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CHAPTER VIII
EDUCATION IN CINCINNATI.

[BY W. H. VENABLE, LL D.]

THE FIRST' SCHOOL'S-OTHER EARLY SCHOOLS, SEMINARIES, COLLEGES, ETC.-PUBLIC SCHOOL'S, THEIR ORGANIZATION, SUPERINTENDENTS,, ETC. - HISTORY OF THE HIGH SCHOOL'S-NORMAL SCHOOL - UNIVERSITY- OBSERVATORY OHIO MECHANIC'S INSTITUTE- TECHNICAL SCHOOL-PRIVATE SCHOOLS SINCE TIE PUBLIC SCHOOLS WERE ORGANIZED-OTHER SCHOOLS, INSTITUTES AND COLLEGES-LAW SCHOOL-MEDICAL EDUCATION-LANE THEO-LOGICAL. SEMINARY-ST. XAVIER COLLEGE-OTHER ROMAN CATHOLIC SCHOOLS-HEBREW UNION COLLEGE, MUSIC - ART ACADEMY-SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY-HISTORICAL AND PIHLOSPHICAL SOCIETY OF OHIO - CLUBS AND SOCIETIES-EDUCATIONAL JOURNALS - LIBRARIES

THE educator, as a working force, has been active in Cincinnati from the time of the city's founding. John Cleves Symmes, proprietor of the Miami Purchase, had taught school in the East before coming West; John Filson, who surveyed the original plat of "Losantiville," was a New Jersey schoolmaster; and another school master, John Meily, owned the first, schoolhouse in Ohio or in the territory north-


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west of the Ohio river. This schoolhouse stood in Columbia, now the East End of the Queen City, and a subscription school was accommodated within its wooden walls about a year and a half after the landing of the first settlers of the town. The school was opened June 21, 1790. Reily was a young Pennsylvanian, and had served in the later battles of the Revolutionary war. He was joined in his teaching enterprise in 1791 by Francis Dunlevy, also an ex-soldier, who, after the war, had migrated from Virginia to Kentucky, and thence to Ohio. He became a judge, and he also wrote valuable annals of the Baptist Church. He was the father of Hon. A. H. Dunlevy.

The school started by Reily, and afterward carried on by Dunlevy alone, seems to have been reorganized into an " academy " in November, 1792, chiefly through the public spirit and practical energy of Judge William Goforth, Maj. John S. Gano, Rev. John Smith and Mr. Dunlevy himself. This pioneer institution existed for several years, and asserted its educational orthodoxy and dignity by drilling backwoods boys in mathematics and Latin grammar.

Other Early Schools.-In the shadow of Fort Washington, near the present intersection of Third and Lawrence streets, a log cabin was built in 1792, and under its clapboard roof a school of young Cincinnatians was gathered, but the teacher's name is forgotten. Three years later a better school building of frame was put up on the north side of Fourth street, between Main and Walnut, a locality noted for experimental literary institutions. The scanty records of Cincinnati's first decade make bare mention of several teachers and pseudo-teachers who earned a penny by dispensing such knowledge as had a market value. The French language was taught in 1799 by one Francis Menessier, who kept a "coffee-house" at the foot of Main street hill, and sold liquors and pies together with polite instruction. Dancing schools and singing schools were in considerable demand. One of the first schools for general elementary training was kept by James White, who, in October, 1799, announced to the citizens of Cincinnati, in the columns of the Western Spy, that his. "English school" had been removed, and was "now next door to Mr. Thomas Williams, skin-dresser,"-a suggestive juxtaposition. Mr. White advertises that "he also intends to open an evening school," in which "writing, arithmetic, &. c, will be taught four evenings in each week for three months. The terms for each. scholar will be two dollars, the scholars to find firewood and candles." That the schoolmaster's function a century ago trenched on the domain of the lawyer is indicated by the fact that Mr. White made known his readiness to furnish "deeds,. indentures, &. c, on reasonable terms."

Early in 1800 the Western Spy contained the notice that " a good schoolmaster was wanted on the Great Miami," and that one with a family would be preferred. The same newspaper kept before its readers the somewhat ostentatious advertisement of "Rev. Robert Stubbs, Philomath," an English clergyman and "dominie," who founded "Newport Academy" on his farm, "two miles from the Ohio, opposite Cincinnati, in Campbell county, Ky.," in which he taught " English grammar, Latin, Greek, arithmetic-all the most useful and some of the ornamental branches of mathematics." There is something almost awe-inspiring in the conclusion of the "Philomath's" statement, which announces that "should any feel inclined, he will also teach the use of the globes, at stated periods, in Cincinnati." Newport Academy developed into a useful school, having for its trustees some of the leading settlers of Campbell county, such as James Taylor, Daniel Mayo and Thomas Carneal. The chairman of the board was Washington Berry.

It may amuse the reader of these memoranda of small beginnings to peruse the following school advertisement which appeared in a Cincinnati paper in the year 1804: "Notice.-The public in general, and my former subscribers in particular, are respectfully informed that I purpose to commence school again on the 1st day of January, 1805. I shall teach reading, writing, arithmetic and English grammar,


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indiscriminately, for two dollars per quarter." Perhaps one may say, without the bitterness of irony, that a good many teachers since the days of the good man here quoted have, like him, taught the common branches quite "indiscriminately."

That succinct Old Testament of the local history of the "Miami Country," Dr. Daniel Drake's "Picture of Cincinnati," published in 1815, informs us that in Cincinnati "the business of tuition was generally conducted by strangers, and transient teachers, in rented rooms, till the year 1811; when ten or twelve individuals purchased a small lot, erected a couple of schoolhouses, and employed two or three teachers; but notwithstanding their laudable exertions, this academy has not flourished, and is likely soon to be superseded by the Cincinnati Lancaster Seminary." Dr. Drake gives a brief account of a projected institution which was to bear the name Cincinnati University. He says: "In the year 1806, a school association was formed in this place, and in 1807 it was incorporated. Its endowments were not exactly correspondent to its elevated title, consisting only of moderate contributions; and an application was made to the legislature for permission to raise money by a lottery, which was granted. A scheme was formed, and great part of the tickets sold; they have, however, not been drawn, and but little of the money which they brought, refunded. On Sunday the 28th of May, 1809, the schoolhouse erected by the corporation was blown down; since which it has become extinct."

Hon. S. S. L' Hommedieu, in a published " Pioneer Address," gives some pleasing reminiscences of his school days in early Cincinnati. He says: "In the years 1810, 1811, 1812, I recollect only three or four small schools. A Mr. Thomas H. Wright kept one in the second story of a frame building on the southwest corner of Main and Sixth streets. John Hilton had his school on the east side of Main, between Fifth and Sixth streets, over a cabinet maker's shop; David Cathcart, on the west side of Walnut, near Fourth street. The scholars at each school probably averaged about forty."

The Lancaster Seminary.-The schools thus far mentioned, and others that sprang up and died down within the first quarter of our city's first century, were sporadic and, as institutions, abortive. They were not fostered by united effort or general sympathy, and therefore took no deep root. The first really important school planted in Cincinnati was the Lancaster Seminary, a vigorous institution created mainly by the enthusiastic zeal of Dr. Daniel Drake, Rev. Joshua L. Wilson, and Rev. Oliver M. Spencer, seconded by the good will of the people. The school was to be conducted, as the name suggests, according to the monitorial method advocated by the English teacher, Joseph Lancaster, who, coming to America, promulgated his views in Philadelphia, where he died. The Lancastrian ideas appealed strongly to the visionary mind, and were seized upon eagerly by many who dreamed of an education at once cheap, substantial, and easily acquired. Edmund Harrison, of Tennessee, who had been a pupil of one of Lancaster's disciples, espoused the monitorial theory, and, with much ability and enthusiasm, undertook to put it into practice in the Queen City. In 1814-15 money to the amount of about twelve thousand dollars was subscribed for the seminary, payable in shares of twenty-five dollars. The banks of the city, fired with unwonted generosity in behalf of popular culture, agreed to loan the now institution cash on a long credit. A building site was secured near the northwest corner of Fourth and Walnut streets, on ground now partly occupied by the Cincinnati College. Architectural plans were prepared by Isaac Stagg, and .a rather extensive and ambitious two-story brick edifice was constructed, without loss of time. Drake, who may, with justice, be honored as the father of the movement, tells us that: "On the 17th of April, 1815, one of the lower rooms being completed, a school composed of children of both sexes was opened, and in less than a fortnight 420 were admitted; when, the apartment being sufficiently filled, many subsequent applicants were rejected. By the indefatigable efforts of the teacher [Mr. Harrison] order and method were at length introduced,


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and the proficiency of the scholars has equalled all reasonable expectations. A second school, on the same plan, for females only, has just been commenced, and promises to be well filled." The seminary was put under the management of a board of seven trustees, with Jacob Burnet as president. The expectations of the founders of the school were not realized, owing, in part, to inherent defects of the Lancastrian plan, and, in part, to a general depression caused by financial troubles affecting the entire community. The school was kept up as an academy until January 22, 1819, when it obtained a charter conferring university privileges, and changing the name from Lancaster Seminary to Cincinnati College. When the seminary first went into operation, in 1815, the town of Cincinnati consisted of about eleven hundred houses, and the entire population amounted to but six thousand, a number not sufficient to fill our present Music Hall.

Cincinnati College.-When, in 1819, Cincinnati College was chartered, there were, in energetic operation, three other western colleges that had a stimulating effect upon the literary pride of Cincinnati, and that aroused her emulation, if not her envy. These were Transylvania University, Lexington, Ky., Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, and Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. These young and vigorous institutions had faculties of zealous and able professors, and were drawing many ambitious young men to their halls. Especially did the Kentucky College and that at Oxford, being easily accessible from Cincinnati, provoke the rivalry of the newly organized Cincinnati College. The influence of the several colleges upon other schools, and upon individuals smitten with the desire for scholarship, was most beneficial. The higher institutions, with their libraries, laboratories, professional chairs, courses of study, degrees and alumnal bodies, were the "power-houses," or "storage-batteries," from which flowed streams of energy to the surrounding villages and farms.

In June, 1818, perhaps mainly at the solicitation of Dr. Drake, the sum of twenty-nine thousand dollars was subscribed by Gen. William Lytle, Oliver M. Spencer, John H. Piatt, Ethan Stone, William Corry, Gen. James Findley, David E. Wade, and Andrew Mack, with the object of " elevating Lancaster Seminary into a respectable college." These subscriptions were soon largely increased by the liberal givings of about forty other benefactors. In the winter of 1818-19, Dr. Drake went to Columbus and procured the charter which was the legal basis of the new college.

A Faculty of Arts was organized, with Rev. Elijah Slack, A. M., as president, assisted by several professors and tutors. John P. Foote says in his " Schools of Cincinnati," published in 1855: " The college was continued in operation a few years, during which period several young ladies were included in the graduating classes, together with a number of young men who have since attained distinguished reputation."

An English traveler visiting Cincinnati in 1823 wrote: "The college is tolerably built but is not likely to be well attended until better regulations are established. I was present at a lecture, and was much shocked at the want of decorum exhibited by the students, who sat down in their plaids and cloaks, and were constantly spitting tobacco juice about the room."

The trustees of the college in the year 1824 were Jacob Burnet, William H. Harrison, Rev. William Burke, O. M. Spencer, D. E. Wade, G. P. Torrence, D. K. Este, J. S. Lytle, P. S. Symmes, William Corry, Martin Baum, Daniel Gano, William Greene, Joseph Benham, T. Graham, Charles Hammond, Nathan Guilford, E. S. Haines, D. Wade and A. Mack. At the fourth annual commencement held Wednesday, September 29, 1824, orations were delivered by H. E. Spencer, T. H. Burrows, George W. Burnet, J. W. Piatt, E. Woodruff and John Scott Harrison. The degree of Master of Arts was conferred on John H. James, Frederick A. Kemper and William H. Harrison, Jr.

The college gradually ran down, and in 1827 all the departments ceased except


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a primary school which kept the charter alive. There appeared in the Cincinnati Mirror a call dated Jane 7, 1832, signed by Morgan Neville, then president of the hoard of trustees, and Peyton S. Symmes, secretary, soliciting public interest in behalf of the college. " The hope is cherished," says the call, " that the Mechanics' Institute, the Lyceum, and the Public Library, may be induced to connect their exertions with the college."

In June, 1835, Cincinnati College was revived, and a medical department was organized with a Faculty of eminent professors among whom were Dr. Daniel Drake, Dr. Samuel D. Gross, Dr. J. W. McDowell and Dr. Horatio G. Jameson. The department was in existence four years, and educated nearly 400 students.

In the revival of the college, in 1835, there was also a law department instituted. The first Faculty of the Law School consisted of John C. Wright, Joseph S. Benham, and Timothy Walker. Some years later Charles L. Telford and William S. Groesbeck became professors, and they were succeeded by Judge James and M. E. Curwen. The present Cincinnati Law School, of which Hon. Jacob D. Cox is the dean, is the outgrowth of the organization of 1835, and is the only department of Cincinnati College that has survived.



The academic department of the college was renewed, in 1835, with the following Faculty: William H. McGuffey, president and professor of moral philosophy; Ormsby M. Mitchell, mathematics and astronomy; Asa Drury, ancient languages; Charles L. Telford, rhetoric and belles-lettres; Edward D. Mansfield, history and constitutional law; Lyman Harding, principal of the preparatory department; Joseph Herron, principal of the primary department. Writing of the renewed college and its faculty, Mr. Mansfield said twenty years after the revival: " We were all in the early prime of life; its labors seemed light; its cares and sorrows were lessened by the hopes of the future, and we gathered knowledge from every passing event, and flowers from every opening scene." The same pen records of the college that: "After a few years its light went out; its professors separated; and the college name attached to its walls alone attests that such an institution once existed."

Girls' Schools Prior to 1830 .-The first school specially designed for girls, of which we find mention in the early annals of the city, was one started in 1802, by a Mrs. Williams, whose advertisement in the Western Spy states that "she intends opening a school in the house of Mr. Newman, saddler, for young ladies, on the following terms: Reading, 250 cents; reading and sewing three dollars; reading, sewing, and writing, 350 cents per quarter."

We learn from Dr. Drake, that of the 420 pupils who were admitted to the privileges of Lancaster Seminary, in 1815, some were girls; and from Mr. Foote that a number of " young ladies" graduated in the early classes of the old Cincinnati College.

Locke's Female Academy.-In 1823, Dr. John Locke, a man of science and of sound progressive views in education, organized in Cincinnati a private school for girls, under the name of Locke's Female Academy. In this school, as in others established about the same time in the Ohio Valley, some of the methods of Pestalozzi were followed. It is interesting and suggestive to reflect that just at the time when the old Swiss reformer was nearing the close of his life, dejected from the apparent failure of his toils, enthusiastic teachers on the banks of the Ohio river were putting his wise advice in practice.

Locke's academy grew and flourished, winning the confidence of the public and gaining the patronage of the most influential families. From Foote's Literary Gazette for July 31, 1824, we learn that, at a recent examination. "It was gratifying to witness the rapid improvement of the pupils generally, in all the branches of science taught in the institution, and more particularly in those of natural and moral philosophy, and botany. " At the close of the examination, various prizes were awarded-a gold medal to Miss Amanda Drake, for general scholarship; silver med-


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als to Miss Mary Longworth, for excellence in moral philosophy; to Misses Sarah Loring, Jane Loring, Frances Wilson, Jane Keys, Eliza Longworth, Selina Morris, Charlotte Rogers, Mary Rogers, Elizabeth Hamilton and Julia Burnet, for high attainments in several subjects. Those conversant with the genealogy of old Cincinnati families will recognize in these "honor pupils" the names of the daughters and wives of distinguished citizens.

The academy was served by a board of visitors, who examined the pupils. The charge for tuition was four to ten dollars a quarter; music and French extra. For several years the school was carried on in a brick building on Walnut street, between Third and Fourth. The number of pupils educated in it, from first to last, was three or four hundred. Mrs. Frances Trollope visited the school in 1828, and in her book on America she speaks of Dr. Locke as "a gentleman who appears to have liberal and enlarged opinions on the subject of female education." Mrs. Trollope and her friend, Miss Frances Wright, did a great deal to set Cincinnati people thinking on the subject of women's education; the latter by her vigorous writings and lectures. They encountered bitter opposition, but they worked some real reforms.

Picket's Female Institution..-According to Mansfield and Drake's "Cincinnati in 1826, " there were in the city, in 1826, "four or five highly respectable female and other academies, that contained from fifty to one hundred pupils each. Locke's was one of these. A school of similar character, known as "The Cincinnati Female Institution," was started sometime before 1830, in a suite of rooms in the Cincinnati College building, by Albert Picket, a celebrated educator and schoolbook author of the period. Picket came from New York City, where he had conducted the "Manhattan School." He was assisted by his younger brother, John W. Picket. Albert Picket is deservedly remembered in our educational history as one of the noblest and best of teachers. He devoted fifty years to the chosen work of educating youth. From Cincinnati he removed to Delaware, Ohio.

Flint's Western Monthly Review, for April, 1830, contains a full account of the examination and graduating exercises of the school, which were continued for three days, beginning February 8, 1830. There were about 150 young ladies in the school. Eleven gold medals were given, as in Locke's academy, for proficiency in Latin, Greek, French, mathematics, music, and painting. A crowded audience witnessed the examinations. The prizes were "gracefully distributed with appropriate remarks, by D. K. Este, Esq." An address was delivered by Rev. Mr. Dennison, and another by Rev. Timothy Flint, both which eloquent summaries of advice are published in the Review.

Kinmont's Boys' Academy.-Alexander Kinmont, a Scotch scholar and thinker, who came to Cincinnati in 1827, was a man of great force of character, eloquence, and practical sense. He was a classicist and philosopher a lover of high literature, an apostle of broad and rich human culture. His favorite authors were Plato, Homer, the Greek tragic poets, Tacitus, Cicero, Bacon, Milton, St. Augustine, and Swedenborg. Positive and aggressive, he championed his convictions, and made war on whatever he deemed false. In Cincinnati he encountered Mr. Grimke, a noted orator from South Carolina, in a debate on the relative value of the languages and the sciences, and won a great victory for the languages. Twelve lectures which he delivered on the "Natural History of Alan" were issued in book form after his death, and are still published by one of the leading houses of America. Altogether, the man Kinmont was a remarkable personality, and his services to the cause of education in the Ohio Valley were immense. When he first came to the city a professorship was offered him in Cincinnati College, at a salary of two thousand dollars a year; but he preferred to establish a school of his own and to be independent. Kinmont's "Academy of Classics and Mathematics" was located on Race street, between Fifth and Longworth. It was a live school, surcharged with energy and


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enthusiasm. The motto was: "Sit glorice Del el utilitate hominum." One of the maxims of the school was, "Learn to do by doing. " The boys worshiped their guide and master, who showed them how to use freedom without disobedience. When they became men, they still honored and revered the teacher who illustrated before their eyes the dignity and beauty of manliness,

The College of Teachers.-We have now to write of perhaps the most important educational movement in the history of Cincinnati. The time was ripe for the organization of school interests in the West-for the creation of a teaching profession-for the establishment of a system of instruction, public and private. Such men as Albert Picket and Alexander Kinmont were the natural captains of the volunteer corps of teachers within the great circle of which the Queen City was the center. To them, and a score of others fervently devoted to the cause, and not inferior in learning and ability, belongs the great. credit of establishing the College of Teachers, a powerful congress of educators, which continued its beneficent work for about fourteen years, and left the record of its wise proceedings in seven published volumes of "Transactions."

The College of Teachers grew out of an association of teachers, organized in 1829, under the name " Western Literary Institute and Board of Education." This body numbered in its membership about twenty persons, and included Albert Picket, Alexander Kinmont, Nathaniel Holley, Caleb Kemper, C. B. McKee, Stephen Wheeler, C. Davenport. Thomas J. Mathews, John L. Talbot and David L. Talbot. The first president was Rev, Elijah Slack, president of Cincinnati College; the corresponding secretary was Milo G. Williams. The association held monthly meetings and discussed important subjects. At a meeting held in June, 1831, Mr. Williams offered a resolution proposing measures for convening the teachers of the West and South in a general congress. The proposal was carried into effect, and a convention was called to meet in Cincinnati in October, 1832. The object of the convention, as announced in the newspapers, was " to promote the interests of education and to secure the co-operation of parents and the friends of science in the aid of scholastic institutions, whether of a public or private character." A goodly company of teachers responded to the call. The meeting convened October 3, and continued in session four days. A complete organization was effected under the name of " The Western Literary Institute and College of Professional Teachers." A constitution was adopted, in which the object of the society is stated to be "to promote, by all laudable means, the diffusion of knowledge in regard to education, and especially by aiming at the elevation of instructors who shall have adopted instruction as their regular profession." This declaration of the main objects of the association went straight to the heart of education-the improvement of the teacher.

The proceedings of the college in the years 1834-1840, inclusive, are contained in six volumes of "Transactions," a set of books now rare. The college continued to bold meetings annually for some years after it ceased to publish its proceedings. The sessions of 1843 and 1844 were held in Louisville. The far-reaching influence of the body is indicated by the fact that delegates came to its meetings froth the States of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Michigan, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, and the Territories of Iowa and Wisconsin. Tile people of Cincinnati crowded to its daily sessions, which were held in the largest churches, and all listened to essays and addresses with critical attention, and with something of religious enthusiasm. The movement, indeed, was a sort of renaissance in the history of education. It awakened general interest, it formulated public opinion on school matters. There were a gravity and deliberative wisdom in the deportment of the leading members. which remind one who reads the "Transactions" of the dignity and foresight of the fathers who framed the Constitution, and the Ordinance of 1787. The veteran Picket, white-haired and honored, was president, and opened


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each annual session with a formal address. The professional teachers invited to these councils distinguished representatives of the bench, the bar, the pulpit, the press. Lyman Beecher, Calvin E. Stowe. Joshua L. Wilson, Alexander Campbell, Archbishop J. B. Purcell and other noted clergymen took part in the debates. Daniel Drake, E. D. Mansfield, Samuel Lewis, and Nathan Guilford were participants in the discussions. Several prominent women shared the benefits of the great revival, though their names do not appear on the roll of membership. In the year 1837 Mrs. Caroline Lee Hentz read a poem before the college, in which she speaks of the work of education as being " Woman's Task."

The college encouraged the formation of adjunct societies, being in fact tile mother of the western system of teachers' associations and institutes. It gave birth in 18-11 to the "Cincinnati Society for the Promotion of Useful Knowledge," the most important section of which survived, under the fostering care of O. M. Mitchell, as the Astronomical Department. The energy of the college was transmitted to different institutions-the Mechanics' Institute, various libraries, schools of Medicine and Law, the Historical Society, and the Academy of Fine Arts. But especially was it the adjunct and ally of the public-school system which came into legal being in the year 1825. The impulse which the ruling spirits of the College of Teachers gave to popular education spread over the State of Ohio, and throughout the West, and the schools of to-day inherit a legacy of vital force from that vigorous and progressive pioneer organization. From it Nathan Guilford and Samuel Lewis, and many others whose hands helped to lay the foundation of Ohio's common schools, drew courage to keep on in the good work.

ORGANIZATION OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

The Ordinance of 1787, and the constitution of Ohio, declare it to be the State's function to encourage education, and to provide means for the support or schools. The means at first relied upon, namely funds derived from the rent or sale of school lands granted by government, proved a broken reed. The income from public lands was scanty, and the lands themselves were often frittered away by careless management. As time went on. and wise men became anxious concerning the prospects of a State whose children were in clanger of growing up without the advantage of free schools, the people discussed the burning question, and Ohio finally organized her school system on a permanent basis. The citizens of Cincinnati were naturally among the first to " agitate" the community on the supreme subject. We have seen that the teachers of the city were, as a class, public-spirited and disposed to unite for the common good. Dr. Thomas W. Harvey records that "the first association of teachers for mutual improvement in the State of Ohio was organized in Cincinnati in 1822. It was probably the second of the kind in the United States." The College of Teachers became the arena in which the champions of the common school fought and won.

Though there was occasional school legislation in the Ohio Assembly from the very organization of the State, not much was efficacious for the good of the whole people until the year 1825, when Nathan Guilford, senator from Hamilton county, with the aid of Ephraim Cutter, of Washington county, and others, secured the passage of an act authorizing a general tax levy for the benefit of the schools. Nor was it until as late as 1830 that anything like a system of graded schools could be started, even in Cincinnati, then the educational nucleus of the West,.

Dr. Alston Ellis succinctly states the facts in his "Centennial Sketch "of 1876, when he says: "From 1802 to 1821, legislative action regarding education, under the power conferred by the constitution, was confined to the passage of acts authorizing the incorporation of seminaries, religious and educational societies, and providing for the leasing of school lands. The law of 1821 carried with it nothing more


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than a moral force. As late as 1825, there were no public schools, properly speaking, it) Cincinnati."

Nathan Guilford was born in Massachusetts in 1786. He graduated from Yale in 1812, came west, and began the practice of law in Cincinnati in 1816. Always deeply interested in education, he joined hands with Samuel Lewis and other advocates of the public-school system. He fought a good fight. and gained a signal victory. In 1822 Guilford published a letter on free education, urging a general county ad valorem tax. This letter was published by the General Assembly of 1823-24; but, to use the words of Hon. W. D. Henkle, " The Assembly was not wise enough to risk advanced school legislation." However, on account of his zeal, Mr. Guilford was elected to the State Senate for the express purpose of securing the enactment of a law that would actually create adequate " means of education." Side by side with Ephraim Cutter, of Washington county, also a Massachusetts man, and the son of Manassah Cutter, founder of the Ohio Company, he labored for the passage of a school bill which authorized the assessment of half a mill on the value of taxable property. This bill passed the Senate January 26, 1825, by a vote of 28 to 8, and the House, February 1, by a vote of 48 to 24. The law of 1825 contains the germ of the present school system.

Opposition to the Law of 1825-The law of 1825 was not well received by some of the large tax-payers of Cincinnati, nor by all the proprietors of private schools, nor by a short-sighted class of the "proud poor," who decried the contemplated free schools as institutions of public charity. But the mass of thinking people, rich and poor, hailed the establishment of the "People's Colleges" with joy, and regarded them as bulwarks of civilization. Samuel Lewis, discussing the matter before the Teachers' College in 1835, said: "The people are more unanimous on this subject than on any other, and we are in favor of just as much provision as will make the common schools the best in the country." The reformers made way, surely if slowly, against continued opposition.

The Law of 1828-29.-The inadequacy of the law of 1825 was remedied by special legislation in the Ohio Legislature of 1828-29. A bill was then introduced into the Senate by Col. Andrew Mack, to amend the charter of the city of Cincinnati. The friends of education seized the opportunity to secure a State law authorizing the city to organize her own schools and pay for their maintenance by local taxation. The bill became a law. It empowered the city council to "lay off the city into ten (10) districts, and, at the expense of the city, to provide for the support of the common schools; to purchase for the use of the city a suitable lot of land in each district, and to erect thereon a substantial schoolhouse; and in addition to the tax of one mill on the dollar for the purchase of sites and the erection of buildings, the city council was authorized to levy a tax of one mill on the dollar to defray the expenses for teachers and fuel."

The "Model Schoolhouses."-In accordance with the provisions of the law of 1828-29, the city was divided into districts, and a board of directors was chosen. Teachers were employed, and schools were organized in such apartments as could be procured for the emergency. The rooms were not, convenient for school purposes, and steps were taken to build. The writer of this sketch recollects a conversation with the veteran George Graham, one of Cincinnati's intellectual benefactors, who related his personal experience in causing proper schoolhouses to be erected. Graham asked the city council for an appropriation to construct a suitable schoolhouse in his ward, then the Second Ward. Said he: "They voted a pittance insufficient to pay for a decent building. I told them I would not have such a house in the district; I would build one to suit myself. `Where will you get the money?' I answered that it was none of their business, but that I would make them pay at the last. So I had an architect draw the design of a ' Model Schoolhouse,' and got a builder to construct it on our lot, on the west side of Race street, between Fourth


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and Fifth. In order to catch the public eve the house was surmounted by a cupola. When I demanded of the council the cost, $'5,500, of the building. they at first refused to make it good, but finally agreed to pay all, except the price of that cupola."

This first model schoolhouse was completed in the summer of 1833. Nine others, patterned after it, were afterward built, at a total cost of $96.159.44. They were of brick, two stories high, each floor divided into two rooms. The girls were assigned to the upper floors.



Public School Parade in 1833.-It was George Graham who conceived the idea of bringing the public schools into prominence by showy examinations, speech making, and by a conspicuous parade of school children through the city streets, on the Fourth of July, 1833, The pageant proved very successful, notwithstanding the fact that sane of the teachers refused to march, and were discharged for insubordination. The whole number of pupils in the procession could not have exceeded two thousand. Three years afterward, in 1836, the entire enrollment, according to Charles Cist, was but twenty- four, hundred, with only forty-three teachers, In 1841, there were only nine public schoolhouses in the city, and only five thousand pupils with sixty teachers.

Public Schools frona 1830 to 1850. -For the first twenty years of their history, the public schools of Cincinnati were conducted without the services of a superintendent. At first but one trustee was elected from each ward; but in 1837 the number was increased to two from each ward. A board of seven examiners was instituted, to determine the qualifications of teachers. Teachers' salaries in the "thirties," ranged from three hundred to five hundred dollars for men, and from two hundred to two hundred and fifty dollars for women. Yet, poorly as they were paid, the teachers had the pride to organize a city association, which met twice a month to discuss professional subjects. Dr. Stevenson, in his historical sketch of "Graded Schools," "states that the first attempts at systematic grading and classification in Ohio were made in the schools of Cincinnati, from 1836 to 1840." In 1839 the Board of Education made provision for the establishment of orphan asylums. In 1840, by a special act of the legislature, the board was authorized to establish departments of instruction in the German language; and to provide night schools. In compliance with this law the existing system of German teaching was inaugurated, and an efficient organization of night schools was effected. Special teachers of penmanship were employed in the schools in 1840. No very important change took place in the theory or practice of the district schools for the next ten years, though within that period were established the high schools, the history of which we reserve for special treatment on other pages. In the year 1850 the number of public schools under the control of the board was fourteen, with an aggregate attendance of more than five thousand pupils taught by one hundred and thirtyeight teachers.

Superintendency of Nathan Guilford.-A special act of the Ohio legislature, passed March 23, 1850, authorized the election, by a popular vote, of a superintendent of common schools for the city of Cincinnati. Under this law, Hon. Nathan Guilford was elected as the people's choice for the important office, at a salary of only five hundred dollars per annum. He held the position for two years. In his annual report for the year ending July 1, 1852, Mr. Guilford said: "No one can visit a school in which the teacher has the art, tact, and force of character, to govern without the rod, and witness the love and confidence existing between the teacher and pupils, and the beautiful order and progress in their studies, without being convinced of the infinite superiority of this mode of government. I am happy to say that we have many instructors of this kind in our schools. Such teachers should if possible be retained and well paid. And all such as find it necessary to have frequent recourse to the rod, and, like so many petty tyrants, can govern only by brute force, should be dismissed as having wholly mistaken their profession."


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In another place, the superintendent made a vigorous and wise protest against " verbalim recitations," in history and geography. The practice of the memoriter plan was introduced, he complained, by teachers in the recently organized Central High School.

The president of the school board, at the period of Mr. Guilford's administration. was the Hon. Bellamy Storer. The board of examiners included William Greene, John B. Stallo, H. H. Barney, Henry Snow, D. Sheppardson, Joseph Ray, and E. S. Brooks.



Nathan Guilford was succeeded in office by Dr. Merrell. who, however, resigned before the close of the year for which he was chosen, A general State law was enacted in 1853, providing that superintendents of city schools should be appointed by the local boards of education. Under this law Andrew J. Rickoff was created superintendent. of the Cincinnati schools, in April, 1534. The president of the board, at that time, was Rufus King, a most able and energetic officer, who held the position for some fourteen years, much to the advantage of the schools, and to the honor of the city.

A. J. Rickoff's s Administration a. Mr. Rickoff, whose distinguished services in the cause of education constitute a worthy part of the history of this State and of the nation, was a positive and efficient superintendent of the Cincinnati schools, from April, 18i4, to June, 185i). His will was strong, his opinions were definite and practical, his power was not much limited, and he worked with indefatigable industry. It may be said that Mr. Rickoff gave the school system of the city its fixed organization, its classifications, and most of its formulae and regulations. The methode of grading, of keeping records and school statistics, introduced by hint, are essentially the same as are now in use in the schools. The question has arisen, of late years, whether indeed some of his rules and regulations may not have outlasted their usefulness, or whether the minute and restrictive organization which he gave to the schools has not impeded the progress it was intended to accelerate. Be the opinion of educators what it may, there can be no question that Mr, Rickoff followed his convictions and enforced his theories. Before entering upon the discharge of his duties he visited the schools of Now York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and made a careful inspection of educational methods. In his first. report, completed in June, 1834, he says: " My attention has been directed (1) to the classification of the schools; and (2) to the quality of instruction administered in the several departments." The superintendent put much stress upon the value of moral instruction, and thought the formal reading of Scripture, in school, was an essential support to the pupils' character. The security upon which he mainly depended for the real worth of the schools was the efficiency of the teacher, not the excellence of any system. He says: " If the teacher be incompetent or unfaithful, all is ineffectual." Mr. Rickoff recommended that there should be created a "Professorship of Didactics," in each of the city high schools, and the president of the board, Hon. Rufus King, endorsing the suggestion, urged the establishment of a Normal department in connection with the high schools. In March, 1857, a Normal class was formed in Hughes High School, for the training of teachers, with H. H. Barney as principal. The experiment was only partially successful, and the plan was abandoned. But the effort led to the establishment, a few years later, of the Cincinnati Normal School.

Mr. Rickoff strongly insisted on the value of examination tests as a basis for the promotion of pupils from grade to grade, and as a measure of the competence and fidelity of the teacher, Much difference of opinion then existed and now exists, as to the soundness of his views on this important subject, but this is not the place to discuss the topic. However much thinking men and women may object to his mode of employing examination tests, few or none will be found to disagree with Dr. Rickoff's opinion of the " memoriter " method of learning. In regard to this the,


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superintendent says in his report of June, 1850: " In the most cases in which it is continued to be used, being as it is the consequence of incompetency, it will never be entirely corrected till we are supplied with teachers especially trained in their profession." It appears from the School Report of 1857 that complaints against the abuse of the "memoriter" system, which Mr. Guilford named " verbatim reciting," and which is now called "cramming," became so clamorous that a committee was selected by the board of education to report on the subject. The chairman of this committee was Dr. C. G. Comegys, and other members were R. C. Cox, William B. Davis. William J. Schulz, and William H. Harrison. In their special report, dated May 2.3, 1857, these gentlemen say: " The genius of education sits, like Niobe, in our schools, weeping over the maltreatment of the minds which she would endow with so many charms; and memory, the deity to whom all incense is offered, palls at last, and rejects the proffered sacrifice." The report closes with the emphatic resolution: "That this board is as much as ever opposed to the use of the `memoriter' method only, because it injures the mind of the scholar, and greatly impairs the efficiency of the teacher; and that the superintendent make it a special duty to eradicate it from the schools."

Later Administrations.-In 1559 Mr. Rickoff, having established a private school in Cincinnati, retired from the superintendency of the public schools, though he remained a member of the board of examiners for teachers, and in 1804 he was chosen from the First Ward to the board of education; in 1800 he was elected president of the board, on the retirement of Hon. Rufus King. His successor in the superintendency was Dr. Isaac J. Allen, who held the position for two years, and in whose administration the "Objective" method of teaching was in high favor in the schools. At this period the distinguished Rabbi, Rev. Dr. Lilienthal, a prominent member of the board of education, took a leading part in the new movement, and became one of the authors of a text-book on "Object Lessons."

Dr. Allen was succeeded by Lyman Harding who discharged faithfully, with wise moderation, the duties of the office, for a period of about seven years. His administration covered the disturbed years of the Civil war, during which public attention was much diverted from local interests. The schools prospered, and Mr. Handing possessed the confidence and esteem of everybody. Ho retired from the office and from educational work, in September, 1867. In July of that year, the board of education reelected Mr. Rickoff to the superintendency, but he declined the position, and soon after was called to Cleveland to become superintendent of the schools of that city. John Hancock was chosen by the Cincinnati board to the position of superintendent, in September, 1807. Samuel S. Fisher was at the time president of the Cincinnati board of education.

In the spring of 1868, the board granted to the superintendent a three weeks' leave of absence, and made an appropriation to pay his expenses, in order to afford him an opportunity to visit some of the eastern cities to study the workings of their public schools and other educational institutions. Mr. Hancock set out on this tour of inspection on May 15, 1808, and, after his return, embodied in his first annual report, for the year ending June 30, 1808, the results of his observations. The report is a lengthy one, extending over sixty-two pages, and is a valuable document of its kind. The first schools visited were those of Cleveland, Ohio, then recently reorganized by Mr. Rickoff; and of these a pretty full description is given. From Cleveland he passed on to Oswego, and saw the Normal and other schools, under the guidance of E. A. Sheldon. Proceeding to Boston, Mr. Hancock was entertained by Supt. Philbrick, who explained to him all the peculiarities of the common-school system as exhibited in the famous center of Yankee culture.

After recounting the particulars of this eastern sojourn in a graphic manner, the report for 1868 deals with several other topics, viz. : State Normal Schools; Education in France, Prussia and England; and the Condition of the Cincinnati schools. The


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superintendent dwelt upon the importance of " good reading " in the schools, and still more earnestly on the paramount necessity of "moral education" in all grades. A step in progress is marked in the announcement that, "It is proposed, the coming year, to begin the instruction of all the pupils in our public schools in drawing." " This," says the report, " is an experiment that has not been made in any other city in this country."

Mr. Hancock's semi-annual report, January, 1869, discusses the several branches of learning required to be taught in the city schools. It states that the experiment of introducing drawing in all grades had proven successful; and recommends that phonography be made a regular exercise in the intermediate schools. The superintendent took much interest in the City Normal School, which was first opened in 1869, with Miss Sarah D. Dugan, of Oswego, as principal. Discussing the condition of pupils in the lower grades, Mr. Hancock suggested to the board that fewer hours of study be required of the children. He said, " I believe they are kept in school too long."

In his report of June, 1869, he calls attention to the fact that the gap is too wide between the intermediate and the high schools, and proposes a better adjustment of the courses of study. He warns the board and the teachers against the danger, always imminent in the schools of a large city, that modes of instruction may fall into mechanical routine ; and deprecates such a result as fatal to the best ends of human training. He would have more attention paid to cultural studies such as lead to generous ideas, wide sympathy and lofty aspiration. As regards school government he declares, with the emphasis of experience, "Too much importance can not be attached to discipline in a great school system. It lies at the very foundation of both intellectual and moral success. A more thoroughly demoralizing institution does not exist than a disorderly school."

The superintendent's reports for 1870 are devoted largely to general discussion of the philosophy of education, and to an urgent presentation of the importance of higher learning as supplementary to the common-school courses. The merits and claims of the Cincinnati University are set forth with much force. Another question considered is that of compulsory laws to secure school attendance, which Hancock strongly favored.

The report for 1871 devotes many pages to school statistics. It also enters into the practical consideration of several minor details of advice, suggestion and criticism concerning methods and motives of school teaching and management. Objection is made to concert reciting, to mere memoriter tests of knowledge, to the abuse of the percentage system, and to a blind and mechanical dependence upon text-books and records. Dr. Hancock's opinion respecting the inutility of records of recitation is very positive. He says: "I am sure that the record of recitations of the pupils kept by the teachers of the higher grades of the district schools, and in all the grades of the intermediate and high schools, might be profitably dispensed with." In order to break up the prevailing tendency to parrot-like repetition of words without ideas, the method of objective teaching, to which the Normal School of Oswego, N. Y., had given a new impulse, was adopted in Cincinnati, and, for a time, it produced excellent results. The method was applied especially to language teaching, with the design to animate the observing powers and to elicit original expression. Mr. Hancock wrote with enthusiasm: "If the Cincinnati schools possess one distinguishing trait above all others, it is the prominence that language culture occupies in the course of study.

Following out the theories suggested by the objective method, and persistently combating rote study and perfunctory teaching, the superintendent made the most of drawing, music, and language lessons, as means of awakening the mind and firing a genuine interest in school work. With a similar purpose he introduced a new plan of imparting the fats of history---a plan of continuous and animated reading,


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instead of the cut-and-dried method in vogue. It was hoped the experiment would relieve the pupils of drudgery hateful to them, and as ineffectual as repulsive; but the new departure was only partially successful.

Taken throughout, the administration of Mr. Hancock, covering a period of seven years, was characterized by his policy of opposition to dullness, routine, "cram," and, in general, to mechanical as distinguished from vital education. The superintendent thought constantly of the development of the children's faculties, and measured the value of all books and methods by their result in producing mental power and moral conduct. He saw no probability of much good to be derived from any study or system that was not intelligently applied by competent and conscientious teachers. His reports insist again and again upon the necessity of professional fitness on the part of instructors in every grade, and therefore upon the paramount importance of Normal Schools, Teachers' Institutes, and above all, the habit of reading. One of his reports strenuously urged the city teachers to make a systematic study of the science of education, and counsels every teacher to possess himself of a collection of reference books. The principal test that he would apply to ascertain the character and culture of teachers and pupils is the test of a liberal, but pointed and suggestive written examination.

Dr. John B. Peaslee (1874 to 1887) became superintendent of the Cincinnati schools in 1874, and served until August, 1887, a period of thirteen years. He is a native of New Hampshire, a graduate of Dartmouth College, and of Cincinnati Law School, and, before his election to the superintendency of the public schools, he had been principal of the Fifth District School, and afterward of the Second Intermediate School.

Dr. Peaslee brought to the office of superintendent great energy and enthusiasm, good scholarship, decided views on the subject of education, and a remarkably inventive and versatile genius for arousing the ambition of children, and directing the current of school work in profitable channels. Perhaps the schools were never more in touch with the general interests of the city and with the demands of practical every-day life, than while under his control.

In the first year of his administration be instructed the teachers not to require home study of children in the lower grades. The number of hours of tuition was cut down also, and the length of the school year was reduced to forty weeks.

As regards courses of study to be pursued by the young, Dr. Peaslee held that " The greater the range of studies that can be taught well, the better." And that "The fault of too much study for little children lies in the direction of cramming in some of the branches, and not in the variety of studies."

The abuse of "Object Lessons," of which Dr. Hancock had complained, was an evil which Dr. Peaslee also labored to correct. Rules were devised forbidding a resort to forced and mechanical methods of employing a pedagogical principle designed to prevent routine. The superintendent substituted the phrase " Object Method," for the misleading term "Object Lessons."

In 1875, originated a lively movement to introduce systematic moral instruction in the schools. A special report on the subject was prepared by Thomas M. Dill, principal of one of the schools, and public attention was for a time strongly directed to ethical training. Nor was the the physical condition of the children neglected. The sanitary needs of the schools were looked into, and the eyes of the school children were examined by the expert oculist, Dr. D, B. Williams.

The School Report for 1876 outlines several of Dr. Peaslee's opinions and enterprises in education. A new method of teaching addition and subtraction, called the "Tens Plan," designed to secure quickness and accuracy in arithmetical calculations, was put in practice. The method came to be known as the " Cincinnati plan," and was adopted in other cities. The superintendent zealously advocated the study of the German language in the public schools, he himself acquired the language,


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and recommended all parents to put their children in the German department of the schools, believing that both the English and German may easily be acquired in the time generally devoted to English. The subject of drawing was made very prominent in the schools, under the general direction of Mr. Forbriger who had the honor of being the first superintendent of drawing ever appointed in this country. Music, too, received a great deal of attention, and the choral singing of the school children, on public occasions, because a matter of city pride. The school choruses were employed in connection with the Musical Festivals, and did much to aid in the establishment of the great College of Music.

In 1876 the school board of Cincinnati appropriated seventeen hundred dollars to defray the expense of preparing a Centennial Exhibit of Educational Work for the National Exposition at Philadelphia. The work of the pupils in written examinations, drawing, etc , was displayed conspicuously, making the fullest and most, interesting exhibit of the kind in the Fair. A similar, but much wore elaborate, exhibit of pupils' work, in numerous large volumes, was placed in the World's Exposition at Paris in 1878. Of this, Hon. John D. Philbrick, United States Commissioner of Education to the Paris Exposition, wrote: "No other exhibit of scholars' work equal to that of Cincinnati was ever made in the known world." The international jury awarded a gold medal diploma and a silver medal diploma to the Cincinnati schools. The practice of preparing written work for public inspection did much to establish careful habits in the children of the schools. The superintendent, in his visits to the various school rooms, always inspected the slates and books of the pupils, and they took pains to try to please him by doing their best with pen and pencil. He felt justified in claiming, in his report for 1878, that "No schools in the United States have given so much attention to system, order, neatness, on the part of pupils, as those of Cincinnati during the last four years."

The sin that so mischievously besetteth those engaged in the work of education, whether as pupils or teachers-the pernicious evil which Guilford, Rickoff and Hancock recognized and deplored-was as clearly seen and as vigorously opposed by Dr. Peaslee. This was the unintelligent adherence to the "memoriter plan"the routine practice of committing words to memory and reciting them, parrot-like, without a correspondent effort to think and reason. As one means of possibly correcting this fault the superintendent put great stress on the practical use of language as a means of expressing conscious thought, not as material to fix in memory merely. In his annual report for 1879 he says: " Believing that the time now devoted to technical grammar in the first five years of school is practically wasted, I recommend that a systematic course of language lessons be substituted." Feeling that the resuits aimed at in the study of history were lost, owing to the prevailing wrong method of teaching it, the superintendent tried also a reform in that direction. He says: "History can not be taught by the memoriter plan. It kills the life of the subject. It disgusts the pupil." New plans were brought into practice in the schools; history was vigorously taught by many teachers in its true substance. The scholars were induced to read and investigate. Especially were they encouraged to study the lives of great men, influenced by Dr. Peaslee's precept that "Biography is the soul of history." Written examination in history, physics and object lessons were discontinued.

Decidedly the most distinguished and important service that Dr. Peaslee did for the schools was in the way of literary. stimulation. He introduced books to the children and the children to books. American authors and publishers owe him a debt of gratitude. The beginning of the "literary movement" in Cincinnati schools dates from the introduction of Peaslee's "Memory Gems" as part of the course of education. These "gems" were choice passages in prose and verse, to be learned by heart and recited by the pupil, as a basis for further literary study. It is claimed that Dr. Peaslee was the "first in the country to introduce into the


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schools a systematic and graded course of gem selections from English literature." He prepared a little book of selections for the use of schools. The zealous impulse which led him to devise ways and means of aiding the young people to make a start in reading and loving good books carried him on to a still more inspiring mode of enlightening the children, and of calling forth willing and profitable efforts on their part. It was a happy thought of his to vary the monotony of school life by occasional celebrations, commemorative of the life and services of distinguished authors, statesmen and others whose word and example might serve to stimulate the rising generation to nobler and better conduct. The first celebration of the kind was held on December 17, 1879, the anniversary of the birthday of John G. Whittier. This was followed in 1880 by celebrations on the birthday of Longfellow, Holmes, Emerson and others. Commenting on the value of this new feature in education, Dr. William T. Harris, the present United States Commissioner of Education, said "it was the best thing that had been done for the schools for fifty years." The innovation proved popular as well as salutary, and was adopted throughout the whole country. In Cincinnati the movement found further development, by Dr. Peaslee's activity, as an adjunct to Arbor Day celebrations. On April 27, 1883, under the direction of the superintendent, and as a part of a general civic Memorial Day, the school children of Cincinnati planted "Authors' Grove," a plat of ground six acres in extent in Eden Park. A vast number of beautiful trees, each dedicated to some distinguished writer, were planted, and granite tablets with the names of the several authors were afterward placed near the trees. The visitor to Eden Park will now find " Authors' Grove" one of the most delightful portions of the place.

Other incidental means of adding to the interest and utility of the schools, Dr. Peaslee's versatile mind discovered in the organization of "Bands of Mercy," in encouraging the study of local history, in modes of beautifying school rooms, and in unique school exercises for imparting "general information."

Near the close of his administration the superintendent states that " The time has come when phonography should constitute a part of the regular curriculum of the public schools."

As regards the difficult and oft-recurring question whether or not the promotion of pupils from grade to grade should depend upon per cents determined by written examination, the superintendent recommended, in his Report for 1884, that the board should pass a rule, "making the average between the teacher's estimate of the pupil's standing expressed in per cent, and the results of his final examination in June, the basis for promotion, in all grades below the F."

Dr. Peaslee's last year in office ended August 15, 1887, and his successor, Hon. E. E. White, entered upon the duties of the position the next day.

Dr. Emerson E. White (1887 to 1889) brought to the office of superintendent a national reputation, acquired by a succession of distinguished services in the broad field of public education. He had experience as teacher and superintendent, had been editor of the Ohio Educational Monthly. State Commissioner of Education for Ohio, president of Purdue University, and had held the highest positions in the National Educational Association. In educational authorship he was well known as the writer of a series of schoolbooks, of a treatise on " The Elements of Pedagogics," and other works.



Dr. White's administration covered only three years, 1887-8-9-but was crowded with work. Considerable revision was made in the course of study-technical grammar was entirely omitted from the district grades of the school, a new system of " graded observation lessons" was introduced, together with an elaborate course in " morals and manners," and changes were made in modes of teaching several branches. But by far the most significant and radical alteration effected in the schools by Dr. White was a total change in the mode of determining the pupils'


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standing in scholarship and of promoting them from grade to grade. It will be remembered that, in 1884, Dr. Peaslee recommended the board to pass a rule making the average between the teachers' estimate of the pupils' standing, and the result of the final written examination, the basis for promotion in all grades below the F. Superintendent White depended wholly upon the teachers' estimate as the basis of promotion in all grades. Written examinations were not clone away with, but, to quote the Report for 1887: "The written test is no longer made the basis for the promotion of pupils, and it no longer occurs at stated times, but it is continued as an element of teaching where its uses are many and important." In the Report for 1888 we find the method stated thus: " The monthly estimates are made on the scale of 1 to 10, the number 4 and below denoting very poor work, 5 to 6 tolerable, 7 good, 8 very good, 9 excellent, 10 perfect. In reporting estimates the initial letters are used, Pr. denoting perfect work; E, excellent; G, very good; G, good; T, tolerable; P, poor; F, very poor."

In the period of Dr. White's administration a law was passed making it the duty of the superintendent to appoint all the teachers in the city, with the consent of the board. In the discharge of this delicate function Dr. White did not escape embarrassment. As a rule, old teachers were reappointed, though some were dropped, and a few were quietly removed for cause. Discussing the subject the superintendent says: "The fact has been too often overlooked that the possession of a position by a teacher is of itself a claim to reappointment, if there be no good reason against it. But neither possession nor length of service can be urged as a claim in the face of inefficiency or incompetency, or moral unworthiness."

The law in regard to colored schools was so altered in 1887, as to do away with the distinctions of privilege that had existed, and to permit the black children to enter any of the schools on the same footing as the white.

The year 1888 was the centennial of the settlement of Ohio, and a great central Exposition was held in Cincinnati to commemorate the event. The grand Fair was opened July 4 and closed on November 10. The exhibit of the public schools was superior in every way, and its excellence was recognized by the commissioners of the Exposition who awarded it several prizes. " School Children's Day" proved one of the most notable of the distinguished days of the Fair.

The law requiring special instruction to be given in the public schools of the State, on the nature and use of alcoholic stimulants, and narcotics, went into effect while Dr. White was superintendent,, and he was active in enforcing its provisions. One of his services in this line was to propose a special Report calling the attention of the school board to the violation of the law forbidding the sale of cigarettes to school boys.

Dr. White devoted his energies, with great vigilance, to the direct task of visiting schools, and instructing the teachers on all possible occasions. So vast and varied did he find the field of labor, that, in the Report for 1888, he declares that "The experience of the past two years shows conclusively that no one man can fully perform the duties now imposed upon the superintendent, of schools in the city," He gives it as his opinion that at least two assistants should be employed.

On retiring from office, at the close of his third year, the superintendent surveyed the whole situation of popular education in Cincinnati, in a full report, in which he says: "The most gratifying fact, in the progress of the schools in the past three years, is the increasing appreciation of true methods of instruction, by the teachers, as a body, and their earnest efforts to get out of the ruts of mechanical routine."

The present superintendent of the public schools is William. H. Morgan, who came into office in 1800. The history of his administration, of course, can not yet be written with completeness. Mr. Morgan came to Cincinnati with his parents in 1838. He entered the Third District School in 1844, passed through the several


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grades of the schools, graduating from Woodward High School in 1856. Entering the schools within one year after their organization, Mr. Morgan has since occupied almost every relation to them. He was at onetime president of the school board; for sixteen years he was principal or assistant, and was elected principal while he was still one of our country's defenders in the Civil war. Thus he was fitted by an experience in school affairs, of more than forty-five years, to understand the history and conditions of education in this city.

Though a review of Supt. Morgan's official acts and policy would be premature, there are some features of his Reports that may properly be mentioned. His judgment in regard to the utility of written examinations, and their value as furnishing a basis for promoting pupils, differs from that of his predecessor. In his first Report he writes: " It is my firm conviction that the progress made in the efficiency of the public school work in the last half century in our land has been largely the result of the influence of a regular and judicious system of examinations -examinations not for curiosity's sake, but for that of thoroughness of the pupils' work "

Mr. Morgan recommended to the board, that promotions should rest upon the combination of " estimates " by the teacher, and " examinations; " and in his report for 1892, he reiterates the same belief. He says: "The exclusively estimate plan has been tried and found wanting, and the same may be said of the `one examination' plan, although I think the latter has less of sin than the former to atone for. The first has surfeited our grades with unprepared pupils, while the second has probably retarded some, who, if relieved of the embarrassment of examination, might have been advanced to higher grades and to advanced work, although I do not think this is pertinent to cases where the promotions sought were from grade to grade in the same department. It is, however, safe to assume that a pupil who is tin applicant for promotion, should, at the year's close, be able to tell something of what he has been studying during the year. The excess of damage done is, in my opinion, fairly chargeable to the plan of promotion based exclusively upon 'estimates.' The main charges laid to the door of the examination system is that pupils will, in anticipation of the trial, pursue a method commonly styled `cramming, which in some mysterious manner may become something of doubtful service to them "

Supt. Morgan's Report for 1892 is a vigorous document, and sets forth clearly his fundamental doctrines on education. The tenor of it is emphatically in favor' of sound, practical training, which, he maintains, is only to be obtained by downright hard work. "Pupils," he says, "must not live in expectancy of becoming scholars by playing school." In another paragraph he says, wisely: " I care little what may be the rules governing the schools, or what may be the narrowness or wideness of the course of study; or how elaborate or attractive the text books may be, the result of school effort will be a failure unless these implements or accessories be in the hands of a teacher, an educator."

Supt. Morgan's latest Report, for the year ending June 30, 1893, again returns to the discussion of the irrepressible question "Promotion of Pupils," holding firmly to his original views on the subject. In his opinion, " The best and most faithful teachers are not willing to have their year's labors measured by their own estimate; nor is the world at large willing to promote under the advice of one who, very naturally, might be biased." He affirms that " Instead of examinations being a bugbear, roost pupils enjoy them. They have proved their efficacy with us for sixty years, and still the Colleges and Universities in our land are looking for graduates of our schools." Of course the superintendent's theory and practice in regard to the matter of examinations met with opposition in some quarters, and elicited much debate. But no voice of dissent was raised against his earnest declaration that " The pupil must be taught to think," and that " No public money is better


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expended than that spent in procuring the very best teachers, in building the very best houses, and in obtaining the very best apparatus for the instruction and training of our boys and girls."

The School Reports issued since Mr. Morgan's entrance upon office give ample evidence of zeal and energy upon the part of the school boards, the Superintendent, the Teachers and the Taught. These formal school documents, no less than the files of the newspapers, and the utterances of the orator of the pulpit and the platform, indicate an all pervading, all prevailing interest in educational thought and action. Mr. Herrlinger, president of the school board, well calls the period one of " Educational Revival." Though conservative in many things, the leaders of public opinion, in Cincinnati, are progressive in their pedagogical wishes and aims. The agitation on educational themes, popular and professional, that has affected the whole country, especially the cities, and that is still shaking the school world in general, could not fail to affect education in the Queen City. Whatever profoundly moves the system at large must act on every local system, for " all are but parts of one stupendous whole." Our educational prophets, our literature, our plans of organization, our usages, and even our school fashions and " fads," belong not to any one State or city, but to the nation.

The Cincinnati teachers, alive to their reputation and power as a body, have, of late, manifested their professional energy and pride by various combined efforts. Looking to their material welfare, and conscious that self-help is the only efficient and dignified means of support, they established, in 1890, the " Teachers' Aid and Annuity Society," under the able presidency of Mr. James E. Sherwood. In furtherance of general culture and social progress, the " Teachers' Club " was formed in March, 1891. The first president was Dr. W. H. Venable, who was succeeded in 1892 by Dean William O. Sproull. Under the auspices of this club several of the most distinguished educators of our times have spoken in Cincinnati, such as Pres. Angell, Prof. Lawrence, Dr. Mayo and Col. Parker. The membership of the club is about 400. In December, 1893, the " Male Assistants' Association" was organized, to afford an arena for the discussion of practical questions in school affairs. Prof. J. Remsen Bishop was chosen president. The three important societies just named, in addition to the "Principals' Association," the "German Teachers' Association," and the annual city "Institute," give to the educational forces a more complete and efficacious organization. Perhaps a special body of working, representative woman teachers is yet needed.*

The "Principals' Association," as the name indicates, is made up of the heads of the several district and intermediate schools, namely: James E. Sherwood, Abram S. Reynolds, William S. Flinn, Isaac H. 'burrell, H. H. Fick, C. J. O'Donnell, John H. Morton, C. C. Long, H. H. Raschig, William B. Wheeler, William P. Gault, George F. Braun, J. B. Scheidemantle, L. Rothenberg, John C. Heywood, John S. Highlands, G. W. Burns, William T. Harris, Lewis Freeman, George W. Oyler, George W. Nye, Louis M. Schiel, F. M. Youmans, R. C. Yowell, J. R. Trisler, W. C. Washburne, D. L. Runyan, La Fayette Bloom, E. A. Renner, Charles S. Mueller, principals of the district schools, and G. A. Carnahan, John Akels, Edward H. Prichard, and George F. Sands, principals of the intermediate schools.

The following is a list of names of special teachers connected with the public schools: Music.-G. F. Junkermann, superintendent, J. L. Zeinz, Walter H. Aiken, Louis G. Wiesenthal, Louis Aiken, George Dasch, Joseph Surdo, Julia V. Ghio, William Rickel, C. H. Robinson. Drawing.-Christine Sullivan, superintendent, Frances Kohnky (High Schools), William H. Vogel, let assistant, Kate Whiteley, Ella Brite, Jannette Cist, Arthur O. Jones, Elsie Whiteley. Writing. Howard Champlin, Mary H. Stevenson, Maggie A. Delehanty, Carrie P. Dehner, Lizzie Schott.

Since the above was written, the lady teachers of the city have formed a professional club, with Miss Christine Sullivan for first president.


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Physical Culture.-Carl Ziegler, superintendent, Gustav Eckstein, Arthur Knoch, Florence Wells, Adele Spills. Oral Deaf Mute School.-Virginia A. Osborne, Emma Vettle, Mary S. Breckenridge, Louise barger. Manual Deaf Mute School. -Carrie Fesenbeck.

A. novel event, in the recent history of the public schools, was the distribution in the summers of 1890 and 1891, of what are known as the " Cincinnati Enquirer Prizes," given by John R. McLean to pupils receiving the highest per cents in the intermediate and high schools. These prizes were in gold coin, and ranged in value from five to twenty dollars. The sum of three hundred dollars was bestowed in 1890, and six hundred dollars in 1891.

"Columbus Day " was duly celebrated by the Cincinnati schools, with literary exercises, music and processions. A very creditable exhibit, consisting of 103 volumes of written work, by pupils of all grades of the schools, was shown at the great Chicago Exposition in 1893. This display was much praised, and it received official commendation and award.

The administration of Supt. Morgan and the present board of education and union board of high schools will be memorable for the changes it wrought in the courses of study, and for the service it rendered the cause of physical culture. The gymnasium buildings at Woodward and Hughes schools, completed at a cost of nearly twelve thousand dollars, and equipped at a cost of three thousand dollars, are a proud addition to the educational facilities of a great city. Special credit is due Francis B. James, president of the union board, for the establishment of these elegant improvements.

Closely connected with the exercises of the gymnasium are the military drills of the cadets of the high schools, whose companies are now uniformed and supplied with arms. The Hughes Battalion is commanded by Maj. J. R. Bishop; the Woodward, by Maj. A. M. Van Dyke.

For the convenient reference of those who may wish to consult, in brief, the school statistics of Cincinnati in the year 1893, a summary of leading facts is here given. According to the Sixty-fourth Annual Report, the population of the city is 320,000. The city is divided into thirty wards, and from each ward a member is elected to the school board. The roll of members for the year 1893-94 is the following: William McAllister, E. R. Monfort, Ernst Rehm, W. F. Hartzel, A. J. Beckman, G. D. Jobe, H. H. Mithoefer, Thomas J. Knight, H. W. Albers, John Grimm. Jr., George Friedlein, S. H. Spencer, George Bardes, George W. Long, L. J. Fogel, J. M. Robinson, B. Bettmann, L. Mendenhall, Joseph Parker, Joseph W. O'Hara, M. H. Mersch, John Grace, A. L. Herrlinger, J. E. Cormany, C. W. Whiteley, D. H. Lehnkering, Charles Weidner, Jr., Rudolph Fischer, J. C. Harper, J. J. Geiger.

Statistical Summary.---Number of youth between six and twenty-one years of age: Male, 43,715; female, 41,951; total, 85,666; number of youth between sixteen and twenty-one years of age, male, 11,339; female, 9,930; total, 21,269; number of youth between six and sixteen years of age, male, 32,376; female, 32,021; total, 64,397; number of youth reported as attending school: Public schools-Male, 18,436; female, 17,285; total, 35,721; Private schools-Male, 1,236; female, 1,168; total, 2,404; Church schools-Male, 7.610; female, 7,703; total, 15,313; number of youth reported as not attending any school: Male, 16,433; female, 15, 795; total, 32,228.

The number of school buildings owned by the board of education is fifty-nine; the number rented is ten. The number of school rooms is 798; the number of seats for pupils, 41,000. The number of pupils enrolled in the public schools for 1893 was 37,648. The number of teachers employed in the schools is 774. The amount paid to these in the year ending June, 1893, was $641,388. The total value of the school property is $2,995,000. The expenses for 1893 were $986,312.

The officers of the school board at present are: A. L, Herrlinger, president;


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James M. Robinson, vice-president; George R. Griffiths, clerk; William Grautman, assistant clerk. The officers of the schools are: W. H. Morgan, superintendent; Henry Klein, superintendent of buildings; William C. Ziegler, clerk superintendent of schools; A, B. Clement, truant officer.

HISTORY OF THE HIGH SCHOOLS.

Woodward High School.-The Cincinnati high schools, Woodward and Hughes, named for their founders, are not wholly under the control of the Board of Education, but are managed by a Union Board, and are supported partly by endowment funds and partly from the regular school tax. Both were endowed before the free school system went, into operation. The fund which sustains the Woodward school is derived from the income on property originally bequeathed to the city by William Woodward, a farmer who became rich by the rise in value of his lands. Mr. Woodward was born in Connecticut, in 1770, and died in Cincinnati in 1833. He was a typical New England character, shrewd, industrious, frugal, and strictly religious. Of a thrifty, business turn; he combined, with the management of his acres, the occupation of surveyor, tanner and shipbuilder. His home was the usual log house of the rural pioneer. The Woodward estate lay mainly within the area now bounded by the streets Woodward and Liberty, Main and Broadway.

Shakespeare says: "Good men, at their death, have good inspirations." A good inspiration was breathed into William Woodward a score of years before he died. The benevolent impulse came into his heart to leave to the poor of his city the best fortune possible, the means of gaining such elementary education as would enable them to overcome poverty. What should he do with his worldly goods when he no longer needed them? He had no heirs, and so, with the wise and friendly counsel of his neighbor Samuel Lewis, Woodward resolved to endow a school. With this end in view he transferred that portion of his farm lying nearest the city, in trust, to Samuel Lewis and Osmond Coggswell, November 23, 1826, These two men were constituted trustees for life, with power to appoint their successors. By the act of incorporation, January 24, 1827, the power to appoint three other trustees was vested in the city council. The trustees accepted their office, and a deed of confirmation was signed March 24, 1828. Jonathan Pancoast and Lewis Howell were made trustees. Mr. Coggswell was a nephew of Mr. Woodward.

According to the first intention of the founder and his advisors the proposed school was to be quite elementary, and the name chosen for it was the " Woodward Free Grammar School." But, in 1830, the public schools of the city being organized to meet the demand for free primary instruction, Mr. Woodward was induced to sign an additional legal paper empowering the trustees to enlarge the original design, and to create a high school. Indentures made and signed December 17, 1830, established Woodward High School, which was incorporated in January, 1831. The trustees in that year were Lewis, Coggswell, Howell, Oliver Goode and John P. Foote. Mr. Foote tells us in his "Schools of Cincinnati," that " Mr. Lewis was the chief manager of the trust, and that it soon became the principal business of his life." Under his direct supervision a school building, 40 x 50 feet, was erected, and the school was opened October 24, 1831, By January 1, 1832, the number of pupils enrolled was 144, much the larger number of these paying a fee. The first teacher appointed was T. B. Wheelock, and the special subject he taught was mathematics. After the lapse of about five years, the trustees took action resulting in the transmutation of the high school into a college. The first session of Woodward College (the eleventh since the organization of the school) began August 15, 1836. From that date until May, 1851, a period of fifteen years, the college organization was kept up, and within that time 1,377 students received tuition, and forty graduated with the degree of A. B., fifteen of whom afterward received the degree A. M. Among the most distinguished trustees, besides Lewis


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and Foote, were William Greene, Salmon P. Chase and Judge William G. Gholson. Those who, in turn, held the position of college president were T. J. Matthews, Benjamin P. Aydelott, and Thomas J. Biggs. Distinguished among the professors were Joseph Ray, William H. McGuffey, T. S. Pinneo, L. A. Hine, and John L. Talbott,

In May, 1851, the work of the college was virtually suspended. Action was then being taken to unite the funds of the Woodward bequest with those of the Hughes, and to place the two high schools in affiliation with the public-school system. The last meeting of the board of trustees was held July 22, 1851. A contract was entered into by which the funds were united, and increased by public taxes, and the two schools put under control of a union board made up of representatives for each endowment fund, and members chosen by the city authorities. Work was begun on a new high-school building, the present Woodward High School, July 28, 1854. It was a suggestive coincidence that Samuel Lewis died on the same day.

Since the reorganization of the schools in 1851, the Woodward High School has steadily gone forward in its career of usefulness. The entire enrollment of pupils for the year 1852 was but 102; the number enrolled in 1892 was 841. The first principal of Woodward was Dr. Joseph Ray; the second, D. Shepardson; the third, M. Woolson; the fourth,, George W. Harper, the present incumbent.

The Central High School.-It will perhaps conduce to historical clearness, to give here a sketch of the old Central High School, which, in time, holds the precedence over Woodward and Hughes, and of which, in a sense, Hughes is the continuation, the principal and three other of the teachers on the original corps at Hughes having held over from the Central. In October, 1845, Peyton Symmes, president of the school board, recommended the organization of a public high school, and on the 11th of the following February, 1846, the State legislature authorized the board to provide such a school. The question of consolidating the Woodward and Hughes funds had already been proposed, and the Central School seems to have been regarded as provisional. The board took action, and, in November (other authorities say July), 1847, the school was commenced in the basement of the German Lutheran Church, on Walnut street, below Ninth; " very considerably below the ground," said Prof. Cyrus Knowlton, one of the teachers. In February, 1848, the school was removed to more commodious quarters on Center street. Up to this time the only teachers in the school were the principal, Mr. H. H. Barney, and Mr. John M. Edwards. Mr. Knowlton was then added to the force, and also Miss Eliza Bush and Mr. E. D. Kingsley. In 1849 Miss Bush resigned, and her place was fails d by Miss Mary Atkins. Other teachers in the "Old Central" were Miss F. Ellen Cassat,, Messrs. Locke and Aikin, professors of music; Mr. A. Brunner, professor of French; Mr. Bowers, professor of penmanship, and Prof. Shattuck, professor of drawing. The number of pupils enrolled in the Central High School was, in 1818, ninety-seven; in 1849, eighty-seven; in 1850, seventy; in 1851, sixty-three; and in 1852, ninety-eight-in all, 415.

Hughes High School.-Soma mystery broods over the story of the life of Thomas Hughes, founder of Hughes High School. The memorials of his private life are scanty and somewhat contradictory. It is known that be was an Englishman, probably born near the Welsh border. He was a Christian, but not a sectarian. Early in life he seems to have been unhappily married, though little is known of his wife, and he had no children. He practiced the trade of shoemaker, having his shop in his dwelling-house, a log structure on the corner of his small farts, a tract of some thirty acres, principally on the hillside north of the old corporation line. One of his intimate associates, J. Sampson Powers, has recorded that Hughes "lived alone, in a humble cabin, on the north side of Liberty street, Cincinnati, which cabin, if now standing, would be west of Sycamore street." Mr. Powers further reveals that


118 - HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY.

the solitary shoemaker cherished certain pets, a sorrel dog, a sorrel pony, and a few favorite chickens, for each one of which he had a familiar name. "In regard to his last illness and death," continues the same witness, "I only know about it from what my kind friend John Melendy told me in 1825. Peter and John Melendy took care of Thomas Hughes in his last illness. He died in their house, on the west side of Main and south of Liberty street, on the 26th day of December, 1824, His remains were interred in the Twelfth street burying-ground, and when that ground was converted into Washington Park, his body was exhumed and reinterred in Spring Grove cemetery."

This is the simple story of Thomas Hughes, who was a friend and neighbor to William Woodward. To him, also, as to his more prosperous fellow-toiler, came a good angel, whispering blessed counsel. Hughes was moved to give his possessions for humanity's sake, to the world, in the form of a school, which should stand as his monument and a perpetual benefaction to the young, especially to those who might not be able to gain an education without the advantages of a free school'. In the year and month of his decease, December 4, 1824, Thomas Hughes bequeathed his land to William Woodward, William Greene, Nathan Guilford, Elisha Hotchkiss, and Jacob Williams, as trustees, the property to be "applied to the maintenance and support of a school or schools." In April, 1827, the land was laid out in lots, since which time it has been improved and managed by the trustees, for the benefit of the school. The original trustees of the Hughes fund were William Woodward, Elisha Hotchkiss, Jacob Williams, and William Greene.

On the 19th day of May, 1851, the board of trustees and directors of the common schools, the trustees of the Woodward College and the Hughes School, and the board of trustees of the Hughes Fund, entered into a triplicate contract for the establishment of the Cincinnati Woodward High School, and the Cincinnati Hughes High School. As we have stated, work was begun on the present Woodward building July 28, 1854. The Hughes High School building, located on the south side of Fifth street, opposite Mound street, was begun in March, 1852, and completed in January, 1853. The school was immediately organized, with-H. H. Barney as principal. The first graduating exercises were hold in the school ball, Friday, January 27, 1854, beginning at one o'clock, r. u. Ten pupils graduated, four boys and six girls. Among these was R. D. Barney, one of the present trustees of the Hughes Fund. H. H. Barney retired from the principalship in 1854, and was succeeded by Cyrus Knowlton, who died in 1860. Dr. Joseph L. Thornton was the next principal. After six years he resigned, and the present principal, Dr. E. W. Coy, was elected to the position.

The number of pupils now enrolled in the high schools is 1,430. The number graduated in 1803 was, from Woodward 85, from Hughes 79, total 164. The members of the Union Board of High Schools for the year 1803-04 are: Delegates from the Board of Education.----W. F. Hartzell, A. L. Herrlinger, Ernst Rehm, H. H. Mithoeffer, J. E. Cormany, C. W. Whiteley. Delegates from the Woodward Fund. -A. H. Bode, John B. Peaslee. William H. Taft, S. S. Davis, and Francis B. James. Delegates ,from. the Hughes Fund.--R. D. Barney and Charles H. Stephens. The officers are: Francis B. James, president; C. W. Whiteley, vice-president: George R. Griffiths, secretary.

The present teaching force consists of thirty-seven men and women, namely: Woodward School.-George W. Harper (principal), Chauncey R. Stuntz, William H. Pabodie, A. M. Van Dyke. Ferd. C. Gores, Henry H. Brader, Nettie Fillmore, Eleanor C. O'Connell. M. W. Mosbaugh, Emma R. Johnston, Adeline A. Stubbs, M. Louise Armstrong, Margaretta Burnet, Rachel V. Wheeler, Eulalie Artois, Frances Kohnky (drawing), Tillie M. Lambour, Isabel H. Neff (cooking). Woodward Colony.-Atley S. Henshaw, Clara Davis Klemm, Margaret E. Layman, Mary E. Magurck. Hughes School.--E. W. Coy (principal), W. H. Venable, Alan Sanders,


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J. Remsen Bishop, Albert F. Kuersteiner, O. W. Martin, Lucia Stickney, Clara B. Jordan, Ellen M. Patrick, Josephine Horton, Alice W. Hall, Anne M. Goodloe, Celia Doerner, Therese Kirchberger, Emma Morhard, Frances Kohnky.

A new high school building is in course of construction on Walnut Hills, at an estimated cost of one hundred thousand dollars.

CINCINNATI NORMAL SCHOOL.

In our sketch of the public schools it is mentioned that, at Supt. Rickoff's suggestion, normal classes were instructed by H. H. Barney, in Hughes High School, and that, while Dr. Hancock was superintendent, a regular Normal School was established under the principalship of Miss Sara Dugan, from the Boston Training School. This was in 1868. The school was located in the Eighth District schoolhouse.

Miss Dugan resigned at the end of a year's service, and the board elected in her place Miss Delia A.. Lathrop, who retired from the principalship of the city Normal School, Worcester, Mass., to come to Cincinnati. Miss Lathrop remained in charge, with great acceptance to the people, and much to the advancement of professional spirit and qualifications among the teachers, until her marriage, in 1876, to Prof. Williams, when she removed to Delaware, Ohio.



The valuable services of Albert Knell and John Mickelborough were successively enlisted in the management of the Normal School. These gentlemen were succeeded by the present accomplished principal of the school, Mrs. Carrie Newhall Lathrop. The president of the board of education, A. R. Herrlinger, says of the school, in his annual Report, dated September 1, 1892: "The Normal School has now been in existence about twenty-four years. Its usefulness has long been an established fact. During this period of time almost one thousand students have graduated as teachers. Wherever these graduates have located, they have done honor to their alma mater; as well in our public schools, as in numerous private institutions of learning. During the past year the theory and practice departments have been again united, much to the benefit of the school. Mrs. Carrie N. Lathrop, principal, and her efficient, assistants, deserve well of the board and the public for their diligence and energy." The present, corps of teachers in the Normal School, besides Mrs. Lathrop, are Johanna M. Huising, Anna Bewley, Agnes L. Brown, and Mary Coleman Burnet.

The Normal School comprises two departments--a Department of Instruction, and a Department of Practice. Two years are required to complete the full course. By a rule of the board, "graduates of the Normal School shall have the preference, other things being equal, for positions in the Public Schools of the city."

UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI.

Highest in the series of Cincinnati's free, popular, educational institutions, is the University, an organic part of the public-school system. All residents of Cincinnati are admitted to its courses, without charge, and the city High Schools largely reinforce its annual Freshman classes.

No clearer or more succinct statement of its history and condition can be given than is found in the college catalogue for 1892-93, front which we quota. " The University of Cincinnati owes its existence to the generosity of Charles McMicken, a native of Pennsylvania, who came to Cincinnati in 1803, accumulated a large fortune, and died here in 1858. By the terms of his will he bequeathed to the city of Cincinnati properly worth over one million dollars, to found an institution of learning in which students should `receive the benefit of a sound, thorough and practical English education, and such as might fit them for the active duties of life, as well as instruction in the higher branches of knowledge, except denominational theology, to the extent that the same are now or may hereafter be taught in any of the secular colleges or universities of the highest grade in the country.'


120 - HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY.

"In April, 1870, the General Assembly of Ohio passed an act to enable cities of the first class to aid and promote education, under which the city of Cincinnati accepted the bequest of Charles McMicken, and proceeded to establish the University of Cincinnati. Academic instruction was actually begun in 1873 in the building and by the teachers of the Woodward High School, and the University was formally organized in 1871 by the appointment of professors of mathematics and civil engineering, of Latin and Greek, and of physics and chemistry. During the academic year, 1874-75, instruction was given by these professors in the Woodward High School building, but at the beginning of the year 1875-76 possession was taken of the new building then erected on the site adjoining the McMicken homestead, where the institution is still located. The resources of the University have been largely increased by the `Brown Endowment Fund,' from the estate of the late Rev. Samuel J. Brown, by the large bequest of Matthew Thorns, and by a tax-levy of one-tenth of a mill by the city. Donations to the Observatory have also been made by John Kilgour and Julius Dexter.



" The University forms the culmination of the school-system of Cincinnati. Tuition is free to all residents of the city, and even necessary expenses, such as laboratory fees, are reduced to the lowest practicable limits. An opportunity is afforded to every citizen to obtain a thorough education at a minimum of expense. From its inception the University has admitted on equal terms persons of either sex, with eminently satisfactory results. It has constantly been the aim of the Faculty to carry out, to the best of their ability, the spirit, of the passage quoted above from the will of the honored founder of the University.

" The University offers eight courses of study, of four years each. On the one hand, it recognizes the fact that the same studies and the same routine are not suited to all minds. It admits that different tastes and powers on the part of students call for diversity of instruction. On the other band, the University, led by its own experience, and by that of similar institutions, perceives clearly that college students need guidance in the selection of their studies, and that such guidance is best provided in the presentation of symmetrical and distinctive courses of study from which the student is to make his choice.

"Each of the several courses here offered is planned to meet the wishes and needs of a different body of students. The freedom of the student is properly exercised in the selection of that course which best accords with his talents and aims in life. To the Faculty is reserved the duty of determining, in the main, what particular studies will best promote a broad and symmetrical development in each of the given directions. It may be added that. while all the studies of the first two years are prescribed, there are some hours in the third and fourth Years which are to be occupied with elective studies. In the matter of Biblical instruction, the University has endeavored to comply with all existing requirements. By the terns of Charles McMicken's will, the Bible, in the Protestant version, is to be used as a book of instruction; but, as a public institution, supported in part by taxation, the University can not, insist upon any form of religious compliance from its pupils. The Protestant Bible is taught by the professor of philosophy. The instruction is expository, and is believed to be in full accord with the spirit of the founder's will. In order that all pupils may avail themselves of the instruction, the hour in which it is given is declared vacant of other University exercises. Attendance is voluntary. Those who attend may count the study in making up the required number of hours of their respective courses.

"The University has no dormitories. Excellent homes may be found in different parts of Cincinnati. The price varies for boarding and lodging from five to seven dollars a week. Lists of desirable places are kept by the Registrar, and can be had on application.

" Besides the departmental libraries of the University Cincinnati has the follow-


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ing libraries: The Public Library, which, besides the current newspapers and periodicals, has extensive collections of standard works in literature, the classics, theology, art, the sciences, medicine and engineering, aggregating over two hundred thousand volumes. Its privileges are open to all students of the University free of charge. The Mercantile Library contains over sixty thousand volumes, and in its reading room is found a carefully chosen collection of newspapers and periodicals. The collection of the Historical and Philosophical Society contains over eight thousand volumes, and its books may be freely consulted by all. The Young Men's Christian Association building contains a reading room and free library, as well as a complete gymnasium and health department. Other public institutions having collections of special value to the student are the Art Museum, the Cincinnati Society of Natural History, with its extensive museum, the Ohio :Mechanics' Institute, and the Zoological Gardens. The Cincinnati Gymnasium, with its athletic grounds and fine equipment. offers every advantage for physical culture."

The University originally comprised three departments, the Academic, the Observatory, and the School of Design. The last of these was transferred to the Cincinnati Museum Association in 1884. There are now affiliated with the University, a Medical Department embracing the Miami Medical College, established in 1852; and the Medical College of Ohio, established in 1819; and the Clinical and Pathological School of the Cincinnati Hospital, established in 1821 ; also a Dental Department, consisting of the Ohio College of Dental Surgery; and a Pharmaceutical Department, consisting of the Cincinnati College of Pharmacy.



The Academic department, now embracing the Observatory, conducts well-organized courses of University Extension Lectures, and sustains a Philological Society.

The chairmen of the Board of University Trustees have been Hon. Rufus King, Hon. George Hoadly, Hon. Alphonso Taft and Hon. Samuel F. Hunt. The present chairman is Dr. Cornelius G. Comegys. The first clerk of the board was William T. Disney; the second, Joseph F. Wright, still holds the position.

In December, 1877, Thomas Vickers was made rector of the University, and held the office until June, 1884, when he resigned. Hon. Jacob D. Cox was chosen president, April 13. 1885. He resigned in June, 1889. Prof. H. T. Eddy was then elected acting president or dean. Prof. Eddy being called to the presidency of Rose Polytechnic Institute, withdrew from the University, when the directors elected Prof. W. R. Benedict to assume the duties of dean for one year, then to be succeeded by the professor next, in seniority. At. the close of Prof. Benedict's administration, December, 1891, he was succeeded by Prof. E. W. Hyde, who gave place at the end of the year, 1893, to Prof. William O. Sproull, the present dean.

The Faculty and assistant instructors of the Academic department of the University of Cincinnati at the present time are: William Oliver Sproull, Ph. D., LL. D., professor of Latin language and literature and of Arabic; Wayland Richardson Benedict, A. M., professor of philosophy; Edward Wyllys Hyde, C. E., professor of mathematics; Thomas French, Jr.. Ph. D., professor of physics; Thomas Herbert Norton, Ph. D., professor of chemistry; Jermain Gildersleeve Porter, Ph. D., director of the Observatory and professor of astronomy: William Everett Waters, Ph. D., professor of Greek and comparative philology; Edward Miles Brown, Ph, D., professor of English language and literature: Philip Van Ness Myers, LL. D., L. H. D., professor of history and political economy; Ward Baldwin, C. E., M. S., professor of civil engineering; James Playfair McMurrich, Ph. D., professor of biology; Charles Frederick Seybold, A. B., LL. B., professor of French and German; Everett Irvin Yowell, C.E., instructor in mathematics; Paul Francis Walker, instructor in Spanish; Herman Elijah Newman, Ph. D., assistant in chemistry; Charles Henry Turner, M. S., assistant in biology; Ellis Guy Kinkead, B. A., LL. B., assistant in Latin; William Osgood Mussey, A. M., assistant. in English.


122 - HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY.

It is a matter of great public interest in the Queen City that on the 20th of September, 1889, the common council passed an ordinance giving to the University forty-three acres of land in Burnet Woods Park, on condition that $100,000 be expended in the construction of buildings, etc., upon this tract, within live years, and that the main building be begun within three years of the date of the agreement.

CINCINNATI OBSERVATORY.



The Cincinnati Observatory, now part of the University, demands special treatment in this sketch, being one of the most important astronomical stations in the country. Its telescope has the distinction of being the first "at all commensurable with the needs of a modern observatory, to be erected upon the soil of the Western continent."

In the winter of 1841-42 au enthusiastic public interest was aroused in Cincinnati, by a course of eloquent lectures on astronomy, delivered before the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge by Ormsby McKnight Mitchel, then professor in Cincinnati College. An Astronomical Society was organized, and Mitchel proposed to raise seven thousand five hundred dollars, in shares of twenty-five dollars each. The stock was subscribed within three weeks, and on May 23, 1842, the shareholders organized a society, adopted a constitution, and elected the following officers: President, Hon. Jacob Burnet; treasurer, William Goodman; secretary, Milo G. Williams; directors, E. Poor, James H. Perkins, E. D. Mansfield, H. Starr, John P. Foote, T. J. Brooke, J. Jonas, G. P. Torrence, J. P. Harrison, Miles Greenwood, M. T. Williams.

Prof. Mitchel was authorized to procure a telescope, and he immediately went to Europe, where, after much search, he found, in Munich, a lens of nearly a foot in diameter, which be purchased. The sum of at least ten thousand dollars was required to mount the glass properly, and Mitchel undertook to increase the subscriptions to this amount. On his return to Cincinnati. a site was secured for the Observatory, on Mount Adams, near the present " Highland House, "a tract of land being donated to the society by Nicholas Longworth. The corner stone of the Observatory was laid November 9, 1843, on which occasion an oration was delivered by John Quincy Adams, who, in 1825. had vainly urged Congress to found a National Observatory. The erection of the building was begun in June, 1844, and was carried on, under many difficulties, under the direct and constant supervision of Prof. Mitchel. The building was at length completed, and Mitchel continued to act as director of the Observatory until 1860, when he was called to take 'charge of the Dudley Observatory, Albany, N. Y. Soon after this the Civil war broke out, and the fame of the astronomer was merged in the glory of the soldier. The brilliant military career of Gen. O. M. Mitchel fills a splendid page of the nation's history.

For a short time the Observatory was under the care of Henry M. Twitchell, who had been the assistant of Mitchel. Mr. Twitchell resigned in 1861, and for some years the telescope was in the careful keeping of Mr. Davis, father-in-law of Dr, Rickoff, but not much astronomical work was done until 1868, when Mr. Cleveland Abbe, of the National Observatory at Washington, was called to the directorship. The officers then controlling the Astronomical Society were: President, Robert Buchanan; secretary, William Hooper; treasurer, William Goodman; directors, Alphonso Taft, Miles Greenwood, Samuel Davis, Jr., Edmund Dexter, L. B. Harrison, Rufus King, T. D. Lincoln, John Shillito.

Prof. Abbe carried on the scientific work of the Observatory with vigilance, much retarded in his work by the smoke and dust of the city. In 1869 he organized a party to observe the total eclipse of the sun at Sioux Falls. But the peculiar genius of Prof. Abbe was exercised in giving system and practical value to meteorological observations concerning the weather. Prof. Jermain G. Porter, who is now the efficient director of the Observatory, in an admirable historical sketch to which


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we are indebted for our facts, says: " Probably the most important work which Prof. Abbe did during his connection with the Observatory was the establishment of a system of daily weather reports and storm predictions. Having secured the cooperation of observers stationed at various points, throughout the country, he began to issue this bulletin on September 1, 1869. Although the Observatory only maintained this service for a few months-it passing then temporarily into the hands of the Western Union Telegraph Company-still the experiment had the effect of arousing popular interest in the subject, and led to the speedy establishment, by the General Government, of the Weather Bureau. To the Cincinnati Observatory thus belongs the honor of being pioneer not only in the field of astronomy, but also in this important field of weather prediction. Upon the establishment of the National Signal Service, it was but natural that Prof. Abbe's ability and experience in meteorological work should be in demand at Washington. He resigned the directorship of the Observatory in 1870, to accept the professorship of meteorology in the Government Weather Bureau, a position which he still holds."

Important action was taken in 1872, by which the Astronomical Society surrendered its trust to the city, and by which the Observatory became an adjunct of the University. The first annual report of the directors of the University states the conditions of the transfer as follows: "The property on Mount Adams, which was donated by the late Nicholas Longworth, Esq., for an Observatory, having become unsuitable for that purpose, his heirs have joined with the Astronomical Society in an agreement to give and convey the ground to the city, upon the specific trust that it shall be leased or sold, and the proceeds applied toward endowing the School of Drawing and Design, which is now established in connection with the. University; the city agreeing, as a condition of the gift, to sustain an Observatory, also to be connected with the University. To enable the city to comply with the latter engagement, Mr. John Kilgour has agreed to give four acres of land as the site for a new Observatory, and also the sum of ten thousand dollars for building and equipping it, The Astronomical Society also gives to the city, for the same object, the equatorial and other instruments, with all the apparatus and astronomical records and books belonging to the present Observatory." A new building was erected on the summit of Mount Lookout, and by act of legislature the board of education was authorized to assess and levy an annual tax for the support of the Observatory. A meridian circle was purchased in 1888, and a new done was constructed in 1892.

Prof. Ormond Stone, of the National Observatory, was called to Cincinnati as professor of astronomy in the University and director of the Observatory, in 1875. He resigned in 1882, to accept the directorship of the Leander McCormick Observatory of the University of Virginia; and Mr. Herbert C. Wilson remained in charge until 1884, when the present director, Jermain G. Porter, was appointed director. Prof. Porter had been connected with the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey.

OHIO MECHANICS' INSTITUTE.

The Ohio Mechanics' Institute is one of the oldest, most efficient and most praiseworthy of Cincinnati's popular agencies for the advancement of civilization. It is decidedly an educational organization, bearing directly upon the interest of industry and art. Founded, in 1828, by a few philanthropic men who devoted their leisure, their money and their hearts to its objects, the Institute has been fostered and sustained, now for nearly three-quarters of a century, by the unfailing zeal and stubborn energy of its friends, among whom have ever been found the best and most Generous of our citizens. To the Mechanics' Institute the public owes the inauguration and successful development of the system of Industrial Fairs or Expositions, for which Cincinnati is distinguished, and which furnished the model after which so many other cities and States patterned similar displays. The vast influence of


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these expositions as modes of objective instruction to the masses entitle them to be regarded as schools for the diffusion of useful knowledge. But these expositions, however valuable, and however imposing, were but grand incidents in the history of the Institute, not the regular staple of its yearly work. The institution was organized as a means of enlightening and training working people, especially mechanics, through the instrumentality of books, lectures, teachers, and by study and manual shill. It has conic to be accepted as a motto of the members of the old Institute that they

Live for those who need them;

For the good that they can do.

A journalist reporting his impressions of the academic department, in 1890, describes it as " A school where the son of the millionaire elbows the bootblack." The description conveys the literal truth, for the winter evening sessions of the school bring together all sorts of learners, froth college graduates to street cripples, and six or seven hundred youths may be seen amicably and diligently at work, with perfect democratic equality of rights, all bent to acquire some special knowledge.

The prime mover in forming a Mechanics' Institute in Cincinnati was John D. Craig, who, at the close of a course of popular lectures on physics, suggested the propriety of organizing a society for the promotion and practice of the mechanic arts. A meeting was held on the evening of October 25, 1828, at which John P. Foote, Luman Watson, John Locke, J. Bonsall and W. Disney were selected as a committee to report a plan for carrying Mr. Craig's suggestion into effect. At a succeeding meeting, held November 20, 1828, over which Rev. Elijah Slack, president of Cincinnati College, presided, Mr. Craig explained the nature and purposes of Mechanics' Institute, and John P. Foote presented the report of the committee, and submitted a constitution which was adopted. The Ohio Mechanics' Institute was duly incorporated on February 9, 1829, though the charter was amended in 1846-47. The names of the charter members are John D. Craig, John P. Foote, Thomas Riley, Luman Watson, William C. Anderson, David T. Disney, George Graham, Jr., Calvin Fletcher, Clement Dare, William Disney, William Greene, Tunis Brewer, Jeffrey Seymour, Israel Schooley and Elisha Brigham.

In the winter of 1828--29, classes were formed in chemistry, by Dr. Cleveland; in geometry, by Dr. John Locke; and in arithmetic, by John L. Talbott. The lectures in chemistry were given in College Hall and in the city council chamber; the mathematical instruction was imparted in Mr. Talbott's school room. In 1830 the Institute purchased the Enon Baptist church, on Walnut street between Third and Fourth. The main room of the church was used as a lecture hall, and the ground floor was divided into three apartments, to be used as library, reading, room, and recitation room. After some years, not being able to pay for the quarters which had been bought on credit, the Institute was obliged to abandon the church and to seek new accommodations, which were found in Cincinnati College. Meanwhile, occasional lectures were given by Prof. Calvin Stove, of Lane Seminary; Judge James Hall, the western author; Dr. Craig, and others, for the benefit of the struggling Institute. In February, 1838, a grand " Mechanics and Citizens " ball was held, at the National Theater, the profits of which put about twenty-four hundred dollars into the treasury. This was followed in May by a fair, in the locally famous Bazaar building, erected by Mrs. Trollope. About four hundred articles were on exhibition, and the rooms were crowded with visitors for three days. This fair was the precursor of the long series of "Expositions," the latest of which took place in the Centennial year, 1888. The Bazaar, facetiously called "Trollope's Folly," was purchased by the Institute, in February, 1839, for ten thousand dollars. However, as in the case of the Enon church, the Institute was unable to discharge its obligations, and the Bazaar property reverted in February, 1847, to Messrs. Longworth


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and Blachly, who foreclosed the mortgage which they held on it. After many financial misadventures, and many enforced removals "from pillar to post," the long suffering, courageous Institute at last secured a permanent home, and entered upon a new career. . A lot on the southwest corner of Sixth and Vine streets was procured, and on the Fourth of July, 1848, the corner stone of the present Mechanics' Institute building was laid. Though burdened with a heavy debt, the Institute, by the generosity of Miles Greenwood, Marston Allen and others, and by the vigorous energy of its trustees, was eventually put on a solid financial basis. It does not owe a dollar.

In the years 1856-57, arrangements were completed by which the directors of the Institute provided accommodation, in their edifice, for "The Cincinnati Common School and Family Library," and for offices of the public schools, and session ball of the school board. In 1870 the Public Library and school offices were removed to the new library building, on Vine street.

Courses of lectures have been given, from time to time, ever since the Institute removed into its permanent home. The lecture room, Greenwood Hall, was, for years, the scientific headquarters. Among the lecturers who appeared on its platform were Prof. H. E. Foote, Dr. W. W. Dawson, Dr. J. C. Zachos, W. M. Davis, Prof. Daniel Vaughan, Dr. Sam Silsbee; and, later, Dr. T. C. Mendenhall.

The School of Design of the Ohio Mechanics' Institute was founded in 1856. It supplied an actual need, and won merited success. In the Annual Report for 1870 we read: "The Board of Directors desire to call special attention to the successful results and practical workings of the School of Design. It has, in reality, proved itself the pioneer in the several branches which have been taught in its different departments. It has been, without doubt, the forerunner of the school in connection with the McMicken University, and the means of the introduction of drawing in the public schools of Cincinnati." The attendance at its first session, 1856-57, was only fifty-two, but it has steadily increased, and, at the thirty-sixtb session, 1891-92, it numbered eight hundred and forty-five. The total enrollment, since organization, amounts to about eleven thousand.

The sessions of the school are now held from October to March. The instruction given falls in the several departments, viz.: Mechanical, architectural, artistic, practical mechanics, carriage drafting, and mathematics.

The Institute possesses a reference library, and a reading room well stocked with periodicals, many of which are of a scientific character.

The Institute has been peculiarly fortunate in the blessing of good officers. The first president, John P. Foote, held the responsible position for nineteen years, and was succeeded by Miles Greenwood, who was in office seven years. The next president, Charles F. Wilstach, continued in office seventeen years, and was succeeded by Thomas Gilpin, who died in office after serving seventeen years. James Allison was president from 1880 to 1892, when James Leslie was elected. The success of the Institute, of late years, has been largely due to the zeal, fidelity and genius of the clerk or superintendent, R. B. Champion, than whom no public officer in Cincinnati deserves more praise, or enjoys the meed of a more genuine love.

TECHNICAL SCHOOL.

The Technical School, Cincinnati's special school for manual training, entered upon the seventh year of its existence, September 11, 1893. From a printed sketch of the history of the institution, we take the following paragraphs: " The need of a Technical School in Cincinnati had been felt for some years, and was the subject of serious thought with a number of our public-spirited men-among whom were M. E. Ingalls, Julius Dexter, John V. Lewis, Maj. L. M. Hosea and others-who had from time to time been calling attention to the desirability of establishing such a school. However, no definite results came of these deliberations until at a meeting bold by


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the Order of Cincinnatus, July 8, 1886, a committee was appointed to investigate the subject and the feasibility of organizing a Technical School.

"The members of that committee were Col. William L. Robinson, Adolph Plueiner, William F. Gray and other citizens. The committee making a favorable, report, an association was formed and incorporated under the laws of the State of Ohio, July 27, 1886, under the name of `The Technical School of Cincinnati.' The Association completed its organization October 25, 1886, by electing a board of fifteen directors.

"The school was formally opened for the admission of pupils November 1, 1886, in the art rooms of Music Hall. The practical work of the school began on the fifteenth day of the month, with a class of three pupils, and closed the year, June 22, 1887, with eighteen. The second year opened September 5, 1887, with an enrollment of forty pupils, which has since increased to 161.

"The Commercial Club of Cincinnati took formal action, as a body, on the subject of the Technical School in November, 1887-although a number of its members had been interested in the movement since its beginning-and has since borne nearly half of the expense of the school.

" At a banquet given by the Commercial Club on December 1, 1888, in honor of Matthew Addy, the founder of the Addyston Steel and Iron Works Dear Cincinnati, the subject of industrial education was mentioned. Mr. Addy opened the question with a strong appeal in behalf of technical and manual training, quoting the proverb: `He who does not teach his son a trade, teaches him to steal.' M. E. Ingalls and others followed, urging that it had become essential to give to thinking labor in this city of diversified industries an impetus that would be felt through generations, by aiding an institution like the Cincinnati Technical School, and to do something to remove the anxiety of its founders and promoters in regard to its financial basis. The appeals of these gentlemen found an echo in the actions of the members of the club, for when a subscription list was started many of the gentlemen present responded to the appeal with great enthusiasm. More than thirty thousand dollars were raised within a few minutes, and more was subscribed afterward. The liberal donation of Charles Schiff of ten thousand dollars created a deep impression."

According to the sixth annual catalogue of the school, for the year 1892-93, the amount of cash in its treasury was then about nine thousand dollars. There are eight teachers in the School, three of whom are instructors in shop-work, four class instructors, and one in charge of drawing. The School has graduated thirty-one pupils, and awarded certificates to eight others.

The object of the School, as stated in the articles of incorporation, is to furnish pupils instruction and practice in the use of tools, Mechanical and Free-hand Drawing, Mathematics, English Language, and the Natural Sciences; to develop skill in handicraft, and to impart such a knowledge of essential mechanical principles as will facilitate progress in the acquirement of manual trades. The rates of tuition range from $75 to $125 per year.

The School is provided with a fully-equipped carpenter shop, blacksmith shop, and machine shop. There are, also, suitable recitation rooms, facilities for drawing, and a good working library.



The officers of the board of trustees, elected March, 1893, are president, M. E. Ingalls; vice-president, A. M. Dolph; treasurer, T. T. Gaff; secretary, Miles T. Watts. Other trustees are H. T. Proctor, Levi C. Goodale, A. B. Voorheis, Charl