Ohio History Journal

PIONEER SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL MASTERS.

 

 

BY D. C. SHILLING.

One of the most striking facts found in a study of the

history of the Ohio Valley is the early appearance of the log

schoolhouse. When the primitive conditions of the country,

together with the everpresent danger from Indian attacks are

taken into consideration, one is forced to conclude that only a

sincere and abiding faith in the efficacy of popular education

prompted the pioneers to make the sacrifices necessary to dis-

seminate the rudiments of a liberal education among their

children.

Another striking fact in the history of the Ohio Valley is the

diversity of racial elements among the early settlers. Thus we

find the sons of New England and the sons of the upland South.

together with a considerable foreign element, living in close

proximity, each representing ideals of its own. However, it

appears that on the question of educating their children they

occupied quite common ground.

The educational activities of the New England settlements

have been emphasized from almost every possible viewpoint,

while the intellectual attainments of the non-New England set-

tlements have been an unexplored field until quite recently. In

the educational realm as in the political the New England ele-

ment did most of the literary work of the day and charges are

not wanting that other settlements have suffered from unfair

comparisons.

A recent writer1 of Scotch-Irish extraction points out that

"by means of the every busy and facile pens of the noble Puri-

tan fathers, the belief has taken deep root in the eastern states

and it is not without adherents in the west, that the preeminent

position Ohio maintains as an element of the Republic is wholly

due to the remarkable fecundity, mental and physical, of the

1Hunter, W. H., In Ohio Arch. and Hist. Soc. Pub. Vol. VI, p. 95

et seq.

(36)

• 1
 

Pioneer Schools and Schoolmasters.          37

 

eight families from New England who located at Marietta in

1788." He also states that until recently "no one has had the

temerity to dispute in the least degree the claim that Ohio is

solely the product of Puritan forethought", but recently, he says,

the Scotch-Irish has come "to dispute or rather to divide the

honor" with the New Englanders. "The Scotch-Irish of America

have not been writers; they were only actors." He contends that

Ohio history has been written only from the Massachusetts-

Connecticut point of view. He suggests that there is a Penn-

sylvania-Virginia point of view. These sectionalistic attitudes

we shall treat further on in this discussion.

 

 

THE PLANTING OF SCHOOLS.

One point sometimes lost sight of in a discussion of the

rise of schools in the Ohio Valley is that many of the pioneers

had emigrated from regions of good schools, and also that not

a few of them were alumni of reputable schools in the older

Atlantic states. This is applicable to the region settled by the

southern uplander as well as those peopled by New Englanders.

Therefore we are not surprised to learn of the very early at-

tempts to found academies and colleges.

The earliest school in the Ohio Valley that the writer could

learn of was in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, where a Mrs. Coomes

taught a school in the same year that the Declaration of Inde-

pendence was adopted. The year after the Revolution closed

John Filson started an academy at Lexington.    Other early

schools in Kentucky were McAfee's Station in 1777; Boones-

borough in 1779, and Lexington in 1780.³ John Filson and

John McKinney were pioneer teachers of Kentucky whom pos-

terity delights to honor.

The intellectual life of the Kentucky pioneer found expres-

sion in other than purely scholastic lines. As early as Decem-

ber, 1787, the Kentucky Gazette announces a meeting of a Ken-

tucky "Society for Improvement in Knowledge". At Danvillle

2"A number of the prominent men among the early Kentucky set-

tlers were themselves college men and among the founders of colleges in

Virginia. Lewis, Hist. of Ed. in Ky. p. 14.

3Ibid. p. 14. The tragic death of Filson and the encounter of

McKinney with the wild cat are too well known to need repeating here.

• 2
 

38        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

as early as 1786 there was a "Political Club" which, prior to

1790, seems to have anticipated some of the early amendments

to the federal constitution.⁴ On the status of education in the

West generally, and on that of Kentucky in particular, we have

the following testimony of the traveler, Michaux (F. A.), in

1802: "Throughout the western country the children are kept

punctually at school; where they learn reading, writing and

the elements of arithmetic. These schools are supported at the

expense of the inhabitants, who send for masters as soon as the

population and their circumstances will permit; in consequence

of which it is very rare to find an American who does not know

how to read and write". Of the more remote places, where

schools were scarce, he adds that the building of schools is "the

object of solicitude in every family".⁵

The region now included in West Virginia had few schools

before the opening of the nineteenth century, one reason being

the remoteness of the pioneer settlements. The time and energy

of the pioneer were occupied in gaining "sustenance for them-

selves and their families, and in their work many difficulties and

dangers had been encountered".⁶

The early schools in Ohio, like those in Kentucky, followed

closely upon the settlement of any locality, and also like those of

Kentucky, they were either adjacent to a fort, or only in set-

tlements compact enough to render Indian attacks less liable. Ac-

cordingly, we find the first school at Marietta in a blockhouse

within Campus Martius. Here during the winter of 1789-90

Major Anselm Tupper taught the first school. Dr. Hildreth

states that in 1790 the officers of the Ohio Company "appointed

one hundred and fifty dollars of their funds for the support of

schools" at Marietta, Belpre and Waterford.⁷ The same author

s caks of the pioneer schoolmasters of Marietta as "liberally edu-

cated men,"⁸ but after naming one teacher, he characterizes him

 

Lewis, p. 11.

5Thwaites, (ed.) Early Western Travels, Vol. III, p. 250.

6Whitehill, Hist. of Ed. in W. Va. p. 13.

7Hildreth, Pioneer History of Ohio, p. 261.

8Ibid. p. 468.

• 3
 

Pioneer Schools and Schoolmasters.          39

 

as a "well educated but rather dissipated man of Quaker (sic)

parentage".9

The second locality in Ohio to have schools was Columbia.

now a part of Cincinnati. A school was established here by

John Reiley in 1790. The following year he was joined by

Francis Dunlevy, who had charge of the higher mathematics

and the ancient languages, while Reiley taught the common

branches.10  The later career of these two men furnishes proof

that at least some of the pioneer schoolmasters of southwestern

Ohio were men of ability and sterling character. After Wayne's

victory over the Indians, settlers were free to follow the rivers

into the interior of the state; thus Mr. Dunlevy followed the

pioneers up the Little Maimi to a settlement called "The Island."

Three years later he located in the vicinity of Lebanon, where in

1797 he conducted a large school. Here, five years before the

town was laid out, Mr. Dunlevy taught the common branches,

the ancient languages and higher mathematics.11 The first school

in Lebanon was taught by one of Dunlevy's former pupils. By

1806 there were several schools in this vicinity and by 1805 a

brick school house had been erected.

Among the early schools of Cincinnati was one for young

ladies "kept" by a Mrs. Williams in 1802. Three years later a

boarding school was opened in a room fifteen feet square at

which Major Gano was a pupil for a short time. The classics

were taught by a Mr. Stewart in the first years of the nine-

teenth century.

A traveler, Henry B. Fearon, wrote that the teachers in

Cincinnati "are New Englanders as are the schoolmasters in the

Western country generally."  He also tells of visits to "a poor

half-starved civil schoolmaster" who had "two miserable rooms

for which he pays twenty-two shillings and sixpence per month;

the terms for all branches are thirteen shillings and sixpence per

quarter". The master complained of great "difficulty in getting

 

9 Ibid. p. 335.

10 McBride, Pioneer Biography of Butler Co., Vol. I, p. 30.

11 Schools of Ohio, 1876, Sketch of Lebanon. This volume is not

paged as a continuous volume. It is a collection of separate sketches.

• 4
 

40        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

paid and also of the untameable insubordination of his schol-

ars."12

LANCASTERIAN SCHOOLS.

There were several schools of the Lancasterian order in the

Ohio Valley by 1820. There was one at Hillsboro, Ohio, in 1818,

where Captain John McMullin, of Virginia, was hired to teach

forty-eight weeks for $600. The school opened with sixty-five

pupils but soon increased to ninety. Instruction in the common

branches was given here until 1823, when the school closed. A

few years later an attempt to revive it failed.

The Dayton Academy, which was founded in 1807, decided

to adopt the Lancasterian plan, and in 1818 employed one

Gideon McMillan, "an expert", to install the system. He an-

nounced that there would be "no public examinations at par-

ticular seasons; in a Lancasterian school every day being an ex-

amination day at which all who have leisure are invited to at-

tend." The extent to which they sought to control their pupils

is seen in the following resolution of the board of trustees in

1821. Resolved: "That any scholar attending the Lancasterian

school who may be found playing ball on the Sabbath, or resort-

ing to the woods or commons on that day for sport, shall forfeit

any badge of merit he may have attained and twenty-five tickets;

and if the offense appears aggravated, shall be further degraded

as the tutor shall think proper and necessary; and that this reso-

lution be read in school every Friday previous to the dismission

of the scholars."¹³

There was agitation for a Lancasterian school in Cincinnati

as early as 1812, but it was not until 1814, when a pupil of Lan-

caster, Edmund Harrison of Tennessee, came to Cincinnati and

proposed to the Methodist Church that a school be installed.

Failure to agree on all points caused a temporary division but

the factions soon united and during that year raised $9,000, to

which $3,000 was added in the spring of 1815. The Presby-

terian church was offered for use as a schoolhouse on condition

12Greve, Hist. of Cin. Vol. I, p. Other Ohio towns having schools

before 1810 are: Zanesville, 1800; Youngstown, 1802; Paddy's Run, Butler

Co., 1802; Warren, 1803; Middletown, 1805; Steubenville, 1806, etc.

16Hist. of Schools, 1876, based on sketches of the respective cities.

• 5
 

Pioneer Schools and Schoolmasters.           41

 

that the Church be allowed to choose annually twenty-eight

scholars as charity pupils.  On April 17, 1815, the school

opened, the enrollment reaching 420 within two weeks. This

number overcrowded the church building and the school au-

thorities had to refuse admittance to any more pupils. The in-

terest of the people in the school is shown by the starting of a

second school for "females" only during the same year.¹⁴ Fearon

states that in 1817 the superintendent told him that "they could

not attempt to put into practice the greater part of the punish-

ments" as provided by the founder of the system.¹⁵

 

 

THE RISE OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

It would be unreasonable to expect that the first schools of

the pioneers be free public schools. The vicissitudes of pioneer

life demanded that the early educational facilities be supplied by

those who had children to attend school, and that the expense to

the parent be not in the proportion of his wealth to that of the

community, but according to the number of pupils he sent to

school. It was customary for a teacher to secure by subscrip-

tion a satisfactory number of pupils-usually more than twenty

-at from $1.75 to $2.25 each per quarter. In Kentucky teach-

ers usually received £1 and seven shillings per quarter for each

pupil, not more than one-fourth of which was paid in money.

The master was obliged to accept "bear bacon, buffalo steak,

jerked venison, furs, potmetal, bar iron, linsey, hackled flax,

young cattle, pork, corn or whiskey" as well as tobacco - then

legal tender in Kentucky.¹⁶ In calculating the salaries of teach-

ers, it must be recalled that it was the well-nigh universal cus-

tom to "board round" with the pupils, hence a school of thirty

pupils at $2.00 per quarter would net the teacher $60.

Often a teacher would advertise in the newspaper for

scholars. "The founders of new schools for the most part ad-

14 Daniel Drake, Picture of Cincinnati in 1815.

Henry B. Fearon, quoted by Greve, Hist. of Cin. Vol. I, p. It is

not to be inferred that these were the only Lancasterian schools in the

Ohio Valley. How many there were and what influence they had would be

difficult to ascertain. Flint in his Condensed Geog. & Hist. of the Western

States, Vol. II, p. 411, mentions at Lancasterian school at Wheeling.

16 Lewis, History of Higher Education in Kentucky, p. 31.

• 6
 

42        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

vertise themselves from London, Paris, Philadelphia, New York

or Boston, and have all performed exploits in the regions whence

they came and bring the latest improvements with them."17 They

selected catchy names for their schools such as Pestalozzi estab-

lishment, agricultural school, missionary school, etc., giving the

name "college" to a "little subscription school in which half the

pupils are abcdarians."¹⁸

Often an elaborate contract was drawn up and signed by

both parties. We reproduce one signed at Youngstown, Ohio,

March 31, 1818:

"This article between the undersigned subscribers of the

one part and Jabez P. Manning on the other, witnesseth: That

said Manning doth on his part, engage to teach a school at the

schoolhouse near the center of Youngstown for the term of one

quarter; wherein he engages to teach, Reading, Writing, Arith-

metic and English Grammar: and furthermore that the school

shall be opened at 9 O'clock A. M. and closed at 4 P. M. of each

day of the week (Saturday and Sunday excepted) and on Sat-

urday to be opened at 9 and closed at 12 O'clock A. M. And we,

the subscribers, on our part, individually engage to pay unto

the said Manning, $1.75 for each and every scholar we sub-

scribed, at the end of the term; and we furthermore engage to

furnish, or to bear the necessary expense of furnishing, wood

and all other things necessary for the use of the school.

"Furthermore, we do engage that, unless by the 6th day of

April of the present year the number of scholars subscribed

amount to thirty-five, that the said Manning is in no way

obligated by this article.

"Furthermore, we allow the said Manning the privilege of

receiving five scholars more than are here specified.

"J. P. MANNING."19

(Then follow subscribers names).

The clause in the Ordinance of 1787 relating to education

and the early land grant of section 16 are too familiarly known

to need discussion in this paper. Despite the zeal of the early

17Flint, Ten Years in the Valley of the Miss. (1826), pp. 185-6.

18 Ibid.

19 Hist. Sketches of Public Schools (1876), Youngstown sketch.

• 7
 

Pioneer Schools and Schoolmasters.         43

 

settlers, a generation was to pass before free public schools were

in operation in Ohio. A writer of high authority is of the

opinion that little evidence exists to prove that "the framers

of the constitution of 1802 contemplated a school system to be

supported by the state."²⁰ They seemed to think that the land

grants were sufficient for all education from the lowest grades

to the university, and until 1821 land was the basis of school

legislation. In absence of laws compelling the education of the

youth at the expense of the public, education in those days was

voluntary and paid for by the recipients. The statute books

show that as early as 1808 schools were incorporated, and that

in 1817 a general act of incorporation was passed. "How gen-

erally the schools took advantage of this legislation, and how

generally they remained mere private associations, it would not

be easy to ascertain."21

In 1821 the first general school law was passed, but it was

not written in the imperative mood. This act permitted the

division of a township into districts and provided for school

committees which had some powers of school taxation. The

limitations of this law rendered it insufficient and in 1825 a law

was enacted much broader in scope and whose provisions were

mandatory.²²

The inauguration of a public school system was not the

accomplishment of a day. "As late as 1825 there was no public

school, properly speaking, in Cincinnati, where * * * public

sentiment was early manifested in favor of wise legislation in

support of schools."²³  In 1829 the total sum of money appor-

tioned to the directors of a rural district "for the maintenance

of a free school rarely exceeded $10.^"24 This modest sum enabled

the directors to announce free school for ten days, at the end

of which those who desired to continue in school must privately

pay the expense incurred.

One of the earliest organizations of teachers was the "Col-

lege of Teachers" at Cincinnati in 1831. It was the ardent

20 Hinsdale, in Ohio Arch. and Hist. Soc. Pub. Vol. VI, p. 38.

21Ibid. p. 49.

22Ibid.

Education in Ohio, by Harvey and White, p. 95.

24Ibid.

• 8
 

44         Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

champion of better teachers, better school laws and a state super-

intendent of schools.²⁵  In the language of a contemporary pub-

lication, "the College of Professional Teachers is one of the most

important literary institutions in the West and certainly deserves

to be encouraged and sustained by all the friends of education.

* * * It is the design of the Association of Teachers to elicit

and diffuse truth in relation to the various branches of educa-

tion, and to introduce and promote a more just and rational

system of instruction by concentrating the information and ex-

perience of those who have been engaged in literary pursuits."²⁶

By the middle thirties considerable progress had been made

in the public school system, especially in Cincinnati  In 1835,

there were in that city about 5500 youths between six and sixteen

years of age, of whom 3300 were attending school, and of the

non-attendants over half were more than twelve years old.²⁷

The pupils were housed "in thirty spacious apartments of 36x³⁸

feet each," and under the care of 43 teachers whose salaries

aggregated $₁₄,000.28  Parades of school children were used as

a means to arouse interest in education. On July 4, 1833, nearly

2,000 children joined in a parade. A few of the teachers refused

to march and were dismissed for obstinacy.²⁹  The parade at the

opening of school in 1835 received praise from Harriet Mar-

tineau, who was a witness on the occasion.30

The friends of education in Ohio were jubilant when Samuel

Lewis was made the first superintendent of common schools in

the state in 1837.  Data in his first annual report give us a

25 Harvey and White, Education in Ohio, p. 96.

24Millennial Harbinger, VI, p. 605.

27 Seventh Annual Report of the Trustees and Visitors of Common

Schools to the City Council of Cincinnati, 1836, p. 3.

28 Cincinnati Report, p. 9. The teaching staff consisted of:

14 male principals @                        $500 per year ..........                                   $7,000

10 male assistants @         $300 per year..........                3,000

4 female principals @                     $250 per year ..........                                   1,000

15 female assistants @                     $200 per year ..........                                   3,000

 

43                                                                                                                                   $14,000

29Greve, History of Cincinnati, I, p. 618.

30 Ibid. p. 619.

• 9
 

Pioneer Schools and Schoolmasters.           45

 

rather clear idea of the educational affairs of the state at that

time.

There were 4,336 public and 2,175 private schools in the

state, employing 8,962 teachers, who received $435,000 annually

for their services. The whole number of youths in the state

between the ages of four and twenty-one years was slightly less

than a half million, of whom approximately thirty per cent were

in school from two to six months of the year. Of the number

in school more than forty-two per cent were in attendance over

four months of the year.31

Mr. Lewis's report showed that there were 7748 districts in

the state, 3370 of which were without school houses. He pointed

out that this want was strongest in the towns and villages.

"Some places containing from 500 to 600 inhabitants, have no

common school houses."³² The buildings that were used were,

in many cases, of little value, the lowest was valued at $10 and

the highest at $5,500, "about one-third are worth less than $50."33

Flint, writing in 1828, says that common schools "are

established in a greater or less degree of perfection in every

township of any consequence in the state. * * * In some few

instances settlements have been found insensible to the value

and importance of free common schools."³⁴

Graded schools made their appearance in 1840. Cincinnati

being the first to adopt a course of study. At the close of the

period of which we write there were but four graded schools

in Ohio, viz.: Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus and Dayton.35

 

 

THE PIONEER SCHOOL HOUSE.

From Pittsburgh to Louisville one style of school archi-

tecture existed in the early days -the log cabin. Occasionally

this structure was constructed of hewn logs, but more often of

31First Annual Report of the Supt. of Common Schools in Ohio, for

the year ending 1837, computed from tables opposite page 44.

32 First Annual Report of the Supt. of Common Schools in Ohio, for

the year ending 1837, p. 32.

³³Ibid. p. 46.

34 Flint, Condensed Geog. and Hist. of the Western States of the

Miss. Valley, 1828, II, p. 346.

35 Education in Ohio, p. 109 gives the first course of study in Ohio.

• 10
 

46        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

logs just as they came from the tree. Its dimensions were

usually 18 x 24 feet or sometimes twenty feet square, with eaves

eight to ten feet above the ground. The spaces between the logs

were filled with small strips of wood and "chinked" with clay.

Windows were secured in one of two ways: either omit a row

of logs, save of course, the cross-ends, or saw down through

three or four layers of logs. In the former case a horizontal

slit-like window would be obtained; in the latter a perpendicular

window would be the result. In either case rude frames were

inserted, into which, in rare cases, glass was placed, but more

frequently the light was admitted through greased paper.

The door was made of thick, rough boards hung on wooden

hinges and fastened by the aid of a latch of the same material.

Locking and unlocking were accomplished by means of a "latch-

string."  Tardy pupils seeing no "latch-string" knew that the

master was "at prayers" and had to remain outside until it

reappeared, disregarding both the condition of the weather and

the length of the prayer. The roof was of clapboards, held in

place by means of long heavy poles running at right angles with

the tiers of clapboards. The heating plant consisted of a huge,

open fireplace, lined with rough stones and connecting with a

chimney made of logs standing upright and lined with clay

mortar. In some of the pioneer schools Mother Earth served

for a floor. One of the early schools at Zanesville was built

over a stump which served very conveniently for the "dunce

block." In most cases, however, "puncheon" floors were used.

The school furniture was as primitive as the building itself.

The seats were made of logs split in two with the flat side up and

supported by four to six pins or "legs."  These "solid if not

comfortable" seats were of different heights, the lower ones

being in the front of the room for the smaller children, yet they

were often too high to permit the feet of the occupant to touch

the floor. The larger pupils were seated on the higher benches

placed around three sides of the room. Some schools were

extravagant enough to have desks. These were made of rude

planks supported by long pins, and had no suport for the back.

In the above description the writer has held to general

characteristics. He is fully aware that in some localities, espe-

• 11
 

Pioneer Schools and Schoolmasters.           47

 

cially in towns, a much better building could be found; e. g., a

brick building was erected at Lebanon in 180₅ and frame build-

ings had made their appearance in a few communities soon after

1800. Yet the vast majority of the pioneer schoolhouses were

of rude construction. "Cabins originally occupied as places of

residence when abandoned by their owners for better homes,

were often made over to the public for the accommodation of the

schoolkeeper and the school he kept any hut or hovel was con-

sidered available for educational purposes.36

 

 

THE PIONEER SCHOOLMASTER.

Many generalizations on the character and fitness of the

pioneer schoolmaster already exist, but their contradictions ren-

der it exceedingly difficult to truthfully portray the pioneer

teacher of a century ago. In the first place it is manifestly unfair

to judge the morals of that age by the standards of today; it is

also unfair to dwell on the intemperance, etc., of the school-

master without informing us that drinking was an almost

universal custom on the frontier, and that lawyers, doctors, poli-

ticians and other people partook freely of the "liquid hospi-

tality" of the day. The writer offers no apology for the drunken.

trifling teacher, but in the spirit of fairness insists that he must

be judged by the moral standards of his day, and that his char-

acter and fitness be squared alongside that of men of other

walks of life.

Some writers insist that the teachers of the New England

settlements in the Ohio region were distinctly superior to those

found in communities settled by non-New England stock. This

sectionalistic attitude is so apparent that one should know the

 

36 This quotation is from Venable, p. 187.

My authorities for the above descriptions are Harvey & White.

Education in Ohio, 1876.

Ohio Arch. and Hist. Soc. Pub. VI, Article on Pathfinders of Jef-

ferson Co.

Report of Samuel Lewis, first Supt. of Common Schools in Ohio

Lewis, A. F., History of Higher Education, Kentucky.

Whitehill, A. R., History of Higher Education in West Virginia

Historical Sketches of Public Schools (Ohio).

• 12
 

48        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

antecedents of a writer to rightly estimate the fairness of his

characterizations.

This sectional characterization has been done so thoroughly

by Dr. J. J. Burns that we here (quote him  at considerable

length. "The teachers of the pioneer schools in southwestern

Ohio were selected more on account of their unfitness to per-

form manual labor than by reason of their intellectual worth.

The few schools established in this section were taught by crip-

ples, worn out old men, and women physically unable to scotch

hemp and spin flax, or constitutionally opposed to the exercises.

Educational sentiment was at low ebb, and demanded from the

instructors of children no higher qualifications than could be

furnished by the merest tyro. Before school legislation and

other instrumentalities effected salutary changes in the methods

of school administration common to this locality, schools of

worth were to be found only in the more populous centers. The

estimation in which the teacher was held by the community at

large was not such as to induce any young man or woman of

spirit and worth to enter upon teaching as a vocation.

"The teacher was regarded as a kind of pensioner on the

bounty of the people, whose presence was tolerated only because

county infirmaries were not then in existence. The capacity of

the teacher to teach was never a reason for employing him, but

the fact that he could do nothing else. Under such circumstances,

it would be vain to look for superior qualifications on the part

of the teacher. The people's demand for education was fully

met when their children could write a tolerably legible hand,

when they could read the Bible, or an almanac and when they

were so far inducted into the mysterious computation of numbers

as to be able to determine the value of a load of farm produce.

"A brighter picture presents itself when we consider the

state of educational sentiment in that section of Ohio peopled

with settlers from New England. They were not oblivious to the

value of education in a utilitarian sense, but their notions of

utility were broader and more comprehensive than those enter-

tained by their southern neighbors.

"The social status of the teacher was on equal footing with

that of the physician and minister. Society welcomed him to its

• 13
 

Pioneer Schools and Schoolmasters.           49

presence as an honored member. His periodic visits to the homes

of his pupils were regarded as quite an event by each household.

and great were the preparations that preceded his appearance.

* *   *  Many an inspiring youth was led into new fields of

thought by coming into personal contact with the master of the

home circle; and the seeds of knowledge planted by the faithful

teacher around the fireside of the pioneer often sprung up into

rigorous life."³⁷

The predominance of the Irish and Scotch-Irish teachers,

who in many cases were intemperate in the use of whisky, and

whose knowledge was somewhat limited, has led some to con-

clude that the teachers in the non-New England regions of the

Ohio Valley were of little consequence mentally and of still less

morally. Some of the early travelers have helped to give this im-

pression. Coming in a trip down the Ohio one observed a teacher

in Adams County, Ohio, whom he characterized as "an Irish look-

ing old man with silver grey locks and barefooted, his whole ap-

pearance and that of the cabin which was the school indicating

but little encouragement for the disseminating of instruction."38

What has already been referred to as the Massachusetts-

Connecticut versus the Pennsylvania-Virginia viewpoints of

Ohio history is nowhere more patent than in discussions on early

educators in the Ohio Valley. A southwestern Ohio writer

gives an entirely different impression of the teacher of his sec-

tion: "Among the pioneer settlers the primitive schoolmaster

was looked upon as a prodigy of knowledge and in all misunder-

standings between him and the scholars, they always sided with

the master, who was generally superstitious, *  *  *   but in

general he was a scholar according to the books"; then he adds

"but he knew little or nothing about human nature."³⁹   High

Burns, J. J., Educational History of Ohio (1905), pp. 21-22. There

is a striking resemblance between this description and that of White &

Harvey, Education in Ohio, 1876, pp. 86-87. In fact some of the par-

agraphs are identical save perhaps the omission of a phrase or occasionally

a sentence. No quotation marks are used and no reference to the earlier

work is made.

38 Cuming, Tour to the West, (Thwaites, ed., Early Western Travels,

IV, p. 213).

39 Historical Sketches of Public Schools, 1876, article on Preble Co.

by A. Haines.

Vol. XXV -4.

• 14
 

50        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

praise is given the teacher of southern Ohio by W. H. Hunter

in his "Pioneers of Jefferson County.' He especially appears

as protagonist of the cause of the Irish and Scotch-Irish school-

masters. He speaks of them as worthy men of letters, "who had

a standing in the community next to the minister himself."⁴⁰

Venable speaks of them as "worthless men, impecunious, and

addicted to the use of the pipe and the bottle. * * * The

drinking habit appears to have been a pedagogical qualification

exceedingly prevalent."⁴¹ Occasionally a teacher would win the

large boys by sharing with them his pipe or jug. E. D. Mans-

field tells us that one of his teachers made the pupils "half-

tipsy" with "cherry bounce."

On the other hand, it has been stated that prior to the rise

of highly organized town and city school systems "it was not

uncommon to see a teacher of liberal culture in charge of a

country school. The pioneer teacher was often the graduate of

a good college."⁴² Mr. Lewis, the first superintendent of com-

mon schools in Ohio, gave as his opinion that "the most general

defect (among teachers) is want of learning and energy." He

added that poor teachers often hindered educational progress

His remedy was to increase the salary so as to induce men of

worth to enter upon teaching as a profession.⁴³

That there were unlearned, intemperate, improvident teach-

ers in the early day is amply and fully proven by the evidence.

On the other hand, it is just as conclusively proven that among

the pioneer teachers were giants in intellectual and moral strength.

Call the roll of Reiley, Dunlevy, Glass, Filson, the Picket brothers.

Daniel Rice and many others. The very honorable careers of

Reiley and Dunlevy in political life after they had given up

teaching show them to have been men of sterling qualities.

Education received considerable attention in the pioneer

days of Kentucky; many of the pioneers were "college men and

among the founders of colleges in Virginia;" hence we are not

surprised to learn of the founding of Transylvania University

40Ohio Arch. and Hist. Soc. Pub. VI, p. 246.

41Beginnings of Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley, p. 191.

42 Education in Ohio, p. 101.

43First report of Supt. of Common Schools, p. 10.

• 15
 

Pioneer Schools and Schoolmasters.        51   during the period immediately following the Revolution. Some of the pioneer masters in Kentucky "were men of high standing" who taught two to four months of the year, following the occu- pation of a surveyor the remainder of the year. Many of them were unfit for teaching. Often the main qualifications of a teacher were that "he did not know how, or did not care, or did not have the energy to do anything else, having probably failed in every thing else he had undertaken, or he was some stranger, a traveling Irishman or Englishman, or a wandering Yankee whose qualifications for the place were presumed from the fact that he had seen a good deal of the world."44 Much may be said derogatory of the pioneer school and schoolmaster, but the fact remains that with all of their short- comings they were productive of much good. When all of the disadvantages and hardships of pioneer life are taken into con- sideration, one is apt to conclude that they "were the best that pioneer circumstances would allow. They gave the boys and girls a start in life. The children learned to read, write and cypher [sic] in practical ways."45 44Lewis, History of Higher Education in Kentucky, p. 31. 45Venable, Beginnings of Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley, p. 195.

• 16