The History of Warren County, Ohio, Part 34

Author: W. H. Beers & Co.
Publication date: 1882
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1081

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County School Examiners .- A system for the examination and certifica- tion of teachers has existed ever since the passage of the first law in Ohio for the support of education by taxation, but the number of Examiners and the method of their appointment have fluctuated. Strangely, however, the law has uniformly styled the persons appointed, School Examiners, although their duty has been confined to the examination and the granting of certificates of quali- fication to teachers. In 1825, the law provided for the appointment, by the Court of Common Pleas, of three Examiners, and enumerated the branches of study in common schools as "reading. writing, arithmetic and other necessary branches of a common education." In 1829, the number of Examiners was

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placed at not less than five nor more than the number of townships in the county. In 1834, the number of Examiners was limited to five, but it was made the duty of the Examiners to appoint a suitable person in each township to examine fe- male teachers only. The act of 1836 provided for three Examiners in each township, but in 1838, the law again provided for three School Examiners for the whole county, which has continued to be the law until the present time. In 1853, the appointment of Examiners was vested in the Probate Court, and applicants were required to be examined in "orthography, reading, writing, arithmetic, geography and English grammar." Previous to 1853, the examina- tions of applicants for teachers' certificates were conducted in a very loose and unsatisfactory manner. For many years, a single member of the Board of Ex- aminers could examine any applicant at any time the application was made, and write out a certificate of qualification. Intelligent men, however, were generally appointed Examiners. The first Board of Examiners appointed un- der the act of 1825 consisted of A. H. Dunlevy, John M. Houston and Phineas Ross. Among others who held this office previous to 1853 may be mentioned Judge Collett, Gov. Morrow, Jonathan K. Wilds, Lauren Smith and Thomas F. Thompson.

Since the passage of the act of 1853, more care has been taken in the licensing of teachers for the public schools. Regular meetings have been held for the examination of applicants, at which at least two of the Examiners must be present. Applicants are examined in all the branches named in the law fix- ing the qualifications of teachers. A register has been kept, and is preserved, giving the names of all persons who have received certificates of qualification in Warren County since the 3d day of May, 1853, and the dates and grades of their certificates.

The following are the names of the School Examiners of Warren County since 1853:

C. Elliot, 1853-54; D. S. Burson, 1853-54: C. W. Kimball, 1853-55; Josiah Hurty, 1853-54; Rev. J. H. Coulter, 1854-54; William W. Wilson, 1855-57; J. H. Elder, 1855-58; W. T. Hawthorn, 1855-56; Rev. Marsena Stone, 1856-60; John W. F. Foster, 1857-60; Rev. W. W. Colmery, 1858-60; William D. Henkle, 1860-64; Thomas B. Van Horne, 1861-62; Rev. J. F, Smith, 1862-63; Rev. E. K. Squier, 1862-65; John C. Kinney, 1863-64; Rev. W. W. Colmery, 1864-66; W. P. Harford, 1864-72; Rev. Lucien Clark, 1865-67; Charles W. Kimball, 1866-67: Charles W. Harvey, 1867-68; John C. Ridge, 1867-68; John C. Kinney, 1868-70; Peter Sellers, 1868-69; J. B. Nickerson, 1869-71; A. W. Cunningham, 1872-74; Peter Sellers, 1874-78. Hampton Bennet (1870), Josiah Morrow (1871), F. M. Cunningham (1878). The last named three being the Examiners in 1882.

RELIGION.

Religious statistics and materials for a history of the progress of religion are not readily accessible in a country where there is no State-Church or Gov- ernmental support of religion. The State of Ohio requires full statistical re- ports to be made annually of the condition and growth of the schools maintained by public taxation, but the chief matters pertaining to religion, which have been noticed by State or National statisticians are the number of church organi- zations and church edifices, the amount of church sittings or accommodations for public worship and the value of church property; and our information con- cerning these is derived chiefly from the census returns of the United States since 1850.

According to the census of 1850, there were, in Warren County, sixty church editices valued at $82,400; in 1870, these had increased in number to

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seventy-three, and were valued at $267,730. It thus appears that in twenty years the cost of churches increased much more rapidly than their number.

The aggregate church accommodations, or sittings, in the county, were re- turned in 1850 at 22,295, and, in 1870, at 26,050. Comparing these figures with the population of the county at the same dates, and making but a slight deduction from the population for infants, the sick and the infirm, it appears that at both periods there were seats in the churches for more than the entire population of the county who could attend public worship.

The statistics of churches given in census returns do not in all cases agree with the statements put forth by the denominational organs of the various sects. The census superintendents have their own point of view and apply tests differ- ent from those known to the compilers of religious year-books and registers. It should be borne in mind, too, that reports of the number of church edifices, their accommodations and value are not always true measures of the religious activity of a community. A strong denomination with numerous churches, may ofteu strengthen itself by suffering a weak church to cease to exist when it be- comes unable to support itself. There are churches which find a place on the rolls of a denomination, and may be enumerated in census returns, which, having a legal title to an edifice, and maintaining some kind of an organiza- tion, have ceased to gather congregations, to support a minister or to conduct any of the services of public worship. It is not easy to determine the number of churches in a given area for the reason that it is not easy to determine what constitutes a church to entitle it to a place in an enumeration. On this point, the superintendent of the ninth census of the United States remarks: "A church to deserve notice in the census must have something of the character of an institution. It must be known in the community in which it is located. There must be something permanent and tangible to substantiate its title to recognition. No one test, it is true, can be devised, that will apply in all cases; yet, in the entire absence of tests, the statistics of the census will be overlaid with fictitious returns to such an extent as to produce the effect of absolute falsehood. It will not do to say that a church without a church-building of its own is, therefore, not a church; that a church without a pastor is not a church; nor even that a church without membership is not a church. There are churches properly cognizable in the census which are without edifices and pastors, and, in rare instances, without a professed membership. Something makes them churches in spite of all their deficiencies. They are known and recognized in the community as churches, and are properly to be returned as such in the census."

The most numerous denomination in Warren County is the Methodist Episcopal, which has a church in almost every neighborhood. Next in num- bers are the Presbyterian, Regular Baptist, Old School and New School, and the Christian. By the last-named is meant the Christian denomination, for- merly frequently termed New Lights, and not the followers of Alexander Camp- bell, or Disciples of Christ, who are also popularly called Christians. Of the Disciples of Christ there are but one or two small organizations at present in the county. Other denominations found in the county are the Orthodox Friends, Hicksite Friends, Universalist, United Brethren, Roman Catholic,. Lutheran, Reformed (late German Reformed), Cumberland Presbyterian, Free-Will Bap- tist, United Presbyterian, Methodist Protestant and the Shakers. Several of the last-named have but a single church organization within the limits of the county. A small number of persons are believers in the phenomena known as spiritual manifestations, and occasionally meet for religious exercises or to re- ceive spiritual communications, but no regular organization of Spiritualists is known to exist in the county.

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It is difficult to determine whether at the present time a larger or smaller proportion of the entire population are members of church than in the past generation. In the southwestern portion of the county, sworn exhibits of the membership of each church receiving the benefit of the ministerial land fund are made annually. From these exhibits, it appears that in the two original surveyed townships comprising seventy-two square miles, in the central part of the county and embracing the towns of Lebanon, South Lebanon and Union Village, 28 per cent of the entire population are members of some religious society. It is estimated that fully two-thirds of the communicants of churches are women and minor children, and thus the burden of supporting the churches falls upon a small proportion of the adult male population, heads of families and property owners. The Presbyterians and Baptists built the first meet- ing-houses in the county, but the Methodists soon followed. The early Meth- odist ministers were generally men of but little education, but their zeal and perseverance overcame every obstacle. The itinerant plan of their ministry proved best calculated for the spread of the Gospel throughout the thinly- scattered population of a new country. They established preaching stations before churches could be erected, and the little clearing was scarcely com- menced and the little cabin scarcely built before the Methodist circuit-rider made his appearance, formed a class, and taught the worship of God. The Quakers formed an important element in the pioneer population. They taught a religion without forms and ceremonies and established churches without a priesthood or a sacrament. Their habits of industry and frugality, their atten- tion to useful arts and improvements, and their love of human liberty, were bighly commendable and made them valued members of the community; but their opposition to the amusements, recreations and dress of polished society has prevented the sect from increasing with the growth of population. The Christian denomination in the county is an offshoot from the Presbyterians; of late years it has not increased in numbers. The Presbyterian was the most important and influential church in the earliest settlement of the county; its ministers stood first in education and ability, and, had it not been for the dis- astrous effects upon the denomination of the great Kentucky revival, it would probably have been the largest sect in the county.

Great changes have taken place in the mode of public worship since the first rude churches of hewed logs sprung up beside the green fields. In the former days, sermons were from an hour and a half to two hours in length, while the other services were protracted by long prayers and commentaries on the chapter read from the Scriptures, to a length that would now be thought unendurable. Often there were two services separated by an intermission of fifteen minutes. During both services, horses, in the absence of a society for the prevention of cruelty to animals, stood, without food or water, haltered to trees from which they gnawed the bark. The autumn sun was low in the horizon before the benediction was pronounced and the worshipers departed, some to distant homes. The singing was not artistic. The innovation of singing hymns with- out lining them out caused many a difficulty in the older churches. Some- times there was a compromise between the opposing parties, and one hymn each Sunday was sung without being read line by line, and the others in the old way. A new tune, which all could not sing, caused some to grieve. The introduction of a choir or of a musical instrument caused serious dissension. Instrumental music was not common in the rural churches until after the in- troduction of the cabinet organ. The sin of wearing elegant attires and adornment with broidered hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array, was a favor- ite topic in the pulpit. Flowers on the sacred desk would have been considered as ministering to a worldly vanity. The most beautiful comedies and the sub-

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limest tragedies to be seen on the stage were declared unfit for Christian eyes. Many pastimes and divertisements which scatter sunshine and sweetness over the cares and hardships of life were regarded as inconsistent with the serious- ness, gravity and godly fear which the Gospel calls for.

It cannot be doubted that there was less harmony among the different denominations formerly than now. The religious men of former generations were sincerely and intensely sectarian. They believed that they had "thus saith .the Lord " for their distinctive tenets. They believed themselves to be and were determined to remain rigidly "orthodox "-a term which, according to Dean Stanley, "implies, to a certain extent, narrowness, fixedness, perhaps even hardness of intellect and deadness of feeling, at times, rancorous ani- mosity." Sermons were more controversial and doctrinal than now. It can hardly be doubted that, with the increase of culture and refinement in the clergy and laity, have come a larger religious sympathy and a higher and a broader view which would break down the party wall of sectarianism and sweep away the petty restrictions on thought and opinion.

The early Presbyterian and Baptist Churches were severely Calvinistic, and their pulpits dwelt more frequently and more strenuously than their modern successors on the five points of their creed-predestination, particular redemp- tion, total depravity, effectual calling and the certain perseverance of the saints. The terrors of the eternal torment of the wicked were more frequently and more vividly portrayed than in the modern days. The belief in a material fire in hell for the future and endless punishment of the unregenerate was com- mon in all the churches. The doctrine of a literal fire in hell was preached by Rev. J. B. Findlay and other early Methodist preachers, in which they followed the explicit teachings of the sermons of John Wesley. It is doubtful if a per- son known to be a disbeliever in eternal punishment would have been suffered to remain a member of any of the early orthodox churches; to-day a belief in the final holiness and happiness of all mankind is not an insurmountable bar to a place among the laity of the evangelical denominations. Excepting the Quakers, nearly all the religious persons among the pioneers were rigid Sabba- tarians, and the first day of the week was not with them a day for social enjoy- ment or recreation. Too often it left with it upon the minds of the young no pleasing memories. Children who were kept constantly at work six days in the week, by poor parents who had bought land on credit, and must pay for it with hard labor, were required on Sunday to go to church, a considerable dis- tance on foot, to listen to long sermons; and, after returning home, to spend much of the rest of the day on their feet reciting the catechism, or to sit and hear read the Bible and Baxter's Saints' Everlasting Rest.

But let us not judge the religious men of former days harshly. They were noble men and the county owes them a debt of gratitude. The high place in education, morals and religion Warren County has ever maintained is due largely to the life and work of the early religious teachers. We cannot believe in all things as they believed, but we cannot fail to recognize their virtues and their worth.

Most of the changes in the religious beliefs and modes of worship that have taken place since the establishment of the pioneer churches are not such as result in modifications of creeds and articles of faith. They are the result of inevitable tendencies, and are brought about, not so much by theological dis- cussions, as by the changes in human modes of thinking, feeling and believing, which, taken together, we call the spirit of the age. The advance of the refine- ments of civilization may render the religious doctrines of good men in one age repugnant to those of the next.

It is now impossible to determine when Sunday schools were first estab-

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lished in Warren County. There were but few previous to 1830. Some de- nominations did not at first look upon them with favor. Until comparatively recent times, no provisions were made in the erection of churches for the ac- commodation of a Sunday school; but now no church edifice is considered com- plete without ample rooms for the instruction of infant classes and other classes, and a general assembly room for the entire school. The Sunday school has thus exerted a great influence on church architecture. In 1850, seven Sunday school libraries were reported in Warren County. These have increased in numbers and in size until they have become the most widely diffused libraries, and their books the most widely circulated in the county. They are found, not only in the towns, but in almost every rural church, and many Sunday schools with libraries are established without being in connection with any church. Unfortunately, the books selected for these libraries are generally not of a high order of literature, and only a minority of them furnish strong and wholesome intellectual food for growing minds. In 1879, there were sixty- five Sunday schools in Warren County, having 500 teachers and a total enroll- ment of 5,000 pupils.

The Warren County Sabbath School Union was organized at a meeting held at the Congregational Church in Lebanon, May 17 and 18, 1864. The object of the union, as declared in its constitution, is "to unite all evangelical Christians in the county in efforts to promote the cause of Sabbath schools, in co-operation with the State Sabbath School Union, aiding in establishing new schools where they are needed and awakening an increased interest and effi- ciency in Sabbath school work." The association holds annual conventions of two days' sessions, which are usually largely attended.

AGRICULTURE.

Notwithstanding the wonderful fertility of the rich, virgin soil when the old forests were cut away and the genial and vivifying rays of the sun shone upon the first crops planted by the hand of man, agriculture was not the road to wealth with the early settlers of the Miami Valley. The great embarrass- ment under which the pioneer farmer labored was the difficulty of getting the products of his soil to a market. In spite of roots and stumps, sprouts and bushes, the newly cleared land brought forth bountiful harvests; but the wagon roads were imperfect, canals and railroads unthought of, and the distance by the Ohio River to the principal markets so great, the navigation so difficult, tedious and hazardous, that the early farmer had little encouragement to in- crease the products of his fields beyond the wants of his family and the supply of the limited home market created by the wants of the inhabitants of the neighboring towns and the newly-arrived emigrants. The average time re- quired for a journey by a flat-boat propelled by oars and poles, from Cincinnati to New Orleans and return, was six months. The cargoes taken in these boats were necessarily light; the boats could not be easily brought back, and were generally abandoned at New Orleans and the crew returned by land, generally on foot, through a wilderness of hundreds of miles. A large part of the pro- ceeds of the cargo was necessarily consumed in the cost of taking it to market. Beeswax, skins and feathers were the principal articles that could profitably be transported by wagons to distant markets. Hogs and cattle were driven afoot over the mountains, and, after a journey of a month or six weeks, found an un- certain market in Baltimore. Corn rarely commanded more than 10 or 12 cents per bushel; wheat, 30 or 40 cents; hay was from $3 to $4 per ton; flour from $1.50 to $2 per hundred; pork from $1 to $2 per hundred; the average price of good beef was $1.50 per hundred, while oats, potatoes, butter and eggs scarcely had a market value, and the sale of cabbage and turnips was almost

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unheard of. But the early farmers supplied their homes liberally with the comforts of pioneer life; they lived independently, and, perhaps, were as happy and contented as those who have the luxuries brought by wealth and commerce.

The proximity of a spring, rather than the claims of taste or sanitary con- siderations, usually determined the location of the first residence of the pioneer farmer; and the log stable and the corn-crib, made of rails or poles, were apt to be in close proximity to the residence. The first fences, both for the fields and the door-yard, were made of rails in the form of the Virginia, or worm, fence. This, in a new country, where timber, readily split with the wedge and maul, was abundant, was the cheapest and the most durable fence. Unsightly as it is, it is yet superseded to a limited extent only by post-and-rail, board or wire fences, or hedges.

Agricultural implements were at an early period necessarily few in number and rude and simple in construction. The plow first used was of rude con- struction-often made on the farm with the assistance of the neighboring black- smith. It had a wooden mold-board and a clumsy iron share. It took a strong man to hold it and twice the strength of team now requisite for the same amount of work. The cast-iron plow was slowly introduced. The early har- rows were made of bars of wood and wooden teeth, and were rude and homely in construction. Sometimes, in place of the harrow, a brush, weighted down with a piece of timber, was dragged over the ground. The sickle was in uni- versal use for harvesting grain until about 1825, when it was gradually super- seded by the cradle. The sickle is one of the most ancient of farming imple- ments; but reaping with the sickle was always slow and laborious. For the twenty years succeeding 1830, there were few farmers who did not know how to swing the cradle and scythe, but during the next twenty years reapers and mowers, drawn by horses, became almost the only harvesters of grain and grass. The first reaping machines merely cut the grain; a raker was necessary to gather the grain into sheaves ready for the binders. Self-raking reaping ma- chines soon followed, and, about 1878, self-binding machines were introduced. Of the two old-fashioned methods of separating the grain from the straw-the flail and tramping with horses-the latter was the most common in this county. To-day. instead of this slow and wasteful method, a horse or steam-power thresher not only separates the grain, but winnows it and carries the straw to the stack, all at the same time.

The soil of Warren County is well adapted to a miscellaneous agriculture, and all its branches are pursued, the cultivation of grains and the raising of stock. Corn is the leading grain crop, and of stock, hogs are more generally raised than any other. The first crop usually raised by the early farmers on newly-cleared land was corn. Most of the county has been found well adapted to wheat, and this crop is seldom a total failure. Barley has been, for many years, one of the leading and most profitable crops in large areas, and the county has long stood among the first in the State in the production of this grain. Nearly all the large breweries in the State are found in the Miami Valley.

HORSES.

The capital invested in domestic animals constitutes a large item in the wealth of the county. Improvements in breeds of all the farm animals have kept pace with the improvements in agricultural implements and methods of tilling the soil. After the land had been generally cleared of the forests, the necessity of oxen ceased, and interest in the improvement of the horse com- menced. The possession of good horses-elegant, strong and speedy-became a matter of pride with the farmer. Speed was not considered of special value in the horse until the improvements in the public roads rendered possible the use

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of the modern light carriage. The improvements in the horse are doubtless largely due to the infusion of the blood of the thoroughbred, which was early in- troduced into Warren County. The Morgan, the Cadmus, the Bellfounder, the C. M. Clay and the Hambletonian stock, were also common at different periods; but whatever breed has been introduced, the tendency has always been to amal- gamate it with the stocks already in use. The strains of blood have not there- fore been kept distinct. The farm horses, or horses for general purposes, found throughout the county, are of a most uncertain blood, but it is certain that they have been greatly improved within thirty years in style, action, form, temper and endurance, and no county in the State can now exhibit a greater number of fine horses for the purposes of the farm, the road and the carriage.

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The History of Warren County, Ohio, Part 34

Author: W. H. Beers & Co. Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1081

Author: W. H. Beers & Co.
Publication date: 1882
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1081