Venango County, Pennsylvania: Her Pioneers and People (Volume 1), Part 41

Author: Babcock, Charles A.
Publication date: 1879
Publisher:
Number of Pages:

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In 1875 a high school was organized. Rent- ed rooms were used until a brick and stone building on Central avenue was completed. Mr. Marcus Hulings presented the clock which was placed in the tower. The eyes of many thousands of children have been turned toward it with various emotions. It has hastened the laggard, and performed its duty well through all the years. J. J. Kincaid, J. F. Weller, Pro- fessor Patterson and J. H. Collier were the successive principals of the east side school.

Palace Hill needed a school room, and a small building was put up about 1881.

In 1881 the schools on both sides of the river were consolidated. C. F. Carroll was elected superintendent, and the schools began to take form. After serving two of his three years' term Mr. Carroll returned to New England. C. A. Babcock was elected for the remaining year, and for twenty-five years served Oil City as superintendent. It was a position of vast responsibility. The board at that time was composed of many members, chosen two by two from each ward by vote of the wards. To the everlasting credit of Oil City it must be said that her schools have always been one of her distinct sources of pride. The course was developed as time and school boards would permit, until pupils could enter without further examination the best institutions in the coun- try, provided that they took the course that was mapped out for them. A growing desire for further education and for a broad founda- tion was developed. Preparing the high school pupils for college requirements did not interfere with the elementary schools, as the gold medal presented to them . for their ex- hibit at the World's Fair at St. Louis gave proof. Messrs. D. Sanford, J. M. Hall. R. W. Hughes, G. W. Gurnee and F. J. Turn- bull have been the successive principals of the high school, Mr. Turnbull still acting in that capacity.

It would be manifestly unfair to the Oil City schools if mention were not made of the fact that C. A. Babcock, so long superintend- ent, originated the idea of enlisting the inter- est of children in the preservation of birds. By means of a "Bird Day" in the schools, on which for a short period the attention of the students could be called to the necessities of the situation. it was believed a great work might eventually be done. Mr. Babcock asked

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J. Sterling Morton, a member of President Cleveland's cabinet, an old family friend, then at the head of the Agricultural bureau in Washington, to indorse the idea. This he did most enthusiastically. The department of Bi- ology published a bulletin indorsing the idea of Mr. Babcock, and sent copies by the hun- dreds to the department of science of the Na- tional Educational Association. The clipping bureaus of the country prove that this new idea was a welcome one. It seemed to have wings like a bird. It went all over the land, and reports came from England and France and Italy of approval of this definite way of teaching the absolute need of bird preserva- tion. In a few months several States passed laws making the day obligatory in the schools, and it is to-day the law in more than two- thirds of the States of the Union. Many States publish illustrated books for the use of the teachers. Notable among this large number is that of the State of Kentucky, which placed the beautifully colored bird book in the hands of each teacher in the State and gave the fol- lowing sketch to its teachers and children :

BIRD DAY

By Charles A. Babcock, Originator of Bird Day

(Written expressly for this Bulletin)

The observance of Bird Day in the schools, and especially the preparation for it, will do a great deal to improve the spirit of school life. It will develop enthusiasm and interest which will do much to carry along all the burdens that must be laid upon young shoulders. Birds are almost always regarded by children, and by those whose hearts are young, with peculiar interest. For a child to know a bird is to love him. The birds are so quaint, so beautiful, and their lives exhibit so many traits of intelligence and of fine feeling, that when one begins to observe them it is easy to continue, and bird study will become a habit and add much to the joy of life. Not to know the birds, their ways, their part in the great surge of life which sweeps over the earth, is to miss no small part of our birth- right to intelligence.

What relation to us has that vast army of little musicians which comes upon the crest of the wave of green which rolls every spring from the tropics toward the poles? The birds come with the springing grass, the swelling buds, and the open- ing flower, variegating the plant colors with flitting forms of grace and dashing bits of flame. They are the true graces, which, the ancients believed, danced over the fields and forests in the spring. The birds certainly help to make the seasons fair. As Thoreau said of the song sparrow, "He helps to crack the ice in the pond." But are beauty and song the only reasons of the bird's being, sufficient as these appear?

A little observation of the bird's life will show that he follows the line of growing vegetation to eat the insects and their eggs that are exposed in the grasses and buds. This insect life was in the buds when they began their winter's sleep and wakes with them in

the spring to vigorous life at their expense, for it feeds upon the buds and, if unchecked, would de- stroy them. Here we get a glimpse of the mighty mission of the birds. They are nature's check against the wonderful power of insects to increase, a power so great that if let alone insects in a few seasons would overwhelm and utterly destroy vegetation. This disaster would surely come if it were not for the birds. They are the force nature has provided to cope with the insects. Without them man with all his inventiveness would be powerless against an enemy that has such amazing power to multiply. It has been ascertained that most migrating birds, especially songbirds, destroy thousands of insects' larva and ova daily. The young of these birds are said by the most careful observers to consume their own weight of this insect food every twenty-four hours. This seems to be an enormous amount for a birdling to eat, but it is quite certain from obser- vations of those who have watched the parent birds feeding their young that it is true.

There are different classes of birds to hunt and destroy insect life in the various regions of the at- mosphere. There is a large number of long-legged wading birds which spend their lives in the swamps, marshes and along the edges of rivers and lakes, destroying insects and small reptiles that are born in such places. Closely related to them are the swimming birds with boat-shaped bodies, webbed feet and bills well fitted for straining out little living creatures from the water. On the land, there are many others which spend their time searching the low grasses and shrubs for insect life. For the in- sects that infest the taller trees there are other classes of feathered hunters, which peer into every crevice in the bark and inspect every bud or flower or leaf with eyes like microscopes in their power to see small things. One class of these hunters in trees locates the nests of grubs or caterpillars by drumming upon the bark, and then drills into the wood and destroys the nest and its contents.

A number of years ago the Gypsy moth was acci- dentally introduced into Massachusetts. A professor of entomology had received from Europe some leaves covered with the eggs of this destructive in- sect, which he wished to study. A puff of air whirled one of the leaves out of the window. Ever since then that professor, and the majority of tree owners in the State, have had more opportunity to study the Gypsy moth than they cared for. They have had to fight for the life of their trees. The State has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the battle is not won. The moth has traveled westward across the State to the New York State line, and has spread into several of the New England States. The best ally these people could have had against the moth is the birds that hunt in the trees; but too many of these were probably ornamenting hats. Another pest has appeared. It is commonly called the brown- tailed moth, and is even more destructive of forests than the Gypsy. It is said that the hairs forming its tail are easily detached and float in the air. Coming in contact with the human skin thev pro- duce an intense irritation. Again are the birds that live upon the insect life needed to check this pest.

There are many birds that take their food only on the wing, ridding the air of the swiftly flying in- sects. These are the swifts, the swallows. the mar- tins, the night hawks and many others. Sometimes they skim the surface of the water or the land, and again they travel to great heights.

Then there are the fly catchers that upon some fa-

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vorable perch await the passing insect. These must have eyes of telescopic power. Many of them, like the chief of their tribe, the king-bird, will discover their prey hundreds of feet distant, launch them- selves upon it with arrowy swiftness, take it with a sharp click of the bill and return to their perch ready for another flight. What wonderful swift- ness they have, and what complete control of their movements. They turn, jump aside, and even stop almost instantly while in most rapid motion.

It seems evident that the birds whose ways of life we have just hinted at are a force quite unique in nature. Nothing else can equal them. No man will ever invent things to take the place of the wing, the eye, the bill, the digestion of the bird. Prob- ably every one of them has helped to put dollars worth of fruit, grain and vegetables upon our tables, and assists equally to provide us with cotton, linen, and all the products of the trees. It is no less than criminal to destroy wantonly one of them. It has been said that there are so many birds, and they have such power to increase their numbers, that a few more or less does not matter. But a single law of animal economy shows that this is a sad mistake. It was long ago demonstrated by Darwin and others that all animals in a state of nature must, genera- tions ago, have reached a balanced condition. Each class of animals tends to increase indefinitely, but so do the enemies of that class which tend to destroy it. For ages the natural enemies of birds have in- creased in equal pace with the birds themselves. And ages ago birds must have reached the limit of their increase, that is, as many must have died yearly as were born in that year. Now if a new powerful enemy like man be added, the old enemies will still be able to destroy as many as before, and in a few years the birds will become extinct.

This state has already been approached in the case of a number of species, notably, within the mem- ory of most, the passenger pigeon and the flamingo. We need not only to stop destroying the birds but to use all means in our power to protect them from their other enemies. We must study them to find out how we can help them most. What if the world should become birdless? Man could bring about . that condition in a few more generations. If there were no birds, plant life and, therefore, animal life, including the life of man, would be impossible upon the earth. This is the conclusion of every scientific man who has studied the subject.

Now how shall we go about preparing the chil- dren for a Bird Day exercise? We must go to the birds themselves, observe them and get the children to observe them, go with the children as much as possible. Start with some well known bird, as the robin, or song sparrow, and prepare a list of ques- tions to be answered from observations. Ask about the size of the bird, length from tip of beak to end of tail, color of back and feet, number of toes and which way they point, general color of back, color of under parts, markings of back, difference in ap- pearance of the male and female, gait on ground, walk, hop or run, wings long and pointed or short and rounded, Flight, straight and steady or bound- ing. What does it eat? Nests. of what built, where placed? Incidents showing character. Song; de- scribe it; imitate it.

Answers should be compared. There will be many mistakes to correct at first, but the work will rap- idly improve. After a few birds have been studied in this way under the direction of a teacher, or of some one who is a little in advance of the others,

each one can take up the subject for himself fol- lowing the general order of description indicated by the questions given. A bird manual would soon be needed by every little group. Also an opera glass.

The exercises of Bird Day should consist of essays about birds, based upon results of observations. Write about individual birds as if they were per- sons of our acquaintance. Essays giving any facts about particular birds, showing their ways of life, habits, dispositions, their songs as learned by ob- servation, have peculiar interest and value. Recita- tions from literature, both prose and poetry, are very appropriate. There is a rich fund for this kind of work to draw upon. The birds live and sing in many immortal poems ; while some of the best recent writers have pictured them in prose in almost living colors.

The teacher as well as the children will have begun a life-long study that increases in interest and beauty. The little child and the old man and woman may heap up these riches, and nothing but death itself can rob them of it; and perhaps that can not.

John Bourroughs wrote an article especially for the first Bird Day ever celebrated, in May, 1894, and sent it to Mr. Babcock as a message of joy. Governors, teachers, literary men and scientists applauded it. Mr. Penrose, in a speech before the Sportsman's organization in this State, says that he points with pride to the fact that his State has the credit for this gift of a new idea. The effect was magical upon the children as well as upon the birds. Boys who once looked at birds with the eyes of sharpshooters learned to love them and to protect them. The school board was enthusi- astic and enlightened, and knew it for a great economic movement for the betterment of the world. The day was not observed in Oil City after Mr. Babcock retired. But it is now re- stored to its honored place, as the following State law makes it obligatory :

ARBOR DAY AND BIRD DAY

The following is a copy of a law passed by our last legislature.

That from and after the passage of this act, those several days of each year that may be set apart by the Governor as Arbor Day shall also be known as "Bird Day" in Pennsylvania, and it shall be the duty of every teacher in the public schools of this Com- monwealth, under penalty of reprimand or dismissal, as the case may require, to devote, together with their pupils, at least two hours of such school-day to the study of wild birds, and especially to con- sider the value of the life-work of such birds to the people, and the best methods through which the conservation and increase of useful birds may be secured; and it shall be the duty of all school super- intendents within this Commonwealth, either county, city, or otherwise, to see to it that the requirements of this act are complied with.

During Mr. Babcock's superintendency four brick buildings of four rooms each were

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constructed, and one two-room brick building ; one two-room wooden building was replaced' by a modern four-room brick building; one four-room brick building was enlarged to an eight-room building; thus adding twenty-four graded schools. In 1898 a new high school was built, adapted to accommodate three hundred and fifty pupils. This contained laboratories, chemical and physical, and a fine assembly room whose walls were decorated by each de- parting class with pictures of genuine art value. The school was generously supplied with all that a modern high school of the first class demands, facilities for manual training, and the study of domestic science, as well as a commercial course, including stenography, typewriting, bookkeeping and penmanship.

In 1908 J. J. Palmer, of Greenville, was elected superintendent. The rapidly growing city, enlarged by the addition of two flour- ishing suburbs, demanded more room for the pupils. The Fourth ward building was re- modeled and enlarged at an expense of $45,- 000. A Junior high school was built, which is modern in all its appliances.

The development of educational facilities has, in fact, kept pace with that of the city, which now has the following schools :

North Side High School, F. J. Turnbull, principal, R. C. Thompson, assistant princi- pal, twelve teachers; Junior High School, Roy A. Baum, principal, eighteen teachers ; Pearl Avenue school, Grace James, principal. seven teachers; Seneca Street school, Josephine W. Plante, principal, five teachers ; Main Street school, Hattie Gould, principal, four teachers ; Spruce Street school, Katherine Judge, prin- cipal, one teacher ; Selden Avenue school, Ida Irwin, principal, one teacher; Innis Street school. Alice Tisdale, principal, nine teachers ; Central Avenue school, Adele Harper, prin- cipal, nine teachers ; Grant Street school, Jen- nie Cowen, principal, eight teachers ; Hoffman Avenue school, Isabel Kuhns, principal, three teachers; Gay Street school. Louise LeGoul- lon, principal, three teachers ; Glenview Ave- nue school. Caroline Mimm, principal. nine teachers. There are two supply teachers, one each for the grammar and primary grades.

Eight teachers of special subjects are en- gaged: Joseph A. Leeder, supervisor of music ; George F. McAlevy and Parker Peters, manual training : William H. Fountain, phy- sical trakung; B. C. Bacon, penmanship and bookkeeping; Hazel Orcutt, domestic science ; Olive M. Lowen, domestic art and science ; Susan Sproull, domestic arts.

During 1917 the average attendance at the

Oil City schools was 871 male and 1,918 female pupils out of a total registration of 2,914. The attendance at present averages 96 per cent.

The private school of Rev. Dr. Earp de- serves mention. It was conducted with suc- cess for several years and gave satisfaction to its patrons. Individual attention was given to those desiring special courses, and the school filled a large place in the esteem of the people, its scholarly head being highly regard. ed as an instructor and man of culture.

PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS

The parochial schools of the county in Oil City and Franklin have kept pace with the growth and importance of these cities.

The Oil City schools established by Father Coady were enlarged and successfully carried on by the Rev. Thomas Carroll. He was an educator in the true sense of the word, and the high mark set by him has never been lowered. The fine buildings and efficient man- agement of the present reflect credit upon all connected with the institutions. Father Sheri- dan takes great interest in all the schools. St. Joseph's is under the management of the Bene- dictine Sisters; St. Joseph's Academy, under the direction of the Rev. Alexis A. Fischer ; and the Assumption (Polish), under the direc- tion of the Felician Sisters.

In Franklin the same interest has prevailed in good parochial schools. The small schools of the past have developed into the fine insti- tution of the present Sacred Heart School, under the auspices of the Sisters of Mercy.

EMIENTON SCHOOLS

The first teacher of Emlenton was Mrs. La- villa Lowrie, who taught seven or eight of her neighbors' children in a room of her house. The second teacher was Miss Sarah Perry, and the third was Miss Lena Milford. She taught in a small house on the bank of the river. and is remembered as an excellent in- structor. Opinions differ as to the time when the first schoolhouse was built, whether it was in 1845 or in 1849. It occupied the same site as the present public school and was a small frame building. The ground was given by Joseph B. Fox. It was used as a town hall. and as a place of worship by nearly all the different denominations. The second school building was also a frame structure. A sub- stantial brick building was erected in 1873.

Rev. J. B. Fox erected a large brick build-

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ing above Shippenville street in which he con- ducted for some years an academy called Ta- bleau Seminary. With the improvement in the public schools the seminary was discontinued. The course of the schools in Emlenton has been upward, and to-day her high school is ranked by the State superintendent as first class. It has a four years' course, nine months each year, with three teachers. The principal is J. B. Edwards. The number of pupils en- rolled in 1917 in this borough, together with the statistics of this and all the other boroughs and townships, will be found at the end of this article in a table from the State report.

IRWIN TOWNSHIP

The first schoolhouse in Irwin township was a log house. Before its erection the schools were held at the homes of the farmers in dif- ferent parts of the township. It was called the McMurdy school, and the first teachers there were Chauncey Hamilton, Charles Fol- som and Jacob Heims. Another of the early school buildings was the Beach schoolhouse, where George Westlake was one of the first teachers. The Barnes schoolhouse was erected near Gilmore's mills, one of the first teachers being Robert Jones. A schoolhouse was built on the farm of Thomas Martin at an early date, which numbered among its teachers Wil- liam Blakely and Miss Kennedy. A log school- house was put up on the land of Thomas Bullion very early. John Elder, Reuben York, and John Hovis were three of the early teach- ers there. At the Guiler schoolhouse, built upon land owned by John Guiler, John Bingham was the first teacher, and Chauncey Hamilton also taught there. Before the passage of the school law of 1834 these schools were all supported by the subscriptions of the patrons. After the new law went into effect, all became public schools excepting two. The present schools are eleven in number. One of them is dis- tinguished by having a term of eleven months.

OTHER TOWNSHIP SCHOOLS

The first schoolhouses in Allegheny town- ship were situated near Concord Church and Asbury Chapel. One of the first teachers at the Concord schoolhouse was a Scotchman who boarded himself in the schoolhouse and taught without books. He seems to have been ahead of his time. He is remembered as a fine teacher. Mr. G. B. Brown taught at the Chapel school at an early date. The Brodhead school was built on land given by C. Brodhead. Nancy J. McBride, Elvira Hall, and Cornelia Mix

taught among the first. The Neillsburg Acad- emy was sustained for a number of years by the citizens of this township. After the de- parture of the successful and unsuccessful among the oil operators the schools naturally declined in numbers and importance. There are now two schools with thirty-five pupils in the township.

In Sugar Creek township the first school- house was produced by the exertions of the neighborhood, upon the farm of Thomas Brown, in the Sugar Creek valley. It was a log building, and William Mead, Samuel Hood and Margaret Robinson were the first teach- ers. A small school was taught for several terms in a vacant house near French Creek, above the mouth of Patchel's run .. Josiah Longwell was the teacher. This was the first school in that locality. A deserted log house furnished school room in which William Mead taught for a number of terms ; this house was located on the Satterfield farm. The first schoolhouse in the vicinity of Galloway stood a short distance from the Dempseytown road, about a mile from Franklin. From such an unpromising beginning Sugar Creek township has developed the school idea until now she has more schools than any other township in the county. Two of her schools have terms of thirteen months.

The report of the State superintendent of public instruction for the year 1877 gives the following account of early educational efforts in Scrubgrass township:

"In Scrubgrass township a school was taught in 1804 in a log house near Witherup's by John McClaran. . The only pupils yet living are Samuel Phipps, born in 1795, and his sister, Polly Williams. A house was built on the Barkley farm in 1807. A little later a very large log house was erected near the present residence of James Anderson, and in this James White taught a very large school. On a Saturday afternoon the larger boys visited a distillery near by, chopped wood for whiskey, and returned to the schoolhouse about 'spelling time.' They besieged the house with snow- balls and the teacher could not control them. On the next Monday morning, however, each returned to his allegiance and received a severe flogging. This house was in use until 1817. In 1820 P. G. Hollister taught in a new build- ing near the Witherup house. The first books used were Dillworth's speller and the New Testament. The first arithmetic introduced was the Young Man's Companion, in which

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Venango County, Pennsylvania: Her Pioneers and People (Volume 1), Part 41

Author: Babcock, Charles A. Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author: Babcock, Charles A.
Publication date: 1879
Publisher:
Number of Pages: