EDUCATION IN TERRITORIAL OHIO*
BY W. ROSS DUNN
In tracing the beginnings of education
in that part of
the old Northwest that later became
Ohio, the historian
naturally turns to that much noted work
of the decadent
Congress of the Articles of
Confederation, the North-
west Ordinance or the Ordinance of
1787. His efforts
are not unrewarded, for Article Three
contains the oft
quoted declaration that "schools
and the means of edu-
cation shall forever be
encouraged". However, this is
all, and it is necessary to turn
elsewhere to find the be-
ginning of the policy of land grants
for schools. It is
important to note the beginnings
briefly, for besides pro-
moting the settlement of the territory,
the grants en-
couraged education, and later
contributed to the sup-
port of the schools. They were at least
the background
of the beginning of education in Ohio.
Furthermore, it
was the beginning of a policy that was
later generally
extended to include all the lands of Ohio,
although in the
original patents it applied only to
certain grants. In the
end it became a regular land policy of
the West and
each state admitted after 1842 was
given section 36 of
each township for school purposes.1
1 Willis Mason West, American History
and Government, Allyn and
Bacon, 1913, pp. 270, 274.
* Awarded the annual prize offered by
the Ohio Society of Colonial
Wars, for the best essay on early
Western history and offered as a
thesis for the degree of M. A. in the
University of Cincinnati, 1925.
History Department.
(322)
Education in Territorial Ohio 323
By going back a little further to the
less renowned
Land Ordinance of May 20th, 1785, the
legislative be-
ginning of the policy of donating land
for the benefit of
education is found. That Ordinance, in
addition to pro-
viding for the rectangular surveys of
land in advance
of settlement and the sale of land in
small quantities by
land offices, "reserved the lot
No. 16, of every township,
for the maintenance of Public Schools
within the said
township."2 It is rather
reasonable to suppose that the
idea of granting one thirty-sixth of
the land for school
purposes was not put in by accident.
The idea was in
the minds of some prominent men
somewhat earlier.
The suggestion was likely born of the
consideration of
the question of compensating
revolutionary soldiers by
grants of the public domain in the
West. In a com-
munication of Colonel Timothy Pickering
relating to
lands in the West for soldiers, there
is reference to other
land for the "common good"
and this included "estab-
lishing schools and academies".3
This communication
was forwarded through Generals Putnam
and Wash-
ington to Congress. The idea of land
reservations for
the support of church, highways and
schools had been a
topic of conversation among such men as
Washington,
Webster, Paine, Bland, Pickering,
Bayard and Hutch-
ins.4
The Ordinance of 1787 was passed
July 13 and ten
2 Land Laws of Ohio, A Compilation of the Laws, Treaties, Resolu-
tions and Ordinances of the General
and State Governments, which relate
to Lands in the State of Ohio, p. 154.
3 Clement L. Martzolff, "Land
Grants for Education in the Ohio Val-
ley States," in Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society
Quarterly and
Proceedings, Vol.
25, p. 65.
4 The Records of the Original
Proceedings of the Ohio Company.
Edited with Introduction and Notes by
Archer Butler Hulbert, Cincin-
nati, 1882, Vol. I. Int. p. XXV; Vol. I. p. CXXXVI-VII.
324
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
days later another Ordinance was passed
by Congress,
which renewed the provision of the
Ordinance of 1785,
in reserving section 16 of each
township for schools
and further provided that two townships
as near the
center of the grant as possible should
be reserved for
the purposes of a University. The
agents of the Ohio
Company took advantage of this
provision in their con-
tract with the Board of Treasury, which
provided that
a clause or clauses "shall or may
be inserted" reserving
section 16 for schools, 29 for religion
and sections 8, 11,
and 26 for the use of, and subject to,
the disposal of
Congress. Also that two complete
townships might be
laid off by the parties of the second
part as near the
center of their grant as possible, for
a university.5
The next grant of Ohio lands was that
to John
Cleves Symmes between the Miami rivers.
It contained
the provision for school and church
land and also a
grant of a college township. Symmes had
only asked
for one township of college lands. His
early map shows
this reserved opposite the Licking
river. Later the
amount of land that Symmes applied for
was cut down
one-half, as his agents feared they
would not be able to
make payments on the full amount.
Symmes learned
that the smaller amount did not entitle
him to a college
township and sold his reserved lands.
Congress, how-
ever, granted a college township, thus
leading up to pro-
longed negotiations before the college
lands were finally
set apart, which were connected with
Miami Univer-
sity.6 This provision for school lands
was not included
6 Land Laws of Ohio, p. 154; Records of the Ohio Company, Vol.
I, pp. 13, 14, 31, 32, 33.
7 Judge Jacob Burnet, Notes on the
Early Settlement of the North-
western Territory, Cincinnati, 1847, pp. 428, 433.
Education in Territorial Ohio 325
in the Western Reserve, Virginia
Military and other
lands of the territory.
In arranging for the formation of a
constitution in
Ohio, Congress offered certain parts of
its lands in Ohio
for public purposes provided the lands
be exempt from
taxation for five years. The
Convention, meeting to
form a constitution, saw the chance and
drove a bar-
gain with Congress to extend the
provision and set aside
one thirty-sixth of all the lands in
the state for school
purposes. After many difficulties and
later negotiations
this provision was carried out by
granting part sections
where full sections were not available
and by granting
extra lands where available to make up
for deficiencies
in other sections. How these lands were
later wasted so
that they returned much less than they
should to the
Common School Fund of Ohio is part of a
later story.7
The motive for including public lands
in early grants
has sometimes been questioned. Some have thought
that sections 16, 29, 8, 11 and 26 were
the top, doll,
boomerang, balloon and whistle put in
the package to
make the land sell better. Those asking
for such public
lands were accused of similar motives.
No doubt these
motives may have influenced some as
well as a real and
sincere interest of many in the things
such land was in-
tended to promote. Furthermore, if such
lands were
supposed to attract settlers, such
settlers must have been
thought to have an interest in such
worthy objects as
education, religion and roads. While of
course there
was the universal appeal in getting
something for noth-
ing, a variety of motives were no doubt intermingled.8
7 Martzolff, Land Grants, pp. 68-69;
Land Laws of Ohio, pp. 155, 157;
A History of Education in the State
of Ohio, a Centennial Volume, 1876,
pp. 9-75.
8 Martzolff, Land Grants, p. 66.
326
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
The interest of the people of the Ohio
Company in
education did not lapse on being
successful in securing
land grants with reservations for
religious and educa-
tional purposes. On March 7, 1788, a
committee was
named to secure a suitable teacher
"of religious and
educational training" to accompany
the settlers to the
lands on the Ohio. The committee
engaged the Rev.
Daniel Story for the purpose, and
called for public sub-
scriptions to cover the expenses. At a
meeting of the
Directors of the Company, August 4,
1788, provision
was made for leasing lot 16 of each
township for a
period of ten years, after March, 1789,
to be cleared,
fenced and left in grass. In November
of the following
year the Agents of the Company arranged
for a com-
mittee to make a large scale map
showing the public
lands, namely; the lots of Congress,
the school lots, lots
for religious purposes, for a
university, and other com-
mon property lots.9
The following year the Company took
what might
be called a more active interest in
education. At a meet-
ing of the Agents and Proprietors, July
16, 1790, at
Marietta, a motion prevailed to
appropriate $150 for the
support of schools. The amount was to
be justly ap-
portioned among the settlements of
Marietta, Belpre and
Wolf-Creek. This money was later to be
restored to
the funds of the Company from money
raised among
the first settlers for the
"Support of Religion and for
Scholastic Education". Although a
committee was
named in each settlement to receive and
expend the
funds, the contemplated action was not
secured, perhaps
because the ratio of distribution had
not been desig-
9 Records of the Ohio Company, Vol. I, p. 39-40.
Education in Territorial Ohio
327
nated. At any rate, in the following
December a com-
mittee of three was appointed to
apportion this money
and to devise ways and means for the
opening of schools
in Marietta, Belpre, Wolf-Creek and
Newbury. This
does not seem to have been effective
yet, for a resolution
of almost a year later, December 5,
1791, provided that
the money appropriated for the
education of the children
should be divided among the settlements
in the same
proportion as money granted for public
teachers by vote
in the meeting of April 6, 1791.10
At the meeting here referred to a
committee which
had previously been appointed to
suggest measures to
be adopted to furnish the several
settlements with re-
ligious instruction, made its report. As
a result the sum
of one hundred-sixty dollars was
appropriated for the
purpose. Of this sum Marietta was to
get $84, Belpre
$50, and Waterford $26. No town was to
receive its
share unless it maintained a school the
designated
amount of time, which was one year for
Marietta, seven
months for Belpre and three and
one-half months for
Waterford. A committee was to be
appointed in each
settlement to obtain the "Public
Teacher", who was to
be approved by the Directors of the
Ohio Company be-
fore entering on his duties. These
teachers were to
give religious instruction for the
public benefit.11 This
ratio used for distributing the $160
for religious in-
struction was to be taken as a ratio
for distributing the
$150 for secular education.
While this practically ends the
official acts of the
Ohio Company relating to education, the
peculiar thing
10 Records of the Oio Company, Vol. II, pp. 50 65, 121.
11 Records of the Ohio Company, Vol. II, p. 91.
328
Ohi Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
is not that they were so few but that
there were any.
For that day the interest shown and the
appropriations
were no doubt unusual for a commercial
company. A
high regard or and a high estimate of
the importance of
education is ndicated. It is doubtful
if it can be dupli-
cated in many frontier communities.
Education at that time was largely a
matter of local
or even of individual concern in the
new country. It
could not well be otherwise in a
pioneer community.
However, a "beginnings" have
a peculiar interest for
all of us, we shall turn to the topic
of school legislation
and see what interest was taken in the
field of education
by the government in charge of the
territory of Ohio
before state food.
The Northwest Territory was under the
Governor
and Judges during the first stage of
territorial govern-
ment. During this time little was done
in the way of
school legislation. However, some
effort was made to
protect the school lands; for instance
in The Centinel
of the North-western Territory of Saturday, December
27, 1794, a notice appeared warning
against the cutting
down of trees on any section of land
reserved by the
Congress of the United States for any purpose.12
The
laws for the Territory in this period
were to be secured
by being adopted by the Governor and
Judges from the
codes of the older states. The
collections of laws of the
period show no school laws adopted for
the Northwest
Territory. This does not seem strange
however, when
one remembers that this was much before
the days of
public schools in the Territory. Even
though laws were
desirable or regulating the lands
granted for educa-
12 This notice was over the signature of
Winthrop Sargent, acting
governor, and appeared in a
number of other issues of the same paper.
Education in Territorial Ohio 329
tional purposes, the older states,
having no such lands,
had no such laws to adopt.
The territory entered on its second
stage of terri-
torial government in 1799 with the
first General Assem-
bly of the Territory holding its first
session in Cincin-
nati in that year. And although Judge
Burnet tells us,
that, "The subject of education
occupied their serious
attention," the members of this
Assembly did little real
legislating of an educational nature.
The author quoted
above informs us that, "Among
other measures, they
instructed the delegate in Congress to
use his influence
to induce that body to pass the laws
which were consid-
ered necessary to secure to the
Territory the title of the
lands that had been promised for the
support of schools
and colleges, including section No. 16,
in every town-
ship."13 One of the
other measures referred to was no
doubt a law passed providing punishment
for the of-
fense of destroying trees on school lands.14
An act of
November 27, 1800, of the second
session of the first
General Assembly, created a corporation
to manage the
school lands within the Ohio Company's
purchase in
Washington county.15 By this act seven
persons were
named as "trusteees for managing
lands granted for
Religious purposes and for the Support
of Schools",
within the Ohio Company's purchase.16
The purpose
of this law was to make the land more
productive and
thus provide means for fulfilling the
objects to which
13 Judge Burnet -- Notes, p. 305.
14 Eli T. Tappan, "School
Legislation," in History of Education in
the State of Ohio. Columbus, 1876.
15 This session of the Assembly was held
in Chillicothe.
16 Griffin Greene, Robert Oliver,
Benjamin Ives Gilman, Isaac Pierce,
Jonathan Stone, Ephraim Cutler and
William Rufus Putnam were the
trustees named.
330
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
such lands were dedicated. This act has
more to say
about the religious lands than the
school lands. The
fact that one section, number 29, was
in the town of
Marietta and hence desirable land for
immediate settle-
ment, possibly accounts for this. It
provided that va-
cant lots in this section might be
leased for not less than
three nor more than seven years and the
rent was not
to exceed five dollars. Three-fourths
of the clear profits
from section twenty-nine was to be used
to support
"such public teacher or teachers
of piety, religion and
morality as shall be employed". It
further provided
that the other one-fourth should be
held at interest until
it was sufficient to build one or more
houses of public
worship.17
Besides these acts the General Assembly
of the Ter-
ritory passed some measures relating to
the two town-
ships set apart for university purposes
in the Ohio Com-
pany's purchase. The first was a
resolution by the first
Session of the first General Assembly,
approved by the
governor December 18, 1799. By this
resolution a com-
mittee of three was designated and
requested to lay off
a town for a university in the most
suitable place in
townships eight or nine of the Ohio
Company's pur-
chase. The commission named laid off
and made a plat
of the town and reported back to the
first General As-
sembly at its second Session. An act
was passed by
this body approving the report and
recommendations
of the committee, December 6, 1800. In
accordance with
this Act the first session of the
Second General Assem-
bly passed an Act establishing a
University in the town
17 "Laws of the General Assembly
of the Northwest Territory, Vol.
II, pp. 8, 9.
Education in Territorial Ohio 331
of Athens, January 9, 1802. According
to this Act the
name was to be: "American Western
University". As
no organization was effected under this
act, it was su-
perseded by an Act of the State
Legislature in 1804.18
At first thought this might seem like a
rather meager
amount of legislation and little
related to the schools.
But when one remembers that this was
but a sparsely
settled territory to 1803 and that the
schools were pri-
vate and subscription schools and not
subject to any
public legislation, the few acts found
are rather to be
wondered at than depreciated. This is
the more true
when one considers that the first
general state laws re-
lating to common schools did not come
until the twenties
and the first compulsory common school
law in the late
thirties. (1838.)
However an account of the beginnings of
education
is concerned, primarily, with the early
schools. In this
field there was more than a start in
some sections of the
territory before 1803. Early schools
had opened and
reopened; the pioneer schoolmaster and
schoolmistress
had appeared; the pioneer type of
school architecture
had become established and dotted the
landscape here
and there in certain sections of the
old Northwest; yet
schools were more numerous than
school-houses.
An account of the early schools in Ohio
is neces-
sarily a little here and a little
there, a patchwork quilt of
the schools handed down from that day
to this. Neither
such an account nor such a quilt may be
a thing of har-
monious beauty in all of its parts, but
both may be of
tremendous interest and historical
value, especially in
18 Laws of the General Assembly of
the Northwest Territory, Vol.
II, p. 45; Vol. III, p, 161; Land Laws of Ohio, pp.
219, 220, 221.
332
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
so far as they may be assigned to
definite persons and
places. Besides the general interest
that everyone has
in originals and beginnings, there is a
peculiarly height-
ened interest to the comparatively few
who can recog-
nize in this piece of bright hue a
remnant of a dress of
a Gallipolis ancestress, or in that
piece of a more somber
shade, a part of the shawl or cape that
protected the
shoulders of a Marietta or Western
Reserve grand-
mother, or in that piece of Kentucky
homespun a re-
minder of a bit of early life of
Losantiville or of Mas-
sie's settlement, or can see in that
bit of jeans from
"Johnny Appleseed's" trousers
the beginning of fruit
culture in Ohio.
However, the interest in the patch-work
history of
the early schools should be of interest
and value to all;
for they were bits of the life of the
ancestors of all of
us. Such life and schools played a part
in shaping a
Jacksonian Democracy, a Clay and his
"War of 1812".
It is not my Garfield and my Lincoln
but our tow-path
boy and our rail-splitter. It is
certain that an unusual
percent of men of vigor and distinction
were products
of our early pioneer schools. May it
not be that those
schools, plus their environment, had
some elements of
strength in training for individuality
and initiative that
our modern schools plus a new
environment tend to get
too far away from?
In treating of the early schools of
Ohio, it is de-
sirable to give an account of actual
schools in some rep-
resentative sections such as about
Marietta, Cincinnati,
in the Western Reserve, the Virginia
Military Lands
and the like, and then see if it is
possible to arrive at
Education in Territorial Ohio 333
some generalizations concerning their
supporters, their
curricula, their teachers, their
buildings and their pupils.
The first schools in the state were
naturally in the
eastern and southern sections. No doubt
the earliest
schools were the Moravian Indian
Schools. One of
these dates from a period several years
before the Revo-
lutionary War. In 1761 Frederick Post
went from
Pennsylvania to the north bank of the
Muskingum, in
what is now Stark County, Ohio. Here he
built a cabin,
expecting to convert the Indians.19 In
1762 he returned
to the headquarters of the Society of
the United Breth-
ren in Pennsylvania and asked for an
assistant. The
Brethren made the request known to the
congregation at
Bethlehem and John Heckewelder, a youth
of about
nineteen years of age, voluntarily
agreed to go. Hecke-
welder in his "Narrative"
indicates that he went along
"principally to teach the Indian
children to read and
write".20 This mission
did not remain permanently but
others were established, particularly
after 1772, in what
is now Tuscarawas and also in Lorain
County.
David Zeisberger, trained for
missionary work in
the Indian school at Bethlehem,
Pennsylvania, was
prominent in the settlements made in
1772 and later.
While he and the Moravians in general
were chiefly in-
terested in converting the Indians to
their religion, they
seem to have used the fundamentals of
education as a
basis. Zeisberger in his
"Diary" frequently refers to
the unusual interest taken by the young
Indians in the
19 Henry Howe, Historical Collections
of Ohio, (2 volumes) Vol. 2,
pp. 607, 608. Published by C. J. Krehbiel & Co., Cincinnati, Ohio, 1904.
Copyright 1888 by Henry Howe.
20 Ibid. Vol. 2, p. 608. Howe quotes Heckewelder's "Narrative
of
the Missions of the United Brtheren
Among the Delaware and Mohegan
Indians."
334
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
school.21 The eagerness of the young
people for learn-
ing and their progress in the same, are
commented on
with satisfaction. It is worthy of note
that they cut
wood for the private use of their
teacher that his school
work might not be suspended
temporarily. (Such men-
tal activity on the part of the
twentieth century young
people would likely make it impossible
to celebrate so
many events and notables by the holiday
method.) If
one recalls the traditional amount of
liking the Indian
had for manual labor, a willingness to
chop wood may
be accepted as real evidence of his
interest in the school
and what he was learning there.
The earliest schools for white children
were those
established by the settlers of the Ohio
Company at or
near Marietta. However, there was one started about
the same time at Columbia. In spite of
the comparative
poverty, schools were started by the
earliest settlers at
Marietta. Instruction was given in
reading, writing
and arithmetic, and altho it is not
mentioned in the ac-
count here referred to, it is not
likely that spelling was
neglected.22 Hildreth says:
"no people ever paid more
attention to the education of their
children than the de-
scendants of the Puritans".23 The fact that schools
were started during the second year
after the arrival of
the colonists in a pioneer country
would lend color to
the statement. The first settlers
landed on the Mus-
kingum, April 7, 1788, and in the
summer of 1789, the
21 David Zeisberger, Diary of a
Moravian Missionary Among the In-
dians of Ohio. Cincinnati, 1885. Vol. 1, pp. 388, 451, 455, 461; Vol.
II,
pp. 4, 292, 438.
22 S. P. Hildreth, Pioneer History of
Ohio, being an account of the
Ohio Valley and the Early Settlers of
the Northwest Territory. (Chiefly
from original manuscripts), p. 335.
23 S. P. Hildreth, Pioneer History of
Ohio, p. 379.
Education in Territorial Ohio 335 first school was opened in Bellepre, a settlement made on the Ohio about twelve miles below Marietta. Herein the great majority of the present-day teaching profes- sion has cause for rejoicing for this school was in charge of a schoolmistress, not a schoolmaster. Bathsheba Rouse, for such was her name, is believed to have been the first female teacher in Ohio. She was the daughter of John Rouse, who had emigrated from New Bedford, Massachusetts. She taught the smaller children of |
|
Bellepre during the summer of 1789 and several subse- quent summers.24 The school was held in Farmer's Castle, the fort of the settlement. Here in the first schools the custom, so common in pioneer days, of send- ing the smaller children to school in the summer months and the older children, especially boys, during the win- ter months was started. The weather and the paths and 24 " Howe, Historical Collections of Ohio, p. 779. Hildreth, Pioneer History, p. 379. |
336
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
the trails were in better condition for
the younger chil-
dren to make their way over in the
summer time, while
the work of clearing, planting and
taking care of the
crops made it undesirable to spare the
older children
from home during the seasons that such
work could
go on.
The larger boys and young women went to
school a
few months in the winter time.
Instruction was given
to them in the winter of 1789 and for
several winters
thereafter in Farmer's Castle, in
Bellepre, by Daniel
Mayo, who worked at clearing his land
during the sum-
mer months.25 Mr. Mayo came
from Boston in the fall
of 1788 with Colonel Battelle's family
and being a grad-
uate of Harvard University, no doubt
was well qualii-
fied to teach.26 Jonathan Baldwin, a
well educated
bachelor from New England, was another
of Bellepre's
early teachers. He kept school in
Blockhouse No. 3
while the garrison was confined,
fearing trouble from
the Indians.
Schools likewise started early in
Marietta. In 1789,
Major Anselm Tupper kept a school in
the northwest
blockhouse of Campus Martius, the
fortification at Ma-
rietta. Other early teachers at
Marietta were Mr. Cur-
tis, who taught two years in a cooper
shop; and Dr.
Jabez True, who kept school in the
blockhouse; another
was Benjamin Slocomb, a well educated
but rather dis-
sipated man of Quaker parentage.27
25 There are several spellings for
Bellepre. Belpre is also common.
Records of The Ohio Company uses Bellepre.
26 Daniel Mayo married the daughter of
Israel Putnam and after the
war of 1812 settled in Newport, Ky.,
where his descendants now live.
J. J. Burns, Educational History of
Ohio. (Historical Publishing Co.,
Columbus, Ohio), 1905, p. 23.
27 Hildreth, Pioneer History, p.
335.
Education in Territorial Ohio 337
In Waterford, up on the Muskingum,
schools were
also started early and kept most of the
time, especially
in winter. Joseph Frye and Dean Tyler
were liberally
educated men, who were employed at
different times as
teachers at Waterford or Fort Frye. The
Marietta
colonists had employed and brought with
them from the
east the Reverend Daniel Story as a
suitable teacher of
religious and educational training.28 No records seem
available to show the nature and extent
of the educa-
tional training offered by Mr. Story,
although as a min-
ister he served for years.
Likely the first school started in
southwestern Ohio
was the one begun in Columbia, now in
the East End of
Cincinnati, on June 21, 1790, by John
Reily. He is said
to have taught here in the first
school-house built in
Ohio.29 Reily had come from North
Carolina, altho he
was born in Pennsylvania. He had served
with Gen-
eral Greene in the Revolution. Judge
Burnet attests to
his character and ability.30 About a year
later Reily was
joined in his school venture by Francis
Dunlevy, who
had been born in Virginia, later moving
to Pennsyl-
vania. He also had fought in the Revolution,
chiefly
against the Indians. Reily taught the
English studies,
and Dunlevy, who is said to have been a
fine classical
and mathematical scholar, the
classical.31 The school
28 For details see Records of the
Ohio Company Vol. I, p. 39-40.
29 Chas. T. Greve, (A. B., L. L. B.), Centennial
History of Cincin-
nati, and Its Representative
Citizens, Vol. I, p. 180.
(Biographical Pub-
lishing Co., Chicago, Ill., 1904); David
Zeisberger: Diary. Has refer-
ence to schools and to roofing a
school-house earlier than this, 1788. Vol.
I, p. 388.
30 Burnet, Judge Jacob, Notes on the
Early Settlement of the North-
west Territory, pp. 469-478.
31 Both of these men became
prominent in early Ohio. Reily settled
in Hamilton in 1803. He was a member of
the Constitutional Convention
of Ohio. He served as clerk of the
Supreme Court of Butler County
Vol. XXXV--22.
338 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
was a subscription school and its
teacher "boarded
round" as Reily's journal shows
the following entries:
"In the month of August boarded
twelve days with Mr.
Patrick Moore; in the month of
September boarded
twelve days with Hugh Dunn; in December
boarded
with John McCulloch six days".
This school was later
changed into an academy. Judge
Goforth's Diary has
such references as the following in
regard to the matter:
"Last Monday night met at my house
to consult on the
expediency of founding an
academy." "Wednesday
night met at Mr. Reily's
school-house." The weather
was bad and few came, so they met the
next night at
Reily's to appoint a committee.32 Accordingly the
school developed into an academy under
the patronage
of Judge William Goforth, Rev. John
Smith, Major
John S. Gano and Mr. Dunlevy himself.33
The establishment of a fort in what is
now the down-
town portion of Cincinnati probably
caused the popula-
tion to tend to shift from Columbia. At
any rate, Mr.
Dunlevy moved up the Miami, is reported
to have taught
school near it, and in 1797 or 1798
opened a school a
short distance west of the present
location of Lebanon.
This was perhaps the first school in Warren
County.
While land had been sold here much
earlier, it is not
thought that a permanent settlement had
been effected
from 1803-1842. Francis Dunlevy removed
to near Lebanon in Warren
County in 1797. He served in the
Convention that drafted the State Con-
stitution as a member from Hamilton
County. He was a member of the
first legislature in 1803. At the first
organization of the judiciary he was
made presiding judge of the first circuit.
He held this place 14 years and
though this circuit embraced 10
counties, and though he frequently had
to swim his horse over the Miamies, it
is said he never missed a court.
He practiced law fifteen years after
leaving the bench then retired to his
books, dying in Lebanon in 1839.
McBride, James, Pioneer Biography,
Cincinnati, 1869. Vol. I, pp. 1, 100,
101.
32 Greve, Centennial History of
Cincinnati, Vol. I, p. 181.
33 Ibid., Vol. I,
p. 363.
Education in Territorial Ohio 339
until after Wayne's treaty with the
Indians in 1795. In
September of that year a settlement was
effected at
Bedle's station, where the only
blockhouse in the county
was built. Mr. Dunlevy later moved his
school to the
north-west about two miles and had some
of the same
scholars. Among his young hopefuls in
the vicinity of
Lebanon was a black-eyed boy, who gave
his age as four
years and his name as Thomas Corwin. No
doubt it
was a belated but pleasant reward to
this pioneer teacher
when this pupil became governor of Ohio
and later a
United States senator, while a fellow
pupil, John Smith,
also attained the latter honor. There
were other early
schools in this section, namely, one
about 1800 taught
by Judge Ignatius Brown, one near
Ridgeville about
1801 to 1803 by Matthias Ross, one
about Waynesville
in 1802 taught by Rowland Richards and
one in Leb-
anon in 1801, 1802 and 1803 by Enos
Williams, a for-
mer pupil of Francis Dunlevy, and
perhaps others prac-
tically this early. Thus Warren County
seems to have
been almost the educational center of
Southwestern
Ohio and the Symmes purchase before
statehood.34
There is also evidence of early schools
near what
is now the down town part of
Cincinnati, altho infor-
mation about them is frequently
incomplete. William
D. Ludlow, writing in 1856, referred to
a school on the
river bank opposite Main and Sycamore
streets. This
school was taught by an Irishman by the
name of Lloyd.
Elsewhere there is reference to the
first school being
erected in 1792, and attended by about
thirty pupils.
This is supposed to have been in a log
cabin about 3rd
34 Jas. J. Burns, Educational History
of Ohio. (Historical Publish-
ing Co., Columbus, 1905), p. 24; History
of Warren County, Chicago,
1882, pp. 261, 477, 570.
340
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
and Lawrence and could be the school to
which Ludlow
referred. When Judge Burnet arrived in
Cincinnati, in
1795, a frame school building stood on
the north side of
Fourth Street opposite where St. Paul's
church later
stood. It was inclosed but not
finished. It is also re-
corded that the Presbyterian Church was
used for a
school for a time. Jonathan Lyon, who
came to Cin-
cinnati in 1791, attended school in a
cabin near Riddle's
blacksmith shop. This shop stood on the
public land-
ing and hence this school could also
have been the one
about which Ludlow wrote.
Kennedy Morton was
Lyon's teacher and was a great believer
in the use of
the rod. "He frequently whipped grown
young men
and women with a long hickory gad until
they would
fairly jump off the floor."35
Such are some of the general and
indefinite accounts
of early Cincinnati schools. These were
no doubt the
general schools for the teaching of the
three R's. Such
schools were rather few in early
Cincinnati, as there
was more of a tendency to a specialized
type of school
in this vicinity, as will be indicated
below by newspaper
advertisements. S. S. L'Hommedieu tells
us that in
1810, 1811, 1812 there were but three
or four small
schools in Cincinnati. One was in the
second story of
a building at Sixth and Main kept by
Thomas H.
Wright; another, John Hilton's, over a
cabinet-maker's
shop on the east side of Main Street
between Fifth and
Sixth; a third was that of David
Cathcart on the west
side of Walnut near Fourth Street.
There were about
forty scholars in each.36 That these
schools were not
35 Greve, Centennial History of
Cincinnati, Vol. I, p. 363.
36 S. S. L'Hommedieu,
quoted in Greve's Centennial History, Vol. I,
p. 491.
Education in Territorial Ohio 341
housed in buildings built for the
purpose is also a point
worthy of notice as a reflection of the
general attitude
of the community toward education. We
shall next con-
sider the schools of Cincinnati as
indicated by adver-
tisements in the early papers.
The earliest newspaper published in
Cincinnati was,
The Centinel of the
North-western Territory. The
available files of this paper show only
two or three ad-
vertisements relating directly to
schools. The earliest
of these advertisements is so
suggestive of the type of
school it was proposed to start, that
it will be quoted
in full. It is from The Centinel, bearing
the date of
Saturday, Jan. 3, 1795.37
The Subscriber begs leave to inform the
public that he in-
tends to open school on Monday the 22d
of this inst. in the house
lately occupied by David Williams,
nearly opposite James Fer-
guson's store, where he proposes to
educate youth in the fol-
lowing sciences and mathematical
branches, viz.: reading, writing,
arithmetic, bookkeeping, trigonometry,
mensuration of super-
ficials and solids, dialing, gauging,
surveying, navigation, ele-
ments of geometry and algebra. The
parents and friends of all
such as are committed to his trust, may
depend on his utmost
care and best endeavors to form their
tender minds to a love of
learning and virtue; he likewise will
employ every opportunity
in grounding his pupils in the practical
parts of the above.
--STUART RICHEY.
The writer has found nothing to
indicate the prog-
ress of the school, or to show how well
this rather heavy
mathematical curriculum was patronized.
However,
Mr. Richey again advertised the same
subjects eleven
months later, December 5, 1795. It was
stated that
37 The Centinel of the
Northwestern Territory, published in
Cin-
cinnati, Ohio, Vol. II, No. 60, Sat.,
Jan. 3, 1795. (Price per year 250 cents,
7 cents per copy). Files of this paper
from Nov. 23, 1793 to May 14, 1796,
are found in the Library of the Hist.
and Phil. Society of Ohio, located
in the building with the library of
Cincinnati University.
342
Ohio, Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
school would open the 16th of the month
and that no
more than thirty scholars would be
admitted. It is in-
teresting to note that this time an N.
B. is added, stating
that, "None need apply but such as
allow of moderate
correction to be used in said school
when necessity re-
quires it."38 One might wonder if this was a result of
experience the previous winter. As this
same advertise-
ment appeared in this and five subsequent
issues of the
Centinel, one surmises that the limit of thirty was put
in as much to hurry registration as to
limit it. Evi-
dently these schools of Mr. Richey,
were of a rather
special type, if we may judge by his
advertisements, and
were secondary as well as elementary in
subject matter.
Of course those elements of the
curriculum relating to
surveying and navigation were intensely
practical in a
new country and on the Ohio.
The advertisements of "The
Western Spy, and
Hamilton Gazette", between May 28, 1799 and Janu-
ary 1804, bring to light a number of
prospective schools
of various kinds.39 In the issue of
September 17, 1799,
Francis Mennessier announced the
opening of both "A
Coffee House" and a schoo.40 Both
were to be on Main
Street, Cincinnati, at the sign of
"Pegasus the bad Poet
fallen to the ground". He was
going to teach French
to those caring to learn, on each
evening in the week ex-
cept Saturday and Sunday, from 6 to 9
o'clock P. M.
Mr. Mennessier evidently had taught
French before, for
he informs those who has been
subscribers for two
38 The Centinel, Vol. III, No. 107, Saturday, December 5, 1795.
39 "The Western Spy and Hamilton Gazette," was the
successor of
"The Centinel of the
Northwestern Territory." Files of
this paper (pub.
in Cincinnati) between the dates
indicated are to be found in the Mercan-
tile Library, Cincinnati, Ohio.
40 Ibid. In this and other Sept. 1799, issues of the paper.
Education in Territorial Ohio 343
years and had not been able to attend,
that they will be
instructed gratis if they care to
attend. The rates of
the school are not known, so it is not
possible to deter-
mine whether a partially philanthropic
French school
was expected to benefit an economic
coffee house. Later
in the same year, James White, used the
same news-
paper to announce the removal of his
school to a new
location. This was a subscription
school but non-sub-
scribers are told their scholars will
be admitted on the
same terms as those of subscribers. Mr.
White also
announces that he will open an evening
school, in which
writing, arithmetic, etc., will be
taught. The school is
to be open four evenings a week from
six to nine o'clock
for a period of three months; the terms
are to be two
dollars for each scholar, and the
scholars are to find
their own firewood and candles.41
In 1800 Lemuel McDonald advertises a
school that
he has recently opened. His purpose is
to instruct youth
in the various branches of English
literature and he
promises to carefully attend to the
morals of those in-
trusted to his care. He announces that:
"He will teach
reading, writing, arithmetic, English
grammar, geogra-
phy and the mathematics, in the most
concise and fa-
miliar manner".42 Evidently
this was primarily an ele-
mentary school.
Two names appear rather frequently
between 1800
and 1803 in connection with educational
announcements;
others usually only once or twice. Those names are
Matthew G. Wallace and Robert Stubbs.
While the
main work of the latter in this field
was likely in con-
41 The
Western Spy, October 22, 1799. The
advertisement is re-
peated in subsequent issues.
42 The Western Spy, September 24, 1800.
344 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
nection with the "Newport
Academy", it was so closely
affiliated with Cincinnati as to make
it desirable to men-
tion it here. An early announcement in
regard to the
same appeared under the heading,
"Newport Academy",
and over the signature of Washington
Berry, chair-
man of the trustees of that
institution.43 A part of the
advertisement will be quoted, in order
to show the va-
riety of the curriculum offered.
Elementary as well as
secondary subjects were to be given.
The Academy of Newport will commence on
the first of
April. The Rev. Robert Stubbs is
president of said academy,
in which will be taught reading,
writing, and arithmetic at eight
dollars per annum; -- also the English
grammar, the dead lan-
guages, the following branches of the
mathematics, viz.: geome-
try, plain surveying, also by latitude
and departure, navigation,
geography, astronomy, mensuration of
superficials and solids;
also logic, rhetoric, bookkeeping, etc.,
at four pounds per an-
num.45
It was further announced that board
might be ob-
tained in Newport and vicinity on
reasonable terms and
"the greater part received in
produce". In August, 1802,
a notice of a meeting of the
proprietors of the school
taught by Mr. Stubbs appeared in the Spy.44
Later in
the same year, Mr. Stubbs announced his
intention to
open a night school in Cincinnati on
the following Mon-
day night at six o'clock. Instruction
is to be offered in
any science or language that a youth
"is capable of, on
accommodating terms". Each Friday
evening is to be
appropriated to the study of Geography
and the use of
43 The Western Spy, May 28, 1800. The trustees are given in the
advertisement, viz.: Washington Berry,
Charles Morgan, John Grant,
Thomas Kennedy, Thomas Sanford, Thomas
Carneal, Richard Southgate,
Daniel Mayo, Robert Stubbs and Bernard
Stuart. They were to attend
to the regulations and management of the
Academy.
44 The Western Spy, August 14, 1802, (Vol. IV, No. 159').
Education in Territorial Ohio 345
the Globes. Mr. Stubbs also promises by
a simple piece
of machinery to "exhibit the
earth's diurnal and annual
revolutions; and of course the cause of
that pleasing
variety of the seasons of the year, and
why the days
increase by months within the limits of
the Polar Cir-
cles".46 He also
promises to exhibit upon the shortest
notice to any select party of ladies or
gentlemen who
may be curious enough to pry into such matters.
In
January, 1803, Mr. Stubbs is again
before the public
to let them know that his Academy in
Newport will re-
open the first of the following month.
He thinks it un-
necessary to say more than that
"he will not deceive
those who may honor him with the
tuition of their
sons". The notice adds that
boarding is cheap in "New-
Port".45
Mr. Stubbs seems to have taken
advantage of quality
advertising as well as announcement
advertising, for, in
the issue of The Spy for January
26, 1803, Matthew G.
Wallace, John S. Gano and five other
men attest to hav-
ing attended some exercises recently
given by the pupils
of Mr. Stubbs' Academy in Cincinnati.
These men at-
test that the several pupils present,
considering the time
they had been under Mr. Stubbs' care,
gave "proof of
growing proficiency in the English and
Latin lan-
guages -- and particularly in English
grammar, and
oratory and the mathematics",
proofs that were a credit
to themselves and an honor to their
instructor.46 Mr.
Stubbs does not seem to have conducted
a pay-before-
you-receive business, for later in 1803
he puts a notice
45 The Western Spy. Nov. 10, 1802. (No. 15 of Vol. IV and No.
171 of series). This advertisement has
the caption, "Science."
46 Very likely this was the school where
the use of the globes was to
be a regular Friday evening feature.
346 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
in the paper to thank those who have
paid the last year's
tuition and to warn those who have not,
that he will put
the law in force, since he has already
solicited them fre-
quently.47 Evidently there were some
salary difficul-
ties even before the time when the
teacher became a
servant of the public, and before the
time of the public
school system.
Matthew G. Wallace, whose name is also
frequently
attached to advertisements relating to
schools during
this period, seems also to have been a
Reverend, as was
Mr. Robert Stubbs. An early
advertisement of his is
headed "Education" and
appears in the issue of The Spy
for October 31, 1801, and in the three
following issues.
According to his advertisement, Mr.
Wallace proposed
to instruct a few boys in the Latin and
Greek languages
and if required, parts of literature
nearly connected with
them. He suggests that the school will
likely not open
before the first of December, as it
will take some time
to get suitable books. Mr. Wallace has
a "selling" para-
graph in his advertisement which runs
as follows:
It is presumed unnecessary here to
enumerate the many ad-
vantages naturally resulting from an
institution of this kind;
particularly in this new country and at
so early a period. It must
be acknowledged that the talents of
many youths among us are
now buried and neglected, which a
proper cultivation would ren-
der eminently useful. Besides, it is
education only which digni-
fies human nature, consolidates social
blessings, and prepares us
for our proper duty and happiness, the
glory and enjoyment of
God.
Mr. Wallace also states that he will
pay proper at-
tention to public speaking, as that is
a necessary orna-
ment of every man of letters. To
prevent after reflec-
47 The Western Spy, May 11 and 18, 1803.
48 The Western Spy, October 31,
1801.
Education in Territorial Ohio 347
tions he states that not more than six
boys will be re-
ceived for the present and that the
first applying will
be accepted.
Somewhat over a, year later Mr. Wallace
in an ad-
vertisement of some length, again
informs the citizens
in and near Cincinnati that he proposes
to open a school.
He proposes a somewhat wider curriculum
this time, for
besides the languages and the parts of
literature usually
included in a classical education, he
proposes to teach
reading, writing, the different
branches of the mathe-
matics, etc. A strict examination,
followed by public
speaking, is proposed for the end of
each quarter. His
advertisement implies that a building
had been provided
for the school by a group of interested
persons, for "the
proprietors of the school-house",
are urged to make
known the scholars they propose to send
for fear the
school might be over-crowded and thus
it would be in-
advisable to admit more. The subscriber
in his adver-
tisement presumes, "that all who
wish to see our new
state flourish, our citizens respected
and happy, will suf-
ficiently encourage an institution of
this kind."48 In
November of the same year, Mr. Wallace
informs the
proprietors and citizens in general
that another quarter
of his school has just commenced, and
that tuition will
be as formerly.49
In the previous July, Mr. Ezra Spenser
had availed
himself of the columns of The Spy to
announce that the
concurrence between himself and the
Rev. Matthew
Wallace would be discontinued. He
announces that he
will open a "regular English
school", when enough
48 The Western Spy, January 5, 1803, repeated in the issues of Janu-
ary 12 and 19. The school was to open on
Monday, the 10th of January.
49 The Western Spy, Oct. 19, 1803. Nov. 5, 1803.
348
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
scholars are obtained, in which he will
teach reading,
writing, arithmetic and English
Grammar. From the
use of the word "regular"
before English, in the phrase
regular English school, we are perhaps
justified in con-
cluding that Mr. Spenser was not
entirely pleased with
Mr. Wallace's languages and literature
that usually go
to make up a classical education or the
"dead lan-
guages" as they are called in one
of Mr. Stubbs' adver-
tisements. Likely Mr. Spenser was the
practical edu-
cator of his day.50
Neither did the schoolmaster escape the
"want-ad."
column in the early days. Robert Benham
advertises
for a schoolmaster capable of teaching
an English
school. Mr. Benham mentions no salary,
simply stating
that such a person will meet with good
encouragement
by applying at his place on Turtle
Creek, two miles
above Deerfield. A little over a year
later, Mr. Benham
has another advertisement in The
Spy, headed "A Good
Schoolmaster Wanted".51 It
indicates that he is wanted
at the new school-house on the
subscriber's farm in
Warren County. In the same issue of The
Spy, under
the caption "School", the
following also appeared: "A
Schoolmaster is much wanted at this
place; a person
qualified to teach an English school
will find employ-
ment. Apply to W. C. Schenck,
Franklin". It is inter-
esting to note, as illustrative of the
change of feeling of
the general public that has come about,
that Mr. Ben-
ham in his first "want-ad."
for a schoolmaster also an-
nounces that he has for sale four
stills of the following
capacities: 125, 107, 80, and 65 1/2
gallons, thirty mash
50 Ibid., July 6, 13, 20, 1803.
51 The Western. Spy, Aug. 17, 1803. The distance from Deerfield has
increased one-half mile above
that of the previous advertisement.
Education in Territorial Ohio 349
tubs and 12 singling kegs. Such economy
in advertis-
ing would hardly be approved at the
present time.
General articles on education are very
few in the
newspapers in which the above
advertisements were
found. The two or three, which are
found, are general,
and mostly quoted, and they do not
concern local edu-
cation directly. The following
quotation, requoted from
a periodical, will give the spirit and
suggest the content
of such articles.52
Delightful task! to rear the tender
thought,
To teach the young idea how to shoot,
To pour the fresh instruction o'er the
mind,
To breathe the enlivening spirit and to
fix
The generous purpose in the glowing
breast.
THOMSON.52 53
Nor were these all, for there is
evidence of schools
in early Cincinnati that were less
academic than the
foregoing. As early as 1801 Levi M'Lean
uses the col-
52 The Western Spy, Sept. 25, 1802. The quotation is quoted in the
article referred to. Aug. 14, 1802.
Column article. These articles are
signed "Senex."
53 It will be interesting to turn aside
for a moment to note a change
that came about in the make-up of
educational advertisements in the pioneer
newspapers that have been referred to
previously in this article. No doubt
a similar transition can be discovered
in the advertisements in general. In
the earlier paper, "The Centinel
of the Northwestern Territory," the adver-
tisements in regard to schools are
headed, "The Subscriber" or "The Sub-
scriber Begs"; thence reading on
into the body of the advertisement. (The
Centinel, Jan. 3, 1795 and Dec. 5, 1795.) The heading gave no
hint of the
nature of the notice, and this is quite
the usual way for the various adver-
tisements to start. No doubt this was
found quite satisfactory in the early
newspapers at a time when reading matter
was very scarce, for each sub-
scriber would read every word anyhow.
However, a little later the adver-
tisement in The Western Spy and
Hamilton Gazette, 1799 to 1804, show
that a change had taken place. The
heading now usually indicates the
nature of the notice. Here are some
headings of school advertisements of
this period: "Newport
Academy," "Education," "Wanted: a Schoolmaster,"
"School for Young Ladies,"
"Science," "Singing School." (The Western
Spy, May 28, 1800; Oct. 31, 1801; June 12, 1802; July 31,
1802; Nov. 10,
1802; Oct. 22, 1799.) The heading is no
longer a part of the first sentence.
A step forward has been made; the
purpose is to make the reader's task
more easy and to catch the eye of those
to whom the announcement might
be of special interest.
350 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
umns of the local paper to announce
singing schools for
"Ladies and Gentlemen". One
singing school is to be
held at Mr. Washburn's school and
another at the Court
Room at Mr. Avery's as soon as court is
over. The
rates are one dollar for thirteen
nights or two dollars
per quarter, the subscribers to furnish
their own wood
and candles. This was no doubt a
side-line or an avoca-
tion for the "singing
professor", for elsewhere it is re-
corded that Mr. M'Lean was a butcher by
trade. Nor
were these his only activities, for Mr.
Greve gives him
credit for making the first political
stump speech in Cin-
cinnati in connection with a campaign
for constable in
1802.54
Perhaps a somewhat more interesting and
unusual
non-academic school was the
"Dancing School" as pro-
claimed in "The Western
Spy" about two years before
this, (Nov. and Dec., 1799). Mr.
Houghton advertises
his dancing school with some gusto as
follows:
DANCING SCHOOL
The Subscriber having taught with great
reputation in dif-
ferent parts of Pennsylvania and
Virginia, last winter and spring,
and whose letters of introduction to
this place and Lexington,
are most respectable, begs leave to
inform the ladies and gentle-
men of Cincinnati and its vicinity, that
if honored with their
patronage, he intends opening a school
here as soon as sufficient
number (sixteen or more scholars) shall
subscribe. He teaches
particularly, the Minuet, Cotillion,
French and English Sets, in
all their various and ornamental
branches. Exclusive of which,
he teaches the most fashionable Country
Dances and City Cotil-
lion, taught in New York, Philadelphia,
and Baltimore. His
terms are three dollars entrance, and
five at the expiration of the
quarter.55
54 The
Western Spy, Oct. 31, 1801.
55 The Western Spy, Nov. 19, 1799, Dec. 3, 1799. Mr. Greve in re-
ferring to the incident in his Centennial
History surmises that Mr. Hough-
ton did not pay for his advertisement,
as a bitter tirade against dancing
Education in Territorial Ohio 351
Mr. Houghton adds some postscripts
which an-
nounce that he also teaches some
favorite Scotch Reels,
that the school will commence this
morning, Nov. 19,
1799, at ten o'clock, and further that
he will teach from
seven to nine o'clock in the evening
for the benefit of
gentlemen, whose occupations will not
permit them to
attend during the day. It is likely
that this was the
earliest school of this kind in the
state, for Cincinnati
was the most cosmopolitan of the early
settlements, hav-
ing colonists from widely different
sections of vary-
ing types. Such a school would hardly
have been looked
upon with favor at Marietta, a fairly
unified Puritani-
cal settlement.
In this early day it was rather
generally regarded
as unnecessary to educate girls in the
academic subjects
to the extent that boys were, while no
doubt, it was
rather desired that they should have
some knowledge
of the three R's. In this connection it
is interesting to
note that a "School for Young
Ladies" was advertised
by a Mrs. Williams, July 31, 1802, to
be held in a house
lately occupied by a saddler on
Sycamore Street. The
"Young Ladies" were to be
instructed in reading, writ-
ing, sewing, etc., at the rates of two
dollars and fifty
cents per quarter for reading, three
dollars and fifty
cents per quarter for reading, sewing
and writing.56
This school has been referred to as the
first school for
appears in The Western Spy a
little later on. This is rather hard to
determine as editorials were not used in
the papers of that day, and the
article could have been general as well
as editorial. Then some of the
more puritanical subscribers might have
buttonholed the editor.
56 The Western Spy, July
31, 1802, issue No. 157, (No. 1 of Vol. IV).
Aug. 14, 1802.
352 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
higher education of young women in the
Ohio valley.57
The curriculum proposed would hardly
justify the con-
clusion; but the school is advertised
for young ladies,
and the "sewing, etc."
represents the first department in
a school for young ladies in a day when
they were of-
fered a less academic and more
practical training, if
they were offered anything in school
outside of the bar-
est rudiments of an education. In this
sense Mrs. Wil-
liams was proposing a school for the
higher education
of women. As for co-education in the
college field that
comes later, at least much credit in
that field has been
claimed by sponsors of Oberlin, which
was established
in 1833. Mr. Mathews says that,
"Oberlin carried co-
education to a convincing success with
a rush", while
Mr. Cherry gives Oberlin credit for
being the first co-
educational college in the world.58 On
the other hand,
some "firsts" in this field
have been assigned, by Mr.
Gard, writing in the "Ohio
Archaeological and Histori-
cal Society Publications", to Robert Owen's communistic
colony on the Wabash. Pestalozzian
principles were
used in the schools of this colony, and
were introduced
there soon after the colony was founded
in 1826. Mr.
Gard says, "The New Harmony
schools were the first
public schools in the United States to
offer the same
advantages to girls as to boys."59
The doctrine of equal
57 Ohio Archaeological and Historical
Society Publications. (Pub.
for the Society at Columbus, Ohio, 'by
Fred J. Heer) Vol. 25. The Higher
Education of Women in the Ohio Valley
Previous to 1840, by Jane
Sherzer,
Vol. 25, p. 2.
58 Alfred Mathews, Ohio and Her
Western Reserve, pp. 196-200;
(With a Story of Three States, D.
Appleton & Co., 1802.)
P. P. Cherry--The Western Reserve and
Early Ohio (Pub. by R. L.
Fouse, Firestone Park, Akron, Ohio,
1921.) p. 106.
59 Ohio Archaeological and Historical
Society Publications -- Vol. 25,
p. 32. European Influence on Early
Western Education. Willis L. Gard,
also quoting Lockwood on "New
Harmony Movement."
Education in Territorial Ohio 353
educational opportunities regardless of
sex is given as
a principle of Mr. Owen's system.60
While the settlements in the
southeastern and south-
western parts of Ohio were earlier,
there were other
settlements sufficiently long before
statehood to make a
survey of school beginnings in them
desirable. One of
these was the south central region or
Virginia Military
District and another of course the
Western Reserve in
Northern Ohio.
The first settlement in the Virginia
Military lands
and sometimes referred to as the third
in the state, was
made at Manchester, (Adams County), in
1790 or 1791,
by Colonel Nathaniel Massie and his
followers. This
man and associates accounted for many
surveys and set-
tlements in this section of the state.
This early settle-
ment at Manchester had its first
school-house in 1796,
(some say in 1794), with Israel
Donalson as teacher
for several terms. One of the first
female teachers in
this section was Mrs. Dodson, an Englishwoman,
who
taught in Liberty Township on Zane's
Trace about
1803.61 Other early
schools appeared at settlements
along this early and noted trail as
well as elsewhere in
this district. A school is reported in
Brown County in
60 It may not be out of place to observe
that a little more than a
quarter of a century after 1803, Mrs.
Trollope found many schools in
Cincinnati and "perceived, with
some surprise, that the higher branches
of science were among the studies of the
pretty creatures" in one of these
schools at least. She observed one
"lovely girl of sixteen," who "took her
degree" in mathematics, while
another was examined in moral philoso-
phy. By this time at least a higher academic
education was provided for
women. However, Mrs. Trollope thought
that it might have been difficult
for a far better judge than she to
determine to what extent young ladies,
who "blushed so sweetly, and looked
so beautifully puzzled and con-
founded," merited the diplomas they
received. Mrs. Trollope, Domestic
Manners of the Americans. London, New York, (Reprint) 1832, p. 81, or
Vol. I, pp. 114-115.
61 Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers -- A History
of Adams
County, West Union, 1900. Passim.
Vol. XXXV -- 23.
(354) |
Education in Territorial Ohio 355
1800 and another about 1802, while
Highland County
had early schools at scattered centers
at dates estimated
at 1802 and 1803. Early settlements in
these counties
range from 1796 to later dates.62
Ross County, which furnished
Chillicothe as one of
the territorial seats of government and
later as the
first state capital, had numerous
settlements between
1795 and 1800. A school was kept here
in the last of
the 1700's by a very good schoolmaster
of Irish extrac-
tion. One or two others are reported in
the county be-
fore 1803. In laying out Portsmouth,
Massie dedicated
lots 130 and 143 to school purposes, a
practice, by the way,
that was quite common in surveying and
platting early
town sites. These lots in Portsmouth
were later used
for school purposes, but the only
school the writer has
found recorded for Scioto County before
Statehood was
one at or near Alexandria, said to have
been as early as
1800. Pickaway and Franklin Counties
were settled
in different localities between 1796
and 1798, but seem
not to have had schools till 1803 or 4
or later. In fact,
dates for early schools in the Virginia
Military District
are more often given around 1808 to
1810 to 1812, and
particularly from 1815-1818.63
In the Western Reserve in northern and
north-east-
ern Ohio, we again find settlers of the
New England
stock predominating. French traders and
missionaries
and others had earlier frequented the
region, but do not
62 Chief references are the County
Histories. See Bibliography.
Evans and Stivers. Adams County, under
Manchester, Liberty Twp., etc.;
Brown County, pp. 1, 463, etc.; Franklin County, pp. 261, 419,
and under
Townships.
63 Chief references are the County Histories.
See Bibliography.
History of Ross County, p. 189, Townships; Franklin County, pp. 361,
419;
Highland County, Madison, White Oak, and Marshall Twps.
356
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
seem to have left anything in the way
of schools. And
indeed, there were few schools in this
section of the
state before 1803. The greater number
of authorities
give 1802 as a date for the beginning
of schools in the
environs of Cleveland and perhaps of
the Western Re-
serve. However, there is inexact
reference to a school-
house being built on the road, near
Kingsbury's and
taught by Miss Sarah Doan, daughter of Nathaniel
Doan, as early as 1800. One of the
schools of 1802 was
conducted for the benefit of about a
dozen in the "front
room" of Major Carter's by Miss
Anna Spafford. The
curriculum provided merely the simplest
form of book
knowledge. Another school of the same
year was that
at Harpersfield by Abraham Tappan. With
schools be-
ginning about 1802, naturally rather
little was accom-
plished in this region of the state
until after statehood.
As settlers became more numerous and
settlements suf-
ficiently compact, (and that was
separation by miles in
many cases,) this section of the state
took an active in-
terest in things scholastic. The
western part of the
Western Reserve, known as the
Firelands, had its edu-
cational beginnings in the next period
of development.64
The beginnings of education in the
section of Ohio
heretofore surveyed are no doubt much
more than rep-
resentative. Of course there were a few
other begin-
nings in adjoining or outlying
settlements. The settlers
of the Ohio Company who had gone to
settle about the
64 James Harrison Kennedy -- A History
of the City of Cleveland,
Its Settlement, Rise and Progress,
1796-1896. Cleveland MDCCCXCVI,
pp. 112, 114; Elroy McKendree Avery, A
History of Cleveland and Its
Environs, The Heart of New
Connecticut, in 3 vols. Chicago and
New
York, 1918, Vol. I, p. 47, p. 341; Jesse
Cohen, "Early Education in Ohio"
in Milgazine of Western Hist., Vol. III (1885-6) Cleveland, pp. 217-223;
Harvey Rice, Pioneers of the Western
Reserve. Lee & Shepard, Boston,
1883, pp. 68-9.
Education in Territorial Ohio 357
two college townships in Athens County
had established
one or two schools before 1803; and by
1800 Benjamin
Van Cleve had started the educational
history of Day-
ton in a blockhouse made of round logs,
which stood on
the present site of the soldiers'
monument. He thus
records the event in his journal:
"On the 1st of Sep-
tember I commenced teaching a small
school. I had
reserved time to gather my corn, and
kept school until
the last of October".65 Then there
were a few schools
elsewhere, such as in Jefferson County,
which in early
days took in a number of counties in
the eastern part of
Ohio. A log school-house was built in
what was later
Belmont County, as early as 1799, which
pupils attended
from considerable distances and
sometimes at consider-
able risks. Another school was started
near St. Clairs-
ville in 1802. A large number of the
settlers in this sec-
tion of the state were from
Pennsylvania and Virginia,
and according to a local historian much
interested in
educational affairs and schools.66
Some general observations on the
beginnings of
schools in the various sections of the
state will help to
account for the conditions found there.
Some compara-
tive statements and conclusions will indicate
how educa-
tion reflects the settler and his
interests. So we shall
summarize the actual school conditions
by beginning
with the last regions treated and
ending with the Ma-
rietta and Cincinnati districts. Then
we shall turn to a
brief consideration of early
schoolmasters, school-
houses and equipment.
65 Robert W. and Mary Davies Steele, Early
Dayton, 1796-1896.
U. B. Publishing House, Dayton, Ohio,
189,6, p. 34.
66 W. H. Hunter, The Pathfinders of
Jefferson County, in Ohio
Archaeological and Historical Society
Publications, Vol. 6, pp. 246, 247,
passim; C. M. Walker, History of Athens County, Ohio. 1869,
p. 219.
358 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications The comparatively few schools in the Western Re- serve were due to the late settlement, rather near 1803 and to scattered settlements rather than to the type of settlers; for the settlers in this section were rather uni- fied as to type and mostly New Englanders. On the other hand, there were numerous settlements in the Vir- |
|
ginia Military District before 1800 and yet the schools were scattered and very few before statehood. This was partly due to the varied type of settlers who came from the South, or by way of the South, from Pennsyl- vania, from Virginia, from the Carolinas and some from other sections, such as New England. It was also due to the fact that the settlements were somewhat more scattered and less populous than in the Cincinnati or Marietta Districts. In the Marietta district, schools |
Education in Territorial Ohio 359
were contemporaneous with the
settlements, while in the
Virginia district, usually a few years,
and more often
ten to fifteen, elapsed, between
settlement and schools,
according to prevailing dates. The fact
that many of
the settlers of the Virginia Military
lands were from
the South and various sections of the
frontier also con-
tributed to this end. Book-learning and
scholastic at-
tainments were not the first ends when
economic neces-
sity demanded that lands be cleared and
crops produced;
and when an accurate eye, a steady
nerve and an iron
muscle might add meat to a scanty food
supply or pro-
tect life itself from hostile Indians.
So people from the
frontier or of southern origin where
schools were
usually private, or by private tutor on
a plantation, were
less likely to begin or support schools
than were people
who had been accustomed to do so.67
Further, it is well to note that as
Indian dangers
were removed in Ohio there was more of
a tendency for
settlers to scatter and hence there
might not be a suffi-
cient number in a vicinity to start a
school, even though
older children were often sent several
miles to attend
one.
It is to be regretted, but hardly to be
wondered at,
that we have so few intimate details of
the schools of
that day. For the schools of 1803 and
even much later
were not public schools as we use the
term today, and
such records as were kept were due to
individual ini-
tiative and not to any public
requirements. No doubt
many early schools have gone totally
unrecorded. How-
67 At one place in Franklin County settled in 1803, a
school was
started in 1804 where a school house had
been built on South College lot.
It is recorded the settlers here were
from New England. A History of
Franklin and Pickaway Counties. Williams Bros. 1880, p. 419.
360
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
ever those that have been told about
above, are no doubt
typical of educational ideas in the two
centers now to be
considered and also sufficient for some
comparisons and
contrasts.
The schools about Marietta were
practically contem-
poraneous with the settlement of the
colony. They were
for the general public, for the
children of the com-
munity. While they were financially
supported for the
most part by those who patronized them,
one judges
from the records about them that those
who had children
sent them. They were an expected and
accepted institu-
tion of the community. The historian
having recorded
that they were started, seems to take
schools as a matter
of course. These schools, so far as
records reveal, were
of an elementary type, giving
instructions chiefly in the
fundamentals. This is to be explained
by the fact that
the settlers were New Englanders and
that New Eng-
landers of that day believed in education.
Practically
all the settlers about early Marietta
being from New
England, there was no disagreement
about the matter.
It has already been noted that the
Company took steps
before they left the East to secure a
suitable teacher to
bring with them. The fact that money
was appropriated
from the funds of the Ohio Company for
secular and
religious education is proof of the
general educational
attitude.68
The teachers for the most part were
scholarly men, one
or two being college graduates, others
being referred
to as men of fine intellectual
attainments.
While the Reily school at Columbia in
the Cincinnati
region followed immediately after
settlement, the rec-
68 Above, pages 6, 7.
Education in Territorial Ohio 361
ords hardly indicate that such was the
usual practice in
the region, or at least the general
practice. Our infor-
mation concerning the early schools
about Cincinnati
comes frequently from the newspaper or
from the recol-
lections of some one who once attended
the school. The
exact detail is frequently lacking. The
schools here
were more frequently the regular
subscription schools,
where the teacher circulated a petition
until enough
scholars had subscribed at a definite
rate to make it
worth his while to teach a school term.
It has not been
recorded that there was a
contemporaneous move on the
part of the early settlers to have
their children educated.
Most of the schools announced in the
early paper, with
the exception of Mr. Spenser's
"regular English school,"
were more or less special schools. The
school was to em-
phasize mathematics, or the classic
languages, or French,
or the training of young ladies. These
facts no doubt re-
flect a population that was mixed; a
population that had
aristocratic elements in it; a
population made up of
people from the East and New England,
from the South,
and even from the West, who lately came
north from
Kentucky and Tennessee. It may be
judged from the
curricula offered that the teachers of
these special
schools were men of some scholastic
attainments; two
of them are referred to as Reverend.
However, prac-
tically nothing is said about the
scholastic attainments
of the teachers of the schools where
merely the funda-
mentals were taught. These special
schools were the
forerunners of the academies and
private schools that
became so common in the period
following the one under
discussion. And such schools were
common in the
362
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
Southern and Western counties and less
common in the
districts where New Englanders had
settled.69
The building in which the early school
was kept, was
frequently not one built entirely for
the purpose. More
often in the very early settlements it
was the block-
house, sometimes it was the house of
the schoolmaster,
or it was a room over a place of
business, or perhaps an
abandoned cabin.70 The earliest
buildings intended for
school-houses were of round logs and
later of hewn
ones. They were about 18 by 24 feet or
sometimes 20
feet square, with the eaves eight or
ten feet high.71 The
cracks were chinked with wood and clay;
the roof was
made of clapboards held on by cross
poles. Light was
admitted by leaving out a log or by
cutting a section of
one or more logs out, putting in a rude
frame and closing
the opening with greased paper. The
door was of rough
boards swung on wooden hinges and
fastened by a
wooden, later an iron, strip or latch,
lifted by the latch-
string. Tardy pupils, who found no
latch-string, knew
that the master was at prayers and
remained in the ele-
ments until the latch-string
reappeared. Heat was sup-
plied by the huge fireplace, which
might take up most
or all of one side of the building, the
backlog and fore-
stick did not have to be in minor
lengths. The chimney
was lined with mud and it and the
fireplace might be
made of stone. The floors were
sometimes the natural
earth but more often of puncheon, or
the floor near the
69 Robert
E. Chaddock, A. M. Ohio Before 1850, p. 145. (A study
in the early influence of Pennsylvania
and Southern Populations in Ohio.
Columbia University, 1908).
70 W. H. Venable, Beginnings of
Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley
-- Historical and Biographical Sketches
(Robert Clarke and Co., Cincin-
nati, 1891), p. 187.
71 Ohio Archaeological and Historical
Society Publications, Vol. 25,
p. 45.
Education in Territorial Ohio 363
fireplace of earth and the part at some
distance of punch-
eon. It is recorded that a large stump
was inclosed in
an early school-house at Zanesville and
served very well
for a dunce block. This building must
not have been
particularly tight, for the story is
told that a Mr. Sam-
uel Herrick, who taught in it in 1805,
was frustrated in
his attempt to punish a boy, by the
urchin escaping thru
a hole under the lower log into the
friendly woods.72
The furniture of the early school-house
was as crude
as the building. Jeremiah N. Reynolds
says in part of
an early school that he attended:
"The seats or benches
were of hewn timber, resting on upright
posts placed in
the ground to keep them from being
overturned by mis-
chievous lads who sat on them. In the
center was a
large stove, between which and the back
part of the
building stood a small desk without
lock or key, made of
rough planks over which a plane had
never passed, and
behind this desk sat Professor Glass
when I entered the
school. There might have been forty
scholars present,
twenty-five of these were engaged in
spelling, reading
and writing; a few in arithmetic; a
small class in Eng-
lish grammar and a half dozen, like
myself, had joined
the school for instruction in Greek and
Latin".73 The
benches were frequently so high that
the feet, especially
of the younger children, did not annoy
by their owner
scraping them on the floor. The
earliest schools usually
had no desks and the few books that
were possessed
were placed beside the student on the
bench. These
benches were split logs on pegs and are
said to have been
sometimes of such nature that it was
unnecessary for
72 W. H. Venable, Beginnings of
Literary Culture, p. 190.
73 W. H. Venable, Beginnings of
Literary Culture, p. 189.
364
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
the mischievous boy to resort to a bent
pin. Some of
the Western Reserve boys are said to
have lined the
seats of their pantaloons with buckskin
as a protection,
both against the seat and the ferule.74
For writing purposes a broad board was
frequently
placed on pegs stuck in holes in the
wall. At ordinary
lessons the pupils usually faced toward
the center or
front of the room but when writing they
faced the wall
and it is said to have required
considerable skill to ne-
gotiate gracefully the turn over the
long bench when
the command came: "Face the
Wall!" The pen was of a
goose quill made and kept in condition
by the keen edge
of the master's knife. The ink was made
of "oak-bark
ooze and copperas" or of some
other home preparation.
Copies were all set by the teacher and
the pupil had to
rule his own paper with a plummet made
of lead. Of
course the building and furniture soon
began to im-
prove, especially in the more populous
centers. Judge
Burnet mentions an unfinished frame
school building in
Cincinnati when he came to that town in
1795. Such
buildings became more numerous after
1803, altho log
buildings long remained in use. A brick
school building
was erected in Lebanon in 1805, and may
have been the
first school structure of the kind in
the state.75
Most of the early log school-houses
were built by
the cooperative effort of those
interested and not by
contract and for pay. It is recorded
that the efforts of
a single day have sufficed to erect
such a structure. On
the day appointed, the entire man force
of the com-
munity assembled early at the
designated spot and either
74 P. P. Cherry, The
Western Reserve and Early Ohio, p. 101.
75 Ohio Archaeological and Historical
Society Publications, Vol. 25,
p. 47.
Education in Territorial Ohio 365
assuming or being assigned to tasks in
which they were
skilled, proceeded with the work. Some
felled the trees
and cut the logs to the desired
lengths, while others with
teams would drag them to the spot where
the building
was to be erected. There skillful
ax-men would notch
them at each end, and if it was to be
the more elaborate
hewn log building, others would hew to
a flat surface
opposite faces of the log. In the meantime
others would
select a desirable straight-grained
tree, fell it, cut it in
blocks and split clapboards to cover
the roof. When the
building had reached sufficient height
and the gables had
been completed, the clapboards would be
put in place on
poles for rafters and sheeting, and
usually would be
held in place by cross poles on top of
each row of roof-
ing. If the man force were sufficient,
such crude fur-
niture as was essential would be ready
by the time the
building was finished.
Books, the most essential furnishings
of the school,
were sometimes as scanty as the
furniture. Under such
conditions almanacs sometimes served as
readers; al-
most anything might take the place of
pencil and paper
or slate. The Bible or Testament was a
favorite reader,
and in one instance at least a paddle
with the alphabet
on one side and some multiplication
tables on the other
served as a chart to be passed from
hand to hand and
on occasion was plied in its more usual
capacity when
intellectual stimulus was needed.76
While it is not pos-
sible to say what books were used
before 1803 and which
ones later on, it may be worth while to
give the names
of some of the most frequently
mentioned early texts.
They are: American Preceptor, Columbian
Orator, or
76 Kennedy, History of Cleveland, p.
114.
366 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
any available book as a reader, a
Dillworth or Webster
Speller and Pike's Arithmetic. Others
mentioned are
Daboll's and Adams' Arithmetic,
Murray's Reader,
Murray's Grammar. Books on other
subjects came in
a little later.77
The hardships incident to attending
these early
schools were not few and were not
confined to lack of
equipment. The lighting was frequently
poor, coming
through a greased paper window; cold
sometimes made
it necessary to assemble about the huge
fireplace -- and
even on occasion to dismiss the school.
Distances to be
traveled were frequently expressed in
miles and were
over forest trails where dangers from
Indians and wild
animals were not entirely absent. One
tot of the West-
ern Reserve tumbled from a log into a
swollen stream
but after being rescued by the heroic
efforts of an older
brother, continued on the way to
school, as though noth-
ing unusual had happened.78 These
difficulties tended
to make the summer term of school desirable
for the
smaller children. No doubt they
discouraged many in
their endeavors in frontier communities
where the ques-
tion, "What good will it do me in
life?" must have been
more difficult for the early pedagogue
to answer than
for his twentieth century successor.
Lincoln, in his boyhood experiences in
Perry County,
Indiana, was aware of the situation, as
he later "rem-
inisces": "It was a wild
region with many bears and
other wild animals still in the woods.
There were some
schools, so-called, but no
qualification was ever required
77 Ibid., p. 114;
Venable, Beginnings of Literary Culture in the Ohio
Valley pp. 192, 193; Cohen, Early Education in Ohio (Mag.
of West.
Hist. Vol. III, p. 221).
78 Cherry, The Western Reserve
and Early Ohio, p. 101.
Education in Territorial Ohio 367
of a teacher beyond 'readin', writin'
and cipherin' to the
Rule of Three.' If a straggler,
supposed to understand
Latin, happened to sojourn in the
neighborhood, he was
looked upon as a wizard. There was
absolutely nothing
to excite ambition for
education."79 Yet a Lincoln be-
came educated as did many others, some
in and some
outside of these schools.
It was long before the day of
compulsory attendance
laws, yet truancy was already on the
school police
docket, for the call of the wild or the
"old swimmin'"
hole sometimes prevailed. Parents
desired that their
children should receive the instruction
for which they
paid, so they and the master, or
child-herd as the Anglo-
Saxon has it, conspired to prevent or
punish straying
from the prescribed pasture. As in
later days, telltale
disaster sometimes overtook those who
strayed, and one
boy from the county of our first state
capital came near
drowning, whereupon one of his companions,
conquer-
ing a desire to flee, effected a rescue
with a grapevine
and the aid of some other boys who
returned to the
scene. He then revived his companion.80
Corporal punishment, being unrestricted
so far as
law or official regulations were
concerned, was the usual
punishment, and one or more hickory or
other gads were
frequently kept at hand. Sometimes they were mys-
teriously weakened by almost
indiscernible rings that
may have been produced by the keen edge
of a knife.
However, standing in the corner, the
dunce block and
other forms of discipline were also
used. In some cases,
79 Venable,
Beginnings of Literary Culture, p. 189, quoting Lincoln.
80 History of Ross and Highland Counties, Cleveland, 1880, p. 189.
Perhaps this may be regarded as an early
case of accidental vocational
guidance as it is recorded that the
rescuer later became a doctor.
368
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
an unjustifiable method was used as in
the case of an
early teacher in Franklin County, who
was said to have
been of Irish descent, to have had very
good educational
attainments but to have possessed an
"inordinate ap-
petite for whiskey". On occasion
he would require the
offender to place his hand palm
downward on a desk
then he would inflict deep gashes
across the fingers with
the keen blade of the knife. He was
later kicked from
the "temple of learning" by
the irate parents.81 Another
early schoolmaster tried to secure work
by coaxing and
flattery; failing in this, he had a
rather unique method
in reserve. He would pace slowly about
the room rub-
bing his chin with his thumb and
forefinger and repeat-
ing in an ever louder key the word
"Study". The Fire-
lands "reminiscer" tells us
that by the time he had
reached the climax, all would be
studying except those
who were too scared to work, and that
altho he had a
rod he rarely used it.82 From the same
region of the
state comes the story of the
schoolmaster, who, since
leather was very scarce, tapped his
shoes with wood
"which made the scholars dread his
kick" and the would-
be poet to remark:
Some have been beaten till they knew
What wood a cudgel's of, by the blow,
Some kicked until they can feel whether
A shoe be Spanish or neat's leather.83
In days when school methods did not
provide many
educational play activities the
spelling-match was con-
sidered a regular treat by many and the
spelling-bee held
81 History of Franklin and Pickaway
Counties, 1880, p. 365.
82 Dr. X. Phillips, Memoirs of Berlin
Township, in The Firelands
Pioneer, Old Ser., Vol. III, June, 1862, pp. 21-22.
83 Benjamin Benson, "Memoirs of Clarksfield Township" in The
Fire-
lands Pioneer, Old. Ser., Vol. 1, Nov. 1858, p. 22.
Education in Territorial Ohio 369
in the evening would frequently attract
visitors for
miles. The Christmas season also
provided a chance
for a divergence from regular routine,
although it does
not seem to have been the early custom
to dismiss in
order to observe a holiday. School was
taught on New
Years' and Christmas Day. Tuition was
paid for so
many weeks, and parents desired the
teacher to work
for his pay. However, the pupils quite
early found
means of causing some recognition of
the good St. Nick.
Perhaps a specific instance or so will
best illustrate the
operation of this rather famous
lock-out procedure.
Sometimes the master triumphed. Such
was the case
with Henry Bartlett who taught near
Athens from 1802
to 1806. He had been barred out by the
boys, but was
able to procure a roll of brimstone,
which he dropped
down the chimney and then covered the
same. Soon
admittance to the building was to be
had and an uncon-
ditional surrender obtained from the
coughing inmates
who were seeking the air.84
The following incident shows different
results and
a more organized procedure. On the
evening of the
23rd of December, this note was
delivered to the
teacher:
Mr. John Robinson (Teacher) --
Sir: -- We, the undersigned committee,
in behalf of the
unanimous voice of the scholars of your
school, demand that you
treat, according to custom, to the
following articles in amount
herein named, to wit:
200
ginger cakes,
2 bushels
of hickory nuts,
1 peck hazel nuts,
10 pounds candy,
10 pounds raisins,
84 C. M. Walker, History of Athens
County, Ohio, 1869, p. 219.
Vol. XXXV -- 24.
370 Ohio
Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
delivered at the
school-house, noon hour, December 25, for the
enjoyment and pleasant
remembrance of this school. If this
meets your approbation
you will please sign and return the pa-
per to John Kelley
tomorrow, December 24, at noon, saying, over
your signature,
"I agree to the above."
JOHN KELLEY,
JAMES BROWN,
WILLIAM SMALLWOOD, Committee.85
Sometimes the teacher
would give in at once; at other
times he would refuse,
hoping to save the treat or in a
spirit of fun. In this
case Mr. Robinson glanced at the
bill of fare and tore
it to bits. There was a fall of snow
during the night;
nevertheless, the older boys were in
the school-house
before daylight with a roaring fire,
plenty of wood, and
the opening barricaded. Other
scholars were admitted
as they arrived but not so the
teacher when he
appeared on the scene. After a time,
no doubt having
decided that no admittance was to be
had, Mr. Robinson
apparently set out for his boarding
place, perhaps with
too much of an air of assurance.
Whereupon the boys set
out in pursuit and finally won
out in an endurance
race of some two or three miles in
the snow. The teacher,
overpowered by numbers, sub-
mitted to being tied
between two timbers. The boys then
covered the victim
high with snow, merely leaving a
speaking and breathing
opening. Satisfactory negotia-
tions were soon
concluded through this tube, and sealed
by the teacher's word
of honor, whereupon all returned
to the school-house,
spelled for head and were dismissed.
The next day at noon a
cart-load of good things arrived.
Parents, scholars and
teacher had a feast, a social time,
a spelling-match and
then went home. 86
85 Jones, The Squirrel Hunters of Ohio, 1898,
p. 61.
86 Jones, The Squirrel Hunters of Ohio, pp.
62, 63.
Education in Territorial Ohio 371
It has been said even in modern times
with splendid
buildings and equipment, that the
teaching corps makes
about eight-five percent of the
efficiency of a school sys-
tem. If this be approximately true it
was perhaps
equally true in the days of the log
school-house and no
school system. So it might be well in
conclusion to make
a few observations in regard to the
"child-herd", the
early schoolmaster. His school was
usually the sub-
scription school in which he might have
bound himself
to teach a quarter of thirteen weeks,
six days a week,
eight hours a day at from one to three
dollars per
scholar, sometimes payable in part in
"wheat at the mar-
ket price"; one-half at the
beginning and the other half
at the close of the quarter. An
additional compensation
was frequently secured in
boarding-round, a practice
that had advantages and disadvantages
for both teacher
and various hosts.87
As to his qualifications, the early
teacher was usually
worthy of his hire. Some indication of
the attainments
of the teachers has been given from
time to time. The
general excellence of the early
pedagogue has scarcely
been questioned in the Marietta
district and in Con-
necticut Reserve. However, there have
been some
questions raised and some aspersions
cast on the Irish
schoolmaster and the early schoolmaster
in general in
southwestern Ohio. It has been asserted
frequently,
that the early schoolmaster of this
section of the state
was chosen more because he was unfit
for manual labor
than because he was well prepared
intellectually; that
"the few schools in that section
were taught by crippled
87 Cohen, Early Education in Ohio
(Mag. of West. Hist., Vol. III,
p. 221); Kennedy, History of
Cleveland, p. 114.
372
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
men and women physically or
constitutionally unable to
pull hemp or spin flax"; that the
teacher was a sort of
pensioner on the bounty of the
community.88
There may have been some grounds for
the accusa-
tion, for there are such examples as
that of Jack Petti-
john, son of Amos, who taught near
Sardinia, Brown
County, about 1800, in a shed open at
one end. He was
so badly crippled that it was difficult
for him to use the
rod and he was called "lame
Jack".89 However, defi-
nitely recorded instances like this
seem to be very few.
The recorded instances of early
schoolmasters, particu-
larly those of Irish extraction, who
imbibed too freely
of the liquid cheer of the day, are
rather numerous. Yet
one must remember that within due
bounds the use of
such cheer in those days was not
seriously condemned
in any one. Sometimes their educational
worth was at-
tested to, while their failing in
over-drinking was con-
demned. On the other hand, a chronicler
of early events
in eastern Ohio, noticing the fact that
the Irish school-
master was abroad in the land, asserts
that he was a
worthy man of letters, held only second
in esteem to the
minister.90 On the whole, the writer is
inclined to feel
that the constitutional unfitness of
teachers has been
over-emphasized. Some of the New
England Harvard
graduates could both clear land and
teach school. May
it not be that the kind of teacher
reflects more the type
of teacher available and the attitude
of the settlers to-
ward education than a disinclination to
spin flax or clear
88 Jesse Cohen, Early Education in
Ohio, (Mag. of West. Hist.),
Vol. III, p. 220; Venable, Beginnings
of Literary Culture, p. 191.
89 A History of
Brown County, Ohio. Chicago, 1883, p. 1.
90 W. H. Hunter, The Pathfinders of
Jefferson County in Ohio
Archaeological and Historical Society
Publications, Vol. 6, pp. 246, 249,
107.
Education in Territorial Ohio 373
land? And even any apparent neglect of
schools on
the part of the settlers in the
southern, southwestern
or central parts of the state may have
been putting first
things first as they saw them.91
Under such a schoolmaster, in a
school-house but
lately growing; leaving home sometimes
at daybreak to
traverse a trail flanked by the
towering oak, the spread-
ing beech, the stately maple and the
graceful elm, some
of the makers of American history started
their educa-
tion and their leadership, caught
visions of Western
Expansion and Democracy. Precedents
were estab-
lished and trails were blazed in school
pioneering in
Ohio, many of which led on to the
mid-west, jumped to
the Pacific and doubled back to the
interior again. Now,
that frontier is gone; section sixteen
is or will be state
school funds as it is in Ohio, where
the shrinkage was
great in the transfer. The log
school-house is gone,
and the little red school-house is
going; a turbulent fron-
tier Jacksonian Democracy is gone, a
new democracy
may take its place but it is sure to
lack some of the ele-
ments of that democracy of the first
half of the last cen-
tury. The schoolmaster has changed no
less. What
will the next century bring forth?
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c. Graded Schools --
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d. High Schools and
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e. Higher Education --
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f. Normal Schools -- Delia A. Lathrop.
g. Teachers' Institutes -- Thos. W. Harvey.
h. School Supervision -- John Hancock.
i. Teachers' Associations--E. E. White.
j. Penal, Reformatory,
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k. Biographical Sketches and Educational
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b. Vol. 25, Pioneer Schools and
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L. Martzolff. (Reasons for
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30. Rice, Harvey, Pioneers
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Education in Territorial Ohio 379 34. Studer, Jacob H. Columbus, Ohio: Its History, Re- sources and Progress. Columbus, 1873. 35. Venable, W. H., LL. D. Beginnings of Literary Cul- ture in the Ohio Valley. Historical and biographical sketches, Cincinnati, 1891. 36. Venable, W. H., LL. D. Footprints of the Pioneers in the Ohio Valley. Cincinnati, Ohio, 1888. Valley Press. Cincinnati Univ. Library. (Better on life, travel, etc., than on education.) 37. Western Reserve Historical Society. Cleveland, Ohio. Vol. IV, Tracts 85-91, Tract 86 -- Farm Life in Cen- tral Ohio Sixty Years Ago -- Martin Welker. D. County Histories. Some of the County Histories Consulted. 1. Brown County, A History of, Chicago, W. H. Beers & Co., 1883. 2 Evans, Nelson W. and Stivers, Emmons B. A History of Adams County, West Union, 1900. 3. Evans, Nelson W. A History of Scioto County, Ports- mouth, 1903. 4. Franklin and Pickaway Counties, A History of, Wil- liams Bros., 1880. 5. Highland County -- See Ross County. 6. Pickaway County -- See Franklin. 7. Ross and Highland Counties, History of, Williams Bros., Cleveland, 1880. 8. Taylor, William A. Centennial History of Columbus and Franklin County, two volumes, 1909. Vol. I. 9. Walker, C. M. History of Athens County, Ohio. Athens, 1869. |
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