youth in the town between the ages of four and twentyone, and author- ized the City Council to appoint three school examiners whose duty it should be to examine applicants for positions as teachers and to grant certificates to those found qualified. " The examiners," pursues the law, " shall visit the schools, observe the discipline, mode of instruction and progress of the scholars, and semiannually report their proceedings and suggestions to the Council and to the Board of Edu- cation. Annually, at such time as the board may appoint, public examination of all scholars shall be had under the direction of the Mayor, the Board of Education and the Examiners." Under the provisions of this law the Board of Education of Columbus maintained schools of two grades in 1845 and 1846, and in January,
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THE SCHOOLS. I.
1847, elected a superintendent of public schools and organized primary, secondary, grammar and high schools.
The Akron school law passed February 8, 1847, is, with the exception of five sections, n verbatim copy of this law, but the new sections of the Akron law con- stituted its distinctive features, since they provided for establishing a central gram- mar school and primary school. The Columbus law, as amended February 16, 1849, authorized the Board of Education to establish " schools of such grades as they may deem most for the public interest, employ such officers and teachers as they may deem expedient, make all necessary rules and regulations therefor,
OLD RICH AND THIRD STREET SCHOOL HOUSE.
determine the age at which scholars may be admitted into such schools and the period for each grade and prescribe terms for nonresidents," and also, in lieu of the levy made on parents and guardians to supply deficiencies in school funds, to levy an additional tax of not more than one mill and a half per dollar on the tax valuation of city property. The County Treasurer was required to pay to the Treasurer of the Board of Education all school funds collected for the use of the city. A tax for sites could be ordered only by vote of the electors. This act sub- stituted in the law to which it was an amendment the word city for "town " and public school for " common school." The city, whatever its corporate limits might be, constituted but one school district. A further amendment passed March 21,
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.
1851, authorized the Board of Education to enlarge school buildings, purchase new sites, erect new buildings as they might be needed, provide school furniture and apparatus and levy an additional tax of not more than three mills per dollar of tax valuation for school purposes. On March 25, 1864, the law was so amended as to provide that " the qualified voters shall, on the second Monday of April, 1864, meet in their respective wards and elect one member of the Board of Education for each of said wards who shall serve for the odd wards one year and for the even wards two years," the term of service thenceforth to be two years and vacancies to be filled by the City Council with the consent of the board. An amendment of April 11, 1865, authorized the Board of Education and the County Auditor to levy such amount as might be needed in addition to the State school fund for defraying the expenses of the public schools of the city, provided such sum should not in any one year exceed five mills, or after 1868 four mills, per dollar. By a supplemen- tary act of April 16, 1867, the Treasurer of Franklin County was made ex officio treasurer of the Board of Education. A special act of April 12, 1870, authorized the board to borrow money and issue bonds to the amount of fifty thousand dollars for the erection of the Sullivant and Central German school building. An act of April 3, 1871, authorized the board to borrow seventyfive thousand dollars for building pur- poses, twentyfive thousand to be expended in building and furnishing a schoolhouse for colored children, twenty thousand for building and furnishing the Ficser School- house in Middletown on the West Side, and thirty thousand for finishing and furnishing the two buildings which had been partially constructed the year before.
By act of February 24, 1848, boards of education in cities were authorized to establish separate school districts for colored persons, within which the colored taxpayers might choose their own directors and their own property was alone chargeable for the support of such schools. An act of March 14, 1853, authorized and required boards of education to establish separate schools for colored children when the enumeration of colored youth exceeded thirty, which number was changed to twenty by an amendment of 1864. These laws relating to schools for colored youth were not repealed by the codification of 1873. In 1874 colored youth were admitted to the Central High School, and in 1882 the color line was entirely obliterated from the public schools of the city. In this, as in several other instances, Columbus is distinguished for moving in advance of the general educa- tional progress of the State.
The general school law of March 14, 1853, devoted ouetenth of a mill per dol- lar of tax valuation as an annual fund for providing school libraries and apparatus for all the common schools of the State. The books provided under this law formed the nucleus of a school library for each school in the State. This levy has been maintained by all subsequent legislation, and additional provision has been made for the appointment of librarians and the regulation of school libraries.
A law of May 1, 1873, entitled "an act for the reorganization and mainte- nance of common schools " was a codification, producing, to some extent, uniformity in school organization throughout the State, and rendering local school legislation
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unnecessary. With a few supplemental and amendatory acts it constitutes the body of school laws embraced in the Revised Statutes of 1880.
Section 4023 of the Revised Statutes provided that every child between the ages of eight and fourteen should be sent to a common school at least twelve weeks per year unless excused for legal cause. It also prohibited manufacturers and other persons from employing children under fourteen years of age during established school hours, and made it the duty of boards of education to ascertain the condition of all children under fourteen years of age, within their jurisdiction, who were not in attendance at any common or private school, and to report all infringements of this law for prosecution and punishment, the penalty being a fine of from five to ten dollars for each offense. The present statute applicable to this subject was passed April 15, 1889, and requires all parents, guardians and other persons having the care of children to instruct them or cause them to be instructed in spelling, reading, writing, English grammar, geography and arithmetic, and requires that such children between the ages of eight and fourteen shall be sent to some public or private school not less than twenty weeks per annum in city dis- tricts under penalty of from five to twenty dollars for each violation of this provi- sion. The law further provides that all children between seven and fourteen years of age who are habitual truants from school, or vicious or immoral in conduct, and all minors between the ages of fourteen and sixteen who cannot read and write the English language, who absent themselves from school and habitually wander about the streets and public places during school hours, shall be deemed juvenile disorderly persons, and subject to a sentence to some juvenile reformatory or county chil- dren's home. Boards of education in cities of the first and second class are required to employ a truant officer to assist in the enforcement of this act, said officer to be vested with police powers and authorized to enter factories, workshops, stores and other places where children may be employed, and perform such other service as the superintendent of schools or the board of education may deem necessary for preservation of the morals and good conduct of school children.
An act passed April 14. 1888, requires that the nature of alcoholic drinks, and of narcotics, together with their effects on the human system, shall be included in the branches regularly taught in the common schools.
Since 1825 teachers have been required to obtain certificates of qualification from some properly constituted board of examiners. A law of 1831 required that no certificate should be given to any teacher unless he should be found qualified to teach reading, writing and arithmetic. 'A later statute passed in 1853 required that every teacher should be qualified to teach orthography, reading, writing, arithmetic, geography and English grammar. The present law additionally requires that the teacher shall be qualified to give instruction in United States history, physiology, the nature and effect of alcohol and narcotics, and, in city dis- tricts, in still other branches, and shall be versed in the theory and practice of teaching. A law of 1864, now in force, provides for a State board of examiners who are authorized to issue State certificates of high qualification to such teachers as may be found upon examination to possess requisite scholarship and who may also exhibit satisfactory evidence of good moral character and of eminent profes-
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.
sional experience and ability. Such certificates, countersigued by the State School Commissioner, supersede the necessity of any other examination, and are valid throughout the State during the life of the holder.
For the purpose of affording the advantages of free education to all the youth of the State, Section 3951 of the Revised Statutes, as amended March 20, 1891, pro- vides that there shall be annually levied a State tax the proceeds of which shall constitute a State common school fund, and that, for the purposes of higher agri- cultural and industrial education, including manual training, there shall be levied and collected a State tax which shall constitute the Ohio State University fund. The General Assembly is expected to designate the rates of levy for these funds once in two years, but in case it fails to do so the rates are fixed at one mill for the common school fund, and one twentieth of one mill for the university fund, upon each dollar of taxable valuation.
From 1825 to 1853 the legal school age was from four to twentyone years ; from 1853 to 1873 from five to twentyone; from 1873 until now it has been from six to twentyone years of age. Since the law of 1873 was passed the enumeration has been taken under oath, but the laws of Ohio have never expressly excluded from school either children under school age or adults over it. In 1834 provision was made for the admission of adults to the common schools on payment of tuition. In Columbus it is enstomary to admit to the evening schools all adults who apply for admission. The public schools are free to all youth between six and twentyone years of age who are residents of the district, and no pupil can be suspended from school except for such time as may be necessary to convene the board of education of the district, nor can any pupil be expelled except by a vote of twothirds of such board, and then not until the parent or guardian of the offending pupil shall have been notified of the proposed expulsion and permitted to be heard against the same. In any case expulsion can be made only for the current term.
An act repealing some previous legislation on the same subject was passed March 4, 1891, creating a State Schoolbook Board, to be composed of the Governor, State Commissioner of Common Schools and the Secretary of State, and providing for supplying the schools of Ohio with good and sufficient schoolbooks at the lowest prices at which such books could be furnished. This board was required to fix the maximum price at which said textbooks were to be sold and purchased by boards of education, the price so fixed not to exceed seventyfive per cent. of the wholesale price. It further provided that if, in the opinion of said Schoolbook Board the proposals of publishers for supplying textbooks should not well and sufficiently supply the public schools of the State with good schoolbooks equal to the demand and best interests thereof, it should be the duty of the Board to procure texts for a series of Ohio Schoolbooks, and to contract with persons qualified to compile such texts to be used in the production of a complete set of books to be known as the Ohio Series of Schoolbooks. Under the operation of this law the prices of schoolbooks have been greatly reduced, resulting in a saving to the city of hundreds of dollars annually.
The Private Schools .- The pioneers who, in the autumn of 1797, planted the settlement on the west bank of the Scioto beside which our beautiful city has
alud E. Lue
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grown, were men and women of intelligence who brought with them enlightened views on the subject of education. They evidently regarded the school and the church as indispensable to the prosperity and happiness of their new community. The private schools and academies of a little later date could only have been the outgrowth of such intelligence and enlightened sentiment. The carly settlers encouraged private schools and instruction. Some of them who had witnessed the practical operation of public schools in the New England States cherished the hope that free schools might in the course of time be organized here also; meanwhile they joined hands with their neighbors in establishing, with western promptness, private schools for their children. " They lost no time after securing bodily shelter in providing, first, places - though never so rude - of Divine worship for their families; and second, of educational training for their youth." The schools were supported usually by tuition fees, the teacher agreeing with a number of families that for a fee of one, two or three dollars for each child instructed he would teach school a certain length of time.
The character of the early inhabitants is sufficient assurance that the schools were not neglected. Lucas Sullivant, the founder of Franklinton, took a deep interest in edneation. Jeremiah Armstrong, John Brickell, Jacob Overdier, Joseph Foos, Arthur O'Harra, Lyne Starling, George Skidmore, Jacob Grubb, Robert Russell and James Hoge were all intelligent publicspirited men, who held education to be of prime importance. The names of several of them are insepar- ably connected with the history of the schools during subsequent years. The primitive schoolmaster, it is said, was a "consequential individual," generally " morose and forbidding in manner; who with goads and switches in view of the scholars," ruled his school with an imperious air; that he usually had a local repu- tation as an astronomer, mathematician or almanac-maker; that he believed in witches and ghosts, a belief which he took special pains to communicate to his scholars; that he was looked upon as a prodigy of knowledge and a village oracle, " the indispensable terror of school youth ;" that in general he was a scholar according to the books; a stickler in spelling and arithmetic, but knew little or nothing about human nature; not unfrequently professing to know a great deal about dead languages but having really little knowledge of the living ones. Some of the pioneer teachers of Franklinton and Columbus possessed their full share of these characteristics, but most of them were well qualified and successful. A few made teaching their life work, while many exchanged it for other callings and became leading citizens of the community.
At a very early date, not exactly known, Lucas Sullivant built a roundlog schoolhouse which was about fifteen or sixteen feet square with puncheon floor, rough slab benches supported at either end by a pair of hickory pins inserted into auger holes ; battened doors with wooden hinges and lateh raised from its notch with a string ; a clapboard roof with weight poles, and a fireplace and stick chimney. It is probable that this village scholhouse of early times, like its suc- cessors of later years, had greased white paper for window light in winter and open windows in summer. This building was located about a square and a half north of the Old Courthouse west of Washington (now Sandusky) Street, and was
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.
probably built before or about the year 1806. It is the first school building in the Franklinton settlement of which we have any reeood.
Many persons still living remember this primitive schoolhouse. At first it was warmed by means of a large " fireplace," but later by a stove. Joseph Sulli- vant said his first acquaintance with sebool life began in this " cabin with its slabs for seats polished by use, and big chimney with downward drafts, with fleas inside and hogs under the floor, no grammar, no geography, but a teacher who ruled with a rod." Miss Sarah Reed, afterwards long and favorably known as an instructor and Christian worker, was one of its early teachers. She is said to have
THE OLD ACADEMY.
assisted Doctor Hoge in organizing the first Sundayschool of the town. Miss Mary Wait, whose parents came to Franklinton in 1803, taught sehool there at a very early date. It is probable that Misses Reed and Wait both taught in this primitive schoolhouse. The following article of agreement between one of the early teachers who afterwards became prominent in Columbus, and the patron of his school, is an extraet from the diary of Joel Buttles, whose parents settled in Worth- ington in 1804:
These presents witnesseth: That, on condition that Joel Buttles shall attend duly five days in one week and six days in the other, alternately, and six hours in each day for the space of three months and teach reading, writing and arithmetic according to the best of his knowledge, we the subscribers promise and oblige ourselves to pay said Joel Buttles at the expiration of said term of three months, each for himself, one dollar and sixtytwo and a half
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cents for each scholar we may respectively subscribe, and should some unavoidable or unfor- seen accident hinder said Buttles from attending the whole of said term, we obligate our- selves to pay said Buttles in a due proportion for the time he may attend. And likewise the subscribers are to bear each his just proportion in boarding said Buttles, and to furnish a con- venient schoolhouse together with a sufficient quantity of firewood so that school may con- mence the first day of Jannary next. In testimony whereof we have hereunto set our hand and seal this 14th day of December, 1808. Name of subscriber : Robert Molean, two pupils; Michael Rareden, three ; Charles Warde, one and onehalf; Philip Woollet, one ; Alexander Dennixon, two ; Philip Hare, one; William Hamilton, one.
This school was probably located in or near Worthington. The following notice appeared in the Freeman's Chronicle of February 4, 1810 :
A schoolmaster wanted .- A man well qualified as a teacher for young scholars, and can be well recommended by respectable characters to be trustworthy and exemplary in that employment will, on application to the editor, be furnished with proposals from a few individuals of good standing wherein the necessary encouragement will be given by them to a teacher as aforesaid to take charge of a school in Franklinton.
In the Chronicle of February 25, same year, this notice appeared :
A schoolmaster wanted .- A person possessing a good moral character and the necessary qualifications for a teacher of a school of young scholars will meet with employment on application to Lucas Sullivant.
It is thus evident that the pioneers took an active interest in providing school advantages for their children. The leading men of the town were endeavoring to secure good teachers. They wanted teachers "well qualified, trustworthy and exemplary in that employment." Peleg Sisson, afterwards a prominent physician of Columbus, taught school in Franklinton in the log schoolhouse just described, " boarding around" a week at a time with the patrons of his school. The follow- ing is an extract from a letter written by Mrs. Judge Price, nee McDowell, now of Hillsborough, Ohio :
In 1816 Doctor Sisson had a school in Franklinton which I attended. It was a log schoolhouse built, I think, for that purpose, the only furniture being benches made of slabs of wood with legs in them. My uncle, Lucas Sullivant, had it built. As no one in those early days took boarders, Doctor Sisson made his home for a week at a time among his different pupils, with the rich and poor alike. The only two pupils I remember who attended this school were my cousin, the late Joseph Sullivant, and Mr. Elijah Backus, now of Toledo. It was a good school, for Doctor Sisson was a man of high character. I was studying the elementary branches and do not know what else was taught.
At a very early day William Lusk, an Irish schoolmaster who came here from Massachusetts, settled in Franklinton and taught a common subscription school. In 1817 he began the publication of an alamnac entitled the Ohio Register and Western Calendar, a pamphlet of about sixty or seventy pages which he published annually for about thirtyfive years. In 1818 or 1819 Mr. Lusk established an academy. In his almanac of 1821 he said: "There are in Franklinton a common school and an academy; in the latter are taught English Grammar, geography, bookkeeping, (double and single entry), mensuration, geometry, trigonometry, (plane and spherical), surveying, navigation, algebra, and astronomy."
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.
First Schools East of the River. - In 1814 a school was opened in the log Pres- byterian Church on Spring Street. In Zion Chapel, which was a hewed log house built in 1815 on the present site of the Public School Library building on Town Street, William T. Martin conducted a school in 1816-17. He taught the advanced scholars and his wife the younger ones. One of his pupils, Elijah Glover, speaks in the highest terms of Mr. Martin as a teacher and says that he cannot recollect an instance of any chastisement in any form in this school during the time of his attendance. Joseph Olds, who afterwards became a prominent lawyer, taught school in a building on Broad Street, subsequently known as the Broadway Hotel. While teaching, he prepared a manual on astromomy. About this time Uriah Case and John Peoples were also engaged as teachers.
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