Ohio History Journal
PIONEER SCHOOLS
AND SCHOOL MASTERS.
BY D. C. SHILLING.
One of the most striking facts found in
a study of the
history of the Ohio Valley is the early
appearance of the log
schoolhouse. When the primitive
conditions of the country,
together with the everpresent danger
from Indian attacks are
taken into consideration, one is forced
to conclude that only a
sincere and abiding faith in the
efficacy of popular education
prompted the pioneers to make the
sacrifices necessary to dis-
seminate the rudiments of a liberal
education among their
children.
Another striking fact in the history of
the Ohio Valley is the
diversity of racial elements among the
early settlers. Thus we
find the sons of New England and the
sons of the upland South.
together with a considerable foreign
element, living in close
proximity, each representing ideals of
its own. However, it
appears that on the question of
educating their children they
occupied quite common ground.
The educational activities of the New
England settlements
have been emphasized from almost every
possible viewpoint,
while the intellectual attainments of
the non-New England set-
tlements have been an unexplored field
until quite recently. In
the educational realm as in the
political the New England ele-
ment did most of the literary work of
the day and charges are
not wanting that other settlements have
suffered from unfair
comparisons.
A recent writer1 of Scotch-Irish
extraction points out that
"by means of the every busy and
facile pens of the noble Puri-
tan fathers, the belief has taken deep
root in the eastern states
and it is not without adherents in the
west, that the preeminent
position Ohio maintains as an element of
the Republic is wholly
due to the remarkable fecundity, mental
and physical, of the
1Hunter,
W. H., In Ohio Arch. and Hist. Soc. Pub. Vol. VI, p. 95
et seq.
(36)
Pioneer Schools and
Schoolmasters. 37
eight families from New England who
located at Marietta in
1788." He also states that until
recently "no one has had the
temerity to dispute in the least degree
the claim that Ohio is
solely the product of Puritan
forethought", but recently, he says,
the Scotch-Irish has come "to
dispute or rather to divide the
honor" with the New Englanders.
"The Scotch-Irish of America
have not been writers; they were only
actors." He contends that
Ohio history has been written only from
the Massachusetts-
Connecticut point of view. He suggests
that there is a Penn-
sylvania-Virginia point of view. These
sectionalistic attitudes
we shall treat further on in this
discussion.
THE PLANTING OF SCHOOLS.
One point sometimes lost sight of in a
discussion of the
rise of schools in the Ohio Valley is
that many of the pioneers
had emigrated from regions of good
schools, and also that not
a few of them were alumni of reputable
schools in the older
Atlantic states. This is applicable to
the region settled by the
southern uplander as well as those
peopled by New Englanders.
Therefore we are not surprised to learn
of the very early at-
tempts to found academies and colleges.
The earliest school in the Ohio Valley that
the writer could
learn of was in Harrodsburg, Kentucky,
where a Mrs. Coomes
taught a school in the same year that
the Declaration of Inde-
pendence was adopted. The year after the
Revolution closed
John Filson started an academy at
Lexington. Other early
schools in Kentucky were McAfee's
Station in 1777; Boones-
borough in 1779, and Lexington in 1780.3
John Filson and
John McKinney were pioneer teachers of
Kentucky whom pos-
terity delights to honor.
The intellectual life of the Kentucky
pioneer found expres-
sion in other than purely scholastic
lines. As early as Decem-
ber, 1787, the Kentucky Gazette
announces a meeting of a Ken-
tucky "Society for Improvement in
Knowledge". At Danvillle
2"A number of the prominent men
among the early Kentucky set-
tlers were themselves college men and
among the founders of colleges in
Virginia. Lewis, Hist. of Ed. in Ky. p.
14.
3Ibid. p. 14. The tragic death of Filson
and the encounter of
McKinney with the wild cat are too well
known to need repeating here.
38 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
as early as 1786 there was a
"Political Club" which, prior to
1790, seems to have anticipated some of
the early amendments
to the federal constitution.4
On the status of education in the
West generally, and on that of Kentucky
in particular, we have
the following testimony of the traveler,
Michaux (F. A.), in
1802: "Throughout the western
country the children are kept
punctually at school; where they learn
reading, writing and
the elements of arithmetic. These
schools are supported at the
expense of the inhabitants, who send for
masters as soon as the
population and their circumstances will
permit; in consequence
of which it is very rare to find an
American who does not know
how to read and write". Of the more
remote places, where
schools were scarce, he adds that the
building of schools is "the
object of solicitude in every
family".5
The region now included in West Virginia
had few schools
before the opening of the nineteenth
century, one reason being
the remoteness of the pioneer
settlements. The time and energy
of the pioneer were occupied in gaining
"sustenance for them-
selves and their families, and in their
work many difficulties and
dangers had been encountered".6
The early schools in Ohio, like those in
Kentucky, followed
closely upon the settlement of any
locality, and also like those of
Kentucky, they were either adjacent to a
fort, or only in set-
tlements compact enough to render Indian
attacks less liable. Ac-
cordingly, we find the first school at
Marietta in a blockhouse
within Campus Martius. Here during the
winter of 1789-90
Major Anselm Tupper taught the first
school. Dr. Hildreth
states that in 1790 the officers of
the Ohio Company "appointed
one hundred and fifty dollars of their
funds for the support of
schools" at Marietta, Belpre and
Waterford.7 The same author
s caks of the pioneer schoolmasters of
Marietta as "liberally edu-
cated men,"8 but after
naming one teacher, he characterizes him
Lewis, p. 11.
5Thwaites, (ed.) Early Western Travels,
Vol. III, p. 250.
6Whitehill,
Hist. of Ed. in W. Va. p. 13.
7Hildreth, Pioneer History of Ohio, p.
261.
8Ibid. p. 468.
Pioneer Schools and Schoolmasters. 39
as a "well educated but rather
dissipated man of Quaker (sic)
parentage".9
The second locality in Ohio to have
schools was Columbia.
now a part of Cincinnati. A school was
established here by
John Reiley in 1790. The following year
he was joined by
Francis Dunlevy, who had charge of the
higher mathematics
and the ancient languages, while Reiley
taught the common
branches.10 The later career of these two men
furnishes proof
that at least some of the pioneer
schoolmasters of southwestern
Ohio were men of ability and sterling
character. After Wayne's
victory over the Indians, settlers were
free to follow the rivers
into the interior of the state; thus Mr.
Dunlevy followed the
pioneers up the Little Maimi to a
settlement called "The Island."
Three years later he located in the
vicinity of Lebanon, where in
1797 he conducted a large school. Here,
five years before the
town was laid out, Mr. Dunlevy taught
the common branches,
the ancient languages and higher
mathematics.11 The first school
in Lebanon was taught by one of
Dunlevy's former pupils. By
1806 there were several schools in this
vicinity and by 1805 a
brick school house had been erected.
Among the early schools of Cincinnati
was one for young
ladies "kept" by a Mrs.
Williams in 1802. Three years later a
boarding school was opened in a room
fifteen feet square at
which Major Gano was a pupil for a short
time. The classics
were taught by a Mr. Stewart in the
first years of the nine-
teenth century.
A traveler, Henry B. Fearon, wrote that
the teachers in
Cincinnati "are New Englanders as
are the schoolmasters in the
Western country generally." He also tells of visits to "a poor
half-starved civil schoolmaster"
who had "two miserable rooms
for which he pays twenty-two shillings
and sixpence per month;
the terms for all branches are thirteen
shillings and sixpence per
quarter". The master complained of
great "difficulty in getting
9 Ibid. p. 335.
10 McBride, Pioneer Biography of Butler
Co., Vol. I, p. 30.
11 Schools of Ohio, 1876, Sketch of
Lebanon. This volume is not
paged as a continuous volume. It is a
collection of separate sketches.
40 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
paid and also of the untameable
insubordination of his schol-
ars."12
LANCASTERIAN SCHOOLS.
There were several schools of the
Lancasterian order in the
Ohio Valley by 1820. There was one at Hillsboro, Ohio, in 1818,
where Captain John McMullin, of
Virginia, was hired to teach
forty-eight weeks for $600. The school
opened with sixty-five
pupils but soon increased to ninety.
Instruction in the common
branches was given here until 1823, when the
school closed. A
few years later an attempt to revive it
failed.
The Dayton Academy, which was founded in
1807, decided
to adopt the Lancasterian plan, and in
1818 employed one
Gideon McMillan, "an expert",
to install the system. He an-
nounced that there would be "no
public examinations at par-
ticular seasons; in a Lancasterian
school every day being an ex-
amination day at which all who have
leisure are invited to at-
tend." The extent to which they
sought to control their pupils
is seen in the following resolution of
the board of trustees in
1821. Resolved: "That any scholar
attending the Lancasterian
school who may be found playing ball on
the Sabbath, or resort-
ing to the woods or commons on that day
for sport, shall forfeit
any badge of merit he may have attained
and twenty-five tickets;
and if the offense appears aggravated,
shall be further degraded
as the tutor shall think proper and
necessary; and that this reso-
lution be read in school every Friday
previous to the dismission
of the scholars."13
There was agitation for a Lancasterian
school in Cincinnati
as early as 1812, but it was not until
1814, when a pupil of Lan-
caster, Edmund Harrison of Tennessee,
came to Cincinnati and
proposed to the Methodist Church that a
school be installed.
Failure to agree on all points caused a
temporary division but
the factions soon united and during that
year raised $9,000, to
which $3,000 was added in the spring of
1815. The Presby-
terian church was offered for use as a
schoolhouse on condition
12Greve, Hist. of Cin. Vol. I, p. Other
Ohio towns having schools
before 1810 are: Zanesville, 1800;
Youngstown, 1802; Paddy's Run, Butler
Co., 1802; Warren, 1803; Middletown,
1805; Steubenville, 1806, etc.
16Hist. of Schools, 1876, based on
sketches of the respective cities.
Pioneer Schools and
Schoolmasters. 41
that the Church be allowed to choose
annually twenty-eight
scholars as charity pupils. On April 17, 1815, the school
opened, the enrollment reaching 420
within two weeks. This
number overcrowded the church building
and the school au-
thorities had to refuse admittance to
any more pupils. The in-
terest of the people in the school is
shown by the starting of a
second school for "females"
only during the same year.14 Fearon
states that in 1817 the superintendent
told him that "they could
not attempt to put into practice the
greater part of the punish-
ments" as provided by the founder
of the system.15
THE RISE OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
It would be unreasonable to expect that
the first schools of
the pioneers be free public schools. The
vicissitudes of pioneer
life demanded that the early educational
facilities be supplied by
those who had children to attend school,
and that the expense to
the parent be not in the proportion of
his wealth to that of the
community, but according to the number
of pupils he sent to
school. It was customary for a teacher
to secure by subscrip-
tion a satisfactory number of
pupils-usually more than twenty
-at from $1.75 to $2.25 each per
quarter. In Kentucky teach-
ers usually received £1 and seven
shillings per quarter for each
pupil, not more than one-fourth of which
was paid in money.
The master was obliged to accept
"bear bacon, buffalo steak,
jerked venison, furs, potmetal, bar
iron, linsey, hackled flax,
young cattle, pork, corn or
whiskey" as well as tobacco - then
legal tender in Kentucky.16 In
calculating the salaries of teach-
ers, it must be recalled that it was the
well-nigh universal cus-
tom to "board round" with the
pupils, hence a school of thirty
pupils at $2.00 per quarter would net
the teacher $60.
Often a teacher would advertise in the
newspaper for
scholars. "The founders of new
schools for the most part ad-
14 Daniel Drake, Picture of
Cincinnati in 1815.
Henry B. Fearon, quoted by Greve, Hist.
of Cin. Vol. I, p. It is
not to be inferred that these were the
only Lancasterian schools in the
Ohio Valley. How many there were and
what influence they had would be
difficult to ascertain. Flint in his
Condensed Geog. & Hist. of the Western
States, Vol. II, p. 411, mentions at
Lancasterian school at Wheeling.
16 Lewis, History of Higher Education in
Kentucky, p. 31.
42 Ohio Arch. and
Hist. Society Publications.
vertise themselves from London, Paris,
Philadelphia, New York
or Boston, and have all performed
exploits in the regions whence
they came and bring the latest
improvements with them."17 They
selected catchy names for their schools
such as Pestalozzi estab-
lishment, agricultural school,
missionary school, etc., giving the
name "college" to a
"little subscription school in which half the
pupils are abcdarians."18
Often an elaborate contract was drawn up
and signed by
both parties. We reproduce one signed at
Youngstown, Ohio,
March 31, 1818:
"This article between the
undersigned subscribers of the
one part and Jabez P. Manning on the
other, witnesseth: That
said Manning doth on his part, engage to
teach a school at the
schoolhouse near the center of
Youngstown for the term of one
quarter; wherein he engages to teach,
Reading, Writing, Arith-
metic and English Grammar: and
furthermore that the school
shall be opened at 9 O'clock A. M. and
closed at 4 P. M. of each
day of the week (Saturday and Sunday
excepted) and on Sat-
urday to be opened at 9 and closed at 12
O'clock A. M. And we,
the subscribers, on our part,
individually engage to pay unto
the said Manning, $1.75 for each and
every scholar we sub-
scribed, at the end of the term; and we
furthermore engage to
furnish, or to bear the necessary
expense of furnishing, wood
and all other things necessary for the
use of the school.
"Furthermore, we do engage that,
unless by the 6th day of
April of the present year the number of
scholars subscribed
amount to thirty-five, that the said
Manning is in no way
obligated by this article.
"Furthermore, we allow the said
Manning the privilege of
receiving five scholars more than are
here specified.
"J. P. MANNING."19
(Then follow subscribers names).
The clause in the Ordinance of 1787
relating to education
and the early land grant of section 16
are too familiarly known
to need discussion in this paper.
Despite the zeal of the early
17Flint, Ten Years in the Valley of the
Miss. (1826), pp. 185-6.
18 Ibid.
19 Hist. Sketches of Public Schools
(1876), Youngstown sketch.
Pioneer Schools and Schoolmasters. 43
settlers, a generation was to pass
before free public schools were
in operation in Ohio. A writer of high
authority is of the
opinion that little evidence exists to
prove that "the framers
of the constitution of 1802 contemplated
a school system to be
supported by the state."20 They
seemed to think that the land
grants were sufficient for all education
from the lowest grades
to the university, and until 1821 land was the basis of school
legislation. In absence of laws
compelling the education of the
youth at the expense of the public,
education in those days was
voluntary and paid for by the
recipients. The statute books
show that as early as 1808 schools were
incorporated, and that
in 1817 a general act of incorporation
was passed. "How gen-
erally the schools took advantage of
this legislation, and how
generally they remained mere private
associations, it would not
be easy to ascertain."21
In 1821 the first general school law was
passed, but it was
not written in the imperative mood. This
act permitted the
division of a township into districts
and provided for school
committees which had some powers of
school taxation. The
limitations of this law rendered it
insufficient and in 1825 a law
was enacted much broader in scope and
whose provisions were
mandatory.22
The inauguration of a public school
system was not the
accomplishment of a day. "As late
as 1825 there was no public
school, properly speaking, in
Cincinnati, where * * * public
sentiment was early manifested in favor
of wise legislation in
support of schools."23 In 1829 the total sum of money appor-
tioned to the directors of a rural
district "for the maintenance
of a free school rarely exceeded $10."24
This modest sum enabled
the directors to announce free school
for ten days, at the end
of which those who desired to continue
in school must privately
pay the expense incurred.
One of the earliest organizations of teachers
was the "Col-
lege of Teachers" at Cincinnati in
1831.
It was the ardent
20 Hinsdale, in Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Soc. Pub. Vol. VI, p. 38.
21Ibid. p. 49.
22Ibid.
Education in Ohio, by Harvey and White,
p. 95.
24Ibid.
44 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
champion of
better teachers, better school laws and a state super-
intendent of
schools.25 In the language
of a contemporary pub-
lication,
"the College of Professional Teachers is one of the most
important
literary institutions in the West and certainly deserves
to be
encouraged and sustained by all the friends of education.
* * * It is
the design of the Association of Teachers to elicit
and diffuse
truth in relation to the various branches of educa-
tion, and to
introduce and promote a more just and rational
system of
instruction by concentrating the information and ex-
perience of
those who have been engaged in literary pursuits."26
By the middle
thirties considerable progress had been made
in the public
school system, especially in Cincinnati
In 1835,
there were in
that city about 5500 youths between six and sixteen
years of age,
of whom 3300 were attending school, and of the
non-attendants
over half were more than twelve years old.27
The pupils
were housed "in thirty spacious apartments of 36x38
feet
each," and under the care of 43 teachers whose salaries
aggregated $14,000.28 Parades
of school children were used as
a means to
arouse interest in education. On July 4, 1833, nearly
2,000 children joined
in a parade. A few of the teachers refused
to march and
were dismissed for obstinacy.29 The
parade at the
opening of
school in 1835 received praise from Harriet Mar-
tineau, who
was a witness on the occasion.30
The friends of
education in Ohio were jubilant when Samuel
Lewis was made
the first superintendent of common schools in
the state in
1837. Data in his first annual report
give us a
25 Harvey and
White, Education in Ohio, p. 96.
24Millennial
Harbinger, VI, p. 605.
27 Seventh
Annual Report of the Trustees and Visitors of Common
Schools to the
City Council of Cincinnati, 1836, p. 3.
28 Cincinnati Report, p. 9. The teaching staff consisted
of:
14 male
principals @ $500
per year .......... $7,000
10 male
assistants @ $300 per
year.......... 3,000
4 female
principals @ $250
per year .......... 1,000
15 female
assistants @ $200 per
year .......... 3,000
43 $14,000
29Greve,
History of Cincinnati, I, p. 618.
30 Ibid. p. 619.
Pioneer Schools and
Schoolmasters. 45
rather clear idea of the educational
affairs of the state at that
time.
There were 4,336 public and 2,175
private schools in the
state, employing 8,962 teachers, who
received $435,000 annually
for their services. The whole number of
youths in the state
between the ages of four and twenty-one
years was slightly less
than a half million, of whom
approximately thirty per cent were
in school from two to six months of the
year. Of the number
in school more than forty-two per cent
were in attendance over
four months of the year.31
Mr. Lewis's report showed that there
were 7748 districts in
the state, 3370 of which were without
school houses. He pointed
out that this want was strongest in the
towns and villages.
"Some places containing from 500 to
600 inhabitants, have no
common school houses."32 The
buildings that were used were,
in many cases, of little value, the
lowest was valued at $10 and
the highest at $5,500, "about
one-third are worth less than $50."33
Flint, writing in 1828, says that common
schools "are
established in a greater or less degree
of perfection in every
township of any consequence in the
state. * * * In some few
instances settlements have been found
insensible to the value
and importance of free common
schools."34
Graded schools made their appearance in
1840.
Cincinnati
being the first to adopt a course of
study. At the close of the
period of which we write there were but
four graded schools
in Ohio, viz.: Cincinnati, Cleveland,
Columbus and Dayton.35
THE PIONEER SCHOOL HOUSE.
From Pittsburgh to Louisville one style
of school archi-
tecture existed in the early days -the
log cabin. Occasionally
this structure was constructed of hewn
logs, but more often of
31First Annual Report of the Supt. of
Common Schools in Ohio, for
the year ending 1837, computed from
tables opposite page 44.
32 First Annual Report of the Supt. of
Common Schools in Ohio, for
the year ending 1837, p. 32.
33Ibid. p. 46.
34 Flint, Condensed Geog. and Hist. of
the Western States of the
Miss. Valley, 1828, II, p. 346.
35 Education in Ohio, p. 109 gives the
first course of study in Ohio.
46 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
logs just as they came from the tree.
Its dimensions were
usually 18 x 24 feet or sometimes twenty
feet square, with eaves
eight to ten feet above the ground. The
spaces between the logs
were filled with small strips of wood
and "chinked" with clay.
Windows were secured in one of two ways:
either omit a row
of logs, save of course, the cross-ends,
or saw down through
three or four layers of logs. In the
former case a horizontal
slit-like window would be obtained; in
the latter a perpendicular
window would be the result. In either
case rude frames were
inserted, into which, in rare cases,
glass was placed, but more
frequently the light was admitted
through greased paper.
The door was made of thick, rough boards
hung on wooden
hinges and fastened by the aid of a
latch of the same material.
Locking and unlocking were accomplished
by means of a "latch-
string." Tardy pupils seeing no "latch-string" knew that the
master was "at prayers" and
had to remain outside until it
reappeared, disregarding both the
condition of the weather and
the length of the prayer. The roof was
of clapboards, held in
place by means of long heavy poles
running at right angles with
the tiers of clapboards. The heating
plant consisted of a huge,
open fireplace, lined with rough stones
and connecting with a
chimney made of logs standing upright
and lined with clay
mortar. In some of the pioneer schools
Mother Earth served
for a floor. One of the early schools at
Zanesville was built
over a stump which served very
conveniently for the "dunce
block." In most cases, however,
"puncheon" floors were used.
The school furniture was as primitive as
the building itself.
The seats were made of logs split in two
with the flat side up and
supported by four to six pins or
"legs." These "solid if
not
comfortable" seats were of
different heights, the lower ones
being in the front of the room for the
smaller children, yet they
were often too high to permit the feet
of the occupant to touch
the floor. The larger pupils were seated
on the higher benches
placed around three sides of the room.
Some schools were
extravagant enough to have desks. These
were made of rude
planks supported by long pins, and had
no suport for the back.
In the above description the writer has
held to general
characteristics. He is fully aware that
in some localities, espe-
Pioneer Schools and
Schoolmasters. 47
cially in towns, a much better building
could be found; e. g., a
brick building was erected at Lebanon in
1805 and frame build-
ings had made their appearance in a few
communities soon after
1800. Yet the vast majority of the
pioneer schoolhouses were
of rude construction. "Cabins
originally occupied as places of
residence when abandoned by their owners
for better homes,
were often made over to the public for
the accommodation of the
schoolkeeper and the school he kept any
hut or hovel was con-
sidered available for educational
purposes.36
THE PIONEER SCHOOLMASTER.
Many generalizations on the character
and fitness of the
pioneer schoolmaster already exist, but
their contradictions ren-
der it exceedingly difficult to
truthfully portray the pioneer
teacher of a century ago. In the first
place it is manifestly unfair
to judge the morals of that age by the
standards of today; it is
also unfair to dwell on the
intemperance, etc., of the school-
master without informing us that
drinking was an almost
universal custom on the frontier, and
that lawyers, doctors, poli-
ticians and other people partook freely
of the "liquid hospi-
tality" of the day. The writer
offers no apology for the drunken.
trifling teacher, but in the spirit of
fairness insists that he must
be judged by the moral standards of his
day, and that his char-
acter and fitness be squared alongside
that of men of other
walks of life.
Some writers insist that the teachers of
the New England
settlements in the Ohio region were
distinctly superior to those
found in communities settled by non-New
England stock. This
sectionalistic attitude is so apparent
that one should know the
36 This quotation is from Venable, p.
187.
My authorities for the above
descriptions are Harvey & White.
Education in Ohio, 1876.
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Soc. Pub. VI,
Article on Pathfinders of Jef-
ferson Co.
Report of Samuel Lewis, first Supt. of
Common Schools in Ohio
Lewis, A. F., History of Higher
Education, Kentucky.
Whitehill, A. R., History of Higher
Education in West Virginia
Historical Sketches of Public Schools
(Ohio).
48 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
antecedents of a writer to rightly
estimate the fairness of his
characterizations.
This sectional characterization has been
done so thoroughly
by Dr. J. J. Burns that we here (quote
him at considerable
length. "The teachers of the
pioneer schools in southwestern
Ohio were selected more on account of
their unfitness to per-
form manual labor than by reason of
their intellectual worth.
The few schools established in this
section were taught by crip-
ples, worn out old men, and women
physically unable to scotch
hemp and spin flax, or constitutionally
opposed to the exercises.
Educational sentiment was at low ebb,
and demanded from the
instructors of children no higher
qualifications than could be
furnished by the merest tyro. Before
school legislation and
other instrumentalities effected
salutary changes in the methods
of school administration common to this
locality, schools of
worth were to be found only in the more
populous centers. The
estimation in which the teacher was held
by the community at
large was not such as to induce any
young man or woman of
spirit and worth to enter upon teaching
as a vocation.
"The teacher was regarded as a kind
of pensioner on the
bounty of the people, whose presence was
tolerated only because
county infirmaries were not then in
existence. The capacity of
the teacher to teach was never a reason
for employing him, but
the fact that he could do nothing else.
Under such circumstances,
it would be vain to look for superior
qualifications on the part
of the teacher. The people's demand for
education was fully
met when their children could write a
tolerably legible hand,
when they could read the Bible, or an
almanac and when they
were so far inducted into the mysterious
computation of numbers
as to be able to determine the value of
a load of farm produce.
"A brighter picture presents itself
when we consider the
state of educational sentiment in that
section of Ohio peopled
with settlers from New England. They
were not oblivious to the
value of education in a utilitarian
sense, but their notions of
utility were broader and more
comprehensive than those enter-
tained by their southern neighbors.
"The social status of the teacher
was on equal footing with
that of the physician and minister.
Society welcomed him to its
Pioneer Schools and
Schoolmasters. 49
presence as an honored member. His
periodic visits to the homes
of his pupils were regarded as quite an
event by each household.
and great were the preparations that
preceded his appearance.
* *
* Many an inspiring youth was
led into new fields of
thought by coming into personal contact
with the master of the
home circle; and the seeds of knowledge
planted by the faithful
teacher around the fireside of the
pioneer often sprung up into
rigorous life."37
The predominance of the Irish and
Scotch-Irish teachers,
who in many cases were intemperate in
the use of whisky, and
whose knowledge was somewhat limited,
has led some to con-
clude that the teachers in the non-New
England regions of the
Ohio Valley were of little consequence
mentally and of still less
morally. Some of the early travelers
have helped to give this im-
pression. Coming in a trip down the Ohio
one observed a teacher
in Adams County, Ohio, whom he
characterized as "an Irish look-
ing old man with silver grey locks and
barefooted, his whole ap-
pearance and that of the cabin which was
the school indicating
but little encouragement for the
disseminating of instruction."38
What has already been referred to as the
Massachusetts-
Connecticut versus the
Pennsylvania-Virginia viewpoints of
Ohio history is nowhere more patent than
in discussions on early
educators in the Ohio Valley. A
southwestern Ohio writer
gives an entirely different impression
of the teacher of his sec-
tion: "Among the pioneer settlers
the primitive schoolmaster
was looked upon as a prodigy of
knowledge and in all misunder-
standings between him and the scholars,
they always sided with
the master, who was generally
superstitious, * * *
but in
general he was a scholar according to
the books"; then he adds
"but he knew little or nothing
about human nature."39 High
Burns, J. J., Educational History of
Ohio (1905), pp. 21-22. There
is a striking resemblance between this
description and that of White &
Harvey, Education in Ohio, 1876, pp.
86-87. In fact some of the par-
agraphs are identical save perhaps the
omission of a phrase or occasionally
a sentence. No quotation marks are used
and no reference to the earlier
work is made.
38 Cuming, Tour to the West, (Thwaites,
ed., Early Western Travels,
IV, p. 213).
39 Historical Sketches of Public
Schools, 1876, article on Preble Co.
by A. Haines.
Vol. XXV -4.
50 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications.
praise is given the teacher of southern
Ohio by W. H. Hunter
in his "Pioneers of Jefferson
County.' He especially appears
as protagonist of the cause of the Irish
and Scotch-Irish school-
masters. He speaks of them as worthy men
of letters, "who had
a standing in the community next to the
minister himself."40
Venable speaks of them as
"worthless men, impecunious, and
addicted to the use of the pipe and the
bottle. * * * The
drinking habit appears to have been a
pedagogical qualification
exceedingly prevalent."41 Occasionally
a teacher would win the
large boys by sharing with them his pipe
or jug. E. D. Mans-
field tells us that one of his teachers
made the pupils "half-
tipsy" with "cherry bounce."
On the other hand, it has been stated
that prior to the rise
of highly organized town and city school
systems "it was not
uncommon to see a teacher of liberal
culture in charge of a
country school. The pioneer teacher was
often the graduate of
a good college."42 Mr.
Lewis, the first superintendent of com-
mon schools in Ohio, gave as his opinion
that "the most general
defect (among teachers) is want of
learning and energy." He
added that poor teachers often hindered
educational progress
His remedy was to increase the salary so
as to induce men of
worth to enter upon teaching as a
profession.43
That there were unlearned, intemperate,
improvident teach-
ers in the early day is amply and fully
proven by the evidence.
On the other hand, it is just as
conclusively proven that among
the pioneer teachers were giants in
intellectual and moral strength.
Call the roll of Reiley, Dunlevy, Glass,
Filson, the Picket brothers.
Daniel Rice and many others. The very
honorable careers of
Reiley and Dunlevy in political life
after they had given up
teaching show them to have been men of
sterling qualities.
Education received considerable
attention in the pioneer
days of Kentucky; many of the pioneers
were "college men and
among the founders of colleges in
Virginia;" hence we are not
surprised to learn of the founding of
Transylvania University
40Ohio Arch. and Hist. Soc. Pub. VI, p.
246.
41Beginnings of Literary Culture in the
Ohio Valley, p. 191.
42 Education in Ohio, p. 101.
43First report of Supt. of Common
Schools, p. 10.
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Pioneer Schools and Schoolmasters. 51
during the period immediately following the Revolution. Some of the pioneer masters in Kentucky "were men of high standing" who taught two to four months of the year, following the occu- pation of a surveyor the remainder of the year. Many of them were unfit for teaching. Often the main qualifications of a teacher were that "he did not know how, or did not care, or did not have the energy to do anything else, having probably failed in every thing else he had undertaken, or he was some stranger, a traveling Irishman or Englishman, or a wandering Yankee whose qualifications for the place were presumed from the fact that he had seen a good deal of the world."44 Much may be said derogatory of the pioneer school and schoolmaster, but the fact remains that with all of their short- comings they were productive of much good. When all of the disadvantages and hardships of pioneer life are taken into con- sideration, one is apt to conclude that they "were the best that pioneer circumstances would allow. They gave the boys and girls a start in life. The children learned to read, write and cypher [sic] in practical ways."45 44Lewis, History of Higher Education in Kentucky, p. 31. 45Venable, Beginnings of Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley, p. 195. |
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