USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Dayton > History of the city of Dayton and Montgomery County, Ohio, Volume I > Part 47
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A procession of the seven thousand youth and children now in our public schools would be a grand and inspiring spectacle, but there is no longer need of such a demonstration.
Ralph P. Lowe, Simon Snyder, and William H. Brown were the directors of the schools in 1838-1839. Mr. Lowe removed to Iowa many years ago, where he held the distinguished positions of judge of the supreme court and governor of the State. Mr. Brown removed to Indiana, where he lived to a great old age, and manifested his continued interest in Dayton by occasionally contributing to the Dayton Journal reminiscences of early times here. Simon Snyder died in Spring-
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field several years ago, and his remains were brought here and interred in Wood- land Cemetery. In 1839-1840 Simon Snyder, R. P. Brown, and Thomas Brown served as directors, and in 1840-1841 George W. Bomberger, Jefferson Patter- son, and Solomon Price. Of all the prominent friends of the public schools of this period whose names are recorded, only a few are living-Thomas Brown, R. N. and W. F. Comly, and R. C. Schenck.
In September, 1839, the schools were opened in the new schoolhouses and continued for three quarters of twelve weeks each. Collins Wight was principal of the western district and D. L. Elder of the eastern district. The salary of the principals was five hundred dollars per annum. In addition to the principals one male assistant and three female teachers were employed in each house.
It would seem that the zeal of the directors of 1839 outran their discretion in keeping the schools open for so long a period. In March, 1841, a city charter was granted to Dayton, by which the control of the public schools was given to the council. In the interim between the adoption of the city charter and the appoint- ment by the council of a board of managers of public schools as provided for in the charter, a committee of the city council was appointed to take charge of the schools. This committee consisted of Henry Strickler, David Davis, and David Winters. On the records of the city council is found the first report of the con- dition of the schools which has been preserved, made June 14, 1841. The com- mittee say: It was necessary to suspend the schools from April, 1841, to Jan- uary, 1842, to enable the directors of 1841 to discharge the indebtedness incurred in 1839 by the directors of that year requiring the schools to be kept open the whole year, thus anticipating eight hundred dollars of the school fund of 1840. The schools were kept open in 1840 six months; then suspended until January, 1841, with a view of closing without indebtedness. But the great change in money af- fairs defeated the object, as the poll-tax of fifty cents a scholar could not be col- lected. The schoolhouses are now in use by the principals of the schools, in which they are teaching private schools. They hold them on condition that in each house twenty charity scholars shall be taught each quarter.
The city charter fixed the levy for school purposes in Dayton at two mills on the dollar, and directed that the school tax so levied, and all other funds that may be collected or accrue for the support of common schools, shall be exclusively ap- propriated to defray the expenses of instructors and fuel, and for no other pur- pose whatever. No provision was made for contingent expenses, which rendered it necessary to require a tuition fee of fifty cents per quarter from each scholar. Parents who were unable were not expected to pay. This tax was continued for several years, until suitable provision was made by law for contingent expenses. In addition to the levy of two mills for tuition purposes, ample power was given to the city council to issue bonds, by vote of the people, for the erection of school- houses.
The city charter directed that the city council shall in the month of January, each year, select from each ward in the city one judicious and competent person as a manager of common schools ; the persons so selected shall constitute and be de- nominated the board of managers of common schools in the city of Dayton, and shall hold their offices for one year, and until their successors shall be chosen and qualified.
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The general management of the schools was committed to this board, but in the most important particulars it was merely the agent of the council. The power to levy taxes and issue bonds was vested in the council, and the board could only recommend the amount that in its judgment was needed.
Practically, however, the board exercised complete jurisdiction, as in no case were its recommendations disregarded. The fact that the two bodies cooperated for so many years without serious difference of opinion or conflict conclusively shows the unanimity of public sentiment in favor of liberal provision for the schools.
The first board of managers for the schools was appointed by the city council in January, 1842, and was composed of the following members: First ward, Eben- ezer Fowler; Second ward, Robert W. Steele; Third ward, Simon Snyder ; Fourth ward, E. W. Davies; Fifth ward, William J. Mckinney .* From a report made to the city council December 12, 1842, it appears that the total amount of school fund in the treasury January, 1842, was two thousand four hundred and eighty-two dollars and eighty-five cents. From this had to be deducted a loss on uncurrent money of three hundred and seventeen dollars and thirty-five cents, and an indebtedness from the last year of five hundred and fifty-two dollars and fifty-five cents, leaving only one thousand five hundred and eighty-two dollars and ninety-five cents with which to conduct the schools.
Four schools were opened, two in the public schoolhouses and two in rented rooms. Six male and ten female teachers were employed. The principals were W. W. Chipnian, W. J. Thurber, E. H. Wood, and William Worrell. The salary of the principals was one hundred and ten dollars per quarter ; of male assistants, eighty dollars, and of female teachers, fifty dollars. The board was determined to close the year without debt, and the schools were continued only one quarter, one month and one week, exhausting every dollar of the fund. The houses, however, were not closed, the teachers continuing private schools in them throughout the year.
The text-books used were Picket's Spelling Book, McGuffey's Readers, Mitch- ell's Geography, Colburn's and Emerson's Arithmetics, Smith's Grammar, and Parley's Book of History. The board adopted a resolution requesting the teachers to read a portion of the Bible each morning at the opening of the schools. This custom has been continued in the schools until the present time. In the revised rules adopted by the board in 1874 the following section was passed without op- position and remains in force: The schools shall be opened in the morning with reading of the Sacred Scriptures without comment and repeating the Lord's Prayer, if desired.
It was an inauspicious time for the inauguration of the public school system, and it was only the appreciation by the mass of the people of the great value of the schools and their indispensableness in a free government that carried them triumphantly through the difficulties with which they were environed. The coun-
* The board as constituted in 1842 was an excellent board. They not only felt the responsibility of their work but took a delight in it. They held many extra meetings, examined the teachers, were the school visitors, took the enumeration of school youth, performed all of the administrative functions without the assistance at the first of any paid employees, all this with the reluctant support of many of the citizens and the direct hostility of others.
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try had not yet recovered from the reaction which followed the wild speculations of 1837, and which prostrated the business of the entire country. It was a pe- riod of depreciated currency, of broken banks and unpaid taxes. The sum re- alized from the fifty cent tuition charge, which it was hoped would in some meas- ure supplement the deficiency in the treasury from other sources, amounted in 1842 to only one hundred and sixty-two dollars and forty-eight cents. No taxes, however, were so cheerfully paid as those for the support of schools, and the board was cheered in this day of small things by the cordial support of the people.
In 1843 the schools were open for six months, and the year closed without debt. The time was lengthened as the funds would justify until in 1849 the full school year was reached.
In 1841 the legislature passed a special act directing that a German school should be opened in Dayton, to be supported by the school tax paid by German citizens. This law, false in principle, and calling for an impracticable division of the school fund, was evidently enacted without due consideration. It remained a dead letter and no attempt was made to teach German until 1844, when the board was authorized by law to introduce instruction in German on the same basis as other studies. In that year a German school was opened, with William Gemein for teacher. Since that time German instruction has been a constituent part of our school system and has increased proportionally with the English, as the wants of the German population required. In the German schools one half the time is given to instruction in English.
In 1845 a night school for instruction in the ordinary English branches was opened to meet the wants of apprentices and others who were unable to attend the day schools. For many years night schools were kept open during the winter months, in different parts of the city, with apparently excellent results until 1888, when they were discontinued for want of sufficient patronage.
Until 1849 no provision was made by law for the education of colored youth, who were excluded from the public schools. By the school law of 1849 school authorities were authorized to establish separate school districts for colored per- sons, to be managed by directors to be chosen by adults male colored tax-payers. The property of colored taxpayers was alone chargeable for the support of these schools. Under this law a school was opened in 1849 and continued until the school law of 1853 placed schools for colored youth on the same basis as those for white. Boards of education were directed, when the colored youth in any school district numbered more than thirty, to establish a separate school or schools to be sustained out of the general fund. From that time until 1887 the colored schools were conducted under the management of the board of education, and colored youth had equal facilities of education extended to them with the white. A commodious brick school house was erected on Fifth street for the use of the colored graded school, known as the Tenth district, and pupils prepared in it were admitted to the intermediate and high schools. While under the fourteenth amendment which became a part of the constitution of the United States in 1868, colored youth had the legal right to demand admission to the public schools in the city districts in which they resided, the right was not claimed by the parents of colored youth. The separate colored school was continued until 1887, when, as a measure of economy and of more efficient teaching, the board of education
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abolished it. Colored youth now attend without objection the schools in the dis- tricts in which they reside.
In 1849 music was introduced as a branch of study. For several years only a few hours each week were devoted to music, and instruction was given in the upper grades only. In April, 1849, James Turpin was elected instructor, and served until 1853 when he resigned to enter into business. In March, 1853, Charles Soehner was elected and served until December, 2, 1858. December 2, 1858, James Turpin was reelected and served until 1870.
In 1870 the board employed W. B. Hall and Miss Amanda Buvinger as super- intendent of music and assistant, both of whom were to devote their whole time to the schools, and give instruction in all the grades. In 1872, William H. Clarke was elected superintendent of music, and introduced the plan now adopted in the schools of using the teachers as assistants. This in some measure meets the ob- jection that no one man can do the work necessary to be done in this department. The teacher in each room is now responsible for the proficiency of the scholars in this as in the other branches of study. The aim is not simply to teach the scholars to sing by rote, but to give them a thorough knowledge of the rudiments of music.
After the resignation of Mr. Clarke, December 12, 1872, James Turpin was elected superintendent, February 13, 1873, but died in November, 1873. Mr. Tur- pin was the first music teacher elected by the board, in 1849, and at different periods rendered many years of faithful and efficient service in this department.
F. C. Mayer was elected January 8, 1874, to succeed Mr. Turpin, and has been continued in the position until the present time ( 1889).
As the public schools grew in popularity, and the large majority of the chil- dren of all classes in the city attended them, the need of instruction in the higher branches was more and more felt by the public. In 1847, the board of education procured from the legislature the extension to Dayton of the provision of the Akron school law, granting to that town authority to establish a high school. In 1848, the principals of the schools petitioned the board for the privilege of teaching some of the higher branches to meet a want expressed by many of their more advanced pupils. In their petition they state that many of their best scholars are drawn from the public to private schools from the lack of this instruction, and say that we at present desire to introduce the elements of algebra and geometry, and perhaps physiology and natural philosophy. A committee of the board re- ported on this petition that it would not be wise to introduce such instruction in the district schools, but recommended the establishment of a high school. It was not, however, until 1850 that decisive action was taken. On April 5, 1850, Henry L. Brown offered the following resolution, which was unanimously adopted :
Resolved, That this board do now establish the Central High School of Dayton, in which shall be taught the higher branches of an English education, and the German and French languages, besides thoroughly reviewing the studies pur- sued in the district schools.
Mr. Brown was an earnest friend of the public schools and gave a large amount of thought and time to their advancement. He was for many years a member of the board of education, served for several years as its president, and rendered invaluable service to our public schools.
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On April 15, 1850, the school was opened in the northeastern (now the first) district schoolhouse. James Campbell was the principal, Miss Mary Dickson assistant and James Turpin teacher of music. In the fall of 1850, the school was removed to the Academy building, the free use of which was granted by the trus- tees to the board of education. In June, 1857, an enabling act having been ob- tained from the legislature, the trustees of the Academy executed a deed for the property to the board of education, and the same year the old building was re- moved and the present high school building erected. Thus our high school, as a school for higher education, may legitimately trace its history back to 1808. While the new house was being built, the school was taught in rented rooms in Dickey's block, on Fifth street.
The curriculum of the school has been enlarged from time to time until it now embraces all the studies usually taught in the best city high schools. Latin or its equivalent German is required to be studied by all the pupils. Greek is also taught to those who desire to prepare for college, and a large number of pupils have gone from the high school to the best colleges in the country, and many of them have taken high rank in their classes.
In 1855 Jean Barthelemy was appointed instructor in French and taught for several years, but comparatively so few desired to pursue that study that it was discontinued.
In 1857 the total enrollment of pupils in the high school was one hundred and one; in 1888 four hundred and twenty-eight. The number of teachers in 1857 (including Mr. Campbell who gave one half his time) was four; in 1888 eleven. In 1857, the salary of the principal was one thousand and two hundred dollars; in 1888 two thousand dollars. The following persons have filled the office of prin- cipal : James Campbell, from 1850 to 1858; John W. Hall, from 1858 to 1866; William Smith, from 1866 to 1872; Charles B. Stivers, from 1872 to 1889. The total number of graduates is seven hundred and twenty-three; two hundred and twenty young men and five hundred and three young women. A large majority of the teachers in our public schools are graduates of the high school, and other graduates are filling prominent positions in business circles and society. To say nothing of intellectual and moral culture, if the material prosperity only of our city were considered, no better expenditure of public money could have been made.
The constitution of Ohio adopted in 1851 directed that the legislature shall make such provision by taxation or otherwise as, with the income arising from the school trust fund, will secure a thorough and efficient system of common schools throughout the state. The first legislature elected under the new constitution enacted the excellent school law of 1853. Up to this time our schools had been conducted under the city charter, and parts of several acts of the legislature that were construed to apply to them. To simplify and make certain the law applicable to our schools, and to relieve the board in its action from the supervision of the city council, it was determined, in accordance with a provision of the law of 1853, to submit to a popular vote the question of conducting the schools of the city under that law. The vote was taken at the city election in April, 1855, and decided, without opposition, in the affirmative. The city council passed an ordi- nance May 25, 1855, defining the number, the mode of election, and the term of
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office of the board of education. Heretofore, the board had consisted of one member from each ward, appointed by the city council to serve one year. Under the ordinance the board was to be composed of two members from each ward, one to be elected each year by the people, with a term of service of two years. The first board it provided should be appointed by the council. From 1855 until the present time the schools have been conducted under this ordinance and the general school laws of the state. The first board appointed, one half to serve until the next city election, was composed of the following members: First ward, D. A. Wareham, Harvey Blanchard; Second ward, Robert W. Steele, J. G. Stuts- man ; Third ward, Henry L. Brown, James McDaniel; Fourth ward, E. J. For- syth, W. S. Phelps ; Fifth ward, John Lawrence, J. Snyder; Sixth ward, William Bomberger, W. N. Love.
In 1855 the Public School Library was established, a history of which will be given under another head.
The need of a general superintendent, to give unity to our school system, had long been felt by members of the board of education, but the opposition of some of the teachers who had influence with a majority of the board, and the plea of economy, prevented for years the establishment of the office. Duties of supervi- sion were imposed on members of the board, which, at the best, were very imper- fectly discharged. It was not until 1855 that the office was created, and James Campbell, principal of the high school, elected superintendent, with the under- standing that he should retain his principalship, and devote one half his time to the supervision of the schools. Mr. Campbell prepared a report of the condi- tion of the schools for 1856-1857, which was the first extended report of the schools published. In May, 1859, Mr. Campbell resigned to engage in private business. Although the office was not abolished, repeated efforts were made in vain to elect a superintendent until 1866. In that year, impressed with the ur- gent need of supervision for the schools, Mr. Caleb Parker, a member of the board who had retired from business, and who, in early life, had had considerable experience as a teacher, agreed to accept the position, with the distinct proviso on his part that his services should be without compensation. He was elected in July, 1866, and served until April, 1868, when he tendered his resignation. The second published report of the board for 1866-1867 was prepared by him. On retiring from the office, Mr. Parker received a unanimous. vote of thanks from the board for his disinterested and very useful services.
Again it was impossible to find a man who could command the vote of the majority of the board for superintendent. Various expedients were resorted to by members of the board friendly to the office to secure an election. To remove the objection of unnecessary cost in conducting the schools, a plan which had been adopted with marked success in Cleveland was proposed. A committee of the board was appointed to consider it, and reported June 22, 1871, that the efficiency of the school system would be increased without expense by the elec- tion of a superintendent, a supervising male principal, and female principals for the district schools. This report was adopted by the board, and Warren Higley elected superintendent, and F. W. Parker supervising principal. This plan was continued for two years with excellent results; but the majority of the board of 1873 decided to return to the old system.
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In 1873 Samuel C. Wilson was elected superintendent and served for one year.
In 1874, John Hancock, whose reputation for ability and large experience as a teacher and superintendent commended him to the board, was elected and continued in the office until 1884. Dr. Hancock gave ten of the best years of his life to our schools and is worthy of lasting remembrance and gratitude by the people of Dayton.
In 1884 James C. Burns was elected and served until 1888.
In 1888 W. J. White, the present incumbent, was elected.
It was found that, owing to the removal of scholars from school before reach- ing the eighth year grade, the classes of that grade were very small in some of the districts. The principals, who were receiving the highest salaries, were giving the most of their time to these classes and the cost of teaching them was excessive. To remedy this, the intermediate school was established in 1874, and all the pupils of the eighth year grade were assigned to that school. The course of study was not enlarged, and the school was simply a union of the classes of the eighth year grade for convenience and economy. W. P. Gardner was the first principal, who after serving one year declined a re-election. Samuel C. Wilson was elected principal in 1875, and held the position until the school was discontinued. The causes which led to the establishment of the school having largely disappeared, in 1886 the school was closed and the eighth year classes were restored to the several districts.
It was impossible to procure experienced teachers to fill the vacancies con- stantly occurring in the schools. Young girls, without knowledge of methods of government or teaching, were placed over rooms full of children just at the most irrepressible period of their lives. These positions were confessedly the most difficult to fill of any at the disposal of the board, but there was no alternative. Ambitious and experienced teachers, naturally sought the rooms where the higher branches were taught, leaving the lower grades for the novices. It is true that some of the best and most valued teachers now in the schools began without experience, but the first year of their teaching was a heavy labor to themselves and an injustice to their pupils. A partial remedy was found by making the position of an experienced and successful primary teacher as honorable and the pay as large as that of any teacher in the district schools below the grade of principal. But that did not fully meet the case and the board determined to edu- cate its teachers. A committee of the board, August 18, 1869, presented a de- tailed plan for a normal school and teachers' institute, which was unanimously adopted.
The first week of each school year was devoted to the teachers' institute. All the teachers of the public schools in the city were required to attend and to render such assistance in instruction as may be requested by the superintendent of schools. The best methods of teaching and government were discussed and taught, and lectures delivered on these subjects by experienced teachers at home and from abroad. This institute was conducted with great zest and profit for several years, but as it required labor and time on the part of the teachers, they grew weary of it and with doubtful wisdom it was discontinued.
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