I 
 
 L I B R. jPl R. "ir 
 
 BECKET ATHEN/EUM. 
 
 INCORPORATED 1888. 
 
 No. 
 
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EARLY HISTORY 
 
 Cleveland Public Schools 
 
 BY ANDREW FREESE 
 
 PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF 
 
 THE BOARD OF EDUCATION 
 
 CLEVELAND, O.: 
 
 KOBISOX, SAVAGE & CO., BOOK PRINTERS, FRASKFORT ST. 
 1876. 
 
UK' 
 
 -.A^ 
 
 C(o^ 
 
 ^ 
 
^^ 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Though there are yet among us those to whom the history of 
 the Public Schools of Cleveland is a matter of personal experience or 
 observation, the exact sequence and relation of events are sometimes 
 recovered with no little difficulty. Had we an unbroken official 
 record of the Schools, there would be still wanting such a narration as 
 would enable us to comprehend the spirit and scope of purpose which 
 have prevailed in the successive stages of progress which have been 
 made, or the causes which have led to occasional retrogression. But, 
 unfortunately, we have no such records from which we may construct 
 even a skeleton of the School history of the last half-century; and, to 
 supply some of the missing parts, we are compelled to rely upon the 
 memory of the older citizens who had, in any way, been connected 
 with the management of the Schools. 
 
 To prevent the entire loss of interesting and valuable historical 
 material, therefore, it seemed prudent to the Board of Education to 
 put into permanent form a record of the past, from which some 
 estimate may be made of advancement in the present and of progress 
 in the future. 
 
 The historian, Mr. Andrew Freese, was selected by the " Centen- 
 nial Committee" of the Board of Education because of his peculiar 
 fitness for the task. He had been employed in the Public Schools of 
 Cleveland on the completion of the first building erected under its 
 authority. In 1846, he was appointed to the Principalship of the High 
 School, just then established ; and subsequently, when the Superin- 
 tendency was created, he was at once chosen for the position. Mr. 
 Freese had thus been connected with the Schools in various capacities 
 for about twenty years — half the entire time covered by the history to 
 which the attention of the reader is invited. 
 
 974473 
 
HISTORY. 
 
 The first settlers of Cleveland were from Connecticut. ; 
 and, according to tradition, as soon as th/6e farnilies had'^^j ^ 
 tablished themselves — it was about the'begirlnmg of the 
 present century — they set up a school for their ^t/^ children. 
 The population had increased to fifty-seven in 1810, and the 
 oldest inhabitants think there was a school taught in that 
 year. It is certain, however, that it could not have been 
 very large. The earliest school mentioned in any record 
 was kept by a Mr. Capman in 18 14. But it was not till 
 1836, the year of organization under the City Charter, that 
 any system of public instruction was adopted. Previous to 
 this year, the schools, of whatever grade or character, were 
 supported mainly by private enterprise. 
 
 It appears that the first action taken by the town in its 
 corporate capacity, having any bearing upon education, was 
 in the following enactment : 
 
 Be it remembered, that on the 13th day of January, 18 17, 
 at a meeting of the Trustees of the Village of Cleveland, it is 
 ordained and awarded by the said Trustees, that the several 
 sums of money which were by individuals subscribed for the 
 building of a school-house in said village shall be refunded 
 to the subscribers, and that the corporation shall be the sole 
 proprietors of the said school-house ; which said subscrip- 
 
5 00 
 
 5 00 
 
 5 00 
 
 3 00 
 
 .5 00 
 
 5 00 
 
 6 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 tions shall be paid out of the Treasury of the Corporation at 
 the end of three years from and after the 13th of June, 18 17, 
 a schedule of which said subscriptions is as follows : 
 
 T. & I. KELLEY $20 00 PLINNEY MOWREY 3 20 
 
 STEPHEN S. DUDLEY 5 00 D. C. HENDERSON L5 00 
 
 DANIEL KELLEY 10 00 DAVID LONG 15 00 
 
 T. & D. MILLS 5 00 SAMUEL WILLIAMSON 15 00 
 
 WM. TRIMBALL 5 00 ALONZO CARTER 15 00 
 
 J. RIDDALL 5 00 JOHN DIXON 
 
 WALTER BR ADROCK 2 50 N. H. MER WIN 
 
 LEVI JOHNSON 10 00 JAMES ROOT 
 
 J. HEATHER......... 5 00 JOEL NASON 
 
 HORACE FERRY, • l\. .Vl t. . . , . 10 00 EDWARD McCARNEY. . . . 
 
 JOHN A. ACKLSy".. ;...'.' 5 00 GEO PEASE 
 
 A.W.WALWORTH 5 00 
 
 GEO. WALLACE. 5 00 Total $198 70 
 
 JACOB WILKERSON 5 00 
 
 The building referred to stood on St. Clair street, on the 
 east side of the lot now occupied by the Kennard House, in 
 a grove of oak trees. So distinctly is the old school-house 
 recollected by the oldest residents of the city, several of 
 whom learned to read at the schools taught in it, that one of 
 them, Miller M. Spangler, Esq., being requested to do so, 
 made a sketch of it from memory. It is seen in the annexed 
 wood-cut. 
 
 No description of the building is needed further than to 
 say that it resembled a country district school-house, being 
 modeled upon that well-known and peculiarly constructed 
 edifice, which has suffered no change in a century — one 
 story, the size about 24 x 30, chimney at one end, door at the 
 corner near the chimney, the six windows of twelve lights 
 each placed high ; it being an old notion that children should 
 not look out to see anything. As a school-house of the 
 olden time, some interest attaches to its history, but perhaps 
 
CLEVELAND Pl'BLIC SCHOOLS. 
 
 more from the fact that it was the first school property ever 
 owned by Cleveland as a corporation. But the schools kept 
 in it were not//r^, except to a few who were too poor to pay 
 tuition. The town gave the rent of the house to such 
 teachers as were deemed qualified, subjecting them to very 
 few conditions. They were left to manage the school in all 
 respects just as they pleased. It was, in short, a private and 
 not a public school. 
 
 OLD SCUOOL HOUSE OF lSl7. 
 
 Cleveland had at this time a population of about 250, but 
 it now began to increase somewhat more rapidly ; there was 
 a demand for a school of a higher grade, and those individ- 
 uals who had sold out, or a part of them, joined with others 
 in building a much larger and better house. They located it 
 on the same street and nearly opposite the one sold. It was 
 of brick. It was a very neat and substantial edifice, so con- 
 sidered in those days, and its crowning glory was its tower 
 and bell. For many years it bore the proud title of Cleve- 
 land Academy. In its later years, when weather-beaten and 
 
8 
 
 EARLY niSTORY OF THE 
 
 grown shabby with age, it was called The Old Academy. A 
 drawing of the building is extant, from which the following 
 cut was taken. 
 
 "THE OLD ACADEMY." 
 
 Its exact dimensions cannot be given ; but, taking the 
 average judgment of several citizens who well recollect the 
 building, it may be stated to have been 45 feet long by 
 25 feet wide. The lower floor was divided by a partition 
 wall into two departments, and for a time these rooms 
 sufficed for the two grades of school established, the upper 
 room being rented for church and other purposes. But in a 
 few years, more school room was needed, when the senior 
 department was removed to the upper floor. The building 
 was completed in 1821 ; and when it is recollected that Cleve- 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 9 
 
 land at that time contained less than 400 inhabitants, not a 
 wealthy man among them, as history shows, it must be con- 
 ceded that these early settlers placed no mean value upon 
 education, and exhibited a spirit of liberality that is seldom 
 surpassed in communities no larger, even in this age so 
 distinguished for schools. In the meantime, while this 
 Academy or High School was kept up, running through a 
 period of twelve or fifteen years, there were several primary 
 schools maintained in different parts of the town by private 
 parties who had small children to educate ; for nothing had 
 yet been done to make instruction free. Neither State nor 
 corporation laws giving schools to the people existed. It 
 seems, however, that in 1830 the corporation did make a 
 move to buy another school house — the old one having 
 gone to ruin, perhaps, — for we find that a party represent- 
 ing the town authorities entered into negotiation with the 
 owners of the Academy building for its purchase. A con~ 
 tract was drawn up and signed, but for some reason that 
 does not appear, this contract was not ratified by the Town 
 Trustees, as shown by the following resolution, copied from 
 their proceedings August 26, 1830 . 
 
 " Be it resolved by the Trustees of the Village of Cleve- 
 land, That there having been no corporation tax levied the 
 present year for the purpose of paying the interest or princi- 
 pal, or both, or any part of either or both, claimed by the 
 stockholders or shareholders, or their assigns, of the brick 
 school-house in said corporation, to be due them from said 
 corporation on a supposed contract for the sale of said 
 school-house from said stockholders or shareholders to said 
 corporation; and the said Trustees not recognizing any such 
 contract," etc. The balance is omitted, but the substance of 
 it is that they repudiate the agreement referred to, and refuse 
 
10 EARl.Y IIISTOKV OF THE 
 
 to comply with its conditions.- Thus the matter ended for 
 the time being, although subsequently — several years later — 
 the city purchased the property. Something further will be 
 said of the early private schools in another place. 
 
 Cleveland was raised to the rank of a city in 1836, and 
 the organization under its charter was effected on the first 
 of April. At a meeting of the City Council in May, the 
 records say: "A communication was received from the 
 Mayor in relation to common schools." What that com- 
 munication was, does not appear, but at the next meeting, 
 June 9, Mr. Craw introduced the following resolution, which 
 was adopted : 
 
 "Resolved, That a committee be and is hereby appointed 
 to employ a teacher and an assistant, to continue the Free 
 School to the end of the quarter, or until a school system for 
 the city shall be organized, at the expense of the city." 
 
 It appears, therefore, that a " Free School " was in exist- 
 ence at the time this resolution was introduced, and, upon 
 inquiry among the old residents of the city, the fact of such 
 an institution is established. The following note, received 
 from Samuel H. Mather, Esq., explains the character and 
 origin of the school referred to, and his statement is corrob- 
 orated by others : 
 
 "A Sunday School was organized in the old Bethel 
 Church, probably in 1833 or 1834, a kind of mission or 
 ragged school. The children, however, were found so igno- 
 rant that Sunday School teaching, as such, was out of the 
 question. The time of the teacher was obliged to be spent 
 in teaching the children how to read. To remedy this diffi- 
 culty and make the Sunday School available, a day school 
 was started. It was supported by voluntary contributions, 
 and was a charity school, in fact, to which none sent but the 
 very poorest people." 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 11 
 
 It seems, then, that this missionary enterprise was con- 
 tinued for two or three years, and up to the time of the action 
 of the Council mentioned above. The city then stepped in, 
 took charge of the school, and assumed the expense. This, 
 therefore, was the 
 
 FIRST PUBLIC SCHOOL OF CLEVELAND, 
 
 Looking further along in the Council proceedings, we 
 find that— 
 
 June 22. " Mr. Dockstader presented an ordinance for 
 the levy and collection of a school tax." 
 
 September 22. "A report wias received from the princi- 
 pal of the Free School, R. L. Gazlay, showing that 229 chil- 
 dren had received instruction during the quarter ending 
 September 20, 1836, and that the expense of maintaining the 
 school had been ;^ 131. 12." 
 
 October 5, 1836. The Council appointed the first Board 
 of School Managers. It consisted of the following persons : 
 
 JOHN W. WILLEY, 
 ANSON HAYDON, 
 DANIEL WORLEY. 
 
 November 16, 1836. Mr. Baldwin introduced a resolu- 
 tion directing an enumeration of the youth of the city between 
 the ages of 4 and 21. 
 
 December 28. The Mayor presented the claim of Mr. 
 Gazlay, as a teacher, for the quarter ending December 28. It 
 was referred to the Board of School Managers for their exam- 
 nation and approval. 
 
 March 29, 1837. The Board of School Managers reported 
 that they had continued the " Common Free School," and 
 that its cost for the quarter ending March 19, had been 
 ;^i 85.77. They urged the expediency of a more liberal out- 
 lay for schools and the pressing need of school-houses. 
 
12 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 The same evening Mr. Noble introduced a resolution 
 requesting the Committee on Schools " to ascertain and 
 report, as soon as convenient, what lots may be purchased, 
 the price and terms of payment, to be used for school pur- 
 poses — two in the First Ward, one in the Second Ward and 
 one in the Third Ward." 
 
 The second Board of School Managers, appointed in 
 April, 1837, consisted of 
 
 SAMUEL COWLES, 
 SAMUEL WILLIAMSON, 
 PHILLIP BATTELL. 
 
 As yet, however, the City Council had passed no ordi- 
 nance establishing a system of schools. The school above 
 referred to was the only one that had any existence by 
 authority; neither did the city own a school-house nor a 
 foot of ground upon which to erect one. Cleveland had then 
 a population of about 5,000; and, although no records are ex- 
 tant to show it, there must have been in attendance upon the 
 schools, private and public, no less than eight hundred chil- 
 dren. But the school maintained by the city had an enroll- 
 ment of less than three hundred, so that the Academy and 
 other private schools still furnished instruction to a very 
 large majority of the youth of the city. 
 
 The new Board merely continued the school already 
 authorized; they could do no more. But in July, 1837, the 
 City Council passed a school ordinance, a copy of which is 
 here presented : 
 
 "AN ORDINANCE TO PROVIDE FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT 
 OF COMMON SCHOOLS. 
 
 "Section i. Be it ordained by the City Council of the 
 City of Cleveland, That the School Committee of the Council 
 is hereby authorized to procure, by lease, suitable buildings 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 13 
 
 or rooms for the use of the city, to be occupied as school 
 rooms, as hereinafter provided, under the authority of the 
 city; provided, that such buildings or rooms shall be appro- 
 priated by the Board of Managers of Common Schools. The 
 expense of the lease of the same shall not exceed one-half the 
 amount which the City Council is authorized to appropriate 
 annually for the construction of buildings for school pur- 
 poses. 
 
 "Sec. 2. The School Committee of the Council is further 
 authorized and instructed to provide, at the expense of the 
 city, the needful apparatus and furniture for the buildings or 
 rooms thus provided, and the added expense of which shall 
 not exceed the limits prescribed in the first section of this 
 act. , 
 
 " Sec. 3. It is further ordained that the Board of Managers 
 of Common Schools in the city is hereby authorized to estab- 
 lish, immediately, in the premises provided aforesaid, such 
 schools of elementary education as to them shall seem neces- 
 sary, and procure instructors for the same. The term or 
 session of such schools shall commence on the 24th of July, 
 instant, and continue four months, to-wit : till the 24th day 
 of November next. 
 
 " Sec. 4. It being provided that such schools are to be 
 supplied from the revenue of the city set aside for said pur- 
 poses, so that the expense of tuition and fuel in said schools 
 shall not be permitted to exceed said specified revenue. 
 
 " Passed July 7th, 1837." 
 
 Under this ordinance the Board of Managers proceeded 
 to organize the schools and set them in operation. 
 
 The following reports, made to the City Council — the 
 first in April, 1838, the second in April, 1839 — are valuable 
 historical records, and they are offered as appropriate in this 
 connection : 
 
14 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 FIRST ANNUAL REPORT* OF THE BOARD OF MANAGERS OF 
 COMMON SCHOOLS. 
 
 The Board of Managers of the Common Schools in this 
 city respectfully submit their annual report for the year 
 1837-8. 
 
 At the commencement of the last year, the Bethel Free 
 School was in operation, supported by the city. It was con- 
 ducted in two departments, for boys and girls respectively, by 
 a male teacher and female assistants. It had upon its lists 
 one hundred and forty pupils, f and an average attendance of 
 ninety. The annual expense for tuition was about $700. 
 
 The Ordinance for the establishment of Common Schools 
 within the city was passed in July. Under this Ordinance 
 suitable rooms for schools were provided by the School 
 Committee of the Council, in reference to which, three 
 school districts, comprising the whole city, were allowed by 
 the Board as soon as possible. Two schools for the sexes 
 respectively were opened in each district, which were »sus- 
 tained somewhat short of four months, up to the 24th of 
 November, as limited in the Ordinance. Three male and 
 three female teachers were employed for the full term. The 
 average attendance at each school was not less than forty 
 pupils, and the whole expense for tuition ^640.82. The 
 winter term commenced on the ist of December, and con- 
 tinued to the 1st of April. Six schools, as before, were 
 opened at the time, and an increased number being neces- 
 
 * This was the first report made after the schools were regularly organ- 
 ized under the ordinance. The Bethel School mentioned in the opening 
 paragraph had existed through a part of the previous year, the year 
 1836, and a Board appointed to look after its interests, had made an in- 
 formal — prol)ably oial — report. 
 
 t Mr. Gazlay, the principal, says 229. 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 15 
 
 sary, a child's school, in addition, was established in each of 
 the two more populous districts. Eight schools, therefore, 
 during the winter, were sustained, employing three male and 
 five female teachers. There were eight hundred and forty 
 names on the school lists, and an aggregate average attend- 
 ance of four hundred and sixty-eight. The expense for tui- 
 tion was ^868.62. 
 
 The schools have been wholly free, and open to all within 
 their districts legally admitted to their privileges. The boys 
 and girls have been entirely separate, the former taught by 
 male and the latter by female teachers. The child's schools 
 were designed for the younger scholars of both sexes, and 
 are taught by female teachers. The teachers have been crit- 
 ically examined before being employed, and the schools duly 
 inspected, as required by the charter. The wages given 
 have been, to female teachers ^5 per week, and to male 
 teachers $40 per calendar month. A uniform selection of 
 books has been prescribed by the managers, which, by ar- 
 rangements with the teachers, have been furnished to the 
 schools at wholesale prices. 
 
 in October, a census was taken under the direction of the 
 Board of Managers, of all persons within the city between 
 the age of four and twenty-one. The number was found to 
 be two thousand one hundred and thirty-two, viz : in the 
 First Ward, nine hundred and eighteen ; in the Second, five 
 hundred and ninety-nine ; and in the Third, six hundred and 
 si.xty-five. The numbers reported from the teachers' lists 
 during the last term are, total of pupils eight hundred and 
 forty; in the boys' schools, four hundred and thirteen; in 
 the girls' schools, two hundred and sixty-eight ; in the 
 child's schools, one hundred and sixty-eight ; between the 
 ages of four and eight, three hundred and twenty-eight; be- 
 
IG KAKLV lIIf^TORY OF THE 
 
 tween eight and fourteen, four hundred and three; over four- 
 teen, one hundred and thirteen. 
 
 The concern of fuel during the year, has been chiefly 
 left with the School Committee of the Council. The ex- 
 pense in that department has not probably exceeded $125. 
 
 The aim of the Board of Managers, during the late year' 
 has beerl to commence the establishment of a system of 
 schools answering to the intentions of the city charter, to be 
 supported by the definite income ot the treasury appro- 
 priated to this object. 
 
 The school income of the city for the last year amounted 
 to §2,830, the tax of the city for school purposes being one- 
 half of a mill, and the general school tax claim through the 
 County Treasury, one mill and a half. The increase of the 
 State tax by the late law will raise the amount to 53,500. 
 The city being authorized to increase its own tax to one mill, 
 the Common School Fund might be increased to $4,300. 
 The expense of sustaining twelve district schools on the 
 present plan, with eight female and four male teachers, for 
 ten months of the year, would be $3,300. By this plan three 
 schools are established in each district, the boys and girls 
 being separate, and the younger children by themselves, 
 being so divided as to be conducted with most efficiency and 
 economy. Such a number of schools would accommodate 
 an average of seven hundred and twenty pupils, which is a 
 third of the whole number privileged to attend. 
 
 Some inequality during the last year in the management 
 of the schools, has resulted from the want of suitable rooms 
 in the Second Ward. Accommodations for the permanent 
 schools are particularly needed for the use of that Ward. In 
 reference to the location of our present school-houses and 
 
CLEVELAJSTD PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 17 
 
 the convenience of the citizens, it is important that a fourth 
 
 school district should be regularly established. 
 
 Samuel Cowles, ^ 
 
 Samuel Williamson, y Board of Managers. 
 
 I 
 Philip Battell, J 
 
 SECOND ANNUAL REPORT. 
 
 The Board of Managers of the Common Schools of the 
 City of Cleveland respectfully submit a brief report for 
 1838-9. 
 
 The proceedings of the Board of Managers, previous to 
 the spring term of 1838, have been fully disclosed in a 
 former report submitted to the City Council at the close of 
 the winter term for that year ; but as it was not at that time 
 understood, it was thought advisable again to present the 
 same, that in connection with the present brief statements, 
 the proceedings of the Board from the commencement of 
 their duties under the Ordinance of July, 1837, up to the 
 present time, may be more fully made known to the Council. 
 
 On the first of May, 1838, there were commenced nine 
 scItooIs; four of them taught by male and five by female 
 teachers. In the first district of the First Ward, one male 
 and two female teachers were employed, and in each of the 
 other districts were employed one male and two female 
 teachers, who were continued through a term of five months. 
 
 The winter term commenced with the same number of 
 teachers being employed in the several districts, with th^ad- 
 dition of one other female school in the Third Ward, and an 
 additional female school was opened on the 3d of December, 
 in the first district of the First Ward, all of which were con- 
 tinued through the term. In the several schools have been 
 
 taught the common English branches of education ; in some 
 
 2 
 
10 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 of the schools, considerable progress has been made in the 
 higher branches, as History, the Natural Sciences, &c. 
 
 The number of scholars who have attended these schools 
 is eight hundred and twenty-three ; the average attendance 
 has been five hundred and eighty-eight — making the present 
 number attending the schools quite too many, and being only 
 about one-fourth of the number of youths in the city who 
 are legally privileged to attend. 
 
 The compensation to the teachers has been at the same 
 rate as during the last year; the expense of fuel during the 
 winter term has been $112. 
 
 The Treasurer reports $4,048.83 of school fund in the 
 treasury. 
 
 The unpaid expenses of the past term, subject to be 
 drawn from this fund, are some $515, which will leave a bal- 
 ance of over ^3,500. 
 
 Silas Belden, ^ 
 
 Henry Sexton, y Board of Managers. 
 
 Henry H. Dodge, j 
 
 Cleveland, April 3, 1839. 
 
 In July, 1839, t^"*^ *^'^y purchased the Academy building, 
 paying for it, together with the lot, $6,000. Previously, for 
 two years, public schools had been kept in it, the city renting 
 it for that purpose. Schools in the First and Second Wards 
 were kept in rented rooms and small buildings, wherever the 
 Committee on Schools could find them. One school occupied 
 a room in the Farmers' Block, so called at that time, now the 
 Cleveland Hotel ; another was taught in a building on High 
 street,- now used as a stable. In the Second. Ward, an old 
 paint shop, and a grocery store, by some small outlay, were 
 transformed into school-rooms. Some of the traditionary 
 accounts of the extemporized accommodations of the early 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 19^ 
 
 schools are extremely ludicrous, but fearing that they may 
 have been somewhat exaggerated, it is deemed best to omit 
 them. 
 
 The friends of free-school instruction urged the necessity 
 of erecting school-houses. They petitioned the authorities 
 and made appeals through the newspapers. From the 
 Council proceedings of that day it appears that J. A. Foot, 
 B. F. Andrews and George Mendenhall labored earnestly, as 
 members of that body, to secure early action in the purchase 
 of lots and the erection of buildings. But there were delays 
 and opposition, and it was not till the spring of 1839 that 
 anything effective was accomplished. 
 
 At this time the following resolution was introduced by 
 Mr. Foot, and after a spirited discussion, was referred to a 
 committee, of which Harvey Rice was chairman : 
 
 " Resolved, That it is expedient for the city to procure a 
 lot of land, 50 by 200 feet, and to erect thereon such a school- 
 house as will accommodate two hundred scholars, in four 
 departments, in each of the four districts of the city." 
 
 The committee to whom it was referred reported to the 
 effect that tivo such lots, with a building upon each of the 
 capacity named in the resolution, would suffice, and the 
 Council, concurring in this view, adopted the committee's 
 report. Accordingly, two lots were purchased; one in the 
 Second Ward, on Rockwell street, and one in the First Ward^ 
 on Prospect street. Building contracts were immediately 
 entered into with Warner & Hickox, the stipulated price for 
 each building being $3,500, including seatings, out-buildings, 
 fences, etc. The Rockwell street building was completed in 
 the spring of 1840; the building on Prospect street, in the' 
 fall of the same year. They were of the same dimensions, 
 45 feet 4 inches by 45 feet 4 inches, two stories in height, and 
 
20 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 finished precisely alike. A view of one of these buildings — 
 the one erected on Prospect street, now used as an office by 
 the Board of Education — is shown in the following wood cut : 
 
 PROSPECT STREET SCHOOL HOUSE, ERECTED IN 18-40. 
 
 The school buildings now owned by the city — the Acad- 
 emy building and the two above described — had a capacity 
 for seating 600 pupils, 200 in each building. The number of 
 children entitled by law to attend school was about 2,400. It 
 is always safe to calculate that the enrollment of pupils will 
 be at least half the entire enumeration. Upon this basis the 
 city should have furnished accommodations for 1,200 pupils — 
 not less. *rhere was need of the other two buildings con- 
 templated by Mr. Foot's resolution, as originally offered. 
 Upon the opening of the winter term of school, more than a 
 thousand pupils besieged the school rooms for admission. 
 The teacher'^ in the three buildings named contrived to seat 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 
 
 21 
 
 about 900, although they were soon after reHeved by sending 
 a part of them back to the old rooms previously occupied. 
 
 At this particular period, near the close of 1840, the 
 records found are sufficiently full to offer the following gen- 
 eral view of the schools, as organized at the beginning of the 
 winter term, December 10, 1840: 
 
 Senior. 
 
 Pkijiary. 
 
 ROCKWELL STREET SCHOOL. 
 
 Number of Pupils, 270. 
 
 TEACHERS. 
 
 ( Bo) s' Department — N. A. Gray. 
 
 ( Girls' Department- — Elizabeth Armstrong. 
 
 ( Boys' Department — Abby Fitch. 
 
 ( Girls' Department — Louisa Kingsbury. 
 
 Senior. 
 
 Primary. 
 
 prospect street school. 
 
 Number of Pupils, 275. 
 teachers. 
 ( Boys' Department — A. P'reese. 
 I Girls' Department — Sophia Converse. 
 
 ( Boys' Department — Emma Whitney. 
 ( Girls' Department — Sarah M. Thayer. 
 
 Senior. 
 
 Primary. 
 
 WEST ST. CLAIR STREET SCHOOL. 
 (academy.) 
 
 Number of Pupils, 240. 
 teachers. 
 I Boys' Department — George W. Yates. 
 ( Girls' Department — Louisa Snow. 
 
 Boys' Department — Julia Butler. 
 Girls' Department — Caroline Belden. 
 
22 
 
 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 BETHEL SCHOOL. 
 
 (CORNKU OF VINEYARD AND JAMES STREETS.) 
 
 Number of Pupils, 155. 
 
 TEACHERS. 
 
 ( Boys' Department — F. J. Blair. 
 Ungraded. ■' 
 
 I Girls' Department — Maria Sheldon. 
 
 SCHOOL CORNER OF PROSPECT AND ONTARIO STREETS. 
 
 Number of Pupils, 55. 
 Primary — Boys and Girls — Eliza Johnson, Teacher. 
 
 SCHOOL ON CHESTNUT STREET. 
 
 Number of Pupils, 46. 
 Primary — Boys and Girls — (Name of teacher not found.) 
 
 Among the records of Prospect Street School, is found 
 the following programme of daily exercises in the boys' 
 senior department, bearing no date, but it was evidently used 
 when the schools in that building were early organized. It 
 is of considerable interest, as showing how imperfect was 
 the classification of the school, and the multiplicity of text- 
 books then in use. 
 
 ORDER OF EXERCISES. 
 
 A. M. 
 
 Scripture Reading. 
 Class in English Reader. 
 
 ',' " Porter's Rhetorical Reader. 
 
 " " Historical Reader. 
 
 " Angell's No. 2 Reader. 
 First Class in Smith's Geography. 
 Recess. 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 23 
 
 8. Second Class in Smith's Geography. 
 
 9. Parley's History of the United States. 
 
 10. Class in Smith's Grammar. 
 
 11. Second Class in Spelling. 
 
 12. Third " " 
 
 p. M. 
 
 1. Class in Historical Reader. 
 
 2. " " Angell's No 2 Reader. 
 
 3. " " Kirkham's Grammar. 
 
 4. " " Adams' Arithmetic. 
 
 5. First Class in Smith's Arithmetic. 
 
 6. Recess. 
 
 7. Second Class in Smith's Arithmetic. 
 
 8. Third 
 
 9. Class in Algebra. 
 
 10. " " Natural Philosophy. 
 
 11. First Class in Spelling. 
 
 It would seem from the above programme that the 
 teacher was obliged to conform his classification, in part at 
 least, to the books in use. This is the case, and must be, in 
 all schools where there is not a uniform set of text-books 
 prescribed, and the pupils required to use them. It does not 
 appear that there was any such exercise of authority in the 
 public schools of the city for the first three or four years 
 after their organization. 
 
 The schools, as has already been shown, were divided 
 into two grades or departments upon organizing in the new 
 buildings. Very soon thereafter, the Board of School Man- 
 agers prescribed a uniform list of text-books for each of the 
 grades, so that it was now made possible for the teachers to 
 improve upon the classification as exhibited above. Still it 
 
24 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 was left with the teachers to divide their schools into as many 
 classes as seemed to them expedient, organizing classes in 
 geography, grammar or other branches of study when they 
 thought it advisable ; and to determine, also, the amount of 
 time that should be given to any particular exercise. It 
 could scarcely be expected, therefore, that any two schools 
 should be found working upon the same plan. There was a 
 gradual approach, however, to a uniform standard of classifi- 
 cation, as teachers compared their programmes and dis- 
 cussed them at the meetings of their Association. 
 
 It was not, however, until the office of Superintendent of 
 Instruction was created, in 1853, that the Board of Education 
 took the matter into special consideration, and prescribed, for 
 the guidance of teachers, a uniform course of studies and 
 exercises. But even then, from want of uniformity and 
 adaptation of the school buildings, and lack of proper con- 
 veniences, it was found impracticable to conform to it strictly 
 in all the schools. Besides, the people had prejudices 
 against this innovation upon the old district system. They 
 could not, at once, be made to see the advantages of the one 
 district system, with sub-districts for lower grades, con- 
 centrating the higher ones. When, in 1854, the Superin- 
 tendent reported to the Board a plan for concentrating the 
 Grammar School classes, taught at that time in seven or 
 eight separate .buildings, whereby two or three schools of 
 the grammar grade were to be discontinued, the residents of 
 the districts from which it was proposed to send these 
 classes remonstrated, and so effectually that they succeeded 
 in preventing a measure the propriety of which could not be 
 questioned. They had much to say of theh wards, //td'/r dis- 
 tricts, //^r/r rights to a full-grown school, etc. — matters not 
 thought of now in discussing questions having reference to 
 grades. 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 25 
 
 In the early years of the schools it was a prevailing- 
 notion that any one able to read and spell would answer well 
 enough as a teacher in a primary school, and hence it was, 
 that while the senior schools were, for the most part, well 
 managed and well taught, the primary departments were in a 
 sad and depressed condition. When instruction fell under 
 George Willey's supervision, as Acting School Manager, he 
 called special attention to this state of things, and the follow- 
 ing paragraph in relation to the matter, taken from his 
 Annual Report for the year 1847, clearly shows what he 
 thought was the proper remedy. 
 
 '• How then," he says, " is prosperity in this department 
 to be secured ? The answer is a plain and simple one — in- 
 volving no mystery or complication. It is a single answer. 
 There is no variety of methods. There is but one method 
 — tJie employment of good teachers. If there is any other way 
 of making primary or other schools what they should be, we 
 have yet to learn of it." 
 
 Mr. Willey then proceeds to draw two pen pictures — the 
 first of a well conducted school, supposed at the time ta 
 represent two or three primary schools in the city famous 
 for their excellence ; the second, to be a description of cer- 
 tain other schools notoriously of an opposite character. 
 Had they been actually painted upon canvas and hung in 
 every school-room in the city, with the name of the school 
 or schools represented written beneath them, they could not 
 have created, perhaps, a greater sensation. They had, unques- 
 tionably, great reformatory effects upon the primary schools, 
 and were not forgotten in many years. 
 
 Below are copies of these pictures, a part, however, of the 
 first, being omitted : 
 
20 EAKLY IIISTOKY OF THE 
 
 SCHOOLS OF THE FIRST CLASS. 
 
 " In these good order has prevailed. Correct principles 
 and decorous manners have been daily taught. Successful 
 exertions have been made to interest scholars in the subjects 
 of their instruction. Ingenuity has been taxed to give variety 
 and zest to the routine of school duties. Vocal music has 
 been a regular exercise. Oral instruction has been constantly 
 resorted to. Drawing has been encouraged. Topics on 
 arithmetic and geography have been illustrated by visible and 
 other means. Much general information, not found in school 
 books, has been communicated. The poor have been be- 
 friended and encouraged ; the sluggish have been stimulated ; 
 the vicious have been reclaimed ; the froward have been sub- 
 dued by gentleness ; the studious and faithful have been 
 rewarded by approbation. Health has been cared for. The 
 atmosphere and temperature of the rooms have been closely 
 observed. Examples of cheerfulness, good temper and good 
 will have been set by the teachers. A friendly understanding 
 with parents has been cultivated. A healthful progress has 
 been apparent in such schools." 
 
 SCHOOLS OF THE SECOND CLASS. 
 
 " It might be profitable to paint a different picture, pos- 
 sessing less of light and more of shade. Indeed, we have 
 known of schools in which there appeared to be no light, 
 except what a bountiful nature poured through the windows. 
 Intellectual, living light was absent. Had Hogarth ever 
 visited one of them, he would have added another leaf to his 
 chaplet of immortality. The whole system of tactics in such 
 a school reminds you, not of a company of regulars, but of 
 the militia system. In the play-grounds and in the streets 
 the boys are vociferous and intrusive. They have not been 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. ' 27 
 
 taught to respect, as far as possible, the peace and quiet of 
 neighbors. When summoned by the teacher's bell, the con- 
 fusion which has reigned without begins to reign within. 
 The boys, instead of passing in singly, lightly and respect- 
 fully, rush in in troops, finishing up their sports or contro- 
 versies on their way to their seats. Some wear their caps 
 in. Others have received a lesson of propriety at home 
 which they have not at school, and remove theirs on entering 
 the room. Once seated, they are ready for anything but the 
 business of the place. 
 
 "A glance at such a school is sufficient. You observe 
 that neatness of personal appearance, the usual concomitant 
 with scholars of respect for their school, for their teachers 
 and for themselves, is wanting. With the exception of the 
 class reciting, the pupils are engaged in occupations as 
 various as are their caprices, and for the simple reason that 
 they have been furnished with nothing else more profitable 
 to do. Geography is taught without reference to globe or 
 outline maps. Answers and definitions, if in literal conform- 
 ity with text-books, are taken as all sufficient. Whether the 
 class has probably a practical understanding of the matter is 
 of no sort of consequence. While one of a class is reading 
 or solving a problem in mental arithmetic, the rest are listless 
 and inattentive. Devices, such as are of common use with 
 skillful teachers for securing the united mental action of a 
 class, however large, through every step of a recitation, are 
 little thought of Oral analysis, explanations and illustra- 
 tions, such as are calculated to arouse and kindle the reason- 
 ing faculties and expand the judgment and comprehension of 
 youth, and awaken a love of knowledge and a keen relish for 
 its acquirement, are not resorted to. No general exercises 
 are introduced — no general information is imparted. The 
 
28 ■ EARLY HISTOllY OF THE 
 
 study of Natural History* is quietly dropped, because it pre- 
 sents some claims to novelty and variety. Drawing is neg- 
 lected ; music is slighted. Indeed, all such things are treated 
 as innovations and encroachments. Nothing is valuable, 
 nothing desirable, nothing possible to be taught or learned, 
 except a few pages of two or three text-books, and down to 
 these, both teacher and scholar, are fastened as with hooks of 
 steel. Month after month and year after year may roll over 
 a primary school thus lifelessly and narrowly conducted, — 
 time sufficient for a broad and deep foundation to have been 
 laid for after acquirement and culture, and yet at the end of 
 this period, if you wish to find the scholars, you may not 
 look for them at any reasonable distance up the hill of 
 science ; you will find them in a tread-mill at the foot of it." 
 
 SCHOOL FURNITURE. 
 
 The furniture used in the schools in the early days was 
 extremely primitive in style, and of the cheapest construc- 
 tion. Long pine benches were used for seating the pupils, 
 and they were usually without backs, unless it happened to 
 be convenient to place them around against the walls of the 
 room. For the use of the senior classes in writing, etc., 
 higher benches or boards were arranged before the lower 
 forms, corresponding in length with them. In some rooms — 
 perhaps in most of them — these writing benches were fas- 
 tened against the walls, having brackets for their support. 
 
 When the new brick buildings on Prospect and Rockwell 
 streets were seated, the same style of long benches was pre- 
 served, but the order of seating was reversed ; the scholars 
 faced the teacher, instead of the wall, as before. 
 
 *A small work then in use in the schools. 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 29 
 
 There were two parallel lines of seats extending around 
 upon three sides of the room, and they were placed at 
 sufficient distance from the walls to allow a free passage 
 for the pupils behind them. The interior seats had no- 
 thing before them for their occupants to rest their books 
 upon; but they rejoiced in having a good smooth board for 
 their backs, a luxury denied to their seniors occupying seats 
 behind them, although the larger scholars were possibly 
 compensated in having the writing bench all to themselves. 
 All the rooms in the two buildings — eight in number — were 
 seated precisely in this manner. Objections to it can be 
 readily seen, but for economy of space the plan was a good 
 one ; and for economy in means, at that time quite an object, 
 no better one perhaps for the outlay could have been hit 
 upon. The seating expense per scholar, estimated at the 
 time, was something below fifty cents. Subsequently, when 
 the lower rooms came to be occupied by a grade of pupils 
 exclusively primary, this pine-board seating was removed 
 from them, and small arm-chairs were substituted. They 
 were found to be cheaper, and they were liked far better. 
 
 Settees, having division-boxes for books, were used at one 
 time in a number of the primary schools, and some teachers 
 
30 
 
 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 preferred them to the chairs. Their construction may be 
 understood by the following cut : 
 
 But these settees were very liable to get broken, and, 
 taking into account the original cost of manufacture and the 
 expense of repairs, it was found to be cheaper to use chairs. 
 Chairs could then be made for about fifty cents apiece. 
 
 In 1845, the first two-seated desks began to be used. 
 They were constructed wholly of pine or white-wood and 
 cheaply made, costing from $1.50 to $1.7^^ per desk. They 
 were introduced into all rooms above the primary grade, 
 where new schools were opened, and were used in the High 
 School while it continued to occupy the basement room in 
 the Church on Prospect street. The following cut repre- 
 sents them. 
 
 When, in 1849, a new building was erected on Champlain 
 street, and it had been determined to alter and refit several 
 rooms in other buildings, necessitating much new furniture, 
 the question, How shall the rooms be seated? was consider- 
 ably discussed by the Board of School Managers, and also 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 31 
 
 by the teachers. The " Boston School Desk," so denomin- 
 ated at that time, was urged by some, but its expense pre- 
 cluded its adoption. Finally, a desk of an entirely new pat- 
 tern was invented on the spot, and it was voted "just the 
 thing " by all parties. The cut will give an idea of it. 
 
 Parties in Cleveland entered into contract with the city to 
 manufacture the desk for ;^2.40, in cabinet finish, using the 
 best cherry material. It will be seen that the desk is sup- 
 ported by three legs — one at the front edge in the middle, 
 and one at each of the back corners, leaving unobstructed 
 the space directly under the front corners, and thereby afford- 
 ing free access to the chair before it on either side. The 
 chair to accompany the desk was of ordinary construction, 
 except that it had a cast-iron pedestal for its support. All 
 the school houses, the Central High School excepted, were 
 now seated with these chairs and desks, and they continued 
 to be used till the Bradburn school-house was erected in 
 1863 (?). T\\t single desk — an improved pattern — was put 
 into this building, and now this style of seating has pretty 
 much superseded the double desk which was once so gen- 
 erally used. 
 
32 EAllLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL. 
 
 In the spring of 1846, the Mayor of the city, Geo. 
 Hoadly, Esq., in his inaugural address to the Council, made 
 the following recommendations : 
 
 " I earnestly recommend to your favorable consideration 
 the propriety of establishing a school of a higher grade — 
 an academic department — the scholars to be taken from our 
 common schools according to merit. This would present a 
 powerful stimulus to study and good conduct. The poorest 
 child, if possessed of talents and application, might aspire to 
 the highest stations in the Republic. From such schools we 
 might hope to issue the future Franklins of our land." 
 
 This recommendation was favorably received by the 
 Council, and at a meeting, April 22, J. A. Harris, Chairman 
 of the Committee on Schools, introduced resolutions to the 
 following effect : 
 
 1. That a High School for boys be established. 
 
 2. That the Committee on Schools be authorized to hire 
 suitable rooms and fit them up for the accommodation of the 
 school. 
 
 The resolutions were adopted. Basement rooms were 
 rented in the Church on Prospect street, now owned and 
 occupied by the Homoeopathic Medical College. Andrew 
 Freese, of Prospect Street Grammar School, was appointed 
 Principal, and the school went into operation July 13, 1846, 
 with 34 pupils. Others were admitted subsequently, increas- 
 ing the number for the year to S^. Their names will be 
 found in the following 
 
 CATALOGUE. 
 GEO. F. ALLARDT, WILLIAM JOHNSON, 
 
 WILLIAM H. ALLARDT, WILLIAM L. KELLOGG, 
 
 WILLIAM W. ANDREWS, WILLIAM LEONARD, 
 CHARLES F. BRADBURN, J. VICTOR MATHIVET, 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 
 
 33 
 
 GEO. BINGHAM, 
 R. AUGUSTUS BURY, 
 COVILL BURTON, 
 JEPHTHA C. BUELL, 
 WILLIAM BAKER, 
 WILLIAM H. CHAMPION, 
 OSCAR A. CHILDS, 
 GEO. W. CHILDS, 
 WILLIAM CHILDS, 
 HENRY F. CLARK, 
 KENNEDY CLINTON, 
 JAMES H. CLINTON, 
 W. L. CUTTER, 
 MICHAEL DUFFEY, 
 ROBERT K. DOW, 
 ALBERT G. ELDRIDGE, 
 LUCIUS FAIRCHILD, 
 CASSIUS FAIRCHILD, 
 ANDREW J. FOWLER, 
 JAMES B. GA.YTON, 
 GEO. W. GARDNER, 
 JAMES T. GARDNER, 
 HENRY L. HILLS, 
 STEPHEN D. HATHAWAY, 
 GEO. L. HATHAWAY, 
 BYRON C. HARRIS, 
 GEO. C. HICKOX, 
 WILLIAM HOPPER, 
 JOHN P. JONES, 
 EDWIN W. JONES, 
 HENRY A. JONES, 
 JOHN P. JACKSON, 
 MATTHEW JOHNSTONE, 
 WM. JOHNSON, 
 
 WM. KELLOGG, 
 WM. LEONARD, 
 J. V. MATHIVET, 
 EUGENE MATHIVET, 
 SIDNEY A. NORTON, 
 HENRY H. OTIS, , 
 
 HIRAM B. PIERSON, 
 CH.-VUNCEY PRENTISS, 
 SOLON PRENTISS, 
 JAMES PENFIELD, 
 EDWIN F. REEVE, 
 TIMOTHY H. REARDEN, 
 SAMUEL STARKWEATHER, Jr. 
 EDWARD C. STANLEY, 
 BENJ. VV. SMITH, 
 JOHN M. STERLING, Jk., 
 JAMES E. STACY. 
 JUNIUS R. SANFORD, 
 GEO. W. STILL, 
 CORYDON STRONG, 
 FRANK W. SLOSSON, 
 GEO. W. TIBBITTS, 
 EDWIN TWITT, 
 JAMES TWITT, 
 HENRY G. VINCENT, 
 JOHN F. WHITELAW, 
 WILLIAM G. WILLIAMS, 
 CHARLES M, WHITE, 
 MYRON P. WHEELER, 
 WILLIAM H. WHITAKER, 
 DAVID F. WOOSTER, 
 H. A. WOOSTER, 
 CHARLES A. WILLARD, 
 PHILLIP WHITEHEAD. 
 
 By order of the City Council, a department for girls was 
 opened in the spring of 1847, and the following class was 
 admitted : 
 
 ELIZA B. AGER, 
 ANN C. BROCK, 
 
 ELIZABETH HICKOX, 
 MARY ANN PRITCHARD, 
 
3-4 EAKLY 11 J, STOliY OF THE 
 
 HARRIET E BLAIR, MARY E SOUTHWORTH, 
 
 ELIZA E. BUKNIIAM, ANNA REARDEN, 
 
 GEORGIEA. CMAl'MAN, ELIZABETHJ. TIBBITTS, 
 
 ADELAIDE DENISON, MARY WICIvEN, 
 
 CAROLINE FREEMAN, EMMA WALL * 
 
 But it was thought by some that the High Schools liad 
 been illegally established, and besides — waiving the question 
 of legality — they doubted the expediency of opening such a 
 department; and soon the "High School Question" was 
 one of lively debate among the people. Those who opposed 
 the school, chiefly the heavy tax-payers, said no other city 
 or town in the West maintained a school of this character. 
 Why, they inquired, should we? There should be free 
 schools, to be sure, common schools, and they were willing 
 to be taxed to maintain them, but they declared that they did 
 not want to pay for the support of public High Schools and 
 Colleges. 
 
 The City Council, then newly elected, appointed a special 
 committee to examine the subject and make an early report. 
 Having attended to their duty, a majority — two of the three 
 members of the committee — reported that in their opinion 
 the school was established in violation of law, and concluded 
 by declaring that "it is inexpedient to support a High School 
 at the charge of the common school fund." The third mem- 
 ber of the committee dissented from these views and brought 
 in a minority report. 
 
 The action of the Council was now watched with the 
 deepest interest. The friends of the school appealed to the 
 
 *The School Regi?.tei" from which this list of names was copied con- 
 tains the following observation of the Principal of the school, written 
 under the head of "General Remarks:" " Monday, April 19, 1847. Four- 
 teen girls were admitted this term. They do not come up to the standard, 
 and I doubt the j)olicy of admitting girls at all into this department." 
 
CLEVELAJSTD PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 35 
 
 people through the newspapers. A mass meeting was called, 
 and Dr. Fry, then principal of the West St. Clair Street 
 Grammar School, addressed the citizens. He argued the 
 necessity of this enlargement of common school instruction 
 in order to give efficiency to the lower grades and perfect the 
 system. The instruction furnished by the ordinary public 
 schools of the city, good as far as it went, was too narrow and 
 circumscribed, he believed, to meet the wants of the people. 
 The mechanic and laborer must be better educated now than 
 formerly, when they handled only the axe and the saw. To- 
 day they have to stand amidst fire, and steam, and whirling 
 machinery, and, without the higher education — without a 
 knowledge of the higher mathematics, without knowing 
 something of the laws of mechanics, something of the nature 
 of steam, etc. — they are not masters of the situation. The 
 Doctor enlarged upon this idea, and enforced it by illustra- 
 tions. As to the disputed question of law, he cared nothing* 
 about them. If laws were in the way, if restrictions had been 
 placed upon the public schools so that a boy could not be 
 taught geometry after he had learned arithmetic, he thought 
 it high time that they should look to the matter and have 
 the laws corrected. He urged them to stand by the recently 
 organized High School, and insist upon having 2, free High 
 School. 
 
 J. A. Briggs, Esq., also addressed the meeting. He said 
 he believed in common schools, and he wanted them as good 
 and as higJi as they could possibly be made. He had watched 
 the growth of primary instruction in the city, and he had 
 expected this popular demand for higher instruction to come 
 sooner or later. It was now here, and he was glad of it. The 
 people are in the move, and you can just get out of the way, 
 said Mr. Briggs, when they speak. The idea of a High 
 
3G EAKLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 School he thought the simplest thing in the world. It was 
 merely to collect the more advanced scholars of the elemen- 
 tary schools and teach them in a place by themselves. He 
 had seen them — three or four in this school and two or 
 three in that — trying to learn a kw things about levers 
 and screws, perhaps, or a few principles in mathematics a 
 little higher up than arithmetic — poor boys mostly, but in 
 spite of the slim chances that you give them, said Mr. Briggs, 
 they are bound to go up. In a few years they will be invent- 
 ing and putting engines together, staking out Western rail- 
 ways and bridging the great rivers. He thought it a shame 
 not to let such boys have a fair chance on the start. He was 
 in favor of letting the girls into the High School with the 
 boys. Educated mothers, he believed, would do a vast deal 
 for this country yet. Cultured and refined, they will take 
 care of their sons, and do more for them than institutions and 
 laws. 
 
 Bushnell White, Esq., an able lawyer, was of opinion that 
 the school was entirely legal. In his published statement he 
 says : " Let us examine the city charter. Section 20 enacts 
 that 'for the support of common schools of said city, and to 
 secure the benefits of education to all white children therein 
 there shall be a tax of,' etc. What common schools ? What 
 education ? Reading, spelling and arithmetic ? That was 
 the common school of one hundred years ago. Will you 
 add to these geography ? That was the common school of 
 fifty years ago. Do you add still others — grammar and his- 
 tory? That was the common school of twenty-five years 
 ago. To fit men for the active business life; to fit them to be 
 Councilmen, Mayors, Representatives and Senators, is the 
 aim of the democratic common school of eigJiteen hundred 
 and forty -seven. And it should be so, for it is the tendency of 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 37 
 
 the age to select these officers from the common people — the 
 farmers and mechanics. But Section 22 decides the matter. 
 It provides that ' the Board of Managers shall make such 
 regulation for the instruction and government of the white 
 children therein as to them shall appear proper and expedient. 
 And they shall do and perform all other matters and things 
 pertaining to the duties of their office which may be neces- 
 sary and proper to be done to promote the education and the 
 morals of the children instructed in said schools.' 
 
 " This confers the power to classify, both as to age and 
 studies ; to say what branches shall be pursued, and what 
 books used. The charter declares that common schools 
 shall be supported. But, nowhere is it said what they are or 
 what they sliall be. It leaves the ' government,' the ' instruc- 
 tion,' and everything that will ' promote the education of 
 the children,' to the School Managers. Section 20 further 
 provides, ' which schools shall be accessible to all white 
 children who may reside in the city, subject only to such 
 regulations for their government and instruction as the Board 
 of Managers may prescribe.' That is, all the schools of the 
 city are open to all the children of the city. It is not the 
 school of a particular ward, but every school of the city. 
 This differs from the State law, which requires the children 
 of each school district to attend school in that district. But 
 by our City charter, the child chooses his school. The 
 3,000 children of the city may all go to Prospect Street 
 School. What prevents this? Why, the 'regulations' of 
 the Managers ; acting under the above section, they have 
 established a ' regulation ' confining pupils to their respect- 
 ive wards. This is an exclusive power vested in them 
 alone. The choice of the child is ' subject only ' to the 
 Managers. Having power over both the ' government ' and 
 
38 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 the ' instruction,' they can designate a particular school for 
 each particular scholar. Under this power, they have estab- 
 lished primary and senior departments, and also a High 
 School department. If the former are legal, the latter is 
 also. 
 
 " But the whole matter is set at rest by a law passed in 
 1838 (Swan's St., 836), which provides that the ' Directors in 
 any incorporated town, city or borough may establish 
 schools of different grades, and ordain such rules for the 
 duties and discipline of such schools as they may think con- 
 ducive to the public good.' " 
 
 The Board of School Managers, in their report to the 
 City Council for that year, argued the expediency of this 
 enlargement of the common school system, and they con- 
 cluded their report as follows : 
 
 " The undersigned would respectfully represent to the 
 Council that it is their firm conviction that the system is 
 essential to the success of our public schools, and that it is 
 the only way in which they can be made in truth what they 
 are in name, common schools — common to all ; good enough 
 for the rich, and cheap enough for the poor — such schools 
 as will meet the wants of all classes in the community. 
 
 Chas. Bradburn, ^ 
 
 T. P. Handy, \ Board of School 
 
 Samuel Starkweather, 
 
 William Day, 
 
 } 
 
 Manas^ersy 
 
 No action of the Council was taken on the Committee's 
 report, and the school was suffered to continue till the 
 following winter, when its friends secured a legislative enact- 
 ment by which the City Council was " authorized and 
 required " to establish and maintain a High School depart- 
 ment. By a city ordinance it was then made a permanent 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 39 
 
 branch of public school instruction. The battle was won, 
 but by reason of unfriendly feelings towards the school, and 
 in part, perhaps, from want of appreciation of its needs, 
 appropriations by the Council were inadequate for its sup- 
 port — barely sufficient to keep it in existence. 
 
 For two or three years the outlay of money per annum to 
 support the school was almost precisely as follows : 
 
 Rent of Basement $ioo oo 
 
 Fuel 25 00 
 
 Incidentals 25 00 
 
 Salary of Principal 500 00 
 
 Salary of one Assistant 250 00 
 
 Total expenses $900 00 
 
 The average number of scholars for three years, as ap- 
 pears from the School Register, was about eighty (ninety and 
 a fraction the third year), so that the cost per scholar was 
 quite low ; low enough, one would suppose, to have satisfied 
 the most scrupulous in matters of expenditure. It did not, 
 however. Some found fault, aad pointed to the school as a 
 piece of unnecessary extravagance. 
 
 All the work of the school was done by two teachers up 
 to the fall of 1852, when an additional assistant was em- 
 ployed. The course of study embraced all the branches 
 usually taught in High Schools, excepting the languages, 
 which were not added till 1856. With so small a teaching 
 force, it was of course impossible to cover the exercises in 
 any regular order of classification. As a partial remedy for 
 omissions and breaks, classes were heard out of school 
 hours, sometimes assembling after tea in the evening. 
 
 The necessities of the school were pressing, and the 
 efforts put forth by teachers and scholars to supply them in 
 part were courageous. This much, at least, should be said. 
 
40 EAKLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 In prosecuting the study of Natural Science, some illustra- 
 tive apparatus seemed indispensable. The boys of the 
 school supplied it. They purchased a few pieces from time 
 to time, until the collection was worth upwards of $500. 
 They earned it. They earned it by giving lectures, chiefly 
 upon topics in chemistry, by doing small jobs in surveying, 
 and occasionally they secured donations of money from their 
 friends. They purchased materials and laid up with their 
 own hands a small brick laboratory, and finished it off com- 
 plete for their use. There is scarcely a principle in mechani- 
 cal philosophy that they did not illustrate by machinery of 
 their own construction ; indeed, the same may be said of 
 nearly every other branch of physical science. For two or 
 three years they published a small monthly paper. This 
 yielded a good deal of fun and some money. It was useful, 
 too, in other ways. 
 
 These matters may seem trifling. They are so, perhaps, 
 in themselves, but they belong to the history of the Central 
 High School, as showing how that department was developed 
 out of the growth below it — a necessity of that growth, and 
 therefore normal. The enterprise and pluck of the boys of 
 that day, mostly poor, was something phenomenal ; and the 
 constant and unflagging exhibition of that spirit, in their 
 pursuit of knowledge under difficulties, had more to do with 
 satisfying all classes of people that such an institution ought 
 to exist, and be maintained by the city, than all the argu- 
 ments that had been made in its behalf. Opposition grad- 
 ually died out. Leonard Case, the wealthiest man at that 
 time in the city, took a warm personal interest in the school. 
 On one occasion, seeing that they " could help themselves," 
 as he expressed it, he wrote a letter " To the Boys in the 
 Basement," inclosing a handsome donation, with his regrets 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 
 
 41 
 
 that he could not attend their lectures in chemistry, being, as 
 he said, " too lame to get up there." 
 
 The catalogue given on a preceding page embraces the 
 names of those only who entered the school the first year. 
 Subsequent classes pursued a greater number of studies, and 
 in some instances advanced further in one or more of the 
 branches taken, but in history, in* general reading, in English 
 literature, in ready and correct writing of the language, in 
 extemporaneous speaking, especially in debate, no class is 
 
 '^^f- 
 
 y^- w/ 
 
 m^ liyiiii 
 
 
 FIKST HlGn SCHOOL-nOUSE, ERECTED, 1S52. 
 
 recollected to have equaled it. Special attention is called to 
 their names. Let any person acquainted in Cleveland run 
 his finger along through the list, and he will recognize the 
 names of many who are eminent here as professional or 
 business men, and others who have sought out new homes in 
 distant places and achieved distinction, so that the city is 
 proud to claim them as her sons. The names of several will 
 be noticed who, in high official positions, have done the 
 
42 
 
 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 State and the nation distinguished service, and who are 
 known in all the land. 
 
 The lot on which the present High School building stands 
 was purchased in 185 i, and in the following year, a cheap 
 wooden structure was put up on it for the temporary accom- 
 modation of the school, the expectation then being that a 
 suitable building would ver)*soon be erected. The grounds 
 were thickly studded with second-growth trees, and in sum- 
 mer it was a delightfully pleasant place. A drawing of the 
 
 CLEVELAND CENTRAL UIGH SCHOOL. 
 
 building and its surroundings was made by one of the pupils 
 just before it was pulled down, from which the woodcut on 
 the preceding page is taken. 
 
 The top of a church with its belfry is seen beyond. It 
 was in the basement of this church that the High School 
 passed its earliest years. At the right is shown a building 
 occupied for several years as a seminary for young ladies, a 
 private school. Very few of the trees that existed are 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 43 
 
 shown, since, to one standing on the street, they nearly hid 
 the building from view. 
 
 The present Central High School building was com- 
 pleted in the spring of 1856, at which time the cut was made 
 from which the illustration on the opposite page is taken. 
 
 The building is 60 by 90 feet ; style of architecture, 
 Romanesque. The front, with its turrets and portico, is of 
 cut stone ; the basement rough stone, and the side and 
 rear walls brick. The total cost of the building, furniture, 
 furnaces, iron fence in front, etc., was $20,000. The lot upon 
 which it stands is 104 by 197 feet. It was dedicated April i, 
 1856, the following being the order of exercises : 
 
 ORDER OF EXERCISES 
 
 AT THE 
 
 DEDICATION OF THE HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING, 
 
 CLEVELAND, APRIL I, 1856. 
 MUSIC, 
 
 By pupils of the High School, assisted by pupils of the Gram- 
 mar School, under the direction of Prof. Bingham. 
 
 "OUR NATIVE LAND." 
 
 Land of our fathers I wheresoe'er we roam. 
 Our native country is still our home ; 
 Long may prosperity on thy sons attend, 
 
 And to posterity its gifts descend. 
 
 Tho' other climes may brighter hopes fulfill, 
 Land of our fathers! we love thee still; 
 Heaven shield America from each hostile band, 
 And peace and plenty crown our native land. 
 
 PRAYER, BY REV. S. W. ADAMS, D. D. 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 AN ORIGINAL ODE, 
 
 By L. M. OviATT, Principal Eagle Street Grammar SchooL 
 Hail glorious day, so long expected ! 
 
 How many hearts beat high with pride, 
 To see the stately fane erected, 
 
 To shed a hallowed influence wide. 
 
44 EARLY IIISTOKY OF THE 
 
 Here rise its turrets, skyward jiointing — 
 77/^^1? sinks the old— a wreck alone!* 
 And from its ruins conies a tone — 
 " Worlv for the future — God appointing — 
 Press on! press on! glad youths, the prize is Virtue's crown!'' 
 Arouse I arouse! the day is ours! 
 Put forth your noblest powers! 
 
 Away ^^•ith Ignorance, all debasing! 
 
 Away with Prejudice and Hate! 
 Live- — every meaner trait effacing, 
 Shake off each fetter ere too late! 
 Here shall the mind unfold in beauty. 
 
 And "Star-eyed Science," linked with thee, 
 Bright effluence of the Deity ! 
 Shall climb, with joy, the path of duty. 
 Press on ! press on ! glad youths, the prize is Virtue's crown ! 
 Arouse ! arouse ! the day is ours ! 
 Put forth your noblest powers ! 
 
 Look down, oh sainted ones of story — 
 
 Behold your children keep their trust! 
 The West shall see a brighter glory 
 
 Than e'er illumed your sacred dust ! 
 Above the roar of Erie's surges. 
 
 Swells up a voice which bids us strive 
 For the high soul alone to live ! — 
 That spirit voice our efforts urges: — 
 Press on ! press on ! ye youths! the prize is Virtue's crown ! 
 Arouse ! arouse ! the day is ours ! 
 Put forth your noblest powers ! 
 
 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS, 
 
 BY GEORGE WILLEY, ESQ. 
 
 ADDRESS, 
 
 BY H. H. BARNEY, ESQ., STATE SCHOOL COMMISSIONER. 
 MUSIC. 
 
 BEAUTIFUL VENICE. 
 * An allusion to the old building, then partly torn down. 
 
CLEVELAISTD PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 45 
 
 ADDRESS, 
 
 BY C. W. PALMER, ESQ. 
 MUSIC. 
 
 ORIGINAL HYMN, 
 
 By Miss Harriet Vail, Teaciior Girls' Intermediate School, Rockwell street. 
 Let solemn thanks to Heaven arise ; 
 Oui' College dome salutes the skies ! 
 The country's hope, our choicest youth, 
 Shall here be trained for right and truth ! 
 
 For cheering word, for generous deed. 
 For faithful friends in hour of need, 
 For fostering care, for bounteous aid. 
 Let solemn thanks to Heaven be paid. 
 
 DOXOLOGT. 
 
 From all that dwell below the skies 
 Let the Creator's praise arise ; 
 Let the Redeemer's name be sung 
 Through every land by every tongue. 
 
 TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 
 
 The early teachers of Cleveland labored with great earn- 
 estness and zeal. Soon after the schools were organized, 
 they held meetings to consider and discuss matters of 
 general interest to the schools. The first regularly organ- 
 ized association was effected in the fall of 1842. No records 
 of the meetings for the first two or three years are extant. 
 A few of the topics discussed, however, are recollected, and 
 since they have some historical value in themselves, it may 
 be proper to state them. One of these topics, and the first 
 one discussed after the organization of the Association, 
 related to moral culture. It was stated in the form of a res- 
 olution, and was as follows : 
 
 " Resolved, That no part of our work as teachers calls for 
 greater attention at this time than that which has for its 
 
46 EARLY lUSTOKY 01' THE 
 
 object the rooting out of evil habits and the planting of good 
 ones in their places."* 
 
 The next subject for remark, or one very soon following 
 the above, had reference to school attendance. It was sub- 
 stantially as follows: "What means can be used to lessen 
 the evil of irregularity of attendance ?" 
 
 The most noticeable defect in the public schools at that 
 time was their low moral status, and therefore it was thought 
 advisable to consider the question, embodied in the resolu- 
 tion, at the outset. The prevailing vices were set forth, and 
 it was the unanimous expression of teachers that their enor- 
 mity was too great to be longer suffered. The right course 
 to be pursued was agreed upon, teachers moved forward, and 
 the reformation effected in six or eight months was a sur- 
 prise to everybody — to the teachers themselves, even, who 
 had not before seen what could be done by steady, united 
 effort. 
 
 Attention was soon after called to the matter of irregu- 
 larity of attendance ; teachers compared their records. It 
 was shown that nearly 25 per cent, of the scholars were 
 absent every day ; or, to make the statement more exact, the 
 average daily absence amounted to nearly 25 per cent, of the 
 whole number attending the schools. In some schools it 
 was even greater than that. So great an evil could not, of 
 course, be tolerated, not by teachers who were thoroughly in 
 earnest, and meant to accomplish anything. Circulars to 
 parents were issued; rules, regulating absence and tardiness, 
 were established under the authority of the Board of Mana- 
 gers ; merit cards were given to the most punctual, and per- 
 haps other means were made use of — some compulsory in 
 
 *" Notice," sent round to teachers, having this resolution upon it, is 
 still e.\tant. 
 
 s 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 47 
 
 their nature, others persuasive. There was a marked im- 
 provement, and in a few months the schools reached a high 
 standing in punctuah'ty, which it was easy to keep after the 
 habit had been estabhshed. 
 
 Further along in the years — from 1844 to the time the 
 office of Superintendent of Schools was created — some 
 records of the proceedings of the Association, together with 
 newspaper reports, are in existence. From these sources 
 considerable might be gathered to show how important an 
 agency the Association was in giving shape and character to 
 the schools of the city. While there was no one authorized, 
 as now, to say precisely ivliat, zvJien and Jioiv to teach, there 
 was a decision upon most of these matters in the community 
 of opinion so clearly pronounced that it had very great weight 
 in correctmg faulty methods, and in regulating and making 
 instruction uniform. The teachers exercised great independ- 
 ence of thought, withholding no expression of opinion con- 
 cerning the schools, nor did they spare their criticisms upon 
 each other's work. As some illustration of this, take this 
 frt)m its connection in the journal records : 
 
 Mr. Fry. — " I think map-drawing an excellent thing, but 
 these maps on exhibition here are too good — too labored — too 
 elaborate. They cost too much. As specimens of pencil 
 drawings, I should commend them." 
 
 Mr. Oviatt. — " I agree with Mr. Fry in the main, but 
 there are ends secured by such work that are not without 
 value. Skill in drawing is to some extent acquired; the taste 
 is cultivated, and the habit of doing things neatly and well is 
 encouraged." 
 
 Miss Humphrey. — " When I want to cure a boy of his 
 slovenly habits — one who cannot use a clean book a half day 
 
48 EARFA' HISTORY OF THE 
 
 without soiling it — I set him to drawing maps. I don't mean 
 to let the map-drawing mania, however, get into my school, 
 not if I can help it." 
 
 Miss Howard. — " A member of the Board of Managers 
 commends a teacher for her thoroughness in teaching geog- 
 raphy. Her pupils, it is said, can bound every county in 
 Ohio and name its shire-town. That is thoroughness with a 
 vengeance." 
 
 Miss Vial. — " But that is no worse than learning all the 
 little rivers and villages from here to Cape Horn." 
 
 Mr. Humiston. — " I don't believe my boys can bound 
 Cuyahoga county." 
 
 Mr. Freese. — "Well, that is the other extreme. It is 
 astonishing to me that you should exercise so little good 
 sense — you that have it — that you should never find out 
 what is comparatively of the most value to your pupils. That 
 is all there is of it — to judge which is of the most practical 
 use, where there is so much that must necessarily be omitted. 
 When I taught geography, I pursued for many years but one 
 plan. It was to make as thorough work as I could with out- 
 lines, omitting a good deal more than half we meet with in 
 our text-books, and I made it a point never to leave a divi- 
 sion until every scholar could dash off a map of it 
 from memory upon the blackboard in from three to five min- 
 utes. I am satisfied that we are spending too many months 
 and years upon geography — wasting time upon unimportant 
 particulars." 
 
 Mr. Oviatt. — " Just so, as to the last remark, but take, 
 say France ; you can't draw much of a map of it in five 
 minutes." 
 
 Mr. Freese. — " That is true, but I should not want much 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 4^^ 
 
 of a map of it. A tolerably correct outline, three or four of 
 the principal rivers, and about five or six of the largest cities, 
 are all that I would require. No more will stick in the 
 memory, and not that much, if you cram it with the minutia 
 of the map. Some of you say that you are putting about 
 four years upon this study. Only think of it ! Four years 
 in learning a million of things, sevoi-cigJitJis of which the 
 mind will cast out in a short time, because it is rubbish, and 
 because it ought not to be there. Perhaps it is of some use 
 to know what river empties in the Yangtsekiang at the city 
 of Twango, but it seems to me to be very little." 
 
 From time to time quite full reports of the proceedings 
 of the Association were furnished the city papers. The 
 object of publishmg the proceedings was a special one. It 
 was to awaken attention to what the teachers of the city were 
 endeavoring to do, and to gain tl>e confidence of the people 
 at a time when very many patronized only private schools, 
 and who believed the free schools inferior institutions that 
 could not, chiefly because they were //re', be made worthy of 
 their patronage. 
 
 But the better to judge the character of the organization, 
 what purpose it subserved, in what way it contributed to the 
 success of the schools — and as a matter of history, too — let 
 the proceedings of a single meeting be given. 
 
 MEETING OF THE TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 
 
 The Association convened at Rockwell Street School- 
 house, Friday evening. There was a full attendance, all the 
 teachers of the city being present except one — a lady teacher 
 from Prospect street. 
 
 Essayist — Miss Sarah Foster. Subject : Primary Schools. 
 
 Synopsis of the Essay. — The Primary School is less 
 
 4 
 
50 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 showy than others, and it attracts less attention. It ought 
 not to be so. Here, at the beginning of the child's course, 
 the greatest solicitude should be felt. Here the foundation 
 of education is laid. It should be well laid, since upon it is 
 raised the superstructure. Good teachers are essential ; the 
 best are hardly sufficient. The few things taught from books 
 do not, perhaps, call for teachers of high literary attainments, 
 but these niake up only a small part of the work to be done. 
 Shape is to be given to the mind. The understanding is to 
 be opened, little by little, and just in the right way. The 
 moral character is to be outlined and the nicer work oi filling 
 in commenced. The teacher's ideal should be high and 
 noble. In gathering the little ones about her for instruction, 
 she should have visions of a beautiful manhood and a beau- 
 tiful womanhood, and exercise a lively faith in the possibilities 
 of achieving splendid things. Without these conceptions, 
 without these visions, nothing can be done for the child 
 worth mentioning; all will be mechanical and lifeless. Greater 
 perfection may be looked for in the Senior Schools when the 
 Primary Schools receive due attention. 
 
 Mr. Freese commended the essay, and said that the sub- 
 ject of primary instruction had not received that attention 
 from the Association due to its importance, and he would, 
 therefore, move that it be taken up as a topic of general dis- 
 cussion at the next meeting. The motion was carried. 
 
 The Association then proceeded to the discussion of 
 arithmetic, the regular topic for the evening. 
 
 Mr. Humiston said it was not necessary for him to argue 
 the importance of arithmetic, or to show its place in a sys- 
 tem of instruction. It was well settled and fixed, and he 
 thought there was little danger, in this practical age, of its 
 suffering any neglect or losing its prominence in our school 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 51 
 
 exercises. He believed, too, that no branch, on the whole, 
 was better taught, and he felt some diffidence in undertaking 
 to speak upon a subject so thoroughly understood by the 
 teachers before him. 
 
 We are too apt, he said, to be led by text-books, and in 
 the hurry of school duties, to copy everything and furnish 
 nothing. This he thought was a fault. Good teachers are 
 always able to make text-books of their own, and very often 
 better ones than they use. With spacious blackboards, it 
 made but little difference with him what author he used. He 
 could supplement the work where there was need of it, and 
 substitute better matter where he chose to reject what was 
 faulty. Warren Colburn's Mental Arithmetic was, perhaps, 
 the nearest perfect of any book in use, but to follow that 
 literally, without additions or variations of examples, was a 
 very poor way of teaching it, in his opinion. He would have 
 no superficial work — nothing half learned. One thing well 
 learned was worth a dozen things poorly learned. 
 
 Mr. Oviatt remarked that this ignoring of text-books 
 might be all very well. It was a good thing to say ; it 
 sounded well; but the endless amount of work that he had to 
 do in his school precluded the possibility of making text- 
 books as he went along. Nor did he believe there was any 
 need of it. If the books in use were not what they should 
 be, let the Association appoint a committee to search for 
 better ones. If unsuccessful, he believed his colleague should 
 be set to work without delay. As for himself, his voice was 
 for a book, not that he had a particle of respect for it. It 
 was a convenient thing to have — one of his tools simply. 
 His custom was to assign a definite amount of text-book 
 matter every day, and then insist that it be thoroughly mas- 
 tered, so far at least as lies in the power of pupils, and they 
 
53 EARLY IIISTOI{Y OF THE 
 
 have a good deal more power, he thought, when they find 
 they can't escape, than they would have their teachers believe. 
 Boys and girls, said he, are exceedingly shy of things that 
 are taxing, and they will be sure to escape work when they 
 can. He required his scholars to work out every example in 
 their text-book, not by the rule, perhaps, under which it 
 stands, but in any way they have wit enough to invent. In 
 reviews he furnished original matter. 
 
 Miss Clemens said she found very little difficulty with 
 written arithmetic, if mental arithmetic had been thoroughly 
 taught as a preparatory course. She allowed her pupils in 
 their slate exercises to reason along through their work pre- 
 cisely as they did in mental exercises. 
 
 Some one suggested that that was probably the secret of 
 Miss C.'s excellent success as a teacher of arithmetic. 
 
 Mr. Fry inquired if Mr. Lawrence had not some secret in 
 teaching this branch of study that he was willing to reveal ? 
 The Herald had stated that his classes beat everything there 
 was going. 
 
 Mr. Lawrence replied that he had no secret, and that the 
 paper referred to had probably overstated the matter. He 
 pushed mental arithmetic pretty hard, and after leaving Col- 
 burn, he continued to work without the slate through a great 
 part of his text-book on written arithmetic. 
 
 Mr. Fry suggested that it might not be wise to load the 
 mind down with burdens that were a dead weight, to carry- 
 ing, for example, large numbers, such as would result in 
 squaring 357, or any like number. Mr. Lawrence's scholars, 
 he said, made nothing of such feats. 
 
 Mr. Freese believed that, upon essentials, teachers were 
 not very far apart. It seems to be now pretty well settled 
 that very little attention should be paid to rules, and that the 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 53 
 
 analytic process of reasoning — Colburn's plan — is the best, 
 especially at the outset. That was his own opinion. It 
 developed the most thought. It compelled attention — close, 
 fixed — and the chain of reasoning was more simple and 
 complete. Herein, Mr. F. thought, was the priceless value 
 of the study of Mental Arithmetic. The processes in Writ- 
 ten Arithmetic are more or less mechanical, especially so 
 where rules are followed, and but little thinking is done. 
 The student is directed to place the numbers thus and so, to 
 cancel, to multiply, to divide. He believed it was a positive 
 damage to the learner to be kept upon such work. It is 
 easier, it is shorter, teachers sometimes say. Perhaps it is, 
 but those are matters of little importance. The thing wanted 
 was intellectual exercise — keen, clear thinking — to the end 
 that the reasoning powers may be developed and made 
 strong — not the " answer," as a main object. If that be all, 
 said Mr. F., better purchase such a contrivance as was shown 
 him the other day. It was, he said, a small cylindrical appa- 
 ratus, having upon it a number of sliding rings and covered 
 by figures. By certain turns and twists, made in accordance 
 with the conditions named in the question to be solved, the 
 answer could be made to appear. Mr. F. was sure that those 
 teachers who were so fond of Rule-of-Three statements, 
 cancellation processes, and the like, would be pleased to 
 introduce the tvork into their schools. 
 
 The Committee on Business reported exercises for the 
 next meeting, as follows : - 
 
 Essayist. — Miss Humphrey. 
 
 Topic for Discussion. — The Primary Schools of Cleve- 
 land — as they are and as they should be. 
 
 Adjourned to meet at the same place in two weeks. 
 
54 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 These teachers' meetings were at all times open to the 
 public, and citizens who felt an interest in the subjects that 
 engaged the attention of teachers often came in and took 
 part in the discussions. 
 
 Among those most frequently in attendance were James 
 A. Briggs, Charles Bradburn, George Willey and Jehu Brai- 
 nerd. 
 
 Mr. Briggs being a ready speaker and in hearty sym- 
 pathy with the work of teachers, kindled a great deal of 
 enthusiasm. 
 
 Charles Bradburn cared more to hear a discussion upon 
 the best mode of heating a school-house than he did one 
 upon the best plan of teaching Arithmetic, although not a 
 teacher in the city could surpass him in intricate commercial 
 calculations. His thoughts ran largely upon material appli- 
 ances — school-houses, school-furniture, heating apparatus, 
 etc. His " Resolutions," whether as a member of the City 
 Council or Board of Education, carried that one burden — the 
 pressing wants of the schools ; and on that line he fought it 
 out for twenty years, and until the "Bradburn School-House" 
 came forth, and other buildings similar to it in various parts 
 of the city. He seldom spoke much at the meetings of the 
 Association, and only in one place among the fragmentary 
 records is there any reference made to his remarks. 
 
 It may be said with much truth that he was conspicuous 
 for saying little and doing much. To name his deeds in the 
 affairs of education and the schools would be to write a very 
 complete history of them from 1840 to i860. His few zuords 
 upon the records of the Association are noticeably charac- 
 teristic. They are embraced in a journal entry, made Dec. 3, 
 1845, of which the following is a copy : 
 
 "The President of the Association announced the pres- 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 55 
 
 ence of Mr. Bradburn, and said that, as he had just returned 
 from a visit to the schools of Lowell, Mass., the teachers 
 would be glad to have him give some account of them. 
 
 " Mr. Bradburn said that his private business had called 
 him to Lowell, and that while there he took the opportunity 
 to look in upon a few of the schools. The Lowell schools 
 are among the best in Massachusetts ; at least they are so 
 rated. The school buildings are large and substantially 
 built. He thought the lots upon which they are erected too 
 small. He observed that they used the Boston Primary 
 School Chair in the lowest grades. Their cost was no more 
 than the seats we put into our Primary School-rooms. Their 
 best school-houses have large rooms; some of them will seat 
 two hundred pupils. 
 
 " He visited the Mayhew Grammar School, of Boston, 
 and there, too, the rooms were large. The schools, he 
 thought, made a fine appearance, seated in their airy, spa- 
 cious rooms. Comparatively, they cost less than small 
 rooms. They can be heated at less expense per scholar. 
 He was aware that Mr. Freese and one or two other teachers 
 of Cleveland had prejudice against them. 
 
 " Mr. Bradburn said he called at the office of Horace 
 Mann, Secretary of the State Board of Education. He was 
 preparing a book of abstracts of all the local school reports 
 made in the State. He would venture to say that the Secre- 
 tary was doing more for popular education than any man in 
 this country. He said he was impressed with the gentleman- 
 like bearing of the boys in the Boston Schools. They stand, 
 they sit, they walk like trained cadets. Their politeness, too, 
 is quite noticeable. He believed it would not hurt the boys 
 of Cleveland to have their manners mended a little. The 
 other day he was riding past one of the school houses with a 
 
")') KAULV iriSTOKY OF THE 
 
 friend, a stranger, and the boys and girls assembled before it 
 wore so much like a mob that he was ashamed to own that 
 it was a public school. He hoped teachers would discourage 
 niarble-playing. If cheating and lying were to be taught, he 
 was of opinion that no plan of doing it so effectually could 
 be thought of as to organize classes in playing this game. 
 
 " Teachers, he said, need not fear that the Board would 
 not sustain them in the enforcement of all wholesome regu- 
 lations. 
 
 " Mr. Kradburn's remarks were well received." 
 
 Mr. VVilley looked much to the' philosophy of education, 
 and teachers had great respect for his opinions and judg- 
 ments. He was always listened to with the profoundest 
 attention. While a member of the Board of Education, his 
 was the controlling mind in all matters having close relations 
 to educational work — fixing relative values to the several 
 exercises and subjects of study as a guidance in the distribu- 
 tion of labor, and otherwise harmonizing the scheme of 
 instruction and making it effective. His published school 
 reports and educational lectures are perhaps unsurpassed by 
 any similar papers and documents to be found anywhere. 
 
 Upon the subject of Free Schools, when it was a question 
 whether schools higher than the common grade should be 
 free, Mr. Willey spoke as follows. The quotation will illus- 
 trate his style of expression and scope of thought : 
 
 " I confess for myself, if my humble preference be worth 
 announcing, that I am wedded to the theory of free educa- 
 tion, to be dispensed without money and without price, to 
 whomsoever in the State shall apply for it ; and to embrace 
 all learning from the child's alphabet up to the highest 
 branches of university education. Whatsoever falls short 
 of this, falls short of a perfect system. There should be 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC l^CHOOLS. 57 
 
 plain and palpable reasons, reasons founded in inexorable 
 poverty, why a State should draw a line of demarcation be- 
 tween different grades of attainments, saying — this knowl- 
 edge you may have free — for this superior knowledge you 
 must pay. Precisely the same arguments which authorize 
 the withholding of superior education, would justify, by a 
 downward progressiveness, the withdrawing of common ed- 
 ucation ; and on the other hand, the precise doctrine which 
 demands public provision for common education, carries 
 irresistibly with it a demand for the highest knowledge the 
 age is possessed of There is no point short of utmost alti- 
 tude, or utmost depression, where the friends or opponents of 
 popular education can rest their argument. The day has 
 gone by which can lend countenance to the idea of an aris- 
 tocracy of knowledge. What is valuable for the few, must 
 be valuable for the many. There is no reason or humanity 
 in making, not intentionally, of course, but practically, a dis- 
 tinction between the rich and the poor — leading the Child 
 of Genitis, it may be, with free and encouraging hand, up the 
 rugged steeps until he catches a glimpse of sanctuaries of 
 higher learning, and ' Fame's proud temple ' which ' shines 
 af ir,' and then dashing his ambition and his hopes, by telling 
 him, — these heights you may not mount — these inner courts 
 you may not enter. These gates you see are golden. They 
 turn on golden hinges. They answer only to a golden key. 
 * * * " No one gainsays that while 
 
 private enterprises for special training, for special purposes, 
 are to be encouraged and applauded, yet that no mortal in- 
 strumentality can safely be entrusted with the educational 
 welfare of all the children of the State, except the State 
 itself Here is, or should be, the ever watchful parental eye 
 — here, the collected, steadfast purpose — here, method, sys- 
 
58 E.^LY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 tern and permanency — here, deep and comprehensive wis- 
 dom — here the arm which can reach down to the lowest, 
 extend to the farthest, and be recognized and respected by 
 the highest — which can encompass all classes and bind 
 them together in common bonds — here, the copious and 
 sufficient treasury, depending not on popular caprice, nor for- 
 tuitous circumstances, which may enrich one day and impov- 
 erish the next, but a treasury to the annual replenishment of 
 which the entire property of the people is, or should be, irre- 
 vocably pledged. Said Robert Winthrop in a late agricul- 
 tural address, alluding to Massachusetts, " Other nations 
 may boast of their magnificent gems and monster diamonds. 
 Our Kohinoor is our Common School System. This is our 
 Mountain of Light, not snatched, indeed, as a prize from a 
 barbarous foe, — not designed only to deck a royal brow or 
 to irradiate a Crystal Palace — but whose pure and penetrat- 
 ing ray illumines every brow, and enlightens every mind, and 
 cheers every heart and every hearth-stone in the land, and 
 which supplies from its exhaustless mines, ornaments of 
 grace unto the head and chains upon the neck of every 
 son and daughter of Massachusetts.' " 
 
 Upon Order and Discipline Mr. Willey expressed the fol- 
 lowing sentiments : 
 
 " Order or studiousness enforced by harshness or violence, 
 is superficial and but little worth, A wide distinction is to 
 be taken between an orderly school, which is so because it 
 fears to be otherwise, and one which has been taught to pre- 
 fer a polite behavior as a matter of pure choice, or because it 
 has become too much engrossed in its studies to have leisure 
 or inclination to turn aside from a correct deportment. The 
 teacher who has ceased to labor for good order as a distinct- 
 ive object, but relies upon and expects it as a natural incident 
 of the good will for him, and enthusiasm for study which he 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 59" 
 
 has succeeded in kindling in the hearts of his pupils, by 
 skillfully directing their salient spirits rather than by harshly 
 repressing them, has accomplished the first requisite toward a 
 pleasant and successful school. The fact that youthful ener- 
 gies flow never in channels so deep and tranquil as in later 
 life, contains no argument that they should be discouraged or 
 forbidden, but only that they should be judiciously guided 
 and applied. 
 
 "The teacher who secures implicit observance of his 
 commands does well, but he has succeeded better who has so 
 skillfully inwrought into the dispositions of his scholars a 
 healthful appreciation of the superior beauty of right to 
 wrong, that in choosing propriety of conduct and refinement 
 of manners, they shall seem to be obeying their own sug- 
 gestions, rather than the dictates of a superior. Let volun- 
 tary goodness on the part of the pupil be encouraged to 
 dispense, as far as possible, with the authority of the teacher.. 
 Obedience to others is seldom more than negatively salutary, 
 while obedience to any correct laws which we have instituted 
 for ourselves, is attended by positive growth and development- 
 of character. 
 
 " In all, too, that pertains to school discipline, how rapid 
 and near approaches have been made to those kindly and 
 philosophic principles which are founded in a broader and 
 more generous conception of human nature and human 
 rights. He who was once called Schoolmaster is now called 
 Teacher, and this change of appellation, as it has grown 
 gradually into usage, is agreeably significant. The Great 
 Teacher who said ' Suffer little children to come unto Me,' — 
 how difficult, how irreverent it would seem to endeavor to con- 
 ceive of Him, drawing out and after Him the youthful intel- 
 lect and affections by any other cords than those of sympathy, 
 consistency, benignity and love. Physical prowess has come^ 
 
60 CLEVELAXI) PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 
 
 to be regarded as the least essential attribute of" an educator 
 of the mind and a trainer of the more delicate sensibilities 
 of the heart, and we would omit no occasion of referring to 
 the progress of the age in this particular. 
 
 " So, too, it is gratifying to note the general adoption and 
 observance of the radical difference that exists between the 
 mere reception or acquisition of knowledge and the education 
 of the faculties. Bacon conferred no greater favor upon 
 Science when he discovered, or rather when he gave curren- 
 cy to, the Inductive Process, than did he upon education who 
 first promulgated that there is a difference between so train- 
 ing the muscles and sinews of the mind as to enable it to 
 hold itself erect, its various faculties moving and acting with 
 vigor, harmony and precision ; and bowing down forever the 
 intellect of the student beneath a mass of facts, heaped up 
 incongruously in the memory, and miscalled knowledge. 
 
 ;fc :}; ^ >{: >;; :[: ^ 
 
 " Every Teacher should carry a Normal School within his 
 own brain — himself the pupil, and his own intellect, his 
 thought, the master. 
 
 " It is not meant to underrate facilities, but when we look 
 abroad and see how little these, however specially adapted, 
 ■can do alone toward winning wealth or fame — when we see 
 with the same advantages so great discrepancies of results, 
 we are inevitably admonished that something beyond what 
 others can do for one is to be done by one's self Thought, 
 one's own thought, ever, is man's strength and man's depend- 
 ence. Without it, learning, and information, and counsel, and 
 foreign aid, and the whole panoply of exterior arrangements, 
 but weigh him down like the armor of a robust sire on a 
 ■degenerate son. ' That Literature is little worth which hangs 
 loosely on the character.' It should be blended, inwrought 
 into the intellect, like nicely fitting Mosaic." 
 
TABULAR VIEW OF THE SCHOOLS FOR WINTER TERM OF 1850. 
 
 SCHOOLS. 
 
 DEPARTMENTS. 
 
 Central : High Boys and Girls 
 
 r 
 
 Prospect ... -j 
 
 I 
 
 L 
 
 Senior Boys and Girls 
 
 ( Loys . 
 Primary -> 
 
 1 Girls. 
 
 f! Senior. ...Boys and Girls. 
 
 Rockwell 
 
 Primary 
 
 r 
 
 W.St. Clair.; 
 
 I 
 I 
 
 Champlain 
 
 Kinsman... -^ 
 I 
 I 
 
 r 
 
 E.St. Clair ^' 
 I 
 I 
 
 (- Boys , 
 \ Girls. 
 
 Senior Boys and Girls. 
 
 r Boys . 
 Primary -> 
 
 ^ I Girls 
 
 Senior Boys and Girls 
 
 f Boys 
 I 
 Primary -[ Girls 
 
 [ Boys and Girls. 
 
 Senior Boys and Girls. 
 
 r Boys and Girls. 
 Primary \ 
 
 (. Boys and Girls. 
 
 Senior Boys and Girls. 
 
 98 
 
 146 
 98 
 
 ICO 
 
 172 
 
 96 
 96 
 
 78 Hi 
 
 106 
 72 
 73 
 
 140 11^ 
 
 671 81 
 511 7l 
 
 96 I 71 
 
 98 I 66 
 102 70 
 
 93 
 
 112 
 
 70 
 
 79 
 
 54 12 
 
 64! 9 
 
 59 
 
 40 
 
 Primary 
 
 f Boys . 
 \ Girls. 
 
 116 81 
 
 150 112 
 60 45 
 
 87 
 
 100 
 112 
 
 TEACHERS. 
 
 {A. Freese. • 
 "(Cath'r'e Jennings- 
 
 (L. M, Oviatt. 
 ^Sophia Hickox. 
 
 Mary T. Doane. 
 
 Eliza 11. Corlett. 
 
 JR. F. Humlston. 
 (Nancy B. Merrill. 
 
 Sarah Brown. 
 
 Olive Meech. 
 
 (Richard Fry. 
 (Maria Kingsbury.. 
 
 Miss Sutherland. 
 
 Miss Tabor. 
 
 (W. G. Lawrence. 
 (Julia F. Ilamm. 
 
 Anna E. I')uffy. 
 
 Lovira Smith. 
 
 Mary Southworth. 
 
 Miss Humphrey. 
 
 Louisa M. Oviatt. 
 Joanna Fry. 
 
 Jane P. Williams. 
 
 Georgia Chapman 
 Mary Haver. 
 
 Total Number of Teachers 
 
 Total Number of Pupils 
 
 Total Average of Pupils 
 
 Average Number to each Teacher 
 Average Number to each Teacher 
 
 25 
 
 20S1 
 
 1440. 
 
 on Total Enrollment .... 98 
 on Average Attendance, 65 
 
•62 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 VAGRANT YOUTH OF THE CITY! 
 
 The difference between the whole number of pupils 
 enrolled in the schools and the number <^///^ the schools — 
 those of legal school age — was at one time a theme of 
 much discussion. Because the teachers were not able to 
 show an enrollment of more than half the number returned 
 by the school census, it was thought to reflect very seriously 
 upon the public schools, and the work which it was claimed 
 they had undertaken to do. The statement was boldly put 
 forth that one-half the children of the city were growing up 
 without education. 
 
 Feeling called upon in self-defence to correct a notion so 
 erroneous, the teachers collected facts bearing upon the mat- 
 ter, and so presented them as to show plainly that the infer- 
 ence drawn from the single fact of attendance was entirely 
 unwarrantable. But in the discussion they were obliged to 
 confess that there was a class of boys and girls in the city 
 that the public schools had never reached — that no ordinary 
 school could reach — and that practically these children were 
 left without schools. The number so allowed to drift through 
 the city was even stated — very nearly the exact number. To 
 ascertain it, very great labor was expended. The complete 
 tabular showing embraced names, ages, places of residence 
 — permanent or otherwise — business engaged in — if any — 
 brief personal descriptions, and perhaps one or two other 
 items. It was believed that there was not a dozen street wan- 
 derers that escaped the search. All the facts were laid before 
 the Board of School Managers, but no action on their part 
 grew out of it. It however awakened attention to the condi- 
 tion and wants of this idle and destitute class of youth ; and 
 before the teachers, at the meetings of their Association, had 
 -adjourned the discussion of the question, " How shall these 
 
CLEYELAN^D PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 63 
 
 children be reached ? " work had actually commenced — the 
 work of visiting the destitute, relieving their wants, and 
 gathering them here and there into places of instruction. 
 Among those who were perhaps the most active in this mis- 
 sionary labor may be mentioned Mrs. Jacob Lowman, Mrs. 
 Abby F. Babbett, Mrs. Harriet Mitchell, Mrs. E. Staats, Rev. 
 D. Prosser, Mr. Robert Waterton and Mr. Samuel Foljambe. 
 Two of these noble women have gone to their reward — two 
 remain, and one of them, remarkable still in her labors of 
 love, says, in reply to enquiries : 
 
 * * * "I was in that work for six years. It 
 
 required a vast amount of work in the way of visiting, sup- 
 plying clothing, and sometimes finding places for poor little 
 lone ones to lay their heads at night. I remember of making 
 in one year, with my own hands, one luindrcd and sixty little 
 garments. We found many who had no regular homes, and 
 who slept in old lime kilns and sheds, or anywhere else they 
 could get a chance. These cases we took first, and gave 
 them our special attention. Again, we found very many hav- 
 ing homes, but a little above beggars, who did not attend 
 any school during the week. We resolved that we would 
 use every possible effort to induce them to attend school, but 
 it was a failure. They could not be induced to go. Their 
 parents, as a general thing, were willing, but there seemed to 
 be a feeling of caste, on their part, if I may so express it, that 
 they could associate with those only who were as ragged 
 and destitute as themselves. We could not overcome this 
 feeling, and many of the ladies were discouraged. But a few 
 of us, who had been long among the poor, could not give up 
 so. We could not be content with what we could do for 
 these children on the Sabbath, so we asked the Superintend- 
 ent to give out that there would be a week-day school in the 
 
64 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Sunday School room, to commence the next day. I cannot 
 now remember whom we had as teachers, but the children 
 came, the large room was full of them It was in mid-winter, 
 too, and I think they came all the week. We conferred with 
 Mr. Waterton, who approved of the school, and I remember 
 his saying he thought he could get the brick school-house 
 on Champlain street, not then in use. He succeeded, and the 
 school was taken there, and afterwards managed by Mr. 
 Waterton." 
 
 Mr. Foljambe, being invited to do so, writes out a brief 
 history of the organization denominated the Industrial 
 School. He says : 
 
 " In response to inquiries, I will state that the Industrial 
 School is an outgrowth of the so-called Ragged School, oc- 
 curring as follows : 
 
 " In 1853 the Rev. D. Prosser, aided by Mrs. Lowman, Mrs. 
 Babbett and Mrs, Mitchell, commenced a Sabbath School for 
 the instruction of the poor and destitute, children and adults, 
 living on the Flats, Canal and River streets, and in the vicin- 
 ity of the ship -yards. Those ladies, with others who aided 
 them, labored for some months in Waring's Block until the 
 place became too strait for them ; and at a meeting of the 
 citizens, funds were raised, resulting in the erection of a large 
 and commodious building on Champlain street.* Meantime, 
 S. Foljambe had accepted the superintendence of the school, 
 calling to his aid a noble band of teachers from all the lead- 
 ing churches in the city, who for over four years labored with 
 great unity and success ; the school numbering from 250 to 
 400 scholars. George W. Whitney, Assistant Superintendent, 
 S. L. Kennedy, Secretary, and Mrs. Staats in charge of the 
 Primary Department. 
 
 * This building was destroj-ed bj' fire. 
 
CLEVELAlSTD PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 65 
 
 " Rev. Mr, Prosser soon engaged in the Bethel work, and 
 managed successfully that Sunday School, working in the 
 same field and upon nearly the same kind of material. Much 
 good was done, and very many poor children were instructed 
 and improved both morally and physically. Robert Water- 
 ton was deeply interested in the welfare of our school, but 
 he soon saw and realized the importance of %veek-day instruc- 
 tion being added to the Sabbath-day instruction, and hence, 
 with the pecuniary aid of a few benevolent citizens, provision 
 was made for its accomplishment. 
 
 " Sunday instruction was now conducted in two principal 
 schools ; in our own, called the Ragged School, and in the 
 Bethel ; while the week-day instruction was given in the brick 
 school-house furnished by the city. Subsequently the latter 
 school, by reorganization and securing aid from the city, took 
 the name of Industrial School, by which it is still known." 
 
 THE INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL AND CHILDREN'S 
 AID SOCIETY AND HOME. 
 
 These names are often associated as above written, and 
 they cover in meaning, the whole scheme of benevolent en- 
 terprise, as now carried on, originating as described in the 
 foregoing letters. But by this assembly of words three sep- 
 arate and distinct things are signified, viz : the Industrial 
 School, the Children's Home and the Children's Aid Society. 
 
 A few words by way of explanation. The Industrial 
 School is a creation of the City Council, therefore a city 
 school, although differing from any other. The city provides 
 buildings and furnishes them for its accommodation, pays the 
 salaries of the teachers and fits up workshops for the indus- 
 trial departments. The Children's Aid Society is an associ- 
 ation of benevolent gentlemen — a corporate body — consist- 
 
66 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 ing of President, Secretary and Treasurer, and a Board of five 
 Trustees. To them is entrusted the entire management of 
 the Industrial School ; and, besides, the Society looks after 
 other matters in the interest of the poor. Their Secretary 
 and Agent, Robert Waterton, describes the original object of 
 the Association thus : 
 
 " The Society was organized soon after the school with 
 a view of providing homes in respectable families for needy 
 children, without regard to nationality, where they could 
 receive a good common school education with moral intruc- 
 tion, to be fitted for useful lives ; and though in one sense the 
 Society is separate as to its management and support, it is 
 one and the same virtually and in effect with the Industrial 
 School, having been joined together by the City Council by 
 unanimous vote, and since their union has hitherto been 
 profitable, they never ought to be divorced." 
 
 Soon after the labors of the Society had commenced in 
 connection with the Industrial School, a great need appeared 
 that was not foreseen. It was a home for the homeless. 
 Children were here and there found without so much as a 
 place to lay their heads at night. Often they were ill, made so 
 from exposure and want. They must be cared for and nursed 
 before the Industrial School could help them. The Society 
 endeavored to provide for the wants of this class by furnish- 
 ing them a temporary place in the basement of the school- 
 house ; then a small addition to the building was made for 
 better accommodations. They were inadequate, however, 
 and it was found that, in connection with the School, no 
 suitably arranged home was practicable. Here let Mr. Wa- 
 terton speak again : 
 
 " Mrs. Eliza Jennings, being apprised of the emergency, 
 and prompted by her own generosity, at once donated a large 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 67 
 
 brick house, with several out-buildings, together with about 
 twelve acres of land. The Trustees subscribed liberally and 
 friends gave freely, and an additional portion of land was 
 purchased adjoining, costing about ^10,000." 
 
 Leonard Case, Esq., subsequently, donated twenty acres 
 more, making now, in all, sixty acres. 
 
 The Society, holding this property in trust, went to 
 work immediately and put it in convenient condition for oc- 
 cupancy as a Home for homeless children. They did not 
 design to make it a hospital, but a home in the best accept- 
 ation of the term, with garden, and orchard, and meadow and 
 growing crops, with the busy stir of manual labor usual to 
 the farm ; a home where children are cared for in sickness to 
 be sure, where they are taught to read, but where they are 
 taught to work also — wdiere good habits are induced by fur- 
 nishing the hands something to do while the mind is kept in 
 healthful exercise. It is idleness, in the first instance, that 
 ruins so many boys in the cities and large towns. 
 
 It is located on Detroit Street, a short distance west of 
 the city limits. The number of boys who find a home in the 
 institution in the course of a year, is about one hundred ; the 
 whole number enrolled in a year is very much beyond this. 
 
 The Superintendent says, in a recent report, that much 
 labor has been expended in making permanent improve- 
 ments, such as fencing, draining, setting out trees, etc., and 
 that the boys have done a large amount of this work. The 
 products of the farm are already considerable. 
 
 Since many, perhaps most, of those who find homes in 
 in the institution are Cleveland boys, the city pays, as in the 
 Industrial School, the salaries of teachers, who give instruc- 
 tion in the common school branches. The County Commis- 
 sioners, by virtue of law, have made one or two small appro- 
 
68 EARLY niSTOIlY OF THE 
 
 priations from the County Treasury for its benefit, but its 
 main support is derived from donations and gifts from the 
 benevolent. The annual expense of maintaining the Indus- 
 trial School and the Children's Home is about ;^6,5oo. 
 
 The President of the Aid Society, T. P. Handy, Esq., 
 says, in a recent report, that " during the eighteen years the 
 Industrial School has been in operation it has enrolled and 
 instructed, in a greater or less degree, over five thousand 
 youth, and placed nearly one thousand of them in good fam- 
 ilies, where they are properly cared for and trained. In fact, 
 nearly the entire number of pupils who attend this school 
 are saved by its influences from a life of moral degradation 
 and ruin." 
 
 SCHOOL SUPERVISION. 
 
 Until 1858 the Boards of Education received their ap- 
 pointment from the City Council, and to them was committed 
 the entire management of the schools under certain limita- 
 tions named in the ordinances prescribing their duties. 
 
 The Secretary of the Board, after 1841, was paid a small 
 salary, and he was called the Acting Manager, since he 
 personally attended to all the ordinary affairs of the 
 schools, acting under the direction and authority of the 
 Board. Besides the Board of Managers, the Council ap- 
 pointed Visiting Committees; for a few years, two — one for 
 the Primary and one for the Senior grade of schools ; after- 
 wards, a committee for each ward. This scheme of super- 
 vision, while the schools were few, operated quite efficiently. 
 But it must be recollected that these Committees and School 
 Boards were made up of very excellent men. They were 
 appointed by the Council, not elected by the political parties, 
 and every man of them was selected with strict reference to 
 
CLEYELAXD PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 69 
 
 his fitness ; and it would not be strange that in a city of con- 
 siderable size, a few very competent men could be found. 
 It is certain that in Cleveland such men were found. They 
 were generally men of liberal education. John W. Willey, 
 of the first Board, was a graduate of Dartmouth College. 
 Of succeeding Boards, Cowles was educated at Williams, 
 Battles at Middlebury, Mather at Dartmouth, Geo. Wil- 
 ley at Jefferson, Starkweather at Brown, Tucker at Ham- 
 ilton, Fitch at Yale, Waring at Union, Palmer at Hudson, 
 Thome at Augusta, Rice at Williams, Dr. L. C. Ingersoll 
 and J. E. Ingersoll at Oberlin, and E. P. Ingersoll at Williams. 
 
 The Visiting Committees, too, were picked men, selected 
 from the best educated men in the city; and coming, as they 
 did, from the practical business affairs with which they were 
 severally connected, they judged of the education that was 
 being imparted to the children from a better stand-point, per- 
 haps, than any other. 
 
 While these committees did not, throughout all the 
 wards of the city, make their inspection of the schools so 
 critical and thorough as they might — so critical and thor- 
 ough as the plan of inspection contemplated, perhaps, their 
 visits, nevertheless, were of great practical value to the 
 schools. Their reports often embodied suggestions and 
 recommendations that deserved and received attention, and 
 they had much weight with the Board of Education in deter- 
 mining its course of action.* Although the Committees 
 
 * These Committees are recommended by the Board and appointed by 
 the Council, but represent neither. They are the representatives of the 
 people, appointed to examine the Schools and to make known the results of 
 the examination through their reports to the Board. They are requested, 
 also, to suggest such amendments, improvements and changes as they may 
 deem essential to the success and prosperity of the Schools. — [S. H. Mather, 
 Secy Board of Education, 1854.] 
 
70 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 were appointed by the City Council, the Boards of Educa- 
 tion defined their duties. These were changed from time to 
 time by different Boards, but they did not, perhaps, differ 
 materially from those named in the following resolution, 
 copied from old records : 
 
 " Resolved, That the Visiting Committee be requested 
 to visit the schools in their respective wards, in concert, at 
 some time to be appointed by themselves, as often as twice in 
 each term ; and after carefully examining each school to 
 report the result of their examination to the Board of Educa- 
 tion, at least one week before the close of the term." 
 
 As a specimen of the Visiting Committee's Reports, it 
 being, too, of some historic value, one is here subjoined. It 
 was made to the Board twenty-nine years ago. 
 
 " To the Board of Managers of the Public Schools of Cleveland: 
 
 " The undersigned, a committee of your Board to attend 
 upon the examination of the Senior Schools, have given them 
 such attention as their several engagements would permit, 
 and beg briefly to report the results. 
 
 " We are well aware that a public examination of a school 
 is not in every case a fair index to its actual condition. In 
 the varied exercises of the schools herein referred to, they 
 fall short, on such occasions, it is believed, rather than exceed 
 their true standard. 
 
 " In order to obtain the necessary information of the 
 attendance and condition of the schools, the following inter- 
 rogations were submitted to each teacher : 
 
 " First. What is the whole number of scholars in your 
 school ? 
 
 " Second, What is the average attendance for the past 
 term ? 
 
 " Third. How many pupils have you in each clcss ? 
 
CLEYELAXD PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 71 
 
 " Fourth. Are you able to give proper attention to this 
 number? 
 
 " Fifth. What is your compensation per annum ? 
 
 "Sixth. Is the Bible, or any portion of it. read in your 
 school daily, either by yourself or your pupils ? 
 
 " Seventh. State the obstacles, if any, that prevent a still 
 greater improvement in your school. 
 
 " The first examination was attended to at the 
 
 " VINEYARD STREET SCHOOL. 
 
 " This school has long been under the able management 
 of William G. Lawrence and assistants. It sustained fully its 
 hitherto high reputation in the different branches, especially 
 in Mental and Practical Arithmetic, Grammar and Geography. 
 Half an hour is spent each day in Writing. In these, as well 
 as in other branches, a steady and commendable improve- 
 ment is shown. This school, one of the most important and 
 well managed in our city, is miserably located, and so 
 greatly exposed to the ' noise and confusion ' of the street, 
 as often to prevent recitations from being heard. The rooms 
 are poorly ventilated and the health of teachers and scholars 
 impaired by close confinement. The committee recommend 
 that a suitable lot be procured, and a building similar to 
 those on St. Clair and Kinsman streets erected. The teacher 
 remarks that could these obstacles be removed, he is confi- 
 dent the improvement in the school would be at least one- 
 third greater. Average attendance, 115. 
 
 " The Bible is not read in this school either by teachers 
 or scholars. 
 
 " PROSPECT STREET SCHOOL. 
 
 "This school was found under charge of Mr. L. M. 
 Oviatt. Miss Howard has been for two years the female 
 
72 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 assistant. Its examination convinced the committee that its 
 course of instruction is thorough in every respect. It has 
 evidently lost nothing of its high reputation under former 
 able instructors. Average attendance during the term, 113. 
 
 " Its examination in the branches of Geography, Mental 
 Arithmetic, Reading and Spelling, was well sustained and 
 afforded evidence of high improvement. The classes are 
 many of them too large. There exists a want of punctuality 
 among many of the pupils, coming in each day from ten to 
 thirty minutes behind the hour for opening the school ; 
 others attending perhaps for a day, and remaining out for a 
 week. The teachers are embarrassed by such irregularity, 
 and the interest of the school would seem to require a 
 remedy. 
 
 " The Bible is not read in this school, not from any un- 
 willingness on the part of its teacher, but from objections 
 made by some of the citizens of the ward ' that it would 
 occupy the time that should be devoted to the studies of the 
 school.' 
 
 " ROCKWELL STREET SCHOOL. 
 
 " The committee were highly pleased with the appearance 
 of this school under charge of Mr. and Mrs. Lufkin. The 
 scholars acquitted themselves in the branches of Reading, 
 Spelling and Mental Arithmetic, beyond any former occa- 
 sion. In Composition and Music its appearance was highly 
 creditable. 
 
 " To those acquainted with the condition of this school 
 when placed under the charge of its present teacher, who 
 contrast its then disorderly and almost ungovernable charac- 
 ter with its present high attainments and love of order, the 
 improvement and change is greatly marked and worthy of 
 notice. 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 73 
 
 "This school is opened uniformly by reading the Scrip- 
 tures, when, as the teachers remark, it is their object to 
 secure the attention and fix the thoughts of every scholar on 
 the subject. This is done as far as it can be, by leading them 
 to think that it is a matter in which they all are individually 
 interested, and with which their highest happiness is con- 
 nected. 
 
 " One of the obstacles in the way of rapid improvement, 
 in the view of the teachers is, by bringing too many new ele- 
 ments before the minds of the children at the same time, 
 creating a disrelish for all kinds of study. This evil shows 
 itself more frequently in too large Reading classes. 
 
 ACADEMY BUILDING. 
 
 " The school taught in this old building by Mr. Fry and 
 Miss West, deserves a better place. It has been raised up 
 from a very low and subordinate condition to its present 
 high standard, by the untiring industry and labors of its 
 present teachers. In Reading, this school is not excelled. 
 Its examination in Mental Arithmetic and Grammar, was 
 very creditable. Its Compositions and Declamation were 
 very good. Average attendance 91. 
 
 " The teacher has no desire to instruct a less number, 
 provided they could be properly prepared in the primary 
 schools, before being admitted to the senior department. 
 The number of scholars in each class is believed to be far 
 less important than the number oi classes, provided a suitable 
 room is had for their instruction. All things being right, 
 this teacher prefers large classes, and can produce through 
 them ' more enthusiasm, more thought, more mind.' 
 
 " The chief hindrance to the greater improvement of this 
 school, is the zvant of a proper building as above referred to, 
 
74 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 and the more thorough instruction in Reading and SpelHng 
 before entering the senior schools. Are not these branches 
 too much neglected in the primary schools, and made to give 
 place to Geography and Arithmetic ? Would it not be well 
 to create a jfmiior Primary Department, where those in 
 the Alphabet could be taught by themselves, leaving more 
 time for Reading and Spelling with the remaining number? 
 
 " The Bible has not been read daily in this school. The 
 teacher states that he has taken all proper opportunities to 
 foster honorable feelings, to exhibit kind words and good ac- 
 tions in their fairest colorings, and to impress a due sense of 
 dependence upon ' Our Father in Heaven.' 
 
 " We are happy to recognize the attention paid to Writ- 
 ing by the employment of a competent teacher in this de- 
 partment, and noticed with pleasure the rapid improvement 
 in nearly all the schools in this important and hitherto neg- 
 lected branch. 
 
 " Music, too, with all its subduing and enlivening charms, 
 has been taught in each of the schools referred to, with 
 happy effect. Why not extend its benefits to the primary 
 schools ? 
 
 "We cannot, however, close this report, without express- 
 ing our regret that the Bible should be discarded, or its daily 
 reading neglected by any school. Believing it to be the basis 
 of all civil and religious liberty, the great moral standard of 
 right and wrong, and that its principles and truths are be- 
 lieved in by the great majority of our citizens by whom these 
 institutions are supported, we deem it vitally important that 
 in each school it should be read and acknowledged daily. 
 Our attention is the more called to this, from the fact that 
 many of our citizens have made frequent inquiries on this 
 subject, and it is proper that such inquiries be answered. 
 
CLEVELAXD PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 75 
 
 None of the teachers with whom we have conversed, ob- 
 ject to its daily use, nor can we see any well founded ob- 
 jection. Some members of this committee, however, though 
 agreeing in the above sentiments in regard to the excel- 
 lence and value of the Bible, do not agree as to the expe- 
 diency of introducing it into our public schools, constituted 
 and composed as some of these schools now are. 
 
 "Another point to which we would call your attention is 
 the poor and inadequate compensation paid those gentlemen 
 having charge of the senior schools. The salary of each is 
 $45 1.50 per annum. No city, we venture to say, can boast 
 of more competent men, or show a like amount of toil and 
 labor expended from *^'ear to year with so meagre a remu- 
 neration. The sum now paid might, in merely organizing 
 the schools, be all that would seem to be required. With 
 the present overflowing state of the Schools, and the high 
 order of talent secured, a sense oi justice, if not of liberality, 
 would seem in our view to dictate that a fair compensa- 
 tion be allowed to those who are daily wasting their energies 
 and health for the public good. Would not the city freely 
 sanction the payment of at least $600 per annum to such 
 teachers, in this department, as make it their profession, and 
 have been employed one or more years in our schools ? We 
 confidently commend this subject to your attention. 
 
 " Permit us, in conclusion, to express our high satisfaction 
 at the state of the schools under your charge. No citizen 
 can visit them without feelings of just pride in their advance- 
 ment, or without being duly impressed with the obligations 
 we owe their former chief manager, Chas. Bradburn, Esq., 
 for his untiring zeal and energy in their early organization. 
 
 " We are happy in being able to state that under the 
 present able Board of Managers, they will lose nothing in 
 
76 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 respect to that interest and advancement to which they 
 
 seem destined." 
 
 T. P. Handy, 
 
 J. B. Waring, Committee 
 
 J. A. Vincent, J- of 
 
 H. Hayward, Visitors. 
 
 C. D. Brayton, 
 
 As the number of schools increased and the field of labor 
 broadened, this system of supervision did not, in practice, 
 operate so well. Men are to be found who do not mind 
 spending two or three half-days in a term in visiting the 
 schools of their districts, when these schools are few in 
 number, and can all be reached ana examined without 
 trenching much upon time needed in their private business; 
 but when they are increased to many, so that the time they 
 are able to spare would only suffice for the briefest visits, if 
 meted out alike to each, they will usually neglect their work 
 altogether. The reason probably is that, since such visits 
 to the schools would not enable them to form any correct 
 judgment of them, they see no practical use, as there really 
 is none, in their spending time in that way. 
 
 Personal attention to the schools by the Acting School 
 Manager was less effective and satisfactory as the schools 
 increased, and for the same reason — that more time was 
 demanded, while no more could be given. It was well 
 known that Chas. Bradburn devoted quite one-fourth of his 
 time to the schools for many years. He took this time from 
 his private business as a merchant. It was a sacrifice that 
 not one business man in a thousand could have thought of 
 making. 
 
 Geo. Willey served fifteen years on the Board, and while 
 acting as Chief Manager, he devoted a great deal of time to 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 77 
 
 the schools, and so much that at one time his law partner 
 protested that the schools were making serious encroach- 
 ments upon the business of the firm. 
 
 To keep up efficient work in the schools, therefore, and 
 prevent loss where so much had been gained, a change in 
 the plan of supervision seemed imperative. It was the opin- 
 ion of the Board that a practical teacher, one who was 
 familiar with the varied duties of the school-room as well as 
 the more important principles which underlie instruction, 
 should be appointed, to devote his whole time to supervising 
 and directing the work which had been placed under their 
 general management and control. But under the ordinance 
 established for their guidance, they had no authority to make 
 such an appointment, and the people's representatives in the 
 City Council could not see that the measure contem- 
 plated was expedient, and, therefore, action granting author- 
 ity was for some time delayed. But in every well organized 
 system of schools, when instruction as a growth reaches a 
 certain stage, the machinery of supervision and control must 
 necessarily change. To continue to use the old appliances, or 
 endeavor to use them, is to stand still, if not to retrograde. 
 The teachers knew it ; they fully appreciated the situation, 
 but felt assured that the people of the city would adopt the 
 proper course, and make the needed changes when they 
 could be convinced of their expediency. At a special meet- 
 ing called for the purpose at the Central School-house, the 
 Board of Education and members of the City Council being 
 invited, they discussed the new doctrine of school supervision. 
 Emerson E. White, of the Brownell Street Grammar School, 
 made the principal argument. Like all new educational propo- 
 sitions bringing change to the old order of things, it had to 
 rest awhile with the people for their consideration. Their 
 
78 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 approval was assured, and in May, 1853, R. C. Parsons, of the 
 Council, introduced an ordinance establishing the office of Su- 
 perintendent of Instruction. It was finally passed June i, 1853. 
 Authority was given the Board to fill the office, reserving to 
 themselves, however, the right to fix the salary. " The 
 Superintendent of Instruction shall be paid for his services 
 such compensation as the City Council shall determine." 
 This is the language used in the ordinance. At the end of the 
 first year, and for two or three years thereafter, [see Council 
 proceedings], the compensation determined was just ;^300. 
 But up to this time, it should be remembered school supervi- 
 sion had in no year cost the city to exceed ;^300. The Sec- 
 retary, or Acting Manager, of preceding Boards, had received 
 about the amount named, individual members and Visiting 
 Committees serving gratuitously. Precedents are always 
 looked to, and they have great weight with those who venture 
 upon new things. No western city save Cincinnati, and one or 
 two eastern cities, had a full-paid man at the head of its sys- 
 tem of instruction, devoting his entire time to it. It should be 
 further stated that the City Councils in those days never 
 represented the enlightened public sentiment of Cleveland 
 upon matters of education. Boards of Education were so 
 trammelled with ordinances and school laws that were a vex- 
 ation and a shame, that they builded, not better, but not half 
 as well as they knew. 
 
 The first Superintendent appointed under the ordinance 
 was Andrew Freese, who had for some years been principal 
 of the Central High School. He entered upon his duties the 
 fourth day of June, 1853. For a number of months Mr. 
 Freese gave only one-half of his time to the subordinate 
 departments, devoting the other half to the High School as 
 usual ; then, for a year, five hours a day were spent in the 
 
CLEVELAXD PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 79 
 
 lower grades. But it was not until the end of the third year 
 that he was fully released, as a teacher, from the High School. 
 For his services as teacher, the Board justified themselves in 
 paying him annually ;^iooo. As Superintendent he received, 
 by vote of the City Council, $300- But being now Superin- 
 tendent wholly, and not teachet at all, the question of compen- 
 sation was no longer any concern of the Board, and Mr. Rice, 
 member of the Council from the Sixth Ward, explained in 
 his place that the services performed by the incumbent of the 
 office were not worth what he had been receiving, and he 
 moved the following resolution, which was adopted : 
 
 " Resolved, That the practice of making the Superinten- 
 dent of Schools an allowance of $300 in addition to his 
 annual salary of $1000, be and the same is hereby discon- 
 tinued." 
 
 Subsequently, however, Mr. Hopkinson of the West High 
 School, elected to the Council from the Tenth Ward, had the 
 question reconsidered. He showed that the Superintendent's 
 labors were enormous, and that he actually received, deduct- 
 ing expenses for horse and carriage which he was obliged to 
 keep, there being then no street railroads, considerably less 
 than was paid the principal of an ordinary Grammar School, 
 By vote, the original salary was restored. 
 
 Mr. F. continued to hold the office till August, 1861, 
 when his successor, L. M. Oviatt, was appointed. Anson 
 Smyth, ex-State Commissioner of Schools, succeeded Mr. 
 Oviatt, who held the office for two years. Under Mr. Smyth 
 the salary was increased, first to $1800, then to 52100. 
 
 EXAMINATIONS. 
 
 Until 1846 the examinations of pupils in the various 
 branches of study were made orally. There was no system- 
 atic plan of measurement instituted by examining committees 
 
80 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 of the relative standing of classes or of schools. Visits to 
 the schools by different members of the Board of School 
 Managers were frequent, and the Acting Manager usually 
 inspected the schools as often as once a month. The Visiting 
 Committees, already noticed, were expected to visit the 
 schools when most convenient to themselves, and, annually, 
 to make a written report to the Board of their condition, so 
 far as they should be able to ascertain it, together with such 
 suggestions as they might desire to offer. 
 
 At one time, quite early in the history of the schools, 
 exhibitions, consisting of declamations and dialogues, were 
 given in the different departments, but these were discour- 
 aged by the school authorities, and examinations, so called, 
 were substituted. They were held at the close of each term, 
 although the principal examination of the year took place at 
 the close of the winter term. On these occasions the public 
 were invited, especially the patrons of the schools. The 
 exercises were, in most cases, what the teacher in charge 
 chose to make them — usually a review of the studies pursued 
 during the year or the term just closed. The teacher called 
 the classes and put the questions, unless some one present 
 interposed a question of his own. Throughout the exercises 
 of the day — not often occupying more than half a day, how- 
 ever — declamations, compositions and singing, were usually 
 interspersed. But these examinations were superficial and 
 gave no real test of the attainments made. Indeed, it was 
 not claimed that they did ; their chief object being to call out 
 the people, and pass the schools in review before them, to the 
 end that a deeper interest might be awakened in their behalf 
 Examinations of classes in particular branches of study were 
 held from time to time, the classes from the several schools 
 assembling for the purpose at a convenient point. The 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 81 
 
 teachers had the entire management of these examinations — 
 planning and carrying them through independent of the 
 Board of Managers. They grew out of some feeling of 
 rivalry that existed between the schools, and were intended 
 as a trial or test of their comparative excellence. Sometimes 
 the subject was spelling, sometimes mental arithmetic, and at 
 other times declamation or reading. Teachers, for example, 
 by mutual agreement, would settle upon a day, and fix the 
 place for an examination. The subject of drills or recitation 
 would be named, and all the preliminaries of the examination 
 definitely arranged. The time might be fixed, as it often was, 
 several weeks ahead. Now, without following the steps along 
 the line of example any further, it may be remarked that the 
 stimulus to effort on the part of the pupils was exceedingly 
 great. The contending parties regarded these trials as games. 
 To beat, they would put forth every energy and exert them- 
 selves to the utmost. Prodigies would often be performed, 
 and sometimes more accomplished in a month than would 
 ordinarily be done in a whole term. 
 
 Teachers had no doubt that this particular motive- 
 spring — a very powerful one — might be used to great 
 advantage if properly regulated, but truth requires it to be 
 said, that, in these experiments, it was not properly regulated, 
 and the examinations at length degenerated into occasions of 
 strife and ill feeling, and after a year or two they were aban- 
 doned entirely. 
 
 BETHEL SCHOOL. 
 The Bethel School, so called from its having been 
 started in the basement of a Bethel Church, was the first 
 public school in the city. It was made a public school in 
 June, 1836 — Principal, R. L. Gazlay. In 1841 the school 
 was removed to a small wooden building erected for its 
 
82 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 accommodation at the corner of Champlain and Seneca 
 streets. This building was destroyed by fire in 1843, when 
 the school was sent back to the Bethel. After a few months 
 it was taken to rooms rented for its use, about half way up 
 the hill on Vineyard street. From thence, in 1849, it was 
 transferred to a new brick school-house erected by the city 
 on Champlain street. Ever after it was called the Champlain 
 Street School. Business places had so encroached upon and 
 crowded out the dwellers in that part of the city in 1856, 
 causing a large declension in the number of scholars, that it 
 was deemed advisable to discontinue the school. This 
 accordingly was done, and the fragmentary classes were 
 distributed to the schools up town. 
 
 Through all the years of the wanderings of the Bethel 
 School, save four or five of the earliest, Mr. William G. Law- 
 rence was at the head of it as Principal. He was remarkable 
 for his persistent adherence to rules and regulations — whether 
 his own or those of the Board of Education. In the fifteen 
 years in which he had charge of the school, he was absent from 
 his place, during school hours, just sixty minutes, and that 
 loss was occasioned by sickness in his family. When his 
 rooms on Champlain street were vacated, not so much as a 
 pencil mark was to be found on any door, casing or wall ; 
 and the neat cherry desks were so absolutely free from ink- 
 spots or scratches, the Superintendent of Instruction declar- 
 ed that he should have believed them just from the cabinet 
 maker's had he not known the contrary. 
 
 The school, from its location, was made up of the most 
 unpromising material coUgcted in any building in the city, 
 and yet the good order maintained was a surprise to every 
 visitor. 
 
 Another remarkable man — remarkable for his unwaver- 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 83 
 
 ing devotion to the poor — known to everybody as the Bethel 
 Preacher, should be mentioned in this place. In doing so no 
 more fitting words can be employed, perhaps, than those used 
 by Mr. Willey in his School Report of 1849. They are these : 
 " We would be permitted to name among the early, stead- 
 fast and active friends of this school, through all its vicissi- 
 tudes, the Rev. William Day. Indeed, from year to year, in 
 every school-house in the city where the rich and destitute 
 were found together, or the destitute alone, prompted by that 
 spirit of genuine philanthropy which burns within him, the 
 cheerful and animated voice of this clergyman has been often 
 heard encouraging the poor and humble, making valuable 
 and practical suggestions to all, or raised in prayer for bless- 
 ings on the public schools." 
 
 PROSPECT STREET SCHOOL. 
 
 This school was organized and set in operation in Sep- 
 tember, 1840. The building then just completed for its 
 accommodation, had four rooms — Teachers: Benjamin B. 
 Merrill of Maine, Sophia Converse of Vermont, Emma 
 Whitney of Massachusetts and Sarah M. Thayer of New 
 York*. The school at one time — quite early in its history 
 — had considerable prominence from drill exercises there 
 given in " Pestalozzian Methods," a new thing then supposed 
 to have just fallen upon the planet, — as " Object Teaching " 
 came from the skies in more recent years. Visitors went up 
 to the school to hear the classes recite from " Inductive " 
 Grammars and " Mental " Arithmetics. 
 
 Subsequently, Physiology, Science of Government and 
 Algebra were introduced ; later, Chemistry and Natural 
 Philosophy ; and when the Central High School was opened, 
 
 *It was not often in those days that a teacher came from Cleveland. 
 
84 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 half of the scholars in the senior department were well along 
 in High School studies, and twenty-eight were promoted to 
 that department on the first examination. 
 
 This school was the first to venture upon the trial of 
 uniting the two senior departments — the one for boys the 
 other for girls — and classifying without regard to sex. This 
 was in 1845. A library of 500 volumes was purchased for 
 the school in 1844, fi-om the proceeds of a Fair held by the 
 pupils. Horace Mann, of Massachusetts, selected the books. 
 
 The building then occupied by the school is at present 
 used by the Board of Education as a place for their own 
 meetings, and offices for Superintendent of Instruction, Sec- 
 retary, Superintendent of Buildings, etc. 
 
 WEST ST. CLAIR STREET SCHOOL. 
 
 After the Bethel School, the one written above was the 
 next public school organized in this city ; and for fifteen 
 years it was known as the Academy, or Academy School, 
 being taught in the building so named; for history of which 
 see page 3. It took the name of West St. Clair Street 
 School on its re-organization in the new building in 1849, the 
 old one having been removed to give place for it. The first 
 teacher employed as Principal was Samuel L. Sawyer. He 
 was a graduate of Dartmouth College. In February, 1838, 
 he was succeeded by J. W. Gray, and the teachers associated 
 with him in the subordinate departments were Julia Butler, 
 Melinda Slater and Mrs. Marietta Pelton. Mrs. Pelton, 
 according to tradition, had rare abilities as a teacher. J. W. 
 Gray had less fame, as a teacher, than his brother, N. A. 
 Gray; but in editing newspapers — they were together on 
 the Plain Dealer — N. A. was entirely eclipsed by J. W. 
 
 After the resignation of Mr. Gray, E. Payson Snow taught 
 
CLEVELAXD PUBLIC SCHOOLS, 85 
 
 the school for a short time ; then George W. Yates was 
 employed to take charge of it. He resigned in 1842, and 
 was succeeded by T. S. White. Benjamin Northrup was the 
 next teacher, but he remained only a few months ; he was 
 followed by Charles L. Fish. 
 
 Dr. Richard Fry was appointed Principal of the school in 
 1846, and held the position for ten years. Under him the 
 school rose to a high rank. Graded on the number of pupils 
 annually prepared for the High School it stood second — 
 Prospect being first — till 185 i, when it fell behind Rockwell, 
 and soon it was outranked by other schools. This was chiefly 
 due to changes wrought by increase of business in that local- 
 ity. So unstable and drifting did the population become 
 that in a single year — so the School Report of the year has 
 it — the losses from removal of families from the city was 25 
 per cent, of the entire school ; and the losses from removals 
 to other parts of the city are put at the same figure. At the 
 same time the accessions from families that moved in kept up 
 the attendance unimpaired. Soon, however, the annual losses 
 began to be greater than the accessions, and the school 
 became so reduced in numbers in 1865, that the Board of 
 Education resolved to unite the school with Rockwell and 
 sell the property. The first part of the resolution was carried 
 into effect upon the completion of the new school-house in 
 1866; the last part was reconsidered, and a proposition from 
 the Board of Fire Commissioners was accepted, giving in 
 exchange for it lots for school purposes in other parts of the 
 city. 
 
 The West St. Clair Street School-House, the best built 
 and the best equipped of that class of buildings in the city, 
 so many years the pride of the Third Ward, now bears on its 
 front the words, — " Headquarters of the Fire Department." 
 
86 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 ROCKWELL STREET SCHOOL. 
 
 Rockwell Street School was organized in the spring of 
 1840 in the new building just then completed on Rockwell 
 street, occupying a part of the lot upon which stands the 
 present elegant school edifice, known as Rockwell School 
 House. It numbered two hundred and fifty pupils the first 
 term, according to the records, filling all the rooms of the 
 building. They were graded into Senior and Primary 
 Departments, the girls and boys occupying, respectively, 
 separate rooms. N. A. Gray was placed in charge of the 
 Boys' Senior Department, and Elizabeth Armstrong the cor- 
 responding department for girls. They were popular teach- 
 ers, and are still remembered by many in Cleveland and 
 elsewhere who in the olden time were their pupils. The 
 material of this school was always excellent, and more 
 permanent than that of any other school in the city, 
 removals of families being less frequent. 
 
 Benj. Newell was appointed to the place made vacant 
 by the resignation of Mr. Gray, and he was succeeded by 
 Mr. A. S. Foot. The two senior departments were united in 
 1846, and at this time Mr. and Mrs. Lufkin took charge of 
 the school. They remained until 1849. Mr. R. F. Hum- 
 iston was the next Principal ; his assistant was Miss N. 
 B. Merrill. The building was enlarged by the addition of a 
 third story in 1 850, and the school was now divided into 
 three grades. Through the enterprise of teachers and pupils, 
 means were raised to purchase a piano. It was the first piano 
 procured for any public school. The patrons of the school 
 contributed a few good pictures to be hung in each of 
 the rooms, and they donated also three or four hundred 
 volumes of books to establish a school library. 
 
 A new impetus was now given to the school, and in 1852 
 
C'LEYELAXD PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 87 
 
 no school surpassed it, as a whole, in the city; and for the five 
 succeeding years every department prospered and held a 
 uniformly high rank. The teachers during this time were — 
 R. F. Humiston, Nancy B. Merrill, Mary S. Webster, Emily 
 Humiston, Mary B. Janes, Carrie Newton, Harriet Vail, 
 Emma Deitz and Louisa M. Tozier. It is safe to say that 
 the scholars of the old Rockwell Street School, now grown 
 to manhood and womanhood, and widely scattered, have 
 pleasant remembrances of these teachers and their cheerful 
 and well-ordered schools. 
 
 Upon Mr. Humiston's retirement, Edward P. Ingersoll 
 was employed as Principal. There were several changes in 
 the corps of teachers, and a part of the district was set off in 
 reconstructing districts contiguous. These changes affected 
 the school unfavorably, and it did not recover from them for 
 two or three years. Henry Ford succeeded Mr. Ingersoll, 
 but he remained only one year. In i860, Edward P. Hunt 
 was appointed to the Principalship, with Mary E. Ingersoll 
 as his Assistant in the Grammar School Department. The 
 subordinate departments were taught by Ursula A. Sanborn, 
 Kate White, Clara S. Dare and Martha Stone. Mr. Hunt's 
 successor was Henry M. James, who continued the school 
 till the building was removed, in 1868. 
 
 BROWNELL STREET SCHOOL. 
 
 The building for this school, similar to the school build- 
 ing on Prospect street, was erected in 1851, and under Mr. 
 E. E. White as Principal, the several departments were 
 organized and set in operation in January, 1852. The rooms 
 were immediately filled to overflowing. This was very un- 
 expected, and while the Board of Education was deliberating 
 as to the best course to pursue to give relief, a high wind 
 
88 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 blew the roof of the building off. This event decided the 
 question, and a third story was immediately added. Ample 
 room was now given for the school, and the grading was 
 much improved. It was a model school throughout — in 
 respect to order, regularity of attendance, methods of instruc- 
 tion, and school-room work. The " self-reporting system " 
 was so nicely carried out, under Mr. White, that the objec- 
 tions so frequently urged against it could not be discovered ; 
 indeed, they did not exist. 
 
 Mr. White was transferred to the Central High School in 
 1854, and John Eaton, Jr., was employed to fill his place. 
 R. O. Mason followed Mr. Eaton. He remained but a single 
 year, and was succeeded by John C. Hale, who resigned at 
 the end of two years. Wm. H. Hobbie was now elected to 
 the Principalship of the school. He resigned in 1862. 
 
 As a Grammar School, it very early took a high rank. 
 At its first annual examination it stood third, measured by 
 scholarship standing of pupils, and in 1859 it held the second 
 rank. But the building being too small to accommodate the 
 constantly increasing numbers, it was sold in 1863, a new lot 
 purchased upon the opposite side of the street, and the 
 present spacious building — the Bradburn Schoolhouse — 
 erected upon it. 
 
 MAYFLOWER STREET SCHOOL. 
 
 Mayflower Street School dates back to the year 1852. 
 For two years, its accommodation was a small wooden build- 
 ing of two rooms, cheaply furnished, at the corner of Orange 
 and Mayflower streets. The school, at its opening, consisted 
 largely of children of Bohemian parentage. As only about 
 one in four could speak a word of English, the teachers spent 
 a portion of each day in giving lessons to the Bohemian 
 children in English language speaking. Very soon, however, 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 89 
 
 they found that they could advance them faster by turning 
 them out to play with the Enghsh-speaking children than by 
 the more systematic course of instruction and drills which 
 they had instituted for their benefit. They finally abandoned 
 special instruction in English speaking altogether. Children 
 often do better to be let alone. 
 
 The rapid increase of population in that end of the city 
 compelled to further and ampler school accommodations, 
 and in 1854 a brick edifice, fifty feet by seventy-three, three 
 stories in height, was erected. It was ready for occupancy 
 at the commencement of the fall term of schools, and had 
 accommodations for seating five hundred pupils. It opened 
 with four hundred and fifty pupils, under the following 
 teachers : 
 
 ALBERT B. PALMER Grammar Department. 
 
 MINERVA F. CHILDS Intermediate Department. 
 
 MARY S. DENISON Intermediate Department. 
 
 SAMANTHA A. KILLIP Primary Department. 
 
 ELIZABETH P. KELLEV Primary Department, 
 
 HARRIET M. BROOKS Primary Department. 
 
 MARY JOHNSON Primary Department. 
 
 CELIA A. MINOTT was subsequently employed to assist in the 
 Grammar School. 
 
 Mr. Palmer was a remarkably good disciplinarian, and he 
 speedily reduced the school to order. He introduced the 
 "slipper arrangement," so called at the time, by which only 
 slippers were worn in the school-room by the boys ; boots 
 being exchanged for them in the basement. Not so much 
 as a pinch of dust or a particle of litter could at any time be 
 brushed from his floors. 
 
 Mr. J. G. Graham succeeded Mr. Palmer, and under him 
 was the first class fitted for the High School — a class of nine, 
 sent up in 1856. From this year on, classes were annually 
 
90 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 sent to the High School, and under Mr. Perkins, who fol- 
 lowed Mr. Graham, Mayflower Street School rose to the first 
 rank, being one of the three best schools in the city, meas- 
 ured by scholarship-standing. 
 
 The building was enlarged in 1869 to about twice its 
 original dimensions, so that at the present time it accommo- 
 dates one thousand pupils. 
 
 HUDSON STREET SCHOOL. 
 Hudson Street School — changed a few years ago to the 
 name of Sterling School — was opened in the spring of 1S59. 
 The small wooden building then just erected for its accom- 
 modation stood on the lot now occupied by the new brick 
 edifice at present in use, and had sittings for two hundred 
 pupils. In a few months after the school was opened the 
 rooms became so crowded that additional accommodations 
 had to be provided. A cheap detached building of two 
 rooms was put up which for a time served as a relief Sub- 
 sequently another room was added, but the population in 
 that part of the city continued to increase so rapidly that in 
 a little time these accommodations were inadequate, and it 
 was seen that no further extensions or additions could be 
 made, in any suitable manner, to answer the demands for 
 more room. It was determined, therefore, to clear the lot of 
 all buildings and erect thereon a school-house, one worthy of 
 the name. This was done. The new building was completed 
 in I 868, and it was pronounced the best school-house at that 
 time in Ohio. 
 
 EARLY TEACHERS IN HUDSON STREET SCHOOL. 
 
 Charles A. Currier, J. H. Wilhelm, Lucien B. Eaton, 
 Almon C. Bacon and William G. Fox. 
 
 These were the only gentlemen employed as principals, 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 91 
 
 and they succeeded each other in the order above written. 
 Not much is ascertained respecting the first one named. The 
 second was a graduate of Williams College. He remained 
 in the school only about one year. The third was a brother 
 of John Eaton, Jr., and a graduate of Dartmouth College. 
 The two last named gentlemen were graduates of Oberlin 
 College Under Mr. Eaton the first class was fitted for 
 the Central High School — a class of twenty sent up in 1861. 
 A small class was sent up in 1862. Harriet E. Blair, Laura 
 E. Spellman and Sarah E. Andrews were placed in charge of 
 the subordinate departments at the organization of the 
 school. 
 
 WEST SIDE. 
 When the West Side, or Ohio City, was annexed to 
 Cleveland, in 1854, it had a school population of 2438. About 
 800 were enrolled in the public schools, and from 200 to 250 
 in Church and other private schools. Those in attend- 
 ance upon the public schools were distributed as follows : To 
 a school-house on Penn street, 195 ; to the "Old Universalist 
 Church," in the southeast part of the city, 162; to a small 
 brick school-house on Vermont street, 54 ; to the " Seminary 
 Bjilding," 107 ; to a small wooden school-house on Church 
 street, 182. The only school property owned by the city 
 was that, above mentioned, on Penn, Vermont and Church 
 streets. The building on Penn street was of brick, two 
 stories high, with a room on each floor. The lower room, 
 designed for a primary school, had sittings for 75 pupils, and 
 the upper, for more advanced scholars, 60. The school- 
 house on Vermont street had but one room, and this was not 
 more than twenty-five feet square. The schools, for the most 
 part, were ungraded, although the city had established a Cen- 
 
92 
 
 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 tral School for the higher classes, which, afterwards, was 
 made a regular high school grade. 
 
 But there were, in process of erection, three very commo- 
 dious and substantial brick school-houses, and they were 
 soon completed and occupied — one on Pearl street, one on 
 Hicks street, and one on Kentucky street. They were of the 
 same or equal size ; were finished, furnished, and heated 
 alike, and cost $7000 each. 
 
 V (N' 
 
 KENTUCKY STREET SCHOOL HOUSE. 
 
 The above wood-cut furnishes an exterior view of the 
 building erected on Kentucky street, differing from the 
 others in notliing save the style of fence in front. Each of 
 the buildings had five rooms, two in each of the lower 
 stories, and one — a double room — in the third. They had 
 sittings for 1000 pupils, or 333 in each building. 
 
CLEVELAXD PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 
 
 93 
 
 All the schools, except those in Penn Street, were trans- 
 ferred to these three buildings upon their completion in the 
 fall of 1854. The following table exhibits the schools as 
 organized — the several grades, the number of schools and 
 the names of teachers employed in them : 
 
 SCHOOLS ox THE WEST SIDE, 
 For the Term commencing December i, 1855, and ending March 16, 1856. 
 
 DEPAKTMEXTS. 
 
 Branch. 
 
 Pearl . 
 
 Hicks <j 
 
 r 
 
 I 
 Kentucky.. <j 
 
 Penn 
 
 High Boys and Girls. 
 
 Grammar.. Boys and Girls, 
 
 f Boys 
 
 Intermediate .. <, 
 
 I Girls 
 
 ( Boys 
 
 Primary -> 
 
 '- Girls 
 
 Grammar.. Boys and Girls 
 
 ( Boys 
 
 Intermediate .. s 
 
 I Girls 
 
 ( Boys 
 
 Primary •, 
 
 ^ l Girls 
 
 f Boys 
 
 Intermediate .. -, 
 
 / Girls 
 
 C Boys 
 
 Pi"imary ^ ' 
 
 t- Girls 
 
 Primary... Boys and Girls 
 
 PUPILS 
 
 
 5 
 
 ►J 
 
 
 
 
 
 *^ 
 
 > 
 
 < 
 
 > 
 
 < 
 
 52 
 
 46 
 
 i5| 
 
 66 
 
 51 
 
 i3| 
 
 62 
 
 46 
 
 "1 
 
 60 
 
 45 
 
 iij 
 
 80 
 
 44 
 
 7i 
 
 75 
 
 40 
 
 71 
 
 75 
 
 60 
 
 i3| 
 
 60 
 
 46 
 
 "1 
 
 62 
 
 50 
 
 io| 
 
 82 
 
 52 
 
 8 
 
 70 
 
 52 
 
 71 
 
 64 
 
 40 
 
 "1 
 
 65 
 
 50 
 
 II 
 
 84 
 
 62 
 
 71 
 
 82 
 
 57 
 
 n 
 
 85 
 
 65 
 
 8 
 
 TE.'VCHERS. 
 
 (A. G. Hopkinson. 
 ]Mrs, Hopkinson. 
 
 P. W. Gardner. 
 
 Miss Peasley. 
 Miss McCarty. 
 Miss Thomas. 
 Mrs. Hillman. 
 
 <C, F. Dutton. 
 "^Miss Page. 
 
 Miss Barber. 
 
 Miss Selden. 
 
 Miss Can field. 
 
 Miss Mighill. 
 
 Miss Pugsley. 
 Miss Westcott. 
 Miss Hopkinson. 
 Miss Caughlan. 
 
 Miss Turner. 
 
94 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 BRANCH HIGH SCHOOL. 
 
 The central or senior school, already alluded to, origin- 
 ally and for some years taught in the building known as the 
 Seminary, was transferred to the upper rooms in Kentucky 
 street school house on the completion of that building. Sev- 
 eral of the classes in the school were advanced in their stud- 
 ies beyond the ordinary Grammar School grade, and the 
 people upon the West Side desired that the school should be 
 graded to correspond with the highest department upon the 
 East Side ; in other words, that it should be made a High 
 School. The expediency of the measure was for some time 
 questioned by the Board of Education, but at length ob- 
 jections were mostly yielded, and they united in asking the 
 City Council for the needed authority to act. 
 
 But the special legislative enactment under which the 
 schools of the city were organized, authorized the establish- 
 ment of one High School (Central), and only one. To pro- 
 vide for high school instruction on the West Side, therefore, 
 the City Council, by ordinance, enacted that, " A branch of 
 the same shall be located in that part of the city west of the 
 Cuyahoga river, at such place as the Board of Education 
 may recommend and the Council may provide, and shall be 
 known as the Branch High School." This accounts for the 
 name ; but the school, from the beginning, was in no proper 
 sense a branch of the Central School. It was quite as inde- 
 pendent as it is now. It had the same course of study as 
 the Central, admitted pupils on the same standard of qualifi- 
 cations, and was governed by the same rules. 
 
 The school being small, it labored under some disadvan- 
 tages in respect to classification not experienced by schools 
 having a larger number of pupils. Its teaching force, 
 although as great, proportionately, as in the Central — about 
 
CLEVELAXD PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 
 
 95 
 
 thirty pupils to each teacher — could not, as a matter of 
 course, be used along tlie whole line of studies with the 
 same effectiveness. Still, by great industry and extra labor 
 on the part of teachers, the school prospered and maintained 
 its rank in the established school grades, with great credit to 
 itself and to the city. 
 
 The relative standing of the two schools — Central and 
 Branch — maintained through a series of years, in respect to 
 numbers in attendance, school populations upon which each 
 drew for material, and one or two other items capable of 
 being expressed in figures, is given in the annexed table. 
 
 CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL and BRANCH HIGH SCHOOL, 
 In the Years 1854, 1855, 1856, 1857, 1858, 1859 and 1860. 
 
 
 CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL. 
 
 
 
 BRANCH HIGH SCHOOL. 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 5 
 ■Ji 
 
 
 
 
 
 TEARS. 
 
 Pupils. 
 
 < 
 
 < 
 
 
 Pupils. 
 
 Eh 
 & 
 
 
 
 ■< 
 a 
 
 
 
 
 if 
 
 in ° 
 
 if 
 
 
 
 03 ai 
 
 few 
 
 < 
 
 ^1 
 
 
 m 
 < < 
 
 M . 
 
 >< 
 < 
 
 
 
 m 
 
 CG 
 
 1853-54 
 
 96 
 
 92 
 
 
 15.2 
 
 
 
 1 
 9638 
 
 56 
 
 45 
 
 
 
 
 
 2438 
 3063 
 
 1S54-55 
 
 96 
 
 87 
 
 82 
 
 15.4 
 
 10 
 
 9884 ; 
 
 51 
 
 48 
 
 46 
 
 15-3 
 
 
 
 1855-56 
 
 103 
 
 90 
 
 85 
 
 15-4 
 
 
 
 9898 
 
 52 
 
 46 
 
 42 
 
 15-5 
 
 
 
 3100 
 
 1856-57 
 
 138 
 
 124 
 
 116 
 
 15-9 
 
 6 
 
 9771 
 
 59 
 
 57 
 
 54 
 
 15-7 
 
 6 
 
 3250 
 
 1857-58 
 
 161 
 
 143 
 
 136 
 
 15.9 
 
 8 
 
 9457 
 
 61 
 
 58 
 
 54 
 
 15-9 
 
 10 
 
 3527 
 
 1858-59 
 
 150 
 
 134 
 
 127 
 
 15-9 
 
 17 
 
 9622 
 
 67 
 
 61 
 
 57 
 
 15-8 
 
 13 
 
 3748 
 
 1859-60 
 
 155 
 
 133 
 
 127 
 
 15-9 
 
 6 
 
 10484 
 
 66 
 
 61 
 
 58 
 
 16.0 
 
 3 
 
 3825 
 
 Through the period of time embraced in the foregoing 
 table, and perhaps for a longer period, the Principals of the 
 respective schools made reports to the Board of Education 
 monthly, embracing items of attendance, recitations, etc., for 
 these shorter periods. 
 
96 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 The name of every pupil was written out, and each had 
 his scholarship standing, his deportment standing, his losses 
 by reason of absence, etc., carefully recorded against it. 
 
 After being received by the Board, the respective papers, 
 uniform in size and plan, were arranged side by side under 
 glass in a frame, and hung in the vestibule of the Central 
 High School, where they remained till the succeeding 
 month's report, having similar papers, took their place. 
 
 A summary of these monthly statements, made for the 
 year ending July, 1858, and published in the annual School 
 Report for that year, is as follows : 
 
CLEVELAXI) PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 
 
98 
 
 EARLY IIlSTOllY OF THE 
 
 •HXNOH 
 
 vD M CO O M — ri ri O O 
 
 ^ ^ <J\ -^ LO ^ HH T^ t^ 
 
 ■HXNOIV[ 
 HXMIJ^ 
 
 ■HXNOI\[ 
 HXHOia 
 
 ■HXNOpi 
 HXNHAag 
 
 LO ir~i c^ ^ 
 
 •HXNOPI 
 HXXIS 
 
 u-l PI \i-) u-1 CN O M ■* fO O 
 
 r-O On 
 
 "HXNOH 
 
 HX^il^fl 
 
 
 ■HXNOJ\[ 
 HXHnO^ 
 
 r^ vO 00 "^ "^ 
 
 •HX.MOH 
 
 aaiHi, 
 
 ■HXNOI\[ 
 
 QNOoas 
 
 •HXNOM 
 
 xsai^ 
 
 O vD O ^ 
 
 i/~i u~, ^) 
 
 :^ rt 1^ 
 
 H H ^ .2 Q 
 
 
 ^ Z 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 99 
 
 PEARL STREET SCHOOL. 
 
 This school was opened in the fall of 1854. Its plan of 
 organization, the teachers first employed, and some other 
 items concerning it, may be learned by referring to a table on 
 page 93. The material composing the school was not par- 
 ticularly excellent, much of it being gathered from the vicin- 
 ity of the ship-yards, docks, and streets lying near the river. 
 For two or three years the attendance was remarkable for its 
 irregularity, and subsequently it stood at a lower figure than 
 most other schools. This was no fault of the teachers. No 
 school in the city was placed in abler hands, and under its 
 last principal, C. C. Rounds, the senior department was a 
 model school. 
 
 The population of that end of the town was driven back, 
 from year to year, by the encroachments of business, and in 
 1869 the school was discontinued, and the pupils distributed 
 to other buildings. The property was sold in the spring of 
 1871. 
 
 HICKS STREET SCHOOL. 
 The building for this school was completed in the fall of 
 1855, and on the 4th of December the various isolated and 
 fragmentary schools which the new house was designed to 
 accommodate, took up their line of march from their old 
 places of shelter and assembled with great rejoicing in the 
 neat and convenient rooms made ready for them on Hicks 
 
 Remark, — The Superintendent, in his Annual Report for 1856, makes 
 the following statement referring to Hicks Street Grammar School: "In 
 this Department, during the spring term — a term of 15 weeks — there were 
 but sixty-five minutes lost by tardiness. With an average attendance of 
 seventy-five pupils, sixty-five pupils lost not a minute. In one Monthly Re- 
 port, only three pupils are returned as tardy, and they lost but sixteen 
 minutes. In one instance four weeks passed without a single case of 
 tardiness." 
 
100 EAItLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Street. The building was filled. The several departments 
 being organized, the school went into operation in the follow- 
 ing order : 
 
 CHAS. F, DUTTOX Principal of Grammar Department. 
 
 SARAH H. PAGE Assistant Grammar Department. 
 
 ABBY BARBER Boys' Intermediate Department. 
 
 ROSA SELDEN Girls' Intermediate Department. 
 
 SUSAN CANFIELD Boys' Primary Department. 
 
 JULIA A. MIGHILL Girls' Primary Department. 
 
 At the outset, Hicks Street School took a high rank, 
 being a model of order, punctual attendance and discipline. 
 Changes of teachers were less frequent than in most of the 
 other schools. It had the same principal for eight years. Miss 
 Page resigned after remaining two years, and Miss Pamelia 
 F. Libbey was appointed to her place. Miss Harriet Walker, 
 for some years, filled the place made vacant by Miss Barber, 
 and upon the latter's retirement, Miss Emeline Curtis was ap- 
 pointed her successor. Miss Canfield was succeeded by Miss 
 Mary E. Warmington, and Miss Mighill by Miss Bettie A. 
 Dutton. Miss Selden's successor was Miss Laura J. Day, 
 and then Miss Julia C. Harger succeeded Miss Day. In i86i 
 the building was burned. Another one, considerably larger, 
 was immediately erected. The school is now known as 
 the Hicks School. 
 
 KENTUCKY STREET SCHOOL. 
 The Kentucky Street School was organized in January, 
 1855. Originally it had but two departments. Primary and 
 Intermediate ; each divided into two separate schools, for 
 boys and girls respectively. The third floor of the building 
 was occupied by the High School. Lydia J. Westcott had 
 charge of the Intermediate Department for girls for seven or 
 eight years, and Charlotte W. Pugsley the corresponding 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC ' SCHOOLS, 101 
 
 Department for girls for a period of tiir-e ;i(carly 'a,s lo'ig. : 
 Ceba M. Hopkinson and Sophrona H. Caug;-h;lin^ te^igUt in: 
 the Primary Schools. They were succeeded by Hattie" E. 
 Farrand and Lizzie Ellsworth. Abby L. Westcott and Mary 
 C. Quintrell were also teachers in this department. 
 
 In 1868 the building was enlarged to double its original 
 capacity, the school having been raised to a Grammar School 
 grade the preceding year. 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 From the Council proceedings, it appears, that in the 
 spring of 1840, Jarvis F. Hanks petitioned that body, asking 
 that Music be introduced into the public schools as a branch 
 of study ; and he offered himself as a teacher at so small a 
 salary that it almost amounted to a gratuity. The proposi- 
 tion was not entertained, members declaring that such a 
 thing could not be thought of — that the teaching of Music 
 would be illegal, and much opposition of that sort was 
 offered. One distinguished member of the Council said that 
 dancing with equal propriety might be introduced into the 
 schools, and of the two, he should prefer to have dancing 
 taught. The idea of having all the children in the city 
 taught to sing as they were taught to read was a novel one, 
 but, nevertheless, it got lodgment in the public mind at that 
 time, and could not be rooted out afterwards. 
 
 It was an idea talked of as a thing soon to be realized. 
 Many gentlemen in the city of musical education and taste — 
 T. P. Handy may be mentioned as one — believed in the 
 practicability of thus teaching the children, and they favored 
 a trial of it in the schools. It was known that music was 
 taught in the public schools of Boston, and Lowell Mason of 
 that city was invited here to address the citizens upon music 
 as a branch of common school instruction. He accepted the 
 
102 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 inyitation, and came. His topic was — not perhaps stating 
 th.e titl^. \yith, precision — Music, taught to Youth on the 
 Peslalozzian System of Instruction. Mr. Mason demon- 
 strated the entire practicability of teaching children to read 
 music at sight, and in as short a time as they are usually 
 taught to read the language ; and he urged the claims of music 
 as a branch of common school education. The Board of 
 School Managers, Charles Bradburn, Geo. Willey, T. P. 
 Handy and Samuel Starkweather, called the teachers to- 
 gether, and Mr. Mason explained to them, in a familiar way, 
 how to give initiatory lessons in music, and how, with only 
 an ordinary knowledge of the subject themselves, they might 
 be quite successful in teaching the elements to classes in the 
 primary schools. Several teachers, who happened to be 
 pretty good musicians, entered upon a course of instruction, 
 following Mr. Mason's method, but a majority merely taught 
 their pupils to sing by rote, and so, on the whole, there was 
 but very little accomplished. It was evident enough, that to 
 make this branch of instruction a success, it would be neces- 
 sary to employ a competent teacher to take charge of it. But 
 the question of expense hindered action, and the matter was 
 delayed until 1846, when Mr. Silas Bingham was employed 
 to teach a (ew months as an experiment. The Board then 
 engaged Mr. J. H. Clark, and afterwards Mr. J. F. Hanks, the 
 latter confining his instructions to the Central High School. 
 The former taught, for a period of nearly two years, with 
 very excellent success. In 1852 Mr. Bingham was re-em- 
 plo) ed, and he gave instruction continuously until the sum- 
 mer term of 1858. On account of financial depression in 
 business, the Board of Education felt obliged to curtail 
 school expenses, and from motives of economy, the services 
 of special teachers of music and drawing were discontinued. 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 103 
 
 They say, in their report to the Council for that year, " The 
 importance of both these branches of education has been 
 fully recognized in other cities, and the Board of Education 
 of this city look forward to the time, as not far distant, when 
 efficient instruction in both these subjects maybe resumed in 
 our schools." 
 
 DRAWING. 
 
 Drawing was introduced into the schools as a regular ex- 
 ercise in 1849. The Board of School Managers for that year 
 say, after speaking of Penmanship, " Drawing, too, has been 
 taught — in the higher schools by a professed teacher of this 
 useful and beautiful art, Miss Crosby — in the primary schools 
 by their respective teachers. Numerous specimens of linear 
 and a few of perspective drawing, most of them deemed very 
 promising, were exhibited at the examinations." Miss Cros- 
 by's services were discontinued after a few months, for it 
 was the expectation of the Board that the regular teachers 
 in charge of the schools would themselves be able to 
 keep up the classes in drawing, unaided. They did make 
 a heroic attempt to meet this expectation. They employed 
 teachers and took private lessons — first of Mr. Shattuck, 
 author of an excellent work on Drawing, then of Professor 
 J. Brainerd, of Cleveland. Professor Brainerd had so much 
 sympathy for the the teachers in their new labors that he 
 followed them into their schools and assisted them m teach- 
 ing. He kept up visiting the schools and giving instruc- 
 tions in drawing for several months without promise of 
 compensation or expectation of receiving any. A quotation 
 from the School Report for 1857 will perhaps suffice for 
 history of the year previous to its publication. 
 
 " Professor Brainerd, actuated more by his love for the 
 beautiful and useful art of Drawing, and by a desire to 
 
10-i EAKLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 encourage its proper cultivation, than by the trifling compen- 
 sation he has received, has afforded considerable instruction 
 in the schools. His course is to familiarize youth with the 
 principles of drawing, both plain and perspective, so that they 
 may sketch natural objects with freedom and accuracy, rather 
 than to make them mere copyists of the drawings of other 
 people, which last, although the most that is generally 
 attempted in schools, is not drawing, in any true and liberal 
 sense. Not that the exercise of copying from books is with- 
 out its uses, particularly to primary scholars, with whom the 
 principles of the art would be too abstruse for comprehension, 
 but that in the higher departments, certainly, a much more 
 radical training should be had. Prof B., at the request of the 
 Board, has embodied his Course of Drawing Lessons in a 
 plain and cheap publication, an improved edition of which is 
 being printed — the first having been taken up by schools in 
 this vicinity." 
 
 But now, since Drawing had been so generally introduced 
 into all the departments, the Board of Managers made a more 
 permanent arrangement for its continuance. They engaged 
 the services of Professor Brainerd and put this branch of in- 
 struction under his management. He entered upon his work 
 with a great deal of zeal, and a new interest in drawing was 
 manifested throughout all the schools of the city. Prof B. 
 was in the employ of the Board for a period of seven or more 
 . years continuously. The general proficiency made by the 
 schools was very satisfactory considering the small amount of 
 time devoted to it — one hour a week in the upper grades, 
 half the amount in the lower — and there were individual 
 instances of attainments in every school that were marked — 
 here and there a genius was developed. Hundreds will 
 remember " Hinman " of the Central Hig^h School for his 
 
CLEVELAND I'UBLIC SCHOOLS. 105 
 
 Special gifts in sketching. Rockwell School had a " Nast," 
 whose pictures made everybody laugh, and so on. The many 
 may become elegant penmen, leaving, for all practical pur- 
 poses, no more to be desired ; the few, by culture and train- 
 ing, develop high gifts in the art of Drawing, while the many 
 remain on the lower plane, appreciative, perhaps, but without 
 a " cunning hand " to execute. At least, this seemed to be 
 so from our few years of experience. 
 
 TEACHERS AND SALARIES. 
 
 The first teacher employed in the public schools of the city 
 was R. L. Gazlay. His first quarter or term of service ended 
 September 20, 1836, for which he was paid ^131.12. His 
 second term ended December 28, but the records do not show 
 what sum he received. March 29, 1837, he again presented 
 his bill, and it was $185.77. About the same time Mr. Luther 
 Hunt presented a claim of $58, for teaching — probably as 
 an assistant. Both bills were ordered paid, but we hear 
 nothing more of these men. They were not re-employed, 
 probably, as their names do not again appear on the list of 
 teachers. 
 
 What teachers continued the schools up to the end of the 
 summer term no records show, but at the beginning of the 
 fall term of 1837, the teachers were W. M. Phillips, C. W. 
 Fuilerton, H. C. Skinner, Malinda Slate, Marietta Pelton and 
 Eliza Johnson. 
 
 Eight teachers were engaged at the beginning of the win- 
 ter term, January i, 1838. Their names were as follows: 
 
 C. M. FULLERTON, ELIZA JOHNSON, 
 
 J. W. GRAY, MARIETTA PELTON. 
 
 N. C. SKINNER, MALINDA SLATE, 
 
 JULIA BUTLER, ELIZABETH ARMSTRONG. 
 
106 EARLY HISTOllY OF THE 
 
 Other teachers occupied positions in the schools in suc- 
 ceeding months up to December, 1840, some temporarily — 
 perhaps as substitutes — others permanently. Their names 
 appear on the pay-roll, and are as follows : 
 
 N. A. GRAY, MARIA STANLEY, 
 
 B. B. MERRILL, MARIA C. BLACKMER, 
 
 SIMEON COLLINS, LOUISA KINGSBURY, 
 
 F. J. BLAIR, CAROLINE BELDEN, 
 
 L. S. ELY, ABBY FITCH, 
 
 J. READ, SARAH M. THAYER, 
 
 MARIA SHELDEN, L. E. SOUTHWORTH, 
 
 SOPHIA CONVERSE, MRS. J. G. WHITNEY, 
 
 MARIA UNDERHILL, MARY A. WHEELER. 
 LOUISA SNOW, 
 
 From the organization of the schools the salaries of 
 teachers continued uniformly the same for a period of about 
 ten years — male teachers $10.00 per week, female teachers 
 ;^5.oo; forty-four weeks to the year, five and a half days to 
 the week, and each day exactly six hours long in all the 
 grades. All losses of time, from whatever cause, were 
 deducted from payments. 
 
 Teachers throughout the city were expected to keep their 
 own rooms in order — to sweep and dust them, and to make 
 their fires in the winter season. Most teachers managed the 
 sweeping without hiring it done, the scholars volunteering to 
 do it, and serving by turns. The rooms were heated by stoves, 
 and, with the exception of a single building, wood was used 
 for fuel until 1854. The fires in most cases were lighted by 
 boys who received from the teachers, or from contributions 
 of the scholars, a given sum per week — usually not more 
 than two or three shillings for each room in a building. For 
 the first ten years of the existence of the Central High 
 School, the boys and girls did all the sweeping and dusting; 
 and in addition to sweeping the boys voluntarily made the 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCPIOOLS. 107 
 
 fires in winter; and they did this work, too, gratuitously. 
 The first Principal of the school recollects that he often made 
 the fires himself, although not without sharp protest from the 
 boys. 
 
 Of the personal history of the teachers already mentioned 
 nothing scarcely is known ; and of those who immediately 
 followed these pioneer laborers, very little is remembered. 
 Indeed, " What workmen wrought," is usually a matter of 
 little inquiry — scarcely thought of in contemplating any 
 proud achievement of human labor. But here it seems fitting 
 that at least a few of the names of such as are not wholly 
 forgotten should be engraved on some of the stones which 
 they helped to hew — which they helped to lay. In pursu- 
 ance of this idea, two or three pages will be devoted to 
 
 BRIEF MENTION OF SOME OF THE EARLY TEACHERS. 
 
 Benjamin B. Merrill. Mr. Merrill, the first Principal 
 of Prospect Street School, was from the State of Maine. He 
 received his appointment in 1839. He resigned on account of 
 ill-health, and went to New York City, where he engaged in 
 mercantile business. He still continues in business and is 
 located at 1268 Broadway. 
 
 F. J. Blair. Mr. Blair taught the old Bethel School in 
 1840. He is now a successful crockery merchant in Mil- 
 waukee. 
 
 George W. Yates. Mr. Yates was appointed to the 
 principalship of the Third Ward School in 1839 — afterwards 
 called the West St. Clair Street School. He resigned to 
 open a private academy for boys at or near Bennington, Ver- 
 mont, which he made a success. 
 
 N. A. Gray. Mr. Gray was the first principal of Rock- 
 well Street School. Subsequently he taught a number of 
 
108 KAKLY HISTOKY OF THE 
 
 j^ears in Zanesville, Ohio. Retuniin<:T to Cleveland, he 
 assisted his brother, J. \V. Gray, on the Plain Dealer. At the 
 present time he holds a clerkship in the Post Office Depart- 
 ment at Washington. 
 
 T. S. White. Mr. White was the successor of Mr. 
 Yates. He resigned to pursue theological studies, preparatory 
 to entering the ministry. Health failing him after preaching 
 for several years, he was obliged to quit the pulpit and pursue 
 some other calling. He engaged in banking in Fremont, 
 Ohio, Vv'here he is still in business. 
 
 William G. Lawrence. . Mr. Lawrence came to Cleve- 
 land from Brooklyn, New York, in 1842, and soon after was 
 employed as a teacher in the Bethel School. He taught con- 
 tinuously for nearly seventeen years. He died in 1863. 
 
 Amos D. Lufkin.* Mr. Lufkin taught a private school 
 on the West Side for several years. He was appointed Prin- 
 cipal of Prospect Street School in 1846, but was soon after 
 transferred to Rockwell Street School, where he remained 
 two or three years. He resigned to open a private classical 
 school, which he made very popular. Mr. L. is still a citizen 
 of Cleveland. 
 
 Dr. Richard Fry. Mr. Fry was a public school teacher 
 in Cleveland for about seventeen years. He resigned in 
 1863. His present place of residence is East Rockport, a 
 few miles from the city. 
 
 Luther M. OyiATT.f Mr. Oviatt was connected with 
 the schools, as teacher and superintendent, for nearly eight- 
 een years. He resigned on being elected Librarian. Re- 
 cently, on account of impaired health, he has retired from 
 this latter post of duty. 
 
 * Graduate of Dartmouth College. t Graduate of Hudson College. 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 109 
 
 Andrew Freese. Mr. Freese taught in the Prospect 
 Street Grammar School six years, the Central High School 
 ten years, and he was General Superintendent for something 
 . over eight years. 
 
 R. F. HuMiSTON. Mr. Humiston had charge of Rock- 
 well Street School for seven years. He then accepted the 
 Principalship of a private school. Subsequently, he estab- 
 lished a school on the " Heights," known as the Cleveland 
 Institute, which he managed successfully for ten years. He 
 now resides in Minnesota. 
 
 Henry H. Childs.* Mr. Childs succeeded Mr. Lufkin 
 in Prospect Street School. He resigned at the end of two 
 years, and opened an English and Classical School on his 
 own account. He now resides in Buffalo, where he is 
 engaged in business. 
 
 Emerson E. White. Mr. White taught nearly five years, 
 first the Brownell Street Grammar School, then the Central 
 High School. He resigned in 1856, and accepted the super- 
 intendency of the Portsmouth Public Schools. In 1859 he 
 purchased the " Ohio Educational Monthly," taking the edi- 
 torship of the paper himself He edits the paper with dis- 
 tinguished ability. 
 
 William S. Palmer. f Mr. Palmer succeeded Mr. White 
 in the High School. After teaching two years, he resigned, 
 and entered the Theological Seminary at Andover, Mass. 
 Completing the course of study there, he settled in the min- 
 istry at Wells River, Vermont. He has recently accepted a 
 call to Norwich, Connecticut. 
 
 Levi RoBiNsoN.f Mr. Robinson was employed in the 
 Central High School for a single year only-7-1853-4. He 
 
 Graduate of Yale College. t Graduate of Dartmouth College. 
 
110 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Studied law and established himself as an attorney at Iowa 
 City. 
 
 John Eaton, Jr.'*' Mr. Eaton was Principal of Brown- 
 ell Street School, succeeding Mr. White. He resigned to take 
 charge of the Public Schools of Toledo, as Superintendent. 
 At the present time he is United States Commissioner of 
 Education, Washington, D. C. 
 
 Edward P. iNGERSoLL.f Mr. Ingersoll had charge of 
 Rockwell Street School two years, and subsequently, for a 
 few months, the High School. He resigned to study law. 
 On admission to practice he opened an office in Cleveland. 
 In a few years he abandoned the profession of Law for that 
 of the Ministry. At the present time he is settled over a 
 church in Brooklyn, New York. He is already eminent as a 
 preacher. 
 
 John D. Crehore.* Mr. Crehore taught Mathematics in 
 the Central High School for a year or two, but resigned 
 to accept a professorship in Washington College. St. 
 Louis. Subsequently, he returned to Cleveland and is es- 
 tablished in business as a Civil Engineer. 
 
 John C. Hale.* Mr. Hale was Principal of Brownell 
 Street School for two years. He studied law and went 
 into practice in Elyria. He stands high in his profession 
 — was a member of the late State Constitutional Conven- 
 tion. 
 
 RuFus O. Mason.* Mr. Mason resigned to study Medi- 
 cine. He is now settled in New York City, where he has an 
 extensive medical practice. 
 
 Edwin R. Perkins.* Mr. Perkins had charge of May- 
 flower Street School for several years, and he was one year 
 
 * Graduate of Dartmouth College. t Graduate of Williams College. 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. Ill 
 
 Principal of Eagle Street School. Concluding to make law, 
 not teaching, his profession, he resigned, and after the usual 
 course of reading was admitted' to practice. But on account 
 of an accident growing out of the war, he changed his plans 
 and entered into the business of Banking. For six or seven 
 years he was a member of the Board of Education, and for 
 nearly the whole term presided over the deliberations of that 
 body. He is associated in the firm of Chamberlin, Gorham 
 & Perkins. 
 
 A. G. HoPKiNSON.* Mr. Hopkinson was appointed Prin- 
 cipal of the West High School in the spring of 1852. He 
 continued to hold the position for seventeen years. For 
 about one year, and before the West Side became a part of 
 Cleveland, Mr. H. held the office of Superintendent of 
 Schools on that side of the river. 
 
 Chas. F. Button. Mr. Button was appointed to the 
 Principalship of a Grammar School on the West Side, in 
 1853. He continued to teach for ten years, when he resigned 
 to study Medicine. Br. Button is too well known in Cleve- 
 land to need further mention. 
 
 O. O. Baldwin.! Mr. Baldwin was Principal of Pearl 
 Street School (discontinued in 1869) for five years. He read 
 Law and opened a business office in Hastings, Minn. 
 
 Chas. C. Rounds. Mr. Rounds was Mr. Baldwin's suc- 
 cessor. He remained at the head of Pearl Street School for 
 five years, when, accepting the Principalship of the State 
 Normal School of Maine, he resigned. 
 
 Theodore Sterling.J Mr. Sterling was appointed Prin- 
 cipal of the Central High School on the resignation of .Mr. 
 
 ••'■Graduate of Dartmouth College. t Graduate of Oberlin College. 
 
 + Graduate of Geneva CoUecre. 
 
lia EAKl.Y IIISTOKV OF TlIK 
 
 Palmer. He kept the place for nine years, when he accepted 
 a professorship in Kenycn College. 
 
 Sidney A. Norton. * Mr. Norton succeeded Mr. Cre- 
 hore in the Central High School. He taught Natural 
 Science — chiefly Chemistry and Physics — and remained in 
 the school for about nine years. He resigned to take a posi- 
 tion in a private seminary in Cincinnati. He is the author of 
 a text-book on Natural Philosophy, and at the present time 
 he holds the Professorship of Chemistry in the Ohio Agri- 
 cultural College. 
 
 Catherine Jennings. Miss Jennings was the first per- 
 manent assistant teacher in the Central High School. She 
 was educated at Oberlin, taking the full course in the gentle- 
 men's department. As a teacher, she had extraordinary 
 abilities. She married, and crossed the ocean with her hus- 
 band, to do missionary labor on the southern coast of the 
 Black Sea. 
 
 Martha M. Barnett, the successor of Miss Jennings, 
 was educated at Brockport Female Seminary, New York. 
 She possessed a brilliant mind and was a lady of much refine- 
 ment. Her conversational gifts were remarkable, and she is 
 especially remembered by her former pupils for her " Wed- 
 nesday Afternoon Conversations" — chiefly, perhaps, upon 
 literary topics. She died in 1853. 
 
 Abbie H. Johnson, of Bradford, MassachusettSj was ap- 
 pointed to the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of 
 Miss Barnett. She was recommended by " Father Green- 
 leaf," as being an excellent teacher, and she proved herself to 
 be such. Remaining two years, she returned to take charge 
 ot Bradford Female Seminary, as Principal. 
 
 * Graduate of Union College. 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 113 
 
 Agnes Cargill, of Bangor, Maine, was the next lady 
 assistant in the High School. She remained but one year. 
 
 Celia Wakefield was the' successor of Miss Cargill — 
 a graduate of Kimball Union Academy, and a very superior 
 scholar. For exact teaching, and thoroughness in class- 
 work, she had not been equalled. Being offered a better sal- 
 ary, she returned to New England ; soon after, married and 
 moved to California. 
 
 Kate Gillett, of Thelford, Vermont — a graduate of 
 Thelford Academy — followed Miss Wakefield. She was an 
 accomplished teacher, and enjoyed, very largely, the con- 
 fidence of those most interested in the school. She was dis- 
 tinguished for her great power of control, and the quiet ease 
 with which she was able to lead to right conduct. She taught 
 seven years, returned to Vermont in 1862, and in the same 
 year was married. 
 
 Laura M. Ayer. Miss Ayer was educated at Mt. Hol- 
 yoke Female Seminary, and received her appointment to 
 the West High School, as assistant teacher, in 1856. She 
 was a teacher of rare excellence, had fine culture, and was a 
 lady of singular generosity, nobleness and refinement. Died 
 at Haverhill, New Hampshire, her birthplace and home, 
 August, i860. 
 
114 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 SCHOOL BOARDS. 
 
 At the organization of the schools, and for many years 
 after, the Board appointed to manage and control the schools 
 was designated the Board of School Managers, taking this 
 title from the original city charter. 
 
 The names of those who composed the several Boards, 
 and the years in which they served, are given below : 
 
 1836. 
 John W. Willey, Anson Hayden and Daniel Worley. 
 
 1837. 
 
 Samuel Cowles, Samuel Williamson and Philip Battel!. 
 
 1838. 
 Henry li. Dodge, Henry Sexton and Silas Belden. 
 
 1839. 
 
 Levi Tucker, Henry Sexton and Silas Belden. 
 
 1840. 
 Levi Tucker, Silas Belden, Samuel H. Mather and Robert Gather. 
 
 184I. 
 
 Chas. Bradburn, Geo. Willey, Chas. Stetson and Madison Kelley. 
 
 1842. 
 Chas. Bradburn, Geo. Willey, Chas. Stetson and Madison Kelley. 
 
 1843. 
 Chas. Bradburn, Madison Kelley, Robert Bailey and H. S. Noble. 
 
 1844. 
 Chas. Bradburn, Truman P. Handy, Thos. Richmond and J. B. Finney. 
 
 1845. 
 Chas. Bradburn, Geo. Willey, R. T. Lyon and Madison Kelley. 
 
 1846. 
 Chas. Bradburn, T, P. Handy, Samuel Starkweather and William Day. 
 
 1847. 
 
 Chas. Bradburn, J^s. D. Cleveland, T. P. Handy and George Willey. 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 115 
 
 1848, 
 
 Geo. Willey, Jas. D. Cleveland, Samuel Williamson, John ]]arr and 
 
 William Smyth. 
 
 1849. 
 
 Geo. Willey, Jas. D. Cleveland, Samuel Williamson and Robert Bailey. 
 
 1850. 
 
 Geo. Willey, Jas. D. Cleveland, T. P. Handy, Robert Bailey and John 
 
 C. Vaughan. 
 
 185I. 
 
 Geo. Willey, Jas. D. Cleveland, T. P. Handy, John B. Waring and 
 
 James Fitch. 
 
 1852. 
 
 Geo. Willey, Chas. Bradburn, William D. Beattie, T. P. Handy and 
 James Fitch. 
 
 1853- 
 Geo. Willey, Chas. Bradburn, T. P. Handy, W. D. Beattie and James 
 
 Fitch. 
 
 1854. 
 
 Geo. Willey, T. P. Handy, S. H. Mather, W. D. Beattie, B. Steadman, 
 
 Jas. A, Briggs, I. L. Hewett, R. B. Dennis, Horace Benton, B. Sheldon and 
 
 A. P. Turner. 
 
 1855. 
 
 Geo. Willey, S. H. Mather, T. P. Handy, W. D Beattie, L. C. Inger- 
 soll, J. Gardner, B. Steadman, Horace Benton, J. A. Briggs, R. B. Dennis, 
 
 B. Sheldon. 
 
 1856. 
 
 Chas. Bradburn, Geo. Willey, R. B. Dennis, Horace Benton and S H. 
 Mather. 
 
 1857- 
 Chas. Bradburn, Geo. Willey, Horace Benton, S. H. Mather and R. B. 
 Dennis. 
 
 1858. 
 Chas. Bradburn, Geo. Willey, Chas. W. Palmer, T, S. Paddock and R. 
 B. Dennis. 
 
 1859.* 
 
 Chas. Bradburn, Allyne Maynard, Chas. S. Reese, William H. Stanley, 
 Nathan P. Payne, W. P. Fogg, Lester Hayes, J. A. Thome, F. B. Pratt, 
 Daniel P. Rhodes and Geo. R. Vaughan. 
 
 Elected by the people. 
 
116 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 i860. 
 
 James A.Thome, J. E. Ingersoll, Chas. E. Reese, N. P. Pa)ne, E. S. 
 Flint, A. G. Smith, C. Erench, P. E. Russell, A. C. Messenger and Ansel 
 Roberts. 
 
 1861. 
 
 Harvey Rice, Thomas Jones, Jr., E. P. Ingersoll, J. A. Thome, A. C. 
 
 Messenger, Ansel Roberts, C. Weber, John Sargent, Willard, John 
 
 Hartnell, Chas. E. Reese. 
 
 1862. 
 
 Harvey Rice, Thomas Jones, Jr., Henry F. Clark, Pierre A, Collier, H. 
 1). Spellman, John Friend, W. W. Andrews, W. W. dishing, John H. Sar- 
 gent, Jos. A. Redington, John Hartnell. 
 
 1863. 
 Allyne Maynard, Lucius M. Pitkin, P. A, Collier, H. B. Spellman, John 
 Friend, Geo. A. Kolbe, W. W. Andrews, William Dugan, John H. Sar- 
 gent, L. D. Hudson, John Hartnell. 
 
 1864. 
 L. M. Pitkin, Allyne Maynard, Geo. A. Kolbe, Wm. Dugan, J. H. 
 Sargent, H. H. Price, L. F. Mellen, Melchior Neff, S. H. Sheldon, D. P. 
 Eells. 
 
 1865. 
 Lucius M. Pitkin, Daniel P. Eells, William H. Price, Lucius F. Mellen, 
 Melchior Neff, Geo. A. Kolbe, William Dugan, Lorenzo D. Hudson, Seth 
 H. Sheldon, Geo. L Hartnell. 
 
 1866. 
 
 Lucius M. Pitkin, Daniel P. Eells, William H. Price, Jesse P. Bishop, 
 Joseph Bell, Geo. A. Kolbe, James R. Worswick, William Dugan, L D. 
 Hudson, Seth M. Sheldon, Geo. L. Hartnell. 
 
CLEVELAJS'D PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 11? 
 
 LIBRARIES. 
 
 Nearly all the senior schools of the city were furnished 
 with small libraries at quite an early day. They were pro- 
 cured as pianos and cabinet organs are at the present time, 
 through the private enterprise of teachers and pupils. The 
 first collection of books was made by the Prospect Street 
 Grammar School in 1844. Subsequent additions were made 
 to the collection till it amounted to five or six hundred vol- 
 umes. A few years later, Rockwell Street School commenced 
 collecting a library ; other schools followed soon after. 
 
 The present Public School Library had its origin in an 
 enactment of the State Legislature passed March 14, 1853. 
 Under its provisions an annual fund was established to be 
 appropriated to the use of school libraries and apparatus 
 throughout the State. The portion falling to Cleveland pre- 
 vious to the suspension of the act in 1856, was in each 
 year as follows : 
 
 For 1854 $ 766 59 
 
 For 1S55 1191 41 
 
 For 1856 1322 00 
 
 Total for three years $3280 00 
 
 Of this amount there was expended for Maps, Charts, 
 Globes, etc., for the Primary Schools, and for books of refer- 
 ence for Grammar and High Schools, ^791.00. For philo- 
 sophical and chemical apparatus, ^1297.00. The balance, 
 ;^i 192.00, was expended in the purchase of books, which 
 formed the nucleus of the library now grown to so respecta- 
 ble a size. 
 
 As the suspended State library act was not again restored, 
 and there being no fund applicable to the purchase of addi- 
 tional books and the maintenance of the library, the Cleve- 
 
118 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 land Board of Education, in March, 1867, procured an 
 enactment from the Legislature authorizing the levy of a 
 municipal tax for this purpose. It was made wide enough in 
 its provisions to embrace all cities having a population of 
 20,000 and upwards. 
 
 The annual receipts since the establishment of this fund 
 have been as follows : 
 
 1868 $2803 70 
 
 1869 3399 06 
 
 1870 3545 89 
 
 187 1 3626 24 
 
 1S72 6706 56 
 
 1873 6035 37 
 
 1874 6861 80 
 
 1875 7121 36 
 
 The number of books originally purchased in 1856 was 
 about 2000. This number was increased somewhat in suc- 
 ceeding years, by individual donations, so that in 1862 there 
 were, as reported by the Librarian, after deducting losses, 
 2138 volumes. The first accessions to the library under the 
 law increased it, in 1868-9, ^o 5500 volumes. The number 
 of books in the library August 30, 1872, as reported by the 
 Librarian, was 13,165 volumes; August 30, 1873, 16,435 vol- 
 umes ; August 30, 1874, 20,000 volumes. 
 
 CIRCULATION. 
 
 Average daily issue of Books in 1870 220 
 
 1871 250 
 
 " " " " 1872 300 
 
 1873 456 
 
 " " " " 1S74 587 
 
 The number of different individuals who drew books from 
 the library for the year ending August, 1873, was 13,095. 
 For the year ending August, 1874, it was 15,785. 
 
CLEVELAISTD PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 119 
 
 The Librarian says in his report for 1870, that the circu- 
 lation of fiction and juvenile works was, respectively, 53 and 
 17 per cent, of all the books drawn. Four years later, he 
 remarks that the two classes of books, fiction and juvenile 
 literature, amounted to 57 per cent, of the whole number 01 
 Dooks issued for the year. 
 
 LOSSES. 
 
 The total losses of books from February, 1869, to August, 
 1872, was 390, about 2 per cent, of the number of books in 
 the library, or an annual loss of seven books to every thous- 
 and. " Experience of past years has shown," the Librarian 
 remarks, " that about half, or even more, of the books miss- 
 ing at any date, are eventually returned to the library." 
 
 Until 1867 the library occupied a room in the Central 
 High School building. It was then transferred to rooms in 
 the third story of Northrup & Harrington's block. No. 236 
 Superior street. Subsequently, in 1874, it was removed to 
 the Clark building, 212 Superior street, and lastly, in 1875, to 
 its present place in the City Hall. 
 
130 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 CHANGES IN SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL-TEACHING. 
 
 Schools and their methods are varied, hke many other 
 things, to conform to popular notions, or to what is, for the 
 time, the prevailing style. There was a time when Parley's 
 Histories were a " new discovery " in adaptation, and every 
 child capable of reading was set to learning the history of 
 the United States. The style of imparting oral instruction 
 to children was in imitation of " Peter Parley." Then there 
 was a period of mental arithmetic — great attention was given 
 to the study. The book of books was declared to be Col- 
 burn's First Lessons, and his method was universally adopted 
 as the true method. There was, too, a black-board era, when 
 black-board exercises were made a great feature in every 
 school, and the eye was constantly addressed. 
 
 Of the Cleveland Schools, it may be said that the Peter 
 Parley period reached from their organization to about the 
 year 1846. Mental Arithmetic held its way for twenty years, 
 reaching its culmination in the years just preceding i860. 
 Black-boards, wide and long, for the simultaneous exercises 
 of whole classes, began to be used in 1845. They were used 
 with great enthusiasm in 1850, and reached their highest 
 appreciation and widest use a few years later. 
 
 In each of these periods, teachers fancied they had hit 
 upon a very excellent thing, and that it would, without doubt, 
 be an abiding good. In the succession of changes it was 
 lost, or went out of fashion — none could say when, or how, 
 or for what reason. 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. . 121 
 
 THE OLD SCHOOL DAYS. 
 
 A FEW MORE REMINISCENCES OF OLD SCHOOL BOiTS AND 
 TEACHERS. 
 
 One of the old citizens is Captain Lewis Dibble, and he 
 favored us with a few notes, on a recent interview, as follows : 
 "I studied under three teachers in the Academy — Harvey 
 Rice, Rev. Mr. Freeman and Dewy B. Cook. It was fifty 
 years ago — yes, more than that, when I went to Mr. Rice. 
 These teachers succeeded each other in the order I have 
 named them. George Brewster taught two or three years, 
 but I had done going to school, and so did not feel much 
 interest in what was going on there. It may be that a teacher 
 or two came in between Mr. Cook and Mr. Brewster. I 
 think there was a teacher by the name of Dorman — John 
 P. Dorman — and another by the name of Mills, brother of 
 Dr. Mills. They could not have taught long, and possibly 
 they preceded Brewster. I studied two winters under Mr. 
 Rice, pursuing mathematical studies chiefly, of which I was 
 very fond. I was expecting to sail on the lakes, and so I 
 spent considerable time upon trigonometry and navigation. 
 
 "Mr. Freeman did not teach long — two or three quar- 
 ters, perhaps. He was an Episcopal clergyman, and a very 
 nice sort of man ; I suppose very well educated, but he felt 
 a little afraid of my diagrams, and finally told me that he 
 should not be able to assist me much. The last of my 
 instruction was under Mr. Cook. He was an energetic, go- 
 ahead man, and a competent teacher. A good many did not 
 like him; he suited me well enough. I paid three dollars 
 per quarter ; that was what I paid Mr. Rice. These teachers 
 I have mentioned taught in the upper room of the Academy- 
 There were schools of a lower grrade tauafht on the g-round 
 
122 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 floor, but I do not happen to know much about them. The 
 schools were not free as they are now, they were all private 
 schools. 
 
 " I hardly recollect now who attended school when I did ; 
 they are mostly dead. Of the few who are living, I can per- 
 haps name half a dozen. Sam Colahan is one ; Dr. Branch's 
 wife is another — she was a Miss Burgess — James Kings- 
 bury, son of the old Judge ; Mrs. Lemon, sister of Miller 
 Spangler ; Mrs. Sarah Fitch, and her brother, the clergyman ; 
 Miss Charlotte Johnson and her sister Louise, now Mrs. Wol- 
 verton. I might think of one or two more, but these are 
 about all. 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 123 
 
 OUR HISTORIAN 
 
 BY MRS. W. A. INGHAM. 
 
 Charles Bradburn, Esq., whose name is held in highest 
 veneration by the citizens of Cleveland — a leader in the 
 organization and development of our City Schools — writes 
 with enthusiasm of a young man from Maine, who in 1840 
 offered his services to the Board of Managers, here, as 
 teacher. His rare ability was appreciated; he was engaged, 
 and at once recognized as the head of the schools. 
 
 "This young man," says Mr. B., "was destined by his 
 father to be a printer ; he begged the privilege of entering 
 college, but the parents were too poor to provide the neces- 
 sary funds. The boy's heart was set upon it, and he thought 
 that, by teaching school for a time, he could obtain money 
 enough to complete his own education. This idea he carried 
 out, and continued to teach and study until his collegiate 
 course was finished ; he secured a knowledge of the best 
 systems of education, as laid down in approved books and 
 practiced in successful schools ; he examined the best build- 
 ings, and brought away plans of construction and models of 
 their furniture. The most thorough instructors were con- 
 sulted as to the results of their experience, and when he had 
 acquired a mastery of the science of teaching, he resolved to 
 
124 EAKl.Y HISTORY OF THE 
 
 seek the West as a better field for turning his knowledge to 
 account." 
 
 This young man was Andrew Freese, our historian, who 
 has so faithfully and graphically set before us the rise and 
 progress of our schools, and to him belongs the honor of 
 establishing the first free High School in Ohio. 
 
 He went into this project with all the ardent enthusiasm 
 of his nature, sure of ultimate success, and through arduous 
 pains-taking wrought unceasingly for the public good. 
 
 The first year he was offered large pecuniary induce- 
 ments to open a school for a few wealthy families, but he 
 steadily resisted, preferring to teach the children of the 
 people. 
 
 He not only took care of his own school, but worked 
 incessantly out of it. Frail physically, it is to all his friends 
 a marvel that he endured the toil of those early days. 
 
 For some years the city paid him ^500 per annum, nearly 
 all of which was required to pay for board and clothing. 
 The pittance remaining, Mr. Freese spent in making pilgrim- 
 ages through the " East," to visit "wise men " and see their 
 schools. 
 
 During the ten years that Andrew Freese was Principal 
 of the High School, he proved distinctly that nearly all boys 
 and girls can acquire a taste for reading good books, tie 
 attended as closely to their reading as he did to their mathe- 
 matics ; he could hold them there, and he did. 
 
 Then he proved, by long practice, that they can learn to 
 express their thoughts readily and correctly in speaking and 
 wdting; he obliged his pupils to think systematically and 
 closely. Composition writing upon varied subjects was a 
 favorite exercise, and in it many of the scholars became 
 expert. 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 125 
 
 Three years after the estabh'shment of the High School, 
 its members published a paper called " The School-Boy," the 
 columns of which presented matter worthy of the pupils 
 and highly honorable to their instructor. 
 
 Mr. Freese made extemporaneous speaking a specialty. 
 The scholars recited nearly all their lessons by rising and 
 speaking from three to ten minutes upon an assigned topic. 
 
 As often as once a week hey gave more extended 
 remarks ; the boys and the Principal called the latter " lec- 
 tures." 
 
 These pupils became so proficient that they could talk 
 upon scientific subjects like Professors. Indeed, some 
 classes went out into the neighboring villages and gave lec- 
 tures, mostly on Chemistry and Zoology. 
 
 In this way, and by a little solicitation among their 
 friends, they accumulated quite a sum of money, with which 
 they purchased apparatus. 
 
 They debated. He made of the boys such sturdy, self- 
 reliant men that they entered into the hottest kind of discus- 
 sions upon mighty questions in national affairs, with great 
 books before them for reference ! 
 
 Among these heroes of the basement High School on 
 Prospect street, who debated and lectured, were John P. 
 Jones, now Senator from Nevada; Col. J. P. Jackson, of San 
 Francisco, a railroad magnate of the Pacific coast ; Gov. 
 Lucius Fairchild, Timothy Rearden and William Andrews, 
 lawyers of note. 
 
 This leads me to speak of the kindness of Andrew Freese 
 to the poor boys and girls of our city ; he could very easily 
 put himself in their place, for he had been tljere, and in his 
 own boyhood experienced all the disadvantages under which 
 they labored ; he had felt what they felt. He imagines that 
 
126 EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 he was not a favorite with scholars w^ho had all they wanted 
 at home. He went often to the homes of the poor, sat down 
 and talked with them there. One out of many instances I 
 must mention — "Johnny" — who lived down by the canal, and 
 who came to the school with wooden shoes on his feet, but 
 with a head well furnished as to brains. 
 
 Said Mr. Freese to me once: "My hope and zeal were, 
 perhaps, not equal to Paul's, but just a little like his. I had 
 visions — visions of a beautiful manhood and a beautiful 
 womanhood. I really thought every little rag-a-muffin, by 
 school manifestation, could be lifted to heaven. And why 
 not? I think I believe it yet. This human growth is a 
 marvel. It is grand!" 
 
 Well, this Johnny of the wooden shoes was a mine of 
 richness to the Principal, who paid for the lad's books. He 
 imparted to him of his own marvelous powers. He often 
 went to Johnny's, down by the canal, and once he spent a 
 whole night within the ricketty old house — his pupil's home. 
 There were holes in the wall by his bed, through which he 
 could have pushed his fingers ; so Johnny's mother pinned 
 up a shawl to keep out the wind. Then she " tucked him 
 up," and the mother and son thought surely that the High 
 School teacher was their friend — and he was. How he 
 helped that boy! Who is he now? John P. Jackson, of 
 San Francisco, referred to on the previous page, an eminent 
 lawyer, a railroad president, and in all ways a splendid man. 
 
 In every ward of our city Mr. Freese was written as "one 
 who loves his fellow-men !" and the names of those whom 
 he helped and who love him are legion. One of the editors 
 of the Cleveland //if?rt/<^ says : "His scholars may now be 
 found in almost every State in the Union, eminent in all 
 departments. They are met with as governors, jurists. 
 
CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 127 
 
 mechanicians and artists." Indeed, I have heard it remarked 
 that, were Andrew Freese to start for a tour of the globe, he 
 could be handed round the world by his old pupils, scattered 
 everywhere, from Cleveland to Hong-Kong. 
 
 In 1854, the office of Superintendent of Instruction was 
 created, and to it Mr. Freese was at once elected. He 
 brought to this position all the wealth of observation and 
 experience garnered thus far in his laborious life, and he 
 evolved beauty out of chaos. Entire unselfishness was the 
 ground-work of his successful career as manager of the 
 Public Schools, As he was strong in developing the intel- 
 lectual resources of his pupils, so he seemed rapidly to edu- 
 cate teachers in their profession. 
 
 In manner he was gentle, and sympathetic toward any 
 who strove to excel ; at the same time keen-eyed and critical. 
 His ideals were lofty ; he insisted upon assimilation. He 
 brought out the best in every teacher, or, as the French put 
 it, he brought us up to our possibilities. He remedied 
 defects, originated plans, promoted good order and neatness. 
 Flowers bloomed in school-room windows, the sound of 
 musical instruments was heard throughout our buildings, 
 and quaint pictures were unfolded on the black-boards, for 
 under his regime Silas Bingham and Jehu Brainerd began 
 their labors among the boys and girls of the Public Schools. 
 One thing he would have at all hazards— and that was 
 good reading everywhere. Our scholars did read beautifully, 
 for Mr. Freese went through ten cities to see which excelled 
 us, and came home satisfied with our combined efforts. 
 
 He was the introducer of the word-method and spelling 
 by sound. 
 
 When he found ladies skillful in primary instruction, he 
 induced them to make that department a specialty and per- 
 
1-2S; ?:arly histohy of the schools. 
 
 manency, by issuing graded certificates, so that our salaries 
 were rated according to scholarship and adaptability, and not 
 according to the rank of the schools. 
 
 Mr. Freese was the originator of outline maps. Long 
 before Mitchell's series was published, he chalked them on 
 the walls and floors of our school-houses, and' was accus- 
 tomed to have the pupils tell how to reach distant ports. 
 Map-drawing he made a specialty. 
 
 As philologist and grammarian he had few equals. 
 
 Withal, he was a fine disciplinarian ; produced quiet 
 school-rooms with the tick of a clock as moderator; secured 
 almost military drill among troops of children as they passed 
 out of the rooms ; enforced refinement and gentleness on the 
 playTground. 
 
 Cleveland certainly owes much to the subject of this 
 sketch, and does not hesitate to do honor to the man whose 
 rare modesty always forbade his claim to the meed of praise 
 justly due him as the founder of our present school system — 
 a "glorious crown" upon the brow of our beautiful city. 
 
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