Ohio History Journal

BURKE AARON HINSDALE

 

BY HAROLD E. DAVIS, HIRAM COLLEGE

 

Burke Aaron Hinsdale came of pioneer stock. For

generations his ancestors had been pioneers. If his

pioneering was of a different sort, it was nevertheless

pioneering. Gifted with a rugged constitution, he had

an unbounded capacity for work and tireless energy

which kept his pen busy through an eventful life, as the

bibliography of his published works shows. A voracious

mind and a certain independence of judgment-- a

pioneer quality--enabled him to turn his attention to

widely varied subjects with great ease. He could and

did write with insight on theological, historical, polit-

ical, literary, biographical and educational subjects.

While it is true that eventually he found his true field

in education and that most of his later writing was done

in that field, his work in other lines is creditable and his

interest in those fields was kept up as evidenced by occa-

sional writing.

The Cyclopedia of Education says of him:

American professor of education and educational writer;

educated at Eclectic Institute (afterwards Hiram Col-

lege). Engaged in work of ministry for several years. President

of Hiram College, 1870-1882. Superintendent of the Cleveland

Schools, 1882-1886. Professor of Science and Art of Teaching in

the University of Michigan, 1888-1900.1

Three places are associated with significant periods

in his life, as the article shows. They are Hiram, Cleve-

1 Paul Monroe, Cyclopedia of Education, New York, 1912. Article,

"Hinsdale, Burke Aaron."

Vol. XLI--16.           (241)

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242      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications land and Ann Arbor. The years preceding the Hiram period may be taken conveniently as a fourth. These four periods furnish us an outline of the man's life, to which we shall add a fifth, a preliminary glance at the line of ancestors that preceded the boy Burke Aaron.

THE HINSDALES The earliest ancestor of the Hinsdales in America was the "Puritan yeoman," Robert Hinsdell, or Deacon Robert as he was called, one of the founders of the church in Dedham, Massachusetts, in 1638. The records

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Burke Aaron Hinsdale                 243

show that Deacon Robert became a freeman of the

Massachusetts Bay Colony the following year and a few

years later a member of the Artillery Company.²

Robert Hinsdell's wife (Ann Woodward) had dif-

ficulty making the public confession required of all

church-members. The old record relates how

The wife of our brother Hinsdell being fearful and not able

to speak in publike, but fainting away ther, coming to church in

private gave good satisfaction which being publickly testified and

declared and she confirming the same relation to be so, was re-

ceived.³

Robert Hinsdell had the land hunger which called

the pioneer on and on into the wilderness. He moved

first to Medfield, and then to Hadley, Massachusetts.

Here he spent several years, and the timid Ann having

died he married Elizabeth Hawks, widow of John

Hawks. This marriage did not prove very satisfactory,

for on March 30, 1674, Robert and Elizabeth Hinsdell

were haled before the court (the county court of Hamp-

shire County³a) for refusing to live together as man and

wife. Elizabeth refused to answer and apparently got

off clear. Robert said he "did it as being her head and

having the rule of her in the Pointe and that he did it

for her correction of her disorder towards him." The

court decided he had "broken the Perfect rule of divine

law, Mal. 2:16; Matt. 19: 6; and 1 Peter 3:7 and the

 

2 Hinsdale Genealogy, p. 62.

3 Adams, C. F. Jr., Three Episodes in Massachusetts History, Boston,

1892. 3rd ed. 2 v. II, p. 753.

3a History of Connecticut Valley, Massachusetts, vol. I, pp. 163-164.

Hampshire County at that time included the present Franklin County in

which Deerfield is located. A county court was established in Hampshire

county in 1660.

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244       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

law of the Colony in the intent if not in the letter in the

first living asunder." He was ordered to be "whipped

ten stripes on the naked body" and fined.⁴

In 1671 Robert Hinsdell purchased some land farther

up the Connecticut valley, at Deerfield. Sometime be-

tween that date and 1673 he and his sons established

themselves at Deerfield. He lived in the famous "Yale"

house and his sons Barnabas and Samuel lived nearby.

He was living here when King Philip's war broke out.

In the course of the war, Robert and his three oldest

sons, Barnabas, John and Samuel were killed, probably

in an ambush at Muddy (or "Bloody") Creek, while

with a party carrying supplies from Deerfield to

Hadley.5

Barnabas Hinsdale, son of the Barnabas killed in

King Philip's war, went southward to Hartford, Con-

necticut, there to take as his wife one Martha Smith.

Of the nine children, products of this fruitful union,

Jacob, the third, became one of the first settlers of Har-

winton, Conn., on lands inherited from his father. He

received a captain's commission in the French and In-

dian War and was elected to various town offices. Jacob

married Hanna Seymour, and history repeated itself,

for the third of the nine children, again named Jacob,

settled first at Harwinton, but moved about 1771 to

Canaan, Connecticut. The Hinsdale men were rugged

4 Hinsdale Genealogy, pp. 60-61.  Massachusetts Archives, vol.

LXVIII, p. 3, contains Russel's "List of Men Slain in the County of

Hampshire." Robert Hinsdall, Samuel Hinsdall, Barnabas Hinsdall and

John Hinsdall are listed among the teamsters killed in the engagement at

Muddy Creek.

5 G. M. Bodge, Soldiers in King Philip's War, p. 137. S. C. Derby,

"Burke Aaron Hinsdale," Old Northwest Genealogical Quarterly, IV

(1901), pp. 109-117.

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Burke Aaron Hinsdale                245

and hardy--with the sturdy physique one expects to find

in men who fought the Indians, the wilderness and the

British. Albert Hinsdale, the father of Burke Aaron,

tells of attending the funeral of his grandfather Jacob

at Canaan, in 1812. He says, "There were present six

of his sons, all large men."6 Elisha, the second of the

sons of Jacob and Mary (Brace) Hinsdale, was born

in Harwinton, Connecticut, in 1761. At the age of 16,

he enlisted in the Continental army, where he spent three

years, including the winter at Valley Forge. Leaving

the army, he tried the jeweler's trade. When his shop

burned down, he joined with his brother Abel in start-

ing an axe- and scythe-making shop at Torrington, Con-

necticut. He represented Torrington in the State Legis-

lature in 1805-6. In 1816 he sold his lands in Torring-

ton to his brother, acquired land in the Western Reserve,

a part of which was a bounty for service in the Revolu-

tionary War, and moved there with his family. Elisha

was the pioneer of the Hinsdale family in the Western

Reserve. His son Albert, who was seven years old at

the time, has left us an account of the trip:⁷

We started from Torrington, (Connecticut) to New Connec-

ticut, the 4th of October, 1816. . . . Our team was two stout

yoke of oxen..

When we started there were folks enough there to make a

little funeral. I started with a good deal of resolution, on foot,

and came so most of the way, sleeping at night between Julius and

Sherman on top of the wagon. We crossed the North River at

Albany, in a horse-boat; we saw there one of the first steamboats

that played on American waters start from her dock in New York.

We crossed the Genesee on a boat propelled by a rope and the

Cayuga lake on an open bridge half a mile long. At the same

6 Albert Hinsdale, Chronicle of the Hinsdale Family, Cleveland, 1883,

p. 12.

7 Ibid. pp. 13-15.

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246       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

time there were on the bridge several road-wagons, one drawn by

a team of nine horses; these wagons then did the business that is

now done (1880?) by the Erie Canal and the New York Central

Railroad. We came through the village of Buffalo which had not

recovered from the effects of the British raid and fire. We were

one whole day in crossing the Cattaraugus Four-mile woods. As

we came up the lake--the road ran much of the way on the beach,

in driving round one point of rocks the water was so high that it

washed away our tar-bucket, which hung to the hind axle-tree.

We arrived in Braceville, Trumbull County, December 2, having

been eight weeks on the road and where we staid over winter.

The Western Reserve was a pioneer community. It

was the only part of Northern Ohio very much settled

at the time. Elisha and his family settled at Norton.

Life was hard. Albert Hinsdale tells of these first years:

We did not live very well for the first two years, but we

always had something to eat. ... We soon had a good

cow. Jointed corn and milk did pretty well for supper, but I

never liked potatoes and milk. For fruit we had mandrakes,

pumpkins and crab-apples. Before winter (1817) our house was

chinked and daubed; we had a good puncheon floor overhead, a

stick chimney from the floor up, planed doors and glass windows

--(the glass brought from Connecticut)   .  .   .  I worked

summers and went to school winters until I was 18 years old,

when I thought I had learning enough; . . . I could read,

write and cipher.

Elisha became an esteemed member of his com-

munity, in spite of or on account of his scant "larnin'."

He served many years as Justice of Peace. Albert Hins-

dale, the author of the narrative quoted at such length,

was the second son of Elisha and was the father of

Burke Aaron. He had come with his father from Con-

necticut as a boy of seven and had grown up at the

Norton homestead. His son describes him as of frame

"never heavy, but strong and sinewy"; an excellent ob-

server of men and things. He had keen insight into

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Burke Aaron Hinsdale           247

character, a cool temper and a "power of analysis and

description, quaint and picturesque." He was a "good

converser" and expressed "views of men and things

freely." He arrived at "ready and keen judgments."

He was one of the first in his community to take up the

new agricultural journals and one of the first to exhibit

taste in farming and in fitting up his home.⁸

We have a description of Burke Aaron's mother,

from the pen of her husband. She was large, with a

well-developed figure. She had a strong and vigorous

constitution, but was of a "nervous type." She was en-

ergetic, industrious, frugal, and orderly in her habits--

a good housekeeper. "She was possessed of good judg-

ment, very ready to make up her mind, which was not

easily turned, and very apt to carry out her purposes."9

She, too, was of Connecticut stock, although born in

Akron, so the New England Yankee inheritance was

from both sides.

Burke Aaron, the second of five children of this en-

ergetic, industrious couple was the eldest son. He was

called Burke after the famous Englishman, friend of

the colonists. He was born at Wadsworth, March 31,

1837. He grew up in the toil and struggle of a pioneer

household but in a region of improving conditions and

enlarged outlook. The decades of the 'forties and 'fifties

saw rapid strides in the development of transportation

in Ohio. Through the Western Reserve ran the Ohio

Canal, (Cleveland to Portsmouth) and Pennsylvania-

Ohio Canal (Akron to Pittsburgh). The first railroads

were being built. Northern Ohio reflected these changes

8 Supplement to Chronicles of Hinsdale Family, p. 22.

9 Chronicles of Hinsdale Family, p. 24.

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248      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

in its economic organization and life. New and com-

modious farm-houses gave proof of the farmer's first

taste of prosperity.

EARLY YEARS

In this environment the boy Burke grew up. He was

a bright and studious boy in the district school. Among

his early teachers were Mr. Cynes King of Medina,

Ohio; Mr. Lafayette Waffle and Mrs. M. (Weeks)

Henry of Akron, who "taught him his letters in the old

way."¹⁰ The change in conditions is reflected in the

fact that Burke instead of going on to the new frontier,

found it possible to pioneer in the field of education.

Leaving the family farm at Wadsworth when 16 years

of age, he entered the newly established Western Re-

serve Eclectic Institute, at Hiram.  He had already

developed habits of study, and shown a preference for

history and philosophy.

The academy of that day furnished rather meagre

intellectual fare judged according to our standards to-

day. But the classics were there and the active mind

of young Hinsdale found plenty to do. For eleven years

he stayed at the Institute as student and teacher, leaving

at irregular intervals to work on the farm or teach a

district school. It was here and at this time that he

formed that friendship with James A. Garfield, so influ-

ential on his life. From 1853 to 1860 his name appears

each year in the catalog of the Institute as a student.

His teaching at this time is important because of his

later career. His first teaching was done in a district

school in Franklin, Summit County. This was in the

 

10 Derby, op. cit.

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Burke Aaron Hinsdale            249

autumn of 1855 and the following winter. During three

succeeding winters he taught in other places in that part

of Ohio. Later, after leaving Hiram, he taught for a

year, with the aid of his wife, at a "select school" at

Sharon, Medina County. The year following, with the

help of his sister Louise, he taught a similar school at

Solon, Cuyahoga County.

So between the ages of sixteen and twenty-three, he

studied, worked on the farm and taught. This was a

formative period and a successful one, too, for at the

end of his student days he was retained at the Institute

as an assistant teacher. Two years later (1862) he

became a full-fledged teacher in the English Depart-

ment. During most of the Civil War he stayed at this

post. He left the Institution in 1864, not to return

until two years after it became Hiram College. This

latter change in which Garfield's influence was so promi-

nent took place in 1867 and in 1869 brought Hinsdale

back to Hiram.11

The intervening years he spent preaching. He was

pastor of the Church of the Disciples of Christ at Solon,

Ohio, and later of the Franklin Circle Church of the

same denomination in Cleveland.

In 1862 he had married Mary Turner of Cleveland,

a schoolmate at the Institute. They had much in com-

mon for both were intellectually inclined. Likewise both

of them found the exacting social duties of pastor and

pastor's wife a little trying at times. There was a cer-

tain coldness about Hinsdale which was at times a han-

dicap, especially in dealing with strangers. His many

11 Catalogs of Western Reserve Eclectic Institute and Hiram College

1853-1864: 1869.

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250      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

friends say that this coldness was only a superficial

one--that beneath it lay a genial warmth and friendli-

ness. Where Hinsdale's true interest lay was shown

at this time by his accepting the position of associate

editor of The Christian Standard, religious periodical

published in Cleveland at that time, to which he con-

tributed a large number of carefully prepared book re-

views, largely historical and literary. The opening of

the short-lived Alliance College at Alliance in 1868 pro-

vided him his opportunity for more congenial work. He

accepted the chair of History, Political Economy and

Governmental Science. The following year the call of

his old school brought him to what was now Hiram

College, as Professor of Philosophy, English Literature

and Political Science.¹² July 1, 1870, he was elected

"permanent President of Hiram College."¹³ The quaint

terminology of the minutes of the Trustees' meeting

gives some idea of the precarious tenure of previous

heads of the Institution.

 

PRESIDENT OF HIRAM COLLEGE, 1870-1882

Hinsdale was thirty-three years old when he became

President of Hiram College. He was a big man physi-

cally--six feet tall, deep-chested, with a sturdy frame.

He had the appearance of strength and endurance. In

later years a tendency to be stooped became more ap-

parent. His hair and beard at this time were dark

brown, later they became gray. The features of his

face were regular and pleasant. He had twinkling gray

 

12 "Biographical sketch in Hinsdale & Demmon," History of the Uni-

versity of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1906, pp. 278-280.

13 F. M. Green, History of Hiram College, Cleveland, 1901, p. 209.

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Burke Aaron Hinsdale            251

eyes which often had a strained look from too much

study. A tendency to be detached and absorbed in

thought was noticeable. He was blunt and brusque in

expression with almost excessive frankness. Strangers

often thought him cold. He was not a person with

whom one took liberties.

His educational qualifications were not such as one

would look for in a college president today. He had

no college degree. His formal education had all been

received at the Eclectic Institute. His own active intel-

lect and habits of study went far to remedy the defi-

ciency. While still at Hiram, he had developed the

practice of writing articles, at first for newspapers. His

teaching and preaching had led him, as teachers and

preachers unfortunately are not always led, into habits

of careful and profound study. He had continued writ-

ing on various subjects. Probably no one but a preacher

would have been selected for the position of head of a

church college at that time. It was fortunate that in

Hinsdale the profession of preacher had been united

with the cultivation of thorough scholarship in spite of

the limitations of his formal education.

Inherited qualities and tendencies found ample ex-

pression. His tireless industry, brusque frankness, love

of books, ready, correct judgment, independence of

thinking, impatience with "fads" and "fools," his deep

religious nature--all these are due as much to his an-

cestry, perhaps, as to his environment and his own in-

tellectual vigor.¹4

Three years before Hinsdale became president of

14 Derby, op. cit., pp. 116-117; E. J. Benton in article for Dictionary of

American Biography (not yet published).

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252      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

the College, the change had been made from an insti-

tution of academic grade to one of collegiate rank. The

change had been one in name only. The college con-

tinued to enroll most of its students in the lower grades

and the students doing regular collegiate work were few

in number. There is nothing unique about this situation.

Many American colleges have gone through the same

period of change. The evolution of a frontier college

is slow and painful. With no library, poor equip-

ment, scanty funds, no tradition of scholarship, poorly

equipped teachers, students with poor training and un-

promising backgrounds, the prospect was a dreary one.

The major problems any college executive must face are

three: endowment, faculty, and students. Hinsdale was

confronted with these three problems--each one aggra-

vated almost to the point of hopelessness, in a struggling

back-woods college.

In his report to the Board of Trustees in 1872, Hins-

dale said: "There are probably few members of the

Board who appreciate the difficulty of building up a

college in Hiram. Our state is thickly strewn with

colleges and the number is constantly increasing. Graded

schools are springing up in every village; and young

men well qualified to teach them go out from our own

halls to receive better salaries than we pay our pro-

fessors. The place is small, inconvenient of access, not

a cheap place to live in, destitute of social attractions

and with many inconveniences. We are rowing against

wind and tide. Under the circumstances, nothing can

keep up the reputation of the Institution but good in-

struction and wise management."15

15 Quoted in History of Hiram College, pp. 238-239.

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Burke Aaron Hinsdale           253

As an educator with sound views, Hinsdale saw that

the most important thing was to build up a faculty

which would gain for the institution recognition as a

college. The funds at his disposal were pitifully inade-

quate. There was practically no endowment except the

buildings. The income of the college came mainly from

the student tuition. The average annual budget of the

college during his administration of twelve years was

not above seven thousand dollars. The President re-

ceived an annual appropriation from the Board for this

amount. From this he must pay all the salaries and

expenses; whatever remained he received for himself

and it was usually little enough. Obviously the only

solution to the problem of assembling a faculty under

such conditions was to secure bright young men. Men

of established position could not be brought to such a

hazardous undertaking. This Hinsdale set out to do.

How successful he was is shown by the fact that five

of the young men he brought to the College continued

to give a lifetime of service and constituted the nucleus

of the faculty down to very recent years.¹⁶ In addition,

Isaac N. Demmon, who had been his colleague at Alli-

ance College, followed him to Hiram, and then preceded

him to the University of Michigan.

The results of President Hinsdale's effort to put the

newly established college on a solid basis academically

is seen in its admission in 1876, to "The Association of

Ohio Colleges," also newly formed. It was one of fif-

teen institutions in the State conforming to the stand-

16 The reference is to Professors Pierson, Bancroft, Wakefield, Colton

and Peckham.

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254       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

ards set up by the Association.17 He was less successful

in building up a student body. The college enrollment

declined during the years of his direction. No improve-

ment was shown in this respect until 1880. However,

a closer examination of the statistics shows that the

losses were in the preparatory department while the col-

lege department showed an increase. In general his

work at Hiram corresponded to what might have been

expected of one of his personality. His main attention

was given to the academic and educational side of the

college's work. Here he accomplished notable results,

results which have left a lasting impression on the col-

lege. He was fitted, neither by interest nor by tempera-

ment, for the work of promoting the growth of an in-

stitution. His own judgment of his work is found in a

statement in his report to the College Trustees in 1879:

"I have done my best to make good scholars at Hiram;

to make good men and women of our pupils; and to give

the College standing abroad."18

In certain respects he exerted a lasting influence on

the college. He set for the faculty a high standard of

honest intellectual work, both in the class room and in

the field of literary effort. His published writings dur-

ing this period, while concerned at first with Biblical

subjects, indicate a growing interest in educational sub-

jects. His first book, The Genuineness and Authenticity

of the Gospels, was published in 1872. In 1878 followed

The Jewish Christian Church and in 1879 Ecclesiastical

Tradition. In 1880 he prepared the Republican Text

17 History of Hiram College, p. 178; Proceedings of Association of

Ohio Colleges.

18 History of Hiram College, p. 244.

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Burke Aaron Hinsdale             255

Book for the Campaign in 1880. In 1881 he published

President Garfield and Education. His last year at

Hiram was spent largely in editing Garfield's works.

A pamphlet in 1877, under the title Our Common School

Education, represents his first well-considered statement

of the whole problem of education. Representing in the

main a criticism of the teaching of the fundamental sub-

jects in the elementary school, it involved him in a con-

troversy with the Superintendent of the Cleveland

schools which attracted considerable attention.

These intellectual activities were paralleled by his

teaching activities. His course of lectures on teaching

was one of the earliest attempts in an American college

to introduce courses in education.19 His insistence upon

the value of class room discussion as opposed to the lec-

ture method has likewise left a lasting mark on the edu-

cational practices of the Hiram faculty. Professor

James B. Angell said of his work as a teacher in the

University of Michigan: "He delighted to engage in

discussions with his classes and he was skillful in so

directing them as to stimulate thought and to lead to

broader and clearer views. Not infrequently when the

members of the class had expressed conflicting opinions

and were looking for a final decision from him, he would

pass without a remark to the next topic in the lesson,

knowing that, the interest of his students having been

aroused, they would yet wrestle with the question for

a time much to their own profit."20

The stimulus given, under his direction, to the studies

19 Paul Monroe, Cyclopedia of Education, New York, 1912. Article

on. "Education, Academic study of."

20 J. B. Angell et al, "B. A. Hinsdale," Educational Review, XXI

(1901), p. 185 ff.

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256       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

of history and political science marked the beginning of

an emphasis of the social studies in the curriculum of

the institution, wholly in line with educational develop-

ments of the times and noticeable to this day in the work

of the college.²¹ Summing up his work there, the his-

torian of Hiram College says:

Though he did not reach the measure of success he desired

in bringing the Institution out of the swaddling bands of the old

Academy and clothing it with the real garments of a College,

yet he succeeded in laying foundations, the strength of which is

felt to this day.²²

CLEVELAND 1882-1886

Hinsdale launched himself into the field of public

education with his pamphlet Our Common School Edu-

cation, which was a revision of a lecture before the

North Eastern Ohio Teachers Association in 1877. It

was essentially an attack on the teaching of the common

branches in the elementary school. Aaron Grove, super-

intendent of the Denver, Colorado, schools, wrote, "Dr.

Hinsdale's pen was fierce and positive in denunciation

of the Common schools of the country as then con-

ducted."23

The part that the "new methods" play in the current theories

of education is something wonderful. Whatever else he may or may

not have, each teacher has his kit of "methods." Sometimes, when

he sees the emphasis placed on mere machinery, one is tempted to

ask whether school-houses, furniture, apparatus, books and

processes will not be so perfected by and by as to make education

wholly mechanical and to dispense with the wise teacher and

eager pupil altogether. How we commiserate our fathers and

mothers, as well as remote ancestors, who lived and died before

the "improvements" in education were made.²⁴

21 History of Hiram College, p. 178.

22 Ibid, p. 245.

^{23 Educational} Review, XXI, (1901), pp. 185-199.

24 Our Common School Education, Cleveland, 1877, p. 11.

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Burke Aaron Hinsdale            257

The argument that the recent growth in educational

facilities, teaching staff, and expenditures for education

represents real progress in education "rests on the mere

husk of education and does not touch its kernel." The

real question is whether the quality of our education is

improving. This question he boldly asks and roundly

denies any improvement. The result of entrance exami-

nations at West Point during the preceding forty years,

he said, showed conclusively that there had been a posi-

tive decline in educational results, so far as the common

branches were concerned. The average period of at-

tendance in the public schools of Cleveland was five

years at this time. Hence he urged, "the great work

of the public schools is and must continue to be, to teach

the elementary branches."25 The graded system is "ex-

ceedingly rigid and inelastic," it sacrifices the brightest

students to the standards of the dull and mediocre. But

it is probably inevitable if we are to have common

schools at all. The problem is to reduce the evils of

the graded system to a minimum. Part of the trouble

lies in adding too many new subjects to the lower grades.

"I strike no blows at the higher grades. All I say is,

the studies of the lower grades must not be chosen from

a high school point of view."26 The tendency to sub-

stitute women for men as teachers has gone too far.

Pupils should come in contact with teachers of both

sexes. The trouble is that the life infused by Horace

Mann into the school system lingers on in merely a fossil

state. New vigor in the school system can come only

through attention to the quality of teachers and their

 

25 Ibid, p. 35.

26 Ibid.

Vol. XLI--17.

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258      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

training and to the quality of instruction generally in

the schools.

The pamphlet, Our Common School Education,

which he republished with some alterations and addi-

tions a year later, was Hinsdale's best statement of the

problem of the public schools prior to his leaving Hiram

College. It was by all odds his best known statement

at the time he left the college presidency to become super-

intendent of the Cleveland schools. He was now to have

a good opportunity to see first-hand the problems he had

analyzed in the seclusion of college halls, and to try the

practicability of the projects of reform he had advo-

cated. He had had no practical experience with city

schools. His teaching before he became a college teacher

had been confined to rural and village schools. He had

lived in a city only a short time. He undertook "to do

that which many since have tried, namely, to administer

the school affairs of a great city with the details of which

he had never in his life had opportunity of becoming

familiar."27

The previous superintendent, Andrew J. Rickoff,

had given the Cleveland schools a national reputation,

but he left under the cloud of a school-book scandal.²⁸

The Cleveland school board was a large one, with mem-

bers elected by districts on a political basis. Patronage

was common and a school-book scandal was not a new

occurrence. The German element on the school board

was strong, as the names of the presidents indicate:

Schneider (1882-84), Mahler (1884-85), Schellentrager

 

27 Aaron Grove in Educational Review XXI (1901), pp. 185-199.

28 S. P. Orth, History of Cleveland, Cleveland, 1910.  p. 531; Angell

et al, in Educational Review, loc. cit.

• 18
 

Burke Aaron Hinsdale               259

(1885-87). Their influence in general had been a whole-

some one. Among others, its results were the great

emphasis on German instruction in the public schools,

and the presence of many German teachers. Cleveland

was growing rapidly in the decades after the Civil War,

and the school population was increasing by leaps and

bounds. Buildings were always inadequate and in 1882

the Board was again faced with the necessity of pro-

viding more school buildings. This was the system

Hinsdale undertook to direct. The burden of adminis-

trative work loomed large; the opportunities for educa-

tional improvement were small indeed.²⁹

Hinsdale, contrary to what might have been expected

from his Our Common School Education had no idea of

making radical changes.    His idea of what his work

was to be is well told in his first annual report:

The end of a school is the education of the pupil--his growth

in knowledge, in mental power and in character .  .  .  . A

Board of Education, by motion and vote, can directly determine

questions pertaining to buildings, books, and studies, but only

indirectly can it determine what the abilities and characters of

teachers shall be. . . . What I mean to say is that, when a

school or a system of schools has been brought up to a given

level, we must look for further improvement in the work of the

teachers, rather than in the work of builders and system-makers.³⁰

Although the Board was confronted with a serious

building problem31 Hinsdale appears to have given his

chief attention to the inner, rather than the external

affairs of the school. His annual reports are carefully

considered studies of educational problems and policies,

 

29 Cf. W. J. Akers, Cleveland Schools in the Nineteenth Century,

Cleveland, 1901, Chapters X-XIV.

30 "Superintendent's Report" in Report of Cleveland Schools, 1883; cf.

Akers, pp. 201-202.

31 Ibid, p. 203.

• 19
 

260      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

and as such attracted widespread attention and com-

mendation. He began to assume a position of promi-

nence in the National Education Association. His writ-

ings and addresses began to appear in their publications,

in those of the Bureau of Education and in pedagogical

journals.

To Hinsdale's mind the quality of the teachers was

the most important factor in any school. Education was

essentially an individual affair, the development of the

pupil under the direction and guidance of the teacher.

To improve the quality of teaching, and stimulate the

teachers, he began the publication of the Cleveland

School Bulletin, monthly magazine devoted to teachers'

problems.³² He tried to raise the standard of teachers

in other ways, such as providing two-year tenure instead

of one year in many cases and providing additional sal-

ary for superior teachers. On the other side of the

problem--the pupil--efforts were also made leading to

more individualism. A system of semi-annual promo-

tions had been begun by the preceding superintendent.

This was encouraged in his first Annual Report, to ob-

viate one of the outstanding inflexibilities of the graded

system.³³ Six-weeks tests were provided in the high

schools to stimulate regular daily work and lessen the

importance attached to examinations. The third An-

nual Report mentioned the introduction of a plan where-

by pupils entering high school were assigned certain

teachers, in whose rooms they prepared their lessons,

and to whom they recited their three main studies. They

were responsible for their conduct to these same teach-

32 Derby, op. cit.

33 Report of Cleveland Public Schools, 1883, p. 81.

• 20
 

Burke Aaron Hinsdale           261

ers. This continued for part or all of their first year.

"The time has come," wrote Hinsdale, "to cease calling

high schools colleges and to cease teaching high school

students as college students are taught."³⁴ In the lower

grades he introduced much more supplementary reading

material to give wider practice in reading. In this way

also he hoped to emphasize "the civilizing and refining

studies" in the elementary school.³⁵

Other innovations attempted were the abolition of

corporal punishment and the introduction of free text-

books. The first was accomplished quickly and with

apparent success in 1885. The School Board approved

of the plan of free textbooks, but the common pleas

court enjoined their distribution.

An investigation of the so-called "high school ques-

tion," ordered by Mr. Hinsdale, did much to justify the

public maintenance of high schools by showing that they

were not schools for the rich and privileged as commonly

asserted. It was shown that by far the majority of the

high school students came from families of moderate

means, and many of them from working class homes.

A large number in one high school (about 7%) came

from the homes of unskilled laborers. A great many

high school pupils, it was found, had some out-of-school

employment.³⁶

Growth of the school system was marked under

Hinsdale's administration. Two thorough-going inves-

tigations and surveys of the building situation were

made and a program of building undertaken for the

 

³⁴ Ibid, 1885, p. 107.

35 Derby, op. cit.

36 Akers, op. cit., pp. 210, 212-214.

• 21
 

262      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

first time, under the new plan of using borrowed capital.

The number of pupils registered in the schools increased

21.6% and the average daily attendance increased

26.2%. The number of pupils in primary grades in-

creased 20%, in the grammar grades 25% and in the

high school 40%. The greatest increase came in the

number of high school graduates which increased 82%

and in the number of graduates of the training schools

which increased 74%.³⁷ But the Board of Education

was becoming dissatisfied with Hinsdale, partly, it is

said, because of his refusal to meet their demands of

patronage. In 1886 they refused to reelect him. The

burden of administrative work was so exacting and dis-

tasteful, work with a Board of Education dominated by

politics and rife with patronage was so difficult that

Hinsdale was ready to leave. Out of his dismissal came

the law giving Cleveland a commission school board in-

stead of a representative one. His own justification

came when, a few years later, after his establishment

at Ann Arbor, the Cleveland Board of Education made

overtures to him to return. He had to refuse, and he

modestly suppressed the incident, but it could not fail

to be gratifying. There is a tradition that Hinsdale

was not a good business man. That is difficult to verify.

Certainly he was unfitted by temperament for such a

position, and was only too well pleased when two years

later the opportunity came to go to the University of

Michigan. In his last report to the Board he sums up

his work in the Cleveland schools thus: ". . . the course

that I adopted from the first:--to visit the teachers and

the schools as often as possible, to observe the organi-

37 Report of Cleveland Schools, 1886, p. 35.

• 22
 

Burke Aaron Hinsdale            263

zation, the discipline, and the instruction, to analyze

and compare the results, and then to direct such changes

as seemed called for, remembering that 'time innovateth

greatly but quietly,' . . . I soon discovered that what

the schools needed most was not revolution in external

organization and system, but more fruitful instruction,

a more elastic regimen, and a freer spirit. . . . In this

path I have steadfastly sought to tread."38

During the Cleveland period Hinsdale's writing suf-

fered somewhat from the burden of administrative

work. His annual reports were valuable educational

documents and scattered contributions were made to

various professional publications.  But the only book

of significance, the volume Schools and Studies was a

collection of addresses and papers from the Hiram

period, which he published in 1884. During the interim

between his resignation and going to Ann Arbor he

produced what was to be his most important historical

work, The Old North West, a book which is still an

acceptable treatise of that phase of American history.

While Hinsdale was in Cleveland, two of his daugh-

ters, Ellen Clarinda and Mary Louise, graduated from

Adelbert College in the same year (1885). Both girls

and a third daughter, Mildred, followed in their father's

footsteps--in teaching and writing.

 

ANN ARBOR--1900

The chair of Science and Art of Teaching in the

University of Michigan was a pioneer effort in that

direction. It fell vacant by the resignation of its first.

occupant, Professor William H. Payne. Hinsdale was

38 Fourth Annual Report, quoted in Akers, pp. 221-222.

• 23
 

264       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

elected to succeed him in February, 1888. The Report

of the Commissioner of Education for 1887-88 contains

notice of the appointment. Says the report, "He comes

into the work with the advantage of large experience

and established reputation."39

The view of a man with whom Hinsdale was pro-

fessionally associated at this time gives an interesting

estimate of him. Though written some years later at

the time of Hinsdale's death, it gives a just idea of the

impression made by him as a scholar at this time.

Dr. Hinsdale impresses persons meeting him as a man of

unusual character and ability and as possessing high ideals of

educational scholarship. He commenced writing on questions re-

lating to the theory of education and then confined himself more

especially to the educational history of his country. . . . Pro-

fessor Hinsdale was one of those systematic students who grow

rapidly in proficiency in their specialty as time goes on, and his

later and latest writings may be justly considered his best.⁴⁰

There is a logical progression in the development of

Hinsdale's career not always discernible in a man's life.

From district school to academy, from academy to the

church, from church to a church-dominated college,

from college to city school system, from city school sys-

tem to a chair of education in a leading state university

may seem at first anything but a logical development.

But Hinsdale lost nothing in going from one position

to the other. To the ministry he carried the idea of

teaching. To the college presidency he brought the idea

of critical investigation of Biblical literature and his-

tory, and an experience in schools of lower grades

whence he derived ideas of the training of teachers

 

³⁹ p. 659.

40 Educational Review XXI (1901), pp. 185-199.

• 24
 

Burke Aaron Hinsdale             265

which he tried to apply at Hiram College and in his

writing and speeches. The result was a breadth of

view which led him to regard education at all levels as

one integrated process and to apply a searching criticism

to this process at every step. Historical thinking was

always one of his outstanding characteristics and it lent

a unity to his many and various undertakings. Each

one was approached from a historical point of view. To

the Cleveland schools he brought this critical standard

of educational values and an idea of the importance of

properly trained, capable teachers, with a deep under-

standing of the significance of individualism in educa-

tion, so often lost sight of by those dealing with edu-

cation only in the mass. His conduct of the Cleveland

schools was regulated and restrained by the historical

point of view--"time innovateth greatly but quietly."

From the Cleveland experience, moreover, he derived

an understanding of the practical problems of a great

educational system, which, mingled with and tempered

by the other older elements of his intellect, was to pro-

vide the basis of his thinking, his teaching and his writ-

ing during the Ann Arbor days.

At Ann Arbor he found his true place. His life

there was happy. As a teacher he was successful and

well-liked. Free from the burden of administrative

work which had so greatly circumscribed his mental life,

he was enabled to produce many volumes on different

subjects as well as to contribute to periodicals and to

the work of various professional organizations.41

His teaching illustrated well the various elements in

 

41 Derby, op. cit., p. 114; History of University of Michigan, Ann

Arbor, 1906, pp. 278-280.

• 25
 

266       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

his intellectual development. With his interest in the

practical and theoretical problems of education was com-

bined an almost equal interest in history. While the

philosophical and practical aspects of education were not

neglected, his instruction dwelt much on the history of

educational movements.    Treasured among his inti-

mate papers was the announcement of the first course in

the history of American education to be given at the

University of Michigan, taught by Mr. Hinsdale.⁴²

Among his most important contributions were those in

this field. He published numerous documents and arti-

cles on the subject. Among his papers are materials

for several books projected but uncompleted at his death

in 1900. They include a history of education in the

United States, a history of education in Ohio, a history

of the University of Michigan, partly completed and

later finished by his colleague, Professor Isaac N. Dem-

mon, and a book which would probably have borne the

title, "Title-Deeds to the United States." It was to be

a history of territorial growth.⁴³

The historic-educational mind took a little different

turn in the book How to Study and Teach History.44 A

pioneer book in the field, its aim in the words of the

author was "to state the uses of history, to define . . .

its field, to present and illustrate criteria for the choice

of facts, to emphasize the organization of facts with ref-

erence to the three principles of association, to indicate

sources of information, to describe the qualifications of

the teacher, and, finally to illustrate causation and the

 

42 Hinsdale Papers, folio 7.

43 Hinsdale Papers, folios 18-25; cf.  Derby, p. 115.

"New York, 1894.

• 26
 

Burke Aaron Hinsdale               267

grouping of facts by drawing the outlines of some im-

portant chapters of American history."⁴⁵ The book is

as much a treatise on history as on pedagogy, and as

interesting from one point of view as from the other.

His most important contribution to the field of edu-

cational theory was the Art of Study, published just

before his death.⁴⁶ In it is found the essence of his

educational thinking. More refined, more balanced, per-

haps more sophisticated than some of his earlier state-

ments, in its fundamental idea--the importance of indi-

vidualism in education--it is the same thing he was

writing in Our Common School Education in 1877.

Strictly speaking there is no such thing as giving or impart-

ing knowledge. Everyone must make his own knowledge, for

man is a knowledge-maker by nature. All that one can do for

another, as a teacher for a pupil, is to help to do this work. . . .

The pupil is to learn, the teacher is to teach or help him learn;

both are active about the same thing, but active in different

ways.⁴⁷

A man whose whole professional life had been guided by

such a sane and simple creed would not be apt to fall

under the influence of what we call educational fads.

We have the best testimony that Hinsdale was "emi-

nently free" from such vagaries.⁴⁸

From his experience in teaching district schools, and

from his work in Cleveland he had come to understand

some of the problems of the organization of educational

systems. He was keenly interested in the subject. One

important line this interest took was the reorganization

of rural schools. He thought the district system a

45 Ibid, p. 14; W. H. Maxwell in Educational Review, loc. cit.

46 New York, 1900.

47 pp. 11-12.

48 Educational Review, loc. cit.

• 27
 

268      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

wasteful one and proposed instead consolidation upon

a township or similar basis. On his motion, in 1895,

the National Council of Education appointed first a

committee to submit a plan for further investigation of

the problem of rural schools, and upon the report of

this committee, appointed a committee of twelve, of

which Hinsdale was a member. He was made chairman

of the sub-committee on school maintenance and gave

much time and attention to his part of the committee's

work, and to composing his report. His argument in

favor of the consolidation of small districts ran as fol-

lows: ". . . the great resource of the public school is

and must continue to be, some form or forms of public

taxation." Hence it is important that the right units

of taxation be fixed. Whatever these units may be,

whether state, county, town or city, the inequalities of

taxation should be eliminated. They are contrary to

the American principle that "the property of the state

should educate the youth of the state."49

Hinsdale's interest in education was not confined to

American education. It had taken the line of studying

the influence of European education upon America. He

was interested also in a comparative study of educational

systems.  By correspondence and the aid of friends

traveling in Europe he gathered data concerning Amer-

icans studying in German Universities. In 1891 he se-

cured a leave of absence from the University and spent

the year abroad. He used this trip to make a careful

first-hand study of European school systems. Out of

 

49 Report is found in substance--Education Report 1896-97, 811 ff;

cf. Henry Sabin, "Dr. Hinsdale's Work for Rural Schools," Educational

Review, XXI (1901).

• 28
 

Burke Aaron Hinsdale             269

it came the first account to be published in the United

States of the Italian school system under the new King-

dom.⁵⁰

The mass of Hinsdale's writing was great, as the

bibliography which follows shows. Three other works

may be mentioned as of special importance. In Teach-

ing the Language Arts,⁵¹ he developed an idea later to

be made much of by educators. He described speech,

reading and composition as arts. The chief thing in

teaching these arts, he said, is the study of good models,

imitation and practice.  Another book, Jesus as a

Teacher,⁵² shows the fusion of the older interest in Bib-

lical studies with the study of pedagogy. In Horace

Mann and the Common School Revival in the United

States,⁵³ he was writing about what he justly appraised

as the most important educational movement in the

United States, so far as the common schools were con-

cerned. He described Mann in his historical position

and relations, showing the forces against which he

worked and the obstacles he had overcome. It was an

important contribution to the history of American edu-

cation.

Hinsdale never received an academic degree in regu-

lar course. After he became President of Hiram Col-

lege, he was awarded honorary A. M. degrees by Beth-

any College and Williams College. In later years, while

at Ann Arbor, he received an honorary Ph.D. degree

 

50 Published in Report of the Commissioner of Education, among the

Hinsdale papers are numerous notes on these subjects.

51 New York, 1896.

52 St. Louis, 1895.

53 New York, 1898; W. H. Maxwell in Educational Review, loc. cit.

• 29
 

270      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

from Ohio State University, and honorary LL.D de-

grees from Ohio University and Hiram College.⁵4 This

fact in itself testifies to his pioneering character. He

attained to solid scholarship largely through his own

efforts and through self-directed study.

Hinsdale's death came suddenly and unexpectedly in

1900. He had attended the Hiram Commencement in

June, for the celebration of the College's fiftieth anni-

versary and had spoken there. His death came Novem-

ber 29, at Atlanta, Georgia. He was sixty-three years

old. The cause was undoubtedly overwork. Naturally

rugged, he gave little consideration to his health, lavish-

ing his energies prodigally on his teaching, speaking and

especially on his voluminous writings. Like so many

of his ancestors, his life was one of unending labor. For

that life he paid the price of an early death. He lies

buried in Forest Hill Cemetery, at Ann Arbor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

54 History of Hiram College, 216.

• 30
 

Burke Aaron Hinsdale                  271

 

 

HINSDALE BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

I. GENERAL REFERENCES

Adams, Charles F., Jr., Three Episodes in Massachusetts History,

Boston, 1893.

Adams, Henry C., "Education at the University of Michigan,"

Forum, 14:123.

Akers, William J., Cleveland Schools in the Nineteenth Century,

Cleveland, 19O1.

Andrews, Herbert C., Hinsdale Genealogy, Lombard, Illinois,

1906. (Descendants of Robert Hinsdale of Dedham, Med-

field, Hadley and Deerfield).

Annals of Winchester, Connecticut, Bloomfield, New Jersey, 1878.

(Extracts about Hinsdale family).

Bodge, George M., Soldiers in King Philip's War, Leominster,

Massachusetts, 1896.

Brown, Elmer E., "Certification of College and University Grad-

uates as Teachers in the Public Schools," School Review,

1899, 7:331-374.

Dawson, Samuel E., "Voyages of the Cabots," Royal Society of

Canada Transactions, 1897, 3:139-268. Maps, Illustrations.

Green, Francis M., Hiram College and Western Reserve Eclectic

Institute, Fifty Years of History, 1850-1900, Cleveland, 1901.

Ohio Teachers Association, Centennial History of Education in

Ohio, Cleveland, 1876.

(Orth, Samuel P., History of Cleveland, Cleveland, 1910.

Catalogs, Western Reserve Eclectic Institute and Hiram College,

1853-1864; 1869-1882.

II. WRITING ABOUT HINSDALE

American Historical Association Report, 1889, 277-279. Con-

tains bibliography.

Angell, James B. et al, "B. A. Hinsdale," Educational Review,

1901-'21; 185-199. Bibliography, 197-199.

Derby, Samuel C.; Coy, E. W. Harris, W. T. et al., "Biograph-

ical Sketch of Professor Burke Aaron Hinsdale," Report of

the Commissioner of Education, 1900-'01, 2454-2459. Also

in Andrews, Hinsdale Genealogy.

• 31
 

272       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

Derby, Samuel C., "Burke Aaron Hinsdale," Old Northwest

Genealogical Quarterly, 1901, 4: 109-117.  Reprinted as

pamphlet, Columbus, 1901. Also in Hinsdale Genealogy.

Education Report, 1887-'88, 659. Notice of Hinsdale's going to

University of Michigan.

Educational Review, February, 1901, 184-199. A Symposium.

Angell, James B., "B. A. Hinsdale."

Colton, George H., "Dr. Hinsdale at Hiram College."

Reveley, Ellen G., "Dr. Hinsdale as Superintendent of

Schools at Cleveland."

Grove, Aaron, "Dr. Hinsdale in the National Educational

Association."

Maxwell, William H., "Dr. Hinsdale's Contribution to Edu-

cational Literature."

Harris, William T., "Dr. Hinsdale's Influence in American

Education."

Bibliography of Hinsdale's books and contributions to

periodicals and reports to various associations.

Hinsdale, Albert, Chronicles of the Hinsdale Family, Cleveland,

1883. Reprinted in Hinsdale Genealogy.

Hinsdale Genealogy, edited by Alfred L. Holman, Lombard, Ill.,

1906.

Inlander, January 1901, Literary Magazine by Students of Michi-

gan University. "Burke Aaron Hinsdale, The Man and his

Work." A Symposium.

Demmon, I. N., "Sketch of Life."

Newington, W. H. C., "As President of Hiram College."

Spaulding, V. M., "His Work at the University of Michi-

gan."

Harris, W. T., "A Great Educator."

Pattengill, Henry R., "As an Institute Worker."

Coy, E. W., "As a Literary Man."

McLaughlin, A. C., "As an Historian."

Garrison, J. H., "As a Religious Writer."

Brown, F. F., "As a Critic and Reviewer."

Monroe, Paul, Cyclopedia of Education, New York, 1912. Ar-

ticle "Hinsdale, Burke Aaron." Also Article "Education,

Academic Study."

Mowry, W. A., "Hinsdale on Studies in Science, Art, (and) His-

tory." School Review, 1896, 4: 560.

National Cyclopedia of American Biography, New York, 1906-

'09. Article "Hinsdale, Burke Aaron."

Sabin, Henry, "Dr. Hinsdale's Work for Rural Schools," Educa-

tional Review, 19O1-'21; 307-309.

• 32
 

Burke Aaron Hinsdale                 273

 

Tillinghast, W. H., "Hinsdale's How to Study and Teach His-

tory," Nation, 59: 20I.

The Dictionary of American Biography (volume now in press)

contains a biographical article on Hinsdale by Elbert J. Ben-

ton.

III. BOOKS BY HINSDALE

American Government, National and State, New York, 1895.

Art of Study, New York, 1900.

Ecclesiastical Tradition; Its Origin and Early Growth, Its Place

in the Churches and Its Value. Cincinnati, 1879.

Garfield, James A., Works, edited by Hinsdale. Boston, 1882.

Genuineness and Authenticity of the Gospels. Cincinnati, 1872.

History and Civil Government of Iowa, H. H. Seeley and L. W.

Parrish; and Government of the United States, Hinsdale.

Chicago, New York, 1891.

History and Civil Government of Maine . . . and the Gov-

ernment of the United States, Stetson, William Wallace and

Hinsdale, Chicago, New York, 1898.

History and Civil Government of Minnesota, Niles, Sanford, and

Government of the United States, Hinsdale. Chicago, New

York, 1897.

History and Civil Government of Ohio, Hinsdale, B. A. and

Hinsdale, M. L., Chicago, 1896.

History and Civil Government of Pennsylvania and Government

of the United States, Hinsdale, B. A. and Hinsdale, Mary L.

Chicago, 1899.

History and Civil Government of South Dakota   .  .  . and

Government of the United States, Smith, George M.; Young,

Clark M.; Hinsdale, Chicago, New York, 1898.

History of the University of Michigan. Ann Arbor, 1906. Edited

by Isaac N. Demmon.

Horace Mann and the Common School Revival in the United

States, New York, 1898.

How to Teach and Study History, New York, 1894. (Revised

edition, 1898, contains additional matter and bibliographical

index.)

Jesus as a Teacher and the Making of the New Testament, St.

Louis, 1895.

Jewish-Christian Church, Cincinnati, 1878.

Old Northwest, New York, 1888. Revised edition, Boston, New

York, 1899.

President Garfield and Education, Hiram College Memorial. Bos-

ton, 1882.

Vol. XLI--18.

• 33
 

274        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

Republican Text-book for the Campaign of 1880. (A full history

of General James A. Garfield's public life.) New York, 1880.

Schools and Studies, Boston, 1884.

Studies in Education, Chicago, 1896.

Teaching the Language-arts, Speech, Reading and Composition,

New York, 1896.

Training for Citizenship, Chicago, 1897.

"Training of Teachers," Monographs on Education in the United

States, Nicholas Murray Butler, editor, 1900.

 

IV. MAGAZINE ARTICLES, REPORTS, ETC.

American Historical Review, "C. Moore's Northwest Under

Three Flags" (Review), 1901, 6: 139.

Christian Evangelist

"Is War Justifiable Between Christian Nations?" Novem-

ber 23, 1899, 481-482.

"The Recent Growth of American Colleges," June 19, 1900,

904-905.

Christian Quarterly

"Downfall of Secular Papacy," 1873, 5:23-52.

"Ecumenical Councils," 1869, I: 491-508.

"Galileo and the Church," 1869, I : 145-176.

"Infallibility Dogma," 1870, 2: 392-420.

"Rise and Establishment of the Papacy," 1870, 2: 229-243.

"Vatical Council and the Old Catholics," 1872, 4: 498-527.

Christian Standard, Numerous book reviews.

Cleveland Public Schools, Annual Reports of the Board of Edu-

cation, 1882-86. Contain the Superintendent's reports for

these years.

Forty-seventh annual report of the Board of Education for

the school year ending August 31, 1883. Cleveland, 1884.

(Superintendent' report, 49-88).

Forty-eighth annual report of the Board of Education for the

school year ending August 3I, 1884. Cleveland, 1885. (Su-

perintendent's report, 65-100).

Forty-ninth annual report of the Board of Education for the

school year ending August 31, 1885. Cleveland, 1886. (Su-

perintendent's report, 75-147).

Fiftieth annual report of the Board of Education for the

school year ending August 31, 1886. Cleveland, 1887. (Su-

perintendent's report, second part of volume, 1-96).

• 34
 

Burke Aaron Hinsdale                275

 

The Dial, Chicago

"American Education," 1900, 28: 352-356.

"American and European Secondary Schools Compared,"

1895-6, 20: 195.

"City School Systems," 1898, 25: 251.

"Contributions to Quaker History," 1900, 28: 11-14.

"Democracy Out of Joint," 1900, 28: 113-116.

"Where our Schools Fail Most," 1900, 28: 141-144.

"Education in the United States," 1899-1900, 28: 141.

"Education in 1880-1900," 1899-1900, 28: 352.

"Education in 1900," 1900, 29: 43.

"Rashdall's Universities" (Review), 1895-'96, 20: 67.

"Recent School Legislation for Cities," 1898-'99, 28: 107.

Education

"Books for Teachers," 10: 627.

"Constant in Education," 1884-'85, 5: 205-213. Reprinted

from Addresses and Proceedings of the National Education

Association.

"Education in the State Constitutions," 10: 91, 168.

"Garfield and Education," (with portrait) 2: 217.

"Payne on Proceeding from the Known to the Unknown,"

7: 597.

Education Journal of Virginia

"Examinations," 1884, 15: 177-181.

Educational Review

"American School Superintendent, The," 1893, 7: 42.

"Dogma of Formal Discipline," 1894, 8: I28. Reprinted

from Addresses and Proceedings of the National Education

Association.

"Study of Education at the University of Michigan," 1893,

6: 443.

"Study of Education in American Colleges and Universities,"

1900, 19: 105-120.

"System of Payment by Results," 1892, 4: 105.

Home and School

"The Law of Mental Exercise," 1899?, 1:118-119.

Independent

"Investigation of Rural Schools," 1896, 48: 9-10.

"Revenues of Oxford," 1895, August I.

"Teacher's Preparation," 1891, 43: 2-3.

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276       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

Independent School Journal

"Economy in College Work," 1889, 34: 337.

"Some Conditions of Successful Teaching," 1889, 34: 408.

Intelligence

"Educational Problems in England," Feb. 15, 1892, S. No.

132.

"President Eliot on Popular Education," Feb. 15, 1893, 12.

(A paper read before the philosophical society and the po-

litical science association of the University of Michigan, and

before the principals' association of the City of Chicago.)

Reprinted as pamphlet.

"Qualifications of the Teacher of History," 1893, 12: 34.

International Educational Series

"Teaching the language-arts, speech, reading, composition,"

1896, 34: 205.

Contains bibliography.

Journal of Education

"Defect in our school system," 1899, 49.

Magazine of Western History

"American Historical Association," 1885-'86, 3: 194-196.

"Bounding the Original United States," 1885, 2: 401-423.

"Geography and Early American History," 1885-'86, 3:

433-436.

"Legislation on the Compensation of Members of Congress,"

1887, 5: 583-602 and 1887, 6: 128-141.

"National Capitol," 1888, 7: 392-399 and 530-537.

"Rev. Dr. Robbins on the Western Reserve," 1889, 10: 353-

360.

"Some Features of the Old South," 1886-'87, 5: 1-17.

Michigan School Moderator

"Historical Geography," 1892, 13: 170.

Michigan Political Science Association, Publications.

"The Real Monroe Doctrine," 1895.

Addresses and Proceedings of the National Education Association

1884. "The Constant in Education," Reprinted in Educa-

tion.

"Powers and Duties of School Officers and Teach-

ers."

1887. "General Influence and Results of Opening the North-

west Territory."

1888. "The Business Side of City School Systems."

• 36
 

Burke Aaron Hinsdale                277

 

1889. "Cultural Value of History of Education."

"Pedagogical Chairs in Universities."

1890. "Supplementary Report on City School Systems."

Also in Chicago Herald (July 8, 1890.)

1891. "Teacher's Academical and Professional Prepara-

tion."

1894. "Dogma of Formal Discipline," Reprinted in Educa-

cational Review, also as pamphlet.

1895. "History Teaching in Schools."

"Laws of Mental Congruence and Energy Applied to

some Pedagogical Problems." (Report of committee

on pedagogics).

I896. "Some Sociological Factors in Rural Education in the

United States."

1897. "Need of Enhanced Material Support for the Rural

Schools."

1898. "Is it possible and desirable to form a Federation of

colleges and universities in the United States similar

to the Association of American Medical Colleges?"

Nation, The

Miscellaneous writings and reviews.

National Teacher

"Health in the Public Schools," 5: 1-13. Reprinted in Ohio

Educational Monthly.

New England Journal of Education

"Industrial Education," 1883, 5: 211-213.

New York Teachers Quarterly

"Induction and Deduction in Education," 1898, 2: 1-9.

Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

"First Circumnavigation of the Earth," 1887, I : 146-149.

"History of Popular Education on the Western Reserve,"

1896, 6: 35-58.

"Right of Discovery," 1888, 2: 349-379.

"Sale of the Western Reserve," 1889, 2: 475-487.

"Three important Documents relating to Western Land Ces-

sions," 1889, 2: 276-288.

"Western Land Policy of the British Government from 1763-

1775," i888, I: 207-220.

Ohio Educational Monthly

"Health in the Public Schools," 16: 1-13. Reprinted in

National Teacher.

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278       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

"Mission of the Public School," 1883, 32: 326-343. Re-

printed in Schools and Studies.

"Moral Training in Public Schools," 1885, 34: 291-298.

"A Chapter of Ohio School History," 1888, 291 555.

"Overpressure in the Schools," 1887, 28: 586.

"Some Neglected Branches of Education," 1881, 22: 33-37.

"The Teachers' Institute," 1889, 38: 241.

"Township and District Systems," 1889, 38: 289.

Portage County Democrat, (Ravenna (Ohio) Weekly)

"The Great Rebellion in its Incipient Stages," Jan. 8, 1862

to Mar. 26, 1862, published anonymously.

"The Great Rebellion in its Intermediate Stages," June 25,

1862 to Oct. 15, 1862, at irregular intervals.

These two series of articles are Hinsdale's earliest published

work.

Report of Commissioner of Education

1886-7. "Education--a Man of more Account than his

Trade," 187-188.

1888-9. A discussion of the political theory on which the

district organization is founded; weaknesses in ap-

plying this system to education. 642-643.

1889-90. "Scholarship in Teaching," 1178.

1892-3. "Documents illustrative of American educational

history," edited, 1225-1414.

Education in Wyoming Valley, Quoted.

Topics on educational history of the United States,

mentioned. 1226.

1893-4. "Public Instruction in Italy," 325-383.

"History of the Old Northwest," 725.

1896-7. "Committee on Rural Schools," 811.

1897-8. "Notes on the History of Foreign Influence upon

Education in the United States," 591-629.

1898-9. "The Western Literary Institute and College of

Professional Teachers."

School Bulletin

"Plea for Breadth," 1883-4, 10: 119.

School Journal

"Dr. Rickoff's Work," April 29, 1899, 489.  (Probably by

Hinsdale).

School Review

"Diploma System of Admission to the University of Michi-

gan," 1896, 4: 301-307.

• 38
 

Burke Aaron Hinsdale                 279

 

"Discussion of Entrance Requirements in History and Re-

port of the Committee on College Requirements," 1896,

4: 438-442.

"Making of Courses of Study," 1898, 6: 606-614.

"Tripartite Division of Education," 1896, 4: 512-522.

Science

"Overpressure in Schools," 1887, 1O: 177.

The Teacher

"Education in Switzerland," (June, 1892).

"Twenty years of Public Schools in Rome" (December,

1891).

Various articles for newspapers of which it is almost im-

possible to get a record. Clippings of some of them are among

the Hinsdale papers in the Hiram College Library.

 

V. PAMPHLETS

Austin, Harmon, Mr. and Mrs., Golden Wedding Anniversary.

The Austin Home. Remarks by Prof. B. A. Hinsdale, Janu-

ary, 1893.

Business Side of City School Systems. Reprinted from Studies

in Education, New York, 1896.

Cleveland Public Schools. Discussion of educational questions;

(I) teaching English Grammar, (2) will training, (3) prov-

ince of the science of education (Excerpts from annual re-

port to Board of Education).

Conspectus of American Revolution. Cleveland school bulletin,

1885.

Country School, n. p., n. d.

Culture Value of History of Education. Paper read before Na-

tional Education Association at Nashville, July, 1889.

Delphic Literary Society, The Reunion, 1875.

Discovery of America. Commemoration address in University

Hall, October 21, 1892. Ann Arbor, 1892.

Dogma of Formal Discipline, Asbury Park, N. J., July 1894.

Education in the State Constitutions, n. p., n. d.

Eliza Ballou Garfield, Mother of James A. Garfield. Addresses

made at her burial. Cleveland, 1888.

Establishment of the First Southern Boundary of the United

States. Washington, 1894.

Eclectic Institute; an address Delivered at the Jubilee 'of Hiram

College, June 22, 1900. Ann Arbor, 1900.

Geography and Early American History, n. 1p., n. d.

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280        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

Health in the Public Schools. Paper read before Northeastern

Ohio Teachers' Association. Cleveland, 1874.

Hiram College. Prepared for Centennial History of Educa-

tion in Ohio,. Cleveland, 1876. (Appeared in greatly con-

densed form, rewritten by editors, in Ohio Teachers' Asso-

ciation, History of Education in the State of Ohio).

Hiram College and Her Pupils. Address to graduating class,

June 21, 1877.

History of Popular Education on the Western Reserve. Address

delivered in series of educational conferences.  Cleveland,

1896.

History of the Disciples in Hiram, Portage County, Ohio. Dis-

course delivered to church March 26, 1876. Cleveland, 1876.

In Memoriam, Mrs. R. N. Woods. Ann Arbor, 1892.

Language Question in Switzerland, n. p., n. d.

Life and Character of James A. Garfield. New York, 1880.

Life, Character and Public Services of James A. Garfield. Ad-

dress delivered in Orange, Ohio. June 19, 1880. Cleveland,

1880.

Memoir of Louisa Hinsdale, a Brother's Tribute. Cleveland,

1877.

Memorial Address. Life, work and character of R. R. Sloan, de-

livered to the Ohio Christian Missionary Society; Mt. Ver-

non, May 21, 1878. Cleveland, 1878.

On Academical Degrees. Reprint. University Record, University

of Michigan.

Ordinance of 1787; Origin, Features and Results. Akron, 1877.

Our Common School Education, With a Digression on the College

Course. Read before Northeastern Ohio Teachers' Associa-

tion; Cleveland, December 9, 1876. Cleveland, 1877.

Our Common Schools. A fuller statement of the views set forth

in the pamphlet preceding and reference to the reply of Su-

perintendent A. J. Rickoff. Cleveland, 1878.

Papers on School Issues of the Day. Syracuse, 1889

Rickoff, Andrew Jackson, Past and Present of Our Common

School Education. (Reply to Hinsdale). Cleveland, 1877.

Pedagogical Chairs in Colleges and Universities, n. p., n. d.

Pedagogical View of Some New Testament Sermons. Reprinted

from Religious Thought at the University of Michigan. n.

p., n. d.

Political Dualism in American History. In Home Study Review,

n. p., n. d.

President Eliot on Popular Education. Reprinted from Intelli-

gence.

• 40
 

Burke Aaron Hinsdale                 281

 

President Eliot on Public School Problems. Address given at

Michigan State Teachers' Association, December, 1885; Con-

necticut State Teachers' Association, November 1886. Cleve-

land, 1886

President Hayes' Southern Policy. Address given in Hiram,

September 25, 1877.

President James Abram   Garfield.  Remarks at Hiram  College

memorial service, First Presbyterian Church, Cleveland.

Cleveland, 1881.

Real Monroe Doctrine, 1895. Reprint from Michigan Political

Science Association Publications.

Right of Discovery.   Columbus, 1889. Reprint from     Ohio

Archaological and Historical Quarterly.

Science of Education. Abstract of paper read before Cleveland

Pedagogical Society. February 16, 1886.

Spirit and Ideals of the University of Michigan. 1896. Reprint

from Educational Review.

Study of Language. n. p., n. d.

Suggestions to University Students Preparing to Teach, n. p.,

n. d.

Supplement to the Report of the Superintendent of Instruction of

the Public Schools of Cleveland, Ohio. For the school year

of 1883-4.  (I) Moral training in the public schools, (2)

Study and methods of study, (3) Public and public schools.

(4) Socrates and his method. Cleveland, 1885.

Arbella Mason Rudolph, Her Ancestry, Life and Character,

Cleveland, 1879.

Theoretical, Critical and Practical Courses in Teaching given at

the University of Michigan.  Terms defined and relations

stated. Notes of preliminary lectures. n. p., n. d.

Topics in the Educational History of the United States. Ann Ar-

bor. n. d.

Vice-Presidency. Reprint from Magazine of Western History,

n. p., n. d.

Note:  The Hinsdale pamphlets are to be found for the

most part in the library of the Western Reserve Historical Society

in Cleveland.

 

VI. HINSDALE PAPERS IN HIRAM COLLEGE

LIBRARY.

(Numbers refer to folios)

1. Biographical sketch of Garfield.

2. "Education as Affected by Christianity."

• 41
 

282       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

"Development of Christian Education."

3. "Illustration of Causation in History Drawn from the His-

tory of the United States."

5. "Educational Tendencies Since the Revival of Letters."

6. "Outline of a Course of Five Lectures on Teaching History

to be Delivered at Glens Falls, N. Y., July, 1891^.

7. "Tallmadge, Ohio."

"Academic Pioneer and Western Academical Institute."

Notes on history of education.

Lectures on history of education in the United States.

8. Course of lectures on School Supervision.

9. Notes on History of Education, Greece to Rome.

10. Students in Collegiate Departments of Certain Colleges,

1880-98.

American Students in German Universities.

John Q. Adams, letter to Hinsdale, July 22, 1892.

11. "Over the Luther Ground."

12. "Roman Education."

I3. "Forces Behind Modern Popular Education."

14. Lecture notes, largely educational.

15. "School Systems and Funds."

Miscellaneous notes.

16. Educational notes.

"Kinds of Teaching" (outline).

17. "Northwest Territory."

Letter: C. D. Hine to Hinsdale, April 29, 1885.

18. "Louisiana and Florida."

19. "From Texas to Alaska."

20. "Discovery and Division of North America."

21. "Independent America."

22. "First Circumnavigation of the Earth."

23. "Struggle of England and France for Dominion in North

America."

"Spanish, English and French Discoveries."

"Geographical Relations of the Three Groups of Colonies."

25. "First Efforts of the United States at Territorial Expan-

sion.

26. Speech supporting Garfield's candidacy. Defence of Re-

publican record.

Letter: Garfield to Hinsdale, December 15, 1879. Garfield

on tariff.

27. Letters to Hinsdale from G. F. W. Mark, Isaac N. Demmon,

Nathan Young, W. T. Moore, Nicholas Murray Butler,

Rossiter Johnson, T. J. Burrill, Baily Sutton Dean, others.

Class-room lectures on educational subjects.

• 42
 

Burke Aaron Hinsdale                 283

 

28. "Education for and Growth of Citizenship."

"Association of Ideas."

Letters.

29. "Chinese Education."

"Jewish Schools."

"Education Among the Hebrews."

'Principal Features of Oriental Character and Life that Have

Influenced Education."

31. "Science and Art of Teaching."

"Mental Power as Specific and Generic."

"End of Education."

Notes.

32. Letters.

Notes.

35. Notes on University of Michigan law school.

"Spanish-American Geography."

"Webster's Second Speech in Reply to Hayne."

'"Review of Eggleston's Life of John Patterson."

Notes on early American History.

"Memorandum Concerning the Establishment and History

of Libraries at Hiram College."

37. Letters.

38. Notes on conquest of Canada.

Letters.

Material relating to Garfield from which Hinsdale wrote books on

Garfield containing many speeches of Garfield not available

elsewhere. Collected and bound in one volume in Hiram

College Library.

"Teacher in Literature" (proof sheets), bound in Hiram College

Library.

Note: Hinsdale's library was given to the Western Reserve

Historical Society where most of his own pamphlets and books

may be found. His private papers are in the Hiram College

Library.

The Garfield-Hinsdale correspondence, especially the New

Year's letters exchanged by the two men, is a valuable source for

the political history of Garfield's time, as well as for the biogra-

phies of the two men. The letters from Hinsdale are largely

among the Garfield papers recently placed in the Library of Con-

gress. The letters from Garfield to Hinsdale are in the possession

of the Hinsdale family.

• 43