Ohio History Journal

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SECONDARY EDUCATION IN OHIO PREVIOUS TO

SECONDARY EDUCATION IN OHIO PREVIOUS TO

THE YEAR 1840.

 

 

BY W. W. BOYD.

In the report of the United States Commissioner of Educa-

tion for the year 1899, Rev. A. D. Mayo shows Ohio's peculiar

position in regard to education. Each of the thirteen original

colonies of our country nourished its own class of people, differ-

ing from each other in creeds, languages, manners, and original

national ideals. Kentucky and Tennessee were reproductions

of Virginia and North Carolina, while Vermont was carved

from a colony already admitted as a state.

But into Ohio, the fourth state admitted to the Union,

immigrated "all sorts and conditions of people."  Probably no

slate, ancient or modern, had ever received in so short a period

fifty thousand people of such energetic mold and in many ways

so widely varied as the Territory of Ohio at its admission to

the Union in 1803. These people had come in groups from

every portion of the Union and from every civilized nation of

the world. They differed in religious, social, governmental and

industrial ideals. Could a republican form of government weld

them into a common people? The majority of the original set-

tlers were an enterprising and intensely practical body of people.

They had implicit trust in God and worshiped devoutly. They

were seeking new homes and those things which were best for

their homes. They believed in education as a means of develop-

ment. They wanted freedom and believed in the subjection of

individual ideals to the common ideal only. Could they find that

common ideal? That is our problem to-day. In the midst of our

individual clashes, it is becoming more and more difficult to find

the common ideal. We are led hither and yon by vagaries and

find only after bitter experiences that what we thought we

wanted, being misled, we do not want, and what we thought

we did not want is our true need. The differing ideals of our

pioneer fathers in this new western country was to furnish the

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