History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume I, Part 70

Author: Lee, Alfred Emory, 1838-; W. W. Munsell & Co
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: New York and Chicago : Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1202

USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume I > Part 70

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Of the sixth district Lucins Ball succeeded W. P. Mcacham as teacher ; Daniel Nelson, George Jeffries, T. Carpenter, T. Peters and David Spade served successively as treasurer; an aggregate of $701.75 of school money was drawn from 1830 to 1838; and George Jeffries, Moses J. Spurgeon and James Stevens successively served as clerk. The clerk reports in 1837 that the teachers are generally of good moral character, "their qualifications ordinary." The school fund was not sufficient to support school six months out of twelve. Hulda Buil, James Riggs and Steven Berryhill taught public school in the southern part of the district. From portions of this district the twelfth and thirteenth districts were created in 1833. The twelfth received from 1834 to 1838, $493.87. Its successive treasurers were J. Kelley, J. Whetzell, William Thomas and John Otstott, the latter drawing $223.74 school money in 1838. The directors in 1837 and 1838 were Robert Cloud, Elijah Glover and John Otstott, of whom the latter is still living and occupies the same dwelling now as then. In 1837 there were 48 boys and 63 girls of school age in the district; the sum of $104.42 was paid for teaching its private schools and 843.54 for teaching scholars outside of its boundaries. The number of scholars usually taught in private schools whose tuition was paid

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with the public money of the district was 17. Nine months private school but no public school was held in the district that year. One female and three male teachers were employed. The books used were Webster's and Cobb's spelling- book, Smith's Grammar, Smith's and Adams's arithmetics, and geographies by different anthors. Some of the teachers were good, some indifferent ; generally they failed in good government. "The greatest defect in our district is the want of a good schoolhouse, and under the present law we cannot build one; the greatest part of the real estate is owned out of the district, consequently the sum which we can legally raise in a year is so small that we cannot purchase lot and build a suitable house. As we had no house and the directors would not hire a suitable room, we thought it best to pay the money to a private teacher to take the scholars by the quarter, as there was no one in the district who had a room. - Rufus Bixby, Clerk." The directors in the winter of 1837-38 employed Elizabeth Williams, who taught in the small brick building which constituted the old Baptist Church, still standing on the southeast corner of Court and Front streets.

The thirteenth distriet contained 44 schoolage children in 1837. P. C. White- head was its treasurer and one of its directors. The fourteenth district, lying west of High Street and north of West Naghten, contained 44 school children during the years 1835 and 1837. Robert Neil, John A. Lazelle and John M. Starr resided in this district. The suin of $38.37 was paid a male teacher for three months services in 1837. The schoolhouse was built of logs, and was valued at twenty dollars. The usual public school attendance was fifteen. The successive treasurers of the district were James Holmes, J. Shasborn and John M. Starr. Andrew Williams taught a public school in the distriet.

The number of public schools in Columbus, beginning with one in 1826, increased to ten in 1837. Five different teachers drew pay in 1827 for teaching in the town districts. The Ohio Gazetteer for 1829 states the population of the town at 2,014, and the number of schoolage children at 560, and says " there are not over eight or ten schools actually taught in the town." This included the public and private school. In 1836 and 1837 the schools were graded and an effort was made to secure uniformity of textbooks and methods of instruction. Rented school buildings were mostly used.

The two Franklinton districts contained in 1826 seventyseven, and in 1830 seventynine families ; in 1831, one hundred seventyeight, and in 1835 one hundred eightyfour schoolage children ; in 1837, ninetyseven male and 94 female schoolage children ; in 1840 one hundred eighty, in 1846 one hundred eightytwo, in 1850 two hundred five, in 1854 two hundred fiftythree and in 1858 two hundred twenty- three schoolage children. In 1829 the second district of Franklin Township received $73.87 of the Virginia Military school fund, this being $1.71 to each householder. Winchester Risley was the district treasurer, and on April 19, 1830, . drew the sum of $33.93 for school purposes. His successors drew as follows : Horace Walcott, October 1, 1831, $37.37; same, April 4, 1832, $16.10; R. Golliday, July 1, 1833, 849.25 ; William Perrin, April 5, 1835, 887.00; William Domigan, June 21, 1836, $63.85 ; same, May 8, 1837, $51.00; same, March 27, 1838, 8144.52;

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Jacob Grubb as township treasurer, January, 1839, 8103.77. Similar dividends were at the same time disbursed to the third district. William Badger was dis- trict treasurer in 1830, and Samuel Deardurff from 1831 to 1839. It is worthy of note that while the State school fund was reduced $50,000 during the financial

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FIFTH AVENUE SCHOOL.

depression of 1840, and the county commissioners were authorized to reduce the school levy, the levy for these districts was maintained and their schools were generally supported. The school money for the third district for that year was $103.72, or $1.16 for each scholar. "The annual receipts of the Franklinton district

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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

during the ensuing seven years averaged 8181.90. Caleb Davis, Ezekiel Curtis and William Lusk were the first teachers in the public schools of Franklinton, the earlier schools of which were probably held in the log schoolhouse already described, as it was still used for such purposes in the thirties.

In 1837 William Caldwell and J. D. Perrin were directors, and A. Cole clerk of the second district. The clerk's report for that year shows as follows: Male children of school age, fifty ; female, fortyeight; public schools, one; private, two; public school kept two months; private schools twelve; forty public and thirty- five private school scholars; fortysix male and fortyfour female scholars in attend- ance more than two months; paid public school teacher $78; paid private school teachers $150.00; amount of school tax, $37.30. The studies pursued were read- ing, writing, arithmetic, spelling, geography and grammar. John Perrin, William H. Stevenson and Elias K. Deardurff were the directors and J. Caldwell the clerk of the third district in 1837. No public school was kept in the district during that year, but the sum of $302.88 was paid to the teachers of two subscription schools. A male and a female teacher were employed. The number of scholars in usual attendance was seventytwo. The textbooks were usually selected by the teachers. The amount of school tax was $31.13; studies, reading, writing, arithmetic.

Since 1840 the school funds have been sufficient to provide schools to all who apply for admission. For many years the old Courthouse was used for public schools, the second district occupying the lower story and the third the upper one. The following persons served as school directors in Franklinton : Arnold Clapp, 1853, two years; Michael L. Sullivant, 1853, six years; A. Hall, 1855, five years ; P. N. White, 1855, two years; T. J. Kerr, 1857, two years; J. D. Couden, 1858, two years ; A. O'Harra, 1860, two years; F. Mull, 1863, six years ; M. S. Hunter, 1864, four years ; H. B. Deardurff, 1867, three years. In 1853 the schools of Frank- linton were maintained seven months, and $315.00 was levied in the second district to repair the old Courthouse for school purposes. This building stood on one of the lots originally donated by Lucas Sullivant for public purposes. The property was leased for several years to the school directors, and on April 6, 1865, it was conveyed to the Board of Education of Franklin Township for the sum of. one dollar by Michael L. Sullivant, Charles L. Eaton and Joseph Robinson. Sub- sequently it was transferred to the City of Columbus. Among the teachers who taught in Franklinton after 1850 were Miss J. Mull, R. Crain, Miss D. Mix, M. Harvey, Mary Hurd, James Goldrick, Mary Faundersmith, Miss L. Crain, A. Mc- Campbell, J. Meyer and W. R. Postle. For the fifteen years beginning with 1855 the average number of schoolage children in Franklinton was 245.

Columbus as a Separate School District ; March 7, 1838, to 1845 .- During the brief period of twelve years after the organization of the first school under the law of 1825, there had been a great change of public sentiment not only in Columbus but throughout the State. On June 22, 1826, an observer wrote : " It is surprising to see the indifference of the people of Ohio to the education of their children. Hardly a cabin can be passed by the traveller in some parts of the State without seeing rushing from it a drove of little whiteheaded urebins ( who, by the way, generally have nothing to cover their nakedness but dirt and a short piece of dirty linen)

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reared like stock on a farm." Within the same year a resident of the city recorded his observations thus: " There are amongst our old citizens, permit me to say, as much order, temperance and morality as can be found amongst the same population anywhere. We have abroad the reputation of being a plodding, industrious, sober, hospitable and going-to-meeting people; but 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 or example which ought to be imitated. Youth nightly infest our streets with riot and din, accompanied with the most shocking profanity. What few schools we have are for the most part left to themselves and their teachers to manage their pupils in their own way. Teachers see to the morals of the little ones entrusted to them no further than the hours of exercise, and even then sometimes suffer a state of insubordination wholly inconsistent with improvement." On returning from a tour through the State in 1838, the Superintendent of Schools remarked : " The spirit of the people in favor of schools amounts almost to enthusiasm. 'May Heaven speed the cause of common schools,' has been the prayer of many hundreds as they bid me farewell. Heaven has heard and is answering the prayer."

The drift of sentiment, however, was still in favor of private schools. The interest in " seminaries " and " institutes " far exceeded that in the common schools. The advanced studies of these independent institutions, their high sounding names, their respectable buildings and their chartered privileges gave them a decided advantage over the public schools which professed to teach only the com - mon branches. A spirit of exclusiveness also tended to foster the private and retard the progress of the free schools, while the selfish motives of private instruct- ors very naturally led them to oppose a system of free education. The critics of the public schools further sought to bring them into disrepute by calling them pauper schools. Nevertheless, with the low school levy from 1826 to 1838, the results achieved in Columbus compare favorably with those of any other town in the State. The chief cause of the unpopularity of the common schools was the insufficiency of funds to make them in all respects good. Schools maintainel only three months a year, in wretchedly inadequate apartments, overcrowded by chil- dren who had no other educational advantages, would naturally be disliked by people who were able to patronize the private institutions. There seems to have been no opposition in Columbus to the principle of taxation for school purposes. Within two months after the enactment of the law of 1838, which increased the levy for school purposes fourfold, the leading citizens of the town held public meetings to devise the best means of " securing uniformity of action and the greatest possible benefits under its provisions." This indicated a wholesome senti- ment in favor of the free school system.

Columbus deserves credit for the impulse that was given to the cause of popular education in 1837, and also for assistance rendered in securing the wise school legis- lation of 1838. Alfred Kelley, Representative of Franklin County in the General Assembly, who was from the first a warm friend of the public school system, in January, 1837, introduced a resolution in the House instructing the standing Committee on Schools to inquire into the expediency of creating the office of State

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Superintendent of Common Schools. As a result of this movement, on March 30, 1837, Samuel Lewis became the first incumbent of that office. By his efficiency and general interest and activity in the cause of education, Mr. Lewis awakened popular interest in that cause and seeured legislation for its benefit. His travels over the State within the first year after his appointment amounted to over twelve hundred miles, and were chiefly made on horseback, the streams which he encountered being often crossed by swimming or rafting. He visited forty towns and three hundred schools, urging upon school officers "augmented interest, upon parents more liberal and more active cooperation and upon teachers a higher standard of morals and qualification." In his report to the legislature he repre- sented that the spirit of the people from the humblest cabin to the most splendid mansion was in favor of schools, mothers and fathers especially speaking of the education of their children with the utmost zeal; that where the schools were free to rich and poor alike they flourish best. He recommended the creation of a State school fund, the establishment of school libraries, the publication of a sehool journal and proper eare of the school lands. He desired that school officers should make reports and was authorized to call upon county auditors for information.

The General Assembly to which the Superintendent addressed himself was distinguished for its ability. In the Senate were Benjamin F. Wade, David A. Starkweather and Leicester King; in the House, Seabury Ford, William Medill, Alfred Kelley, William B. Thrall, William Trevitt, John A. Foote, Otway Curry, Nelson Barrere and James J. Faran. The clerks of the Columbus and Franklin- ton districts made the reports called for to the County Auditor, in whose office they are still on file. Some of these reports have been quoted in this history, but it would seem that that they did not reach the State Superintendent, as he does not mention Franklin County as one of those which responded to his call for information. The Superintendent was seconded in his efforts to secure improved school legislation by some of the leading publie men of Columbus, notably by James Hoge, Alfred Kelley, Mathew Mathews, P. B. Wilcox and Smithson E. Wright. Meetings were held to arouse public interest and to carry out the provisions of the new school law. At one of these school meetings held April 27, 1838 - Jocl Buttles, Chairman, and Smithson E. Wright, Secretary -a committee consisting of David W. Deshler, Mathew Mathews, John McElvain, William Hance, Joseph Ridgway, Junior, R. Bixby and P. B. Wilcox were appointed a committee to examine the new school law and inquire what steps were necessary to be taken under it to secure uniformity of action and the greatest possible benefit. This committee was instructed to report to an adjourned meeting the result of its inquiries and such suggestions as it might deem appropriate and useful.

School Examiners, 1838 to 1845 .- The school examiners during this period were : Warren Jenkins, 1839, one year; Noah H. Swayne, 1839, two years; William Smith, 1839; Mathew J. Gilbert, Lewis Heyl, Doctor A. Curtis, Rev. F. Cressy and Abiel Foster, Junior, 1840 ; Samuel T. Mills and Rev. II. L. Hiteh- cock, 1842; James K. Sinse, 1843; Charles Jucksch and Smithson E. Wright, 1845.

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The passage of the law of March 7, 1838, marked a new era in the history of the schools. Columbus became, as an incorporated town, a separate school district over which the township trustees had no authority. This gave it enlarged powers. Elected for three years, the directors were authorized not only to. divide the district into subdistricts, but were authorized to establish schools of different grades, and were directed to estimate the amount of money required additional to the dis- tributable funds " to provide at least six months good schooling to all the white unmarried youth in the district during the year ensning." The separate school dis- trict, as created by law, comprised the incorporated territory of the town. Seven months later contiguous territory was attached for school purposes. The manage- ment of the schools by a board of directors was under the general supervision of the corporate authority of the town, the town clerk being clerk of the school board. In 1838 twelve schools were maintained in the Columbus district, the amount of school funds being more than $3,000. Although power was given in 1839 to county commissioners to reduce the school levy, the amount of school taxes, as shown by the Auditor's books, indicates that a fair assessment was maintained in Franklin County during that time. The receipts for school purposes during seven years beginning with 1838-9, were, by years, respectively : 83,502.10; $3,182.00; $2,128.91 ; $2,081.79 ; 81,946.86 ; 82,212.82 ; 82,174.80 ; the average annual enumera- tion during this time being 1,645, and the average tax being one dollar and fifty cents per annum for each youth of school age.

From 1838 to 1840 Columbus was the battlefield upon which a great victory was won for the cause of popular education. The persuasive eloquence of Super- intendent Lewis was heard in the legislature and frequently in public meetings in behalf of education. Doctor W. H. McGuffey and Professor C. E. Stowe spoke on the same subject in the churches of the city. Rev. McGuffey preached on educa- tion in the Methodist Church on Sunday, August 26, 1838. At the Ohio Educa- tional Convention which met in Columbus on December 18, 1838, its Chairman, Rev. James Hoge, and its Secretary, Rev. F. R. Cressey, both of Columbus, took an active part in the deliberations, and Professors Smith and H. A. Moore, also of Columbus, read papers. The newspapers of that day made frequent allusion to the cause of education, and did much to popularize the free school system. The increased interest in educational affairs bore evidence to the active spirit of the new school law, which had stirred up the " whole commonwealth upon the subject of popular education."

On August 28, 1838, one of the Columbus papers said editorially :

The people are becoming deeply interested in the subject. They see plainly that the system of free common schools is, more than all other state legislation, calculated to secure to all equal privileges ; and since the people have taken this matter into their hands we may depend on its ultimate triumph.

At an adjourned meeting of citizens held at the courtroom on September 3, 1838, with P. B. Wilcox as Chairman and J. C. Brodrick as Secretary, a committee was appointed to ascertain the probable cost of a suitable lot and house and to recommend measures relative to the common schools for consideration at a sub- sequent meeting. Joseph Ridgway was chairman of this committee. Another

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committee was appointed to "recommend three suitable persons as candidates for the office of school director of the city of Columbus " at the " approaching annual school election to be holden on the twentyfirst instant." Colonel Noble, of this com- mittee, reported the names of P. B. Wilcox, First Ward; M. Mathews, Second Ward; and Warren Jenkins, Third Ward. Consideration of this report was post- poned to an adjourned meeting in the Presbyterian Church September 11, at which Alfred Kelley presided and Superintendent Lewis was present. At this meet- ing Joseph Ridgway, Junior, in behalf of the committee on lots and schoolhouses, made an elaborate report which was accepted and in its main features endorsed at the annual school meeting. The committee expressed the belief that it would be necessary to make arrangements for accommodating during the current and com- ing year about eight hundred scholars, and suggested that the buildings should be large and commodious, having some pretension to architectural taste, " since the recollection of that house would be among the most familiar things in memory." The report continued :

Our halls for the administration of justice, our temples dedicated to the worship of the Almighty, are generally intended to display a taste and beauty in their designs and execu- tion to which we can refer with a proper feeling of pride and satisfaction. Should we not then feel as much solicitude to render the buildings which are intended for the education of our children worthy of a place amongst the public edifices toward which we might point with some little feeling of pride ? Is not this a matter of more deep and vital interest than any other which can possibly command our attention ? Does not the earthly prosperity as well as the eternal welfare of our children depend wholly upon their education ? It is important, then, to elevate the standard of morals for the rising generation; to instil into their minds a love of the chaste and beautiful. Let us, then, begin by cultivating a taste for such things in early youth. Give them the planting of trees, and the cultivation of shrubs, of flowers, in a schoolhouse yard. Set before them forms of classical beauty.

The committee recommended that a tax should be assessed, at the ensuing election for directors, sufficient to purchase a lot and build one schoolhouse. "The location of such a house," says the committee, " is a matter of little importance to any of our citizens, as the erection of the requisite number to accommodate all of our children must necessarily follow in the course of another year." The report proceeds to say :

The committee recommend the erection of but one house the present season in conse- quence of the great tax which would be entailed upon us were we to build the required num- ber at this time It is probable also that our legislature, in the course of their next session, will provide a fund in some way to loan to corporate towns for the purpose of education, but should this scheme fail and direct taxation be resorted to to raise the whole amount required the committee believe that when the houses are built and the schools in suc- cessful operation, the enhanced value which will thus be given to all the property in this city will be tenfold greater than the tax to be raised. The committee would propose a build- ing which should contain four rooms for small and two rooms for large scholars, all above the basement story : the building should present a neat, chaste front, in strict architectural pro- portion and should be surmounted by an appropriate cupola. One such building would accommodate from 250 to 280 scholars and we should consequently require about three such houses for our present population provided all the children can be sent to these schools. The committee consider it important that the business to be transacted at the meeting on Tues- day, the twentyfirst instant, should be fairly understood beforehand as it will be almost

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impossible to discuss any subject satisfactorily on that day. After the directors are elected the business in its details must necessarily devolve on them. It is important therefore that this selection be jndicionsly made.

The following resolution recommended by the committee, after having been amended on motion of Colonel Noble by insertion of the words in brackets, was adopted :

Resolved, That this meeting recommend that the district meeting to be holden on the twentyfirst instant authorize the levying of a tax of five thousand dollars for the purpose of purchasing a lot of ground (in the middle ward) and erecting a schoolhouse thereon, and that it be payable on or before the first day of January next.

The meeting thereupon adjourned to reassemble September 21, at the council chamber, for the purpose of eleeting three school directors and of levying a tax for the purchase of ground and erection of schoolhouses. At the meeting held in pursuance of this adjournment, Doctor Peleg Sisson, Adam Brotherlin and George W. Slocum were elected school directors, and a tax of $3,500 was authorized. The school directors were at the same meeting authorized to purchase one schoolhouse site on Long and Third streets in the First Ward; one on Third near Rich Street in the Second Ward, and one on the corner of Mound and Third streets in the Third Ward. On January 8, 1839, the school directors purchased of Lyne Starling for the sum of five hundred dollars inlot No. 531, on the southeast corner of Long and Third streets. On April 4, of the same year, they completed the purchase from E. W. Sehan of inlot No. 563, on the northeast corner of Mound and Third streets, now the site of the Mound Street School building. For this lot the sum of $525 was paid. On April 8, 1839, " for the sum of $1,200 in hand paid," Adam and Elizabeth Brotherlin deeded to the School Directors inlot No. 563, with school- house and appurtenances thereon, being the same as was deeded to Brotherlin by M. Mathews, administrator of J. M. C. Hazeltine's estate. This was the middle lot on the cast side of Third Street between Walnut and Rich - the north half of the present Rich Street schoolhouse site. The building erected by the teacher J. M. C. Hazeltine in 1833, was a respectable oneroom frame which was used for school purposes until 1846, when it was sold and removed to the corner of Sixth and Main streets where, in a fair state of preservation, it is still standing.

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History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume I, Part 70

Author: Lee, Alfred Emory, 1838-; W. W. Munsell & Co Publication date: 1892 Publisher: New York and Chicago : Munsell & Co. Number of Pages: 1202

Author: Lee, Alfred Emory, 1838-; W. W. Munsell & Co
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: New York and Chicago : Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1202