USA > Pennsylvania > Beaver County > History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, and Its Centennial Celebration, Volume II > Part 54
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how to analyze difficult sentences in the new grammars, how to explain difficulties in the new geographies.
At the most remote period to which my memory extends, there were excellent teachers in that part of North Sewickley now embraced in Wayne and Perry townships, in Lawrence County. They were the Sterrits and Stewarts, the Morton's and Mehards, Frederick Taylor, Cyrus Ramsey, John C. Johnson, Z. N. Allen, and others of natural endowments and fine acquirements.
In that part of the old township now embraced in North Sewickley, Franklin, and Marion townships, of Beaver County, there were very superior teachers. They were such teachers that those who entered the profession with me felt that our shoulders were not fit to bear the weight of their mantles.
About the time of the adoption of the school law in 1834, and from then until the founding of the North Sewickley Academy, about 1850, the people of the community, in their liberality of spirit, kept up excellent select schools, usually conducted in the old Providence church. The schools were taught by such men as Mr. Herrington, Joseph S. Buchanan, Ethan Allen Stewart, and Oliver Smith. They gave an impulse to the cause of popular education in the community; they inspired the young people of both sexes with a desire for a higher education. In addition to attending these schools, many of the young men went to the academies of Beaver, Darlington, Fallston, Zelienople, and other towns.
They supplied the schools with such teachers as the Magaws and Leets, the Warnocks and Bennetts. Among these teachers too were Edward Coleman, whose descendants have given so many popular teachers to the public schools.
The silly jokes some people make about the old masters that could teach only the "three R's" do not apply to the old teachers of North Sewickley.
Beaver County, like ancient Gaul, is divided into three parts-an East side, a West side, and a South side. In this article I have spoken only of the East side, as representative of the others.
The teachers at first utilized the Institute as a help in surmounting the difficulties they encountered in handling the new books, as they were issued by publishers, introduced by agents, adopted by school boards, purchased by parents, and brought by the scholars into the schools.
Teachers found the Institute an invaluable aid. But it was no easy thing to be an instructor. The man who undertook to be a teacher of the teachers, an instructor of the instructors, a leader of the leaders, had no easy task to perform. He had to be the target at which 143 marksmen would each shoot seven questions; and, then, he had to have the 1001 an- swers to give. There is a class to which none of us cheerfully admit that we belong, of whom it is said that they can ask questions that a wise man cannot answer. This class would always have numerous representatives at the Institute. But the questions did not always come from them. They more frequently came from earnest inquirers after knowledge, sincere seekers for help.
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Those who attended Institute back among the 'so's remember the man who then wore the double honor, and wore it more worthily than it has been worn since, of being the oldest teacher and oldest editor in the county, John W. McClelland. He had his home in North Sewickley for a time. He had a black oil-cloth satchel that he called his "serip " because, as he said, that was the article the carrying of which was interdicted by Christ, when he sent forth his disciples for a different purpose from attending Institute. McClelland would devote days, weeks in fact, to preparation for Institute; and that preparation would consist largoly in stuffing that "scrip" of his with all the queer questions, mostly in grammar and arithmetic, that he could find; and two or three or more solutions to each; and these he would have ready for the instructor. And he was not the only McClelland the instructor would encounter.
It was a happy thought in the instructors when they found relief in the idea that they improved on us, that we did not go to the Institute to find out what to teach, but how to teach it. Then we made an important forward step in the evolution of the Institute.
We were taught self-reliance. The matter we didn't know, we searched out. We burned quite a good deal of that "midnight oil." We practised self-denial. We became absorbed in our work; and that work went on the better for our devotion to it.
Our pupils partook largely of our spirit. It was a happy thing for us, and for our schools. And then it was a happy thing for the instructorz. It relieved them from answering a great many perplexing questions.
But it had its drawbacks. In the first place, to a great extent, the instructors were with us, but they were not of us, They were not from our ranks. Some of them were college men who knew nothing of the common school. Others were from the high school or some school of a different rank from the common country district school. They did not have our material to work upon. They did not have our surroundings. They did not have our experiences. They did not understand our work. They were not of any practical use to us. But they had an expedient : they kept a supply of funny jokes in stock. If they could not benefit by instruction, they could at least entertain by amusing.
But they were full of methods. For a time, we all went wild on methods. The Institute was considered valuable only as new methods were given out. The instructor was nothing if not full of methods. And the method needed nothing to recommend it so much as novelty. "History repeats itself." So sometimes does a method. Some young person would hear his own or some other body's grandfather tell some queer thing that was done in the school when he was a boy; and forthwith this would be dressed up and brought out at the next Institute as a new method.
The Institute "methods" did not fit our work. They were therefore not of value to us. But, in the next place, the instructors' "methods" differed so widely from each other that, if we were to adopt one, we had to ask ourselves, "which?" We, therefore, took another forward step in the evolution of the Institute and found out for ourselves that we were
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attending Institute to learn neither what to teach, nor how to teach it, but to gain TEACHING POWER, so that we could make "methods" of our own.
We consider three things as axiomatic:
I. The method is not everything. There is something greater than the method, the teacher behind the method. The good mechanic will do better work with, than he will without, a good set of tools. Granted. But if he is a good mechanic will he not do good work with poor tools? A poor teacher will do poor work even with a good method; and is not the converse of this equally true, that a good teacher will do good work even with a poor method.
2. Any person that is capable of teaching is also capable of making a method of his own.
3. A teacher, as a rule, will do better work on his own method than he can do on the method of another.
Cutting loose from the leading strings of the Institute, in the matter of methods, was an important step in the evolution of the Institute.
A proposition that is not denied, that will not be disputed, that can not be controverted, need not be demonstrated.
The importance of teaching power, as an element of success in the schoolroom, is fully acknowledged. It is as important, as indispensable to the teacher, as an impellent in his work, as is steam in impelling the locomotive.
Next after the teacher's consecration of his time, his talents, his energies, his whole heart and soul to the work, come his fervent desire and eager effort for teaching power.
There is as much danger in rating the method above as there is in rating it below its worth.
The Institute accomplishes far more good to the teachers, and through that good, far more good to their schools, by giving them more exalted ideas of their calling and, consequently, more love for their work and more devotion to their schoolroom duties.
I have not seen, nor do I ever expect to see, the time when teachers will work purely from motives of disinterested goodness. THE PAY is an incident-sometimes a very important incident-connected with the work of the teacher. By teaching, he must earn the means of living. I am speaking in all reverence when I say that is the Divine plan. The great Apostle of the Gentiles had such a profound sense of the obligations of the gospel ministry that he declared: "Necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel." Yet this man, speaking from the view point of a gospel minister, argues the question of compensation in this way:
"Who goeth a warfare anytime at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock?
"He that ploweth should plow in hope; and he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope.
"Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things, live of
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the things of the temple? and they which wait at the altar are partakers of the altar?
"Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel."
When some devoted young woman shows that her whole soul is in her school work, and I have it cast up to me, "Let her pay stop, and her work will stop too," I retort, "Let the pay of your minister stop, and how long will his preaching go on?" My answer to them that mention the teacher's pay to me is, "Even so hath the Lord ordained."
It is greatly owing to the influence of the Institute, in the changing, unfolding, and expanding, that I have chosen to call its evolution, that the teachers have come to look upon their work as something that can not be paid for in dollars and cents. It is the thought that the influence of his teaching is to tell upon his pupils, not in time alone, but in eternity as well, that makes the teacher's work easy, while it is difficult; pleasant, while it is painful; cheerful, while it is irksome, and rich in reward, while it is poor in pay.
Of all the factors that enter into the grand product that I call teaching power none is greater than the teacher's love for his work. And greater, grander, and more glorious than giving out "methods" is the mission of the Institute in impressing the teacher that he is training immortal minds for immortal destinies! It is, in the language in which some one has parodied the prayer of the Christian:
"The teacher's vital breath, The teacher's native air, His watchword at the schoolroom door, His selfhood everywhere."
The Institute has done nobly; but it is not done doing yet. It has not yet completed its mission. I look upon it as so important an agency that, when I attempt to peer through the thick vapors into that enormous twentieth century for the realities of which we teachers are training a generation of speakers and writers, of thinkers and actors, that are to mold the world's people and lead them up to a greatness to which, in the ages, they have not aspired, I think that the Institute has before it boundless achievements.
We are now taking a forward step in its evolution, a step of more transcendent importance, in the possibilities of the public school, than any one ever yet taken. We are finding out that the true merit of a method does not consist in giving the power to impart instruction. Paradoxical as this may seem, the realities of the future will verify it. We have been told, ever since the expressive term came into the English language, that "Education" comes from E and duco and that its true import is better conveyed by the etymological meaning of the word itself than it can be by any definition. And yet we have failed to realize it. Education is leading out. But it is not imparting any faculties to the mind. Nor is it the developing, by the teacher, of the mental facul- ties. That is the work of the learner, not of the teacher. The method
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that will aid the pupil in the work of his own education is meritorious. Any method that relieves the student of the work there is in learning should be abandoned and condemned.
The true tendency is to make the acquisition of knowledge as much the work of the scholar, and as little the work of the teacher, as possible.
But, then, this is not popular. The teacher that will require of the scholar as little work as may be, do all he can of it himself, and leave the rest undone, will make himself popular. The more harmful his method the more popular he can make it.
The desire to be pleasing to the people by whom one is surrounded, and agreeable to those by whom one is employed, is to a degree, proper. The public school teacher owes it to the Superintendent that has licensed him, to the board that has employed him, to the people whose taxes pay him; he owes it to himself and to his school, that he shall make his work acceptable. But it is the inordinate desire for popularity that is so ruinous in its tendency.
The invitation to address the people through the pages of this book was as unexpected as the honor conveyed was unmerited. I have written the foregoing pages in the hope that their reading may be a pleasure to some, and that the Institute whose evolution I have tried to portray may be long a blessing to the county.
Other addresses on this occasion were made by Rev. N. P. Kerr of Pittsburg, formerly of Freedom; Rev. D. S. Littell, D.D., of Pittsburg; and Rev. Wm. M. Taylor, D.D., born in Little Beaver township, Beaver County, now in Lawrence County, pastor of Mt. Jackson Presbyterian Church, who spoke on the Moravian missions in Beaver County.
The exercises were closed with the benediction by Dr. Taylor.
CHORUS CLUB RENDERS "THE CREATION"
We may suppose that when Beaver County came into exist- ence a hundred years ago, music played some part in the life of the settlers. They sang in their worship the psalmody of their fathers, and by the fireside were heard the ballads of the old country and the mother's lullaby to her infants, and at a later period "the singin' skeule," with the old "buckwheat notes," contributed to the social enjoyment of the people. But it is a far cry from these primitive attainments in the divine art of song to such an event as that which made the crowning musical feature of the Beaver County Centennial. This was the render- ing of Haydn's great oratorio of The Creation by the Chorus Club in Beaver College Hall, on Thursday evening, June 21st. It is an interesting coincidence that this masterpiece of the great
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composer was first given to the public in June, 1800, just a century ago.
Professor Gardner and his Chorus had reason to be gratified with the success of their labors and the appreciation shown them. The music-loving people of Beaver and vicinity filled the large College auditorium to overflowing, and from the begin- ning to the close of the evening received the performers and their work with the greatest enthusiasm. Aside from the merit of the music rendered, the appearance of the great Chorus gave the pleasure of a spectacle, the singers numbering nearly one hundred, rising tier on tier, the ladies dressed in white and the gentlemen in full dress. With the great organ behind them and the richly attired audience in front, and flowers and palms decor- ating the stage, a pleasing picture was presented that will not soon fade from memory.
The solo parts were taken as follows: soprano, Miss Rachel Belden Frease of Pittsburg; mezzo-soprano, Miss Romaine Billingsley of Beaver; tenor, Mr. Daniel T. Beddoe of Pittsburg; basso, Mr. John A. Strouss of Pittsburg. All did well, Miss Frease giving especial delight in her singing of "The Marvellous Work" and "With Verdure Clad." The chorus singing was superb, rising to its greatest excellence in "The Heavens are Telling," "The Lord is Great," and "Sing the Lord." Special mention is due to the work of Miss Maud L. Sanford, pianist, and Miss Belle T. Bailey, organist.
At the close of the oratorio Professor Gardner was given a delightful surprise. In a neat speech by Mr. F. E. House he was presented with a purse containing a handsome sum of money as a token of the esteem in which he is held by the members of his Chorus Club.
We append the names of the members of this excellent or- ganization, which did so much for the pleasure and profit of the people during the Centennial. They are as follows:
SOPRANOS
Mrs. A. B. McGrew,
Miss Jennie Muse,
Mrs. R. R. Hice,
Miss Mary J. Campbell,
Mrs. W. H. Porter,
Miss Louisa Metzgar,
Mrs. Charles Javens,
Miss Edna Surls,
Mrs. C. C. McCord,
Miss Bertha Erwin,
Miss Ada A. Potter,
Miss E. Blanche Reed,
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Miss Ida M. Geer,
Miss Anna Twiford,
Miss Genevieve C. Wilson,
Miss Jennie Polliard,
Miss Eula Kells,
Miss Cora S. Watkins,
Miss Anna Young,
Miss Amelia Ruckert,
Miss Maud Harsha,
Miss Grace Umstead,
Miss Mildred Morgan,
Miss Tillie A. Brown,
Miss Sara Sloan,
Miss Jean Mccullough,
Miss Martha J. Shafer,
Miss Evanella M. Reed,
Miss Miriam Morse,
Miss Annie Lowry,
Miss Esther A. Runyon,
Miss Beulah S. Reed.
CONTRALTOS
Mrs. W. R. Gardner,
Miss Sarah G. Poole,
Miss Clara Z. Stiffey,
Miss Romaine Billingsley,
Miss Etha Martin,
Miss Mary Parks,
Miss E. Blanche Macy,
Miss Abbie Ecoff,
Miss Fannie E. Macy,
Mrs. Cora L. Mathews,
Miss Elizabeth Morse,
Mrs. Mary B. Hunter,
Miss Mary H. Hice.
TENORS
Dr. E. W. Thomas,
Mr. C. C. McCord,
Mr. Detmar Gibson,
Mr. Thomas Parks,
Mr. J. A. Atwood,
Mr. John L. Conrad,
Mr. W. H. Harper,
Mr. C. H. Wright,
Mr. A. B. McGrew,
Mr. C. L. Hughes,
Mr. H. C. Craig,
Mr. C. A. Muse,
Mr. R. G. Stiffey,
Mr. Lehman W. Dolby,
Mr. W. L. Treiber.
BASSOS
Mr. F. E. House,
Mr. George Dobbs, Jr.,
Mr. John W. Hartzel,
Mr. William M. Barr,
Mr. J. W. Bossert,
Mr. O. W. Passavant,
Mr. R. C. Campbell,
Mr. C. E. Duffner,
Mr. John H. Freschcorn,
Mr. Hal E. Scroggs.
FRIDAY, JUNE 22D
INDUSTRIAL DAY
On Friday, the last of the four days of the Beaver County Centennial Celebration, the citizens of the county, its merchants, its manufacturers, its artisans, its farmers, its school children,- all, from the gray-haired fathers and mothers down to the child in arms, took some part in the final outburst of civic and county
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patriotism that found expression in the monster parade that marched from Beaver Falls through New Brighton and the towns of the lower Beaver valley to and through the county- seat. No such procession was ever seen in Beaver County even in the days of martial enthusiasm during the Civil War. It is estimated that in its whole length it was viewed by fully fifty thousand spectators.
The parade formed in Beaver Falls, and, promptly at 10.30 A.M., Chief Marshal John T. Taylor of Monaca, who had labored night and day in the interest of this demonstration, gave the signal and the column started on its march over the following route: down Seventh Avenue to Fourth Street, to Tenth Street Bridge to Twelfth, New Brighton, to Fifth Street, to Third Avenue, to Junction by way of Bolesville to Madison Street, Rochester; thence to Brighton Street, to New York Street to First National Bank, countermarching to Madison Street, to Bridge Street, Bridgewater; thence to Third Street, Beaver, to Buffalo Street, countermarching to Beaver Street, there dis- banding.
The order of parade was as follows:
Cordon of police under Chief B. Lazarus.
Mounted aides.
Escort of several hundred Sabbath-school children, under command of John M. Buchanan, Esq., Harry J. Boyde, Winfield S. Moore, Esq., and Robert S. Imbrie; the children all dressed in white and carrying flags.
The Duquesne Grays of Pittsburg, a splendid body of ninety- five men, under command of Captain Wiley and Lieutenants McHenry and Miles, with their own band of forty pieces.
Company of the 14th Regiment, National Guard of Pennsyl- vania, of Pittsburg, with one hundred and twenty splendidly equipped men, commanded by Captain A. H. McClelland and Lieutenants Slippe and Thorn. They had their own drum corps of twenty-five pieces.
Grand Marshal, John T. Taylor of Monaca.
Chief of Staff, Captain J. M. May of Beaver Falls. Mounted aides.
Beaver Falls .- Captain Charles W. May, Marshal; aides, Captain W. H. Bricker, J. R. Hays, William A. McCool, Sr., Frank Pearson, Walter Jones, Captain Harry Watson, W. G. Merriman, H. C. Patterson, Richard
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Perrott, A. R. Leyda, Fred. Beegle, Ed. Boyle, E. L. Hutchinson, Frank Walker, Charles P. Wallace, D. R. Wilkinson, John T. Reeves, F. F. Brierly, Samuel White, Thomas Smith, J. W. Forbes, George W. Morrison, F. Beilman, Aaron Lutton, Charles Meyers, J. D. Perrott, Charles Klein.
The members of the Beaver Falls Council and borough officials in carriages.
Beaver Falls Fire Department, under Chief Charles Medley, engine and wagons.
J. P. Leaf, Rochester, team of oxen drawing a pioneer cabin. This attracted great interest.
Beaver and Bridgewater .- H. J. Boyde, Marshal; aides, J. P. Willock, Charles H. Stone, Dan S. Darragh, A. P. Marshall, Esq., A. Mulheim, Lewis W. Reed, Esq., Charles Javens.
Beaver Fire Department .- Chief McCord.
Old Beaver fire-engine, drawn by twenty small boys.
John S. Duss and famous Great Western Band.
Beaver Manufacturing Company .- Display of Acetylene Gas machines.
J. S. Donaldson, of Beaver .- Display of hardware.
W. B. Warnock & Co., Beaver .- Display of plumbing appliances. Sergeant Bruen and bride, of New Brighton, in carriage.
Rochester .- Ira W. Logan, Marshal; aides, James P. Leaf, Charles W. McDonald, John Mclaughlin, Patrick McLaughlin, William McLaughlin, John H. Schlagle, Samuel D. Romigh, Aaron Wilson, John H. Mellor, Wil- liam Carr, Garrett T. Bentel, F. O. Javens, E. O. McCauley, Charles Coleman.
Rochester Silver Concert Band of twenty-five pieces.
Business Men's Association, of Rochester .- William Carr, Marshal; car- riages containing President H. H. Newkirk, F. C. Trussler, Financial Secre- tary; George H. Cross, Treasurer; and other members of the association. Aides .- P. Mclaughlin, J. H. Schlagle.
Carriage containing Garrett T. Bentel and other members of the association.
Carriage containing H. P. Hartley, vice-president, and other members of the association.
Carriages containing other members of the Rochester Business Men's Association.
Carriage decorated with canopy, driven by little Miss Ida Taylor, daughter of Grand Marshall John T. Taylor.
Hartzel Bros., Rochester and Freedom .- Wagon with display of fine furniture.
W. A. Hartzel, Rochester and Freedom .- Hospital ambulance.
R. T. Gillespie, Rochester .- Display of Singer Sewing Machines.
Batchelor Bros., Rochester and Monaca .- Undertakers and furniture dealers; wagons carrying large number of handsome young ladies.
Rochester Roller Flouring Mills, Karcher Bros .- Wagons, display of products.
VOL. 11 .- 36.
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J. W. Hartzel, Rochester .- Float, display of bathroom furnishings, with two little pickaninnies, Andy Lewis and Arthur Barnett, in bath-tubs. Same .- Float with display of tinners at work with machines.
R. M. Cable, Rochester .- Grocery display.
Hineman Transfer, Beaver.
Shield's Dairy wagon, Brighton Township.
Olive Stove Works, Rochester .- Float with display of Olive ranges.
C. P. Mohr, Freedom, dealer in oils .- Display wagon and carriage with representation of 1800 (old man) and 1900 (handsomely dressed little boy and girl).
Freedom Oil Works Company .- Two wagons with elaborate display of refined products.
Frank Garvin, Beaver .- Representation of an old farmer going to market.
Freedom .- Prof. J. G. Hillman, Marshal; aides, Frank L. Wilson, R. J. Overton, A. L. Mengel, E. J. Bishoffberger, C. T. Fowler.
Carriage with Burgess F. G. Duerr and municipal officers.
Carriage .- Freedom School Board.
Carriage .- Freedom Council.
Carriages with members of Freedom Merchants' and Business Men's Association.
Sheridan Sabres .- One hundred splendidly uniformed men, with their own band of 35 pieces, under the command of Captain W. H. McIntosh and Lieutenants Thompson and Kuhn.
Andrew Tanner .- Old stage coach.
Float .- Showing method of threshing in 1800; then first machine used in 1835, called the "Bunty," followed with magnificent modern threshing machinery, mowing machine, and cleaning machine, all in operation.
Welch Fire-Brick Works, Monaca .- Display of firm's products.
Trompeter Bros., Moon township, gardeners .- Wagon decorated with variety of produce.
Park Grocery, J. H. Schlagle, Rochester .- Gaily decorated wagon.
Anderson Foundry Company, Bridgewater .- Float showing machine foundry, men at work molding, etc.
Fitzgerald, the florist, Beaver.
Knott, Harker & Co., Beaver Falls .- Two floats.
Keystone Driller Company, Beaver Falls.
Beaver Falls Steel Company.
Mayer Bros., Pottery Company, Beaver Falls.
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