Whitewater Township (part 6 of 17)

On the 29th of March, 1850, an ordinance was passed by council increasing the number of night watchmen by providing that six should be elected from each ward of the city. On April 22, of the same year, council passed another ordinance, providing for the appointment of a chief of police and six lieutenants. This ordinance does not seem to have been put in force, however, until 1858, when David T. Snelbaker became mayor. He appointed tbe first chief of police. His name was Jacob Keifer, but he only remained in office a few weeks, when he was succeeded by Thomas Looken. The latter was removed in a short time, and was succeeded by David Hoke. In 1855 William Craven was chosen city marshal, and Edward Hopkins was appointed chief of police. The police force at this time numbered 101. In 1857, Benjamin Robinson was city marshal, and James L. Ruffin chief of police under Mayor Thomas. In 1859 R. M. Bishop was chosen mayor, and John S. Gano city marshal. Mr. Gano was the last of the city marshals. Lew Wilson was Mayor Bishop's chief of police. Up to this time the force had been an undisciplined body. It was not until 1863 that any attempt was made at discipline. Col. Harris, then mayor, and a military man himself, introduced military discipline into the force with salutary effect. In the meantime (1859) the legislature had passed an act creating a board of police commissioners, a police judge, and city auditor. This board had charge of the police and appointed a chief. The act abolished the office of city marshal, and astormy time followed. Benjamin Robinson was appointed chief of police, but a contention arose regarding the constitutionality of the board of commissioners, which resulted in the passage of an act in 1860 repealing it, and the chief of police appointed by Mayor Bishop was retained.

George Hatch succeeded to the mayoralty in 1861, and he chose for his chief of police Col. J. W. Dudley. He did not fill out his term, and was succeeded by Col. Lawrence Hazen, who proved a very efficient officer and:soon brought order out of chaos. In 1863 James L. Ruffin became chief under Mayor Harris, and was succeeded in 1867 by Robert Megrue, but, proving inefficient, he was soon succeeded by the old chief, Ruffin, who continued until 1871, when David Bleeks was made chief by Mayor Davis.

An act passed by the legislature in the winter of 1872-73 created a police commission, which took the police from the control of the mayor. Under this commission the title of chief of police was abolished and that of superintendent of police established, which has been the proper designation of the Cincinnati police ever since. Jeremiah Kiersted was the first man to hold it, being appointed by the new board. His term as superintendent was interrupted for a month by his being removed from office, and Eugene Dayler appointed; but Kiersted was reinstated and finished his two years of service.

The legislature of 1874 repealed the act establishing the police commission, and the police rule again fell under the direct supervision of the mayor. Kiersted held over 'until February, 1875, when Mayor Johnson appointed Thomas E. Snelbaker in his place. He was succeeded by Capt. Jacob Johnson in 1877. This year the legislature re-established the board of police commissioners, and they appointed Ira Wood chief. He lived but a few months after his appointment, dying in 1878, when George Ziegler succeeded to the office. With the accession of Mayor Jacob, Enoch T. Carson became head of the police under appointment from the board, and he filled the office for two years. Jacob Gessert came next as superintendent. He served but a few weeks, when he resigned, and soon after committed suicide. He was followed by Col. M. F. Reilly. His term of office lasted until the close of Mayor Stephens' administration and was marked by many exciting events.

The board of police commissioners of 1885 was created under the act of the legislature empowering the board of public works to appoint the original members. Under this new order Col. Edwin Hudson was made superintendent of police. He remained in office until the appointment of the new board, under the non-partisan act, passed in 1886, makiag the mayor the executive head of the police department. Mayor Smith appointed Col. Arthur G. Moore chief of police, who held the place only a short time, when he was succeeded by Col. Philip Deitsch, the present incumbent.

United States Government Building. - This great structure, the finest, most imposing and colossal of all the public buildings in the city, is a magnificent contribution to the many architectural attractions of Cincinnati, and is justly a source of pride to the inhabitants. It includes the post office, custom house and federal courts of the United States, and occupies one-half of the square bounded by Fifth, Sixth, Walnut and Main streets, with the main front facing on Fifth street. The building is 364 feet front and 164 feet deep, four stories in height above ground, exclusive of the attics and roof stories. There is an underground basement fourteen feet high and a sub-basement ten feet, furnished with light and air from an area twelve feet wide, running entirely around the building. The exterior is designed in the Renaissance style of four superimposed orders. The principal fagade, 304 feet long, is divided into center and corner pavilions connected by receding bays, while the end fagades have corner pavilions only, connected by receding bays. The pavilions are strongly marked by porticos, with full, detached columns, and the divisions rendered more effective by large dormers and prominent roof lines at the corners, while the center pavilion terminates in an attic of two stories and high towering roof 170 feet from the ground. The windows, liberal in size and simple in form, are kept entirely subordinate to the orders which form the decorative features of the facades. The lines are generally rigid and the openings square at head, except in the crowning story, where arched openings give a very pleasing termination. The orders are very originally treated iu the first story. The pilasters and columus, placed on a high pedestal, are rusticated, and, by an ingenious introduction of the triglyph into the capitals, the characteristics of the Doric order are given with a decidedly new effect. This rusticated order, with its reinforcement of piers, forms an appropriate and massive substructure, on which the other and lighter orders rest. These upper orders are a modified Ionic in the second story and composite in the third and fourth, the whole at a height of ninetyfive feet from the ground, surmounted by a modillion cornice of ornamental detail. The exterior walls are of granite, the basement and stylobate from the red granite quarries of Middlebrook, Mo., and the superstructure from quarries at Fox Island, Maine. The interior construction is of a strictly fire-proof character, as in other first-class government buildings, with partitions of brick, and floors of iron beams and brick arches. The building was commenced in 1874 and completed in 1889, the total cost, including the site ($800,000), being nearly five million dollars.

Post Office. - The entire first story of this magnificent building is devoted to the post office department, rooms for the postmaster, cashier, money order office, vaults, etc., being located at the ends of the building, while the central portion forms one vast business room, 132 x 225 feet, which, in addition to the usual complement of side windows, has a large portion of its ceiling of glass, making a skylight 63 x 220 feet. The post office necessarily does a large business, the receipts from the sale of stamps, rent of boxes, etc., reaching nearly a million of dollars in 1893. There are over 425 employes, nearly 200 of whom are carriers.

The increase in the volume of mail matter since the office was first established, July 4, 1793, has been more than a thousand fold. At first only nine mails were received weekly. They brought about seventy papers, equal to 350 sheets. 'The first postmaster was Abner Dunn, but He did not live long to enjoy the honors of office. He died July 18, 1794, and was buried on the lot where the office was kept in a log cabin. Dunn was succeeded by William Maxwell, founder of the first newspaper and publisher of the Territorial laws. His successors up to 1815 were Daniel Mayo, William Ruffin, and Rev. William Burke. During the year 1826 the receipts for postage on 3,750 letters received and delivered amounted to $8,162. Twenty-three mails per week were now despatched, ten of which were carried by stage, the remainder on horseback. The Rev. William Burke was still postmaster, assisted by Elam P. Langdon. In 1828 the receipts had run up to $12,150. Thereafter the increase for twelve years was as follows: 1829, $16,251 ; 1833, $26,118 ; 1838, $51,226.71; 1839, $55,017.32 ; 1840, $49,815.13. From 1833 up to 1840 sixty mails per week had been received.

The Upper Stories. - Above the first story, the building takes the form of a hollow square, with the court of the same area as the post office skylight - 63 by 220 feet. A corridor fourteen feet wide faces on this court, and furnishes communication with the various rooms, all of which have an exterior frontage. These rooms - about fifty in number - give business accommodation for the Custom House, United States Courts, Internal Revenue, and other officers of the Civil government, and vary in size from the private office fourteen by twenty feet, to the magnificent court rooms, forty-one by sixty-four feet.

The Custom House, since Cincinnati was declared a port of entry, has been an important factor in government business affairs. The amount of duties received on imported articles is over one million of dollars annually, while the value of the articles reaches nearly two and a half millions.

Internal Revenue. - The collections from all sources for the last fiscal year amounted to about ten millions of dollars, of which the tax on spirits yielded over seven and a quarter millions. This shows the vast extent of the business of distilling whisky in and around Cincinnati, of which more in detail is given in the chapter on manufactures.

Weather Bureau.---This department is located in the fourth story of the government building. Much information of the practical workings of the bureau, and the value of its publications, may be gained by visitors interested, or curious, in weather matters. Weather maps are displayed to the public in various parts of the city. Visitors are invited between the hours of 9 a. m. and 5 p.m. The local forecast official in charge, or any of the observers, will take pleasure in showing and explaining the various instruments to visitors.

The Court House. - The first courts, according to Judge Burnet, ' were held in a rented room in the tavern of George Avery, near the frog pond, at the corner of Main and Fifth streets." Near by wasa '' pillory, stocks, and a whipping post; and sometimes a gallows was added." A log building on the north side of the public square was occupied as a jail. Courts in an early day - in part at least - were held in the Gano building on Main street, between Fifth and Sixth streets. The territorial courts met in Yeatman's tavern.

The first courthouse owned by the county was a rude stone building on the public 'square near the southwest corner of Fifth and Main streets. It was built in 1802, and its entire cost is said to have been but three thousand dollars. It was built of limestone after a plan furnished by Judge Turner, in the shape of a parallelogram with fortytwo feet front and fifty-five deep. The walls, including the parapet, were forty-two feet high, a wooden cupola, with four projecting faces, arched and balustraded, twenty feet high, terminated by a dome, and resting on a base twenty feet square, surrounding the whole. The total height to the top of the cupola was eighty-four See There were wings for public offices, two-storied and fire-proof as was supposed.

This courthouse was used as a barrack during the war of 1812-14, and through the carelessness of some soldiers who were playing cards in one of the rooms, or in the garret, it was fired and burned early in the year 1814. The commissioners then decided to accept a lot tendered by Jesse Hunt, " out of town,'' near the intersection of Court street with Main, on which to erect a new building. Plans and specifications were drawn, and the erection of the new building commenced, but it was not completed until 1819. The commissioners now thought that inasmuch as it was far removed from the thickly settled part of town, it was comparatively safe from fire. Improvements, however, rapidly followed, and it was not many years until the new building was fairly ''in town.'' Bad luck seemed to follow the authorities, for on the 9th of July, 1849, this building was accidentally burned, and the county was again without a courthouse.

There was no alternative but to take steps to erect another building. Consequently, a contract for $695,253.29 was awarded in 1851. The building was regarded as a very fine one for the time, and with its columns in front made an imposing appearance. It had a front of 190 feet, with an extension of 190 feet back, and was three stories, or sixty feet, in height. This building stood until March, 1884, when it was burned during the terrible riots of that time, a description of which will be found in the chapter on '' Notable Crimes and Criminals." The present courthouse stands on the site of the one destroyed by the mob, and is a substantial and solid structure. It is three stories in height, and has ample room for the various county offices and courts, with an elevator to facilitate communication with the departments in the upper stories.

The County Jail. - This necessary adjunct of the court stands in rear of the courthouse, and fronts on Sycamore street. It is constructed of limestone, cost $226,520, and successfully resisted all attempts of the infuriated mob to destroy it in 1884.

The City Workhouse. - This great institution is located on the Colerain turnpike, one-third of a mile east of Mill creek, and within the corporate limits of the city. A line of electric cars passes within a few yards of the doors. The buildings present a very fine appearance - running due east 600 feet, then south 505 feet, then due west 600 feet to the south end of the main building, where there is a stone wall, fifteen feet in height, and enclosing the entire back part of the main structure as well as the outbuildings, the entrance to which is made through three large portals or gateways. The workhouse receives adult criminals convicted of minor offenses. It is managed by a board appointed by the mayor and council. The daily average of persons confined does not fall much below six hundred. ,

The City Infirmary. - Ample provision for the care of the poor and infirm is made by the municipal government. The institution for this purpose is located on the Carthage road, eight miles north of the city. The buildings are spacious and extensive, and are situated on a farm containing one hundred and sixty acres of beautifully rolling land. During the year 1891 the total number of applications granted was 7,581. The total amount of receipts from all sources was $108, 832.70; disbursements, $106,374.22. The cost of maintaining the infirmary for the year exclusive of the relief of the outdoor poor and permanent improvements, was $65,- 582.80, making the yearly cost of maintaining the inmates per capita $91.91, or a fraction over twenty-five cents per day. :

The House of Refuge. - This institution was opened for inmates in October, 1850. It is situated in Mill creek valley, about four miles from the post office. The grounds embrace nearly ten acres - one-half of which are enclosed by a stone wall, twenty feet in height, within which stand all the buildings. The main building isa castellated edifice of rough, blue limestone, with windows, cornices, casings and portico of white Dayton stone, presenting an imposing front of 277 feet, with a center building eighty-five by fifty-five feet, four stories in height, with towers at the extremities projecting two feet in front, and five stories high besides the basement. To the north and south of this building are two wings thirty-six by ninety-six feet each. The northern wing contains 112 sleeping rooms for boys; the south wing is occupied by girls and contains seventy-two single sleeping rooms; one room large enough to contain twelve beds; two sewing rooms, one school room, four bath rooms and hospital. A kindergarten department has recently been added. The chapel is in the rear; there are also school and recitation rooms, and rooms containing workshops, ete. The buildings will accommodate 350 inmates, and the requisite number of officers for their care. The boys are divided into four, and the girls into three, divisions or families. And each of these seven families has separate school, sleeping, dining rooms, workshops, recreation rooms and play grounds. During 1891 there were 242 boys and 73 girls in the institution.

Fire Department

The fire department. of Cincinnati now consists of twenty-eight steam engines, three chemical engines, fifteen hose wagons, thirty-four horse reels, two aerial trucks, four two-horse trucks, five one-horse trucks, one manual truck, one manual hose reel, eight one-horse wagons, four two-horse wagons, nine marsbal's buggies or carts, about 64,000 feet of hose, 186 horses and thirty-one engine houses. The force consists of one marshal, four district marshals, one assistant fire marshal at large, and 302 officers and men, not including house watchmen. About 600 miles of wire connect the Central Station with the fire alarm boxes distributed throughout the city, besides forty telephones, thirty large bells and striking machines, fifty-nine gongs, ten joker registers, twenty-four alarm registers, and 500 Le Clanche batteries distributed at the various engine houses. All the appliances for the extinction of fires being of the latest and most improved kind, the department is amply equipped for service, and it must be a great and stubborn conflagration that it can not successfully resist.

In this connection it may be interesting to know something of the beginnings of the fire department. About the middle of December, 1800, a good deal of incendiarism occurred in the infant settlement, and the people were greatly alarmed. As the town at this time consisted of less than 800 inhabitants, and was far in the wilderness, nothing had been done in the way of fire protection. The recurrence of more fires a year later, however, had the effect of arousing the people, and the question of providing means to combat fire was seriously discussed. A meeting was held to consider the matter, but nothing came of it, as there were yet no village authorities to give the movement municipal authority. But in 1802, when Cincinnati received its first village charter, a meeting of citizens was held July 14, in the new courthouse, to pass upon the expenditure of forty-six dollars appropriated by the select council - of which twelve dollars were to be used for six fire ladders, and a like sum for as many fire hooks. With these public equipments the villagers had to be contented until 1808, when the council bought the first fire engine. Previous to this, however, everyone able to labor was required to be on hand with his long leather fire bucket, and form in line to the river to pass buckets with water,

The Union Fire Company, comprising nearly all the men and well grown boys in the village, was organized the same year the engine was bought. Its organization proved inefficient, and a second company was formed about 1815. A second engine had been provided for, but it had not been purchased.

In 1819, the year Cincinnati became a city, there were two engines owned by the corporation, but they were not kept in repair, and in case of fire the people had to depend on their leathern buckets. By 1825 a better state of affairs existed. The city had four engines, one hose company, one hook and ladder company, a protection company and a protection society. Thomas Tucker was chief engineer and Jeremiah Kiersted assistant. There were one hundred and fifty-five firemen and sixteen fire wreckers. The department improved gradually. In 1829 nine organized companies composed the fire department, with John L. Avery as president.

As the city grew the fire department increased in strength and efficiency. Under a charter granted in 1830, The Cincinnati Independent Fire Engine and Hose Company was organized. The fire apparatus was valued at four thousand dollars. There were an " eight inch double chamber engine of thirty-four men power, and a suction engine, with double seven-inch chambers of thirty-men power.'' Both engines were finished in the best style of the time. George W. Neff was president of the company, and as such he really became the founder of the fire department of Cincinnati, and deserves more than a passing notice.

George W. Neff was a native of Pennsylvania, born at Frankfort May 19, 1800. He was the youngest son of Peter and Rebecca Neff, and losing his father when only four years of age, was left under the care of a pious mother. At the village school he received the rudiments of a common English education. Afterward he was fitted for college by Rev. Dr. Finley, entered Princeton in 1816, where he graduated with distinguished honor in 1818. Soon after leaving the college he commenced the study of the law with the celebrated Horace Binney, of Philadelphia, and was admitted to practice in 1821. He remained in that city engaged at his profession for three years, when he was induced by his brothers, in 1824, to come to Cincinnati and engage in the mercantile business with them. He remained here during the balance of his life. His public spirit and benevolence, coupled with every judicious project for the improvement of the city, greatly endeared him to the people. He was the first president of the Little Miami Railroad Company; he drew up the charter of the Firemen's Insurance Company and had it passed, and was the president from the foundation until his death. For many years he was a director in the Lafayette Bank; was president of the city council for a series of years, and a trustee in Lane Seminary, and aided greatly in establishing Spring Grove Cemetery. He died August 9, 1850, and his funeral was one of the largest ever seen in Cincinnati.

The first steam fire engine was made in Cincinnati in 1852-53 by Mr. Latta, and soon revolutionized the entire fireservice. It weighed twelve tons and required four horses to drag it to a fire; it was called the '' Uncle John Ross."" From this time on there was rapid improvement in the fire service. In 1858 there were seven steam fire engines in use, and in two years the number was increased to eleven. The self-propelling engines were introduced about this time; and in 1864 a splendid new machine of this kind, called the '' John F. Torrence,'' was purchased for seven thousand dollars. Four years later the 'A. B. Latta'' was added, named after the builder of the first steam fire engine in Cincinnati.

As early as 1853 steps had been taken for the organization of a paid fire department through the efforts of Miles Greenwood, who for a long time paid the cost out of his own pocket and battled with the volunteer department. He succeeded, was reimbursed by the city, and the paid service was finally established and soon became popular with the people.

The Zoological Garden

One of the chief attractions that Cincinnati offers to visitors is the Zoological Garden, situated in the northern part of the city, between the suburbs of Clifton and Avondale. Mr. Charles F. McLean, secretary, in his little '' Book About the Zoo," tells us that the one person to whom Cincinnati is indebted for its Zoological Garden, for its origin and continuance, is the late Andrew Erkenbrecher. Other publicspirited citizens contributed to make it a possibility, giving both time and money; but without the constant and unremitting labors, the enthusiasm, the financial aid, and never flagging interest of this man, it probably would not have been founded. At a meeting of the Society of Acclimatization, held in June, 1873, a zoological garden for Cincinnati was first discussed. Great interest was awakened, and within a month the project had taken root. The incorporation of a stock company was arranged for, and in a short time a large amount of stock had been subscribed anda board of directors elected.

A fruitless effort was made to obtain from the city authorities the use of a portion of Burnet Woods Park for the garden. The society then purchased the present grounds, and so far as known this garden is the only institution of the kind in the world that is not located on land, the use of which was donated by the city that the garden benefits.

The society purchased sixty-seven acres of ground, and prepared to found the garden. The location possessed many picturesque and charming landscape beauties, and its diversity necessitated a vast amount of grading and preparation before the necessary buildings could be erected. These, when completed, were models of their kind for architectural beauty and durability, but they cost a large sum of money. Many thousands more were spent in bridging ravines, laying out avenues, and otherwise supplementing the beauties of nature. Thus, when the garden was first opened to the public on the 18th of September, 1875, the amount of money expended was beyond the most liberal of the original estimates. The vast expense, too, of collecting and keeping up a great menagerie was scarcely appreciated at that time. The receipts did not reach the expectations of the founders, and the outlook was not encouraging. The debt increased, and in a few years the garden's existence was in jeopardy. This brought about a new management. A portion of the land was sold and the debt greatly reduced. In a short time business began to increase under the new life which had been infused, and the finances were soon in better condition. Entertainments for the purpose of attracting the attention of the public were gotten up; musical night fetes were established, and artists of high standing engaged. These soon became very popular, and business steadily increased from year to year, until 1898, when the garden became practically self-supporting, and it is the only zoological garden in the world to-day without state or municipal assistance.

The grounds at present cover forty-five acres, comprising woodland, plateau and ravine. In the beauty of its landscape it is not surpassed by any other garden in this or foreign countries. All the principal buildings are of stone and iron, and cost over three hundred thousand dollars. The collection of wild animals and rare birds usually numbers about fifteen hundred. Since the exhibition has become self-sustaining the debt of $125,000 will rapidly decrease, and therefore enable the society to make more improvements and additions to the attractions. The receipts for 1892 were $54,314.22; expenditures, $46,623.59, leaving a profit of $7,690.63. The figures for 1898, at this writing (November), are not yet available. At this time the "*Zoo"' represents an outlay of fully three-quarters of a million of dollars, and it is a source of pride to its founders and friends that it has so soon been placed on a solid basis. The society is officered as follows: President, A. E. Burkhardt; vicepresident, George Fisher; treasurer, Albert Erkenbrecher; superintendent, S. A. Stephan; secretary and manager, Charles F. McLean; and a board of nine directors.

Banks And Banking

The banking facilities of Cincinnati are ample. At the present there are seventeen national and private banks, six in Covington and three in Newport. The combined capital of these twenty-six banks amounts to nearly thirteen millions of dollars. Of the foregoing, Cincinnati has thirteen national banks; and during the panic of 1893 they all withstood the pressure in the most satisfactory manner, owing to the: care and conservatism exercised by their officers. These thirteen banks have a coimbined capital of $9,600,000, and a surplus of $2,745,000.

The first banking institution in Cincinnati was the " Miami Exporting Company." It was chartered at the first meeting of the General Assembly of Ohio for the term of forty years. Its primary object was to reduce the difficulty and expense of transportation to New Orleans. Banking was at first a secondary consideration, though its charter permitted the issue of a circulating medium. In 1807, on the Ist of March, it gave over all commercial schemes and launched out into banking. Its capital stock was $150,000. After a prosperous career for several years it went into decline and failed January 10, 1842. The Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank, founded in 1812, failed the following day, and a riot ensued, causing the destruction of considerable property. In 1814 the Bank of Cincinnati opened. The second bank established by the Federal Government received its charter from Congress in April, 1816. The next year a branch was opened in Cincinnati. A stormy financial period soon followed, caused by an effort to compel the United States Bank to retire from the field, the legislature having imposed a heavy tax, which the bank refused to pay. Litigation followed, but the bank finally had to retire. It caused the ruin of many citizens.

As population increased and business developed more banks were founded. In 1851 there were six incorporated banks. | When national banks were authorized, there were by the Ist of December, 1863, the First National, with a capital of one million; the Second, with one hundred thousand; the Third, with three hundred thousand, and the Fourth, with one hundred and twenty-five thousand, fully organized and ready for business. The Cincinnati Clearing House Association was organized in 1866, and is still in operation.

Chamber Of Commerce

One of the most massive, stately and commanding buildings in the city is the Chamber of Commerce, standing on the southwest corner of Fourth and Vine streets. The location is conspicuous, and the attention of strangers is alwaysattracted tothis imposing temple of trade, on account of its magnificent proportions, architectural beauty and great strength and solidity. On account of its unique appearance, one is reminded of a European castle built to stand for thousands of years. Its exterior walls are constructed of undressed granite, whilst its interior arrangements are perfect in their adaptation to the purposes for which it was built. It was opened for business in January, 1889. Details regarding the membership and the vast business. to which attention is.given will be found in the chapter on Trade and Commerce.

Chapter Vii Scientific Record

HE city of Cincinnati and the county of Hamilton early became the seat and center of scientific work and results. Within a few years after the first settlement here and the location of the city there were found among the citizens men of rare talents and rich attainments, who gave themselves to the work of developing the county and founding a society which should be fully abreast with the times and foremost in the march of the progress of the human race. They wrought intelligently and skillfully, and brought scientific principles and forces and methods to the aid of their great work.

The nation, in all its history, has produced few men of equal or like genius to John Cleves Symmes, one of the founders of Cincinnati. In mental endowment and force, in philosophic spirit, in originality of conception and in ingenuity and energy of execution, in patriotic and philanthropic devotion and in lofty aims, he was arare man. He attracted other kindred spirits, and created around the locality au atmosphere stimulative to intellectual ambition and scientific pursuits.

These early pioneers labored amid many limitations and difficulties. Their scientific devotion and enthusiasm were their inspiration and their noble public spirit was their impulse. No labors could daunt them, no hindrance discourage them. They wrought with abundant success. They founded a city and builded institutions which have perpetuated their spirit, and have followed and favored intellectual growth and scientific development.

Space is not afforded in the compendinm of the history of the county for the record of the details of the beneficial work of these high-minded pioneers, nor even to catalogue their names. As an illustration of their type, it will not be invidious to make mention of several illustrious men who have left the stamp of their genius and the inspiration of their spirit on the community.

No one who reviews the history of the past times can fail to note the prominence of such men as Daniel Drake. In his profession or in his work as an investigator and author, as well as in his devotion to the public good, he occupied an enviable position. He was a practical worker, and not a mere speculative dreamer. His books, the earliest published here, and even to this day the ablest, gave the growing city a name and fame abroad. His work in founding the first Medical College and the Commercial Hospital was a magnificent achiev ement, and these institutions are his monument.

Hamilton county enjoys a scientific honor brighter in its conception and broader in its practical results, than that belonging to any other locality in the nation. This distinction resulted from the exigency in the affairs of one department of the nation's business. When Mr. Jefferson came into office he was confronted by a condition in one branch of executive administration, which offered the most serious elements of social disturbance and threatened even the existence of the government. The Northwest Territory was a munificent domain. In soil and climate, and in all material resources, it possessed ''a potentiality of wealth, beyond the dreams of avarice.'" A swarm of prospective occupants were flocking to it, and provision must at once be made for the allotment of lands, the dognite marking of boundaries and the authentic conveyance of titles, on the part of the government.

The system of random surveys and "indiscriminate locations,'? employed in Kentucky, had resulted in so much inaccuracy and error and had produced so many and sueh serious disputes among the settlers, that it was found impracticable and almost impossible to allot lands under it. The Federal Congress in 1785, two years before the ordinance organizing the Northwest Territory, had passed an ordinance providing for a systematic survey of the public lands, by plotting townships six miles square, marked by lines running due north and sonth, and crossed by lines running due east and west, and the subdivision of these townships into sections, each containing six hundred and forty acres. This is the system of rectangular coordinates. It was favored by the eastern States, and opposed by the southern States which favored the old plau of '' indiscriminate locations."

This law providing for the survey of lands by rectangular codrdinates had not been put into operation, and for the bast of reasons. 'The system, in order to be accurate and uniform, must be based upon lines accurately determined upon astronomical surveys. The law provided for an astronomical system of surveying. No astronomers were known to exist, who had ever done this kind of work, or who had ever heard of it being done. Certainly such astronomers were not found among land surveyors. Mr. Jefferson was puzzled to find such aman. No one was an applicant for the place. It was not desirable for a man of scientific culture and tastes and pursuits. He must become a pioneer and proceed to the wilds, and camp-in the forests, and wade through the swamps and the streams, and must. live, for a time, at least. just as other pioneers lived.

In his search Mr. Jefferson came upon the man who had the scientific qualifications. This was Col. Jared Mansfield, of New Haven, Conn., but, unfortunately, the President had just appointed Mr. Mansfield to another most important work, that of organizing West Point Military Academy. Mr. Mansfield was a graduate of Yale College, a thorough classical scholar, and had given special attention to the higher mathematics. He was a successful and popular teacher. He was also an author, having published an original work, entitled " Mathematical Essays,'' treating of profound and obtuse problems of the higher mathematics. His book showed him to be among the foremost mathematicians of the country and of the age. He was eminently qualified for the task of organizing the military academy, and Mr. Jefferson for a long time hesitated to ask him to relinquish that important work. But he finally realized that he could not find another man so well qualified for the work of setting in operation the new and indispensable system of the astronomical survey of the public lands. He offered Mr. Mansfield the office of Surveyor General. Mr. Manstield was loth to accept the new office and its arduous work. An institution of liberal learning was the field of labor most congenial to his scholarly tastes and training. In order $o induce him to accept the surveyorship, the President assured him of holding his commission in the army, and of the opportunity of returning to the work at West Point, after he should have inaugurated the new system of surveys. Oa these conditions Mr. Mansfield became Surveyor General, and proceeded to the preparations needful to execute the work on lands.

Serious hindrances were still in the way of proceeding with the survey, after the astronomer had been found. 'here were no astronomical instruments in the country adapted to this field work; nor were there any manufacturers of such instruments in the country. The celebrated Trauton, of Fleet street, London, England, was the nearest source from which an observatory outfit could be obtained.

There was no appropriation of funds by Congress for such a purchase. To meet this lack without departing from strictly legal methods of procedure, the President applied a part of his own contingent fund for their purchase. Three years from placing the order with Mr. Trauton the instruments were safely landed at Cincinnati, in 1805. Mr. Mansfield was already upon the ground, aud gladly welcomed the instruments. They consisted of a three-foot telescope, well mounted, a thirty- inch portable transit, and an astronomical clock. There was also a lot of necessary books, and mathematical tables. The whole cost of these, when packed by the maker and ready for shipment, was $1,054 in our currency.

The same year Mr. Mansfield removed to Cincinnati and began his work. He rented the residence of Israel Ludlow, at the Ludlow Station, now Northside, but at that time said to be five miles from the city. Here he set up his instruments and founded the tirst observatory west of the Alleghany Mountains. The first line run by Mr. Mansfield was the principal meridian passing through the mouth of the Great Miami river, and extending to the northern boundary of the United States. Thus does Hamilton county have the honor of the first survey under the system ever since used, and everywhere applied.

These old astronomical instruments followed Col. Mansfield on his return to West Point, and are now deposited in the Philosophical Department of the Military Academy at West Point. Let it here be asked, what more interesting relics for a Cincinnati Museum of History and Science than these historic instruments could possibly be obtained, and is it not probable that the general government might be induced to surrender their custody to this city?

Under the direction of the government, Col. Mansfield ascertained the latitude and longitude of many important places. His scientific services would render him illustrious in any time and in any place. When it is considered at what a sacrifice of personal tastes and ease he rendered these important services, his public spirit, his patriotism and his devotion to duty, can be appreciated.

Even the partial mention of scientific achievements would be incomplete without the mention of Prof. Ormsby Mitchell, who came later on the scene. His brilliant talents, his indomitable energy, his unquenchable enthusiasm, and his attractive personality, gave him a hold upon the citizens, which enabled him to induce them to found the observatory, at great cost, and amid the most disheartening difficulties. He left the luster of a great name, and the inspiration of a noble spirit, which still are acknowledged and felt.

These are sufficient illustrations of the scientific spirit prevailing among the pioneers of Hamilton county, and serve to account for the intellectual cast and artistic tastes which have always characterized the community.

Chapter Viii Education In Cincinnati

Tuer First Scuoors - -OTHER Eariy Scuoors, SEMINARIES, COLLEGES, Erc.-Pusiic ScHooLs THEIR ORGANIZATION, SUPERINTENDENTS, Erc. - History or THE Hicn Scnoots - Nor- MAL ScHooLi - UNIvERsITY - OBSERVATORY - OwIO Mercwanics' InsrireteE - TECHNICAL ScHooLt - PrivaTE ScHOOLS sINCE THE Prcsiic SCHOOLS WERE ORGANIZED - OTHER ScHOOLs, INsTITUTES AND CoLLEGES - Law ScnooLt - MeEpIcaL Epucation - Lanr TuEo- LOGICAL SEMINARY - ST. Xavier COLLEGE - OTHER Roman Caruouic ScHoo~ts - HEBREW Union CoLteEcE - Mvtsic - Artr AcapreMy - Society or Naturau Hisrory - Hisroricau ee artes SocietTy oF OHIO - CLUBS AND SOCIETIES - EDUCATIONAL JOURNALS - the city's founding. John Cleves Symmes, proprietor of the Miami Purchase, had taught school in the Hast before coming West; John Filson, who surveyed the original plat of '' Losantiville,'' was a New Jersey schoolmaster; and another schoolmaster, John Reily, owned the first schoolhouse in Ohio or in the territory north- west of the Ohio river. This schoolhouse stood in Columbia, now the East End of the Queen City, and a subscription school was accommodated within its wooden walls about a year and a half after the landing of the first settlers of the town. The school wus opened June 21, 1790. Reily was a young Pennsylvanian, and had served in the later battles of the Revolutionary war. He was joined in his teaching enterprise in 1791 by Francis Dunlevy, also an ex-soldier, who, after the war, had migrated from Virginia to Kentucky, and thence to Ohio. He became a judge, and he also wrote valuable annals of the Baptist Church. He was the father of Hon. A. H. Dunlevy.

The school started by Reily, and afterward carried on by Dunlevy alone, seems to have been reorganized into an ''academy" in November, 1792, chiefly through the public spirit and practical energy of Judge William Goforth, Maj. John 8. Gano, Rev. John Smith and Mr. Dunlevy himself. This pioneer institution existed for several years, and asserted its educational orthodoxy and dignity by drilling backwoods boys in mathematics and Latin grammar.

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

Early in 1800 the Western Spy contained the notice that ''a good schoolmaster was wanted on the Great Miami," and that one with a family would be preferred. The same newspaper kept before its readers the somewhat ostentatious advertisement of 'Rev. Robert Stubbs, Philomath," an English clergyman and '' dominie,'' who founded "Newport Academy "' on his farm, ''two miles from the Ohio, opposite Cincinnati, in Campbell county, Ky.," in which he taught '' English grammar, Latin, Greek, arithmetic - all the most useful and some of the ornamental branches.

of mathematics.'' There is something almost awe-inspiring in the conclusion of the "' Philomath's" statement, which announces that 'should any feel inclined, he: will also teach the use of the globes, at stated periods, in Cincinnati."" Newport

Academy developed into a useful school, having for its trustees some of the leading settlers of Campbell county, such as James Taylor, Daniel Mayo and Thomas Carneal. The chairman of the board was Washington Berry.

It may amuse the reader of these memoranda of small beginnings to peruse the following school advertisement which appeared in a Cincinnati paper in the year 1804: "Notice. - The public in general, and my former subscribers in particular, are respectfully informed that I purpose to commence school again on the Ist day of January, 1805. I shall teach reading, writing, arithmetic and English grammar, indiscriminately, for two dollars per quarter." Perhaps one may say, without the bitterness of irony, that a good many teachers since the days of the good man here quoted have, like him, taught the common branches quite " indiscriminately."

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

Hon. S. 8. L' Hommedieu, in a published '' Pioneer Address," gives some pleasing reminiscences of his school days in early Cincinnati. He says: ''In the years 1810, 1811, 1812, I recollect only three or four small schools. A Mr. Thomas H. Wright kept one in the second story of a frame building on the southwest corner of Main and Sixth streets. John Hilton had his school on the east side of Main, between Fifth and Sixth streets, over a cabinet maker's shop; David Cathcart, on the west side of Walnut, near Fourth street. The scholars at each school probably averaged about forty."

The Lancaster Seminary. - The schools thus far mentioned, and others that sprang up and died down within the first quarter of our city's first century, were sporadic and, as institutions, abortive. They were not fostered by united effort or general sympathy, and therefore took no deep root. The first really important school planted in Cincinnati was the Lancaster Seminary, a vigorous institution created mainly by the enthusiastic zeal of Dr. Daniel Drake, Rev. Joshua L. Wilson, and Rey. Oliver M. Spencer, seconded by the good will of the people. The school was to be conducted, as the name suggests, according to the monitorial method advocated by the English teacher, Joseph Lancaster, who, coming to America, promulgated his views in Philadelphia, where he died. The Lancastrian ideas appealed strongly to the visionary mind, and were seized upon eagerly by many who dreamed of an education at once cheap, substantial, and easily acquired. Edmund Harrison, of Tennessee, who had been a pupil of one of Lancaster's disciples, espoused the monitorial theory, and, with much ability and enthusiasm, undertook to put it into practice in the Queen City. In 1814-15 money to the amount of about twelve thousand dollars was subscribed for the seminary, payable in shares of twenty-five dollars. The banks of the city, fired with unwonted generosity in behalf of popular culture, agreed to loan the new institution cash on a long credit. A building site was secured near the northwest corner of Fourth and Walnut streets, on ground now partly occupied by the Cincinnati College. Architectural plans were prepared by Isaac Stagg, anda rather extensive and ambitious two-story brick edifice was constructed, without loss of time. Drake, who may, with justice, be honored as the father of the movement, tells us that: ''On the 17th of April, 1815, one of the lower rooms being completed, a school composed of children of both sexes was opened, and in less than a fortnight 420 were admitted; when, the apartment being sufficiently filled, many subsequent applicants were rejected. By the indefatigable efforts of the teacher [ Mr. Harrison] order and method were at length introduced, and the proficiency of the scholars has equalled all reasonable expectations. A second school, on the same plan, for females only, has just been commenced, and promises to be well filled." The seminary was put under the management of a board of seven trustees, with Jacob Burnet as president. The expectations of the founders of the school were not realized, owing, in part, to inherent defects of the Laneastrian plan, and, in part, to a general depression caused by financial troubles affecting the entire community. The school was kept up as an academy until Januuary 22, 1819, when it obtained a charter conferring university privileges, and changing the name from Lancaster Seminary to Cincinnati College. When the seminary first went into operation, in 1815, the town of Cincinnati consisted of about eleven hundred houses, and the entire population amounted to but six thousand, a number not sufficient to fill our present Music Hall.

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

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

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

An English traveler visiting Cincinnati in 1828 wrote: "The college is tolerably built but is not likely to be well attended until better regulations are established. I was present at a lecture, and was much shocked at the want of decorum exhibited by the students, who sat down in their plaids and cloaks, and were constantly spitting tobacco juice about the room."'

The trustees of the college in the year 1824 were Jacob Burnet, William H. Harrison, Rev. William Burke, O. M. Spencer, D. E. Wade, G. P. Torrence, D. K. Este, J. S. Lytle, P. S. Symmes, William Corry, Martin Baum, Daniel Gano, William Greene, Joseph Benham, T. Graham, Charles Hammond, Nathan Guilford, E. 8. Haines, D.Wade and A. Mack. At the fourth annual commencement held Wednesday, September 29, 1824, orations were delivered by H. E. Spencer, T. H. Burrows, George W. Burnet, J. W. Piatt, E. Woodruff and John Scott Harrison. The degree of Master of Arts wasconferred on John H. James, Frederick A. Kemper and William H. Harrison, Jr.

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

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

In the revival of the college, in 1835, there was also a law department instituted. The first Faculty of the Law School consisted of John C. Wright, Joseph 8. Benham, and Timothy Walker. Some years later Charles L. Telford and William S. Groesbeck became professors, and they were succeeded by Judge James and M. E. Curwen. The present Cincinnati Law School, of which Hon. Jacob D. Cox is the dean, is the outgrowth of the organization of 1835, and is the only department of Cincinnati College that has survived.

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

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

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

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

Locke's academy grew and flourished, winning the confidence of the public and gaining the patronage of the most influential families. From Foote's Literary Gazette for July 31, 1824, we learn that, at a recent examination, ''It was gratifying to witness the rapid improvement of the pupils generally, in all the branches of science taught in the institution, and more particularly in those of natural and moral philosophy, and botany.'' At the close of the examination, various prizes were awarded - a gold medal to Miss Amanda Drake, for general scholarship; silver med- als to Miss Mary Longworth, for excellence in moral philosophy; to Misses Sarah Loring, Jane Loring, Frances Wilson, Jane Keys, Eliza Longworth, Selina Morris, Charlotte Rogers, Mary Rogers, Elizabeth Hamilton and Julia Burnet, for high attainments in several subjects. Those conversant with the genealogy of old Cincinnati families will recognize in these ''honor pupils" the names of the daughters and wives of distinguished citizens.

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

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

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

Kinmont's Boys' Academy. - Alexander Kinmont, a Scotch scholar and thinker, who came to Cincinnati in 1827, was a man of great force of character, eloquence, and practical sense. He was a classicist and philosopher - a lover of high literature, an apostle of broad andrich human culture. His favorite authors were Plato, Homer, the Greek tragic poets, Tacitus, Cicero, Bacon, Milton, St. Augustine, and Swedenborg. Positive and aggressive, he championed his convictions, and made war on whatever he deemed false. In Cincinnati he encountered Mr. Grimke, a noted orator from South Carolina, in a debate on the relative value of the languages and the sciences, and won a great victory for the languages. 'T'welve lectures which he delivered on the '' Natura] History of Man" were issued in book form after his death, and are still published by one of the leading houses of America. Altogether, the man Kinmont was a remarkable personality, and his services to the cause of education in the Ohio Valley were immense. When he first came to the city a professorship was offered him in Cincinnati College, at a salary of two thousand dollars a year; but he preferred to establish a school of his own and to be independent. Kinmont's '""Academy of Classics and Mathematics" was located on Race street, between Fifth and Longworth. It was a live school, surcharged with energy and enthusiasm. The motto was: "Sit glorie Dei; el utilitate hominum." One of the maxims of the school was, 'Learn to do by doing.'' The boys worshiped their guide and master, who showed them how to use freedom without disobedience. When they became men, they still honored and revered the teacher who illustrated before their eyes the dignity and beauty of manliness. ;

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

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

The proceedings of the college in the years 1834-1840, inclusive, are contained in six volumes of '' Transactions," a set of books now rare. The college continued to hold meetings annually for some years after it ceased to publish its proceedings. The sessions of 1843 and 1844 were held in Louisville. The far-reaching influence of the body is indicated by the fact that delegates came to its meetings from the States of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Michigan, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, and the Territories of Iowa and Wisconsin. The people of Cincinnati crowded to its daily sessions, which were held in the largest churches, and all listened to essays and addresses with critical attention, and with something of religious enthusiasm. The movement, indeed, was a sort of renaissance in the history of education. It awakened general interest, it formulated public opinion on school matters. There were a gravity and deliberative wisdom in the deportment of the leading members. which remind one who reads the " Transactions' of the dignity and foresight of the fathers who framed the Constitution, and the Ordinance of 1787. The veteran Picket, white-haired and honored, was president, and opened each annual session with a formal address. The professional teachers invited to these councils distinguished representatives of the bench, the bar, the pulpit, the press. Lyman Beecher, Calvin E. Stowe, Joshua L. Wilson, Alexander Campbell, Archbishop J. B. Purcell and other noted clergymen took part in the debates. Daniel Drake, E. D. Mansfield, Samuel Lewis, and Nathan Guilford were participants in the discussions. Several prominent women shared the benetits of the great revival, though their names do not appear on the roll of membership. In the year 1837 Mrs. Caroline Lee Hentz read a poem before the college, in which she speaks of the work of education as being ' Woman's Task." «

The college encouraged the formation of adjunct societies, being in fact the mother of the western system of teachers' associations and institutes. It gave birth in 1841 to the "Cincinnati Society for the Promotion of Useful Knowledge," the most important section of which survived, under the fostering care of O. M. Mitchell, as the Astronomical Department. The energy of the college was transmitted to different institutions - the Mechanics' Institute, various libraries, schools of Medicine and Law, the Historical Society, and the Academy of Fine Arts. But especially was it the adjunct and ally of the public-school system which came into legal being in the year 1825. The impulse which the ruling spirits of the College of Teachers gave to popular education spread over the State of Ohio, and throughout the West, and the schools of to-day inherit a legacy of vital force from that vigorous and progressive pioneer organization. From it Nathan Guilford and Samuel Lewis, and many others whose hands helped to lay the foundation of Ohio's common schools, drew courage to keep on in the good work..

Organization Of The Public Schools

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

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

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

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

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

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

The '' Model Schoolhouses."' - In accordance with the provisions of the law of 1828-29, the city was divided into districts, and a board of directors was chosen. Teachers were employed, and schools were organized in such apartments as could be procured for the emergency. The rooms were not convenient for school purposes, and steps were taken to build. The writer of this sketch recollects a conversation with the veteran George Graham, one of Cincinnati's intellectual benefactors, who related his personal experience in causing proper schoolhouses to be erected. Graham asked the city council for an appropriation to construct a suitable schoolhouse in his ward, then the Second Ward. Said he: ''They voted a pittance insufficient to pay for a decent building. I told them I would not have such a house in the district; I would build one to suit myself. 'Where will you get the money? I answered that it was none of their business, but that I would make them pay at the last. SoTI had an architect draw the design of a 'Model Schoolhouse,' and got a builder to construct it on our lot, on the west side of Race street, between Fourth and Fifth. In order to catch the public eve the house was surmounted by a cupola. When I demanded of the council the cost, $5,500, of the building, they at first refused to make it good, but finally agreed to pay all, except the price of that cupola.''

This first model schoolhouse was completed in the summer of 1833. Nine others, patterned after it, were afterward built, at a total cost of $96,159.44. They were of brick, two stories high, each floor divided into two rooms. The girls were assigned to the upper floors.

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

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

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

In another place, the superintendent made a vigorous and wise protest against "verbatim recitations,'' in history and geography. The practice of the memoriter plan was introduced, he complained, by teachers in the recently organized Central High School. ; 2

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

Nathan Guilford was succeeded in office by Dr. Merrell, who, however, resigned before the close of the year for which he was chosen. A general State law was enacted in 1853, providing that superintendents of city schools should be appointed by the local boards of education. Under this law Andrew J. Rickoff was created superintendent of the Cincinnati schools, in April, 1854. The president of the board, at that time, was Rufus King, a most able and energetic officer, who held the position for some fourteen years, much to the advantage of the schools, and to the honor of the city. ;

A. J. Rickoff's Administration. - Myr. Rickoff, whose distinguished services in the cause of education constitute a worthy part of the history of this State and of the nation, was a positive and efficient superintendent of the Cincinnati schools, from April, 1854, to June, 1859. His will was strong, his opinions were definite and practical, his power was not much limited, and he worked with indefatigable industry. It may be said that Mr. Rickoff gave the school system of the city its fixed organization, its classifications, and most of its formule and regulations. The methods of grading, of keeping records and school statistics, introduced by him, are essentially the same as are now in use in the schools. The question has arisen, of late years, whether indeed some of his rules and regulations may not have outlasted their usefulness, or whether the minute and restrictive organization which he gave to the schools has not impeded the progress it was intended to accelerate. Be the opinion of educators what it may, there can be no question that Mr. Rickoff followed his convictions and enforced his theories. Before entering upon the discharge of his duties he visited the schools of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and made a careful inspection of educational methods. In his first report, completed in June, 1854, he says: '' My attention has been directed (1) to the classification of the schools; and (2) to the quality of instruction administered in the several departments.'' The superintendent put much stress upon the value of moral instruction, and thought the formal reading of Scripture, in school, was an essential support to the pupils' character. The security upon which he mainly depended for the real worth of the schools was the efficiency of the teacher, not the excellence of any system. He says: 'If the teacher be incompetent or unfaithful, all is ineffectual.'' Mr. Rickoff recommended that there should be created a "' Professorship of Didacties,'' in each of the city high schools, and the president of the board, Hon. Rufus King, endorsing the suggestion, urged the establishment of a Normal department in connection with the high schools. In March, 1857, a Normal class was formed in Hughes High School, for the training of teachers, with H. H. Barney as principal. The experiment was only partially successful, and the plan was abandoned. But the effort led to the establishment, a few years later, of the Cincinnati Normal School.

Mr. Rickoff strongly insisted on the value of examination tests as a basis for the promotion of pupils from grade to grade, and as a measure of the competence and fidelity of the teacher. Much difference of opinion then existed and now exists, as to the soundness of his views on this important subject, but this is not the place to discuss the topic. However muck thinking men and women may object to his mode of employing examination tests, few or none will be found to disagree with Dr. Rickoff's opinion of the ''memoriter'' method of learning. In regard to this the superintendent says in his report of June, 1856: ''In the most cases in which it is continued to be used, being as it is the consequence of incompetency, it will never be entirely corrected till we are supplied with teachers especially trained in their profession.'' It appears from the School Report of 1857 that complaints against the abuse of the ''memoriter'' system, which Mr. Guilford named " verbatim reciting,'' and which is now called ''cramming,'"' became so clamorous that a committee was selected by the board of education to report on the subject. The chairman of this committee was Dr. C. G. Comegys, and other members were R. C. Cox, William B. Davis, William J. Schulz, and William H. Harrison. In their special report, dated May 23, 1857, these gentlemen say: ''The genius of education sits, like Niobe, in our schools, weeping over the maltreatment of the minds which she would endow with so many charms; and meniory, the deity to whom all incense is offered, palls at last, and rejects the proffered sacrifice.'' The report closes with the emphatic resolution: 'That this board is as much as ever opposed to the use of the 'memoriter' method only, because it injures the mind of the scholar, and greatly impairs the efficiency of the teacher; and that the superintendent make it a special duty to eradicate it from the schools."'

Later Administrations. - In 1859 Mr. Rickoff, having established a private school in Cincinnati, retired from the superintendency of the public schools, though he remained a member of the board of examiners for teachers, and in 1864 he was chosen from the First Ward to the board of education; in 1860 he was elected 'president of the board, on the retirement of Hon. Rufus King. His successor in the superintendency was Dr. Isaac J. Allen, who held the position for two years, and in whose administration the '' Objective'' method of teaching was in high favor in the schools. At this period the distinguished Rabbi, Rev. Dr. Lilienthal, a prominent member of the board of education, took a leading part in the new movement, and became one of the authors of a text-book on 'Object Lessons."

Dr. Allen was succeeded by Lyman Harding who discharged faithfully, with wise moderation, the duties of the office, for a period of about seven years. His administration covered the disturbed years of the Civil war, during which public attention was much diverted from local interests. The schools prospered, and Mr. Harding possessed the confidence and esteem of everybody. He retired from the office and from educational work, in September, 1867. In July of that year, the board of education reélected Mr. Rickoff to the superintendency, but he declined the position, and soon after was called to Cleveland to become superintendent of the schools of | that city. John Hancock was chosen by the Cincinnati board to the position of superintendent, in September, 1867. Samuel 8. Fisher was at the time president of the Cincinnati board of education.

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

After recounting the particulars of this eastern sojourn in a graphic manner, the report for 1868 deals with several other topics, viz. : State Normal] Schools; Education in France, Prussia and England; and the Condition of the Cimeinnati schools. The superintendent dwelt upon the importance of " good reading" in the schools, and still more earnestly on the paramount necessity of 'moral education" in all grades. Astep in progress is marked in the announcement that, "It is proposed, the Coming year, to begin the instruction of all the pupils in our public schools in drawing." "This, says the report, ''is an experiment that has not been made in any other city in this country."

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

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

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

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

Following out the theories suggested by the objective method, and persistently combating rote study and perfunctory teaching, the superintendent made the most of drawing, music, and language lessons, as means of awakening the mind and firing a genuine interest in school work. With a similar purpose he introduced a new plan of imparting the faéts of history - a plan of continuous and animated reading, instead of the cut-and-dried method in vogue. It was hoped the experiment would relieve the pupils of drudgery hateful to them, and as ineffectual as repulsive; but the new departure was only partially successful.

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

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

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

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

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

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

In 1878, originated a lively movement to introduce systematic moral instruction in the schools. A special report on the subject was prepared by Thomas M. Dill, principal of one of the schools, and public attention was for a time strongly directed to ethical training. Nor was the the physical condition of the children neglected. The sanitary needs of the schools were looked into, and the eyes of the school children were examined by the expert oculist, Dr. D, B. Williams.

The School Report for 1876 outlines several of Dr. Peaslee's opinions and enterprises in education. A new method of teaching addition and subtraction, called the 'Tens Plan," designed to secure quickness and accuracy in arithmetical calculations, was put in practice. The method came to be known as the " Cincinnati plan,"' and was adopted in other cities. The superintendent zealously advocated the study of the German language in the public schools, he himself acquired the language, and recommended all parents to put their children in the German department of the schools, believing that both the English and German may easily be acquired in the time generally devoted to English. The subject of drawing was made very prominent in the schools, under the general direction of Mr. Forbriger who had the honor of being the first superintendent of drawing ever appointed in this country. Music, too, received a great deal of attention, and the choral singing of the school children, on public oceasions, became a matter of city pride. The school choruses were employed in connection with the Musical Festivals, and did much to aid in the establishment of the great College of Music.