USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Dayton > History of the city of Dayton and Montgomery County, Ohio, Volume I > Part 46
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In 1833 the academy property was sold and a new building erected on lots purchased on the southwest corner of Fourth and Wilkinson streets. At this time the trustees were Aaron Baker, Job Haines, Obadiah B. Conover, James Steele, and John W. Van Cleve. Mr. E. E. Barney, a graduate of Union Col- lege, New York, was elected principal in 1834, and remained at the head of the school until 1839 when he retired and engaged in business. Mr. Barney was a remarkable teacher and man, and fuller notice of him will be given. By the introduction of the analytical methods of instruction he exerted an important influence on our public schools. Teachers educated by him carried these methods into the schools in advance of most places in the west and gave them in their early history a high reputation.
In 1840 a school was taught in the academy building by Mr. Collins Wight. In 1844 the trustees placed the academy in charge of Mr. Milo G. Williams, a teacher of large experience and reputation, who remained until 1850, when he removed from the city. By this time the public schools had been successfully established and a high school organized. The trustees, believing that a separate academy was no longer needed, after obtaining authority from the legislature, deeded the property to the city board of education.
Numerous advertisements of schools taught outside of the academy appear in the Dayton papers between 1815 and 1834. Mention may be made of a few of the most prominent. In 1815 Mrs. Dionecia Sullivan opened a school for girls, in which were taught reading, writing, sewing, lettering with the needle, and painting. Mrs. Sullivan and her husband, William Sullivan, were promi- nent and influential in the early history of the Methodist church in Dayton, and were highly esteemed. In 1823 Francis Glass, A. M., the author of a Life of Washington in Latin, opened a school for instruction in the ordinary English branches, mathematics, the classics, and modern languages. Mr. Glass was so
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remarkable as to deserve a more extended notice, which will be given on a future page. In 1829 Edmund Harrison, a competent and successful teacher, taught what he called the Inductive Academy in a building which he erected for the purpose. Mr. Harrison was followed by Norman Fenn, who for several years was a popular teacher. In 1832 Miss Maria Harrison, a daughter of Ed- mund Harrison, an accomplished woman, taught a school for young ladies. In 1831 T. J. S. Smith, afterwards an eminent member of the Dayton bar, taught a school for boys in the stone building on Main street, known as the old Bank building.
To illustrate how soon new ideas penetrated the west it may be mentioned that Dr. and Mrs. Foster in 1829 advertised a school to be conducted on the method of Pestalozzi.
Advertisements of singing schools and writing schools appear frequently. The flaming advertisement of D. Easton, teacher of penmanship, recalls the day before the invention of steel pens, when no small part of the time of the teacher was consumed in making and mending quill pens. He offers to teach the round running hand, the ornamental Italian hand, the waving hand, the swift angular running hand without ruling, and various others, both plain and ornamental, and will also give lessons in making quill pens.
If we may believe that the teachers were competent to teach what they pro- fessed in their advertisements there was no branch of study from the simplest rudiments to Hebrew that was beyond the reach of the pupils of Dayton at that early day.
A few of the early Dayton teachers are worthy of special notice. Francis Glass, A. M., who taught here in 1823-1824, was born in Londonderry, Ireland, in 1790, and came with his parents to America when he was eight years old. His father was engaged as a teacher at Mount Airy College, Philadelphia, where he remained until his death. Francis Glass was educated at the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated in his nineteenth year. He married young, and, pressed by the wants of an increasing family, he emigrated in 1817 to Ohio in the hope of improving his fortunes. Better adapted to a professor's chair in a college than to the rude schoolhouses of the west, he met with no great success as a teacher. He removed from place to place, teaching the first school taught in Clinton county, Ohio, and having schools at various times in Warren, Miami, and Montgomery counties. There is something pathetic in the story of this enthusiastic and guileless scholar, who, amid the hardships of pioneer life and the bitter privations of poverty, never for a moment lost interest in classical study. Mr. J. P. Reynolds, one of his pupils, who was instrumental in securing the publication of the Life of Washington in Latin, in an introduction to that work, gives a graphic description of a pioneer schoolhouse and of its teacher, Francis Glass. Wishing to pursue classical studies, and having heard of Glass as a competent teacher, Mr. Reynolds sought him out. He says: The schoolhouse now rises fresh in my memory. The building was a log cabin with a clap-board roof, but indifferently lighted-all the light of heaven found in this cabin came through apertures made on each side of the logs, and then covered with oiled paper to keep out the cold air, while they admitted the dim rays. The seats or benches were of hewn timber, resting on upright posts
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placed in the ground to keep them from being overturned by the mischeivous urchins who sat on them. In the center was a large stove, between which and the back part of the building stood a small desk, without lock or key, made of rough plank, over which a plane had never passed, and behind this desk sat Professor Glass when I entered his school. There might have been forty scholars present, twenty-five of whom were engaged in spelling, reading, and writing, a few in arithmetic, a small class in English grammar, and a half dozen like myself had joined the school for the benefit of his instruction in Greek and Latin. The moment that he learned that my intention was to pursue the study of the languages with him his whole soul appeared to beam from his countenance. He commenced in a strain which in another would have appeared pedantic. but which, in fact, was far from being so with him.
The following imperfect sketch drawn entirely from memory may serve to give some idea of his peculiar manner: Welcome to the shrine of the muses, my young friend, Salvo! The temple of the Delphian god was originally a laurel hut, and the muses deign to dwell accordingly, even in my rustic abode. Non humilem domum fastidiunt umbrosamve ripam. Mr. Reynolds gives more to the same effect, but this may suffice. It was Glass' great ambition to write and publish a Life of Washington in Latin, and when Mr. Reynolds met him he had nearly completed the work. Mr. Reynolds, who highly esteemed him, furnished him the means to remove to Dayton in 1823, and there the life was com- pleted and the manuscript delivered to Mr. Reynolds, who agreed to assist him in finding a publisher. Lengthy proposals of publication fully describing the work were printed in the Cincinnati and Dayton papers, but without result. In the columns of the Dayton Watchman, covering the time of his residence here, may be found advertisements of his school. Shortly after his arrival this char- acteristic one appeared: The subscriber, having completed the biography of Washington, which had engaged the greater portion of his attention and solici- tude for the past two years, and being constrained to remain in Dayton for some months for the purpose of correcting the proof sheets of said work, re- spectfully announces that his school is now open for students of either sex, who may wish to prosecute classical, mathematical, or English studies. As re- spects his literary attainments or standing as a scholar, he refers to the faculty of arts of any university or college in the United States. Proof-reading was only the too sanguine anticipation of the poor author, as the work was not published until 1835, long after his death. It would seem that school teaching in Dayton at that early day was not without its annoyances, for in an advertise- ment in the Watchman he denounces the conduct of certain boys who had removed an out-house from his premises in the night as ungentlemanly and un- soldierly. His friend, Mr. Reynolds, removed from Ohio and was absent for several years, and during his absence Francis Glass died. It seems from ad- vertisements which he was profuse in inserting in the newspaper, that he strug- gled manfully on with his school and as a last resort offered his services as a physician. With his inextinguishable love of the classics, shortly before his death he published in the Watchman a Latin ode on the death of Lord Byron, which was followed in succeeding numbers of the paper by translations in prose and verse by some of his scholars. The ode was prefaced by the following introduc-
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tion : To the academicians and scholars in the United States of America, espe- cially of those who delight in literary pursuits, Francis Glass, A. M., wishes much health.
This brief notice in the Watchman is all we know of his death: Francis Glass died August 24, 1824, after an illness of about three weeks. In the same column of the paper appear the unavailing proposals for the publication of the Life of Washington. He was buried in the old city grave-yard, which has long ceased to be used for burial purposes and is now occupied by residences. The remains of all unknown persons were removed by the city to Woodland cemetery, where he now sleeps in an unmarked grave.
In 1835 the Life of Washington, through the instrumentality of Mr. Rey- nolds, was published by Harper Brothers. Mr. Reynolds had acquired con- siderable literary reputation as the author of a Voyage Round the World in the United States Frigate Potomac and by contributing to the Knickerbocker Mag- azine, and was able to rescue from oblivion the long neglected and dearly loved work of his old teacher. It forms an openly printed volume of two hundred and twenty-three pages. That such a work in Latin should have been written by a country school teacher remote from libraries and compelled to teach an un- graded school for his daily bread is certainly one of the curiosities of literature. Eminent scholars have pronounced the style terse and vigorous and the Latin classical. It was introduced into many schools as a text-book, and the writer remembers its use in the Dayton Academy in 1838. It is now out of print and rare, but a copy may be found in the Dayton Public Library. We may smile at the eccentricities of Francis Glass, but we must respect him for his fine scholar- ship, his patriotism, and his kindliness of heart. All honor to the pioneer teacher and scholar, who in another age and under more favorable circumstances might have become a Casaubon or a Scaliger. Allibone thought Glass worthy of a place in the Dictionary of Authors, and Duykinck has a lengthy notice of him in the Cyclopedia of American Literature .*
* Mr. Reynolds was a pupil in the school taught by Glass in Clinton county. He was a talented and eccentric man who embraced the theory of J. C. Symines, relative of Judge Symmes, that the earth was hollow with openings at the poles and that inner concentric spheres were inhabitable. Hence the expression Symmes' hole. Symmes tried to get an appropriation from the Ohio legislature for making explorations, and Reynolds after traveling far and wide delivering lectures and making many converts fitted out a ship and went far toward the south pole discovering the Antartic continent but not the entrance to the "concentric spheres." A teacher who deserves mention was Robert Stevenson who opened up a school in 1846 on the south side of First street between St. Clair and Jefferson streets with twelve boys, all of whom became prominent and useful citizens. In 1847 he taught in the second story of the county offices building. Mr. John H. Winters was one of his pupils. Later he erected a large brick building at the corner of Fifth and College streets on the west side. Here he conducted a seminary which would have attained large success if his health had not failed. When he could no longer carry on the school, Colonel John Locke rented the Building, erected barracks on Fifth street and opened in 1863 the Western Military Academy of which Captain Charles B. Stivers became commandant in 1865. Two years later Captain Stivers became a teacher in the Central High School and about that time the military academy was closed. In the period when it was in operation it was an institution of considerable importance.
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Milo G. Williams was another teacher of mark at an early day. In 1833 he was invited by Mr. David Pruden to come to Dayton to take charge of a manual labor school, to be established in the large brick building owned by him, which until a few years ago stood at the junction of Jefferson and Warren streets. Mr. Williams was to conduct the academic and Mr. Pruden the labor and boarding departments. The large building was used for the school and boarding purposes, and shops were erected for instruction in various mechanical trades. A large number of boys from Cincinnati and other places were at- tracted to the school by Mr. Williams' reputation as a teacher and the school for a time enjoyed great popularity. Not proving a pecuniary success, it was closed after a few years' trial, and Mr. Williams returned to Cincinnati to con- tinue his work as a teacher there. Both Mr. Williams and Mr. Pruden were actuated by philanthropic motives in the establishment of the school and deserve credit for the attempt to combine intellectual culture with preparation for the practical duties of life. How this may be done is still perplexing the minds of educators, and it is no discredit to them that they did not find the solution. The effort now being made in several cities to introduce manual training in our public schools is full of promise, and it is hoped that in this way this desirable end may be reached.
In 1844, by invitation of the trustees, Mr. Williams returned to Dayton to take charge of the Dayton Academy, where he taught with great acceptance until 1850. Solicited by leading members of the religious denomination to which he belonged, he resigned to take a position in a college of his church at Urbana, at which place he died in 1880, having reached a ripe old age. He was a gen- tleman of fine presence, admirable social qualities, and ever ready to unite with others in efforts for the public welfare. He was one of the founders and the first president of the Dayton Library Association, and in many ways left his im- press on the community.
But perhaps the teacher who made the deepest impression on our system of education was Mr. E. E. Barney. Coming to Dayton in 1834 he brought with him from New York the most advanced methods of teaching and introduced them here. He inspired his scholars with his own enthusiasm, and transformed study from drudgery into pleasure. He procured the best apparatus for the illustration of natural science, and by frequent excursions to the country sought to make his pupils familiar with the botany and geology of the region. Com- position and declamation were required studies, and a literary society and library were established in the school. He encouraged the planting of trees and flowers, and by every means at his command sought to develop a symmetrical char- acter. He was quick to notice the aptitude of pupils for particular callings in life, and his advice often exerted an important influence on their after career. The discipline of the school was mild, but firm, and largely left to the honor of the pupils. Corporal punishment was rarely resorted to. Each morning the school was opened with the reading of the Scriptures and prayer.
In 1838 when a public meeting was called to determine upon the building of the first public schoolhouses, Mr. Barney heartily advocated the measure. His experience and advice were freely given in planning and seating the new school- houses, and his school furnished educated teachers, who carried at once the new-
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est methods of instruction into the public schools. Invited in 1845 to take charge of the Cooper Female Seminary when it was first opened, he entered on the work with the same ability and energy that built up the great car works of which he was so long the head. A large part of the older citizens of Dayton were his scholars in the Dayton Academy or Cooper Seminary, and recall his instructions with pleasure and gratitude. Mr. Barney died in 1880.
But little is known of the early history of the public schools of Dayton. The school directors of that early day kept no records of their proceedings; at least, none have been preserved. We glean from the newspapers the names of a few directors and teachers, and that is all. Before 1831 schools had been partly sup- ported by taxation, but it was not until that year that the school district of Day- ton was formally organized. A meeting was held at the courthouse Saturday, May 14, 1831, and Dr. John Steele, F. F. Carrell, and Warren Munger were ap- pointed directors, Edmund Harrison clerk, and William Bomberger treasurer. It would appear from the following notice that the directors did not serve, but no explanation is given in the newspaper :
First District school will be opened Monday, December 5, 1831, by Sylvanus Hall, approved teacher, in the schoolroom on Jefferson street, between Water and First streets. Public money appropriated to support it.
LUTHER BRUEN, NATHANIEL WILSON, HENRY VAN TUYL, Directors.
Three additional rooms were soon afterwards opened in different parts of the city for the convenience of scholars.
From this time until 1838 schools supported by taxation were taught for a few months each year in rented rooms. No public school buildings had been erected, and the majority of citizens sent their children to private schools. During this period the following persons served, at different times, as directors: Thomas Brown, William Hart, James Slaght, J. H. Mitchell, David Osborn, Ralph P. Lowe, Simon Snyder, and William H. Brown. Among the teachers of this period were Mr. and Mrs. Leavenworth Hurd, who taught in the old academy building, on St. Clair street. The public funds not being sufficient to sustain this school, one dollar per quarter was charged for each scholar.
We have now reached the period when the public schools began to assume the importance in the public estimation which they have ever since maintained.
In 1837 Samuel Lewis was elected, by the legislature, state superintendent of schools. Mr. Lewis entered upon his work with great enthusiasm, visiting every part of the state, and addressing the people at all important points. It was one of these addresses that led to the public meeting in 1838, which resulted in the building of two schoolhouses. Prior to that time not more than three hundred dollars in any one year could be raised by taxation in a school district for the purpose of building schoolhouses. By the law of 1838 it was provided that a special meeting might be called after twenty days' notice, stating an intention to propose a schoolhouse tax, at which a majority of the voters present, being house- holders, were authorized to determine by vote upon the erection of a schoolhouse, and how much money should be raised for such purpose. Legal notice was given,
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and a public meeting assembled May 7, 1838, in the courthouse. Strenuous oppo- sition was made to the levy of the tax by a few wealthy citizens, but after a heated discussion the measure was carried by a large majority. The amount to be raised was fixed at six thousand dollars, and it was resolved to build two houses, one in the eastern and one in the western part of the city .*
General R. C. Schenck, at that time a rising young lawyer, was an eloquent advocate of the public schools, and was warmly seconded by Simon Snyder, to whom, as the advocate of schools and libraries and of every measure at that early day that tended to promote intellectual and moral culture, the people of Dayton are deeply indebted.
The opposition did not end with the meeting. It was believed that it could not be proved that the law had been complied with in giving notice of the meet- ing. This had been anticipated by Mr. E. E. Barney, who had taken the precau- tion to post the notices in person, and, accompanied by a friend, had visited them from time to time to see that they were not removed. The injunction was not granted, and the houses were built on the sites now occupied by the second and fourth district schoolhouses. The plans were taken from the Common School Journal and embodied the most advanced ideas of the time on the subject of school architecture. Unfortunately no records of this important period of our school history down to 1842 have been preserved, and we have to rely upon tra- dition and the newspapers of the day for our scanty facts. Now that the public school system is firmly established in popular favor and has become as much a part of our city institutions as the municipal government itself, it is difficult to re- alize the necessity felt by the friends of the public schools in their early history to devise every practical method to bring them to the notice of the public and in- crease their popularity. On several occasions the schools marched in procession through the streets and the public was made to realize their magnitude and the great work they were accomplishing.
In 1838 D. H. Elder, principal of one of the district schools, had instructed his scholars in music on a method highly commended by the Journal of that day. On the Fourth of July the school marched in procession, headed by a brass band, and escorted by the Blues and Grays, the militia companies of the town, to the Methodist church, where a concert was given by the school, which was received with enthusiasm, the Journal saying that if anyone can hear the appeal to his pa- triotism sent forth by the united voices of this small company in the young army of the republic while singing, My Country 'Tis of Thee, without feeling his op- position die away and his whole heart warm towards the public school system, he is made of sterner stuff than should enter the human composition.
In 1839 a public meeting was held, of which Dr. John Steele was chairman and Simon Snyder secretary, at which it was resolved that the Fourth of July should be celebrated by a procession composed of the public, the private, and the Sunday schools of the town, which should assemble at the corner of Main and Third streets and march to the public square (Library Park), where exercises
* One of these schoolhouses was built where the Newcom school now is on Brown street, south of Sixth, and the other on the west side of Perry street, between First and Second.
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were to be held and a picnic dinner given to the children. The parents and citi- zens marched on one side of the street and the teachers and children on the other, and the spectacle made a deep impression on the public mind.
In 1856 the school year was closed with a grand picnic and exhibition of the public schools. The Journal gives a lengthy and enthusiastic description of the parade, saying that it was the most beautiful and exhilarating scene witnessed in our streets for years. The procession formed at the corner of Main and Third streets and reached to Steele's Hill, and was composed of the city council, the board of education, the high and district schools. Two brass bands enlivened the procession with music, and each school carried a beautiful silk banner, the scholars wearing rosettes. The Journal says the procession must have contained twenty- five hundred persons, including teachers, pupils, and others, and reached from the court house very near to the grove, where the exercises were held. The exer- cises began with prayer, then the exhibition song was sung by all the pupils, con- ducted by Charles Soehner, the teacher of music, and accompanied by the Ger- man brass band. Declamations and patriotic songs followed, and the formal ex- ercises were concluded with an address by the president of the board and the de- livery of diplomas to the graduating class of that year of the high school. After an excellent picnic dinner the rest of the day was spent in games of all kinds.
The procession of 1856 made such a favorable impression on the public that it was determined to repeat it in 1859. The board of education appointed Henry L. Brown, Henderson Elliott, and D. A. Wareham a committee to make the neces- sary arrangements. The Journal says, in reference to it, The public schools took the town yesterday. It was a pleasant sight, that army of children. The pro- cession marched down Main street to the fair grounds, headed by the Phoenix Brass Band, followed by Rev. D. Winters, chaplain of the day, the city council, the board of education and the schools. The high school carried a beautiful silk national flag, and the scholars wore rosettes of red, white and blue; the district schools marched behind silk banners ornamented with gold lace, each school hav- ing a distinct color. The following mottoes were inscribed on the banners : Let there be light, Education is the main pillar of the Temple of Liberty, We are taught to love Piety. Morality, and Knowledge, We mingle reason with pleasure and wisdom with truth, We love to learn. Arrived at the grounds, after prayer, declamations and songs were given and short addresses made by D. W. Iddings, the mayor of the city ; R. W. Steele, president of the board of educa- tion ; and Isaac H. Kiersted and Henderson Elliott, members of the board. The scholars were then dismissed to enjoy a bountiful dinner from their well filled baskets.
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