Reviews, Notes and Comments 289
in his Cincinnati speech. Later, on
March 21, 1864, he
quoted from this message to a labor
delegation that
called upon him in Washington, stating
in conclusion
that he had not changed his views on
this subject.
DOCTOR HENRY SOLOMON LEHR
A great educator, to whom Ohio owes
much, has
passed away. At four o'clock on Monday
morning,
January 29, 1923, Dr. Henry S. Lehr,
aged eighty-five,
founder and former president of Ohio
Northern Uni-
versity, died at his home in Ada.
Funeral services were
held in the Lehr Memorial Building of
the University
on Wednesday, January 31. President E.
A. Smith,
successor to the deceased, presided at
the services. The
funeral sermon was delivered by Dr. P.
H. Welshimer.
President W. O. Thompson of the Ohio
State Uni-
versity spoke in behalf of the Ohio
colleges. Dr. W.
H. McMaster, President of Mt. Union
College, read
the resolutions adopted by the Mt.
Union College stu-
dents and faculty. Dr. Lehr was a
graduate of Mt.
Union, receiving his A. B. degree from
that institution
in 1871 and his M. A. degree two years
later. United
States Senator Frank B. Willis and Mr.
E. L. Miller of
Ravenna paid tributes to their great
teacher.
Among the prominent alumni present were
United
States Senator Frank B. Willis; R. M.
Wanamaker
and E. S. Matthias, Ohio supreme court
judges; J. L.
Newhouse, supreme court judge of
Oklahoma; Timothy
S. Hogan, former Attorney General of
Ohio; ex-Con-
gressman Ralph D. Cole; Earl D. Bloom,
Lieutenant
Governor of Ohio; Judge George P. Baer
of Cleveland,
and Judge Charles Crittenden of Toledo.
Vol. XXXII -- 19.
290
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
Dr. Lehr's ancestors were Germans. They
came
to America before the Revolution. He
was born in a
rented log cabin March 8, 1838, at
Oldtown, Mahoning
County, Ohio, then a part of Trumbull
County. While
he was still quite young his parents
moved successively
to Stark and Wayne Counties. He was the
eleventh of
a family of twelve children. It is said
he did not learn
to speak the English language until he
was eight years
old. At the age of sixteen he began teaching
school.
In 1854 he attended a ten weeks' term
under Alfred
Holbrook, another great Ohio teacher,
at Marlboro,
Stark County.
He determined to study medicine, but
his father
persuaded him to take up the profession
of teaching.
His first certificate was signed by
John McSweeney, for
many years the most famous criminal
lawyer in the
Middle West.
When the war came on he enlisted at
Wooster,
Ohio, but was rejected as undersized.
He again en-
listed in the fall of the same year and
was a second
time rejected. In May, 1862, he
enlisted in the Eighty-
sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry and was
accepted, but
because of poor health was discharged
in September
of the same year. He then entered Mt.
Union College
and again enlisted in the army, this
time in the One
Hundred and Seventy-sixth Ohio
Volunteer Infantry.
He was discharged from the hospital at
Nashville, Ten-
nessee, May 20, 1865. Soon afterward he
taught school
in Stark County. He was ambitious to
establish a nor-
mal school and finally decided to begin
this work at
Johnstown, now Ada, Ohio.
The writer has heard Dr. Lehr describe
his first
Reviews, Notes and Comments 291
visit to this village. The
comprehensive system of land
drainage had not then been commenced in
northwestern
Ohio. When young Lehr reached Johnstown
he found
the water so high that he could not
walk up the street
and so, he said, he got on the fence
and managed to
proceed to the higher ground on which
the first building
of the Ada University was afterwards
erected.
Here he began teaching in a modest way.
He had
great faith in the future development
of this section of
the state and time proved the wisdom of
his choice of
the location for the school. Under his
enthusiastic and
energetic management it prospered
almost from the
first. It grew into recognition not
only as one of the
popular institutions of its kind in
Ohio but in, the entire
Middle West. Dr. Lehr had himself been
a poor boy
and with those of meager means who were
struggling
to acquire the rudiments of an
education he was in
thorough sympathy. He planned courses
of study and
the arrangement of terms to meet their
needs. He ex-
ercised general supervision over
boarding and rooming
facilities and took especial pride in
what he could offer
in this productive agricultural region
at the lowest rates
for the students of his school.
His interest in normal training was
confirmed by
his contact with Dr. Alfred Holbrook
and his plans for
so arranging the terms of his school
that students could
enter at almost any time of the year
and, without losing
standing in the college, be out the
winter term to teach
school and thus earn their way he
acquired, in a meas-
ure, while a student at Mt. Union
College when Dr.
O. N. Hartshorn was President of that
institution. It
was also while there doubtless that he was
impressed
292 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications
with the importance of keeping the
institution over
which he presided close to the
patriotic and official agen-
cies of the times. Dr. Hartshorn, soon
after Mt. Union
College was established, brought that
institution to the
attention of the state and Nation by
inviting to it the
distinguished men of his time to
deliver addresses.
Not only did he invite such men but he
so persistently
followed up his invitations that he succeeded
in having
such distinguished men as Salmon P.
Chase and others
high in official position deliver
addresses at Mt. Union.
It is claimed that Dr. Lehr even
surpassed the presi-
dent of his Alma Mater in
persuading eminent men to
visit Ada. Many will recall how he
managed to stage
at that place the great political
debate between Gov-
ernor James E. Campbell and William
McKinley, then
a candidate to succeed Campbell in the
governorship of
Ohio.
The results of this policy are manifest
to anyone
who reads the list of distinguished
alumni of the Ohio
Northern University. It is indeed a
rare honor to an
educational institution that never
received any direct
aid from the state that it should give
at the same time
to the Nation two United States senators.
After March
4, Ohio will be represented in the
highest legislative
body of the United States and the world
by two men
who were not only students but teachers
in the insti-
tution founded by Dr. Lehr. Two judges
of the Su-
preme Court of Ohio, R. M. Wanamaker
and E. S.
Matthias, are graduates from the Ohio
Northern.
That institution at different periods
has been known
by different names. It was first simply
a select school.
Afterwards it was known as the
Northwestern Ohio
Reviews, Notes and Comments 293
Normal School, then as Ohio Normal
University and
finally as Ohio Northern University.
Among interesting relics given by Dr.
Lehr to the
institution that he founded, were a
flag carried by his
grandfather at the battles of the
Brandywine, German-
town and Monmouth and the epaulettes
worn by his
father as Brigadier-General in the
Militia of Pennsyl-
vania.
Dr. Lehr belonged to the Grand Army of
the Re-
public and the Masonic order. He was a
member of
the Christian Church and for many years
Superintend-
ent of the Sunday School conducted by
that denomina-
tion in Ada.
October 30, 1866, he was united in
marriage with
Albina Hoover of Stark County, Ohio. He
is survived
by his widow and two daughters, Mrs.
Sarah L. Ken-
nedy, of Chicago, and Miss Harriet M.
Lehr, of Ada.
MEETING OF AMERICAN HISTORICAL
ASSOCIATION
The next annual meeting of the American
Histori-
cal Association will be held in
Columbus, Ohio, Decem-
ber 27, 28 and 29, 1923. The
Mississippi Valley Asso-
ciation will hold its meeting at the
same time and place.
It is practically assured that the
American Political
Science Association will also hold its
annual meeting
on the above dates in Columbus.
This is an announcement of unusual
interest to all
Ohio students and teachers of history
and an especial
effort will be made to assure an
attendance worthy of
the meetings.
Ohio ranks high among the states that
have made
conspicuous contribution to American
history. Ohioans