USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Memoirs of the Miami valley > Part 15
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In 1853, a further step was taken by the Cincinnati conference of the Methodist Episcopal church when a committee recommended the establishment of a literary institution of higher order for the colored people generally. In 1856, Tawawa Springs, a summer re- sort of that day, located near Xenia, was secured as a location for the institution. To the promotion of this enterprise the Methodist Episcopal and the African Methodist Episcopal conferences of Ohio joined hands.
In 1889 the state came to the assistance of the school by the establishment of a normal and industrial department which it reor- ganized in 1896 and placed under a separate board of nine trustees and granted it thirty-five ten thousandths of a mill of the grand tax duplicate.
This institution now has a plant of nine school buildings 'and eight cottages and 571 students from all over the United States and Canada, South America, Africa, the Bermuda Islands, the Bahamas and the West Indies.
In 1845 the Evangelical Lutheran synod inaugurated a move- ment toward the establishment and maintenance of a literary and theological institution of high grade in the Miami valley. The ef- fort culminated in the founding at Springfield, Ohio, of Wittenberg college an institution which by reason of the broad and fundamental Christian principles and the high educational standards which it has maintained has rendered a large service to society.
Urbana university was founded in 1850 to provide for the edu- cation of youth in all the branches of academic, scientific and ex- egetic instruction, in the light of the philosophy of the church of New Jerusalem. In view of the distinctive ideas held by those of that cult as to the relation of spirit and matter, this school, while supplying a denominational want, has not had a general appeal to the youth of this section and the attendance has been quite limited.
On December 2, 1850, steps were taken by that denomination commonly known as Christian, which resulted in the founding of Antioch college at Yellow Springs university. Provision was made for a building fund of $100,000. Twenty acres of land and $20,- 000 in money was given by William Mills and $100,000 by other citizens of Yellow Springs to promote the enterprise. Horace Mann, the distinguished educator, was the first president. The young in- stitution soon found itself on the rocks due to bad financial admin- istration, all the property of the college was sold under foreclosure proceedings to a new corporation for the sum of $40,000. The con- trol of the institution now passed under the control of the Unitarian denomination of Christians greatly to its prejudice in the minds of many of its former friends. In 1882 the administration of the col- lege passed to the Christian educational society.
Although the Quakers entered the Miami valley in large num- bers very early in the 19th century, it was not until 1870 that they took steps toward the establishment of an institution of higher learn- ing. In that year Wilmington college was founded by the Miami center and Fairfield Quarterly Meetings of Friends. In 1914 the control of the college was vested in the Wilmington Yearly Meet- ing, and its management vested in a board of nine trustees.
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Theological Schools. A fact which forcibly strikes the student of the educational history of the Miami valley is the number of theo- logical seminaries located within its bounds.
In 1829, Miami university announced the establishment of a theological department. Little is known of this enterprise other than that it is described as a three years' course embracing reading the scriptures in the original Hebrew and Greek, a short mathematical course, history, rhetoric and natural and moral philosophy. Two things that transpired in the educational world at about that date may have served to crowd this enterprise into obscurity.
One was the founding in 1829 of Lane Theological seminary on a grant of money by two brothers, New Orleans merchants, whose name was given to the institution, and of approximately 100 acres of land located on Walnut Hills, Cincinnati, given by the descend- ants of James Kemper, the pioneer Presbyterian minister of the Miami valley, on which was already located a well finished academy with a dwelling house by it. In 1832 the theological department was organized with Dr. Lyman Beecher at its head. Dr. Beecher expressed the spirit of those who were its promoters when he said to plant Christianity in the west is as grand an undertaking as it was to plant it in the Roman Empire, with unspeakably greater perma- nence of power. This institution has developed with the years and is today an important part of the Presbyterian educational system.
Another thing that affected the status of theological instruction at Miami university was the establishment at Oxford in 1837, by the Associate Reformed Presbyterian church, of the Theological seminary under the direction of Rev. Joseph Claybaugh, D. D. The work of this institution was so closely related to that of the univer- sity that from 1850-55 it was affiliated with the university and its president made a member of the Miami faculty. Upon the union of the Associate and Associate Reformed Presbyterian churches to form the United Presbyterian church, the seminary was moved in 1857 to Monmouth, and in 1874, when it was consolidated with the Xenia Theological seminary.
This latter institution was the outgrowth of one of the earliest attempts made in the United States to found an institution devoted exclusively to theological instruction. In 1794 the Rev. John An- derson, D. D., was brought over from Scotland by the Associate Presbyterian church, and under his direction an institution for im- parting theological instruction was founded at Service in western Pennsylvania. In 1830 the institution was transferred to Canons- burgh, Pa., where it continued in operation until 1855, when it was relocated at Xenia, Ohio, where it continues in operation.
Other theological seminaries located within the valley are the following: Hamma Divinity school of Wittenberg college, founded in 1844; the Central Theological school of the Reformed church in the United States (1848) at Dayton; Bonebrake Theological semi- nary (1871) of the United Brethren church; Hebrew Union college (1875) ; Payne Theological seminary of Wilberforce university, 1892.
Another educational development of the early days was the founding in 1833 of the Law school of Cincinnati college by a group of Cincinnati lawyers who had received their instruction in the Dane
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Law school at Cambridge. While not so old as the Law college of Transylvania university, it is the oldest law college west of the Allegheny mountains that is now in operation.
In 1835 it was incorporated with the Cincinnati college, from which time it has been known as the law school of Cincinnati col- lege and took up its location in the college buildings located at the corner of Fourth and Walnut streets. Upon the suspension of the Cincinnati college, the law school fell heir to its property, which in time became of such value that today it affords the law school a very handsome income.
Attention has already been called to the genesis of medical edu- cation in the valley. This early beginning has made a consistent growth, the history of which has been so admirably treated by Dr. Otto Juettner in his paper on The Rise of the Medical Colleges, pub- lished in the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society's Publica- tions for 1913, that the student of this subject is referred to that article for further information.
Education of Women. One marked development of this period was along the line of the education of women. A beginning had been made along this line prior to 1820. After that date the move- ment gained in impetus and a number of such schools were estab- lished throughout the valley, at least one of which has persisted to the present time. Ex-President Sherzer of Oxford college has so well described this movement that we will use her language.
In 1823 John Locke, M. D., established the Cincinnati Female academy on Walnut street, between Third and Fourth streets. There were teachers in the French language, music, penmanship, and needlework, and an assistant in the preparatory department. Twelve gentlemen formed a board of visitors who examined the pupils and superintended the academy. The price of tuition, exclu- sive of music and the French language, was from $4 to $10 a quarter. In August of each year there was a public examination at which medals and honorary degrees of the academy were awarded. Fol- lowing the annual examination there was a vacation of four weeks. The academy possessed competent apparatus for illustrations in chemistry, natural philosophy, astronomy, and for teaching the simple elements of the different branches to the younger pupils. The demonstrative method of teaching was employed, by which a knowledge of things instead of words alone was imparted. In fact, it was Pestalozzi's method of instruction. Patrons were care- fully informed that the idea entertained by some persons that the system of Pestalozzi tends to infidelity was unfounded.
About four years were required to pass through the prescribed course of study in order to obtain the honorary degree of the acad- emy. Mrs. Frances Trollope, who in 1828 visited Cincinnati, in her book on Domestic Manners of Americans, speaks with surprise of an exhibition where the higher branches of science were among the studies * * and where one lovely girl of sixteen took her degree in mathematics and another, was examined in moral philosophy.
In 1823 the Cincinnati Female college or school, kept by Albert and John W. Pickett, from New York state, seems to have been
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especially popular. Their method of teaching was the analytic or inductive. Their course of study embraced the ordinary branches taught in a female academy, including the Latin, Greek, and French languages, music and drawing. The school occupied a suite of rooms in the south wing of the Cincinnati college edifice. Flint's Western Monthly Review of April, 1830, gives an account of the commencement exercises, when eleven gold medals were distributed for proficiency in Latin, Greek, French, mathematics, music and painting.
I have in my possession a letter written by one of the pupils of Mr. Pickett's school, dated September 29, 1837. This quaint epistle gives such a vivid description of the college life of a girl in those early days that it is here inserted :
Cincinnati, September 29, Friday afternoon, 1837.
Dear Lizzy :
As I have finished my copy, and as it is some time until we are called up with our writing, I will commence a letter to you. I am sitting in the third story of Pickett's Female institution, next Mary Starbuck, amidst a number of girls who were all entire strangers to me two weeks ago, but Harriet Haven and Adelia Goshorn. I am pleased quite beyond my expectation, with my school, and my schoolmates, and my new home, and everything else in the city, but I must confess I was very homesick the first several days that I attended school, in consequence of seeing none but strange faces, and Mr. Pickett, my teacher, was strange to me, and the rules of the school were so new and very different from Miss Havens; but now as I am acquainted with all the young ladies in the senior depart- ment I am very happy in my new situation. I will now tell you about our journey down here. Father and I started from Hamilton at 5 o'clock Tuesday, September 12, in the packet Clarion. The ladies' cabin was very crowded. Mrs. Campbell was also going down. We took tea at 8 o'clock on the boat. I sat up all night with some of the ladies, among whom was a Mrs. Hunt, newly married lady, and her husband from Connecticut, with whom I became ac- quainted. She pleased me very much by telling me of her travels over the United States ; they were very informing and interesting to me. We arrived at Cincinnati very early in the morning, father and I left the boat and went to Carters; that afternoon we visited the different schools accompanied by Mr. Barnes. We were pleased with them all, but more with Picketts. On Friday evening father left me for Hamilton. I felt I can't tell how at being left alone twenty-five miles from my nearest and dearest relatives. I am boarding at Dr. McGuire's on George street, a private family. They have but one child, and that a little boy. Mrs. McGuire was for- merly Louisa Walden, the lady who painted that beautiful geranium in Georgetta Haven's album ; she is a graduate of Dr. Lockes. Her sister Elizabeth is here spending some time with her ; she is a young lady of my age and very mild and pleasant, we have fine times to- gether. Next week we have no school on account of the convention of teachers, which will be very great; gentlemen from all parts of
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the Union are coming to it, some have already arrived. Our school was this morning visited by a Mr. Scott of Tennessee, one of the members. I promised myself a great deal of pleasure in expecta- tion of some of the girls coming to the convention, but I am afraid I shall be disappointed, for Mr. McGuire speaks of taking us all to Perrinsville, a village about twenty miles below Cincinnati, to spend the week. I attended the theater one evening last week; the per- formance was the "Robber's Wife" and "Soldier's Daughter." Mrs. Shaw is the only theatrical star in the city, and she will leave in a few days, but the whole Ravel family will be here in a week or two, which consists of eighteen persons, the great French dancers. They will draw full houses. The new theater is situated on Sycamore street. It is very richly decorated with chandeliers and paintings and curtains, part of which are white satin.
Last Sunday I was out all afternoon in a gig riding with a friend. We went eight miles below Cincinnati, past the Hunting park. We passed some of the most splendid country seats.
I believe I have told you all I know of any consequence, and school is very near out, so I must finish as soon as possible. Reply soon. Direct your letter to me in care of Dr. T. McGuire, Cincin- nati; it is immaterial about the street. Give my love to all my acquaintances, reserving a large share for yourself. Answer this by a long letter.
I am your loving friend,
Amelia C. Hittell.
According to Drake and Mansfield, the oldest female boarding school in Cincinnati was kept by the Misses Bailey, "women well qualified and of high respectability," assisted by Mr. F. Eckstein. It was located on Broadway between Market and Columbia streets. The date of its founding is unknown. All the elementary, as well as the higher branches of female education, including the French lan- guage, music, painting, and drawing, were taught in this institution.
There was also a school kept by Mrs. Ryland, an English woman of much culture. In 1833 Mrs. Caroline Lee Heintz, the celebrated novelist, together with her husband, a cultured Frenchman, had a popular school for a short time. In the same year is mentioned one on the site of St. John's hospital, kept by Miss Catherine Beecher and her sister, Harriet. But Harriet soon married Prof. Stowe and Catherine became a missionary for female education in the west. Miss Mary Duton, as assistant, then took charge, but after a time she gave up and went to New Hampshire, where she maintained a flourishing school for many years.
In Oxford, Ohio, in response to a demand from the faculty of Miami university that their daughters might have an opportunity of higher education, such as their sons were receiving in the Miami university, there was opened a school for girls in 1830. Miss Bethania Crocker, the daughter of a Congregational clergyman of Massachusetts, was put in charge.
This young girl, although but sixteen years of age, had been given a thorough education by her father, including Greek, Latin
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and Hebrew. She was aided in her work by the counsel of Presi- dent Bishop of Miami university, and Profs. McGuffey and John Winfield Scott. After three or four years this talented young woman married the Rev. George Bishop, son of President R. H. Bishop of Miami university. The Misses Smith and Clark from the east then continued the school, one of these women being the sister-in-law of Henry Ward Beecher. They soon were married and gave place to other principals, among them the Misses Lucy and Ann North, all of whom married professors from Miami, or clergy- men.
February 27, 1839, the school was chartered as the Oxford Female academy by a special act of the legislature, for a period of thirty years, the incorporators being John W. Scott, William Graham, James E. Hughes, William W. Robertson, Herman B. Mayo, George G. White, and James Leach, and the capital stock was limited to $10,000. The corporate concerns of the said academy were to be managed by a board of seven trustees, who were to be elected annually by the stockholders. This school formed the nu- cleus of the Oxford college for women, at the present time a pros- perous standard college, the oldest Protestant school for women in the United States conferring the B. A. degree.
Only one catalogue of those early days is in existence-a cata- logue of the year 1838-9, in the possession of Mrs. DeNise (Mary E. Schenck of Franklin, Ohio, of the class of 1839), now of Burling- ton, Iowa, the oldest living graduate of the institution. The teachers at the time were Miss Ann L. North, principal ; Miss Marion Crume, assistant; Miss Sarah. E. Werz, instructor in vocal music, and Mrs. M. N. Scott, instructor in instrumental music. There were fifty- four pupils in attendance, the roll including Caroline L. Scott, who was to become the wife of President Benjamin Harrison. The academy was divided into two departments, each department divided into two classes. In the first department, first class, were taught reading, writing, spelling, Ray's Eclectic Arithmetic, First Lessons of Philosophy for Children, Parley's History of Geology and History of Animals, First Book of History; tuition per quarter, $3.00. In the second class were, Goldsmith's History of Greece and Rome, Smith's Grammar, Colburn's Mental Arithmetic, Goodrich's History of the United States, Malt Brun's Geography, Human Physiology, Davies' Arithmetic, and Comstock's Natural Philosophy, com- menced; tuition per quarter, $3.75. The junior class (second de- partment) studied Davies' Arithmetic and Comstock's Natural Phi- losophy (continued), Kirkham's Grammar, Whelpley's Compend of Ancient and Modern History, Watts On the Mind, Colburn's Al- gebra, Mrs. Lincoln's Botany, Paley's Natural Theology, Blair's Lectures on Rhetoric, Jones' Chemistry, geography of the heavens, geology, Legendre's Geometry (commenced) ; tuition per quarter, $5.00. In the senior class the subjects were Legendre's Geometry (continued), Hedge's Logic, Paley's Evidences of Christianity, New- man's Political Economy, Kames' Criticism, mental philosophy, Butler's Analogy; Wayland's Moral Philosophy, and Davies' Al- gebra. For instruction in the French language, drawing, painting, and instrumental music, additional charge was made. The daily
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study of the Holy Scriptures, writing and vocal music were con- tinued through the whole course. A weekly composition was re- quired of every pupil, to be read and carefully criticised. A paper, edited and furnished with original pieces by the young ladies, af- forded an advantage to those who wished to improve their talent of writing. Every scholar, on her entrance into school, was examined in the fundamental branches, such as spelling, reading, etc., and if found deficient, was expected to devote some time to their acquisi- tion and, if possible, to become well-versed in them, as a thorough acquaintance with the elementary studies is indispensable to a cor- rect education. Particular care was taken to have the young ladies thorough in all they studied, and no one was permitted to pursue such a variety of branches at one time as to dissipate and weaken rather than strengthen the intellectual faculties.
The year is divided into two terms and vacations. The winter term commences the first Monday of October and closes the first Wednesday of March. It is succeeded by a vacation of two weeks. The summer term commences the third Wednesday of March and closes the third Wednesday of August. It is succeeded by a vaca- tion of about six weeks. Those who pass a thorough examination in the preparatory studies will be admitted into the junior class. Those who pass a similar examination in the elementary branches and those of the junior class may be admitted into the senior class. Those who, in addition, are well acquainted with the studies of the senior class, will, at the close, receive a testimonial of having com- pleted with honor the course of study in this institution. Pupils of the academy are favored gratuitously with a course of weekly lectures in natural science, with an extensive apparatus and means of illustration, by Prof. Scott of Miami university.
Recently it was the privilege of the writer to spend a few hours with Mrs. DeNise of Burlington, Iowa. Although in her ninetieth year, she has full possession of all her faculties and converses about her school days in Oxford with the vivacity of a young woman. With two other prospective pupils, she drove to Oxford from Frank- lin, a distance of twenty-eight miles, in a private conveyance. With several of her classmates she lived in the home of Mr. Harry Lewis, one of the family to which the husband of Mrs. Phillip Moore belongs. The pupils from a distance were thus taken care of in the homes of the people of Oxford, and formed the first cottage system, which has had in recent years its fullest development at Smith col- lege. She described the school room vividly-a long, rectangular room, with a platform at one end, on which sat the presiding teacher. Benches, ranged around the walls, were occupied by the students during the day. The class reciting was summoned to the seats im- mediately in front of the instructor. The curriculum was the one above described.
Another school for girls founded during this early period was the Hamilton & Rossville Female academy founded by Hon. John Wood and others, in 1832. A fund of $2,500 was raised, a building erected and a Miss Murial Drummond elected principal. She was later superseded by Miss Georgetta Hahn, a graduate of Dr. Locke's school at Cincinnati. So popular was this school that the attend-
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ance soon increased until in 1836 it numbered 127 pupils. Later the school declined and in 1856 the property was sold.
The Western college is the outgrowth of the Mount Holyoke idea transplanted to Ohio valley soil. It was the thought of its promoters to make possible for women that higher education which could be had only when established on the same basis as men's colleges. With this in view, the Western Female seminary was founded at Oxford in 1855. It announced its aim as follows, to give young women the best education that the times afforded, at the lowest possible cost and under distinctly Christian influences.
With the development of educational ideals, the Western kept progress and in 1901, as expressive of her new character, changed her name to the Western College for Women. She is one of the very best colleges of her type to be found to the westward of the Allegheny mountains.
European Influences on Education. One fact that strikes the student of the educational development was the attention given at an early date to the study of the foreign languages, if we may credit an advertisement inserted in the Western Spy for September 10, 1799. Francis Menessier conducted a French class at his coffee house at the foot of Main street shortly after that date. In 1826, French was being taught in the Cincinnati Female college, the Female Boarding school and in the Cincinnati Female school.
The Miami university catalogue for 1833 says "French, Spanish, German, and Italian are regularly taught and two of them at least must be studied to obtain a diploma." These early attempts, how- ever, do not appear to have been attended with great success. At Miami in 1835 the attempt was discontinued as "a natural and moral impossibility" to teach modern languages successfully to college classes, and was not again seriously attempted until 1850.
The counterpart of this attempt to teach American youth the modern European languages was the movement to provide instruc- tion in English for the children of non-English speaking immigrants. Expression of interest along this line was the formation prior to 1838 of the Immigrants' Friend society. The object of this organi- zation was "to educate the children of foreigners in the English language; to instruct them in the Scriptures, and the nature of our free institutions." At that time they had one school in Cincinnati with 200 pupils in daily attendance. Another had been recently established at Louisville and still a third at New Albany. The importance of this work was recognized by Nathan Guilford, who, in his report of 1852, says: "We must educate them all! Universal suffrage and universal intelligence must go together. The state must provide the means of a good education freely to all. She must plant and liberally support public schools in every neighborhood, where the rising generations of all classes, without distinction of sex, rank, or nativity, may freely receive such mental and moral training as shall enable every individual to comprehend the genius of the institutions under which he lives; clearly to understand his rights and duties; to form judicious opinions of the measures of administration; to distinguish the true from the counterfeit; to despise the demagogue; and to honor the true patriot.
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