USA > Ohio > Clark County > The history of Clark County, Ohio, containing a history of the county; its cities, towns, etc.; general and local statistics; portraits of early settlers and prominent men, V. 1 > Part 60
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525
CITY OF SPRINGFIELD.
ceeded very leisurely, and, February 23, 1853, Alexander Downey and W. A. Kills, the Building Committee, reported the purchase of a lot in the east part of the city for $2,000, and one in the west for $1, 452,29, and the report was confirmed. These lots are the present locations of the Eastern and Western Schools. The same "committee, January 23, 1854, presented a draft for the schoolhouses How needed by the city, which was accepted, and notice to receive proposals to build said houses was ordered." Contracts were executed for the construction of two schoolhouses according to the plans presented by the Building Commit- tee. The buildings were to be of the same dimensions- about sixty by one hundred feet, two stories high. They had what were called "flat roofs" of tar and gravel, and altogether their external appearance was, to say the least, not attractive. In point of convenience and adaptation, the internal arrangement was no greater success than the external. Standing distant from any other buildings, their flat, invisible roofs, and square tops gave the whole a non- descript aspect, which we must leave to the imagination. When the Board of Education took charge of these houses in 1855. it found their roofs leaking badly, and, to remedy this, and to give them a more sightly exterior, the board immediately made contracts for raising the walls about four feet higher, and for putting on shingle roofs. as they now have.
The first Board of Education in the city of Springfield was elected April, 1855, consisting of three members, viz., Chandler Robbins, Joseph Brown and C. H. Williams. The board organized April 28. Charles H. Williams, President, and William Anderson. Clerk. Probably Springfield has never had a better . Board of Education than its first. They were men of liberal education and practical knowledge in school matters, and two of them had large experience as teachers in the higher branches. The schools were therefore organized intelligently and with good judgment, and did good work from the beginning. F. W. Hurt was elected Superintendent at a salary of $SO per month; John Fulton, Principal of the Western, and Daniel Berger, Principal of the Eastern School, at a salary of $55 per month. R. W. Morris and Samuel Wheeler were elected assistants at a salary of $40 per month. Also the following teachers: Misses Minerva E. Criley, Virginia Miller, Clara Gal- lagher, Car je Smith, Lizzie Crooker. Ellen A. Whiton, Elizabeth Cummings, Sarah A. Bruscup and Eliza Norton -- salaries $25 per month. The janitors were allowed the same salary. M. V. Satis was employed as teacher of German. But the crowded condition of the schools made it necessary to obtain additional school rooms. Rooms were rented in the basement of the Congregational Church, in which was established the Central School, which soon after took the character of the high school, John Fulton, Principal, S. M. Wheeler taking his place as Principal of the Western School. One circumstance created quite a breeze in the community this first year. The Superintendent complained to the board in regard to the deportment of one of the Principals toward him. The board took no action in the case. A week after -- November 12- the Super- intendent renewed the charges against the Principal. The board considered the matter. and, on motion, laid the whole subject on the table. The subject came up again January IS, and the board "earnestly exhorted the two gentlemen to lay aside their hostility, and engage heartily in mutual efforts to promote the interests of the schools." The following month the Superintendent was arraigned before the civil authorities on a charge of inflicting punishment upon certain pupils, unnecessarily, and unwarrantably severe. The trial was held in a crowded court hoase. The result of the trial is not remembered, but, for the samo cause, the board requested his resignation, and failing to resign April 1. the board declared the office of Superintendent vacant. The services of a Super- intendent were dispensed with for the remainder of the year.
526
HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
At the spring election the Board of Education was elected under the pro- visions of the act of 1853, and was composed of six members, viz., Chandler Robbins, Joseph Brown, C. H. Williams, Harvey Vinal, E. G. Dial and Richard Beebe. The succeeding year the board did not employ a Superintendent, but had his services performed, as well as practicable, by appointing one of their number as "managing agent" from time to time. But the following year. August 4, 1857, James Cowles, a graduate of Yale College, was elected to the Superintendency. He was a fine scholar and upright, Christian gentleman, but for reasons not now distinctly remembered, he failed to secure harmony and confidence between himself and the teachers, and, at the end of the year, a reso- Intion was passed, "that, for the present, the services of a Superintendent be dispensed with." A few weeks afterward, Chandler Robbins was elected to the office of Superintendent, and served with great acceptance and profit to the schools for one year. At the end of the year he was re-elected, but he declined to serve longer on the terms of the past year. On the 17th of February, 1858, the Western School building was destroyed by fire. And eighteen months after. the Eastern building was damaged by a storm to the amount of several thousand dollars. These two incidents were detrimental to the schools. in that no ade- quate accommodations could be had while the re-building was going on.
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It should have been stated that the first action of the first Board of Educa- tion of the city of Springfield was to pass an order "to continue the colored schools." In 184S, a law was passed to provide schools for colored children. This was the first provision made in Obio for that purpose. The law went into effect soon after its passage, as when the public schools were organized in this . city, we find the colored school in existence. A building was rented for these schools for a number of years, and. when this was found insufficient, the board purchased a beautiful lot on Pleasant street, and put up a substantial brick house, equal in character and adaptation to any of the school buildings of the city. It has been the design of the board to make the colored schools equal in all respects to the others. An effort was made some years ago by colored par- ents and others. to have the board remove all distinctions in this regard, but the board has held to the idea, that it is better for all concerned that the colored schools be kept separate from the white, but that no further distinction should be made -- the colored schools to receive equal attention, and to be made equal to the white in point of school accommodations and institution. And when col- ored children are sufficiently advanced in scholarship to enter the high school classes, they are permitted to enter such classes on an equal footing with the white children.
As numbers increased, the Board of Education, from time to time, made additional provision for the accommodatica of the schools, by erecting or renting sinall buildings or both. But, in. 1867, it was found necessary to provide large additional accommodations, and accordingly, a school building was erected the following year on beautiful ground on South Limestone street, as large or larger, than either of the existing houses, and, at once, every room was occu- pied. Again in 1871, the board purchased of Rev. J. L. Rogers the female seminary building and grounds for the sum of $27.150, to be used for school purposes.
But the improvement surpassing all others was that of the high school building, situated on the corner of High and Factory streets, built in the year 1875. Its reported cost was $70,593.51. The President's report says: "There has been but oue opinion expressed by the educators of the State who have examined the building, and that is, that, it is a model schoolhouse."
The exterior of the building is very fine to look upon, its stories are very high, and its halls are so broad as to oceupy a large portion of the house-prob-
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Miriam Coffey
PLEASANT TP.
1 527-528
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529
CITY OF SPRINGFIELD.
ably one-third or more. In point of show. it is certainly a grand success. In regard to the fitness and adaptation, it is perhaps equal to like buildings in other cities erected under like circumstances.
In his report of 187S, under the head of "School Accommodations," the Superintendent makes the following statement, viz:
"The schools of the city occupy six buildings. The central or high school building has eleven assembly rooms, one recitation room, library room, and Superintendent's office. It furnishes sittings for 743 children. Two assembly rooms and the recitation room, in this building are occupied by the high school.
"The north building has seven assembly rooms occupied, and two unoccupied, besides several rooms not adapted to school purposes. It furnishes 323 sittings. "The south building has eight assembly rooms, and furnishes sittings for 518 children.
"The east building has eight assembly and furnishes sittings for 356 chil- dren.
"The west building has eight assembly rooms, and furnishes sittings for 450 children.
" The Pleasant street building has four assembly rooms, and furnishes sit- tings for 216 children.
"Total sittings in the city, 2,648."
The Pleasant street building -- the colored school-has been recently en- larged to the extent of double its former capacity. "The buildings are all in good condition, and the furniture of the modern and improved style."
Within the year, 1SS0, a school building has been erected in the northwest- ern part of the city of a capacity equal to either of the other buildings except the high school. and it is now nearly completed. This building will afford 350 to 400 sittings, making an aggregate of over three thousand sittings. Thus it will appear that Springfield, like most other cities in the State, has been most liberal, not to say profuse, in providing the material part of school accommoda- tions for our youth.
The advancement of our schools will also appear by a statement of the number of teachers employed at periods running back a quarter of a century. In 1855, there were fourteen teachers employed in the schools including Super- intendent and Principals. In 1860, there were eighteen including the same. In 1865, there were twenty-four teachers. In 1870, there were thirty-four teachers. In 1875, there were forty-two teachers, and, in 1880, there were six- ty-two teachers, including Superintendents, Principals and teachers of all the grades.
The enumeration of youth of school age, and the enrollment for the past eight years are as follows:
Enumeration.
1872-73.
4,047
Enrollment. 2,120
1873-74.
4,293
2,242
1874-75.
4,536
2.499
1875-76.
5,102
2,590
1816-17.
4,994
2.835
1877-78.
5.212
2,520
1878-79.
5,683
2.683
18:8-80.
5,789
2,964
The expenditures for all purposes -- including tuition, janitors, salaries and incidental expenses, amount paid on building and interest on bonds-for the last six years, is as follows:
For the year ending August 31, 1875.
$66,055 85
For the year ending August 31, 1826. 74.844 62
For the year ending August 31, 1877.
62,690 93
For the year ending August 31, 1878.
58.617 26
For the year ending August 31. 1879.
48,364 32
For the year ending August 31, 1880. 82,257 80
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530
HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
When the debt incurred for building purposes shall be paid off, it is: believed that the annual expenditures may be materially diminished, without in any respect detracting from the efficiency of the schools.
The following is the course of study of the high school for the first year, Latin and German being optional:
First Year-First Term -- Ray's New Elementary Algebra, Hutchinson's Physiology, Hill's Elements of Rhetoric and Composition, Harkness' New Latin Reader and Grammar, Worman's German Course. Second Term-Ray's New Elementary Algebra, Hutchinson's Physiology, Harkness' New Latin Reader and Grammar, Worman's German Course. Third Term-Ray's New Eli- mentary Algebra, Wood's Object Lessons Botany, Harkness' Latin Reader and Grammar. Worman's German Course.
Second Year -- First Term-Ray's New Higher Algebra, Cooley's Natural Philosophy, Cæsar, Whitney's Reader and German Echo. Second Term- Davies' Legendre Geometry, Cooley's Natural Philosophy, Cæsar-Commen- taries, Whitney's Reader and German Echo. Third Term-Davies' Legendre Geometry, Steele's New Chemistry, Cæsar -- Commentaries, Whitney's Reader and German Echo.
Third Year -- First Term-Thalheimer's General History, Steele's New Chemistry, Virgil --- JEneid, Klemm and Select Classics. Second Term --- Shaw's New History of English and American Literature, Davies' Trigonometry, Eneid, Klemm and Select Classics. Third Tem-Wayland's Intellectual Philosophy, Æneid, Klemm and Select Classics.
. General Review of Common Branches.
. Music, drawing and penmanship are taught throughout the high school course.
Latin or German is taught throughout the high school course, the language to be studied being selected upon entrance to the high school. One-half day in each week, in the high school is devoted to rhetorical exercises.
The history of the public schools from their inception is necessarily incom- plete, because as already intimated no record has been kept, but the above sketch from Hon. E. G. Dial who has been more or less connected with our schools dur- ing his life may be relied upon as accurate.
THE SPRINGFIELD HIGH SCHOOL.
On the 1st day of March, 1834, the General Assembly passed an act to. incorporate the Springfield High School in the town of Springfield, Clark County, Ohio. The town at that time contained a population of about thirteen hundred inhabitants. and is noted as a brisk, enterprising village. The question of improved school facilities had for some time been agitated, and the matter was then taken up and put in tangible form. Little idea can now be had of the interest which this movement awakened in the village; nor of the magnitude of the work to a community in which as yet there was little wealth, and the coun- try around was yet but sparsely settled. It was the question of the day, and men of all parties and religious denominations, united heartily in this measure, and worked harmoniously together. Among them we find the names of Gen. Mason. Gon. Anthony, Judge William A. Rogers (long Secretary of the board), Dr. R. Rodgers, Dr. B. Gillett, Jeremiah Warder. Edmund Ogden, Reuben Mil- ler. James S. Halsey, Levi Rinehart, Jolm Bacon, Charles Cavileer, Henry Bretney, Samuel and James Barnett, William Werden, John Whiteley, James Reid. Rev. Edward H. Cumming, Rev. John S. Galloway, and John M. Galla- gher (editor of the Republic), nearly all of whom are still represented by fami- lies in Springfield.
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581
CITY OF SPRINGFIELD.
Under the above-mentioned law, a Board of Trustees immediately orgau- ized, and in a short time purchased a lot on East High street, the present site of the Springfield Seminary, of Peter A. Sprigman, and proceeded to solicit sub- scriptions for the erection of a high school building. An amount was soon obtained to justify the commencement of the work, and the same was prosecuted vigorously to completion. In the year 1$35, the high school was organized under Milo G. Williams as Principal. A considerable amount of apparatus was obtained as soon as possible, and a nice little library, as well as the commence- ment of a cabinet. The plan of the school was to make it preparatory to a col- legiate course when desired. and not only preparatory, but to pursue the collegi- ate branches as far as the junior year in college. This not ouly furnished the youth of Springfield the means of obtaining a partial collegiate education at home, but it brought in young men from the country and from the surrounding counties, who desired to lay the foundation of a liberal education. And if early catalogues of the high school were in existence, names would be found therein that had since graced the country's history. Among them, Hon. Samuel Shella- barger, Judge William White, of the Supreme Court of Ohio, Hon. R. A. Har- rison, Hon. William D. Henkle, Judge A. F. Hume, of Hamilton, Ohio, Hou. John S. Hume, late editor of the St. Louis Democrat, Rev. George W. Harris, Drs. Joseph and James Stout, Dr. George H. Bunyan. Some of these went from the high school to Miami University, at Oxford, Ohio. Some to the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, Ohio, entering the junior class in, each institution, and one to Union College, New York, while others completed their academic education in the high school. But while the high school thus afforded such facilities for commencing and pursuing the higher stud- ies, it also had a primary and intermediate department which received a large attendance from the town. Mr. Williams resigned his position in the school in 1S41, and was succeeded by Chandler Robbins, an educator of equal ability with his predecessor. Mr. Robbins, with one or two assistants, 'continued the character of the school as above stated. and, while the elemen- tary English branches were thoroughly taught, also Greek and Latin, alge- bra, geometry, surveying, and the like, were thoroughly taught, and the more so, that no more studies were allowed to be pursued at the same time than could be thoroughly mastered. Mr. Robbins continued Principal of the high school until 1845, when he resigned to accept a professorship in Augusta College. Kentucky. Thus in the first ten years of the existence of the high school. it had become one of the most prominent academies of the State, and its reports and proceedings were published in the leading newspapers of Ohio.
In the meantime, it was proposed to transfer the school and all pertaining to it, to the Ohio Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. And such a proposition was made to the conference at its session in Urbana in September. 1841. and accepted by it, and, on the 7th of March. 1$42, an act was passed by the Ohio Legislature "To incorporate the Ohio Conference High School in the town of Springfield," with the following persons as Trustees, viz .: James B. Findlay, Zachariah Connell. William Young. Reuben Miller, John Bacon. James Barnett. William Werden, Levi Rinehart. Henry Bretney, Lemuel Rey- nolds. Joseph S. Carter. Edmund Ogden. Samson Mason. David Gwynne, Edward H. Cumming. Robert Houston. William M. Murdoch, William A. Rogers and William Marshall.
Thus the institution became denominational in form, though not so as to its Trustees.
Prof. Robbins was succeeded by Rev. Solomon Howard, as Principal of the school in 1845, and then for the third time it became a "mixed school," admit- ting girls as well as boys. The public schools were taking character, and. in
532
HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
order to sustain the high school, a broader patronage was sought, without chang- ing the character of the school in other respects. And the school continued successful under the conduct of Prof. Howard, who was energetic and thor- ough-going, and was especially proficient in mathematics. He resigned in 1852, to accept the Presidency of the Ohio University at Athens, and was succeeded by Rev. John W. Weekly as Principal.
In the year 1S54, an addition was made to the high school building, more than doubling its proportions, and made with the design of converting it into a girls' boarding school. And a new charter was obtained under the name and title of the " Female College and Springfield High School." Mr. Weekly con- tinued at the head of the institution until 1860, when he resigned and was suc- ceeded by E. G. Dial, who continued for four years and resigned. He was succeeded by Revs. W. J. Ellsworth and J. W. Herron, the former resigning at the end of one year. Mr. Herron was President of the institution up to 1869. when he resigned and had no successor. The Board of Trustees after waiting for a few weeks and receiving no application for the position, and finding no one who would take charge of the institution, finally executed a lease of the property to the Board of Education of the city of Springfield for five years, the same to be used for the public high school. A little before the expiration of this lease, the Board of Trustees executed another to a corporation newly formed. under the name of the " Springfield Seminary." The boarding school had been abandoned, and the design was to establish a school for girls without reference to patronage from abroad. and to be entirely undenominational in its character. Accordingly Mrs. Ruth A. Worthington was employed as Principal of the seminary, with competent assistants. This board of instruct- ors does not undertake to do more than it can do well. The Principal is exact and thorough in all her work, both as to discipline and instruc- tion, and the assistant teachers catch the same spirit. The course of study is liberal. Mathematics and natural science are taught as thoroughly here as in any girls' school within our knowledge. So is Latin, French, English literature and the other branches. The school numbers about sixty pupils, all residents of this city. It is doing an excellent and a most indispensable work. The building needs to be enlarged and additional apparatus and library. It is difficult to see why all these needs are not supplied, where the means are so abundant to put the institution on a permanent basis. It in no way conflicts with the public schools, but supplies a demand which would be sought else- where, if not found at home. Every kind of enterprise in the way of manufact- ories is in a glow of prosperity and success, yielding splendid returns, while a school whose returns are of more value to its youthful recipients thau all the golden profits, " lives on through all ills," because of its own inherent vitality.
One of the most prominent educators of the city was Rev. Chaudler Robbins. A. M., Principal of the Greenway Boarding School. He was born in Jefferson County, Va., February 20, 1SIS: was educated at Kent's Hill Academy, Maine. and Wesleyan University, Middleton, Conn. By invitation of the Board of Trustees of the Springfield High School, he came here in the autumn of 1840. took charge of that school, and continued it successfully for five years. In 1845, Mr. Robbins accepted the professorship of Latin and Greek of Augusta College, Kentucky. Three years thereafter, he returned to Springfield and established a select school for boys, under the name of the Greenway Boarding School. The same year of his return, he was admitted to the order of Deacons in the Protestant Episcopal Church, by the Right Rev. Bishop of the Diocese of Ohio, and to the full order of Presbytery. A. D. 1849. He became Pastor of Christ Church immediately upon receiving orders, and continued in that position until the year 1855. About that time. he induced the Vestry of his church to
533
CITY OF SPRINGFIELD.
accept his resignation, as he insisted that the interests of the church demanded the exclusive attention of its minister, which he could not give. Rev. John T. Brooke, D. D., succeeded him. Mr. Robbins was very successful as an educator. The institution over which he presided had an extensive reputation. Among those who studied within its walls were Gen. Wager Swayne, of Toledo, Ohio: Gen. John Mitchell, of Columbus, Ohio; Judge William White, of the Supreme berch, and Hon. R. A. Harrison, of Columbus. Mr. Robbins died in this city May 8, 1871.
In the year 1$49, Rev. Jonathan Edwards, now of Danville, Ky., had charge of a small select school for ladies. This school was held in the basement of the First Presbyterian Church. It was of a classical nature, and all the branches of a modern seminary were taught with efficiency. The school received great encouragement from its patrons, who subscribed for its support. It was con- ducted for several years by Mr. Edwards, and, in 1852, he was succeeded by John A. Smith, a gentleman of education and enterprise. Prior to the time that Mr. Smith had charge of the school, an effort was made to establish it on a broader basis, and with greater facilities under the charge and support of the Presbyterian Church. A number of citizens in 1852 took an active interest in this educational venture, among them Dr. Robert Rodgers, James Barnett, Isaac Ward, William Cooper, Dr. N. C. Burt and James S. Christie, who organized a company, and in that year obtained a charter for the Springfieldl Female Seminary. They selected Jolin A. Smith as Principal, and made a further effort to induce the Presbyterian Church to assume the responsibility of the support of the institution, but nothing more could be accomplished than a recommendation of the seminary as an advantageous school for young ladies. The company which organized the seminary held control of its interests, and managed its affairs, selecting the Principal and the corps of teachers. The building erected was commodious, and located on the site which from an elevated position overlooked the city and surrounding country. The grounds were ample, containing an area of more than four acres.
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