Vigo County, Indiana - Chapter 23: Establishment of Education in Terre Haute and, 1908

Chapter 23: Establishment of Education in Terre Haute and

The constitution of 1816 had made it the duty of the legislature "to provide by law for a general system of education, ascending in regular gradation from township schools to a state university, wherein tuition shall be gratis, and equally open to all." In the same article particular provision was made for the creation of funds for the support of county seminaries, as intermediate between township schools and the state university. The system was excellent in theory, but proved to be impracticable, as the funds to support such an elaborate system could not be provided. .-Vccordingly, in the constitution of 185 1 the legislature was required only "to provide by law for a general and uniform system of common schools, wherein tuition shall be without charge, and equally open to all." Not onlv is there no provision for a state university or a county seminary, or other high school, but there is express provision for the sale of county seminaries and requiring that the proceeds of such sale, and also "the moneys and property heretofore held for such seminaries," should become. a part of the common school fund.

In 1819, as appears from the records of the commissioners, there were five school districts in \'igo county as then constituted (including part of what is now Parke county). The superintendents of these districts were : Peter Allen, Caleb Crawford, Joseph \\'alker, John \'annine, William .Adams.

The policy of securing one square mile" of land (section 16) for the maintenance of public schools was first adopted in the Northwest Territory bv Congress in the Ordinance of 1787. It meant that one-thirtysixth of all lands in this immense domain was devoted to the support of public education. Though the nation showed such an interest in eduo cation, it was many years before an effective system was established in this state. There were obstacles in a new, sparsely settled state, want of funds for school houses and teachers, and the necessity of the boys helping in the work of clearing forests and making farms and homes.

The question of utilizing the school sections often became a problem to the early county authorities. An instance is at hand in the records of the old board of justices for the year 1827. The board appointed trustees with power to lease the i6th section in town 12, range 10 - to be l&ased in eighty acre lots, not less than twenty nor more than forty acres to be cleared, the lessee to erect a good hewed-log house not less than eighteen by twenty, and within three years to set out one hundred apple trees, the orchard to be separately enclosed and all the cleared land to be surrounded with a substantial fence. The lease should run not longer than ten years.

In connection with one of these school section leases appears one of the early records of the use of coal. In 1827, \\'illiam Currey, John Robinson and \\'illiam Odel were appointed trustees for section 16, town II north, range 8 west (near Riley station), with authority to lease any part of the section with the exception of coal mines, and also to sell coal.

Besides making provisions for district schools in each congressional township, the legislature at an early day provided for educational institutions of a higher grade, which were known as county seminaries. The funds for the support of such seniinaries were provided for in the statutes, and were drawn from various sources, chiefly fines and penalties imposed for violations of law. In the early records of the courts, as elsewhere mentioned, many cases of "assault and battery"' and other offenses netted each a small sum for the seminary fund, and many well-known citizens of the pioneer period thus "contributed" money for the seminary which was eventually built in A'igo county. The act of 1 831 relative to county government directed that "the board of commissioners * * * shall appoint some fit person as trustee of the public seminary." In the same year as this act the public funds provided for in the dift'erent sales of real estate had become sufficient to justify the steps that were being taken looking to the building and founding of a county seminary. In September of that year, for the sum of one hundred dollars, out-lot No. 43 was purchased for a seminary grounds. This lot was on the ground where the Normal School now stands. In June, 1844, the county board contracted with William Naylor and William Wines to build the seminary. John King. Jacob Jones, Samuel Crawford. T. A. Madison and R. \\'. Thomp- son were appointed a building committee. The \'igo County Seminary was completed and opened in the winter of 1S47. The school, designed as intermediate between district school and university, depended on tuition fees for support. The trustees of the \'igo County Seminary in 1847 were : Chauncey Warren and S. Crawford, term of three years ; James Farrington and E. 'SI. Huntington, two years : and J. T. Jenckes and J. F. King, one year.

At the first annual commencement of the Vigo County Seminary, in 1848. original orations were delivered by Ed. B. Allen, Richard R. King, E. M. Musselman ; declamation by Samuel E. Cotton and D. W. Scouten, and compositions by John D. Cherfoot ( ?). John Durham, William Durham, Alfred H. Williams, Albert E. Williams. Among the young ladies whose compositions were read were Ann Crawford, Eliza Crawford, Elizabeth B. Cruft, Alary C. Herz, Eliza Johnson, Mana jMoffatt.

In December, 1852, a call was sent out by the town council to vote in regard to the establishment of graded schools. On January 3, 1853, at the conclusion of the voting, it was found that the proposition for graded schools had carried overwhelmingly, the vote being 329 for and 32 against, in the town of Terre Haute. An election of school trustees was held January 17, 1853.

Though seemingly this marked a beginning of free public schools in Terre Haute, and though the semii-fary was disposed of about this time to the town, the establishment of a real public school system did not take place for several years. The Terre Haute directory of 1858 rather emphasizes the fact that "no piihlic schools" existed at that time. Even in 1863 the status of the public schools was so backward that nothing was said about them in the directory for that year except to name the board of trustees, who were: C. T. Xoble, president: W. H. Buckingham, secretary, and D. W. ]\Iinshall, Harry Cornwell and J. B. Edmunds. However, on the authority of W. H. Wiley, sixteen teachers were employed by the citv during 1864-65. The increase from that time was remarkable. In i868-6g thirty-two teachers were employed, and fifty-four in 1871-72 in the twelve grades. In 1872 over three thousand pupils were on the public school rolls, divided among the primary, grammar and high school departments. The city owned seven brick and one frame school buildings, and the high school was kept, then as for a number of years, in the Normal School.

In a recent interview Howard Sandison, vice-president of the Normal School, and identified with the institution practically since its founding, furnished some interesting facts about the early history of the institution.

Greater Terre Haute And Vigo 'Couxty

"Ee'w people." he said, "reilize how humble was our beginning;. I do not suppose there are very many people in Terre Haute who know that the reason the school was located here was because not another city or town in the whole state even a?ked for it. T suppose that there is more than one now that would be glad to have the school. The people all over the state did not seem to recognize the needs of our educational system for a Xormal School. Even the men prominent in educational affairs of the state were just as indifferent. .\s I now remember the opening days of the school and the general attitude of the people in general all over the state. I do not now wonder that we had a humble beginning.

The coming of ^^'. .\. Jones, the first president of the school, was the most fortunate thin-T- that ever happened. The spirit of that great man dominates the school to this day. and his spirit is adrift in every nook of the state. As I remember the circumstance, ^Ir. Barnabas Hobbs. who was for years a trustee of the school, went to Chicago on the look-out for a man to take the helm in the organization of the school in 1870. Mr. Hobbs, while in Chicago, called at the home of Hiram Hadley, a man who at that time was prominent in the affairs of the Quakers of this country. It was just a social call, but during the evening the conversation turned to the nature of ]\Ir. Hobb's visit to Chicago. Mr. Hadley became interested and called the attention of his visitor to the work being done at Aurora, Illinois, by a yotmg teacher by the name of Jones. A visit to the Illinois city followed and ^Ir. Hobbs was impressed with the wonderful system of schools he found. The visit resulted, later, in the engagement of Mr. Jones to organize the new Xormal School.

"When vou come to think of it, we had a pretty humble beginning, but I suppose it was all for the best. President Jones had two other teachers to help him start the work. A !Miss Xeval was the 'leading principal.' She was afterward one of the party which toured Europe with Mark Twain. The account of their travels is to be found in that wellknown book of Twain's. 'Innocents Abroad.' The other member of the facultv was Professor Bosworth. who was previous to the time of his advent to the Xormal, the president of the St. Agnes Female Academy, which was located where St. Anthony's Hospital now stands.

"I remember that there were just eight young men and thirteen young women the first day. ^^'omen have always been in the majority, from the first. The evening of the first day there was a reception for the students given by the faculty. Everyone was present and the affair was held in the office of the registrar, a room identical with the room now occupied by the present registrar. A similar event at the opening of one of our terms now requires all of the fourth story of the new building, the number of guests being numbered by the hundreds.

"The school began to grow from the start, and I credit its growth to the great executive ability of President Jones. He was a wonderfnl man, standing for definite principles which have become an inseparable part of the present Normal. There are three words that can well be associated with his name - thoroughness, mastery and purpose. They dominated his life and became the basic characteristic of the Normal work.

"A few years ago, i-^ a conversation with State Superintendent Frank L. Jones, he said to me: T can tell a Normal teacher the moment I step into the school room. There is always that prevailing spirit of purpose in every lesson. I believe that it is unconscious with the greater number of them, but you can always tell them.' President Jones, if he were living, would take that as the greatest compliment ever paid to his life work.

"No man ever stood more firmly than President Jones for his principles and for what he considered the standard of the work to be done. Once it was suggested to him that the standard would have to be lowered in order to encourage greater attendance, and he replied : 'When that time comes you must look about for another man to take my place.'

"When President Jones left the school, after years of earnest and fruitful labor, he left it with a fixed purpose and standard. It perhaps had this limitation - the course was not broad enough. In fact, he never was in sMiipathy with Greek or Latin as a subject in a Normal School curriculum.

man who followed him was (jcorgc P. Brown, and it may be said of him that he gave the school the one thing that President Jones did not, and that was a more liberal course. I consider his coming a gain to the school. He leaned toward the scholarship side in the training of the teacher to the neglect, perhaps, of the professional. This could not be considered the best thing for a school supposed to train teachers, but coming at the time it did, it is safe to say that it had a good influence.

"When President Parsons came things had swung to the other side, and I looked upon the work of President Parsons as bringing about a compromise between the two extremes, in which only the best has been retained."

Prof. Sandison told about the fire which destroyed the Normal in 1888. "I shall never forget the day of the fire. I was in charge of the assembly room in the morning. I remember that a student as he passed the desk, remarked that there seemed to be smoke in the building, but I did not pay any attention to the remark. Just a few minutes afterward one of the faculty came in and said, 'Do you know that this buildino- is on fire?' and hastened awav. It was about 8 o'clock in the morning-, and almost the entire student body was at classes. The entire number was marched out in an orderly manner, but not one thing- wa.s saved. The entire library was burned, and we had to make the start on the present library. The fire lasted all day. and nothirg but the smoking walls remained. The people came to the rescue nobly and the school went ahead, with quarters in the principal churches. Only a few of the students left the city."

.\fter the fire, Terre Haute repeated its <xift of $50,000 to the Xormal School, and the legislature gave $100,000 for new buildings. A second building- was provided for in the legislature's appropriation of $40,000 in 1893, an additional appropriation of $30,000 being required to complete it. In 1903 the Manual Training school received an appropriation of $50,000 for building and grounds, the final cost of this department reaching- $84,000.

The Normal is one of Terre Haute's most important in.'Jtitutions. In the spring of 1908, 1,700 students were reported to be in attendance. The intluence of the Normal is felt in n-iany ways, and of course its presence in Terre Haute is a distinct gain for all departments of public education.

William A. Jones, who was elected president of the Normal at its beginning of 1870. had been a teacher of a Connecticut district school and "boarded round." For three years he was secretary and treasurer of a manufacturing establishment. In seven years as teacher and six years as superintendent at Aurora, Illinois, he won his reputation as an educator and organizer.

William H. Wiley was born in Rush county, Indiana, December 28, 1842, graduated from the Northwestern Christian University, took a commercial course, and begun his work in Terre Haute as principal of one of the district schools. During the san-ie year he was elected principal of the high school (then in the old seminary building), serving four years, and was then elected superintendent of the city schools as successor to Mr. Olcott. The tribute that he was "a good example of patient, persevering industry, united with a kind and gentle disposition." hardly does justice to this educator whose influence is still felt among men and women living in Terre Haute. He is foremost as an authority on educational matters in Terre Haute.

Hon. Bascom E. Rhoads, then of A'ermilion county, should be remembered for his efficient work in securing the passage of the state normal bill. The law provided that the institution should be located in the city which should make the largest donation, not less than $50,000. Terre Haute donated this sum and also a site which was then worth $25,000, and secured the school without opposition. Prof. J. M. Olcott, then superin- tendent of the city public schools, was also an active worker in securing the location of the Normal at Terre Haute. Of New England descent, but Hoosier bred, he graduated from Asbury University (DePauw), and was superintendent of the schools at Lawrenceburg and Columbus for nine years, taking the superintendency at Terre Haute in 1863 and continuing for six years.

The president who has directed the affairs of the State Normal since 1885 belongs to Terre Haute by birth as well as through his long connection with the city's largest educational institution. His father was Thomas Parsons. William W. Parsons attended public school in Terre Haute when real public schools were just being established, and was one of the early graduates of the State Normal (in 1872). He first taught school in the country in Illinois, was superintendent at Gosport, Indiana, a year, taught two years in the Indianapolis high school, and in 1876 became a member of the faculty of the State Normal, first as assistant and then as head of the English department. He was vice-president from 1882 until promoted to the presidency in 1885.

With the razing of the old Coates College building at Fourth and Osborne streets, to make room for the erection of flat buildings at that place, there passed one of the old landmarks of the city, and the material remains of one of its former educational institutions. The house was originally the homestead of the Gookins family and was occupied for many years by Judge S. B. Gookins, one of the most noted and popular characters of early Terre Haute. The Gookins home, in the midst of groves and orchards, situated west of Strawberry Hill, was for many years the most beautiful place about Terre Haute. When Judge Gookins left here and went to Chicago, George C. Duy occupied the house for a number of years. Herman Hulman lived there after Mr. Duy until Judge Gookins returned to this city and got possession of the property again, where he lived until he died.

About twentv vears ago Mrs. Coates, a devout Presbyterian, of Greencastle, died and left her estate, amounting to about $30,000, to the assembly to be applied to the establishment of a Presbyterian school. It was decided to establish the school in this city, and the old Gookins property was purchased for $10,000. It consisted of the house and the land from Sixth to Third streets and from Osborne to Hulman streets. A frame school building and a gymnasium v/ere erected and a frame addition was made to the original brick mansion to make it sufficiently large for a dwelling house for the teachers and boarding scholars. The school, under the management of President John Mason Duncan, was run for seven or eight years, during which time the children of many prominent families went there. At the end of that time the institution was so deeply in debt that the directors found it impossible to continue tlie school and the property was turned over to Riley McKeen, who had loaned the institution considerable sums, he assuming all the debts.

For several years the mansion was used as the parsonage for the A\'ashington Avenue Presbyterian church, and the frame addition was moved olT and set on another lot. About seven years ago Prof. John L. Gordon moved into the house and occupied it as a residence until recently. Several years ago Fourth street w-as put through the property and lots began to be sold for building purposes. Xow it is well built up and the appearance of the property is entirely changed. With the tearing down of the mansion there is nothing to suggest the beautiful old Gookins homestead.

The Rose Polytechnic Institute was founded in 1874, bv Chauncey Rose, as an "Institution for the intellectual and practical education of young men," the corporate name being the "Terre Haute School o£ Industrial Science." The men associated with the undertaking at the beginning, with Mr. Rose, were Josephus Collett, Firmin Nippert, Charles R. Peddle, Barnabas C. Hobbs, William A. Jones, Demas Deming, Ray G. Jenckes, Gen. Charles Cruft, and Col. William K. Edwards. From these a board of managers was organized, and a ways and means committee appointed. December 19, 1874, Mr. Rose made his first donation, consisting of ten acres, now a part of the campus, and securities to the amount of $100,000. A week later he increased this by a gift of $86,000 in bonds of the Evansville, Terre Haute & Chicago Railroad. Isaac Hodgson, of Indianapolis, was elected architect. The first- cornerstone laying took place September 11, 1875, at which time, also, the board of managers changed the name of the institution to "Rose Polytechnic Institute," and as such it has ever since honored the educational institutions of the city and state.

The main building was completed in the latter part of 1876, at a total cost of nearly $83,000. The following year, on August 13, Mr. Rose passed away, having lived long enough to see the institution well established. The total of his gifts to this cause prior to his death was nearly $350,000, and by a special legacy over $100,000 was becjueathed the school, besides money from other sources.

The Misses W'atson from Boston, and more recently from Charleston, Indiana, in April, 185 1, opened a boarding and day school for the education of young ladies in the house known as the Mc^Iurran |3roperty (now Judge Deming's). It provided, according to the announcement, moral, physical and intellectual culture, maternal care and oversight by Mrs. Watson and courses in English, French, German and Italian, and music.

School teachers in 1847 were J. B. L. Soule. E. R. Bentley, B. Hayes, H. H. Teel ( ?J, Sarah Warren. Martha Cressey, Eliza Tillotson, M. T. Puree { ?), H. N. Whitehead, Frances H. Hunt, C. Anderson and Elizabeth Desart. A A'igo county teachers' institute was organized in the county. Warren and Pierce had the Wabash Female Seminary.

The old Cruft homestead, northeast corner of Sixth and Oak streets, was built in 1838 by a Mr. Jackson for a Presbyterian school for girls, but was not opened as such, the house being sold shortly to John F. Cruft and was occupied by the Cruft family until 1888, when J. W. Cruft sold the lot to Joseph Strong. iTh.e old house was then sold to Col. George H. Purdy, who moved it to a lot purchased of the Deming estate on the southwest corner of Center and Oak streets, where it was remodeled and is now a double house.

In 1880 some public-spirited ladies organized a subscription library known as the "Terre Haute Library Association." In June, 1881, the school trustees, acting under the law of 1880, levied a tax of two cents on each $100 of taxable property for library purposes. Nothing further was done until May 20, 1882, when the trustees purchased the property of the Terre Haute Library Association by assuming an indebtedness of $70 and paying a nominal fee of $1.00. The 1,140 volumes thus acquired was the beginning of the Terre Haute Public Library. The rooms of the old association, 624V2 Wabash avenue, were retained and Mrs. Lucy C. Wonner elected librarian. Later in the year the library was moved to 7093-4 Wabash avenue. In October, 1894, Miss Wonner, assistant librarian, resigned, and in November, 1894, Mrs. Sallie C. Hughes was elected to the vacancy. In May, 1905, Mrs. Wonner resigned and JMiss Leatha M. Paddock, who had been supply for some time, was elected librarian. Mrs. Sallie Hughes succeeded Miss Paddock as the first librarian in the new building.

In 1896 the old L'niversalist church at 119 North Eighth street was purchased, a stack room built, and in October of that year the library was moved to that location, having completely outgrown the old quarters. After a few years, with increased patronage and the addition of nlan^' books, the building was becoming much crowded and the thought of "what to do in the future" was an intruding question, when in 1903 Mr. Crawford Fairbanks signified his desire to give the city a library in memorv of his mother, to be called the Emeline Fairbanks Memorial Library, the city to purchase the lot. The site at Seventh and Eagle streets was chosen and in April, 1906, the handsome building was completed, magnificently fitted and furnished, the gift of a devoted son to the memorv of a worthy mother, and the pride of the city. Owing to some legal complications the proper transfers were not made until July, and on tlie 30th of that month the old Hbrary was closed to the public and removal begun. The Avork was practically completed on Saturda\', August nth, and on the evening of that date the building was thrown open to the public for inspection, the stafif and trustees acting as a reception committee. The next day the regular Sunday opening hours were observed and on Monday, August 13th, regular routine work was commenced. The library has since been open to the public ever}- day in the year with the exception of the holidays.^

During the nine months since this report (August, 1907, to April 30, 1908). the circulation has aggregated 92,105 volumes, an increase of 3,114 per month over the same period of the previous year.