THE ORIGIN OF PUBLIC EDUCATION IN OHIO
BY WILLIAM MC ALPINE, M. A.
A certain very excellent history of
education says
that in Ohio public education was a
victory of the New
England element over the other parts of
Ohio's popula-
tion. In the same work, there are
certain maps taken
from Mathews' Expansion of New
England. Certain
parts of the state where the New
England population is
supposed to have predominated are
marked white. The
remainder is black. The unescapable
fact that Samuel
Galloway came from another stock is
explained by stat-
ing that he was in contact with New
England people at
Miami University. Cincinnati is also
marked as a
Yankee center. It is not my purpose to
detract from the
contributions of the sons of New
England to Ohio's cul-
tural growth. They did nobly. Nor am I
influenced by
any emotional bias in my researches
upon this subject.
While my name is Scottish, I am very
nearly three-
quarters Yankee by descent and possess
the mental and
physical characteristics of my
Massachusetts fore-bears.
Until about two years ago, I firmly
believed the com-
monly accepted theory of Ohio's
educational genesis.
But the evidence does not exist that
any one group ob-
tained an early option on schools in
Ohio. True, a good
case can be made for the Yankee if we
tell all he has
done and name the persons of Yankee
descent who bat-
tled for schools in Ohio, and totally
ignore the others,
This seems to have been done. Much is
said about At-
(409)
410
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
water, Guilford, Lewis, Stowe and Rice,
but why should
Ray, Barney, McGuffey, Hoge, Van Hook,
Olds, Lord,
Cary, Kemper, Picket, Dunlevy, Talbot,
Morrow, Trim-
ble, Worthington and a host of others
who did equally
well, be neglected?
The origin of the opinion that Ohio
owes its educa-
tional system to New England effort
seems to lie in the
following facts:
1. Massachusetts and Connecticut had
district
school systems earlier than the other
states. The earliest
settlers of Ohio were Massachusetts
people at Marietta.
In its bargain with the government, the
Ohio Company
induced the United States to reserve
Section 16 for
schools and to appropriate two
townships for a uni-
versity.
2. Nathan Guilford was the chairman of
the com-
mittee on schools of the Senate, when
the first manda-
tory act was passed, making a tax of
one-half a mill ob-
ligatory and setting up a school system
in 1825.
3. Caleb Atwater was chairman of the
committee
on schools and school lands in the
Senate in 1821-1822,
and offered the resolution which led to
his appointment
as chairman of the commissioners of
schools by Gover-
nor Trimble. Atwater performed a great
labor in the
interest of education and gave a
powerful impetus,
which led to the act of 1825.
4. Samuel Lewis, the first
superintendent of com-
mon schools, was a native of
Massachusetts and his ser-
vices cannot be over-estimated.
5. Calvin Stowe, also a New Englander,
made a
report on Prussian education which had
an enormous in-
fluence on Ohio and the entire United
States.
The Origin of Public Education in Ohio 411 6. Harvey Rice, who was chairman of the Senate committee on schools, did most of the work in drafting the Act of 1853 which placed the schools of Ohio at the forefront of the nation. |
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7. The "Akron Act,"' which empowered the Board of Education of Akron to create a union school and erect a high school, became the general law for all schools in Ohio towns and villages about two years later. In order to show that I am disposed to give the New England element full credit, I will add the name of Judge |
412
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
Lane, of Sandusky, who was instrumental
in introduc-
ing teachers' institutes in Ohio,
inspiring the first one
at Sandusky in 1845 and who in his
tours of the state
was a constant propagandist for better
schools; also of
Alfred Kelley, originally from
Cleveland but later living
in Columbus, who constantly worked for
education.
Ephraim Cutler in 1819-1820 attempted
to get a school
bill through the Legislature but failed
in the Senate,
14 to 14. Some very prominent educators
and editors
-from New England who labored in Ohio
were John
Locke in Cincinnati, I. W. Andrews of
Marietta College,
Andrew Freese, the first superintendent
in Cleveland,
George Nashee, owner of the Ohio
State Journal from
1826 to 1831, David Smith, editor of
the Monitor, 1818-
1830, John Harmon and William Coolman,
editors of the
Western Courier at Ravenna, 1825-1829.
But there were others who did not come
from New
England and who fought with equal valor
and success.
Every governor of Ohio from the
Territorial Governor
St. Clair, an old Scotchman, clear down
to Governor
Medill, as far as I have read their
messages, advocated
and supported education at the expense
of the state.
Governor T. W. Worthington, a Virginian
and a
Methodist, was the most active force in
the Constitu-
tional Convention which secured land
endowments for
education for the entire state. He was
the father of the
State Library. He advocated a state normal
school and
he was a member of the House in
1824-1825. Worth-
ington voted for the acts of 1825. A
letter he wrote to
the Scioto Gazette, published at
Chillicothe, expresses
his gratification that near the end of
a long and active
life he has had the opportunity to vote
for a reform in
The Origin of Public Education in Ohio 413 taxation, for the building of a canal and, most important of all, for a definite provision for the education of the masses. I will state here that a careful examination of all the Senate and House Journals from 1803 to 1854, |
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with a checking up of the yeas and nays on every pro- posed measure of educational legislation, will give Ross County a clearer bill of health than any county either in the Western Reserve or in the Ohio Purchase with the possible exception of Cuyahoga. The other counties in the state which approach or excel Ross are Hamilton, |
414
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
Franklin, Highland, Montgomery,
Muskingum, and
Champaign.1
Other governors who were especially
active in the
interest of common schools were
Jeremiah Morrow, a
Presbyterian born in Pennsylvania, and
Allen Trimble,
born in Virginia. Not a governor was
negative or in-
different. Tiffin, born in England;
Lucas, Vance, Shan-
non, Bartley, all of whose Scotch-Irish
ancestors trace
back to the old Red Stone Presbytery in
Pennsylvania,
supported public education. I refer to
Dr. Hunter's es-
say, "The Pathfinders of Jefferson
County"--in volume
VI of the Ohio Archaeological and
Historical Society
Publications.2
We shall now examine the endowment of
education
by the government. It is well known
that John Cleves
Symmes and the other "blue
hens" from New Jersey
who settled the Miami Valley demanded
and obtained an
endowment for elementary and higher
education in the
Miami Valley; and the Pennsylvanians
who settled the
"Seven Ranges" of Jefferson
County also received an
endowment of section 16.3
The Ohio Land Company was a
money-making con-
cern. It was not a charitable
enterprise. It made pres-
ents to nobody. Its insistence upon
college townships
and school sections was for the purpose
of rendering its
lands more salable. The United States
made the dona-
tion. Similar motives actuated Symmes.
It is evident
1 See especially the yeas and nays in
the Senate and House Journals of
1821, 1825, 1827, 1831, 1834, 1836,
1837.
2 Also. "Influence of Pennsylvania
on Ohio History," by Dr. Hunter.
Ohio Archaeological and Historical
Society Publications, Volume XII, 281
et seq.
3 Martzolff, "Land Grants for
Education," Ibid., Volume XXV.
The Origin of Public Education in Ohio 415 that the people who were to colonize these tracts con- sidered schools as an asset. Also the Miami and the Ohio Company people did not refuse sales to Pennsyl- vanians or Virginians who wished to buy land. |
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It is also evident that neither Virginia in the reserved lands of the Virginia Military District nor Connecticut in the Western Reserve made any provisions for the sup- port of schools in their reservations. The members of the Connecticut Legislature, who voted that the state sell her lands, and then formed themselves into a corpo- |
416 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
ration and bought the lands from themselves acting as
legislators, did not, either as
individuals nor as legis-
lators, make any reservation for
schools. They paid
Connecticut about 40 cents per acre. A
number of very
wealthy and aristocratic families got a
start from this
very thrifty speculation.4
The actual settlers in the major part
of the Reserve
were from Pennsylvania and New York.
The Firelands
and Cuyahoga Counties filled with New
Yorkers. Trum-
bull, Ashtabula and Mahoning Counties
were peopled
mainly from Pennsylvania. Portage,
Geauga and Me-
dina seem to have been chiefly Yankee.
However, Kil-
bourn in his Ohio Gazetteer of
1826 tells of a township
in Medina County which had a population
of 1000 Ger-
mans. These facts may be verified by
consultation of
the annals of townships in the Firelands
Pioneer, West-
ern Reserve Pioneer and the checking up of membership
rosters, obituaries, etc. I found that
less than thirty
per cent of the pioneers of the
Firelands and Cuyahoga
County in 1865 were of New England
ancestry.5
Therefore, the very great interest in
education which
began to manifest itself in Cleveland,
Sandusky, and
other points in Lorain, Erie and
Cuyahoga Counties
4 The particulars are in the Connecticut
Mirror, March 29, 1819. The
Mirror is in a controversy with the Bridgeport Farmer as
to whether or
not certain legislators swindled the
state of Connecticut. Names are pro-
duced.
5 Firelands Pioneer, 1882, page 122; Volume XIV, page 94; Volume
VII and Volume VIII, in various parts.
Usually about one-fourth of the
members of the Pioneer Society came from
New England. About two-
thirds were from New York and
Pennsylvania. Possibly natives of New
England are less prone to join Pioneer
Societies?
Also Western Reserve Pioneers. Rosters
of membership from 1879 to
1892. Two hundred and two were from New
York, eighty-eight from Con-
necticut and one hundred and sixty-four
from overseas.
The Origin of Public Education in Ohio 417 from 1840 on, may as rationally be explained by the very large New York element in the population as by any other hypothesis. The assemblymen from these counties usually voted for better schools. They supported high |
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taxation. Case, of Cuyahoga, in 1825, was of Pennsyl- vania birth and of Dutch and German ancestry. Payne of Cuyahoga, was born in New York. The senators and representatives from Erie and Lorain were usually New Yorkers. The assemblymen of Trumbull generally were Pennsylvanians. Wheeler, who was a senator for years Vol. XXXVIII--27. |
418 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
during the 'twenties from the Ashtabula
District, was a
New Yorker. The files of the Ohio
Statesman, Monitor
and Ohio State Journal during
the 'twenties and 'thirties
give the nativity of the members of the
Legislature.
These are illuminating. They destroy
for all time, the
myth that the nativity of the settlers
of Ohio had any-
thing to do with their attitude towards
common schools.
The person born in Massachusetts or Connecticut
was as
likely to vote nay on a progressive
school measure as
was the son of Virginia or Kentucky.
The most back-
ward element were the Pennsylvania
Germans and the
Quakers. Everybody else usually
supported public edu-
cation. If anything, the Virginian was
less parsimoni-
ous than was the son of Connecticut.
This is revealed
in the auditor's, common school
commissioner's and state
statistician's reports from 1826 to
1859. In general, I
will state, that there is not a single
year from 1826, when
the first statistics relative to
schools begin to appear,
until 1865, which marks the end of my
investigations in
public documents of the state, that
there is manifested a
greater willingness on the part of the
Yankee to make
a financial sacrifice for education
than there is by his
brother from Virginia, Pennsylvania or
New York.6
The counties which paid the highest
ratio on their
valuation in 1829, were Butler, Ross,
Franklin, Mont-
gomery, Highland, Preble, Clermont.7
The lowest were
6
See State Statistician's report of investments in school property in
1859 and check up the number of new
schoolhouses built and the average
cost in 1837, 1838 and 1839.
Reports of Superintendent of Common
Schools. Also note the salaries
and length of school term.
7 See Auditor's report on taxation in
the House and Senate Journals for
1827 and 1830.
The Origin of Public Education in Ohio 419 Holmes, Stark, Wayne, Washington, Gallia. Counties like Medina, Geauga and Portage were only medium. In all the reports of the school commissioners from Lewis's Report of 1837 until 1865, it may be discovered |
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that the highest wages were paid in the western half of the state, or in the southern half; but never in the north- eastern or southeastern quarters. Samuel Lewis is not aware that the schools of the Reserve are any better than those of any other section. He says they get their teaching done more cheaply by employing women and |
420
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
that he thinks the schools of Geauga
and Portage Coun-
ties are as good as those of other
sections.8
Now as to the significance of Samuel
Lewis as State
Superintendent. His son, in his
biography, tells us that
Samuel's father took him out of school
when he was ten
years of age and put him to work. When
the boy was
twelve they came to Ohio, and the
father bound out the
boy and collected the money. Samuel, having
a desire
for greater opportunities, went to
Cincinnati, and made
arrangements to pay his father. He came
in contact
with Judge Burnet, studied law and
became very much
interested in education. Cincinnati was
a center of cul-
ture. Burnet, Symmes, Lytle, Harrison,
Kidd and
others had liberally endowed education.
Most of these
people were Presbyterians from
Kentucky, Pennsylvania
or New Jersey. They had founded
Cincinnati College.
Kemper and Lane of New Orleans had
endowed Lane
Seminary. Famous teachers such as the
Pickets from
New York; Milo Williams; Talbot from
Virginia; Kin-
mont from Scotland; Elijah Slack,
ex-vice-president of
Princeton; Martin Ruter from Kentucky;
Daniel Drake,
born in New Jersey and reared in
Kentucky; Frederick
Eckstein, from Prussia; Cary, a native;
and others lived
and worked in Cincinnati. They had
formed the Col-
lege of Teachers, which at its annual
meetings drew
visitors from South Carolina, New
Orleans, St. Louis,
Detroit, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky,
Pittsburgh and all
parts of southern Ohio. Movements
emanating from
All the Reports of the Commissioners for
Common Schools from 1854
have tables of monthly wages paid men
and women. He who doubts my
statement may take any year at random
from 1854 to 1865.
The Origin of Public
Education in Ohio 421
this society led to state conventions
in Kentucky9 Indiana
and Ohio. Famous educators, like
William Holmes Mc-
Guffey and Grimke; great divines like
Alexander Camp-
bell, Lyman Beecher, and Purcell, took
an active part.10.
I think that Lewis' birth in
Massachusetts had less to do
with his activity in education than the
environment in
which he lived. Lewis was very closely
associated with
McGuffey, the author of the Readers.
McGuffey
stumped the state with Lewis in the
interests of common
schools during 1838.
The Presbyterian preacher was a very
powerful in-
fluence in favor of common schools. A
common notice
in the local paper, whether in
Columbus, St. Clairsville,
Cincinnati, Perrysburg, Maumee, Urbana,
Troy or al-
most any other town, in the 'twenties,
'thirties, or 'for-
ties, is that "a meeting of the
Friends of Education will
be held in the Presbyterian
Church."11 Then the ac-
count of the meeting is printed and we
learn that Rever-
end James Hoge of Columbus, Reverend
Joshua Wilson
of Cincinnati, Reverend Doddridge of
St. Clairsville,
Reverend Anson Smyth of Toledo, and
others had made
addresses. The Presbyterian preachers
very frequently
were members of the county board of
examiners.12 The
first six presidents of Ohio University
were Presby-
terian preachers, as were also the
first five of Miami.
9 See the files of the Frankfort Commonwealth
in reference to the
great educational conventions in
Kentucky during 1833 and 1834. From
August 6, 1833 to January 10, 1834.
10 The various volumes of the Proceedings of the College of Teachers
from 1834 on. Also the notes of the
conventions in the Ohio State Journal,
January, 1836.
11 See Ohio State Journal (Semi-Weekly),
September 18, 1838, for the
movement in Columbus.
12 Hoge in Franklin County. McGuffey in
Butler, etc.
422 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications The faculty of Cincinnati College were also ministers of that faith. Everywhere in southern Ohio we find the Presbyterian preachers founding schools. Reverend John Andrews, Reverend John McFarland and Reverend |
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Robert Wilson in Chillicothe13 labored to start the acad- emy. Presbyterian preachers were busy in Sydney.14 A stream of men with a college education came out of the log college in Canonsburgh, Pennsylvania, and from 13 Scioto Gazette during May and June, 1815. The Weekly Recorder during July, 1814, January, 1817. 14 See Report of Commissioner of Common Schools, 1859, under Sydney. |
The Origin of Public Education in
Ohio 423
Washington College in Washington,
Pennsylvania.
They manned Ohio University, Miami
University, In-
diana University, Colleges in Kentucky,
Tennessee, and
Illinois. Secondary education in these
states is a grand-
daughter of Princeton; for Jefferson
and Washington
Colleges are daughters of Princeton.
The first presi-
dent of Western Reserve, Charles B.
Storrs, was a grad-
uate of Princeton. So instead of the
course of education
in Ohio and Indiana being a case of
sons of New Eng-
land "setting up New Yales and
Dartmouths," it was
actually a case of Scotch-Irish
Presbyterian preachers
going out and setting up new
Princetons.15
There was also valiant service performed
by early
Methodist and Baptist divines. They
were not as numer-
ous as the Presbyterians but were
mainly of the same
Scotch-Irish stock. We need only
mention John P. Fin-
ley, Bishop McKendree, Bishop
McIlvaine, John Collins,
and W. A. McKee who preached and taught
for the
Methodists and Reily and Dunlevy for
the Baptists.
The Methodist church owed its rise
largely to the great
revivals started by the Presbyterians
at Cabin Creek
and Cane Ridge in Kentucky. The first
camp-meetings
were Presbyterian affairs started by
Reverends Mc-
Gready, Hodge and McNemar. After it had
been going
on three years, Bishop McKendree of the
Methodists
came in and participated.
It is interesting to look over the list
of alumni in
Reverend Joseph Smith's History of
Jefferson College.
We find there the names of professors
and presidents of
15 History of Presbyterianism by Briggs. Scotch-Irish in America, by
Ford, Hanna, and Boulton. Also Hunter's
essays before referred to.
Smith's History of Jefferson College.
424
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
Miami University, Ohio University,
Franklin College,
Center College in Kentucky and Ohio,
the Theological
Seminary at Xenia, Indiana University,
etc. This book,
written in 1857, says that Jefferson
College alone had
furnished twenty-four college
presidents in ten states,
fifty professors, about six hundred
ministers and hun-
dreds of professional teachers,
lawyers, governors, and
prominent people. This college grew
from a log acad-
emy started by Reverend McMillan about
1780, before a
town was ever built in Ohio. Francis
Dunlevy, the first
man to teach the classics in Ohio,
studied there; Jacob
Lindley, the first president of Ohio
University, grad-
uated there; Reverend James Hughes, the
first teacher
at Miami, studied there. The founders
of Franklin Col-
lege came from Jefferson and its
sister, Washington Col-
lege, only seven miles away. Here we
have advanced
education started by the Presbyterians,
the Baptists and
Seceders, on this side of the mountains
in log buildings.
Their students are ready to man the
rising institutions
of the new states before the states are
born. Reverend
James Hoge was a member of the Franklin
Society at
Jefferson, when he studied the sciences
and classics there.
When we reflect that McGuffey and Ray
both graduated
from the sister college, Washington,
the picture which a
certain historian draws of the new
"Yales and Harvards
arising in the wilderness," is
rather amusing. There
were new Princetons rising in the midst
of the forests
while the war-whoop of the savages
still shrilled in the
pioneer's ears.
Many of the earliest Methodist divines
received their
training at these and at Dickinson
College, which finally
became a Methodist institution. Several
of the Metho-
The Origin of Public Education in
Ohio 425
dist preachers came from Presbyterian
families. There
were two McKees, both preachers and
teachers. One
was a Methodist and the other a
Presbyterian. McKee
taught the first grammar school in
Columbus, in the
Methodist Church. There is an
advertisement in the
Monitor in 1816, offering free tuition to the first boy
who enrolls in Latin and Greek.
Gilliland, another student of Jefferson
College, was
teaching Latin, Greek, Hebrew and
English Grammar in
the Presbyterian Church at Red Oak in
Brown County
in 1817.16 We recall that Dunlevy and
Reily conducted
an academy in what is now Cincinnati in
1792. I pre-
sume that anyone who will call those
institutions acade-
mies in Burton, Ravenna, and other
places which were
incorporated and had but one teacher as
late as 1833,
will hardly balk at calling the
institution conducted by
Reily and Dunlevy an academy. The
institution at
Marietta which was founded five years
later and had
one teacher, was called an academy.
There are advertisements of classical
schools taught
by William Bebb who was of Welsh
descent and later
governor, and by David Monfort,
Reverend McMinn,
etc., in Butler and Preble County.17
Samuel Galloway was born in
Pennsylvania and
graduated from Miami University.
McGuffey did not
lend a New England atmosphere to that
institution. Gal-
loway taught at Miami himself and later
in the Presby-
terian College at Hanover, Indiana.
Having read Grant's Burg Schools of
Scotland,
I am inclined to believe that
Galloway's zeal for common
16 Weekly Recorder, February 11,
1815.
17 Files of the Hamilton Intelligencer
from 1825 to 1850.
426
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
schools arose from his Scotch
Presbyterian ancestry
rather than from an exposure to Yankee
influence. Pro-
fessor Joseph Ray was another product
of Virginia and
Washington College.
Asa D. Lord, the first superintendent
of the Colum-
bus schools, a Presbyterian preacher, a
New Yorker,
and at first Principal of the Western
Reserve Teachers'
Seminary at Kirtland, Ohio, was the
cause of the rise of
the graded school system at Akron and the
spread of the
Akron Law. The law was the work of
Leggett and
Olmstead, two New York men who had been
associated
with Lord and were then in Akron.18
Also the first
county superintendent, Bailey of
Ashtabula County, and
Teachers' Institutes were New York
ideas which Lord
and his associates, Hurty, Cowdery, New
Yorkers, and
Lord's pupils, Andrews and Harvey
disseminated in that
vicinity.19 Lord edited the Ohio
School Journal for four
years and was the most potent force which
led to the re-
forms of 1853.
Galloway woke them up in 1845.20 The
next year
two school journals were published: the
Ohio School
Journal and the School Friend of Cincinnati. Prior to
this movement of getting new school
buildings in Akron
and several adjacent towns, fairly
decent provisions had
been made in Piqua, Zanesville,
Sandusky, Portsmouth,
Waverly, Dayton, Steubenville,
Hamilton, Piketon, Mid-
dletown, Dover, St. Clairsville,
McConnelsville and Co-
lumbus. Cleveland and Cincinnati ranked
very credit-
18 See Fifty
Years of Akron and Summit County by Lane, page 1850.
19 See biographies in Cyclopedias of
Ohio Biography. Also note what
Howe says about Lord's School at
Kirtland in his Historical Collections of
Ohio, 1848 edition.
20 All the newspapers commented on
Galloway's Report.
The Origin of public
Education in Ohio 427
ably for the times. So there was
nothing record-break-
ing about Akron, except that its
accommodations in
1846 and 1847 were abominable and very
inadequate.
Other towns in Ohio had done far
better. The schools
in Portsmouth had been under a
superintendent for
several years. A. J. Rickoff who later
became president
of the N. E. A. and superintendent of
Cleveland's schools
had been superintendent in Portsmouth
since 1845.21 He
was a product of Cincinnati and was born
in New Jer-
sey. H. H. Barney came into Cincinnati
in 1847, armed
with a recommendation written by
Millard Fillmore, and
became the Principal of the Central
High School. Cin-
cinnati had been teaching high school
subjects ever since
1836 but had decided to centralize.
This New Yorker
became State School Commissioner in
1853 and put
Ohio's modern school system into
operation. It appears
that in the actual operation of schools
our debt to New
York is great.22
Now as to school legislation. All that
which looked
toward realizing anything from the
school lands origi-
nated in the Cincinnati district. The
acts of 1803, 1805,
1810, 1817, and 1820, which prescribed
more and more
definitely the administration of
section 16, were spon-
sored by people from Hamilton, Butler
and Montgomery
Counties.23 The acts which
tended to alienate the lands
from the schools and convert them to
private use origi-
nated in the Ohio Purchase.
The bill which ushered in the long
course of rascali-
21 Scioto County and Pioneer Record, by Evans, page 487.
22 Piatt,
Lewis and Barney especially recommended the New York
System.
23 Senate
and House Committees in Legislative Journals.
428
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
ties that plundered Ohio's school fund
of millions, was
presented by Joseph Buell, Senator from
Washington
County, in the interests of Timothy
Buell and other resi-
dents of section 16 adjacent to
Marietta. This was in
the year 1805-1806. It was voted down
in the House.
The bill came up again in 1806-1807. It
was again de-
feated, but in 1807-1808, Samuel
Hildreth succeeded in
having the right to grant ninety-nine
year leases con-
ferred upon the town council of
Marietta.24 About 1810
some permanent leases were granted in
the country to
the west. The decade 1810 to 1820 was
an orgy of rob-
bing the schools. The most complete
alienation of the
school lands occurred in the counties
of Gallia, Athens,
Washington, Scioto, Pike, etc.25 The
Ohio Executive
Documents of 1838, number sixty-nine,
show where six
hundred and forty acres were frequently
sold for less
than one hundred dollars. The school
lands in the coun-
ties with a heavy Scotch-Irish
population, like Belmont,
Jefferson, Montgomery, Hamilton,
Butler, etc., realized
a very fair sum and were really a
potent element of
school revenue. For example, Jefferson
County derived
in 1854, about seven thousand eight hundred
dollars
from interest and rents. In those days,
this would pay
the salaries of a hundred country
school teachers for six
or seven months.26 Ordinarily,
the individual township
did better in looking after its school
lands than general
agents did. For example, two counties,
Jefferson and
Montgomery, realized more from the sale
of their sec-
24 Senate Journal, 1805-1806;
pages 34, 47, and 51. House Journal,
1805-1806, pages 58, 60, 64, 68, 74, 75;
House Journal, 1806-1807, page 65;
Senate Journal, 1807-1808, page
75. Laws of 1808 (Local).
25 Note
Local Laws 1810 to 1820.
26 School Commissioners Report and
Auditor's Report, 1854.
The Origin of Public Education in Ohio 429 tion 16's than did all the Western Reserve Counties from the sale of the Western Reserve school lands; either Jef- ferson, Montgomery or Hamilton or Butler realized more than the legatees of the Cutlers, Buells and Massa- |
|
chusetts scions did in Washington, Gallia, Lawrence, Athens, Morgan and Jackson, combined.27 Also poor Ohio University with the Buells, Putnams, Stones, Tup- pers, Bureans, etc., etc., as trustees realized an income from its two townships less than half as much as Miami Ibid-See Document 69 in Executive Documents, 1838 also. |
430
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
did from its one township, and had to
close its doors in
1845 in order to pay its debts. So it
seems that no pre-
eminent merit will attach to the sons
of New England
in their administration of that
endowment, which they
assume particular credit for inducing
the United States
to confer upon education.28
We shall now pass to the subject of
legislation at-
tempted and achieved.
In 1812 Ludlow of Butler County, a New
Jerseyman,
introduced a bill that banks be taxed
to support schools.
This bill passed the House forty to
twenty and died in
the Senate.29
In 1816, William Trimble, a Virginian
and a Meth-
odist, from Fairfield County,
introduced in the Senate,
a bill for the support and regulation
of schools. Senator
Patterson of Guernsey, proposed that
the county court
be required to appoint three examiners
to examine and
license teachers, which measure was
adopted by Guil-
ford in 1825 in his act. Trimble's bill
passed the Senate
and failed in the House.30
In 1819, Jones of Wayne County,
chairman of the
House committee on schools and school
lands, reported
in favor of authorizing the governor to
appoint a person
from each judicial district to examine
into the condition
of the lands and schools and also to
prepare a plan or
system of regulating and supporting
education (House
Journal, page 321); and the Governor, Ethan A. Brown,
recommended that the further granting
of long leases be
28 Note special reports on Ohio and
Miami Universities in Executive
Documents for 1840 to 1845. See index.
29 Senate and House Journals, 1811-1812-1813.
30 Legislative Journals for 1816-1817.
The Origin of Public Education in
Ohio 431
arrested. He said that the schools were
realizing less
than was being expended in legislating
about their lands.
Brown also suggested a tax upon auction
sales as a reve-
nue for schools. Here we have two
things which appear
in Atwater's report in 1822. Atwater
moved the same
things that Jones did three years
earlier and used the
same expression that Brown did
concerning profits from
school lands. The only difference is
that the Legislature
passed Atwater's resolution and ignored
that of Jones.31
William Henry Harrison introduced the
bill which
became the Act of 1821.
Olds, a former teacher and chairman of
the Senate
school committee for several years, was
the father of the
acts which empowered taxation to build
schoolhouses in
1827; which raised the levy to
three-fourths of a mill in
1829; and further made the property of
non-residents
taxable. Olds represented Franklin and
Pickaway. The
House weakened his bill.32
Bigger, of Guernsey, drove the levy up
to one mill
with an extra one-half mill optional.33
Van Hook, of Butler, was perhaps the
most prolific
legislator in school interests the
state ever had. He at-
tempted to devote the entire surplus
revenue to educa-
tion, but succeeded in getting five per
cent annually in-
stead of having it invested in
permanent stocks and
placed as a school fund. He carried
through the bill
which created the office of
superintendent of common
31 Governor's message in House or
Senate Journal. Also in current
newspapers. In 1818-1819, Jones of Wayne
County offered the same reso-
lution.
32 33
Legislative Journals and files of the Ohio State Journal during
December, January, February and March of
the years indicated. Also the
Ohio Statesman.
432
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
schools. This act passed thirty-five to
thirty-four and
Speaker William Medill, a native of
Delaware, and later
governor of Ohio, gave the casting vote
in favor. Van
Hook also framed and carried to success
the Act of 1838.
He was the chairman who had put through
the Act of
1836 also. Van Hook was instrumental in
staving off
any further amendment in 1839 when a
reaction started.
Hanna of Morgan County was school
chairman and re-
sisted with considerable success, every
attack on the act
of 1839.34
An analysis of the vote in 1837, on
creating the office
of state superintendent, is
interesting. If a line be
drawn through Centerburg, Knox County,
east and
west, the majority of the votes north
of the line were
opposed to creating the office of state
superintendent and
the majority of votes south of that
line in favor. If a
line be drawn north and south through
Centerburg, the
majority of the votes east of that line
are opposed to the
office and the majority of votes west
of that line are in
favor. If all the representatives who
had been born in
Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, etc., had
refrained from
voting, there would have been no state
superintendent.
If all the representatives who had been
born in New
England states had refrained from
voting he would
have been elected with more than one
majority.
A careful study of the foregoing table
will reveal
several things. It will be noted that
people not natives
of New England quite frequently
represent counties in
the Ohio Purchase and the Western
Reserve. Also that
34 Legislative Journals and files
of the Ohio State Journal during
December, January, February and March of
the years indicated. Also the
Ohio Statesman.
The Origin of Public Education in
Ohio 433
Yankees are found all over the state
and do not uni-
formly vote for advanced school
measures. The same
facts are evident in the vote on the
act of 1838. I have
the nativity of all the legislators and
their yeas and
nays. This act passed at a ratio of two
to one, but the
trend is very similar to that indicated
in the foregoing
table. The heavy vote for the act is in
the part of the
state which contains the Miami Valley,
Scioto Valley
and Virginia Military District. It must
be remembered
that Northwestern Ohio was very
sparsely settled at this
time and figures very little in the
vote. Several coun-
ties were often grouped together. I use
the name of one
to save space.
Portsmouth very early had excellent
schools. A
special act in 1838 provided for
organization and new
buildings. The generosity of Massie, a
Virginian who
laid out the town, endowed the schools
with lands which
paid an annual rent of about two
thousand dollars. So
Portsmouth had free schools and what
was virtually a
high school as far back as 1839. They
erected a six-
thousand six-hundred dollar building in
1839. This was
more than Akron did before 1850.35
Zanesville very early made provision for
good schools.
Uriah Parke, a Virginian, editor of the
Zanesville Ga-
zette, was a member of the school board and a most
active promoter of good schools. He
obtained a special
act in 1839 and the Howe Academy was
bought and a
large building erected for the boys.
I here present the vote on creation of
the office of
state superintendent and the nativity
of the representa-
35 These facts are contained in
Galloway's report of 1847 as superinten-
dent of common schools.
Vol. XXXVIII-28.
434 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
tives. This is taken from the Hemisphere,
February 10,
1837:
YEAS -- 35
County Representative
Nativity
Ashtabula ............ Knapp .......... New Hampshire
Athens ............ Jones ...........
Ohio
Butler ............. Millikin .......... Pennsylvania
Butler ............... Van Hook ........
Ohio
Clark ............... Cushing ........... New
York
Clinton ............. Davis ...........
Ohio
Clermont ............. Utter ...........
Pennsylvania
Cuyahoga ............ Scovill .........
Connecticut
Darke ............... Bell . .......... Vermont
Delaware .......... Allen ............
Vermont
Fairfield ............. Medill
........... Delaware
Franklin ............. Kelley ..........
Connecticut
Gallia
................ Clark . .......... Indiana
Greene .............. Perkins ..........
Pennsylvania
Hamilton ............. Armstrong
........ Virginia
Hamilton ............. Brown ....... New
Jersey
Harrison ............. Gruber ..........
Pennsylvania
Highland ............. Reese ...........
Virginia
Jackson .............. Hughes ..........
Virginia
Licking ........... Stewart ...........
Scotland
Licking ........... Yontz ..........
Maryland
Logan ............ Newell ..........
Pennsylvania
Lorain ............. Hubbard ..........
New York
Mercer ............... Taylor ..........
Virginia
Monroe ............ Walton ..........
Pennsylvania
Muskingum ........ Chambers .........
Pennsylvania
Perry ................ Trevitt
.......... New Hampshire
Pickaway ............. Winship .........
Virginia
Pike ................. Van Meter
........ Virginia
Preble .............. Jameson .......
Kentucky
Preble ............... McNutt .........
Canada
Ross
................. Ott . ........... Virginia
Warren .............. Hunt ...........
Pennsylvania
Washington ......... Humphrey .......
Ireland
NAYS -- 34
Belmont ............. Weir ...........
Pennsylvania
Brown ............... Loudon .........
Kentucky
Carroll ............... Atkinson ......... Pennsylvania
The
Origin of Public Educatiou in Ohio
435
County Representative Nativity
Columbiana
.......... Armstrong ........ Pennsylvania
Columbiana
.......... Aten ............. Ohio
Columbiana
........... Creswell .......... Pennsylvania
Coshocton
.......... Whitmore ......... Pennsylvania
Crawford
........... Cary ............. Virginia
Fairfield .............. Graybill .......... Pennsylvania
Fayette .............. Harrison .......... Pennsylvania
Geauga
............... Rockwell ......... Connecticut
Guernsey
............. Bigger............ Pennsylvania
Harrison ............. Shane ............ Ohio
Holmes
.............. Ankeney ......... Pennsylvania
Huron
............... Clark............. Connecticut
Jefferson ............. Patterson .........
Ireland
Knox
................ Hildreth.......... Connecticut
Medina
.............. Newton........... Connecticut
Mercer
.............. Taylor............ Virginia
Montgomery
......... Thurston ......... Connecticut
Morgan
.............. Conklin ........... New York
Perry
................ Brown ............ Pennsylvania
Portage
.............. Quinby........... Pennsylvania
Portage
.............. Shreve............ Pennsylvania
Richland
............. Coulter........... Pennsylvania
Richland ............. Lee ..............
Pennsylvania
Stark ............... Caldwell.......... Pennsylvania
Stark ................ Wise ............. Pennsylvania
Trumbull
............. Hayes ............ Connecticut
Trumbull
............. Bronson.......... Connecticut
Tuscarawas
.......... Allen ............. New Jersey
Union ............... Curry ............ Ohio
W ayne ............... Ihrig .............
Pennsylvania
Wood
............... Hollister.......... Massachusetts
Howe in
his Historical Collections of Ohio tells us
that a
person could obtain schooling from the most ele-
mentary
subjects to higher mathematics and "the learned
languages,
without money and without price" in Zanes-
ville in
1846. Zanesville had been running several years
when
Akron woke up and decided to erect some build-
ings.36
36 Howe, Historical
Collections of Ohio, edition of 1848.
436
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
E. E. Barney, a New Yorker, teaching in
the local
academy, and Robert Steele, a
Scotch-Irish Presbyterian
son of Pennsylvania, were the men who
led the reform
in Dayton which led to the erection of
three large build-
ings in 1840 in Dayton. In 1850 the
academy was
deeded gratis to the board of education
for use as a high
school. So Dayton says that its high
school has a line-
age back to 1807.37
Piqua erected three four-room brick
buildings in
1844. Piketon and Waverly built in 1843
and 1844.
Steubenville built in 1839 at a cost of
six thousand dol-
lars. Therefore, it was not inertia
which characterized
many of the towns of the state prior to
1847 and the
Akron Law. Maumee and Sandusky City
already had
good schoolhouses and full-fledged high
schools before
1847.38
While it required a desperate fight to
carry the re-
form of 1847 in Akron and to save the
high school in
Cleveland for several years after 1846,
the Union school
was adopted with great unanimity in
Xenia, Urbana,
Chillicothe, Lebanon and other places.
There was not a
dissenting vote in Urbana. It carried
twenty to one in
Lebanon. There was but one dissenting
vote in Chil-
licothe. It was practically unanimous
in Xenia. This
is the verdict of the current
newspapers-the Xenia
Torchlight during 1849, the Lebanon Star and Ohio
School Journal during 1849. The Urbana Citizen says,
July 6, 1849, "The meeting
Saturday last, voted unani-
37 History of Montgomery County, Beers. Article on Dayton's Schools
by Robert Steele. Also Dayton in the
Centennial account of Ohio's School
Systems.
38 Commissioner's Reports of 1860. Also
the various county histories of
Miami County and histories of
Piqua. All agree.
The Origin of Public Education in
Ohio 437
mously in favor of a tax to purchase
sites and erect
school buildings in this district * *
*." So the evi-
dence shows that other people besides
inhabitants of the
Reserve and Washington County realized
the value of
education. Ohio in 1849 did not differ
materially from
Ohio in 1929 as to its sentiments on
education. There
was quite as much missionary work
needed among the
sons of New England as among the sons
of Virginia and
Pennsylvania.39
The act of 1825 did not come like a
bolt from the
skies. It was the result of a movement
of several years
and did not stop until 1838. Then
another movement
started in 1845 which culminated in
1853.40
Caleb Atwater made his report in 1822.
B. M. Piatt
of Cincinnati was chairman of the
Senate committee on
schools for two years, 1822-1823 and
1823-1824. As
school committeeman, Piatt took
Atwater's report and
recommended a school system with a
state commissioner
of education who should administer the
funds, report to
the Legislature and oversee the
schools. There should
be county commissioners who would
attend to the licens-
ing of teachers, laying out of
districts, etc. The local
directors were to engage the teachers
and conduct school
meetings, which would levy taxes and
attend to other
business. The next year Piatt presented
a bill in the
Senate which embodied a system, modeled
after New
York and very nearly as advanced as the
system ob-
39 See the articles in the Ohio
School Journal for 1849, concerning Union
Schools. The County histories for
Greene, Logan, Ross, Warren, Cham-
paign, support the reports to the state
superintendent for 1849, 1850, etc.
The reports for the various counties often
give the vote.
40 This is evident when one follows the
legislative battle from year to
year.
438 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
tained in 1838. This bill went to
second reading and on
motion of Ephraim Cutler further
consideration was
postponed until the first Monday of the
December fol-
lowing. In December of 1824, Nathan
Guilford was a
member of the Senate and chairman of
the Senate com-
mittee on schools. Piatt's bill was
reported as unfinished
business and was referred to Guilford's
committee. It
came out of Guilford's committee, shorn
of both state
and county supervision and was passed
as the act of
1825. All this may be learned by
reference to the Senate
Journals of 1823, 1824, and 1825. The files of the Co-
lumbus Gazette during February, 1824, and the Monitor
for 1823, the Cincinnati Gazette,
Independent Republi-
can and Inquisitor for 1823, discuss Piatt's Bill.
It
seems to me, that Benjamin M. Piatt,
chairman for two
years of the Senate committee on
schools, the man who
arrested the further alienation of
school lands during his
term is entitled to as much credit as
Guilford. I am
unable to understand why Cutler did not
support Piatt.
There is no evidence of opposition in
the Senate, no
amendments nor motions to indefinitely
postpone. Other
members of the committee report Piatt's
bill without
amendment. The newspapers in Ohio had
been belabor-
ing the assembly ever since 1818 to
obtain school legisla-
tion. Three papers in Cincinnati in
every issue during
the session carried strong editorials
calling for action.
Two newspapers in Columbus, in fact
almost the entire
press of Ohio demanded a school bill.
The press was not
satisfied with the act of 1825. It was
considered too
weak.41 Why did Cutler let
Piatt down?
41 The editorials in the Hamilton Intelligencer
durng 1829 are a good
example. The Cincinnati Gazette
advocated a half cent on the dollar during
1823 and 1824.
The Origin of Public Education in Ohio 439 This brings me to another powerful agency in the support of the common schools-the press. There were only two newspapers, the Lebanon Star and a paper at Mount Pleasant which opposed the school law. The |
|
most powerful support came from Cincinnati. The Liberty Hall and Gazette whether edited by J. W. Browne, an Englishman and Methodist minister, or by Charles Hammond, a Marylander, constantly fought for schools. The Spy, when owned by Mason and Palmer, New Jersey people, carried editorials constantly. The |
440
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
Inquisitor, edited by Powers from New York and Ver-
mont, and the National Republican, edited
by Looker,
constantly published descriptions of
the schools of New
York, New Hampshire, Scotland, Germany,
etc., and
suggested plans for Ohio. It was the
same with the
Hamilton Intelligencer edited by
Camron and Camp-
bell, and the Chillicothe Supporter.
The editorials of
the Inquisitor were printed in
the papers of Steuben-
ville, Chillicothe, Portsmouth and
Columbus. The Ham-
ilton paper quoted the Cincinnati Gazette,
the Portage
Democrat and the Columbus Gazette. Members of the
Legislature were held up to ridicule.42
Clear down to 1854, the attitude of the
press was one.
Cochran of the Ohio Democrat at
Mount Vernon, Har-
ris of the Cleveland Herald, Bailhache
of the Ohio State
Journal, all supported educational progress. Samuel
Medary of the Ohio Statesman was
a stalwart supporter
of Samuel Lewis. Now the press was not
manned by
people from one part of the country. At
one time in St.
Clairsville an Irishman edited the Gazette
and a Scotch-
man edited the Historian. The
Scotchman was a grad-
uate of Glasgow University and was
chosen as a county
school examiner. This was in 1832. The
county board
adopted uniform textbooks, a county
educational society
was formed, and all teachers were
required to pass ex-
aminations in reading, writing,
arithmetic, geography,
grammar and history. Butler County in
1835, Miami
and Delaware Counties in 1834 and 1835
had require-
ments in advance of Portage County in
1833 to 1837 and
Cuyahoga County in 1843-1847. Lane says
in his Fifty
Years of Akron that he came to Akron from Connecti-
42 The Columbus Gazette especially.
The Origin of Public Education in
Ohio 441
cut in 1836 to teach. He went out to
see Darius Lyman,
one of the examiners. Lyman said to a
young man who
was studying law, "I have some
chores to attend to, you
examine him." The young man handed
Lane a law
book and directed him to read several
sentences. He
then asked him to write some sentences.
After that he
gave Lane a problem in proportion. Then
he took the
fee of seventy-five cents and licensed
him. The Western
Courier of Ravenna, corroborates Lane's narrative by
naming Darius Lyman as one of the
examiners in 1833-
1834. It is evident, that Portage had
nothing to teach
Miami County which in the issue of the
Piqua Courier
of May 9, 1835, prints as the rules of
the county board
that all applicants must pass in
reading, writing, arith-
metic, grammar and geography to obtain
a two years'
certificate. The board may at its
discretion give a six
months' license to those who can pass
in reading, writing
and arithmetic but that anyone who has
held those lower
grades must on the next trial pass in
all the subjects or
be deemed incompetent. The Delaware
regulations were
similar. Ezra Griswold, editor of the Patron,
was one
of Delaware's examiners.
Teachers began to form associations in
Cincinnati in
1821. They had several conventions in
southwestern
Ohio in 1835 and 1836. There was a
teacher's society
in Columbus in 1832. I am informed that
the teachers
of Pickaway organized in 1833. The
first association in
the northeast was in 1837. Maumee and
Perrysburg
followed later in 1837.43
43 Western Spy had several
articles about teachers' associations in 1820.
Someone may object that I have neglected
to mention Holbrook. I will
remind the reader that Josiah Holbrook
was so dissatisfied with educational
442 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
The great movements of education in
Ohio prior to
1845, started usually from Cincinnati
and received able
support from the papers, pulpit and
teachers of the deaf
and dumb and blind at Columbus. The
great revolution
which culminated in the act of 1853
started from Colum-
bus, and Galloway was the leader. Lord
and his fol-
lowers gave it form. By 1850 no section
of the state
had a patent on enlightenment. Franklin College,
Western Reserve, Marietta College, Ohio
Wesleyan,
Kenyon, Ohio University, Cincinnati
College, Farmer's
College, etc., were all centers which
gave impetus to the
movement.
The newspapers of the first half
century considered
education as news. The Chillicothe,
Cincinnati and Co-
lumbus papers quoted from the Academician
published
by the Pickets from 1818 to 1820. They
quoted from
Lord's School Journal and
advised people to subscribe.
They quoted from the Annals of
Education. One editor
reminds the others that business and
philanthropy both
rode the same horse. Increased
education meant more
readers.
Cist in his Cincinnati, in 1841,
page 39, after stating
that there were over thirty-four
hundred German voters
in the city enumerates the voting
population giving the
nativity of all groups numbering more
than one hun-
dred. I here submit the figures:
Pennsylvania, 1210;
Ohio, 1112; New Jersey, 795; New York,
672; Virginia,
methods in Massachusetts and Connecticut
that he did not send his son to
school at all, but looked after that
himself. So the father of the National
Normal University at Lebanon can hardly
be credited to "New England"
influence. T. W. Harvey was one of Lord's
products. I also disclaim a
Presbyterian bias. All my grandparents
were Unitarians and my parents
who reared me in Indiana were
Methodists.
The Origin of Public Education in
Ohio 443
519; Maryland, 537; Massachusetts,
414; Kentucky,
349; Connecticut, 230; Vermont, 118;
England, 786;
Ireland, 742; Scotland, 360; France,
125. This hardly
looks like a transplanted New England
community. It
is somewhat difficult to understand how
the Yankees
succeeded in forcing all those
supposedly indifferent and
hostile people to support the
magnificent institutions
which graced Cincinnati. Perhaps the
rest of the people
had the same zeal as that which characterised
Guilford.
Micajah Williams who represented
Hamilton County
for years and always supported
education, was born in
North Carolina. The great editor,
Charles Hammond,
who for years thundered in the Gazette
for schools, was
born in Maryland.
If any section of the state was the
educational mis-
sionary, it was Cincinnati. Columbus
and Cincinnati
were the principal centers of
propaganda. If any sec-
tion of the state was covered with fine
schools at an
early date, nobody knew it. No one is
aware that from
1803 to 1854 common schools and
academies swarmed
around Akron and Painesville while the
rest of the state
was destitute. No Gazetteer had
discovered it. James
Kilbourn and Warren Jenkins never
failed to note such
a thing as a good school building.
Jenkins noted that
Findlay had a "commodious
schoolhouse" in 1841. He
and Kilbourn mention "brick"
schoolhouses in some
towns and say nothing of others.
Howe in the 1848 edition of his Historical
Collec-
tions of Ohio, has high praise for the common schools
of Zanesville, Cincinnati and
Portsmouth. He has not
mentioned any other town as notable. He
makes par-
ticular mention of all colleges and
leading academies.
444 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
He speaks highly of Steubenville,
Norwalk, Hillsboro,
but he does not seem to find that
either the Reserve or
the Ohio Purchase has left everyone
else behind.
The newspapers did not know that a
bright light was
beginning to shine in the northeast and
send its rays into
the darkness which shrouded the rest of
the state. A
certain history of Summit County tells
us that this hap-
pened. It cannot be urged that the newspapers
did not
tell about schools. They did. When the
new school-
house was erected at Portsmouth, the
Scioto Gazette of
Chillicothe and the Ohio State
Journal said that it had
no superior in Ohio; that it equalled
the best in the east.
The Cincinnati Gazette described
it. The Cleveland
Herald was awake to schools. It told about the fine large
building at Zanesville, the excellent
buildings at Dover,
McConnelsville and the broken windows
at Sandusky.
The Herald said that there were
some fair buildings in
the Reserve but none of a superior
type. The Cincin-
nati schools are the subject of several
articles in the
Herald. The Western Reserve Chronicle (Warren),
said the school accommodations were
wretched in 1849.
The Courier of Ravenna said that
they had no school,
either public or private, in 1833.
It is not my purpose to paint
conditions as unusually
dark in the Reserve. The conditions in
the majority of
towns were the same as in Newark,
Circleville, Chilli-
cothe, Toledo and Lancaster.
The point is, that any settled part of
Ohio in 1825 or
1850 would average about the same as
any other part
having the same wealth. Some places in
the Reserve
had fair conditions-for example
Cleveland. Jefferson
had erected a good building in 1845.
While Circleville
The Origin of Public Education in
Ohio 445
delayed building until about 1853, so
did Elyria. While
Adams County and Vinton did not have
any high schools
until about 1860, neither did Geauga
nor Medina. If
Lorain had five high schools in 1859,
so did Brown.
There were as many high schools in the
Scioto Country
as on the Cuyahoga River.
Nor is there the slightest evidence of
any greater alac-
rity on the part of the New England
people in establish-
ing libraries, founding colleges or
supporting news-
papers. When Hudson, Middlebury and
Ravenna had a
newspaper apiece in 1828, Georgetown,
West Union and
Ripley also had a newspaper apiece. The
people of Rip-
ley in Brown County were starting a
college in 1830 be-
fore the people in Marietta were doing
it. The people
at New Athens in Harrison County were
starting a col-
lege before the Western Reserve College
was started and
the Presbyterians of West Union, Red
Oak and Cincin-
nati were quite as early in building
and chartering
churches as the sons of Massachusetts.
I will close by calling attention to a
fact which was
printed in all the newspapers in 1853.
The German
Freemen had a great mass meeting in
which they adopted
certain resolutions. They demanded: 1.
Nine months
of school. 2. Absolute separation of
the schools from
all sectarian and political meddling.
3. Compulsory
education.
The act of 1837 would never have been
enacted if
there had not been a Canadian and a
Scotchman, Mc-
Nutt and Stewart to vote yea.
I rest the case.
446 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Documents
Ohio. Commissioner of Common Schools. Reports,
1847,
1854-1865.
Ohio. Executive Documents, 1838,
1840-1845, 1854.
Ohio. General Assembly. House
Journals, 1805-1807.
Ohio. General Assembly. Senate
Journals, 1805-1808.
Ohio. General Assembly. Senate and House Journals,
1811-1813, 1819, 1821, 1825,
1827, 1830, 1831, 1834, 1836, 1837.
Ohio. General Assembly. Laws, 1808,
1810-1820.
Ohio. Legislative Journals, 1816-1819.
Ohio. Secretary of State -Reports, 1837,
1838, 1839, 1859.
Newspapers
Cincinnati Gazette, 1823.
Columbus Gazette, 1824.
Connecticut Mirror, March 29, 1819.
Frankfort Commonwealth, August 6,
1833-January 10, 1834.
Hamilton Intelligencer, 1825-1850.
Ohio State Journal, December, 1818; January-March, 1819;
January, 1836.
Ohio State Journal (Semi-weekly), September 18, 1838.
Ohio Statesman, December, 1818; January-March, 1819.
Scioto Gazette, May-June, 1815.
Weekly Recorder, July, 1814; February, 1815; January, 1817.
Western Spy, 1820.
Periodicals
College of Teachers, Proceedings, 1834-1865.
Firelands Pioneer, 1822; Vols. VII-VIII, XIV.
Ohio Archaeological and Historical
Publications, Vols. VI,
XII, XXV.
Ohio School Journal, 1849.
Western Reserve Pioneer, 1879-1892.
General Works
Beers-History of Montgomery County,
Ohio.
Biographical Cyclopaedia and Portrait
Gallery of Ohio.
Briggs - History of
Presbyterianism.
Evans, Nelson W., -History of Scioto County and Pioneer
Record of Southern Ohio.
The Origin of Public Education in Ohio 447 Histories of Various Ohio Counties. History of Education in the State of Ohio; a centennial volume. Howe, Henry-Historical Collections of Ohio (Edition of 1848.) Lane, S. A.-Fifty Years of Akron and Summit County. Smith-History of Jefferson College. |
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