USA > Ohio > Knox County > Past and present of Knox County, Ohio, Vol. I > Part 13
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The salient features of Kenyon, both those which serve to classify it and those which serve to differentiate it from other members of its own class, may be briefly summarized. In the first place, Kenyon confines itself strictly to undergraduate work of collegiate character. It offers no graduate work; that is for the universities. It offers no technical courses; those too are for the universities and the institutes of technology. It offers no business courses ; these do not properly belong to the sphere of education. It does offer a man a "liberal" education, the education of a gentleman. It gives him a general foundation of knowledge, which will enable him to appreciate and follow the manifold intellectual interests and activities of the time and to choose and pursue his profession or business with intelligence and efficiency. It tries to fit him for an intelligent share in the business and pleasure of life.
With a view to presenting a conspectus of the field of knowledge, the Kenyon curriculum, like the curriculum of other colleges of its type, aims to offer a sufficient number of courses to give some scope for individual pref- erences and not a sufficient number to admit of much specializing. Ob- viously only a limited amount of work can be done in the four years of a college course. If a man can carry only sixteen or seventeen hours of work a week for this period, it confers no particular intellectual benefit upon him that the courses offered are so numerous that it would take him seventy years to complete all of them, as is the case in some of our universities. He has only
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four years to spend and not seventy, and the college, which, in order to give some scope for the tastes of the individual, offers courses covering ten or fifteen years' work, is doing as much for the individual as the university. The thirstiest man can drink no more from a river than from a spring. There must be some knowledge which is of most importance to the aver- age man, and it is for imparting this knowledge that the college courses are organized.
The Kenyon faculty still hold to the opinion-delusion they hope it is not-that they are somewhat better equipped to select courses for the average freshman than he is to do it for himself, and accordingly they exercise a general supervision over his choice of work from the beginning to the end of his college course. Professor Munsterberg has compared the free elective system as practiced in some of our universities to the condition of a man who, knowing no French, tries to order a dinner from a French bill of fare by pointing out the name of one and another dish with no idea whether it is a roast or a soup or an entree that he is indicating. No doubt, says Professor Munsterberg, the waiter will bring him a dinner, but he cannot be said to have elected his courses. As Kenyon, like the other colleges of its type, wishes its students to be provided with a regular dinner and not a meal com- posed of soups alone or of salads alone, the faculty have labeled the roast, and the entree, and the others, and told each man that he must take every- thing from the fish to the coffee, only that he may choose which roast or which salad it shall be. Thus the sophomore in the course in arts must take one ancient language, but may choose which ; he must take one modern lan- guage, but may choose whether it be French, German or Spanish; he must take one science, but may choose between mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology. Then, to allow full scope to the individual taste, the student is permitted to make one election in any department he pleases.
Moreover, students' electives being largely determined by caprice or circumstance or accident, it has seemed wise to guard against shifting pur- pose and lack of continuity. Accordingly, at least two of the courses of the sophomore year must be carried throughout the junior year, and at least one junior course must be continued in the senior year. As the best thing a col- lege can do for a man is to teach him to speak and write his native tongue with precision, if not with elegance, and to enjoy its literature, English is prescribed for all men in all courses throughout the four years.
From what has been said it follows almost as a corollary that Kenyon is, in the second place, a small college. It is only the few nowadays-and the percentage is perhaps smaller in the West than in the East-that desire a
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liberal education, and so Kenyon has never had more than a hundred and fifty undergraduates, exclusive of theological students. Knowing that it has not the necessary equipment for good work in technical, graduate or profes- sional courses, Kenyon has made no "bid" for greater numbers by offering makeshift courses in those departments; it professes to do only what it can do well and thoroughly. Another obvious means of increasing numbers is to admit women, but neither to this means has Kenyon cared to resort. It remains practically alone among Western colleges in maintaining the old- fashioned tradition of separate education and in making no provision for the education of women.
But Kenyon is a small college not only from necessity, but from con- viction. At a time when a great college like Princeton is trying to split itself up into smaller units, it is superfluous to enlarge upon the benefits of the small college-upon the personal attention its faculty is able to bestow upon students, both inside and outside the class room; upon its way of treating students as individuals instead of units, upon its development of personality. In Kenyon, which with its hundred and fifty students maintains all the ath- letic and social organizations that mark American college life, every man, however small his ability, must do what he can. The environment awakens and cultivates his sense of individuality, his realization of the true import- ance of his personal life. In the small college, as in ancient Athens and medieval Florence, each man, plainly seeing what his own effort contributes to the common weal, is stimulated to his best endeavor.
A third feature of Kenyon is its dormitory life. The Greek letter frater- nities, though active at Kenyon, have not here, as elsewhere, broken the col- lege up into independent groups. By segregating the several fraternities in different parts of the dormitories privacy is secured to the fraternities with- out sacrifice of the esprit du corps which results from community life. A call in front of Old Kenyon will summon every man in college.
It is the more remarkable that Kenyon should have been able to keep out the fraternity house, that source of disunion, because the Kenyon chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon built the first fraternity lodge in the United States; but the interior arrangement of Old Kenyon has no doubt been a determining factor. The building is in five distinct sections, some of which have no com- munication except through the basement, and it has a separate entrance for each section or "division." When Hanna Hall was erected the same plan of separate divisions was adhered to. Three divisions of Old Kenyon are oc- cupied by the Delta Kappa Epsilon, Alpha Delta Phi and Delta Tau Delta fraternities, and two divisions of Hanna Hall by the Psi Upsilon and Beta
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Theta Pi fraternities, leaving two divisions of Old Kenyon and one of Hanna Hall for non-fraternity men.
Hanna Hall was erected in 1902 by Senator Hanna in honor of his wife, and is a model of a college dormitory. Old Kenyon, though Bishop Chase regarded it as "containing more conveniences" than any building that ever he saw, left much to be desired in the eyes of our softer generation, and ac- cordingly, thanks in part to contributions from alumni of the fraternities residing in the building, the whole interior has been rebuilt within the last year. By the skill of the architect, C. . F. Schweinfurth, it has become in point of equipment one of the finest, and in point of finish one of the hand- somest college dormitories in the country.
A fourth distinctive feature of Kenyon is the entire absorption of its students in college activities. Other colleges are in towns or cities; Kenyon is in the country. There is no life for the students except what they make for themselves, and the isolation of the situation makes college life all the more intense.
In the fifth place, Kenyon, as the apostle of true culture, has always taught the meaning of beauty and the subordination of the material to the spiritual. Philander Chase, its founder, was a man of taste in a generation in which few Americans thought of beauty. Life within his college walls might be crude and primitive, but the walls themselves should be permanent, in stone and nobly reared. Side by side with Old Kenyon it was impossible to erect mean or commonplace buildings, and so on the hill above the muddy Kokosing has arisen a group of buildings worthy of comparison with those on the banks of the Isis or the Cam.
Kenyon College, with its serene and stately beauty, has a lesson of re- finement to teach. In the old days students might be obliged to carry their own wood and water, but it was in a building which had the majestic propor- tions-as well as the conveniences-of a medieval castle. The student may tramp knee-deep in snow, but he does it with the music of the Canterbury chimes in his ears. If the last new book that he wants is not on the library shelves, he can find there specimens of the printing of the great bookmakers. Kenyon is like a refined family which, if forced to subsist on meagre fare, will place its little upon the table with immaculate linen, delicate china and deft service. Kenyon has always been a poor college, but its poverty has al- ways been dignified. In the lives of the ill-paid professors, too, the Kenyon man sees that poverty need not be mean or sordid or unrefined. These are no small lessons for a young man to learn in a nation which as a nation is only beginning to love beauty and refinement, and which offers excessive worship to the dollar.
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HARCOURT PLACE SCHOOL.
By Harriette M. Collins.
A history of Knox county would be incomplete if mention of Harcourt Place School were omitted. A relative and close neighbor of Kenyon College, Harcourt Place School stands within the scholarly precincts of Gambier and, with the other institution, enjoys the quiet and seclusion which characterize that ideal little college town.
Harcourt Place School is particularly fortunate in its location and en- vironment. An elevation of eleven hundred feet above sea-level insures pure, invigorating air and an immunity from malaria. Convenient omnibus and train service afford easy communication, not only with the state capital and the county seat, but with every part of the country. Attractive grounds, which offer facilities for tennis and other out-of-door games, beautiful country roads and shady lanes-that remind one of rural England-invite the student to open-air exercise and recreation. Venerable woods, rolling hills and the lovely little river Kokosing vie with one another in lending charm to the surroundings of Harcourt and combine to form scenes which inspire alike the budding artist and the student of nature.
The attractiveness of Harcourt Place School, however, is not confined to its surroundings. The school home consists of three commodious red brick buildings which are vine-clad, connected by covered "bridges" and known respectively as McIlvaine House, Lewis Hall and Delano Hall.
Lewis Hall was erected as a memorial to the late Miss Anna Lewis, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John N. Lewis, of Mt. Vernon. Lewis Hall, with its sister buildings, faces the beautiful boulevard known as the Middle Path.
McIlvaine House is named in honor of the Rt. Rev. C. P. McIlvaine, the second bishop of the diocese of Ohio. Bishop McIlvaine, who was noted in his day as a man of fine taste, built a beautiful home in 1833 on the summit of Gambier Hill. The mansion was set in the midst of twelve acres of land and the estate received the name of Harcourt Place.
In 1846, Bishop McIlvaine moved to Cincinnati, Harcourt Place was purchased by the Rev. Alfred Blake, D. D., the first graduate from Kenyon College, and Harcourt Place School made its debut in the educational world as a boarding school for boys. In 1885 Harcourt Place was purchased by the regents of Kenyon Grammar School (now known as Kenyon College), and steps were immediately taken for the organization of a church school for young ladies and girls. On September 28, 1887, Harcourt Place School first
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opened its doors as a high class school for girls and since that date it has steadily kept pace with the van in the march of educational progress.
For eighteen years, Harcourt Place School grew and prospered under the able administration of Mr. and Mrs. H. N. Hills. Under their care the seminary grew from a small school to a large and influential one. In 1907 Miss H. Merwin, of New York, leased the beautiful estate of Harcourt Place, which had been greatly improved by the trustees of Kenyon College while the property was under their control. Miss Merwin brought to Har- court not only a magnetic personality, but a wealth of experience with east- ern educational methods, and that broader, deeper culture which results from years of earnest study abroad. Miss Merwin holds the reins of government at Harcourt with a firm but gentle hand. Skillful management and impar- tiality of judgment distinguish her administration as principal and assure to the individual members of her large household all the comforts of a refined home coupled with as much personal liberty as is consistent with the best interests of the school. Miss Merwin believes in progress-in keeping up with the latest approved methods in the training of girls. She believes in the symmetrical development of the whole woman, in the maintenance of a proper balance between the mental, physical and spiritual sides of being. By precept and example, Miss Merwin and her staff of teachers inculcate true politeness-the constant practice of little courtesies and the thoughtful at- tention to minor details which keep the social and domestic machinery run- ning smoothly and which, in every land, distinguish the gentlewoman.
The curriculum of Harcourt Place School offers a wide range of sub- jects and each subject is taught by a teacher who has specialized in that par- ticular subject, for, among the many special advantages offered by Harcourt is the somewhat unusual one that a large number of teachers are engaged in the instruction of a small number of pupils. "Ye Harcourt Mayde," the school paper, is deserving of the highest commendation. It is beautifully illustrated, abounds in bright witticisms, entertaining stories and clever verse.
Clever French, German and English plays are given by the students of Harcourt. These plays bear witness to the high excellence of the training received in foreign, as well as in the best English literature.
CHAPTER XIII.
NEWSPAPERS OF THE COUNTY.
The newspapers of America stand out prominently as civilizing factors and really mould and fashion public opinion to a great extent. As a gen- eral rule the fraternity of journalists in this country are able, painstaking and broad-minded in their opinions and actions. It is true that political papers are, at times, biased by party influence and cannot be relied upon at all times, but the news department, proper, of a majority of the local daily and weekly newspapers, as well as the greater national publications, is abreast with, if not superior to, those of any other country on the globe. The circulation of these newspapers is very large and generally distributed, being delivered even at the farmer's door in the early forenoon of each week day, by means of the modern rural delivery carriers. In this way every intelligent citizen of the land may inform himself daily as to the comings and goings of the busy world round him. The reader of a weekly or daily newspaper cannot fail of be- coming a thoroughly posted person. The rate charged for the modern paper is exceeding cheap, while the quality is superior to that of any other country. Of the two classes, perhaps the local newspaper is the most sought after and read the most constantly, giving, as these journals do, the "home news," in which all are most naturally interested.
KNOX COUNTY JOURNALISM.
In common with other sections of Ohio, this county has ever kept fully abreast the times in way of furnishing its citizens with excellent local daily and weekly newspapers and this chapter will undertake to give the reader something accurate concerning the founding and present standing of the publications within Knox county since the issue of its pioneer newspaper.
The Ohio Register, established in the pioneer village of Clinton, in July, 1813, by Smith & McArdle, was the first attempt at local journalism in Knox county. Samuel H. Smith, one of the founders of the paper, was also proprietor of the town of Clinton and John P. McArdle was an excel- lent practical printer, who emigrated from Ireland in the spring of 1801, coming to Knox county in 1809.
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Clinton not succeeding in gaining the county seat in a singular contest noticed elsewhere in this volume, it never materialized to be of much com- mercial importance, hence after two years of struggle, the paper was re- moved to the more fortunate town of Mt. Vernon, where, on April 24, 1816, it was first issued, bearing this motto: "Aware that what is base no polish can make sterling." This paper was indeed very small, being only an eight- by-ten-inch sheet of the folio style, at first. Its worthy, capable editor, Mr. Smith, announced in his first issue that his paper would not be the receptacle for party politics or personal abuse. In October, 1817, six months after removing to Mount Vernon, its columns contained the following notice to its patrons and subscribers: "For without this one thing necessary, it is im- possible to expect that we can live ; money would be preferable, but if that is scarce with you, rags, wheat, rye, corn, and almost all kinds of market prod- uce will be taken in payment."
On April 18, 1818, at the close of volume No. 2, the patrons had not supported the Register sufficiently to enable its proprietors to live longer in the business and it went down and its offices were closed.
From that date down to 1844 there were various attempts at local papers at Mount Vernon, but none survived as long as had this first publica- tion, the Ohio Register. Others came and tried it for a time, but did not succeed and left the country or engaged in some more lucrative vocation. Among the ablest men who here sought to work out the problem of early- day local journalism may be named Charles Colerick and William Bevans, the former from Washington county, Pennsylvania, and the latter from Fayette county, of the same state. They were in bitter opposition to one another and were arrayed against each other as candidates for the office of sheriff of Knox county. Colerick espoused the cause of Adams, while his opponent favored Andrew Jackson for President, but really the main fight was over who should have the county printing for this county. Of Colerick it may be stated that he, in company with his brothers, John and Henry, made their first appearance here in 1822, while Bevans was sheriff of the county, and established his printing office.
The Knox County Gazette was established by John Barland, in 1825, at Mt. Vernon, and two years later he sold it to James Harvey Patterson, from Fayette county, Pennsylvania, and William Smith, from Washington county, Pennsylvania, and they continued the publication until 1829, when the property was transferred to William Bevans, who conducted it, under the name of the Western Aurora, until 1831, when it was sold to William P. Reznor, a printer who learned his trade under Bevans. In 1832 C. P. Bron- son became an associate with him. In the fall of 1833 Dan Stone purchased
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the property, carried on business a few months alone, when Dr. Morgan I. Bliss became a partner, they operating together until November, 1834, when, on account of severe illness, Bliss withdrew and Dr. Lewis Dyer became the editor. In 1835 he was followed by Dr. John Thomas, who was somewhat of a talented man and he, after having run his course, gave way to Dan Stone, who conducted the paper alone until he saw no profit in the same and in May, 1835, closed the doors of his office.
Three years later, 1838, the Western Watchman was established in Mt. Vernon, by Samuel M. Browning, with John Teasdale as editor for a short time. The last named intended to become a partner, but in an unguarded moment this philanthropic Englishman happened to insert an abolition arti- cle, and found it wise to leave town suddenly, for be it remembered that this was long before the freeing of the slaves and the Civil war days, when in many sections of Ohio, including Knox county, such things were not to be tolerated. In October, 1839, the paper was sold to S. Dewey & Company, but the time which they ran the paper was short.
The Family Cabinet was the next newspaper launched on the seas of Knox county paperdom. It suspended, as had all of its predecessors. These first organs had all been representatives of the one political party and were all conducted prior to 1840.
In 1827 the paper known as the Democrat and Knox Advertiser was still conducted by the Colerick brothers, but in 1831 it was sold to Samuel Rohrer, who in 1832 sold to F. S. and P. B. Ankeny, who changed the title of the paper to the Mount Vernon Democrat and Knox Advertiser, a name long enough to be remembered for words. The following year it was named the Looking Glass and Whig Reflector.
Again Charles Colerick entered the newspaper field, this time in 1835, to establish the Day Book, which he conducted with great zeal and much ability until he volunteered as a soldier and went to Texas, where he fought for the independence of that territory and there died. Delano & Browning bought his office in Mt. Vernon and it was continued by William Byers until the winter of 1837-8, when it was transferred to S. M. Browning.
When the campaign of 1840 came on, the Whigs having become dis- gusted with the sentiments of John Teasdale on the abolition question, caused him to give up the publication of his paper and advertised far and near for a reliable Whig editor to come to their rescue. They finally succeeded in se- curing James Emmett Wilson, of Steubenville, who came to Mt. Vernon and established the Knox County Republican. Six months later he associated with him his brother-in-law, Milo Butler. It was started under the most flattering circumstances, but in the autumn of 1841 was discontinued because
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it could not prove itself a "live Whig paper." Wilson and Butler both went into the ministry.
The next newspaper founded in Mt. Vernon was in 1842 by William H. Cochran, young school teacher of Newark, Ohio. He rented the old Re- publican and called his paper the Times, from which office has been continued a paper, under one caption or another, up to the present time. Among those interested in the publication and editorship of this organ may be mentioned Messrs. Cochran, Silmon Clark, G. E. Winters, O. B. Chapman, James F. Withrow, J. W. Shuckers; also the members of a joint stock company, H. M. Ranney, W. C. Cooper, Rev. J. H. Hamilton, Wilkinson & Knabenshus, C. Wilkinson and Harry G. Armstrong & Company. Later came in Baldwin & Taylor, who purchased the property in the spring of 1881. From that date until the present time this office has been in the hands of C. F. and W. F. Taylor, Mr. Baldwin and the Republican Publishing Company, under its present management, since 1900. Its president is Benjamin Ames; secretary and treasurer, L. A. Culbertson, with Charles C. Iams as editor. The latter has been connected with the paper since fifteen years of age and set the first slug from the first linotype machine in Knox county, August 27, 1900. At one time the presses were run here by water motor, but for some years by electric motors. The paper was a weekly until 1885, then a semi-weekly, but in the autumn of 1897 was converted into a daily. It is an up-to-date Re- publican journal, giving all the decent news of the day.
The full title of the paper is the Daily Republican-News. The word News was added in 1898.
After the Day Book was purchased and merged with the Western Watchman, an effort was made to establish another paper, and the Demo- cratic Banner was founded in April, 1838, by Chauncey Bassett and Joel Robb. John Kershaw bought it in 1841 and he conducted it without an edi- torial, only as some partisan would furnish one over his own name. Ker- shaw published the paper until 1844, when he sold to E. I. Ellis and it was edited by G. W. Morgan until 1845, when it was sold to David A. Robertson, who later sold back to Ellis, who continued its publication until 1847, when it was bought by William Dunbar, who had during part of one year asso- ciated with him George W. Armstrong. In 1852 Mr. Dunbar sold to E. J. Ellis and in December, 1853, it was sold to Hon. Lecky Harper, then of the Pittsburg (Pa.) Post, who continued the publication of the same until his death, June 18, 1895, a period of forty years, when his sons, Frank and William M. Harper, conducted it a year, after which Frank bought his brother's interest and has been sole owner since that date. It became a semi-
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