History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume II, Part 81

Author: Lee, Alfred Emory, 1838-; W. W. Munsell & Co
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: New York and Chicago : Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1196

USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume II > Part 81

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At the session of 1827-8 an appropriation of $376.60 being made for the train- ing of a principal, the board selected Horatio N. Hubbell, a young man of energy and character, who had just fulfilled the trust of removing twelve Osage Indian students from the Cornwall school, suspended in Connecticut, to the Miami Uni- versity at Oxford, Ohio. In March Mr. Hubbell went to the American Asylum where he spent eighteen months in studying the theory and practice of deafmute education. Upon his return the board rented a house of D. W. Deshler, Esq., at one hundred dollars a year, at the northwest corner of Broad and High streets, now the site of the Deshler Block. It was a twostory brick house containing three rooms with a hall and a frame addition in the rear of four rooms.

On the sixteenth of October, 1829, in front of this building stood a stout, medium-sized man of thirty years of age, dressed in a suit of dark clothes, with a beaver hat. This was Principal Hubbell, who was expectantly watching the four roads in sight from this point for pupils. At ten o'clock in the morning a man on horseback, with a boy behind him, came up West Broad Street and stopped. Mr. Hubbell greeted them cordially and lifted the boy off. This was the first pupil of the Ohio Institution for the Deaf. He was eleven years old, looking bright and cute in his homespun suit of brown pantaloons and gray jacket which was buttoned up with three large brass buttons. A coarse, close-fitting fur cap completed his outfit. He was a son of Judge Flenniken, who lived where now Sellsville is. Within half an hour the Governor arrived, and taking the little fel- low by the hand, patted him heartily on the back. Two years had elapsed since the passage of the act incorporating the school and a circular stating its objects had been published for some months previously in the leading papers of the state.

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JOHN.BARRICK.ENG. CIN.O.

INSTITUTION FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB.

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Yet, on opening day, only three pupils presented themselves for admission. One of them proved to be idiotie and another was of a weak mind and not long after- ward beeame hopelessly insane. The attendance, however, increased to nine pupils before the year closed.

In the course of the second year the number of pupils grew to twentytwo and Mr. Hubbell was compelled to engage a schoolroom in the rear of what was for a long time known as the Capital Hotel, on Broad Street, the present site of the Board of Trade Building. After a few months he had to abandon this room for two in the old Courthouse which stood near where is now the west gate of the Statehouse Square. These rooms also had to be given up after a few months. The incon- venience resulting from boarding and lodging in one building and going to school in another finally led Mr. Hubbell to move out of the Deshler house into a frame house at the corner of Front Street and Lynn Alley. Here Mr. Hubbell remained until 1834, when the first building of the institution was completed.

In 1832 the trustees succeeded in securing an appropriation from the General Assembly which enabled them to undertake the erection of a building. Gustavus Swan. Lincoln Goodale and Robert W. McCoy constituted the building committee of the board. The foundations were commenced in 1832 and the building was ready for use in the fall of 1834. Its cost was $15,000. The building, fronting toward the west, was fifty feet by eighty in lateral dimensions and three stories high. It was considered sufficiently large to meet the wants of the State for a long time to come. In 1844 the number of pupils reached over a hundred and an extension four stories high and seventy feet by thirty was made, giving a south front to the institution. The institution then furnished ample accommodations for one hundred and fifty pupils, but that number was passed in 1853, and thence- forth the neccessity of enlarging the accommodations was constantly urged.

In 1860 a bill was introduced in the House providing for the erection of a new building owing to the dilapidated condition of the older portion of the institu- tion, which was deseribed in public prints as " an uneomely relic of modern antiquity." The bill failed by one vote to pass. The next year a bill for the same purpose reached its third reading in the House, when all further action was dropped on account of the gathering cloud of the Civil War. The progress of the war instilled new energy and life into the people, and in March, 1864, notwith- standing the greatly enhanced cost of materials and labor, a bill passed the Gen- eral Assembly unanimously providing for the erection, under the direction of the Governor, of a new house " to be of plain, substantial construction, having special reference to adaptation and proper economy for the convenient and suitable accommodation of three hundred and fifty pupils and necessary offieers and ser- vants." Governor Brough appointed as architect Joseph M. Blackburn, of Cleve- land, Ohio, who designed the present structure. It is of the French-Italian style of architecture. The campaniles, or towers, are of the form and appearance peculiar to the Italian order, while the steep roofs and dormer windows are of the French style. The first sod was cut for the foundation on the thirtieth of June, 1864, by the superintendent, George L. Weed, Junior. The first foundation stone was laid in August, and the corner stone was laid on the thirtyfirst of October by Lieutenant Governor Anderson.

In March, 1867, an epidemic of typhoid pneumonia broke out in the old building. Thirty pupils were sick at one time, five of whom died at the institu- tion and three at home. This necessitated the disbanding of the school, soon after which the demolition of the old building began. The erection of the pres- ent building was carried on under the direction of the successive Governors, Brough, Anderson, Cox and Hayes during the years 1864-9. The cost was $625,- 000, the yearly appropriations being 840,000, 8200,000, $100,000 and $125,000. The house was furnished at an expense of $35,000, and was opened for the recep-

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tion of pupils in September, 1868. In the following November, when the Central Lunatic Asylum was burned, its entire household of over three hundred persons was temporarily quartered at the institution.

During the session of 1829-30, an act was passed authorizing the support of one indigent pupil from each of the nine judicial circuits of the state, the pupils " to be selected by the board of trustees from persons recommended by the Asso- ciate Judges of the counties where they reside." At the next session the support of an additional pupil from each circuit was allowed by law. At the session of 1832-3 this number was increased to twentyseven, in 1833-4 to thirtysix, in 1834 5 to fortyeight, and in 1835-6 to sixty. In 1844 an act was passed making educa- tion free to all deaf children of the state. This was a fulfilment of the trne spirit of the school law of 1825 which authorized a general tax for the edu- cation of all and was virtually a command to the people of Ohio to educate their children. Yet it is common to regard appropriations for the purpose of educat- ing the deaf as benevolent and charitable. Every argument which proves it a matter of state interest and policy to educate the hearing children bears with much greater force upon the deaf. The institution of Ohio was the first to carry out the important and only true principle that the entire expense of educating the deaf should be defrayed by the state.

As early as 1836, when the institution was fairly settled, the board of trustees considered the question of having the pupils employed to advantage out of school hours. For the girls, housework, sewing and knitting afforded full occupation. With the boys it was different. Trne, gardening and chores were available but far from sufficient and satisfactory. Shopwork was deemed to be desirable for cul- tivating skill and habits of industry that might be of advantage in after life. In 1838 the first shop was erected and mechanics selected by the board contracted to carry on their respective trades at the institution. The boys were to work four hours a day for the sake of learning a trade. A machine shop was run for a short time and a shoeshop received several trials. The foremen had no interest in teach- ing the boys beyond making profit out of their labor, which was impossible owing to the great waste of material. As the foremen were not able to communicate with the boys in their sign-language, a want of harmony naturally arose and resulted in the dropping of trade teaching in 1846. In 1850 Peter Hayden, Esq., offered to erect, as an experiment, a building on the grounds of the institu- tion, provided with a steam engine, and to introduce some branch of his extensive manufactures at which to employ all the boys and give them wages for all they conld earn. This offer was not accepted. It was not until 1863 that the problem was satisfactorily solved in the revival of shoemaking, when a deaf foreman was appointed to teach the trade on a salary, the state owning all the material and disposing of all the products. Since 1868 printing, bookbinding, carpentry and tailoring have been made valuable additions. The foremen being paid salaries they have no interest except in the progress of their apprentices.

The time at first allowed for the course of instruction was three years. In 1833 the term of pupilage was lengthened to four years, and in 1835 to five years. In 1844 an act was passed empowering the trustees to keep pupils, at their discre- tion, for a period longer than five years and not exceeding seven years. In 1866 the law was revised making the time ten years, which is the present limit. In 1872 the school was divided into three departments, viz .: Academic, which has two classes; Grammar, which has five classes; and Primary, which has sixteen classes. The teachers were similarly classified and their salaries fixed " without regard to the ear." The institution was thus the first to abolish the distinction between its hearing and its deaf teachers.

The system practiced is what is called the " American, or Combined System," which makes use of all methods known to be of practical value. For those pupils

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who retain speech as well as those who evince aptitude for vocal training, articu- lation and lip-reading are taught by two teachers who devote their whole time to the work. When the average deaf and dumb child comes to the institution for the first time, no matter at what age, he may not show any marked difference in personal appearance from other children of his age ; but his mind is almost a blank. lle knows not even his own name, nor anything about his Creator and the life beyond the grave. The teacher begins by teaching him the names of the most common objects. The word cat may be written upon the blackboard. A picture is presented before the class. The sign for the animal is given and the word is spelled manually. Then the pupil copies the word on his slate until he is familiar with it and can reproduce it readily when the sign is made for it. After nouns come simple verbs, adjectives, prepositions and adverbs, in which writing from actions and pictures plays a prominent part. Gradually he is led on through the principles of English grammar until he acquires the art of intelligent reading. Then he takes up primary geography and history. If, at the end of seven years he proves proficient, be enters upon a higher course of three years, which includes geography, history, arithmetic, physiology, science of government, a textbook on morals and manners and some bookkeeping. For obvious reasons it has been deemed important to hold short services in the chapel daily, and more prolonged services on Sunday, and to impart a knowledge of the principles of morality and Christianity, care being always taken to make them free from sectarianism.

In order to secure the best results from both the school and the shops the following system of rotation, inaugurated by Doctor G. O. Fay in 1868, is in force. The school is arranged by classes in three divisions The day is also divided into three sessions of two and two and a half hours, the first extending from 8:15 to 10:15, the second from 10:30 to 12:30, and the third from 2 to 4:30, with a recess of fifteen minutes at half past three. At eight o'clock the regular duties of the day begin, when all the children repair to the chapel. After chapel services two divisions go to their class rooms and the third is distributed to the shops and to honsework. At 10:15 all are dismissed, and at 10:30 two divisions go to their classrooms and onethird are distributed, as before, to the shops and the housework. All are dismissed at 12:30. At two o'clock, as before, two divisions go to school and one to the shops and to housework. All are dismissed at 4:30. Thus from 8:15 in the morning until 4:30 in the afternoon twothirds of the scholars are at school and onethird are at work. Every pupil attends school two sessions daily and works one session. The average daily time spent in school is about four and a half hours, and that spent in shopwork is about two hours and a half. To secure a fair distribution of time and also a desirable variety, the whole system moves forward one session the first day of each month, so that those who work in the morning in any month work the next month in the forenoon and in the afternoon the month after that. Those who work in the forenoon any month work in the afternoon the next, and those who work in the afternoon any month work in the morning the next.

The domestic life of the Institution runs on the following daily programme : 1. Rise not later than 5:45 A. M. 2. Breakfast, week days, 6:30 A. M .; Sundays and holidays, 7:00 A. M .; 3. Chapel, week days, 8:00 A. M .; Sundays, 9:45 A. M .; 4. School and work from 8:00 to 10:15 A. M .; 5. Recess, 10:15 to 10:30 A. M .; 6. School and work until 12:30 P. M. ; 7. Dinner, week days, 12:45 P. M. ; Sundays and holidays, 1:00 P. M. ; 8. School and work from 2:00 to 3:30 P. M. ; 9. Recess, 3:30 to 3:45 P. M. ; 10. School and work from 3:45 to 4:30 P. M. ; 11 Supper, 5:30 P. M. ; 12. Study hour, 7:00 to 8:00 P. M. for Primary, 7:00 to 8:15 P. M. for Grammar ; 13. Bedtime for younger pupils, 8:00 P. M. ; 14. Bedtime for adult pupils, 9:00 P. M. ; Sabbathschool from 3:00 to 3:45 P. M.

Nelson obama.

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A legacy of twenty thousand dollars, reduced by litigation and compromise to 810,886, eame into the possession of the institution in 1879, in accordance with the terms of the last will and testament of Matthew Russell, Esq., of Jefferson County, and it has sinee been used in the construction of the Russell Conservatory and the fountain.

Until 1842 Mr. Hlubbell performed the combined duties of principal, teacher and steward. In that year he was relieved of the labor and confinement of teach- ing a class in order to have an opportunity of overseeing all the elasses beth in respect to government and instruction. He was then given the title of superin- tendent. A year later he was released from the cares of the domestic department when George Gobey, Esq., of this city was appointed steward. Mr. Hubbell achieved a position of influence and honor among the citizens of Columbus. Of the thirtyone persons who, in 1839, united to form the Second Presbyterian Church, no one took a more active interest in the enterprise or contributed more liberally of his own means for its advancement than Mr. Hubbell. For many years he was trusted and honored with the offices of elder and trustee. He enjoyed the friendship and confidence of Governor Ford, Judge Gustavus Swan, Hon. Peter Hitchcock, Judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio, and his sons, Henry L. Hiteh- cock, D. D., President of the Western Reserve College and Reuben Hitchcock, LL. D. ; Doctor Samuel Parsons, Doctor Robert Thompson, Colonel John Noble, Robert W. MeCey, John S. Hall, D. W. Deshler and many others. One of bis most intimate friends was John f. Miller, an aristocratie gentleman of the old school, connected with the "First Families of Virginia." Mr. Miller was in the habit of wearing kneebreeches and the queue many years after he settled in the city. When Mr. Hubbell proposed making a trip to the East in 1831, Mr. Miller insisted upon his stopping in Washington en route to call upon his brotherinlaw, President John Tyler. In his letter introduing Mr. Hubbell to the President, Mr. Miller said : "You will, of course, recognize in him one of our most useful citizens, and I ask leave to assure you that be is one of the most excellent of men."

In January, 1851, Mr. Hubbell resigned his position as superintendent, but at the request of the trustees his resignation did not take effect until the following October. He was then offered the superintendency of the Wisconsin Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, but declined it, although he went to Delaware and did all he could toward organizing the school.

He was one of the very first to propose founding an institution for the feebleminded, in behalf of which he made urgent appeals to the General Assembly in 1854. The last year of Mr. Hubbell's life was spent in preparing for the press a work entitled, Dying Words of Eminent Per- sons. On Saturday he completed and arranged his manuscript, and on the follow- ing Monday morning, January 19, 1857, he was called to his reward above. His grave in Green Lawn Cemetery is marked by a monument whereon appears his name carved in the manual alphabet of the deaf.

Rev. Josiah A. Cary succeeded Mr. Hubbell in the office of superintendent. He had been a successful teacher in the New York Institution for the deaf for nineteen years. He entered upon his new duties with a zeal and perseverance beyond all praise, but died at the end of one year of anchylesis.

Rev. Collins Stone, who had been a teacher in the American Asylum for many years, was chosen as Mr. Cary's successor. He was a man of great dignity of character and was a fine disciplinarian. In 1862, after eleven years of service, he resigned to accept à similar position in the American Asylum which he held until be met with his death by being struck by a moving train in Hartford, Con- ne ticut, in 1871.

Rev. George L. Weed, Junior, who had been connected with this institution for seven years as teacher, was appointed superintendent to succeed Mr. Stone.

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His affability and tact had a great deal to do with the success of the effort which resulted in the building of the present structure. He resigned in 1865, and was afterward superintendent of the Wisconsin institution. IIe is, at present, a teacher in the institution at Philadelphia.

Rev. Gilbert O. Fay succeeded Mir. Weed as superintendent. He had taught in this institution for four years. He showed remarkable executive ability in the management of the institution, which is still conducted in accordance with his plans. He resigned in 1880 to accept a teacher's position in the American Asylum.

Charles S. Perry, who had taught in this institution since 1865, was next appointed superintendent, which position he resigned in 1882. He is now teach- ing in the California institution at Berkeley.

Rev. Benjamin Talbot, who had been superintendent of the Iowa institution at Council Bluffs for fifteen years and was teaching at this institution, acted as superintendent until Amasa Pratt was appointed to the office to succeed Mr. Perry. Mr. Pratt had taught in the Philadelphia institution for one year, and in the California institution for several years. He tendered his resignation in April, 1890, to take effect on the first of August, and is now one of the principals of the Columbus Latin School.

James W. Knott, who had been superintendent of the Tiffin Public Schools for eleven years, entered upon his duties as superintendent of the institution August first, 1890, with Robert Patterson who was educated at the institution and has been connected with it as a teacher since 1870, as principal of the school department.

Quite a large number of teachers trained in this institution have been called to the highest position in their profession. Indiana, Illinois, Tennessee, Louisi- ana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, California, Maryland, Arkansas, West Virginia, Nebraska and Florida have found superintendents here.

The two thousand, in round numbers, who have been discharged from the institution have completely refuted the familiar couplet of Lucretius :

To instruct the deaf, no art could ever reach, No care improve them, and no wisdom teach.

The many who have taken their places as members of society, sharing its burdens and adding their quota to its productive wealth, have proved the injus- tice of the Justinian Code, which, in the sixth century, denied civil rights to all congenital mutes and consigned them to perpetual legal infancy as incapable of managing their own affairs or of transmitting their property.

The many who have learned to turn their thoughts heavenward and find their comfort and companionship in the Holy Bible, have exposed the fallacy of St. Augustine who, in the fourth century, commenting npon Romans X, 17, asserted, "that deafness from birth makes faith impossible since he who is born deaf can neither hear the word nor learn to read it." The many who have found delight in social intercourse and in the treasures of literature have exploded the idea of Samuel Heinicke, who, in the eighteenth century, declared that "it was speech only which comprehended, contained and expressed the movements of the soul," and that " every other means of communication was dead."

Verily, the institution has accomplished a great and good work in carrying out the idea of the Abbé de l'Epee who, in the eighteenth century, said : " There is no more natural and necessary connection between abstract ideas and articu- late sounds which strike the ear than there is between the same ideas and the written characters which address the eye."

CHAPTER XXXIX.

INSTITUTION FOR THE BLIND.

BY G. L. SMEAD, LATE SUPERINTENDENT.

The Ohio Institution for the Education of the Blind was the fourth in order of establishment in the United States. The institutions in Boston, New York and Philadelphia preceded that of Ohio by a few years.

Among the subjects considered at a State Medical convention held in Columbus on January 5, 1835, was the establishment of public asylums for the reception of the insane, and for the instruction of the blind. During the session of 1834-5 the legislature authorized the Governor to obtain statistics of the unfortunate of the State. In his message to the Thirtyfourth General Assembly Governor Robert Lucas reported that, in fiftyfive counties, the number of idiots was 508; of luna- tics 206 ; of blind persons 202. The whole number of blind in the State was then estimated at 250. On March 11, 1836, the legislature by resolution appointed Rev. James Hoge, N. H. Swayne, Esq., and Doctor William M. Awl as a board of trustees for obtaining information in relation to the instruction of the blind, together with the probable expense of commencing a school. The board was required to submit a report to the next General Assembly. The trustees ascer- tained that in fiftynine counties there were 287 blind persons. It was estimated that sixty of these were proper persons to receive instruction in a school. From information secured, the trustees further estimated that there were at that time five hundred blind persons in the State. The board fixed upon $1,500 as the sum necessary to commence the school.

Upon invitation of the board of trustees, Doctor Samuel G. Howe, the Director of the New England Institution for the Blind, visited Columbus with several of his pupils. On December 23, 1836, Doctor Howe addressed the legis. lature on the subject of the education of the blind, and exhibited the proficiency of the blind pupils who were with him. In view of the facts obtained the board recommended the immediate establishment of a school for the blind. Doctor William M. Awl, of Columbus, drew up the resolution for this purpose and it was passed by the legislature on the thirtieth of April, 1837. The same board was appointed to secure land, commence the building and proceed with the school.

In pursuance of this purpose the trustees secured for the site of the building nine acres of land east of the city limits of Columbus, on the north side of the National Road, now Main Street. The price of the land was contributed by citi- zens of Columbus and the deed presented to the State. The Board appointed N. B. Kelley, of Columbus, architect and superintendent of construction, deter-

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mined upon the plan of the building, and directed Mr. Kelley to make contraets for materials and prepare for commencing work the following season. The house of Mr. Joel Buttles, on South Street, was rented at once for the use of the school, but soon there was need of larger accommodations, and one of the " eight build- ings," on Town Street, was secured and used until the completion of the building erected by the State. On July 4, 1837, the school was opened. The preliminary exercises were held in the First Presbyterian Church. There were present five pupils. This number was increased to eleven before the close of the year. Mr. A. W. Penniman, a blind man who was educated in the New England Insti- tution, and afterwards assistant teacher in the Philadelphia Institution, was selected as the first teacher. Mr. Isaac Dalton was the first Steward and Mrs. Dalton was the first Matron.

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History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume II, Part 81

Author: Lee, Alfred Emory, 1838-; W. W. Munsell & Co Publication date: 1892 Publisher: New York and Chicago : Munsell & Co. Number of Pages: 1196

Author: Lee, Alfred Emory, 1838-; W. W. Munsell & Co
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: New York and Chicago : Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1196