Ohio History Journal

THE ORIGIN OF PUBLIC EDUCATION IN OHIO

BY WILLIAM MC ALPINE, M. A.

A certain very excellent history of education says

that in Ohio public education was a victory of the New

England element over the other parts of Ohio's popula-

tion. In the same work, there are certain maps taken

from Mathews' Expansion of New England. Certain

parts of the state where the New England population is

supposed to have predominated are marked white. The

remainder is black. The unescapable fact that Samuel

Galloway came from another stock is explained by stat-

ing that he was in contact with New England people at

Miami University. Cincinnati is also marked as a

Yankee center. It is not my purpose to detract from the

contributions of the sons of New England to Ohio's cul-

tural growth. They did nobly. Nor am I influenced by

any emotional bias in my researches upon this subject.

While my name is Scottish, I am very nearly three-

quarters Yankee by descent and possess the mental and

physical characteristics of my Massachusetts fore-bears.

Until about two years ago, I firmly believed the com-

monly accepted theory of Ohio's educational genesis.

But the evidence does not exist that any one group ob-

tained an early option on schools in Ohio. True, a good

case can be made for the Yankee if we tell all he has

done and name the persons of Yankee descent who bat-

tled for schools in Ohio, and totally ignore the others,

This seems to have been done. Much is said about At-

(409)

410      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

water, Guilford, Lewis, Stowe and Rice, but why should

Ray, Barney, McGuffey, Hoge, Van Hook, Olds, Lord,

Cary, Kemper, Picket, Dunlevy, Talbot, Morrow, Trim-

ble, Worthington and a host of others who did equally

well, be neglected?

The origin of the opinion that Ohio owes its educa-

tional system to New England effort seems to lie in the

following facts:

1. Massachusetts and Connecticut had district

school systems earlier than the other states. The earliest

settlers of Ohio were Massachusetts people at Marietta.

In its bargain with the government, the Ohio Company

induced the United States to reserve Section 16 for

schools and to appropriate two townships for a uni-

versity.

2. Nathan Guilford was the chairman of the com-

mittee on schools of the Senate, when the first manda-

tory act was passed, making a tax of one-half a mill ob-

ligatory and setting up a school system in 1825.

3. Caleb Atwater was chairman of the committee

on schools and school lands in the Senate in 1821-1822,

and offered the resolution which led to his appointment

as chairman of the commissioners of schools by Gover-

nor Trimble. Atwater performed a great labor in the

interest of education and gave a powerful impetus,

which led to the act of 1825.

4. Samuel Lewis, the first superintendent of com-

mon schools, was a native of Massachusetts and his ser-

vices cannot be over-estimated.

5. Calvin Stowe, also a New Englander, made a

report on Prussian education which had an enormous in-

fluence on Ohio and the entire United States.

412      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

Lane, of Sandusky, who was instrumental in introduc-

ing teachers' institutes in Ohio, inspiring the first one

at Sandusky in 1845 and who in his tours of the state

was a constant propagandist for better schools; also of

Alfred Kelley, originally from Cleveland but later living

in Columbus, who constantly worked for education.

Ephraim Cutler in 1819-1820 attempted to get a school

bill through the Legislature but failed in the Senate,

14 to 14. Some very prominent educators and editors

-from New England who labored in Ohio were John

Locke in Cincinnati, I. W. Andrews of Marietta College,

Andrew Freese, the first superintendent in Cleveland,

George Nashee, owner of the Ohio State Journal from

1826 to 1831, David Smith, editor of the Monitor, 1818-

1830, John Harmon and William Coolman, editors of the

Western Courier at Ravenna, 1825-1829.

But there were others who did not come from New

England and who fought with equal valor and success.

Every governor of Ohio from the Territorial Governor

St. Clair, an old Scotchman, clear down to Governor

Medill, as far as I have read their messages, advocated

and supported education at the expense of the state.

Governor T. W. Worthington, a Virginian and a

Methodist, was the most active force in the Constitu-

tional Convention which secured land endowments for

education for the entire state. He was the father of the

State Library. He advocated a state normal school and

he was a member of the House in 1824-1825. Worth-

ington voted for the acts of 1825. A letter he wrote to

the Scioto Gazette, published at Chillicothe, expresses

his gratification that near the end of a long and active

life he has had the opportunity to vote for a reform in

414      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

Franklin, Highland, Montgomery, Muskingum, and

Champaign.1

Other governors who were especially active in the

interest of common schools were Jeremiah Morrow, a

Presbyterian born in Pennsylvania, and Allen Trimble,

born in Virginia. Not a governor was negative or in-

different. Tiffin, born in England; Lucas, Vance, Shan-

non, Bartley, all of whose Scotch-Irish ancestors trace

back to the old Red Stone Presbytery in Pennsylvania,

supported public education. I refer to Dr. Hunter's es-

say, "The Pathfinders of Jefferson County"--in volume

VI of the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society

Publications.²

We shall now examine the endowment of education

by the government. It is well known that John Cleves

Symmes and the other "blue hens" from New Jersey

who settled the Miami Valley demanded and obtained an

endowment for elementary and higher education in the

Miami Valley; and the Pennsylvanians who settled the

"Seven Ranges" of Jefferson County also received an

endowment of section 16.3

The Ohio Land Company was a money-making con-

cern. It was not a charitable enterprise. It made pres-

ents to nobody. Its insistence upon college townships

and school sections was for the purpose of rendering its

lands more salable. The United States made the dona-

tion. Similar motives actuated Symmes. It is evident

1 See especially the yeas and nays in the Senate and House Journals of

1821, 1825, 1827, 1831, 1834, 1836, 1837.

2 Also. "Influence of Pennsylvania on Ohio History," by Dr. Hunter.

Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society Publications, Volume XII, 281

et seq.

3 Martzolff, "Land Grants for Education," Ibid., Volume XXV.

416       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

ration and bought the lands from      themselves acting as

legislators, did not, either as individuals nor as legis-

lators, make any reservation for schools. They paid

Connecticut about 40 cents per acre. A number of very

wealthy and aristocratic families got a start from this

very thrifty speculation.⁴

The actual settlers in the major part of the Reserve

were from Pennsylvania and New York. The Firelands

and Cuyahoga Counties filled with New Yorkers. Trum-

bull, Ashtabula and Mahoning Counties were peopled

mainly from Pennsylvania. Portage, Geauga and Me-

dina seem to have been chiefly Yankee. However, Kil-

bourn in his Ohio Gazetteer of 1826 tells of a township

in Medina County which had a population of 1000 Ger-

mans. These facts may be verified by consultation of

the annals of townships in the Firelands Pioneer, West-

ern Reserve Pioneer and the checking up of membership

rosters, obituaries, etc. I found that less than thirty

per cent of the pioneers of the Firelands and Cuyahoga

County in 1865 were of New England ancestry.5

Therefore, the very great interest in education which

began to manifest itself in Cleveland, Sandusky, and

other points in Lorain, Erie and Cuyahoga Counties

4 The particulars are in the Connecticut Mirror, March 29, 1819. The

Mirror is in a controversy with the Bridgeport Farmer as to whether or

not certain legislators swindled the state of Connecticut. Names are pro-

duced.

5 Firelands Pioneer, 1882, page 122; Volume XIV, page 94; Volume

VII and Volume VIII, in various parts. Usually about one-fourth of the

members of the Pioneer Society came from New England. About two-

thirds were from New York and Pennsylvania. Possibly natives of New

England are less prone to join Pioneer Societies?

Also Western Reserve Pioneers. Rosters of membership from 1879 to

1892. Two hundred and two were from New York, eighty-eight from Con-

necticut and one hundred and sixty-four from overseas.

418       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

during the 'twenties from the Ashtabula District, was a

New Yorker. The files of the Ohio Statesman, Monitor

and Ohio State Journal during the 'twenties and 'thirties

give the nativity of the members of the Legislature.

These are illuminating. They destroy for all time, the

myth that the nativity of the settlers of Ohio had any-

thing to do with their attitude towards common schools.

The person born in Massachusetts or Connecticut was as

likely to vote nay on a progressive school measure as

was the son of Virginia or Kentucky. The most back-

ward element were the Pennsylvania Germans and the

Quakers. Everybody else usually supported public edu-

cation. If anything, the Virginian was less parsimoni-

ous than was the son of Connecticut. This is revealed

in the auditor's, common school commissioner's and state

statistician's reports from 1826 to 1859. In general, I

will state, that there is not a single year from 1826, when

the first statistics relative to schools begin to appear,

until 1865, which marks the end of my investigations in

public documents of the state, that there is manifested a

greater willingness on the part of the Yankee to make

a financial sacrifice for education than there is by his

brother from Virginia, Pennsylvania or New York.⁶

The counties which paid the highest ratio on their

valuation in 1829, were Butler, Ross, Franklin, Mont-

gomery, Highland, Preble, Clermont.⁷ The lowest were

6  See State Statistician's report of investments in school property in

1859 and check up the number of new schoolhouses built and the average

cost in 1837, 1838 and 1839. Reports of Superintendent of Common

Schools. Also note the salaries and length of school term.

7 See Auditor's report on taxation in the House and Senate Journals for

1827 and 1830.

420      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

that he thinks the schools of Geauga and Portage Coun-

ties are as good as those of other sections.⁸

Now as to the significance of Samuel Lewis as State

Superintendent. His son, in his biography, tells us that

Samuel's father took him out of school when he was ten

years of age and put him to work. When the boy was

twelve they came to Ohio, and the father bound out the

boy and collected the money. Samuel, having a desire

for greater opportunities, went to Cincinnati, and made

arrangements to pay his father. He came in contact

with Judge Burnet, studied law and became very much

interested in education. Cincinnati was a center of cul-

ture. Burnet, Symmes, Lytle, Harrison, Kidd and

others had liberally endowed education. Most of these

people were Presbyterians from Kentucky, Pennsylvania

or New Jersey. They had founded Cincinnati College.

Kemper and Lane of New Orleans had endowed Lane

Seminary. Famous teachers such as the Pickets from

New York; Milo Williams; Talbot from Virginia; Kin-

mont from Scotland; Elijah Slack, ex-vice-president of

Princeton; Martin Ruter from Kentucky; Daniel Drake,

born in New Jersey and reared in Kentucky; Frederick

Eckstein, from Prussia; Cary, a native; and others lived

and worked in Cincinnati. They had formed the Col-

lege of Teachers, which at its annual meetings drew

visitors from South Carolina, New Orleans, St. Louis,

Detroit, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Pittsburgh and all

parts of southern Ohio. Movements emanating from

All the Reports of the Commissioners for Common Schools from 1854

have tables of monthly wages paid men and women. He who doubts my

statement may take any year at random from 1854 to 1865.

The Origin of Public Education in Ohio      421

this society led to state conventions in Kentucky⁹ Indiana

and Ohio. Famous educators, like William Holmes Mc-

Guffey and Grimke; great divines like Alexander Camp-

bell, Lyman Beecher, and Purcell, took an active part.10.

I think that Lewis' birth in Massachusetts had less to do

with his activity in education than the environment in

which he lived. Lewis was very closely associated with

McGuffey, the author of the Readers. McGuffey

stumped the state with Lewis in the interests of common

schools during 1838.

The Presbyterian preacher was a very powerful in-

fluence in favor of common schools. A common notice

in the local paper, whether in Columbus, St. Clairsville,

Cincinnati, Perrysburg, Maumee, Urbana, Troy or al-

most any other town, in the 'twenties, 'thirties, or 'for-

ties, is that "a meeting of the Friends of Education will

be held in the Presbyterian Church."¹¹ Then the ac-

count of the meeting is printed and we learn that Rever-

end James Hoge of Columbus, Reverend Joshua Wilson

of Cincinnati, Reverend Doddridge of St. Clairsville,

Reverend Anson Smyth of Toledo, and others had made

addresses. The Presbyterian preachers very frequently

were members of the county board of examiners.12 The

first six presidents of Ohio University were Presby-

terian preachers, as were also the first five of Miami.

9 See the files of the Frankfort Commonwealth in reference to the

great educational conventions in Kentucky during 1833 and 1834. From

August 6, 1833 to January 10, 1834.

10 The various volumes of the Proceedings of the College of Teachers

from 1834 on. Also the notes of the conventions in the Ohio State Journal,

January, 1836.

11 See Ohio State Journal (Semi-Weekly), September 18, 1838, for the

movement in Columbus.

12 Hoge in Franklin County. McGuffey in Butler, etc.

The Origin of Public Education in Ohio  423

Washington   College in  Washington, Pennsylvania.

They manned Ohio University, Miami University, In-

diana University, Colleges in Kentucky, Tennessee, and

Illinois. Secondary education in these states is a grand-

daughter of Princeton; for Jefferson and Washington

Colleges are daughters of Princeton. The first presi-

dent of Western Reserve, Charles B. Storrs, was a grad-

uate of Princeton. So instead of the course of education

in Ohio and Indiana being a case of sons of New Eng-

land "setting up New Yales and Dartmouths," it was

actually a case of Scotch-Irish Presbyterian preachers

going out and setting up new Princetons.¹⁵

There was also valiant service performed by early

Methodist and Baptist divines. They were not as numer-

ous as the Presbyterians but were mainly of the same

Scotch-Irish stock. We need only mention John P. Fin-

ley, Bishop McKendree, Bishop McIlvaine, John Collins,

and W. A. McKee who preached and taught for the

Methodists and Reily and Dunlevy for the Baptists.

The Methodist church owed its rise largely to the great

revivals started by the Presbyterians at Cabin Creek

and Cane Ridge in Kentucky. The first camp-meetings

were Presbyterian affairs started by Reverends Mc-

Gready, Hodge and McNemar. After it had been going

on three years, Bishop McKendree of the Methodists

came in and participated.

It is interesting to look over the list of alumni in

Reverend Joseph Smith's History of Jefferson College.

We find there the names of professors and presidents of

15 History of Presbyterianism by Briggs. Scotch-Irish in America, by

Ford, Hanna, and Boulton. Also Hunter's essays before referred to.

Smith's History of Jefferson College.

424      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

Miami University, Ohio University, Franklin College,

Center College in Kentucky and Ohio, the Theological

Seminary at Xenia, Indiana University, etc. This book,

written in 1857, says that Jefferson College alone had

furnished twenty-four college presidents in ten states,

fifty professors, about six hundred ministers and hun-

dreds of professional teachers, lawyers, governors, and

prominent people. This college grew from a log acad-

emy started by Reverend McMillan about 1780, before a

town was ever built in Ohio. Francis Dunlevy, the first

man to teach the classics in Ohio, studied there; Jacob

Lindley, the first president of Ohio University, grad-

uated there; Reverend James Hughes, the first teacher

at Miami, studied there. The founders of Franklin Col-

lege came from Jefferson and its sister, Washington Col-

lege, only seven miles away. Here we have advanced

education started by the Presbyterians, the Baptists and

Seceders, on this side of the mountains in log buildings.

Their students are ready to man the rising institutions

of the new states before the states are born. Reverend

James Hoge was a member of the Franklin Society at

Jefferson, when he studied the sciences and classics there.

When we reflect that McGuffey and Ray both graduated

from the sister college, Washington, the picture which a

certain historian draws of the new "Yales and Harvards

arising in the wilderness," is rather amusing. There

were new Princetons rising in the midst of the forests

while the war-whoop of the savages still shrilled in the

pioneer's ears.

Many of the earliest Methodist divines received their

training at these and at Dickinson College, which finally

became a Methodist institution. Several of the Metho-

The Origin of Public Education in Ohio  425

dist preachers came from Presbyterian families. There

were two McKees, both preachers and teachers. One

was a Methodist and the other a Presbyterian. McKee

taught the first grammar school in Columbus, in the

Methodist Church. There is an advertisement in the

Monitor in 1816, offering free tuition to the first boy

who enrolls in Latin and Greek.

Gilliland, another student of Jefferson College, was

teaching Latin, Greek, Hebrew and English Grammar in

the Presbyterian Church at Red Oak in Brown County

in 1817.16 We recall that Dunlevy and Reily conducted

an academy in what is now Cincinnati in 1792. I pre-

sume that anyone who will call those institutions acade-

mies in Burton, Ravenna, and other places which were

incorporated and had but one teacher as late as 1833,

will hardly balk at calling the institution conducted by

Reily and Dunlevy an academy. The institution at

Marietta which was founded five years later and had

one teacher, was called an academy.

There are advertisements of classical schools taught

by William Bebb who was of Welsh descent and later

governor, and by David Monfort, Reverend McMinn,

etc., in Butler and Preble County.17

Samuel Galloway was born in Pennsylvania and

graduated from Miami University. McGuffey did not

lend a New England atmosphere to that institution. Gal-

loway taught at Miami himself and later in the Presby-

terian College at Hanover, Indiana.

Having read Grant's Burg Schools of Scotland,

I am inclined to believe that Galloway's zeal for common

16 Weekly Recorder, February 11, 1815.

17 Files of the Hamilton Intelligencer from 1825 to 1850.

426      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

schools arose from his Scotch Presbyterian ancestry

rather than from an exposure to Yankee influence. Pro-

fessor Joseph Ray was another product of Virginia and

Washington College.

Asa D. Lord, the first superintendent of the Colum-

bus schools, a Presbyterian preacher, a New Yorker,

and at first Principal of the Western Reserve Teachers'

Seminary at Kirtland, Ohio, was the cause of the rise of

the graded school system at Akron and the spread of the

Akron Law. The law was the work of Leggett and

Olmstead, two New York men who had been associated

with Lord and were then in Akron.¹⁸ Also the first

county superintendent, Bailey of Ashtabula County, and

Teachers' Institutes were New York ideas which Lord

and his associates, Hurty, Cowdery, New Yorkers, and

Lord's pupils, Andrews and Harvey disseminated in that

vicinity.¹⁹ Lord edited the Ohio School Journal for four

years and was the most potent force which led to the re-

forms of 1853.

Galloway woke them up in 1845.20 The next year

two school journals were published: the Ohio School

Journal and the School Friend of Cincinnati. Prior to

this movement of getting new school buildings in Akron

and several adjacent towns, fairly decent provisions had

been made in Piqua, Zanesville, Sandusky, Portsmouth,

Waverly, Dayton, Steubenville, Hamilton, Piketon, Mid-

dletown, Dover, St. Clairsville, McConnelsville and Co-

lumbus. Cleveland and Cincinnati ranked very credit-

18 See Fifty Years of Akron and Summit County by Lane, page 1850.

19 See biographies in Cyclopedias of Ohio Biography. Also note what

Howe says about Lord's School at Kirtland in his Historical Collections of

Ohio, 1848 edition.

20 All the newspapers commented on Galloway's Report.

The Origin of public Education in Ohio  427

ably for the times. So there was nothing record-break-

ing about Akron, except that its accommodations in

1846 and 1847 were abominable and very inadequate.

Other towns in Ohio had done far better. The schools

in Portsmouth had been under a superintendent for

several years. A. J. Rickoff who later became president

of the N. E. A. and superintendent of Cleveland's schools

had been superintendent in Portsmouth since 1845.21 He

was a product of Cincinnati and was born in New Jer-

sey. H. H. Barney came into Cincinnati in 1847, armed

with a recommendation written by Millard Fillmore, and

became the Principal of the Central High School. Cin-

cinnati had been teaching high school subjects ever since

1836 but had decided to centralize. This New Yorker

became State School Commissioner in 1853 and put

Ohio's modern school system into operation. It appears

that in the actual operation of schools our debt to New

York is great.²²

Now as to school legislation. All that which looked

toward realizing anything from the school lands origi-

nated in the Cincinnati district. The acts of 1803, 1805,

1810, 1817, and 1820, which prescribed more and more

definitely the administration of section 16, were spon-

sored by people from Hamilton, Butler and Montgomery

Counties.²³ The acts which tended to alienate the lands

from the schools and convert them to private use origi-

nated in the Ohio Purchase.

The bill which ushered in the long course of rascali-

21 Scioto County and Pioneer Record, by Evans, page 487.

22 Piatt, Lewis and Barney especially recommended the New York

System.

23 Senate and House Committees in Legislative Journals.

428      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

ties that plundered Ohio's school fund of millions, was

presented by Joseph Buell, Senator from Washington

County, in the interests of Timothy Buell and other resi-

dents of section 16 adjacent to Marietta. This was in

the year 1805-1806. It was voted down in the House.

The bill came up again in 1806-1807. It was again de-

feated, but in 1807-1808, Samuel Hildreth succeeded in

having the right to grant ninety-nine year leases con-

ferred upon the town council of Marietta.²⁴ About 1810

some permanent leases were granted in the country to

the west. The decade 1810 to 1820 was an orgy of rob-

bing the schools. The most complete alienation of the

school lands occurred in the counties of Gallia, Athens,

Washington, Scioto, Pike, etc.²⁵ The Ohio Executive

Documents of 1838, number sixty-nine, show where six

hundred and forty acres were frequently sold for less

than one hundred dollars. The school lands in the coun-

ties with a heavy Scotch-Irish population, like Belmont,

Jefferson, Montgomery, Hamilton, Butler, etc., realized

a very fair sum and were really a potent element of

school revenue. For example, Jefferson County derived

in 1854, about seven thousand eight hundred dollars

from interest and rents. In those days, this would pay

the salaries of a hundred country school teachers for six

or seven months.²⁶ Ordinarily, the individual township

did better in looking after its school lands than general

agents did. For example, two counties, Jefferson and

Montgomery, realized more from the sale of their sec-

24 Senate Journal, 1805-1806; pages 34, 47, and 51. House Journal,

1805-1806, pages 58, 60, 64, 68, 74, 75; House Journal, 1806-1807, page 65;

Senate Journal, 1807-1808, page 75. Laws of 1808 (Local).

25 Note Local Laws 1810 to 1820.

26 School Commissioners Report and Auditor's Report, 1854.

430      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

did from its one township, and had to close its doors in

1845 in order to pay its debts. So it seems that no pre-

eminent merit will attach to the sons of New England

in their administration of that endowment, which they

assume particular credit for inducing the United States

to confer upon education.²⁸

We shall now pass to the subject of legislation at-

tempted and achieved.

In 1812 Ludlow of Butler County, a New Jerseyman,

introduced a bill that banks be taxed to support schools.

This bill passed the House forty to twenty and died in

the Senate.²⁹

In 1816, William Trimble, a Virginian and a Meth-

odist, from Fairfield County, introduced in the Senate,

a bill for the support and regulation of schools. Senator

Patterson of Guernsey, proposed that the county court

be required to appoint three examiners to examine and

license teachers, which measure was adopted by Guil-

ford in 1825 in his act. Trimble's bill passed the Senate

and failed in the House.³⁰

In 1819, Jones of Wayne County, chairman of the

House committee on schools and school lands, reported

in favor of authorizing the governor to appoint a person

from each judicial district to examine into the condition

of the lands and schools and also to prepare a plan or

system of regulating and supporting education (House

Journal, page 321); and the Governor, Ethan A. Brown,

recommended that the further granting of long leases be

28 Note special reports on Ohio and Miami Universities in Executive

Documents for 1840 to 1845. See index.

29 Senate and House Journals, 1811-1812-1813.

30 Legislative Journals for 1816-1817.

The Origin of Public Education in Ohio      431

arrested. He said that the schools were realizing less

than was being expended in legislating about their lands.

Brown also suggested a tax upon auction sales as a reve-

nue for schools. Here we have two things which appear

in Atwater's report in 1822. Atwater moved the same

things that Jones did three years earlier and used the

same expression that Brown did concerning profits from

school lands. The only difference is that the Legislature

passed Atwater's resolution and ignored that of Jones.31

William Henry Harrison introduced the bill which

became the Act of 1821.

Olds, a former teacher and chairman of the Senate

school committee for several years, was the father of the

acts which empowered taxation to build schoolhouses in

1827; which raised the levy to three-fourths of a mill in

1829; and further made the property of non-residents

taxable. Olds represented Franklin and Pickaway. The

House weakened his bill.³²

Bigger, of Guernsey, drove the levy up to one mill

with an extra one-half mill optional.³³

Van Hook, of Butler, was perhaps the most prolific

legislator in school interests the state ever had. He at-

tempted to devote the entire surplus revenue to educa-

tion, but succeeded in getting five per cent annually in-

stead of having it invested in permanent stocks and

placed as a school fund. He carried through the bill

which created the office of superintendent of common

31 Governor's message in House or Senate Journal. Also in current

newspapers. In 1818-1819, Jones of Wayne County offered the same reso-

lution.

32 33 Legislative Journals and files of the Ohio State Journal during

December, January, February and March of the years indicated. Also the

Ohio Statesman.

432      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

schools. This act passed thirty-five to thirty-four and

Speaker William Medill, a native of Delaware, and later

governor of Ohio, gave the casting vote in favor. Van

Hook also framed and carried to success the Act of 1838.

He was the chairman who had put through the Act of

1836 also. Van Hook was instrumental in staving off

any further amendment in 1839 when a reaction started.

Hanna of Morgan County was school chairman and re-

sisted with considerable success, every attack on the act

of 1839.34

An analysis of the vote in 1837, on creating the office

of state superintendent, is interesting.  If a line be

drawn through Centerburg, Knox County, east and

west, the majority of the votes north of the line were

opposed to creating the office of state superintendent and

the majority of votes south of that line in favor. If a

line be drawn north and south through Centerburg, the

majority of the votes east of that line are opposed to the

office and the majority of votes west of that line are in

favor. If all the representatives who had been born in

Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, etc., had refrained from

voting, there would have been no state superintendent.

If all the representatives who had been born in New

England states had refrained from voting he would

have been elected with more than one majority.

A careful study of the foregoing table will reveal

several things. It will be noted that people not natives

of New England quite frequently represent counties in

the Ohio Purchase and the Western Reserve. Also that

34 Legislative Journals and files of the Ohio State Journal during

December, January, February and March of the years indicated. Also the

Ohio Statesman.

The Origin of Public Education in Ohio  433

Yankees are found all over the state and do not uni-

formly vote for advanced school measures. The same

facts are evident in the vote on the act of 1838. I have

the nativity of all the legislators and their yeas and

nays. This act passed at a ratio of two to one, but the

trend is very similar to that indicated in the foregoing

table. The heavy vote for the act is in the part of the

state which contains the Miami Valley, Scioto Valley

and Virginia Military District. It must be remembered

that Northwestern Ohio was very sparsely settled at this

time and figures very little in the vote. Several coun-

ties were often grouped together. I use the name of one

to save space.

Portsmouth very early had excellent schools. A

special act in 1838 provided for organization and new

buildings. The generosity of Massie, a Virginian who

laid out the town, endowed the schools with lands which

paid an annual rent of about two thousand dollars. So

Portsmouth had free schools and what was virtually a

high school as far back as 1839. They erected a six-

thousand six-hundred dollar building in 1839. This was

more than Akron did before 1850.35

Zanesville very early made provision for good schools.

Uriah Parke, a Virginian, editor of the Zanesville Ga-

zette, was a member of the school board and a most

active promoter of good schools. He obtained a special

act in 1839 and the Howe Academy was bought and a

large building erected for the boys.

I here present the vote on creation of the office of

state superintendent and the nativity of the representa-

35 These facts are contained in Galloway's report of 1847 as superinten-

dent of common schools.

Vol. XXXVIII-28.

434       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

tives. This is taken from the Hemisphere, February 10,

1837:

YEAS -- ₃5

County            Representative       Nativity

Ashtabula ............ Knapp   .......... New Hampshire

Athens ............ Jones ........... Ohio

Butler .............    Millikin .......... Pennsylvania

Butler ............... Van Hook ........ Ohio

Clark ............... Cushing ........... New York

Clinton ............. Davis ........... Ohio

Clermont ............. Utter ........... Pennsylvania

Cuyahoga ............ Scovill ......... Connecticut

Darke ............... Bell .    .......... Vermont

Delaware .......... Allen ............ Vermont

Fairfield ............. Medill ........... Delaware

Franklin ............. Kelley .......... Connecticut

Gallia  ................  Clark  . ..........  Indiana

Greene .............. Perkins .......... Pennsylvania

Hamilton ............. Armstrong ........ Virginia

Hamilton ............. Brown ....... New Jersey

Harrison ............. Gruber .......... Pennsylvania

Highland ............. Reese ........... Virginia

Jackson .............. Hughes .......... Virginia

Licking ........... Stewart ........... Scotland

Licking ........... Yontz .......... Maryland

Logan ............ Newell .......... Pennsylvania

Lorain ............. Hubbard .......... New York

Mercer ............... Taylor .......... Virginia

Monroe ............ Walton .......... Pennsylvania

Muskingum ........ Chambers ......... Pennsylvania

Perry ................ Trevitt .......... New Hampshire

Pickaway ............. Winship ......... Virginia

Pike ................. Van Meter ........ Virginia

Preble .............. Jameson ....... Kentucky

Preble ............... McNutt ......... Canada

Ross  .................  Ott  . ...........  Virginia

Warren .............. Hunt ........... Pennsylvania

Washington ......... Humphrey ....... Ireland

NAYS -- 34

Belmont ............. Weir ........... Pennsylvania

Brown ............... Loudon ......... Kentucky

Carroll ............... Atkinson ......... Pennsylvania

The Origin of Public Educatiou in Ohio     435

County           Representative       Nativity

Columbiana .......... Armstrong ........ Pennsylvania

Columbiana .......... Aten ............. Ohio

Columbiana ........... Creswell .......... Pennsylvania

Coshocton .......... Whitmore ......... Pennsylvania

Crawford ........... Cary ............. Virginia

Fairfield  .............. Graybill                         ..........             Pennsylvania

Fayette   .............. Harrison                         ..........             Pennsylvania

Geauga ............... Rockwell                          .........              Connecticut

Guernsey ............. Bigger............ Pennsylvania

Harrison  .............  Shane ............  Ohio

Holmes .............. Ankeney ......... Pennsylvania

Huron ............... Clark............. Connecticut

Jefferson  ............. Patterson  .........  Ireland

Knox ................ Hildreth.......... Connecticut

Medina .............. Newton........... Connecticut

Mercer .............. Taylor............ Virginia

Montgomery ......... Thurston ......... Connecticut

Morgan .............. Conklin ........... New York

Perry ................ Brown ............ Pennsylvania

Portage .............. Quinby........... Pennsylvania

Portage .............. Shreve............ Pennsylvania

Richland ............. Coulter........... Pennsylvania

Richland  ............. Lee  ..............  Pennsylvania

Stark       ...............  Caldwell.......... Pennsylvania

Stark       ................ Wise  .............  Pennsylvania

Trumbull ............. Hayes ............ Connecticut

Trumbull ............. Bronson.......... Connecticut

Tuscarawas .......... Allen ............. New Jersey

Union     ...............  Curry  ............  Ohio

W ayne   ............... Ihrig ............. Pennsylvania

Wood ............... Hollister.......... Massachusetts

Howe in his Historical Collections of Ohio tells us

that a person could obtain schooling from the most ele-

mentary subjects to higher mathematics and "the learned

languages, without money and without price" in Zanes-

ville in 1846. Zanesville had been running several years

when Akron woke up and decided to erect some build-

ings.³⁶

36 Howe, Historical Collections of Ohio, edition of 1848.

436      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

E. E. Barney, a New Yorker, teaching in the local

academy, and Robert Steele, a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian

son of Pennsylvania, were the men who led the reform

in Dayton which led to the erection of three large build-

ings in 1840 in Dayton. In 1850 the academy was

deeded gratis to the board of education for use as a high

school. So Dayton says that its high school has a line-

age back to 1807.³⁷

Piqua erected three four-room brick buildings in

1844. Piketon and Waverly built in 1843 and 1844.

Steubenville built in 1839 at a cost of six thousand dol-

lars. Therefore, it was not inertia which characterized

many of the towns of the state prior to 1847 and the

Akron Law. Maumee and Sandusky City already had

good schoolhouses and full-fledged high schools before

1847.38

While it required a desperate fight to carry the re-

form of 1847 in Akron and to save the high school in

Cleveland for several years after 1846, the Union school

was adopted with great unanimity in Xenia, Urbana,

Chillicothe, Lebanon and other places. There was not a

dissenting vote in Urbana. It carried twenty to one in

Lebanon. There was but one dissenting vote in Chil-

licothe. It was practically unanimous in Xenia. This

is the verdict of the current newspapers-the Xenia

Torchlight during 1849, the Lebanon Star and Ohio

School Journal during 1849. The Urbana Citizen says,

July 6, 1849, "The meeting Saturday last, voted unani-

37 History of Montgomery County, Beers. Article on Dayton's Schools

by Robert Steele. Also Dayton in the Centennial account of Ohio's School

Systems.

38 Commissioner's Reports of 1860. Also the various county histories of

Miami County and histories of Piqua. All agree.

The Origin of Public Education in Ohio   437

mously in favor of a tax to purchase sites and erect

school buildings in this district * * *." So the evi-

dence shows that other people besides inhabitants of the

Reserve and Washington County realized the value of

education. Ohio in 1849 did not differ materially from

Ohio in 1929 as to its sentiments on education. There

was quite as much missionary work needed among the

sons of New England as among the sons of Virginia and

Pennsylvania.³⁹

The act of 1825 did not come like a bolt from the

skies. It was the result of a movement of several years

and did not stop until 1838. Then another movement

started in 1845 which culminated in 1853.40

Caleb Atwater made his report in 1822. B. M. Piatt

of Cincinnati was chairman of the Senate committee on

schools for two years, 1822-1823 and 1823-1824. As

school committeeman, Piatt took Atwater's report and

recommended a school system with a state commissioner

of education who should administer the funds, report to

the Legislature and oversee the schools. There should

be county commissioners who would attend to the licens-

ing of teachers, laying out of districts, etc. The local

directors were to engage the teachers and conduct school

meetings, which would levy taxes and attend to other

business. The next year Piatt presented a bill in the

Senate which embodied a system, modeled after New

York and very nearly as advanced as the system ob-

39 See the articles in the Ohio School Journal for 1849, concerning Union

Schools. The County histories for Greene, Logan, Ross, Warren, Cham-

paign, support the reports to the state superintendent for 1849, 1850, etc.

The reports for the various counties often give the vote.

40 This is evident when one follows the legislative battle from year to

year.

438      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

tained in 1838. This bill went to second reading and on

motion of Ephraim Cutler further consideration was

postponed until the first Monday of the December fol-

lowing. In December of 1824, Nathan Guilford was a

member of the Senate and chairman of the Senate com-

mittee on schools. Piatt's bill was reported as unfinished

business and was referred to Guilford's committee. It

came out of Guilford's committee, shorn of both state

and county supervision and was passed as the act of

1825. All this may be learned by reference to the Senate

Journals of 1823, 1824, and 1825. The files of the Co-

lumbus Gazette during February, 1824, and the Monitor

for 1823, the Cincinnati Gazette, Independent Republi-

can and Inquisitor for 1823, discuss Piatt's Bill. It

seems to me, that Benjamin M. Piatt, chairman for two

years of the Senate committee on schools, the man who

arrested the further alienation of school lands during his

term is entitled to as much credit as Guilford. I am

unable to understand why Cutler did not support Piatt.

There is no evidence of opposition in the Senate, no

amendments nor motions to indefinitely postpone. Other

members of the committee report Piatt's bill without

amendment. The newspapers in Ohio had been belabor-

ing the assembly ever since 1818 to obtain school legisla-

tion. Three papers in Cincinnati in every issue during

the session carried strong editorials calling for action.

Two newspapers in Columbus, in fact almost the entire

press of Ohio demanded a school bill. The press was not

satisfied with the act of 1825. It was considered too

weak.⁴¹ Why did Cutler let Piatt down?

41 The editorials in the Hamilton Intelligencer durng 1829 are a good

example. The Cincinnati Gazette advocated a half cent on the dollar during

1823 and 1824.

440      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

Inquisitor, edited by Powers from New York and Ver-

mont, and the National Republican, edited by Looker,

constantly published descriptions of the schools of New

York, New Hampshire, Scotland, Germany, etc., and

suggested plans for Ohio. It was the same with the

Hamilton Intelligencer edited by Camron and Camp-

bell, and the Chillicothe Supporter. The editorials of

the Inquisitor were printed in the papers of Steuben-

ville, Chillicothe, Portsmouth and Columbus. The Ham-

ilton paper quoted the Cincinnati Gazette, the Portage

Democrat and the Columbus Gazette. Members of the

Legislature were held up to ridicule.⁴²

Clear down to 1854, the attitude of the press was one.

Cochran of the Ohio Democrat at Mount Vernon, Har-

ris of the Cleveland Herald, Bailhache of the Ohio State

Journal, all supported educational progress.  Samuel

Medary of the Ohio Statesman was a stalwart supporter

of Samuel Lewis. Now the press was not manned by

people from one part of the country. At one time in St.

Clairsville an Irishman edited the Gazette and a Scotch-

man edited the Historian. The Scotchman was a grad-

uate of Glasgow University and was chosen as a county

school examiner. This was in 1832. The county board

adopted uniform textbooks, a county educational society

was formed, and all teachers were required to pass ex-

aminations in reading, writing, arithmetic, geography,

grammar and history. Butler County in 1835, Miami

and Delaware Counties in 1834 and 1835 had require-

ments in advance of Portage County in 1833 to 1837 and

Cuyahoga County in 1843-1847. Lane says in his Fifty

Years of Akron that he came to Akron from Connecti-

42 The Columbus Gazette especially.

The Origin of Public Education in Ohio  441

cut in 1836 to teach. He went out to see Darius Lyman,

one of the examiners. Lyman said to a young man who

was studying law, "I have some chores to attend to, you

examine him." The young man handed Lane a law

book and directed him to read several sentences. He

then asked him to write some sentences. After that he

gave Lane a problem in proportion. Then he took the

fee of seventy-five cents and licensed him. The Western

Courier of Ravenna, corroborates Lane's narrative by

naming Darius Lyman as one of the examiners in 1833-

1834. It is evident, that Portage had nothing to teach

Miami County which in the issue of the Piqua Courier

of May 9, 1835, prints as the rules of the county board

that all applicants must pass in reading, writing, arith-

metic, grammar and geography to obtain a two years'

certificate. The board may at its discretion give a six

months' license to those who can pass in reading, writing

and arithmetic but that anyone who has held those lower

grades must on the next trial pass in all the subjects or

be deemed incompetent. The Delaware regulations were

similar. Ezra Griswold, editor of the Patron, was one

of Delaware's examiners.

Teachers began to form associations in Cincinnati in

1821. They had several conventions in southwestern

Ohio in 1835 and 1836. There was a teacher's society

in Columbus in 1832. I am informed that the teachers

of Pickaway organized in 1833. The first association in

the northeast was in 1837. Maumee and Perrysburg

followed later in 1837.43

43 Western Spy had several articles about teachers' associations in 1820.

Someone may object that I have neglected to mention Holbrook. I will

remind the reader that Josiah Holbrook was so dissatisfied with educational

442       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

The great movements of education in Ohio prior to

1845, started usually from Cincinnati and received able

support from the papers, pulpit and teachers of the deaf

and dumb and blind at Columbus. The great revolution

which culminated in the act of 1853 started from Colum-

bus, and Galloway was the leader. Lord and his fol-

lowers gave it form. By 1850 no section of the state

had a patent on enlightenment.       Franklin  College,

Western Reserve, Marietta College, Ohio Wesleyan,

Kenyon, Ohio University, Cincinnati College, Farmer's

College, etc., were all centers which gave impetus to the

movement.

The newspapers of the first half century considered

education as news. The Chillicothe, Cincinnati and Co-

lumbus papers quoted from the Academician published

by the Pickets from 1818 to 1820. They quoted from

Lord's School Journal and advised people to subscribe.

They quoted from the Annals of Education. One editor

reminds the others that business and philanthropy both

rode the same horse. Increased education meant more

readers.

Cist in his Cincinnati, in 1841, page 39, after stating

that there were over thirty-four hundred German voters

in the city enumerates the voting population giving the

nativity of all groups numbering more than one hun-

dred. I here submit the figures: Pennsylvania, 1210;

Ohio, 1112; New Jersey, 795; New York, 672; Virginia,

methods in Massachusetts and Connecticut that he did not send his son to

school at all, but looked after that himself. So the father of the National

Normal University at Lebanon can hardly be credited to "New England"

influence. T. W. Harvey was one of Lord's products. I also disclaim a

Presbyterian bias. All my grandparents were Unitarians and my parents

who reared me in Indiana were Methodists.

The Origin of Public Education in Ohio  443

519; Maryland, 537; Massachusetts, 414; Kentucky,

349; Connecticut, 230; Vermont, 118; England, 786;

Ireland, 742; Scotland, 360; France, 125. This hardly

looks like a transplanted New England community. It

is somewhat difficult to understand how the Yankees

succeeded in forcing all those supposedly indifferent and

hostile people to support the magnificent institutions

which graced Cincinnati. Perhaps the rest of the people

had the same zeal as that which characterised Guilford.

Micajah Williams who represented Hamilton County

for years and always supported education, was born in

North Carolina. The great editor, Charles Hammond,

who for years thundered in the Gazette for schools, was

born in Maryland.

If any section of the state was the educational mis-

sionary, it was Cincinnati. Columbus and Cincinnati

were the principal centers of propaganda. If any sec-

tion of the state was covered with fine schools at an

early date, nobody knew it. No one is aware that from

1803 to 1854 common schools and academies swarmed

around Akron and Painesville while the rest of the state

was destitute. No Gazetteer had discovered it. James

Kilbourn and Warren Jenkins never failed to note such

a thing as a good school building. Jenkins noted that

Findlay had a "commodious schoolhouse" in 1841. He

and Kilbourn mention "brick" schoolhouses in some

towns and say nothing of others.

Howe in the 1848 edition of his Historical Collec-

tions of Ohio, has high praise for the common schools

of Zanesville, Cincinnati and Portsmouth. He has not

mentioned any other town as notable. He makes par-

ticular mention of all colleges and leading academies.

444      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

He speaks highly of Steubenville, Norwalk, Hillsboro,

but he does not seem to find that either the Reserve or

the Ohio Purchase has left everyone else behind.

The newspapers did not know that a bright light was

beginning to shine in the northeast and send its rays into

the darkness which shrouded the rest of the state. A

certain history of Summit County tells us that this hap-

pened. It cannot be urged that the newspapers did not

tell about schools. They did. When the new school-

house was erected at Portsmouth, the Scioto Gazette of

Chillicothe and the Ohio State Journal said that it had

no superior in Ohio; that it equalled the best in the east.

The Cincinnati Gazette described it. The Cleveland

Herald was awake to schools. It told about the fine large

building at Zanesville, the excellent buildings at Dover,

McConnelsville and the broken windows at Sandusky.

The Herald said that there were some fair buildings in

the Reserve but none of a superior type. The Cincin-

nati schools are the subject of several articles in the

Herald. The Western Reserve Chronicle (Warren),

said the school accommodations were wretched in 1849.

The Courier of Ravenna said that they had no school,

either public or private, in 1833.

It is not my purpose to paint conditions as unusually

dark in the Reserve. The conditions in the majority of

towns were the same as in Newark, Circleville, Chilli-

cothe, Toledo and Lancaster.

The point is, that any settled part of Ohio in 1825 or

1850 would average about the same as any other part

having the same wealth. Some places in the Reserve

had fair conditions-for example Cleveland. Jefferson

had erected a good building in 1845. While Circleville

The Origin of Public Education in Ohio  445

delayed building until about 1853, so did Elyria. While

Adams County and Vinton did not have any high schools

until about 1860, neither did Geauga nor Medina. If

Lorain had five high schools in 1859, so did Brown.

There were as many high schools in the Scioto Country

as on the Cuyahoga River.

Nor is there the slightest evidence of any greater alac-

rity on the part of the New England people in establish-

ing libraries, founding colleges or supporting news-

papers. When Hudson, Middlebury and Ravenna had a

newspaper apiece in 1828, Georgetown, West Union and

Ripley also had a newspaper apiece. The people of Rip-

ley in Brown County were starting a college in 1830 be-

fore the people in Marietta were doing it. The people

at New Athens in Harrison County were starting a col-

lege before the Western Reserve College was started and

the Presbyterians of West Union, Red Oak and Cincin-

nati were quite as early in building and chartering

churches as the sons of Massachusetts.

I will close by calling attention to a fact which was

printed in all the newspapers in 1853. The German

Freemen had a great mass meeting in which they adopted

certain resolutions. They demanded: 1. Nine months

of school. 2. Absolute separation of the schools from

all sectarian and political meddling. 3. Compulsory

education.

The act of 1837 would never have been enacted if

there had not been a Canadian and a Scotchman, Mc-

Nutt and Stewart to vote yea.

I rest the case.

446       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Documents

Ohio. Commissioner of Common Schools. Reports, 1847,

1854-1865.

Ohio. Executive Documents, 1838, 1840-1845, 1854.

Ohio. General Assembly. House Journals, 1805-1807.

Ohio. General Assembly. Senate Journals, 1805-1808.

Ohio. General Assembly.    Senate and House Journals,

1811-1813, 1819, 1821, 1825, 1827, 1830, 1831, 1834, 1836, 1837.

Ohio. General Assembly. Laws, 1808, 1810-1820.

Ohio. Legislative Journals, 1816-1819.

Ohio. Secretary of State -Reports, 1837, 1838, 1839, 1859.

Newspapers

Cincinnati Gazette, 1823.

Columbus Gazette, 1824.

Connecticut Mirror, March 29, 1819.

Frankfort Commonwealth, August 6, 1833-January 10, 1834.

Hamilton Intelligencer, 1825-1850.

Ohio State Journal, December, 1818; January-March, 1819;

January, 1836.

Ohio State Journal (Semi-weekly), September 18, 1838.

Ohio Statesman, December, 1818; January-March, 1819.

Scioto Gazette, May-June, 1815.

Weekly Recorder, July, 1814; February, 1815; January, 1817.

Western Spy, 1820.

Periodicals

College of Teachers, Proceedings, 1834-1865.

Firelands Pioneer, 1822; Vols. VII-VIII, XIV.

Ohio Archaeological and Historical Publications, Vols. VI,

XII, XXV.

Ohio School Journal, 1849.

Western Reserve Pioneer, 1879-1892.

General Works

Beers-History of Montgomery County, Ohio.

Biographical Cyclopaedia and Portrait Gallery of Ohio.

Briggs - History of Presbyterianism.

Evans, Nelson W., -History of Scioto County and Pioneer

Record of Southern Ohio.