Washington County, Ohio - Chapter 7: Education, 1902 (part 2 of 2)

Commonwe.Vlth

By ni\ letraiiiMiLT from all hot and animal food; and from nrlk. biitte'-. cheese, eggs, inebriating beverages, foreign tea. Cinfee, and all tobacco, I .prove, that this diet is best for tht -tii'''ui- I'f ilirir wheat bread, like mine, be coarse or bi ,1 ,111 the revival of

As introductory to the establishment of Halls of Science thiroughout Ohio, similar to Miss Frances Wright's at New York. I shall deliver her Oration, adapted to all such occasions, at the Court House (if those in charge of the same permit), on Monday next, at sun down.

E, P. Page to the Public - Greeting. - With the will of God (who=e Church our priests and priestesses of Theism are about to establish) - on each future Sunday, during the hours of the divine serxice, I shall appear at the School-hiHise nearest our Tow'u Point : then and there to offi-iate as high priest of the Theists. - The Bible will be read in due order, a Latin verse first, and then its English verse. (The great John Locke said, that a m.ather might teach herself and children Latin by such a method.) The prayers, psalms, and hymns, and sermons will be cautiously selected from other Churches, that 11.. trumpery trasJi may be imposed upon the au'lieiice. Music when practicable. Astrology and >Fagis a:e purely the science of analogy, applied to the Emlih'iii-. iir iDctiire language of nature. But the trenien.k.i'- .leptli -.f thi- -.-cnce f.-.rb,ds tliat the vulgar sh..uki be taugln u mif! tli-v ean un.lersiand it. On Miese ..ccasi.-v I -hall exclude these twin si-ters. They appertain to our initiated niemljcrs.

JusiHk 1,1 S "eiice - iusiice to the public, to vour scholars, and t.. iiie, demands that ere I leave Marietta to impart my system. I obtain of you some credential as a testimonial that my science of sciences is genuine, and is a part of the ancient oracles, that was lost and is found.

In the name of Truth, I exhort you to investigate my Oracle of the Millenium, now in the Press: and if by remissness and a cold indifference, you indirectly nniit to perform that sacred duty to your God. your .uiitry. pud to mc. - Then I pled.ge myself to declare war ,,gaiii-t your college, as unworthy the station it

-As mdniduals I esteem y..n: - but as a collective bodv. 1 only respect yni when cnscrvators of science. I have been patient 1 mg en..iigb. Is my astronomical discoveries true . r false? .Answer that.

Our genial and public spirited friends, Dr. H. B. Shipmap, who has recently been called away from us, has left the following sketch of Mr. Page:

"There died in ^Marietta May 17, 1857, a man of fine presence, robust, sturdy and purely English in physique, of high culture and fitted by education to adorn any society, but hopelessly insane on figures.

"Edward Postlethwayt Page, High Priesi of Nature and Emperor of the Sun and Moon, was a remarkable man. A gentleman in every respect, afifable, courteous, exceedingly kind and polite, an intelligent talker on almost all suljjects, until suddenly he would strike off upon his one absorbing topic, squaring the circle and its accompanying vagaries.

"In early life he had gone to Calcutta in the employ of the East India Company and there, of full habits, he was stricken down with sunstroke. He had a purely mathematical mind and was much given to the study of Brahmanic and occult science. As the result of this sunstroke, Mr. Page became what we knew him here for many years, a wreck of a bright intelligent man.

"His home was on the corner of Sixth and Warren streets, under the shadow of that magnificent elm tree still standing. He called it 'Emblem Place.'

"His wife, too, was insane, and for years he kept her confined in a small brick house standing back of the dwelling. The writer of this article well remembers her rushing into the College Chapel with disheveled hair and the clanking of chains (for she had an iron clasp about her ankle and a chain attached), poorly dressed and beseeching us to protect and hide her. She was followed by her husband, who ahnost rudely took her away, scolding and upbraiding her.

the infirmities of age and wishing to continue the authority and title he claimed for himself he called together a few of his best friends ahong the young men, and in the bookstore of \\'. H. Gurley formally abdicated his great oflice of High Priest of Nature and conferred the title upon the blushing writer of this article. It was done with gowns, caps and cowles and in a dark room, the door guarded by one of the number with a musket.

"]\Ir. Page was a man of more than ordinary poetic talent and of fine imagination. This was. evident in all his conversation, however erratic, and if once he saw your appreciation and pleasure, he became doubly interesting from this sense of your recognition. He was uncommonly genial and pleasant, especially when, as he thought, he had discovered some new idea in his mystic lore. Then all of his nature flamed out and his conversation was rapid and excited, often running into poetic and fanciful co'uplets.

"At a time in his early life in Marietta (I cannot get the exact date of it) he wrote an amator)- poem, 'The Love of Nature," quite a long one in six cantos and in which are some really fine things, though occasionally dropping into his eccentric language and figures.. It was impossible for him to continue a sustained, sensible thought.

The citizens of Washington County have for many years taken a just pride in the laeautiful Children's Home on tlie Muskingum, a mile above the city. But not all of them are aware that as a county home, it is the pioneer of all similar institutions in the State. Its inception is due to the unselfish labors of one whose life is briefly sketched by Seymour J. Hathaway in the following: as "Aunt Katie Fay," was born at Westboro, Massachusetts, in the year 1822; she was married to A. S. D. Ewing in 1862; died April 4, 1897. If there was nothing more to say of Mrs. Ewing than to give these dates and state that she hved a noble, religious life, or that she was a woman of a benevolent turn and determined purpose in life, if this was all, there would be no reason for my standing here today to speak of her career. No, my friends, what we want to know is not the simple annals of a well spent life. We want to know what this woman has done to advance the condition of humanity, or what addition she has made to the total sum of human progress.

Turning Point In Her Life

Her ancestors hailed from Plymouth Rock. Her family came to Ohio when she was a child. At the age of 20, she became a missionary among the Choctaw Indians, where she labored for 10 years. While engaged in this work, a tragic incident occurred, causing the death of a homeless child, which aroused all the sympathies of her nature, and she resolved to do what she could to rescue dependent children from suffering and degradation.

She left the mission field and went to Kentucky to teach school. Aftar teaching two years, she came back to Ohio with what money she had earned, determined to begin her work as soon as possible. About this time an uncle and an aunt left her two small legacies.

With the money thus accumulated she bought 15 acres of land near Marietta and built what she was pleased to call, her "Children's Home," and she so named it, to indicate its character and what she proposed it should be - a homfe for homeless children.

This was the first time the term was used to designate a child-saving institution. Prior to that "Orphan Asylum" had been the accepted designation, but since that never "Orphan Asylum" but always "Cli/ildren's Home." Even the reformatories for children are now called "Industrial Homes." However, it makes little difference whether this was the first time the term was used or not. It was left for Aunt Katie Fay to illustrate what such an institution should be and thereby induce a great State to adopt her system.

Mark right here the tcjne, the fine tone, if I may be allowed the expression, of her character, her utter unselfishness, the splendid abandon of her purpose! What would most people have done under the circumstances? Devote legacies, long in expectancy, together with Ihard ea.rnings, to save other peoples children? No, money that comes in such a way is carefully laid by, to tide over possible disasters in life. Not so, however, did Catharine Fay. She devoted her money and her life to absolutely their noblest uses, and left every other contingency to take care of itself.

Soon after her arrival in Marietta, she visited the Washington County Infirmary. What doi you supiKJse she found there? Well, I'll tell you. She found what could have been found, in the year 1857, in every poorhouse in the land. Dependent children of all ages associated with and creeping on the floor, among the old, decrepit and vicious inmates. To fully realize what that means, you should visit a county infirmar}- and became somewhat familiar with the surroundings, see the righteous poor and the vicious poor, the driveling idiots, the trifling meanness of human nature as shown in underlings and half-wits of a community, gathered together and mingling indiscriminately, all at the end of life's ambitions, no hope, no expectation, nothing beyond but death and the pauper's grave. Truly you might write over the portal of such a place as this: "Let him abandon hope who enters here," and yet up to the day that Catharine Fay visited that infirmary, throughout all the States and Territories of the land, such a i>lace as that was deemed good enough for children who by the accidents of birth, but through no fault of their own, had been left destitute and could find no other refuge.

She found 26 children in the Washington County Infirmary, and she registered a vow in Heaven that if her hfe was spared, such a state of things should not long exist. If the plight of these innocent children did not touch the hearts of any others, she would take up their cause single-handed and dedicate her life and property to their rescue. And what has been the result? Through all the fair State of Ohio it is now against the law to keep children in the county infirmary.

How singular was Catharine Fay's motive and disposition to that of Florence Nightingale, who visited the hospitals and saw the miserable condition of the inmates. It touched her heart and she resolved to do something to reform the methods of conducting hospitals. She devoted her life and means to the work, and what has been the result? The reform has progressed ti'.uil now we have the most perfect appliances that man can devise for the alleviation of suffering and the cure of disease.

So with John Howard. He visited the prisons, and the woeful condition moved him so deeply that he determined to devote his life and fortune to the work of reforming prisons, and now what has been the result? We have the most humane and enlightened prison methods prevailing the world over.

So with Clara Barton, the great philanthropist. She hears of a fearful calamity, such as lately overtook the Armenians, and it appeals so strongly to her and arouses her so thoroughly that she goes half around the world to dispense the relief that a Christian civilization gives in money and supplies for the hungry and destitute in that distant land. The work of such self-sacrificing l^enef actors of humanity does not die with them.

Nor will the work of Catharine Fay Ewing die with her. The time is coming when there will not be a State in the Union where it will not be against the law to keep a dependent child in a countv infirmarv. and when

In the year 1857, ^^ ^t present, most people were too busy with their own affairs to give much attention to the rescue of dependent children. They had children of their own. They, no doubt, said to themselves, when they gave the subject any attention at all, somewhat as follows : "The poorhouse children may not haA-e a very good time, but that was better than nothing, and the taxes collected from all alike paid for their support, and it was not the taxpayers" fault that the children were in the poorhouse. Let those who are paid for keeping the infirmary care for them and don't bother honest, hard-working people with the woes of these little paupers. We have children of our own tO' support." Such heard-headed and you might say cruel logic held sway in the year of our Lord, 1857.

To better understand the subject, let us inquire what were the conditions in regard to child saving that year. I refer to the year Catharine Fay began her work. Not a single State in the Union had acknowledged the responsibility of the State for the saving of homeless children. No general law stood on the statute book of any State, providing for the establishment of child-saving institutions, the dependent children of these great commonwealths were relegated to the tender mercies of the poorhouses. If there were such laws I have failed to find thenr. At all events they were of such half-hearted kind that their reputation never got very far from home, and not until the year 1866, the date of the passage of the Ohio Children's Home Act, did any such law, worthy the name, appear on the statute took of any State.

The Kikst Ho.Me

After buying the land, putting up the buildings, and getting the children from the County Infirmary, ]\Iiss Fay's work began. Twenty-six children to be cared for, fed and clothed, not for one month only, but for 12 months in the year, and she continued right along for 10 years. She found homes for her children in private families as fast as she could and followed them up year by year. Her career in this respect shows how a determined spirit makes way for itself. When people saw she was making a success of the movement, they came to her aid, and the county authorities helped her.

Now witness how events developed this first Children's Home into a State institution. The directors of the County Infirmary, having no power outside of what the law gave them, had for a number of years been paying Miss Fay money from the public funds to help support the children taken from the Infirmary, and they had no law authorizing them to do it. Then toward the close of the War of the Rebellion, she had 35 soldiers' orphans in the Home, and she thought it was a shame that these children should not have better support than she could give them. So she conceived of the idea of asking the Legislature to make her Home a regular county institution, separating the children entirely from poorhouse control. The county authorities approved of the plan because it would legalize what they had before been doing illegally. The patriotic citizens of the community approved of it because of the humiliating situation of the soldiers' orphans, who, although committed to the care of Aliss Fay, were virtually inmates of the Infirmary. Mrs. Ewing resolved to make the effort to induce the State of Ohio to adopt her system and pass a general law authorizing any county in Ohio to establish a Children's Home.

Here was the supreme effort of her life crowned with success. This was the turning point in the history of the great movement, which made it permanent and handed her name down to fame. For her Children's Htame, and the benign purposes it involved, if left to itself, in the ordinary course of events might have died with her; but when her Children's

Home was adopted by the great State of Ohio, that established it forever. It also established the idea that the State is responsible for the homeless child - a great victory for civilization. The Ohio law of 1866 was the first of its kind, and the example of Ohio has been followed by other States until now it is the exception to find a State that still allows dependent children to be kept in the poorhouse, and nearly everj' State has now a general law providing in one way or another for the saving of homeless children.

In the fall of 1853 I was laboring as a missionary among the Choctaw Indians, wlien one day a physician called to see me to visit a poor fam'ily just across the line, where the mother had died, leaving a family of five small children. These little ones she had committed to his care, and he was trying to find homes for them. Tlie mother was a New Eingland womian, and for the first years of her married life everything went well ; but the husband became a drunkard; and poverty followed as the sure result. They removed from one place to another, until these last days of trouble overtook them on the frontiers of Arkansas. A few days before, the husband had taken the only axe they had, and leaving the family without any wood, or any way of getting any, had deserted them. In this situation our good doctor had found them, and he soothed the last hours of the woman with the promise that he would provide for the children. He had now found homes for all but a little one, two years old, as lovely a child as the sun ever shone on. My heart was drawn to her at once, and I longed to take her and give her a home. For days I prayed over it, and tried to devise means, to accomplish it ; but I found it was impossible, for I was but a poor teacher and hundreds of miles from my own home.

his wife, who soon after began to sell whiskey to the Indians. One day as they were drinking, they ended in a tight, and the darling child wa? thrown npon the steps of the house and killed. The distress of mind I suffered over this sad affair so affected my health, that I was obliged to leave my work annjng the Indians, and return home; but the desire and purpose had arisen in my heart to have a home where I might care for such orphaned and homeless children. After this every effort was di/ected toward that object, every dollar was laid up with miserly care. For two years I taught in Kentucky and with the means thus obtained purchased 15 acres of land, and on this began to build my home. T!lie Lord, knowing my needs, sent me two legacies : one from my uncle and one from my aunt. My aim at first was to have a home where I could take children and support them myself; but one day I want to our Infirmary where I fonnd 26 children of e\'er_v condition amid older people of the vilest and most profane characters. To see these children, made in God's image, polluted by such contact, was more than I could bear. I went at once to the trustees of the Infirmary, and got their consent to give me the children at $1 a week. They were to find them one pair of shoes and two suits of clothes; thev were to pay one-half the doctor's bills, and all funeral expenses, and I was to do the rest. I had begun in the fall of 1857 to build a house upon my place; but there was a small frame house of two rooms on the farm when I bought it. In this I established myself, and on the first day of April, 1858, I received there nine children sait to me fromi the Infirmary. They were all under 10 years of age, four of them mere babies. These children, with my hired girl, and the men who were building my house, made a family of 19. The Lord wonderfully provided for us. One barrel of flour, given to me by Jasper Sprague, lasted our large family three months, when I had nothing to get more with, and we had enough, too.

work. They thought there could be no good motive in taking children to keep as I was doing, and that I must be making money out of it, and out of them, too, as they helped pay the taxes. So they tried every way they could to injure me. Our gates would be opened at night, and hogs and cattle let in upon our garden and fields. Our chickens were often killed. Once when I went away to take one of the children to a home, I found when I came back that all but eight of our 60 chickens ^vere dead.

In my agreement with the trustees, I was to send the children to school. Nothing was specified, how or where, but my plan was to have them taught at home during the winter, and send them to a district school in summer. When the term began, I took all the children of the proper age, fi\-e in number, and \\''ent with them to the school house. I found however, that the trustees of the school had left word that none of them could remain, as they were paupers, and could not be in the same school with their children, so I took them home.

But I did not intend to be scared out of this thing. So. taking t\oo of the children by the hand, I led them all into the school house, gave the teacher the children's books, and left them there. As I went out one of the trustees met me at the door, went with me through the men and then left me to go home alone; thanking God that he had protected me from harm.

The next Monday I took them to the school house, and there I found the trustees. I showed them the proof of my guardianship and told them to reject the children if they could. They had not thought of all this and did not know what to say. So I left the children there. About ten o'clock they came home crying, and said they had been sent home ' and asked me if I was old "Goody-poor-house" for that was what the\- called me at the school.

from my home, where there was sickness, and no one there but hired help. One of the children died the third day. after I got back. The case was decided in my favor, and I was allowed to send the children tO' school. So passed away with many trials the first and second years, and after that things began to brighten. In August, 1858, my house was finished and we moved into it, much rejoiced to have at last room enough for the family.

In June of i860, my family was attacked with diphtheria, and we were not free from sickness froni that time till November. I was taken sick among the first, and before I was able to be up, both of my hired girls left me. The day the last one went away I crawled down stairs, and found things in a dreadful condition. The children gathered around me so pleased to have me with them again, and with the help of the two oldest, a girl of 12, and a boy of 13, I went to work to get things in order ; but soon the sick up-stairs needed my attention. I was too' weak to walk. I had to creep up on my hands and knees. There lay six dear children very sick, one of whom died the next day. Thus it went on for three weeks. No help could be hired, for all were afraid of contagion. All the help I had in caring for these 2^ children, eight of them sick, was the aid the children themselves could give me, though Mrs. Clogston, a neighbor, came and did the washing and ironing for me as a favor. Many days I had no one to speak to but the children. The hardest time came one evening when I knew that one of the little ones could not live through the night. I dreaded to be alone, and just at night I sent one of the boys to ask a neighbor to come and stay at least a part of the night with me. - She told the boy to go back and tell "old Kate she was paid for taking care of the children, and now she might do it." When the boy told me this, I broke down and cried until one of the children came and put his arms around my neck, and said: "God can take care of us." "So he can,"' said I, "I will trust in Him." Nor did I trust in vain, for before dark Dr. Beckwith came, bringing his wife with him. When

I told them what had happened, we all three cried together, and after the doctor had prayed with us, his wife offered to stay till he came again. I shall never forget that night, or the kindness of Mrs. Beckwith in staying with me. Four of the children died during this season of sickness. There were many extra expenses, too, during this time, and then came the laying in of winter stores and providing winter clothing, so I was very grateful to the trustees of the poor when they sent me a present of $50. During the winter 12 of the children had scarlet fever, but by God's blessing only one died. Hardly were we through with that, when the measles appeared and 2 [ were sick with that at once, one of them my main dependence for help. But the Lord helped me through with it all, and gave me strength according to my day. Many kind friends He raised up for me, who by gifts of money, donations of clothing and provisions helped me to supply our wants.

About this time, however, the war broke out, and people's thoughts and sympathies were so enlisted for the soldiers that we did not receive so many donations, while prices were so high, that one dollar only went as far as fifty cents had befoire. The number of children, too, increased, as so many of the soldiers' families were left destitute. I felt compelled to ask from the commissioners, 25 cents more a week, and in August, 1864, this was granted. The farm supplied us with many things for our food, and in one of these hard years o-f the war, our crops were nearl\' double what they usually were, while all about us were very poor. We had cows to supply us with milk, and a few sheep given to us helped to furnish the warm stockings needed for the little ones in the winter. The health during these later years was better, though often those who came into the family were in poor physical condition, and some times did not live long after they came under my care. No child, however, as late as 1866 had died who had been at the home over a year.

cistern, and building a school house, where during the winter months the children were taught. To meet the expense of these things, I had, at first, ^t^j given to me by friends for the weU ; but a debt remained hanging over me for some time, causing me much anxiety, but $150 given me by friends in Harmar, and $250 raised by an entertainment in Marietta, furnished the means that cleared me of debt, so that on my birthday in 1865, I could say, "I owe no man anything."

Among the pleasant things that the kindness of friends brought to me was a visit to some of the benevolent institutions of our State at Lancaster and Colum'bus, the comlmissioners paying my expenses, and the ladies of Marietta supplying my outfit.

As the number of children increased during these years, and the expenses were so much greater, it became more and more apparent that the means of support at my command were inadequate to the necessities of the case. The connection it held with the poorhouse, too, was undesirable. It put the children under a kind of stigma that wJas hurtful, as well as unpleasant to them. So many of them,, too, were soldiers' children (at one time two-thirds of the whole number, 35 being of this class), and these I felt deserved something better of their country than had yet been provided.

I became greatly desirous, therefore, that we might be made entirely separate in name and fact from the poor house, and have a distinct fund appropriated to our use. So early as 1864 I conferred with the commissioners about the expediency of applying to the legislature to bring about this change. A bill to this effect was therefore presented to the Legislature by William F. Curtis, but owing to some misunderstanding in the State institutions, it was laid aside. The next year it was presented again, but rejected. In the year 1866 the matter was again brought forward by S. S. Knowles, who in March of that year wrote to me to announce that his bill providing for the Children's Home had passed the House by a vote of y2 to 10, and was now a law. So the plan which I had thought of only as a relief for our own Childrai's Home, became in God's good providence the means by which such institutions have been multiplied all over our State.

The home where I started in was about 10 miles from Marietta. This was thought to be too far away, after it became a county institution, and a place was bought for it two miles and a half from town. Thither on the 3rd of April, 1867, the children were removed, but as my health was poor, I resigned my post, and remained at the old place.