Ohio History Journal

Reviews, Notes and Comments      289

in his Cincinnati speech. Later, on March 21, 1864, he

quoted from this message to a labor delegation that

called upon him in Washington, stating in conclusion

that he had not changed his views on this subject.

 

 

DOCTOR HENRY SOLOMON LEHR

A great educator, to whom Ohio owes much, has

passed away. At four o'clock on Monday morning,

January 29, 1923, Dr. Henry S. Lehr, aged eighty-five,

founder and former president of Ohio Northern Uni-

versity, died at his home in Ada. Funeral services were

held in the Lehr Memorial Building of the University

on Wednesday, January 31. President E. A. Smith,

successor to the deceased, presided at the services. The

funeral sermon was delivered by Dr. P. H. Welshimer.

President W. O. Thompson of the Ohio State Uni-

versity spoke in behalf of the Ohio colleges. Dr. W.

H. McMaster, President of Mt. Union College, read

the resolutions adopted by the Mt. Union College stu-

dents and faculty. Dr. Lehr was a graduate of Mt.

Union, receiving his A. B. degree from that institution

in 1871 and his M. A. degree two years later. United

States Senator Frank B. Willis and Mr. E. L. Miller of

Ravenna paid tributes to their great teacher.

Among the prominent alumni present were United

States Senator Frank B. Willis; R. M. Wanamaker

and E. S. Matthias, Ohio supreme court judges; J. L.

Newhouse, supreme court judge of Oklahoma; Timothy

S. Hogan, former Attorney General of Ohio; ex-Con-

gressman Ralph D. Cole; Earl D. Bloom, Lieutenant

Governor of Ohio; Judge George P. Baer of Cleveland,

and Judge Charles Crittenden of Toledo.

Vol. XXXII -- 19.

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290     Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

Dr. Lehr's ancestors were Germans. They came

to America before the Revolution. He was born in a

rented log cabin March 8, 1838, at Oldtown, Mahoning

County, Ohio, then a part of Trumbull County. While

he was still quite young his parents moved successively

to Stark and Wayne Counties. He was the eleventh of

a family of twelve children. It is said he did not learn

to speak the English language until he was eight years

old. At the age of sixteen he began teaching school.

In 1854 he attended a ten weeks' term under Alfred

Holbrook, another great Ohio teacher, at Marlboro,

Stark County.

He determined to study medicine, but his father

persuaded him to take up the profession of teaching.

His first certificate was signed by John McSweeney, for

many years the most famous criminal lawyer in the

Middle West.

When the war came on he enlisted at Wooster,

Ohio, but was rejected as undersized. He again en-

listed in the fall of the same year and was a second

time rejected. In May, 1862, he enlisted in the Eighty-

sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry and was accepted, but

because of poor health was discharged in September

of the same year. He then entered Mt. Union College

and again enlisted in the army, this time in the One

Hundred and Seventy-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry.

He was discharged from the hospital at Nashville, Ten-

nessee, May 20, 1865. Soon afterward he taught school

in Stark County. He was ambitious to establish a nor-

mal school and finally decided to begin this work at

Johnstown, now Ada, Ohio.

The writer has heard Dr. Lehr describe his first

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Reviews, Notes and Comments    291

visit to this village. The comprehensive system of land

drainage had not then been commenced in northwestern

Ohio. When young Lehr reached Johnstown he found

the water so high that he could not walk up the street

and so, he said, he got on the fence and managed to

proceed to the higher ground on which the first building

of the Ada University was afterwards erected.

Here he began teaching in a modest way. He had

great faith in the future development of this section of

the state and time proved the wisdom of his choice of

the location for the school. Under his enthusiastic and

energetic management it prospered almost from the

first. It grew into recognition not only as one of the

popular institutions of its kind in Ohio but in, the entire

Middle West. Dr. Lehr had himself been a poor boy

and with those of meager means who were struggling

to acquire the rudiments of an education he was in

thorough sympathy. He planned courses of study and

the arrangement of terms to meet their needs. He ex-

ercised general supervision over boarding and rooming

facilities and took especial pride in what he could offer

in this productive agricultural region at the lowest rates

for the students of his school.

His interest in normal training was confirmed by

his contact with Dr. Alfred Holbrook and his plans for

so arranging the terms of his school that students could

enter at almost any time of the year and, without losing

standing in the college, be out the winter term to teach

school and thus earn their way he acquired, in a meas-

ure, while a student at Mt. Union College when Dr.

O. N. Hartshorn was President of that institution. It

was also while there doubtless that he was impressed

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292     Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

with the importance of keeping the institution over

which he presided close to the patriotic and official agen-

cies of the times. Dr. Hartshorn, soon after Mt. Union

College was established, brought that institution to the

attention of the state and Nation by inviting to it the

distinguished men of his time to deliver addresses.

Not only did he invite such men but he so persistently

followed up his invitations that he succeeded in having

such distinguished men as Salmon P. Chase and others

high in official position deliver addresses at Mt. Union.

It is claimed that Dr. Lehr even surpassed the presi-

dent of his Alma Mater in persuading eminent men to

visit Ada. Many will recall how he managed to stage

at that place the great political debate between Gov-

ernor James E. Campbell and William McKinley, then

a candidate to succeed Campbell in the governorship of

Ohio.

The results of this policy are manifest to anyone

who reads the list of distinguished alumni of the Ohio

Northern University. It is indeed a rare honor to an

educational institution that never received any direct

aid from the state that it should give at the same time

to the Nation two United States senators. After March

4, Ohio will be represented in the highest legislative

body of the United States and the world by two men

who were not only students but teachers in the insti-

tution founded by Dr. Lehr. Two judges of the Su-

preme Court of Ohio, R. M. Wanamaker and E. S.

Matthias, are graduates from the Ohio Northern.

That institution at different periods has been known

by different names. It was first simply a select school.

Afterwards it was known as the Northwestern Ohio

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Reviews, Notes and Comments      293

Normal School, then as Ohio Normal University and

finally as Ohio Northern University.

Among interesting relics given by Dr. Lehr to the

institution that he founded, were a flag carried by his

grandfather at the battles of the Brandywine, German-

town and Monmouth and the epaulettes worn by his

father as Brigadier-General in the Militia of Pennsyl-

vania.

Dr. Lehr belonged to the Grand Army of the Re-

public and the Masonic order. He was a member of

the Christian Church and for many years Superintend-

ent of the Sunday School conducted by that denomina-

tion in Ada.

October 30, 1866, he was united in marriage with

Albina Hoover of Stark County, Ohio. He is survived

by his widow and two daughters, Mrs. Sarah L. Ken-

nedy, of Chicago, and Miss Harriet M. Lehr, of Ada.

 

MEETING OF AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

The next annual meeting of the American Histori-

cal Association will be held in Columbus, Ohio, Decem-

ber 27, 28 and 29, 1923. The Mississippi Valley Asso-

ciation will hold its meeting at the same time and place.

It is practically assured that the American Political

Science Association will also hold its annual meeting

on the above dates in Columbus.

This is an announcement of unusual interest to all

Ohio students and teachers of history and an especial

effort will be made to assure an attendance worthy of

the meetings.

Ohio ranks high among the states that have made

conspicuous contribution to American history. Ohioans

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