History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume I, Part 73

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 73

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Until 1864, the members of the Board were elected on a general ticket by the whole city, but in that year a special act, drawn by J. J. Janney, was passed changing the time of election and authorizing each ward to choose a member of the Board. The first election by wards in pursuance of this law took place April 11, 1864, and the Board thus chosen organized in the ensuing May by electing Frederick Fieser as its President and H. T. Chittenden as its Secretary. E. D. Kingsley was at the same time reelected Superintendent and Jonas Hutchin- son was chosen as Principal of the High School. Hon. Thomas W. Harvey, then of Massillon, was elected Superintendent of the Columbus schools on July 10, 1865, but declined the appointment.

WILLIAM MITCHELL.

William Mitchell, A. M., fourth Superintendent of the Columbus Public Schools, elected September 11, 1865, was educated at the Ashland (Ohio) Academy, under Lorin Andrews, and received the degree of Master of Arts from Kenyon Col- lege. Prior to his teaching service here he had been Superintendent of Schools at Fredericktown, Norwalk and Mt. Vernon. In 1862 he entered the National Volunteer Army at the head of a company. In the position of Superintendent of the Columbus sehools he served six years. Subsequently he practised law in Cleveland and removed from thence to North Dakota, where he was elected State Super- intendent of Public Instruction and died in March, 1890.

Until 1867 one of the members of the Board of Education served as its Treasurer, but in that year a special act was passed by virtue of which the Treasurer of the County became ex officio Treasurer of the School District.

Under Captain Mitchell's administration, as had been the case before, the school buildings were overcrowded ; accordingly, additional grounds were pur- chased. These acquisitions in 1866 comprised three lots on the northwest corner of Park and Vine streets, and one on the corner of Third and Sycamore. On each of these tracts a brick building costing about $15,700 was erected. In 1867 six lots on the northeast corner of Spring and Neil streets and five on East Fulton Street were purchased at a cost, in each case, of about five thousand dollars. In 1868 a building was completed on each of these traets, the whole cost being $34,000. These four buildings were all patterned after that on Rich Street. They were of two stories, plain, and contained besides an office and a recitation room, three school rooms each.

In 1870 the old State Street building was condemned and in 1871 the Sullivant building, so named in honor of Joseph Sullivant, who had done so much for the cause of education in the city, was erected at a cost of $68,992.27. It is an impos- ing structure and was the beginning of another era in local school architecture

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although not, except in size, subsequently patterned after in other buildings. It contained originally nineteen rooms including one for reception and an office. Two playrooms were provided in the basement. The furnishings, which were very complete, included an electrical clock and a system of signals from the prin- cipal office to the other rooms-a contrivance constructed under the direction of Professor T. C. Mendenhall, who was at that time teaching in the High School. The Central Gorman building, corner of Fulton and Fourth, was completed the same year; cost, 817,981.14. Thus, within the six years of Captain Mitchell's administration, six buildings with an aggregate seating capacity of about three thousand, were erected ; aggregate cost, 8174,530.27. This increased the number of buildings from ten to nineteen and more than doubled the rooms available.

The school enumeration in 1865 was 8,216 ; in 1871 it was 10,117. The aver- age daily attendance increased meanwhile from 2,773 to 3,765. From $79,786.78 in 1866,. the annual expenditures increased to $140,229.95 six years later. This shows that the educational progress of the city kept abreast with its material growth. In 1865-6 the number of children instructed was 4,087; in 1870-1 it was 5,683- in each case over fifty per cent. of the enumeration. The number of teachers increased during this time from sixtyfive to ninetyfive. In 1869 the city was divided into nine school districts. The schools were still classified into five grades, with a grammar department, when practicable, in each subdistrict. The school year, beginning on the first Monday in September, comprised three terms aggregating forty weeks. The rules and regulations were revised and in large part remained unchanged for several years. The course of study was rear- ranged, but still covered a period of nine years excepting the High School course. These nine grades were designated as Lower and Higher Primary, Lower and Higher Secondary, Lower and Higher Intermediate, and C, B and A grammar. The High School course of four years comprised the Freshman, Sophomore, Junior and Senior Departments. The textbooks then in use were Webb's Word Method, McGuffey's Readers, De Wolf's Speller, Guyot's Geography, Stoddard's Arithmetics, Quackenbos's English Grammar and Rhetoric, Schnabel's Erstes Deutsches Sprach- buch, Berthlet's and Adler's German Readers, Goodrich's United States His. tory, Worcester's General History, Youman's Chemistry, Gray's Botany, Ray's Algebra, Geometry and Trigonometry, Spalding's English Literature, Woodbury's German Grammar and various textbooks in the languages. The methods of instruc- tion were those most approved by the leading educators of the time. Children under six years ofage were not received, although the legal school age was not raised from five to six years until four years later. Special attention was given to school dis- cipline and government. Contemptuous language, passionate reproof and the imposi- tion of additional tasks as a penalty were held to be improper modes of punishment, and teachers were admonished that their fitness would be judged in great measure by their ability to maintain good discipline by mild measures and gentle influences. Success in government took rank before length of service or variety of scientific acquirements.

Guided by such enlightened sentiments, the teachers sought opportunity for professional improvement, regularly attended the teachers' meetings, collected libra-

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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

ries and cooperated zealously and harmoniously with the Superintendent and the Board. Corporal punishment averaged one case in a school of fifty every twenty- five days; tardiness averaged one case to one hundred and twenty days of attend- ance; the truancy record showed one case to every thirteen pupils enrolled. Only sixtyfour scholars were reported to the Superintendent for infractions of the rules. " Compared with former years," says the Superintendent, "these items, though quite too large, show a satisfactory falling off." The final examinations of each year were as far as possible written. Advances from class to class and from grade to grade were made on the ground of scholarship simply, but honorable promo- tion could take place at any time on the ground of good conduct united with good scholarship. The names of all pupils found worthy of honorable promotion were inscribed on a Table of Honor. Pupils whose general standing reached ninety per cent. or over were exempt from examination. A general standing of at least ninety per cent. was a necessary condition to honorable promotion. Pupils whose general standing was below sixty per cent. were classified without examination in the next lower grade except that when such low standing was due to protracted illness the scholar could be examined and passed with his elass on condition. Pupils whose general standing was between sixty and ninety per cent. were examined and obliged to make an average of seventy per cent. or be set back to the next grade below.

Frederick Fieser, President of the Board in 1869, called attention to the fact that the school attendance was proportionately larger in Columbus than in any other city of the State, and in his annual report of the same year the Super- intendent said: "There is no city in the State nearly equal in size to Colum- bus which has in its High School an enrollment and attendance as large in propor- tion to the enrollment and attendance in the other grades."

Superintendent Mitchell resigned August 25, 1868, and S. J. Kirkwood was elected to succeed him, but Professor Kirkwood declined and thereupon Mr. Mitchell was reelected at a largely increased salary.

Prior to 1871 the buildings in which the colored schools were conducted were unsuitable both in character and in situation, but the active efforts of a few leading colored citizens, among whom were W. Ewing, W. H. Roney, James Poindexter, Butler Taylor, J. T. Williams, James Hall, J. Freeland, J. Ward and T. J. Washing- ton, brought the subject prominently before the public, and on May 23, 1871, the Board of Education decided to reconstruct the school building on the corner of Long and Third streets and assign it to the colored schools. At the suggestion of Mr. Andrews it was designated as the Loving School, in honor of Doctor Starling Loving, the member of the Board who had been the prime mover in its establish- ment.

In the fifth and sixth districts, comprising the southern part of the city, the children were taught to read German and afterwards English ; subsequently the reading exercises comprised both languages. The schools of the eighth district were exclusively for colored children, whose thoroughness and rate of progress, said the Superintendent, compared favorably with the achievements in the other schools. Male principals were employed in each district which contained a large building, and

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were charged with enforcement of the regulations of the Board. It was made the duty of each principal to visit all the rooms under his charge at least three times a week and announce "by the ringing of the bell the hour of beginning and closing school, recesses and recitations." During this administration the average attendance varied from fortyeight to fiftyseven per cent., and the average daily attendance from sixtyfour to seventyfour per cent. of the enrollment.

Robert W. Stevenson, A. M., the fifth Superin- tendent of the Columbus schools, was a native of Zanesville, Ohio. His election to that position took place July 13, 1871. He had previously performed similar service at Dresden and Norwalk, in this State. As subsidiary to his professional duties he took an active part in educational societies and movements, and was a frequent contributor to the current educational literature of the day. In 1889, he was appointed Superintendent of Public Schools at Wichita, Kansas, a position which he, at the present time, continues to occupy. During his long administration of the schools of this city, their devel- opment in extent and usefulness was steady and R. W. STEVENSON. gratifying. Prior to 1875, one of the members of the Board of Education acted as its Secretary. From 1875 to 1885, Granville A. Frambes, who was Assistant Superintendent, served also as Clerk of the Board, beginning with a salary of $1,200, which was increased to $2,200. In 1885, O. E. D. Barron was elected Clerk at a salary of $1,200, and now holds the position at a salary of 82,100.

By the extension of the corporate limits of the city in 1872, the following school property came into the possession of the Board : Franklinton Building - the Old Courthouse - total value $1,890; Mount Airy Schoolhouse; Friend Street Schoolhouse ; Mount Pleasant Schoolhouse; North Columbus Schoolhouse, total value, $3,620; South German Schoolhouse; North High Street Schoolhouse ; Johnstown Road Schoolhouse ; East Broad Street Schoolhouse ; all of which except the Franklinton Building were suburban. In 1873, the Fieser school building and a twostory, fourroom building on East Main Street and Miller Avenue were erected. In 1875, a fourroom addition to the Fieser school was built. The Douglas school, fifteen rooms, was erected in 1876, and in the same year a sixroom addition was made to the High School. Most of the large buildings were heated by steam and supplied with water by the Holly system.

In August, 1879, the corner stones were laid of a twelveroom building on the corner of Third and Mound streets, of a fourroom building on the site of the Old Courthouse in Franklinton and of another fourroom structure on Northwood Avenue and High Street. In 1882, the Loving School building was abandoned and sold. The Garfield School building, on the southeast corner of Garfield and Mount Vernon avenues, was built in 1881-2. In 1882, nearly all the schools were provided with slate blackboards, and during the same year a tract of ground 1873

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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

feet square on the northeast corner of Front and Long streets was purchased at a cost of $41,977.16. On the ground thus acquired a threestory building which cost $54,783 was erected in 1885. A tract measuring 145 x 262} feet on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Highland Street was purchased Jnne 3, 1884, and two years later a threestory building of fifteen rooms was erceted thereon at a cost of $46,676.48. This was the last of the threestory schoolhouses, the building committee of the Board having made it plain that buildings of two stories were more convenient, economical and conducive to health. The average cost per schoolroom of eighteen of the principal school buildings of the city at that time was $3,200, while the average cost per room of the threestory buildings was $3,560, and of the twostory buildings 83,141. The entire school property controlled by the Board in 1886 had an estimated value of $700,000. The Ruttan-Smead system of warming and venti- lating was about this time introduced in several of the buildings ; most of them have since been equipped with it.

On June 14, 1887, six lots extending from Reinhard Avenue to Siebert Street, east of the City Park, were purchased for $3,600, and on the same date a site on the southeast corner of Twentieth Street and Mount Vernon Avenue, 200 x 150 feet, was purchased for $5,500. On June 28, 1887, the Board purebased a site on the corner of Eighth and Wesley avenues for $7,500, and in the following year a twostory, tenroom building was erected on the Siebert Street ground and a twostory, fifteenroom building on Twentythird Street. In 1884 the Board of Education created the office of Superintendent of Buildings, at a salary of $1,200, and Henry Lott was elected to that position. The office was abolished three years later, but was again established in 1888, at which time it was conferred upon Frederick Schwan at a salary of $1,800. In 1890 Schwan was succeeded by Frederick Krumm.

During the eighteen years of Mr. Stevenson's administration the extent and value of the school property of the city were largely increased and many improve- ments were made in the equipments of the schools. The few oldfashioned double desks which remained in the buildings in 1871 were soon displaced by single desks. The amount expended for slate blackboards alone was, in 1882, $1,751.75. Much atten- tion to the ventilation, lighting and sanitation of the buildings was given. Radical changes in the organization were made. On July 12, 1871, a plan reported from the Committee on Salaries was adopted by which the city was divided into three school departments or distriets, each to be composed of subdistricts, and a male prin- cipal for each department and a female one for each subdistrict were provided for. E. P. Vaile, Alfred Humphreys and C. Forney were elected supervising principals of the three departments, among which the schools were divided as follows: 1, Park and Spring Street schools and the suburban ones in the northern part of the city ; 2, the Sullivant school, the Middle Building and the schools of Franklinton and " Middletown " (Fieser); 3, The South Building, the German-English schools and the suburban ones in the eastern and southern portions of the city. A female superintendent was placed in charge of each large building, and the A-Grammar classes which had been distributed among six buildings were united in three classes, of which two were assigned to the Sullivant and one to the Central Ger.

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man-English school. The duties of Mr. Vaile were divided, upon his resignation, which soon took place, between the two remaining supervising principals. The course of study was thoroughly revised and its length reduced from thirteen years to twelve. The grades were designated as A, B, C and D Primary and A, B, C and D Grammar. The elements of zoology, botany and physics were introduced, and in the grammar grades one hour per week was devoted to oral instruction in

NORTH SIDE HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING, 1892.

these sciences. To secure full and accurate statistics of the work performed new blanks for teachers' reports were prepared. In lieu of the practice of marking daily recitations, periodical examinations were adopted. On the basis of these examinations many promotions from lower to higher grades took placo; the standing shown by the examinations was considered in the promotions made at the end of the year. Meetings of teachers for discussion and comparison were fre-

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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

quent. The salary of the Superintendent was raised to $3,000; of the assistants to $1,500 cach ; of the Principal of the High School to $2,000; of the principals of the Grammar and Primary departments from $800 to $1,000; of the other teachers the salaries varied from $400 to $700, according to efficiency and experience. T. C. Mendenhall, then teaching in the High School, gave, outside of school hours, a course of triweekly lectures on physics for the benefit of the teachers. Visiting committees whose duty it was to inspect the various grades to which they were assigned at least once a month, and to attend and report upon the public examina- tions, were appointed by the Board. The standard of proficiency required in the High School was fixed at sixty per cent. as the minimum in any one study and at seventy per cent. as a general average. The requirement for promotion from the A-Grammar grade to the High School was fortyfive per cent. minimum and sixty per cent. as the general average ; in the B, C and D Grammar and the Primary grades forty per cent. was the minimum and sixty the general average. As the years passed, this standard was raised.

At the end of the school year 1872-3 Professor T. C. Mendenhall retired from the High School to assume the duties of Professor of Physics in the Ohio Agri- enltural and Mechanical College. Albert G. Farr, who had for several years been associated with Professor Mendenhall in the High School, was elected teacher of physics. Soon after the beginning of the school year 1873, C. F. Krimmel resigned from the duties of Assistant Superintendent, which were thereupon assumed by the Superintendent and his remaining assistants. Drawing and music were made prominent features of the course of instruction, which was revised from time to time according to the suggestions of experience. In accordance with sug- gestions from the Board, additional time was given to English literature and com- position, and courses denominated English, German-English, Latin- English and Classical were provided for. The English course was one of three years; the others contained English literature in their first and last years. In 1877 the three- year and the classical courses were abandoned and the other two were combined with elective studies and English through most of the curriculum. In 1884 Greek was dropped from the High School and in 1885 a " business course " was adopted.

The German-English schools have always formed an integral part of the Columbus system, of which they have constituted a proportion varying from one- eighth to onefourth. Generously sustained, they have also been wisely directed and have been patronized by many native American families on account of their superior advantages for language study. They send up to the High and Normal schools pupils of unusual thoroughness in scholarship. In 1872 they were attended by over fifteen hundred, and in 1886 by more than three thousand scholars. They were mostly located in the southern part of the city. The study of German was permitted only on the request of parents and was found to be no hindrance but rather an advantage in the completion of the English course. Institutes for the teachers of the city began to be held in 1874 and were frequently visited by dis- tinguished educators from abroad. A City Teachers' Association, organized in October, 1880, was maintained for several years afterwards. In 1875 the super-

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vising force was reduced by adding the duties of the Clerk of the Board of Educa- tion to those of the Assistant Superintendent.

At the request of the National Bureau of Education at Washington the Board prepared an exhibit to represent the schools of Columbus at the Vienna Exposi- tion in 1878. For this purpose the manuscripts of the scholars in the monthly examination of January, 1872, were bound in cleven volumes, each containing about one thousand pages. For these papers and accompanying reports a diploma of merit was awarded. At the Centennial Exposition held at Philadelphia in 1876 the Columbus schools were represented by an educational exhibit consisting of twenty volumes, eighteen of which were wholly the work of the pupils. Each volume contained about eight hundred pages. By invitation, an exhibit of draw- ing from our schools was made at the New Orleans Exposition of 1884. Premi- ums for the art work of pupils of the Columbus schools have frequently been awarded at the Ohio State Fair; the number of such premiums conferred at the Fair of 1883 was twentyfour. During the same year specimens of art work from our schools, in such number as to cover over one thousand square feet of wall space, were exhibited at an educational exposition held at Madison, Wisconsin, and elicited high commendation.

In 1874 a class of colored pupils applied for admission to the High School, and all of the applicants who passed the examination were received. The next step in the solution of this problem was to admit colored pupils to the schools for white children, which was done without difficulty and with only one protest. The third step was the distribution of the two higher Grammar grades of the separate colored school to the buildings occupied by white children. By resolution of the Board the Superintendent was instructed in 1881 to place all pupils in buildings in the districts where they dwelt, and at the opening of the schools on Monday, September 5, of that year, the colored people availed themselves of this privilege. The principal of the Loving School bad only four pupils in his room ; one or two other teachers had only a few. The final step in this movement was taken February 21, 1882, by the sale of the building which had been used exclusively for colored children. This resulted in the distribution of all the colored youth of school age to the other buildings.

In 1883, in order to relieve the crowded condition of the High School, a branch of that institution was established in the Second Avenue building with C. D. Everett as Principal and Miss Rosa Hesse as assistant.

During this administration the number of schools increased from 100 to 198; the number of pupils in the High School from 211 to 652; the number in the grammar grades from 1,714 to 3,617; in the Primary, from 4,129 to 7,227 ; and the number of teachers from 110 to 229. In 1881 Mr. A. G. Farr severed his con- nection with the High School, of which he was an alumnus, after a service of eleven years. Mr. Abram Brown was reelected as Principal of the School, the general progress of which, particularly in the department of physics, probably surpassed that of any similar institution in the State.

Jacob A. Shawan, A. M., sixth Superintendent of the Columbus schools, elected ou June 11, 1889, is a native of Wapakoneta, Ohio, and a graduate

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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

of Oberlin College. At the time of his call to Columbus he was at the head of the public schools of Mount Vernon. His activity in educational associa - tions and movements has been marked. During his administration numerous improvements to the school property of the city have been made, among which may be mentioned the Eighth Avenue building and an addition to that on East Friend Street, both erected in 1889; the Fair Avenue building and three additions erected in 1890, and four other buildings and additions now in course of construc- tion. In conjunction with this enlargement of material facilities the rules and regu- lations and the courses of study have been carefully revised. More time has been given to reading, arithmetic, geography and history, and less to music and draw- ing. The series of textbooks entitled "Classics for Children " has been adopted for supplementary reading in the grammar grades. The course in United States History has been extended from one to two years, and a special course preparatory to the Ohio State University has been introduced in the High School, the other courses of which have been so arranged as to afford time for careful review of the common branches during the last half of the senior year by candidates for the profession of teaching. Enforcement of the compulsory school law and supervision of the night schools have been added to the other duties of the Superintendent. In pursuance of the compulsory law, David O. Mull was elected truant officer, but a conservative course has been pursued in the sentence of delinquents to the Reform Farm, and the law has been so administered as to commend it to popular favor while increasing the school attendance. Mr. Mull having died, John E. Jones was elected his successor. For the benefit of children affected by the compulsory law, who were unable to attend day school, night schools have been condueted about two months during the winter season and were attended in 1890 by 434 persons; in 1891 by 796.

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History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume I, Part 73

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