USA > Ohio > Champaign County > The history of Champaign county, Ohio, containing a history of the county; its cities, towns, etc.; general and local statistics; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; history of the Northwest territory etc > Part 38
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
added that he "would never be taken alive," and, leaving the horse standing in the furrow, broke through the corn at a full run, toward the north. In about a month a letter was received with a Canadian postmark, stating that he had reached Canada without interruption, was doing well, and requested that "Sally " might be sent to him. Sally was duly sent and reached his home. No word was heard from him afterward, but Harris had pluck, energy and intelli- gence to succeed anywhere. The two kidnapers, on scouring the field, which occupied some time, found that the prey had escaped, and gave up the chase.
Among the boys who were concerned in the field and garden were Evan Patrick, Robert Colwell, Holly Raper, Thomas Ogden, William Samson, Will- iam H. Pearson, John A. Corwin, Decatur Talbot, Ichabod Corwin, Emmet and Warren Holding, William H. Colwell, George Folsom, John Carter, Lewis Hunter, Ed Goddard, Thomas Bell, Decatur Talbott, Bela Hovey, T. H. Berry, Newton Ambrose and others-in all about forty pupils. At the first the boys met at the school-room and were mustered in front of the building. A ballot was had for captain, which resulted in the choice of John A. Corwin, who at once stepped from the ranks and acknowledged the honor in as graceful a speech as he ever afterward made in his best efforts at the bar or on the stump ; when, with the order "shoulder hoes," the company started to their field of labor. But after a week or ten days the mustering was found to consume un- necessary time, and was abandoned.
There lived in Urbana at that time a colored man named George McCoy, a collar-maker by trade, a big, powerful fellow, bald as an eagle, with a narrow, contracted forehead and almost the whole of his brains lodged back of and above his ears. He was looked upon with much distrust by the community, but no suspicion had been fastened on him. He was afterward convicted of grand larceny and died in the State Prison. Cowles had some business with McCoy, and some one, seeing them conversing together, started the cry of " Abolition- ist." A little encouragement excited the public indignation, and as he passed down the street he was plied with a volley of eggs. Very few probably were con- cerned in casting the eggs, but there was little sympathy manifested in his behalf. Assuming that Mr. Edmund B. Cavalier, who lived and had a store in the brick building now occupied by the Mutual Relief Association Fire In- surance Company, had furnished the eggs and probably assisted in the dis- graceful and wanton attack, he went directly to the store where Cavalier was, and by a well-directed blow laid him on the floor. Cowles was not a large man, and to all appearances troubled with pulmonary disease, but he was more than a match physically for Cavalier. The latter made no resistance, but armed himself with the purpose to kill Cowles on sight. Mr. William Patrick and William C. Keller, as soon as this was known, called on Cowles and urged his immediate departure from town as a means of saving his life. Cowles was not disposed to run from danger, and determined to risk the chances, probably acting on the presumption that his adversary, by his threats, had put himself equally on the defensive. The two gentlemen remained with him till nearly midnight, using every possible argument to induce him to leave town on the morrow, without an encounter, and finally extorted from him a promise to leave within two weeks, on condition that he was not to be molested. They then went to Cavalier's, it being nearly midnight, and waked him from his sleep, informing him of the promise of Cowles to leave as soon as he could close up his business, or within two weeks, and urging him, under the circumstances, to let the man go without following up his purpose. They had the same difficulty
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
with Cavalier they had had with Cowles-a smarting sense of the indignity and wrong with which he had been treated, and his determination to take satisfaction in a summary way. They pleaded with him for hours to abandon his purpose, and finally obtained a reluctant promise that he would do nothing rashly within the time agreed upon. Both parties kept their promise. Cavalier made no dem- onstrations of resentment, and Cowles, closing up his business, left town, very few knowing then, or to this day, who had taken the pains to close up the diffi- culty. This ended the school and the manual-labor experiment. Cowles and Cavalier were both troubled with pulmonary consumption, and are long since dead.
The next teacher who occupied the ground floor, and afterward the upper east side of the Academy, was Mr. Ben F. Ogden, a fine, classical scholar and excellent teacher. His room was crowded with the young men and young ladies of town, and he had such rare magnetism over his pupils as to compel an attachment for him personally, and an interest in their studies. As a disciplin- arian and organizer, he was a failure-his talents and influence as an instructor acting on the individual rather than on the mass. He was a good reader, and read Shakespeare with rare skill, and in the evenings would gather into the schoolroom the larger boys and young men who wished to be present to read and hear recitations from his favorite author. He was erratic in his movements, and impulsive-dissatisfied with himself and his employment-closing up his school, and spending a year in the East and South, to return and resume his work in Urbana, where he always felt sure of a full house and an appreciation of his labors. About the close of the war, he went to Iowa, and left the school- room for a farm, near Ottumwa, where he died in 1874.
School-teaching was now attaining the rank and character of a respectable profession. The talents, acquirements and character of Miss Eudora Heylen, Miss Catharine A. Baldwin, Miss Wentworth, Miss Mary Hughes and other young ladies of acknowledged merit, had contributed not a little to save the business from contempt. The absolute importance of employing the best talents with the most thorough scholarship, and at remunerative wages, was in advance of the times. The position of school-teachers was hardly respectable. It was practically considered a work which any one of ordinary attainments could do, and do successfully ; and cheapness too frequently was made a material factor in the employment of the teacher ; $3 per term of twelve weeks, may be con- sidered a fair average for each pupil; in the aggregate, numbering thirty to forty pupils, including a number, either of charity or impecunious scholars. Like the horse in the tread-mill, there was no getting on, and, after years of honora- ble toil, the "school-master" found himself where he began-penniless, and, not infrequently, unfitted to engage in any other employment. Practically, it was a disreputable employment, and was the last resort for cultivated minds. In the rural districts it was still worse, for there a lower order of talents and acquire- ments prevailed ; the pay was less, and generally the teacher was compelled to "board round ; " that is, to take part of his pay in boarding a week, or other proportionate part of the time, with the several patrons of the school. Services were not estimated and paid for at what they cost or were intrinsically worth, but were gauged by the work and pay of an unskilled laborer. But, as we have said, a change was being made. A better class of teachers, and a more just appreciation on the part of the community of the office of teacher, inaugurated a revolution, which to-day ranks the cultured instructor among the learned pro- fessions. This change was produced partly by the character of the men who
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
engaged in the profession, not as a means to an end, but as a permanent em- ployment, and partly by the opinions of leading citizens, who recognized the importance of the office, and the responsibilities imposed on the teacher.
This sketch would be imperfect were we to omit a notice of the present condi- tion of schools in the town and county. The old log schoolhouse, chinked and daubed, is only a memory of the past. In all the townships, brick structures, of size sufficient to accommodate from eighty to a hundred pupils, seated with single or double writing-desks, on iron frames, firmly secured in place, with chairs or seats, all made after the most approved pattern ; " blackboards " of hard finish, made in the wall and reaching around three sides of the building ; the room well warmed and lighted ; located in the midst of ample play-grounds, and cost- ing, in the aggregate, an average of $2,000 to $2,500 each. Occasionally may be found the intermediate or frame building still used, but rapidly falling to decay, and destined soon to be counted with the primitive cabin of the wilder- ness. Teachers are employed for the term of three or six months, at a monthly salary varying from $30 to $50 or $60, payable out of the township treasury on the proper order. The schools are continued from six to ten months. The winter school is usually taught by a man, and the spring or summer term by females. In these, the course of instruction is generally restricted to the more elementary branches of an English education, with algebra occasionally added. Though the present country school is infinitely in advance of the school of eighty years ago, yet it must be admitted there is still a vast improvement to be made. The difficulty arises not so much from the want of learning or teaching capacity in the instructor, as from the crowded condition of the schools, the want of classification and the apparent indifference on the part of the patrons of the schools. Corporal punishment has been almost entirely disused ; discipline being restricted more to moral suasion ; the deprivation of little school privi- leges ; percentages of merit and discredit ; and, in extreme cases, whipping, suspension for a time and expulsion. In the towns accepting the law authorizing the organization of separate districts, are found larger and improved buildings, with greater facilities for study than in the sub-district schools, with a more ex- tended course of study, and graded into primary, intermediate and grammar schools ; and pupils transferred from one department to another only on a sat- isfactory examination in writing. Mechanicsburg, North Lewisburg, St. Paris and Urbana have organized independent districts, with buildings and appoint- ments amply sufficient for the present and many coming years.
We have before indicated the style and pay of the primitive teacher ; it may not be amiss to give the recent action of the School Board of Urbana, in ref- erence to teachers and salaries for the school year of 1880-81, in contrast with the same within the memory of the middle-aged men of to-day :
HIGH SCHOOL.
Principal, Miss Anna J. Arnold $1,000
Assistant, Miss M. V. Friend. 800
JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL.
Principal, Miss Eudora C. Baldwin.
650
Assistant, S. H. Wallace. 400
PREPARATORY.
Grade A, Miss Mary C. Armstrong.
500
Grade B, Miss Sarah A. Warnock. 400
Grade C, Miss Minnie S. Deuel
400
1
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
FIRST WARD, SOUTH DISTRICT.
Principal, E. B. Kiser. 700
Miss Mary E. Mayse. 400
Miss Mary Morgan 400
SECOND WARD, CENTRAL DISTRICT.
Principal, S. B. Price. 700
Miss Anna Miller. 400
Miss Bird West. 400
Mrs. L. I. Bassett. 400
THIRD WARD, NORTH DISTRICT.
Principal, Richard S. Pearce 700
John W. Crowl. 400
Miss Sarah J. Armstrong. 400
COLORED SCHOOL.
Principal, W. O. Bowles. 650
Miss Frankie Jones. 350
TEACHER OF PENMANSHIP AND DRAWING.
G. W. Snavely
700
SUPERINTENDENT. 0
A. C. Deuel
1,800
Teachers, 22. Total Salaries, $12,550. The present Superintendent, Mr. A. C. Deuel, has been at the head of the Urbana schools since 1850.
URBANA UNIVERSITY.
In the year 1849, it was proposed, by a number of New Churchmen then residing at Urbana, to establish here an institution of learning, as the begin- ning of a university, to be under the superintendence and direction of persons connected with the New Church, or holding to the doctrines set forth in the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg (see article, "New Church "). Ten acres of ground, finely wooded, and affording eligible sites for the college buildings, and in close proximity to the railroads, were proffered as a gift to the proposed insti- tution, and further donations were soon offered sufficient to insure the erection of a building for college purposes. In the autumn of that year, a meeting of per- sons friendly to the enterprise convened at Urbana, at the invitation of the Rev. James Park Stuart, and organized an association, which accepted the proffered gifts, appointed a Provisional Board of Trustees, and authorized an application to the Legislature of Ohio for an act of incorporation.
The charter bears the date of March 7, 1850, and is one of the most liberal ever granted by any legislature, giving ample powers for the establishment of whatever schools, seminaries or colleges may be deemed necessary or desirable, and for the conferring of the usual academic degrees. The Incorporators named in the charter are as follows: Milo G. Williams, of Montgomery County; John R. Williams, of Belmont County ; Benjamin F. Barrett, E. Hinman and William E. White, of Cincinnati ; David Gwynne, of Champaign County ; George Field, of Detroit, Mich .; Sabin Hough, of Franklin County ; Samuel T. Worcester, of Huron County; John Murdoch, of Clark County ; and Richard S. Canby, of Logan County. The institution was incorporated under the title of " The Urbana University." The corporation is governed by
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
twelve Trustees, the persons above named constituting the first Board of Trust- ees. Vacancies in the board are filled by the remaining members. The title by which the grounds of the college are held is a fee simple, clear of incum- brances, and the deed provides that no part of the grounds shall ever be alien- ated by the university, either by its own deed or by judicial proceedings against it, nor any part of them used for any purpose not connected with the business of the college, nor any buildings erected on the grounds except such as shall be the property of the university, and for its use. On the 19th of June (still observed by the college as "Foundation Day "), 1850, the corner-stone of the university building was laid, and the eastern wing, the tower for the stairs, the central hall and class and library rooms were soon completed in a substantial manner. The College Hall, or students' dormitory and residence, was soon erect- ed, and, in the year 1874, a third story was added to this building, and, in 1875, a wing was added to the university building, providing for a chemist's labora- tory in the lower story, and for the President's room above. In the year 1855, we find the following names on the Board of Trustees, besides Messrs. Will- iams, Stuart, John Murdoch and David Gwynne, of the original incorporators, viz .: John H. James, Urbana ; Jabez Fox, Detroit, Mich .; John B. Niles, La Porte, Ind .; William M. Murdoch, Urbana; Chauncey Giles, Cincinnati ; and J. Young Scammon and J. R. Hibbard, of Chicago, Ill. Many of these gen- tlemen were continued on the board for a long period, Mr. Milo G. Williams, whose name stands first on the original list, remaining a member until his death, in the year 1880. The following of those named are at the present writing members of the board : Messrs. William M. Murdoch, Chauncey Giles, J. R. Hibbard, J. Young Scammon ; the remaining members constituting the present board are Messrs. Jacob L. Wayne, of Cincinnati; John Curtis Ager, of Brooklyn, N. Y .; Hamilton Ring, Henry T. Niles, Henry P. Espy, Charles G. Smith and Frank Sewall, of Urbana, and C. H. Allen, of Cincinnati. Shortly after the original donation of ten acres by J. H. James, Esq., of Ur- bana, an addition of five acres was made by Mr. Edward Dodson, of Cincin- nati, and an adjoining tract of fifteen acres was purchased and donated to the college by the Hon. J. Y. Scammon, of Chicago, Ill. Thus the entire domain of the college embraces about thirty acres, covered with a pleasant grove of native trees, and affording a college site hardly surpassed for beauty anywhere in the West.
Among the early professors in the college were Milo G. Williams, A. M., Professor of Science and Dean of the Faculty ; Charles W. Cathcart, Pro- fessor of Mathematics and Librarian ; J. F. Leonhard Tafel, Ph. D., Professor of Languages ; Henry Thayer Niles, A. M., Professor of Greek and Rheto- ric; Rev. James P. Stuart, A. M., Professor of Philosophy, and Miss Caro- line W. Collier, Principal of the Preparatory Department. In the catalogue of 1855-56, we find enumerated 128 students and pupils of both sexes, including the three primary classes, 46; the preparatory, 54; the college regular students, 14 ; partial-course students, 15. A number of the students at this period, upon their subsequent graduation, were elected to the positions of professors or instructors, among whom may be named John Curtis Ager and Richard Foster. At the outbreak of the war, in 1861, the attendance of students became so reduced as to require the suspension of the collegiate department, and the institution was conducted for a number of years in the form of an academy, with a varying attendance. Among the teachers employed during this period, besides Prof. Milo G. Williams, who rendered
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
efficient assistance both in active teaching and in the general management of the institution, may be named the Rev. Charles Hardon, the Rev. George Nelson Smith, Mr. Julius Herrick, Mr. A. B. Farnham, Mr. James Dike and Mr. Alonzo Phelps ; also Miss Theodora Howells and Miss Farnham and Miss Finney. The President of the institution during this period was the Rev. Chauncey Giles, who resided in Cincinnati, and had only an indirect manage- ment of its concerns. In 1870, the Board of Trustees elected as President of the university the Rev. Frank Sewall, then Pastor of the New Church parish of Glendale, near Cincinnati, and took measures to re-establish an actual col- legiate organization. Thomas F. Moses, M. D., also residing at Glendale, was, on the nomination of Mr. Sewall, also elected the University Professor of Natural Science. In the fall of 1870, the institution was opened under the new organization with an attendance of fifty pupils, and, in the coming year, the primary department and the school for girls were, at the suggestion of President Sewall and by vote of the board, temporarily suspended until better provision could be made for their thorough and proper advancement. Classes preparatory to college were at once formed, the entire course, preparatory and collegiate, covering seven years.
In the year 1876, the first class of graduates under the new organization received their degrees, two as Bachelors of Arts and one in Science. Classes have since been graduated regularly each year, and the second or Master's degree has been conferred by the Board on a number of graduates who have since leaving college completed their professional studies, and been promoted into their respective professions. A number of students have pursued here a special theological course, and have since been ordained into the sacred ministry. Among those who have been students under President Sewall may be named the Rev. Richard De Charms, Rev. H. C. Vetterling, Rev. Julian K. Smyth, Rev. Jacob E. Werren, and Rev. Jacob Kimm. In the year 1872, the board under- took to raise an endowment fund for the college, and for this purpose constituted President Sewall a committee on the endowment and sustaining funds. After a continuous and persevering effort the President was enabled to report in the year 1878 that an endowment fund of $50,000 was raised, and, to a large extent, paid into the treasury. A statement of the payments and assets of the university was, by order of the board, published in that year, and it shows a total of property belonging to the college, including lands, buildings, furniture, library, etc., valued at $86,187.67. Among the larger subscriptions to the endowment fund were those of Mrs. A. L. Wentz, of Newburgh, N. Y., $5,000; Mr. Joseph A. Barker, of Providence, R. I., $10,000, and Mrs. Lenore M. Gordon, of Norfolk, Va., widow of the late George P. Gordon, of New York, inventor and proprietor of the celebrated Gordon printing press, $10,000. It is proposed to complete the endowment of a "Gordon Professorship " as a memorial of Mr. Gordon and his services in perfecting this mighty instrument of civilization and Christian advancement. Under the Presidency of Frank Sewall the college has also received large accessions to its library and cabinet, among which are specially to be mentioned the large donation from the late Christopher Cranch, of Washington, D. C., and of Dr. O. P. Baer, of Rich- mond, Ind. The cabinet of mineralogy, geology and paleontology is extensive and valuable, for which the university is largely indebted to Professor Moses' intelligent interest and care. There is also a valuable collection of coins and of zoological and botanical specimens. The library numbers some 5,000 vol- umes, arranged in sections of history, philosophy, classics, theology, literature,
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
biography, travels and science; it is constantly securing valuable additions, and is of great practical utility to the students. In the year 1879, the Committee on the School for Girls and Primary Department opened again these depart- ments of the university in temporary apartments. In 1880, by means of the Loring fund, the gift of the late Mrs. Maria Loring, of Cincinnati, and other donations, a new building for these schools was erected on a part of the New Church society's lot, corner of Reynolds and South Main streets, this portion of the lot being granted by the society to the university under a perpetual lease for this purpose. This building composes three commodious school-rooms, hall and ante-room on the lower floor, and a fine lyceum hall, 40x30 feet, above. It was formally opened and dedicated with religious services on Sunday, Septem- ber 12, 1880, the Rev. Frank Sewall officiating. The university schools for girls, the primary school and the Kindergarten, under the general charge of Prof. Moses as Director, and with Mrs. T. P. McNemar as Principal, Miss Adelaide Smith and Miss Anna M. Woelfle as teachers, opened in this build- ing at the beginning of the fall term, September 29, 1880.
The following gentlemen have occupied positions in the faculty since the reorganization of the college in 1870. 'Those marked with a star being present incumbents of their respective professorships: Frank Lewall,* S. A. M., Presi- dent and Professor of Intellectual and Moral Science; Thomas Freeman Moses,* A. M., M. D., Professor of Natural Science and Director of the School for Girls ; Philip Baraud Cabell, A. M.,* Professor of Ancient Languages and Literature; Thomas French, Jr., Ph. D.,* Professor of Physics and Mathematics, and Mas- ter of the Grammar School ; William Pinckney Starke, A. M., Professor of Ancient Languages ; Jacob E. Werren, Professor of Modern Languages ; Hjal- ma Hjorth Boyesen, Tutor in Latin and Greek; George A. Worcester,* Instructor in Botany and Master of the College Hall. Among the contribu- tions to general learning furnished by Urbana University, may be mentioned the Meteorological Reports, contributed to the records of the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, during many years, by Prof. Milo G. Williams ; "The Unity of Natural Phenomena," translated and edited, with notes from the French of Saigey, by Prof. T. F. Moses, published in Boston, by Estes & Lauriat, 1873; an ad- dress by the same, on " The Spiritual Nature of Force," published in 1871, and a number of papers contributed to the published records of the Central Ohio Scientific Association, by Profs. Moses and Werren, in 1878. The transcrip- tion in Latin for the press, of the large and important work in manuscript, by Emanuel Swedenborg, entitled "De Cerebro " (concerning the Brain), compris- ing some three or four hundred pages, folio, by Prof. Philip B. Cabell ; the tran- scription and translation into English, by Prof. Cabell, of Swedenborg's treatise in Latin, entitled, "Ontologia," now in process of publication (1880), by J. B. Lippincott & Co., of Philadelphia ; an address on the "Harmony of Religion and Science in the New Church," by Frank Sewall, published by Robert Clark & Co., Cincinnati ; also, by President Sewall, two volumes of religious dis- courses, entitled, "The Pillow of Stones, or Divine Allegories from the Old Testa- ment," and "The Hem of His Garment, or Spiritual Lessons from the Life of our Lord," both published by J. B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia ; and, by the same author, the "Latin Speaker," easy dialogues and selections for mem- orizing and declamation in the Latin language, published by Appleton & Co., of New York, in 1878.
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