History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume I, Part 71

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 71

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During this period public schools were generally conducted in rented rooms. Prior to 1845 the only buildings owned by the Board of Directors were the Academy on Fourth Street and the Hazeltine schoolhouse on Third Street. In an old log house still standing, on New Street, a school was kept which must have been of a very rough character, since the boys, it is said, practised such tricks as that of climbing on top of the house and covering the chimney with boards to smoke out the teacher and the school. Among the other buildings used for schools were the Jeffries hewed log house on Mound Street ; the Baptist Church, a small brick building still standing, on Front Street; an old frame and an old log schoolhouse, both south of Town ; a frame on the east side of Third Street near Long; and an old frame on Front and Randolph streets. From 1837 to 1839 C. H. Wetmore taught a district school in a hewed log schoolhouse on the northwest corner of Bull's Ravine and the Worthington Road, north of town.

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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

The following letter, which appeared in one of the city papers March 22, 1839, illustrates the educational spirit of the community :

It is not generally known in other parts of this State that there are now twelve teachers employed in the common schools of this city, and that the schools are free and conducted as nearly upon the plan of the Cincinnati schools as they can be until we have our schoolhouses built, the schools being taught now in rented rooms and, of course, subject to great inconven- ience. There are now in daily attendance in these schools more than four hundred scholars, many of whom but for these institutions would not have the means of instruction, while children of the most intelligent and worthy citizens of the place are found in the same room and in the same classes ; and the progress of the pupils generally would do credit to any town in the State. I speak advisedly when I say that some of the common schools of Columbus, both male and female, are as good for the branches taught as the best private or select schools ; and the whole number will bear a fair comparison with any other equal number of schools of the same grade. These things are stated as facts, and they reflect no small share of credit on the members of the present Board of Directors, who have had the chief labor and direction in introducing so much order and advancing the schools so far in the short time since the work was begun. It is said that the public funds are now sufficient, without increasing the school tax, to keep a free school for all the children the year round, if it were not for the expense of renting school rooms which has hitherto been necessarily paid out of the tuition fund. The city has, by a vote of the people, purchased three handsome schoolhouse lots and levied a tax of $3,500 to pay for the same. Shall these lots remain unimproved and at the same time the city be taxed $600 per year for room rent for the miserable accommodations now furnished in the rented rooms, or shall the people borrow money enough to build at once the three schoolhouses that are required to accommodate the children ? The interest on the loan will not exceed the amount now paid for rent; the expense must be borne by the city and will be the same either way. Will not the parents of four hundred youth now in these schools, as well as all others who have the prosperity of the city at heart, take hold of this subject and secure convenient accommodations for their offspring? Will they suffer the children to contract disease and death by confinement to unhealthy rooms and seats when they have the right and power to secure good rooms and seats? While the State is expend- ing millions here for the accommodations of her legislature and other public bodies shall there be no attention paid to the people's colleges ? Where are the patriotic females that sus- tained a charity school when there was no other sufficient provision to include the poor ? It will take less effort on their part to procure the erection of three good common school houses with four rooms each than it took them to sustain the charity schools for a few. Is the whole of less importance than a part, or are you unwilling to have the poor sit with the rich ? The very suggestion, if made in earnest, you would consider an insult. Let us all then take hold of this work, and by taking the only step now required, place Columbus on the most elevated ground in reference to common school advantages.

It is not improbable that the author of this letter, who signs himself " M.," was Rev. Mathew Mathews from whom we have elsewhere quoted, but whether it was from this warm friend of the common schools or not it is evidently the testi- mony of an intelligent and public spirited citizen. .

In November, 1840, the Directors made arrangements to open an evening school in the Eight Buildings for the benefit of such white male youth as could not attend a day school. Arithmetic, bookkeeping, geography and other useful branches were taught; the school was under the care of Messrs. Soyer and Covert. Each pupil furnished his own light; in other respects the instruction was free. The Directors also maintained a night school in the middle ward.

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THE SCHOOLS. 11.

In September, 1841, James Cherry, P. B. Wilcox and Peleg Sisson were chosen School Directors for the term of three years. The annual report of the directors of the common schools of Columbus for the year 1812 shows the following facts: Since last previous report, dated September 17, 1841, thirteen common schools were kept until the funds were exhausted ; one of these was German ; five were taught by male and eight by female teachers ; spelling, reading, writing, arithmetic, geography and other English branches were taught, according to the capacity of the children ; the number of scholars varied from 600 to 750; pay of male teachers eighty and of female teachers fifty dollars per quarter; money

SIEBERT STREET SCHOOL.

drawn since last report 82,677 38, viz. : For pay of male teachers 8946.90, for pay of female teachers $1,144.47, for rent $409.00, for wood 845.37, for stoves and putting them up $50.50, for cutting wood and sundry expenses 881.14. These disburse- ments included a portion of the expenses for the preceding year ; amount still due on schoolhouse lots purchased 8500.00; no school money likely to be in the treasury until the following spring. According to this report, which was sub- mitted in behalf of the Directors by P. B. Wilcox and addressed to " the Clerk of School District in Columbus," five schools taught by male teachers were kept in operation seven months, and those taught by female teachers eight and a half

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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

months of that school year. There being 1,598 children of school age in the district, fortyeight per cent. of them were enrolled in the public schools. On December 28, 1842, a meeting of teachers and the friends of education was held at the Covert Institute on Town Street and a teachers' association for improvement of the schools and elevation of the profession of teaching was organized. The teachers who signed the call for this meeting were William Chapin, M. J. Gilbert, A. W. Penneman, W. H. Churchman, H. N. Hubbell, J. S. Brown, J. Covert and H. S. Gilbert. The association was maintained for many years. On April 1, 1843, fourteen schools were opened and in the course of the year an additional one was organized. Of the fifteen teachers employed three were males (one a German) and ten were females. The Directory of Columbus, published in 1843, states that " the schools and seminaries of learning" comprised fifteen district or free schools with over seven hundred scholars; a respectable academy for both sexes conducted by Rev. John Covert ; a German Theological Seminary, and " some half dozen small subscription common schools." The first annual report of the Board of Education made pursuant to the law of 1845 and signed by Smithson E. Wright, Secretary, states that when the Board entered upon the discharge of its duties on April 7, 1845, there were in operation thirteen public schools, of which five were taught by male and eight by female teachers.

Thus it appears that throughout the period from 1838 to 1845, which was one of financial depression and slow municipal growth, from twelve to fifteen common schools were maintained for twentyfour to thirtyone weeks per annum, and that the aggregate amount expended for school purposes during the period was $17,229.18. From 1836 the schools were graded into at least two departments, one for the primary and one for the advanced scholars. The primary schools were usually taught by female teachers, those for the larger and more advanced pupils by males. The number of teachers increased during the period from twelve to fifteen in 1843 and thirteen in 1845. Of 1,231 youth of school age in the district in 1838-9, six hundred, or fortyeight per cent., were enrolled in the public schools. In 1845 the enrollment comprised only fortythree per cent. of the school enumeration. While the attendance in the public schools had not kept pace with the growth of the population, this was chiefly due to the lack of school accommodations. The schools were even at that time regarded as " established facts and not as experi- ments." Their defects were beginning to be regarded as results of mistaken man- agement rather than of the principles of the system.

That the common school system possessed superior advantages as a plan for securing general education had become evident, and the conviction had been deeply rooted in the public mind that it was the duty of every community to educate all its youth. Hence all publicspirited citizens anxiously anticipated such legislation as would secure practical improvements in the management of the schools. In the autumn of 1844 public meetings were held for the purpose of awakening public interest in education for securing such legislation as would insure better regulation of the schools and for raising money to erect school build- ings. This movement took shape in an effort to secure " union graded schools." Its leading spirits were Joseph Ridgway, Alfred Kelley, P. B. Wilcox, James

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THE Schools. I].

Cherry, Mathew Mathews and J. B. Thompson. On December 4, 1844, Hon. Joseph Ridgway, Junior, Representative of Franklin County in the General Assembly, introduced in the House a bill to provide for the better regulation and support of the common schools of Columbus. This bill was endorsed by Hon. Alfred Kelley, then a member of the Senate, and became a law February 3, 1845. This statute, understood to have emanated from the pen of Joseph Ridgway, Junior, laid the foundation of our present public school system and marked an important era in the educational progress of the city.

Organization of the Schools under the Act of 1845 .-- April 15, 1845 to May 14, 1847 .- At the annual election of city officers which took place April 7, 1845, William Long, P. B. Wilcox, James Cherry, II. F. Huntington, J. B. Thompson and Smithson E. Wright were elected common school directors. This was done in pursuance of the art of February 3, 1845. On April IS, they organized by appoint- ing William Long President, S. E. Wright Secretary and HI. F. Huntington Treasurer. These directors and their successors in office constituted a body politic and corporate in law by the name of the Board of Education of the Town of Colum- bus. It was decided by lot that the first two of the directors above named should serve for three years, the next two for two yearsand the last two for one year. At the same election a vote was taken, as required by law, on the question of levying a tax for erecting seboolhouses, and resulted in 404 votes in favor of the tax, 211 against it and 501 blanks. This unfortunate result indicated apathy rather than enmity in the public mind with reference to the needs of the public schools. The previous Board of Directors, loyal to the interests of the schools, served until their successors were qualified and then turned over to them thirteen schools then in session, five of which were taught by male and eight by female teachers. These schools had enrolled 750 scholars. For the year 1844 5 the receipts for school purposes from all sources amounted to 82,174.81, of which sum 81,277.95 was expended by the previous board ; of the remainder, 8404.50 was disbursed prior to the first of April of that year. The number of schoolage youth enumerated in the fall of 1845 was 2,430; the school funds for 1845-6 aggregated 83,377.34. The city owned but one school- house, and that was the frame one already described on Third Street near Rich, which was becoming unfit for school purposes. The Board therefore rented rooms, as had previously been done, in different parts of the town. These rooms were generally inconvenient, badly lighted, warmed and ventilated, and so situated that any accurate classification or gradation was impracticable. The teachers, remote from each other, had few opportunities for personal intercourse, comparison or mutual improvement. In 1845 thirteen schools were sustained for three months and sixteen for an average of five months each, all being suspended from the third until the twentyfirst of July. The amount paid for teachers' salaries was 81,499.34. The whole number of pupils enrolled was about one thousand, the average attend- ance about five hundred. The expense for the tuition of each scholar was about $1.50, and the cost of the tuition of each scholar in actual attendance during the year, $3.00.

At the spring election of 1846 J. B. Thompson and S. E. Wright were reelected directors, and the question of a tax for building schoolhouses was carried by a

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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

vote of 776 to 323. At a meeting on February 25, 1846, the Board ordered that the schools should resume their sessions on the first Monday of April of that year ; that five male and eight female teachers should be employed, at fifty dollars for the first, and thirty dollars for the last named, per quarter ; and that J. B. Thompson be authorized to provide the schools with fuel. James Cherry was delegated to furnish the schoolrooms with stoves for heating. The Board appointed P. B. Wil- cox and James Cherry to report plans and estimates for new schoolhouses. They recommended that three onestory buildings, modeled after some " Lancastrian " schoolhouses in the East should be built. This recommendation being approved, the City Council levied a tax of $7,500 for the proposed buildings, three of which were located on the sites purchased in 1839. One of these three, called the South Building, was located on the northeast corner of Mound and Third streets; the Middle Building on Third Street near Rich; and the North Building on the Southeast corner of Long and Third. "These buildings were completed in June, 1847. They were each 187} feet long and twentyfour feet wide. Each contained six rooms fourteen feet in depth. The end and two middle rooms were each abont twentytwo by twentynine feet; the remaining two were each about eighteen by thirtytwo feet, in lateral dimensions. The two entrance doors each led into a hall extending along the side of the middle rooms of each half of the building, with doors opening from it into three schoolrooms. The windows were suspended by weights ; the ceilings were provided with ventilators and the rooms were heated by stoves. The middle room of each half of the building was designed for the large pupils, or grammar grade, and the others for the primary and secondary schools. The primary school rooms were furnished with single seats fastened to the floor and receptacles for books and slates between each two pupils. The secondary and grammar school rooms were furnished with seats and desks accom- modating two scholars each; they were made of poplar lumber stained and varnished, and were comfortable, firm and " altogether respectable " in appearance. The amount invested by the city in these sites, buildings and furnishings was about $14,000. The new buildings provided a home for and gave an air of respect- ability to the public school system. The effect of this was favorable to the cause of popular education both here and elsewhere. While the buildings did not con- form to the suggestions of the Ridgway committee of 1838 as to "strict architec- tural proportion " and the cupola, they did present "a neat, chaste front" and interior forms possessing some degree of " classic beauty."

In June, 1846, the Board took measures to sceure uniformity in the textbooks used. They decided to continue the use of Webster's Elementary Speller, Mitchell's Geographies, Ray's Arithmetics and Smith's Grammar, and adopted the Eclectic Readers. The primary schools were, as a rule, conducted by female and the more advanced ones by male teachers. The number of scholars enumerated in 1846 was 2,129. In their second annual report, dated April, 1847, the Board states that fourteen teachers have been employed for four quarters. The greatest num- her enumerated in any quarter was 912, and the largest average attendanee 528. They paid for salaries for teachers $1,992.52; for rent, $40.25; for taking enumera- tion, $10.00; other incidental expenses, $11.05; total expenditures, $2,053.82.

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THE SCHOOLS. II.

The enrollment was more than one thousand, the cost of tuition less than two dollars each. " The expense was a little less than four dollars for each scholar in daily attendance during the year."

To Columbus belongs the distinction of having employed the first Superinten- dent of Public Schools in the State. Having found it impossible to give " the necessary amount of personal attention to the schools and to the management of the details of a school system for the city," the Board of Elucation cast about for the best means of secur- ing supervision. After consultation with Hon. Ilenry Barnard, of Rhode Island, Hon. Samuel Gal- loway, Secretary of State, and other distinguished friends of education, the Board decided to create the office of Superintendent, and in January, 1847, largely npon the recommendation of Mr. Barnard, clected Asa D. Lord, M. D., late Principal of the Western Reserve Teachers' Seminary in Lake County, to the position. Mr. Lord assumed the duties of his office May 15, 1847. About this time, upon solicitation of Ohio educators, Hon. Henry Barnard visited the State to aid in promoting the eause of popular education therein, and spent two ASA D. LORD. weeks at the capital as the guest of Hon. John W. Andrews.

Doctor Asa D. Lord, the first Superintendent of Publie Schools of Columbus, was born in Madrid, St. Lawrence County, New York, June 17, 1816. He taught his first school at the age of sixteen, and in 1839 accepted the position of Principal of the Western Reserve Seminary, at Kirtland, Ohio, which was one of the first, if not the very first, of the normal schools of the United States. In 1843 he organ- ized the first teachers' institute in Ohio at Kirtland, from whence he was called to Columbus. Here he inaugurated the first graded schools in the State. He served as editor of the Ohio School Journal, the School Friend, the Public School Advocate and the Ohio Journal of Education. While at Kirtland he took his degree in medicine. In 1863, having completed a course in theology, he was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Franklin. He was styled "one of the pioneers and masterbuilders in the educational enterprises of Ohio." He made the Ohio Insti - tution for the Blind, of which he was for several years the Superintendent, "an honor and a blessing to the State." In 1868 he was called to the superintendency of a similar institution in Batavia, New York, which position he held until his death in 1874. His memory is inseparably connected with the school history of Columbus.

During Doetor Lord's ineumbency as Superintendent, from May 15, 1847, to February 25, 1854, the board entrusted to the Superintendent a general oversight of the schools, the examination of applicants for employment as teachers, the arrangement of the course of study and instruction, and the supervision, as Principal, of the High School. For his first year's services he received $600,

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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

of which sum $100 was paid by a publicspirited citizen. The first official act of the Superintendent was that of assisting in the examination of candidates for the position of teacher. The Board of Examiners, of which the Superintendent was chairman, adopted from the first the plan of using printed questions and requiring written answers in connection with an oral examination. At the beginning of the school year 1847 the following teachers were employed: North Building, D. C. Pearson, Principal, Misses Larina Lazelle, Roxana Stevens and A. N. Stod- dart; Middle Building, Charles J. Webster, Principal, Miss Catherine Lumney, Miss Roda Sinnel, Doctor and Mrs. A. D. Lord, Miss E. Fally ; South Building, Orlando Wilson, Principal, S. S. Rickly (German teacher), Emily J. Ricketts. To this list four more teachers were added during the first year. The principals were paid $400 per annum, the other male teachers less ; the female teachers received $140 per annum. Before the commencement of the schools the teacherselect were assembled as a class and instructed as to the proper mode of organizing, classifying and govern- ing schools, together with the best method of teaching and illustrating the studies. The new schoolhouses were first opened July 21, 1847, and primary, secondary and grammar grades were organized in each building. At the beginning of the term fourteen teachers were employed, during the second quarter sixteen and during the last quarter seventeen, besides the Superintendent. The average cost of tuition and supervision for each of the 1750 scholars enrolled was $2.07, and for the 798 in daily attendance during the year $4.53 each.

The popularity and growth of the schools surpassed expectation. The need of a lligh Schoo! for years to come had not been anticipated. So long had the people been accustomed to rely on private schools for instruction in all the higher branches, and so few who were able to patronize such schools had ever made a practice of send- ing their children to free schools, that it was assumed that there would be no immediate demand for such a department. However, soon after the new buildings were occupied, applications began to be made for the admission of scholars already too far advanced to be profited by the grammar schools, and it was perceived that unless instruction could be furnished to such it would be impossible to secure in behalf of the system the favor and cooperation of many citizens and taxpayers. On September 22, 1847, announcement was made in one of the daily papers that the High School department of the public schools would be opened in the west room of the Middle Building on that date, and that in this apartment instruction would be given in the higher English branches, mathematics and the Latin and Greek languages. The advanced pupils had evidently not been turned away but had been organized into classes and instructed in the branches mentioned. These classes con- stituted, in substance, a High School, but this department was not officially organized until two months later. Soon after the commencement of the second quarter the west room in the Middle Building was appropriated by the Board for the instruction of advanced scholars under the immediate charge of the Superin- tendent for half of each day, while Mrs. Lord, who was an invaluable coworker with her husband, taught the school during the remainder of the time. Thus in November, 1847, the High School was formally established.

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THE SCHOOLS. H.

For some time the propriety of making the High School an integral part of the school system was carefully deliberated by the Board. The conclusions reached were: 1. That such a department was necessary in order to give the course of instruction its requisite completeness, system and efficiency and to enable it to meet public expectation ; 2, that the difference in the average cost of tuition inclusive or exclusive of a High School was very trifling compared with the influ- ence and efficiency imparted to the whole system by such a department; 3, that without such a school the advanced scholars could not be properly instructed without neglecting the majority of the school ; 4, that there was not a city in the Union with flourishing schools, which did not possess or contemplate such a depart- ment; and 5, that while more than a hundred towns and cities had established such a department, not one had abandoned it after trying the experiment. Such are some of the considerations which induced the Board of Education to make the High School a permanent part of the system, by which step a more influential patronage was obtained.

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History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume I, Part 71

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