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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY - 239 CHAPTER VI. EARLY CHURCH HISTORY-SCHOOLS-SCHOOL STATISTICS-COMPULSORY EDUCATION-PIONEER INSTITUTIONS OF LEANING - MORGAN ACADEMY-FEMALE SEMINARY - QUITMAN'S -OHIO WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY - WESLEYAN FEMALE COLLEGE-GIRLS INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL-THE WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS - WHITE SULPHUR FOUNTAIN-THE PRESS. If we work upon marble, it will perish; if we work upon brass, time will efface it; if we rear temples, they will crumble into dust, but, if we work upon immortal minds, if we imbue them with pure principles, with the just fear of God and love of fellow men, we engrave on those tablets something which will brighten to all eternity.-Daniel Webster. IT is a fact higbly commendable to the early settlers of the county, that with all the trials incident on settlement in a new and undeveloped country, and the numbers of rough and vicious men who always seek the frontiers, the teachings of the Christian religion were felt and realized in the most remote settlements. What a rebuke, too, is given to the ministers of the present, who, rolling in luxury, sleek in broadcloth and pompous from high living, seem totally oblivious of the self sacrifice, devotion and arduous toil of those men who first planted the standard of the Cross in the sparsely settled frontiers of the West. Without hope of the least temporal remuneration, exposed to danger and disease, subject to the severest trials and most painful privations, they went out foregoing all the joys of home and the society of loved ones, only to be instrumental in the advancement of the truth and the salvation of men. Often the pioneer preacher, with no companion but the faithful horse he rode, would start across the country with no guide but the knowledge he had of the cardinal points, and, reaching the desired settlement, would present the claims of the Gospel to the few assembled hearers, after the toilsome and lonely day's journey; then after a night's rest in the humble cabin, and partaking of the simple meal, he again enters upon the journey of the day, to preach again at a distant point. Thus the "circuit" of hundreds of miles was traveled month after month; and to these men we owe the planting of churches all over our land, and the hallowed influences of religion as seen and felt in society everywhere. At this late day, it is impossible to learn who was the first minister to visit the territory now embraced in Delaware County. The first of whom we have any reliable account were Revs. Drake and Hughes. They lived in Delaware, but we hear of them in all parts of the county, holding meetings and organizing churches. Rev. Drake was a Baptist, and Hughes was of the Presbyterian denomination. The people of the Berkshire settlement were in the habit of attending church now and then in Delaware, and in the eastern part of the county we learn there were only occasional 240 - HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. religious meetings prior to 1815, except by the itinerant Methodists. Says a local chronicle: "Meetings were held in the log schoolhouses or in the largest cabins. Quarterly meetings were held in Deacon Carpenter's barn, a little north of Sunbury. Bishop Chase occasionally visited Berkshire and preached in David and Joseph Pierce's barn. In 1818, Rev. Ebenezer Washburn, Presbyterian, came to Berkshire and settled, and was the first of that denomination to locate in that part of the county. He remained but two or three years, and then went to Genoa Township." The Baptists early formed a society in the present township of Brown. They erected a church north of Eden Village, so long ago that it has already crumbled into ruins. The Presbyterians and Methodists also had churches here in an early day. Another of the early ministers of the county was Rev. Van Deman, of Delaware, a Presbyterian. He formed a church in Concord Township, and used to preach at the cabin of Henry Crygder, occasionally. The first preachers noted in Liberty Township-the scenes of the first settlement in the county-were Revs. Drake and Hughes, of Delaware. The Presbyterians built the first church in that settlement. Rev. Williams was a pioneer preacher of Genoa Township, as also Rev. Wigden, of Kingston. Thus the Gospel spread throughout the county until every township, village and neighborhood has its church, with its spire reaching heavenward, and its congregation gathering around its altar on the Lords day, offering praises to the Most High. We do not purpose to go into a detailed history of the churches in the county. This will be done in the chapters devoted to each town and township respectively. We have intended, only, to notice briefly the introduction of Christianity and the Gospel, and to contrast the past with the present. Those who remember the pioneer preacher and his life of toil; how he "Through cold and storms of rain and snow, Both day and night, was called to go-" and how he preached salvation, without money and without price, will not deny the fact, that, in the way of progress, Christianity has kept pace with worldly matters. As early as 1647, a move was made in the New England colonies looking, to the establishment of common schools, The following law was adopted to the year noted. by the people of that region, the Athens of America It being a chief project of that old deluder, Sathan, to keep men from the knowledge of the Scriptures, it is determined that every child, rich and poor alike, shall have the privilege of learning to read its own language." Following the promulgation of this law, it was then enacted that. "every town or district having fifty householders should have a common school;" and, that "every town or district having one hundred families should have a grammar school, taught by teachers competent to prepare youth for college." A modern writer, commenting on this movement of our New England fathers, extols it as an event deserving of more than mere record. He says: "It was the first instance in Christendom, in which a civil government took measures to confer upon its youth the blessings of education. There had been, indeed, parish schools connected with individual churches, and foundations for universities, but never before was embodied in practice a principle so comprehensive in its nature and so fruitful in good results as that of training a nation of intelligent. people by educating all its youth." One hundred and forty years later, when our forefathers declared in their ordinance (of 1787) that knowledge, with religion and morality, "was necessary to the good government and happiness of mankind," and " that schools and the means of education should forever be encouraged " they suggested the very bulwark of American liberty. About the time that ordinance was adopted, science and literature began to advance in a manner they had never done before, and the interest awakened at that time is still on the advance. In the early development of Ohio, there was a great variety of influences in the way of general education. The settlements were sparse, and money or other means of remunerating teachers was scarce, as the pioneers of new countries are nearly always poor. There were no schoolhouses erected nor was there any public school-fund, either State or county. All persons, of both sexes, who had physical strength enough to labor, were compelled to take their part in the work of securing a support the labor of the female being as heavy and important as that of the men; and this continued so for years. In the last place, both teachers and books were extremely scarce. Taking all these facts together, it is a wonder that they had any schools whatever. But the pioneers of Ohio deserve the highest honors for their prompt and energetic efforts in this direction. Just so soon as the settlements would at all justify, schools were begun at each one. The teacher or pupil of to-day has no conception of getting HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. - 241 an education under difficulties. It may be of some interest to the rising generation to have a description of the primitive schoolhouse. A description of one will suffice for all, as there was but one style of architecture observed in building them. They were erected, not by subscription, but by labor given. The neighbors would gather together at some point previously agreed upon, and, with ax in hand, the work was soon done. Logs were cut sixteen or eighteen feet in length, and of these the walls were raised. Broad boards composed the roof, and a rude fireplace and clap-board door, a puncheon floor, and the cracks filled with "chinks," and these daubed over with mud, completed the schoolhouse, with the exception of the windows and furniture. The window, if any, was made by cutting out a log the full length of the building, and over the opening, in winter, paper saturated with grease served to admit the light. Just under this window, two or three strong pins were driven in the log in a slanting direction. On these pins, a long "puncheon " was fastened, and this was the writing-desk for the whole school. For seats, they used benches made from small trees, cut in lengths of ten or twelve feet, split open, and, in the round side, two large holes were bored at each end, and in each, a stout pin fifteen inches long was driven. These pins formed the legs. On the uneven floors these rude benches were hardly ever seen to have more than three legs on the floor at one time. And the books'. They were as primitive as the houses. The New Testament, when it could be had; was the most popular reader, though occasionally a copy of the old "English Reader " was found, and very rarely, the "Columbian Orator " was in a family. Pike's and Smiley's Arithmetics, Webster's Speller, was first used, and after a while the "Elementary Speller" came in. Grammar was scarcely ever taught; when it was, the text-books used were Hurray's and Kirkham's Grammars. The schools were made by subscription, the terms being from $1 to $2.50 per scholar for a term of three months, the schools usually being taught in midwinter to give the boys a chance to attend, as at that season there was but little work to do on the farm. But we will not follow the description further. Those who have known only our perfect system of schools of the present can scarcely form an idea of their limited extent and capacity fifty or sixty years ago. There are many, however, still living in Delaware County, who can very clearly realize the above picture of the pioneer schoolhouse. It is a strange but very creditable fact, that schools were begun in the principal centers of the early settlements nearly at the. same time, and within a very few years after the first settlers came to the country. It cannot be now stated with any degree of certainty who taught the first school in the county, or where it was taught. But we find that the subject of schools was one that received attention in every neighborhood, and that, too, at a very early period. Sometimes these schools were taught at the cabin of some settler who bad a little spare room; sometimes in an abandoned cabin, or an unused shed, and sometimes even in rail pens prepared temporarily for the purpose. In Berkshire Township, we learn that the first school was taught by Clara Thompson for a term of three months; and that the first schoolhouse erected in that settlement was a small cabin built of rough logs, and located a little south of the Granville road. Cynthia Sloper taught the next school after Miss Thompson, and Solomon Smith taught the first winter school. The first school taught in what is now Berlin Township was in an old vacant cabin in the settlement, by Julia Ripley, nee Calkins. The block-house erected in this settlement during the early Indian wars, was, when no longer required for defense, converted into a temple of learning, and in it Prof. Burr held sway, as early as 1811. David Eaton taught the first school in the present township of Brown, in a little house built for school purposes, on the north side of the graveyard, at Eden. Anthony Griffith succeeded him as pedagogue of the Alum Creek settlement, as it was then called. The first school in what is now Concord Township was taught in an old granary donated by James Kooken for the purpose: but who was the teacher we could not learn. This was used some time as both church and schoolhouse, when Henry Cryder, removing into a new and better house, gave his old one for a schoolhouse; and John Wilson taught the first school in it. It stood on the site of the present United Brethren Church. In the present township of Troy, a Mrs. .Bush taught the first school; and a man named Goop taught the first winter school in what is now Trenton, while one Clarissa Studyvant taught during the summer. The first schoolhouse in this settlement was erected on Big Walnut, on the Mount Vernon road. In what is now Thompson, James Crawford was the first pedagogue, and held forth in a small hewed-log cabin on Fulton Creek. Mrs. Nidy taught the first school in the Scioto settlement in a rude hot, 242 - HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. abandoned as a cattle-shed, by James McCune . In what is now Radnor Township, Dr. Dickey takes rank as the first teacher, and occupied a small building which had been erected for the purpose on the "plat of New Baltimore." A block house erected in this neighborhood during the war was turned to use as a school edifice when the war was over. A Mr. Penny was also an early teacher in Radnor. Elizabeth Heath taught the first school in the present town of Oxford, and Robert Louther, the first in what is now Marlborough. He taught in a small cabin just east of the river from Norton. In the Harlem neighborhood, David Gregory was the first teacher of whom we have any record; and the first school house was erected on the site of Harlem Chapel. Lawson Gooding taught the first school in what is now Genoa Township, in a cabin erected on the farm of Ralph Smith. In Kingston. we learn that Miss Eliza String was the first school ma'am. Site taught in a small house known as the "Curtis Schoolhouse." from the fact of its having been erected on the land of Charles Curtis. Such were some of the early schools in this county, and the difficulties under which they were inaugurated and carried on. The patience required by the teachers to bear them up through the trials and difficulties under which they labored would appall the modern schoolma'am and discourage her hopelessly in her daily tacks. As we write upon the subject, the following lines float up in our mind: "The schoolhouse stood beside the way. A shabby building, old and gray, With rattling sash and loose-hung door, And rough uneven walls and floor; And why the little homespun crew It gathered were some ways more blest Than others, you would scare have guessed: It is a secret known to few. * * * * Only the teacher-wise of heart Divined the landscape's blessed art: And when she felt the lag and stir Of her young idlers fretting her, Outglancing o'er the meadows wide. The ruffling woods, the far hillside, She drew fresh breath of God's free grace, A gentler look came in tier face ; Her kindly voice caught in its own An echo of that pleasant tone In which the great world sang its song - "Be cheerful, patient, still and strong.'" By way of contrasting the early school, with the present perfect system of education, now in successful operation throughout the State of Ohio, we give a few statistics pertaining to this county, as extracted from the last report of Hon. J. J. Burns, State Commissioner of common schools, made to the General Assembly for 1878 AMOUNT OF SCHOOL MONEYS RECEIVED WITHIN THE YEAR. Balance on hand, September 1, 1877 ........................... $ 46,899 19 State tax :....................................................................... 12,701 25 Irreducible school fund ................................................. 794 39 Local tax for school and schoolhouse purposes ............ 44,379 08 Fines, licenses, tuition of non-resident pupils, etc ......... 2,897 99 Total receipts ...................................................................$107,671 88 AMOUNT EXPENDED WITHIN THE YEAR. Amount paid teachers-Primary .........................................$39,48.5 28 High ........................................... 3,898 50 Total .................................................................. $43,383 78 Managing and superintending ....................................... 800 00 Sites and buildings ........................................................... 9,154 16 Interest on or redemption of bonds .................................. 147 30 Fuel and other contingent expenses ..................................... 9,460 55 Total expenses . . ............................................................... $62,945 79 Balance on hand, September 1, 1878 ............................... $44,726 09 NUMBER OF YOUTHS BETWEEN SIX AND TWENTY-ONE YEARS. White-Males...................................................................... 4,413 Females ............................................................................ 3,962 Total:.................................................................................. 8,375 Colored-Males ..................................................................... 68 " Females.................................................................... 71 Total...................................................................................... 139 Total white and colored in county......................................... 8,514 Number in United States Military District, .............................7,586 Number in Virginia Military District ................................... 928 Total..................................................................................... 8,514 Population of county in 1870 .............................................. 25,175 Enumeration youth of school age in 1878 ............................. 8,514 Per cent. enumeration of population ...................................... 34 Number of townships in county ............................................. 18 Number of subdivisions in county ......................................... 146 Number of separate districts ..................................................... 7 Subdivisions included in separate districts ................................ 11 WHOLE NUMBER OF SCHOOLHOUSES. Townships-Primary ..................................................................... 146 Separate districts-Primary............................................................. 11 Total.............................................................................................. 157 TOTAL VALUE OF SCHOOL PROPERTY. Townships-Primary .........................................................................$ 95,100 00 Separate districts-Primary .............................................................. 103,300 00 Grand Total ....................................................................................$198,400 00 PAGE 243 - PICTURE OF DELAWARE COUNTY JAIL, DELAWARE PAGE 244 - BLANK HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. - 245 NUMBER OF TEACHERS NECESSARY TO SUPPLY THE SCHOOLS. Townships............................................................................................ 149 Separate districts ................................................................................. 39 Total................................................................................................ 188 NUMBER OF DIFFERENT TEACHERS EMPLOYED IN THE WITHIN THE YEAR. Townships-Males ............................................................................ 97 Females........................................................................... 183 Total................................................................................................. 280 Separate districts-Primary-Males ............................................ 2 Females.......................................... 30 High-Males ................................................... 4 Females................................................ 2 Total .......................................................................................... 38 Grand Total ............................................................................... 318 NUMBER OF DIFFERENT PUPILS ENROLLED. Townships-Primary-Boys ......................................................2,793 Girls........................................................2,298 Total...................................................................................... 5,091 Separate districts-primary-Boys ........................................... 869 Girls. ........................................... 898 high--Boys ............................................... 112 Girls................................................ 173 Total ...................................................................................... 2,052 Grand Total............................................................................ 7,143 AVERAGE ATTENDANCE. Townships-Primary-Boys .........................................................1,702 Girls ........................................................ 1,456 Total......................................................................................... .3,158 Separate districts-Primary-Boys .............................................. 575 Girls................................................ 610 High-Boys ................................................... 64 Girls..................................................... 102 Total.......................................................................................... 1,351 Grand Total ............................................................................... 4,509 Upon the subject of "Compulsory Education," Mr. Burns, in his report from which we have taken the above statistics, says: "Concerning the righ of State or government to pass and carry into effect what are known as compulsory laws, and require parents and guardians, even against their will, to send children to school, there does not appear to be much diversity of opinion. Concerning the policy thereof dependent upon so many known and unknown conditions, there is the widest diversity can write no history of the results of the act of March 20, 1877, for it does not seem to have any. A great good would be wrought if the wisdom of the General Assembly could devise some means which shall strengthen and supplement the powers of boards of education, and enable them to prevent truancy, even if only in cases where parents desire their children to attend school regularly, but parental authority is too weak to secure that end. The instances are not few in which parents would welcome aid in this matter, knowing that truancy is often the first step in a path leading through the dark mazes of idleness, vagabondage and crime. "Whatever may be said of young children working in mills and factories, youthful idlers upon the streets of our towns and cities should be gathered up by somebody and compelled to do something. If they learn nothing else, there will be at least. this salutary lesson, that society is stronger than they, and, without injuring them, will use its strength to protect itself: While we are establishing reform schools for those who have started in the way to their own ruin, and have donned the uniform of the enemies of civil society, it would be a heavenly importation to provide some way to rescue those who are yet only lingering around the camp". This portion of our history would doubtless be thought incomplete, without an extract or two from an article in the Western Collegian, written by Dr. Hills, and entitled "Pioneer Institutions of learning:" "The Faculty and students of the O. W. U. have a fancy that theirs is the pioneer institution of learning located on our Campus. But they are mistaken. It happens to be the third. or even the fourth, in chronological order. What its relative position may be in order of merit, we will not stop now to investigate. We call only give a few particulars regarding the true pioneers. These earlier institutions had some advantage over the modern ones. They had no large building fund to be quarreled over; no large endownient funds to trouble tile treasurer for investment beyond his own wants; no unwieldy machinery of management, as boards of trustees with their gearings of cams and eccentric; no large faculty, which, oil chemical analysis, is found composed of incompatibles, the light weights getting atop in the test-tube. The curriculum of study was soon disposed of, consisting generally of the three R.'s only ; no horde of book publishers and booksellers then annoyed them as any rebellion against Dilworth Webster, Murray, Daboll and Pike, would have been a certain failure. 246 - HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. " The Morgan Academy or High School, was number one of the pioneer institutions. Its first name was derived from the name of its principal preceptor, and the second from its location in the upper story of the house it was in. This was our old acquaintance, the Pioneer Tavern, near the Medicine Water. Soon after the war of 1812, this tavern gave up the ghost as a tavern and its spacious ballroom was used for a high school. It had in part also, the character of a boarding school, for it is remembered that a family lived in the other part of the old tavern, who kept boarders, etc. * * The Morgan High School was only of a few years' duration. It was conducted on the Solomonian principles, now so thoroughly obsolete that few understand them. The record of its Alumni is lost. "The Female Seminary, the next institution, was a pioneer of the O.W. F. C.-but was located on our Campus, in the old Haunted House-the old brick tannery. This was in charge of a lady principal for some two or three years, and we are inclined to the opinion that it was mainly for that reason that it was termed the ladies' seminary, for, according to the most reliable traditions, it had. about the usual admixture of the sexes. * * * " Quitman's Academic Grove was an institution that received its name from the proprietor, president, preceptor, etc., all in the person of John A. Quitman, afterward Governor of Mississippi, Major General in the Mexican War, and also from its being in the actual grove, with its fallen log seats, its tree columns, festooned with their wildgrape hangings, and having the clear canopy of heaven above. * * * The exact location of Quitman's Academic Grove was on the promontory of high ground running off south of the present library building. Here was a cozy little opening in the dense woods around, with a little of sun and plenty of shade, as season required. It was here that young Quitman took his pupils, the sons of a queer, eccentric old gentleman, whenever they could stealthily get there, for they were closely housed in town by the old gentleman, and only got out for exercise, and when the old man went along, he and the tutor headed the column, marched off a mile or so down the dusty road, and then returned to their prison-like house." As the Ohio Wesleyan University, a noble instition of learning, is ably written up in the history of Delaware City, we shall not go into details of it in this chapter, but merely notice it in general terms. It was chartered in 1842, the Preparatory Department opened in the following year, and the college regularly organized in the fall of 1845. The property, which had become quite noted as a watering-place, was purchased by the citizens of Delaware, and offered to the Methodist Episcopal Church as a site for a college, an offer that was at once accepted. The Legislature granted the institution a liberal charter, and a faculty was organized, of which Rev. Edward Thompson was elected President, an office he filled until 1860, when he resigned. The institution has always enjoyed a high degree of prosperity, steadily growing in numbers, endowment and facilities for learning. and popular favor. Howe has the following in regard to its endowment: °, This University received nothing from the Government, but originated in the liberality of the citizens of Delaware, embracing all denominations, who donated the building and ten acres of land, valued at $10,000 ; five acres adjoining, including the President's house, at $5,000 ; a farm near Marion, at $10,000 ; other lands at $2,000, and notes, $45,000-all obtained by subscription, making a total amount of $72,000. These scholarship notes were obtained in various parts of the State, each $100 entitling the debtor to five years' tuition, the interest payable annually. Last year the receipts were interest on notes, $2,500 ; rent of farm, $300; tuition, $1,000; total, $3,800. The expenses for professors' salaries were $3,350. A new and elegant chapel of limestone is now erecting, and will be finished in 1848. Its cost is to be defrayed from the proceeds of a small octavo volume of original sermons, forty-five in number, by the elder Methodist ministers. It has just issued from the press (June, 1847), and the first edition of 5,000 volumes sold in six weeks. This manifestation of spirit, connected with the fact that the first annual catalogue exhibits an array of 162 pupils, warrants the conclusion that the institution is destined to flourish remarkably. It must be so, as this is the only college in the State under the control of the Methodists, who, in the same bounds, number 150,000 communicants, just being properly awakened in the important cause of education." How well the prediction, thus ventured at an early period in its history, has been fulfilled, the present prosperity of the institution affords the best of evidence. There are now four large and commodious buildings upon the grounds. The first one erected was built originally by Judge Thomas W. Powell for a hotel, and was known as HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. - 247 the Mansion House. The central, or chapel building, was the next, then the library, or south building, was put up, and lastly, in 1872, Merrick Hall was completed. The Wesleyan Female College is of more recent origin. We make the following extract from the " County Atlas:" "The Ohio Wesleyan Female College was founded in the spring of 1853. It was opened for the admission of pupils on the 8th of September following, under the patronage and control of the North Ohio Annual Conference. The Central Ohio Conference has, by recent action, become an equal partner in the interests of the institution. Orin Faville was the first President ; William Richardson is the present incumbent of that position. The assets of the institution, in 1854, were $10,000 ; in 1867, they were $67,000, and are now over $100,000. An excellent library has been founded, and the College has grown steadily in patronage and usefulness. Its buildings are located west of Delaware, in a fine grove some ten acres in extent. Near the grounds are two white sulphur and one chalybeate spring." This institution will be more fully written up in connection with the University. While upon the subject of education, it is appropriate, perhaps, to say a few words of the Girls' Industrial Home, located in Concord Township. This institution was established May 5, 1869, at. the White Sulphur Fountain, on the Scioto River, about seven miles southwest of Delaware, and was opened for the reception of pupils on the 15th of October following. It was designed and originated by some of the public-spirited and benevolently disposed citizens, for the purpose of providing a " school of instruction, improvement and reformation (as expressed in the Legislative act), of exposed, helpless, evil-disposed and vicious girls," and where they might be taught the noble and more elevating principles of true womanhood. It was originally known as the " State Reform and Industrial School for Girls," but by an act of the Legislature, passed some three years after the establishment of the institution, its name and title were changed to the "Girls' Industrial Home." The manner and mode of conducting it is by a Board of Trustees, a President, Secretary, and a Superintendent. For several years, the latter office had been held by the late Dr. Ralph Hills, a man of vast experience in the management of public institutions. In a notice of the death of Dr. Hills, which occurred in October last, Judge Powell, an old-time friend, thus alludes to his connection with the Home : * * * In 1877, he received the appointment of Superintendent of the Girls' Industrial Home at the White Sulphur Springs, in Delaware County. That place had been negligently kept, and then stood much in need of the care and attention of just such a person as Dr. Hills. He commenced a course of improvements there, which are making the springs one of the most interesting places in our land. The place will much miss him; and it is a matter of great regret that he was not permitted by Providence to remain until his plans and improvements were completed. It is improbable that any other person can now occupy his place and make it equally good." At the present writing, the Home contains 227 pupils, in charge of Rev. Dr. Smith, who has succeeded to the office of Superintendent. since the death of Dr. Hills. The following are the officers and trustees of the institution : F. A. Thornbill, President; J. W. Watkins, Secretary, and T. D. West, H. R. Kelley and R. R. Henderson, Trustees. The celebrated white suplphur springs, called by the Indians, the "Medicine Waters," are in the southern part of the city of Delaware, and embraced in the college campus. We copy the following from the Delaware Herald, as descriptive of these springs "The first white man who visited this place and of whom we have any knowledge, found the spring existing here as formed by nature. It was even then, at that early day, a place of note among the red men who visited it in vast numbers and dwelt upon the grounds in its vicinity. And it is also stated by the oldest settlers of this place, that it is quite evident that buffalo, having been attracted here by the healthful qualities of the water, in large numbers, once roamed over the site of our now beautiful city, as their tracks and other indications were quite visible at the time the first white men visited this region of country. When Judge Powell came to this city, the spring was still as nature formed it, and the campus a naked barren. In the year 1828, Judge Henry Baldwin, of Pittsburgh, and Moses Byxbe, one of the first settlers in this locality, and proprietors of land in what is now the city of Delaware, donated four acres of land to the corporation of the village of Delaware, which included the spring and a part of the campus. What is now the city park was donated at the same time by Judge Baldwin, to the corporation for a parade ground. In 1833, C. W. Kent came to Delaware, and, being of ail enterprising turn of mind, made a proposition to the corporation 248 - HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. to improve the spring and build a hotel. The four acres were accordingly leased to Mr. Kent for ninety-nine years, renewable forever. But, not having sufficient means to carry out his project, Mr. Kent desired a partner, and finally prevailed upon Judge Powell to unite with him and assist him in perfecting his plans of building a hotel. There being no architect nearer than Columbus, Judge Powell drew the plans. and superintended the construction of what was called the - Mansion House,' and is now the north college building. It was finished in 1834." To briefly give the further facts: " Kent went to New York, where. upon the representation of being the owner and proprietor of the springs, lie succeeded in buying some $10,000 worth of goods for the purpose of furnishing the hotel. But returning through Columbus the goods were seized by his creditors and never reached the springs. The building stood idle from this time until 1836, when it was leased by Powell to a man named Calvert. who did a large business. Many came to seek their health in the sulphurspring baths which had been erected in connection with the hotel. It was carried on with varying success until 1840 when Powell sold it to the Methodist Church. Whenever the times permitted. a large number of people gathered here from all parts of the country. on account of the healthfulness of the climate and the advantages to be derived from the medicinal properties of the sulphur water. " In three or four years after Judge Powell transferred his claims to the Methodist Church. the college was established. and additions in ground and improvements in spring and buildings have been made from time to time, until it has finally reached its present attractive appearance, all of which is to be accredited to the efforts of the church and the benevolence of the friends of the university." Such is a brief sketch of one of the most noted and valuable springs in the world. The result of an analysis of its water, made by Dr. Mitchell in 1848, is given for the benefit of our renders and is as follows : "Of gaseous products I find that, one wine pint of water taken iminediately from the spring. contains of sulphuretted hydrogen gas, twelve cubic inches: of carbonic acid gas, three inches. One hundred grains of the deposit which resulted from evaporating several gallons of water. Yielded on analysis, of muriate of soda. 48 grains ; of lime. 20 gains; sulphate of magnesia, 16 grains; sulphate lime 8 grains; carbonate of soda. 5 grains: total of the above 97 grains. The above result shows that these waters approach as nearly to the well-known waters of Aix-laChapelle and Harrowgate, as those do respectively to each other. They are decidedly deobstruent, and calculated to remove glandular enlargements of the liver, as well as of the other viscera. In cases of slow fever, disturbed state of the functions of digestion or more confirmed dyspepsia, morbid secretion from the kidneys or bladder, gravel, or chronic eruptions of the skin. I can strongly recommend their use; and, though last, not least, their power of subduing -eneral constitutional irritations. and quieting and restoring tone to the systein when it has beets necessary to have recourse to the frequent and long continued action of calomel or other mercurial preparations, is. I am persuaded, of the greatest efficacy." The White Sulphur Fountain, now the seat of the Girls' Industrial Home, is at the rapids of the Scioto River, about seven miles southwest of Dela ware. These springs, which are more fully described in the township history of Concord, were also at one time quite famous as a place of resort but, owing to bad management, misfortune, or from some other cause. did not prove very profitable and so were sold to the State, and became the loca. tion of the Girls' Industrial Home. We quote the following description :* " The fountain is a most remarkable curiosity, and rises from the bed of the Scioto through solid rock. It was first discovered in 1820, while boring for salt water, a bole of about two and a half inches in diameter. The operators had pierced through about ninety feet of solid rock, when the auger suddenly fell two feet and up gushed with great force a stream of strong white sulphur water, which has continued to rise with its original force and violence to the present time. Experiments have shown some curious results ; among which was that of placing an air tight tube in an upright position, one end being inserted into the hole, when the water shot out o its top with as much force as when issuing fron the rock beneath. The water, which is pure, is supposed to be driven by its own gas. Its tem perature is 50°, and it. leaves on the ground around a very heavy white deposit. On the grounds of the establishment is a beautiful chalyb eate spring, having a temperature of 47 degree; This place has every natural advantage that can be desired for making it one of the greatest places c resort for health and recreation, west of the mount gins. From present indications, it is evidently; * Henry Howe, in 1848. HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. - 249 destined to become so, as soon as preparations can be made to accommodate the public to a sufficient extent, which will soon be done, as improvements are making rapid progress." It has been said that the newspaper is the true chronicle of a country's greatness, and the perpetuator of its history. Especially is this true of the local press. The county paper, in itself, is the county's history ; the very advertisements eventually become historical facts. The Gazette is the oldest paper in Delaware County, and one of the oldest in Ohio, having been originally established about 1819-20. The enterprise was inaugurated by Messrs. Drake & Hughes, the first a Baptist, and the latter a Presbyterian, minister. Of the early history of this paper not much is now remembered, as a complete file of it is not in existence. From a single copy, however, which has fallen into our hands, dated May 30, 1821, we find it marked "Volume I., Number 52," showing that it was then about a year old. From it we make the following extract "We have arrived at the end of our first year's labor. Commencing as we did under the most unfavorable circumstances, we have received a support and encouragement far beyond our most sanguine anticipations. Entirely unacquainted as we were with the editorial department of a public journal, it was with diffidence we were induced to assume the responsibility of such an undertaking." This paper was finally suspended, or became the property of Ezra Griswold, and was merged into a paper he established at Worthington, on the 7th of January, 1820, called the Columbian Advocate and Franklin Chronicle. October 1, 1821 Griswold moved his paper from Worthington to Delaware, and changed its name to Delaware Patron and Franklin Chronicle, with "Griswold and Howard as publishers and proprietors." To the latter part of March, 1823 (to which period we have a complete file), it was conducted separate and distinct from the Delaware Gazette, as we notice frequent allusions to the latter paper, and an occasional indulging of " pet names " toward it, as is still customary in the newspaper business. So it must have been subsequent to that date that the two papers became one. This old newspaper file, sixty years old, is quite a literary curiosity, and presents a striking contrast to its flourishing successor, and to the live newspaper of the present day. The first issue announces that the " following articles will be received in exchange for this paper, viz., corn-fed pork, beef, bacon (hams), butter, cheese, chickens, eggs; wheat, rye, oats, corn, corn-meal, flour, lard, tallow, beeswax, honey, sugar, fire-wood, dried fruit, country linen, flax, wool, deerskins (dressed), whiskey, and a little persuasion mil-ht induce us to receive good BANK PAPER OR EVEN SPECIE! AT THEIR MARKET PRICES." The following notice appears in the first number issued from Delaware Country produce will be received in payment of subscriptions to this paper, at the prices annexed. Those articles printed in italics are such as we stand in pressing need of: Good sweet butter, 10 cents per pound ; bacon hams, 8 cents; sugar, 8 cents; beeswax, 25 cents; tallow, 13 cents ; lard, 8 cents; feathers, 50 cents; good cheese, 9 cents; hops, 44 cents; dried sage, 37 cents ; wool, 50 to 75 cents; fax, 12 cents ; country linen, 25 to 50 cents; wheat flour, $2.00 per cwt. ; pork, $2.50 ; beef, $3.00; wheat, 62 cents per bushel ; rye, 44 cents; oats, 20 cents; corn, 25 cents; barley, 62 cents ; beets, 50 cents ; hickory nuts; apples (green), 50 cents dried apples, $2.00 ; cucumber pickles; $4.00 bbl. ; cider, $4.50 ; chickens, $1.50 per dozen; eggs, 8 cents; molasses, 62 cents per gall. ; honey, 62 cents; whiskey, 37 1/2 to 44 cents; wood, $1.00 per cord; venison hams 25 cents each ; hay $6.00 per ton ; dressed deerskins, 50 cents to $1.50 each ; rags, two cents a pound cash, three cent, a pound in writing paper, or three and a hall cents when received on newspaper arrears." The same issue from which the above is taken, con tains the following list of letters remaining uncalled for in the post office: "Ezekiel Brown Alse Benedict, Joseph Bartley, Alex. Berry, Ben jamin Chidlaw. John Cadwallader, Jos. Crunkleton Arch Campbell, John Case, Jeremiah Clark D. Cadawallader, John G. Dewett, Mary Fay Elizabeth Finley, Win. Gallant, Hezekiah Gorton, John Gilson, Evan Jenkins, Thos. Jones Henry Jackson, John Jones, Jacob Kensil, Johnathan Kelley, S. W. Knapp, S. Longwell, John Mann, Jr., Win. Morgan, Robt. McBratney, Isaac Morse, John McKinnie, Jr., Evan Markel, John Minter, Jas. Osborne, Ezra Payne, Peter Ros, Jos. F. Randolph, John Rolands, George Reed, Alden Sherman, Scioto Ep Co., Martin Shaub, Henry Smith, Win. D. Sherwood, Edward Tyler, John Thatcher, Henry Vincill, T. H, Valentine , Amos Wilson, Jonathan Wright, Nathan Weldman, T. D. White and George Wright," to which is signed the name of "Solomon Smith, Postmaster." The paper was originally established as a folio, with four columns to a page. On tire 19th of 250 - HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. November, 1821, a few weeks after its removal to Delaware; it is enlarged to five columns. Noticing the improvement in his paper and administering a little dun to his patrons, the editor adds: "We have made arrangements with the several postriders to distribute our paper on their several routes, at our expense, thereby relieving them from the tax of postage, for which nothing but specie would have answered." In another column of the same issue, is the notice: " Webster's spelling-books for sale at this office for cash, of rags at cash price." ' As we have stated, the first number of this paper was issued in the beginning of January 1820, just sixty years ago. In his salutatory, the editor promulgates his lofty doctrine: " The politics of the subscriber are already known. He has been uniformly a Republican, from the commencement of his course in early life, and was continue to cherish such principles as every worth American citizen should be proud to own. The sentiments which guided the immortal Washington and his patriotic compeers in the arduous struggle for national liberty, will have a predominating influence over all our political conduct and, in obedience to an impulse of national feeling we shall indignantly frown upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of on country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts A lively sense of the decided superiority of on own happy form of government over all others will incite our best exertions to preserve inviolat its, free republican institutions and to perpetuat its blessings." Nearly a half of the first two pages of the first issue is missing. Of the remainder of the page: the following are the contents: After the prospectus and salutatory, we have the message of President Monroe to the Sixteenth Congress message with prospectus, takes up all of first and second pages that is still left,. The third page contains request to "printers who receive this number, please send us their paper in exchange ; " an apology for the delay in starting; an article on "Affairs with Spain ; " " Baltimore Items." The following advertisements are on the third page: "Public Entertainment, by G. H. Griswold; " notice articles that will be received in payment for subsriptions; list. of unclaimed letters ; circular of "Grand Royal Arch Chapter ; " "Ohio Register;" Notice of D. Upson;""Great Bargains Land ; " "Estray Notice ; '' " Printing Office." Fourth Page : Poetry-" The Creation, by Miss Lydia Huntley; " " The Burial ; " "Spanish Affairs-a letter by an American at Gibraltar; " "Rye Coffee." The following are a few of the advertisements appearing from time to time, during the first year or two: LOST.-On the road between John Smith, Esq.'s in Clinton Township, and Matthew's Mills, a good SADDLE BLANKET. The finder will please send word where it may be had, and receive my thanks. SAMUEL WILSON. MASONIC NOTICE.-Mt. Vernon Encampment of Knights Templar and the appendant orders: The annual assembly of Mt. Vernon Encampment will he holden at their asylum on the 22d inst., at one o'clock, P. M., at which time an election of officers will take place. The members thereof are hereby required to take notice and give their punctual attendance accordingly. Feb. 4, 1820. JOHN SNOW, Gr. Commander. FOR SALE.-Blank Account Books; also a quantity of letter, writing and wrapping paper, cheap for cash. R. W. COWLES. $500 REWARD : Ran away from the subscribers, at Clarksburg, Va., two negro men, named Martin and Sam. The above reward, etc., etc. EDWARD B. & JONATHAN JACKSON. TAILORING BUSINESS.-At Reduced Prices.-.J. & C. Wyley, Tailor, will in future execute work in their line at the following reduced prices, viz., Long Coats, Surtouts and Great Coats, each, $4.50. Pantaloons, $1.50. Good merchantable whisky and various other articles of country produce will be received in payment at cash prices. MRS. C. WEAVER.-Respectfully informs the ladies of Delaware and its vicinity, that she will cut and make in the best and newest fashion, ladies' dresses, capes for ladies and children, cut and make ladies' great coats, etc., on the most reasonable terms. MARRIED. In Berkshire Township, on Lord's Day, This, 12th inst., by the Rt. Rev. Bishop Chase, Joseph Prince, Esq., to the amiable and accomplished Miss Nabby Shelton, daughter of Mr. Selah Shelton. Bachelors, go thou and do likewise. ONE CENT REWARD - Ran away from the subscriber, in Bennington, on the 7th inst., an indentured girl, named Melissa. This is to forbid all persons harboring or trusting her on my account. Whoever will return her to me shall receive the above reward, but no charges will be paid. ALLEN DWINNELL. FOR SALE.-A quantity of hogs' bristles. B. GRAVES. JR. We often hear it. remarked that the world is growing worse every day, and the people more HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY - 251 wicked. In proof of the assertion, the contents of the newspapers are cited, in which are chronicled the record of all the wickedness transpiring in the country as reported by telegraph. To show that the world is not much worse now than it was sixty or seventy years ago, and that crime has not exceeded the increase of population to any great extent, we copy the following from a single issue of this little paper, published away back in 1820. Then there were no telegraph lines centering our confluent points of civilization like spider webs, but we were dependent on the weekly mail and the weekly newspaper for the transmission of news. Notwithstanding all these inconveniences, the Chronicle of March 20, 1820. contains the following items: "Brutality! " "Murder Most Foul! " " Execution in Charleston of a man and wife for highway robbery ; " "Pirates Punished;" " Robbery at Franklin, Tenn., ""Execution of Cotterels in Pennsylvania ; " "Insurrection in Spain." There is comfort and consolation in the above. and we feel some joy in the fact that the world is not on the downward road to ruin as fast as we would fain believe that it is. Interesting as the perusal of this old file is, and the amount of " ancient history " it contains, use cannot devote further space to it in this connection. The two papers, the Chronicle and Gazette, finally became one, though at what time the consolidation took place we have been unable to learn, nor have we learned just how, or in what way, or by what influence, such a movement was effected. There is no complete file of the Gazette previous to 1829-30, and previous to that period, its history is principally guesswork. After it passed into the hands of Griswold (of the Chronicle), it became the Ohio State Gazette, or rather he changed the name of his publication to the Ohio State Gazette. Griswold sold out to George W. Sharp in 1834, and Sharp chanrged the name to Olentangy Gazette. David T. Fuller succeeded Sharp in the ownership of the paper, and soon after sold an interest to Abraham Thomson. In April, 1837, Thomson bought out Fuller, and has continued uninterruptedly to the present time, the publication of the Gazette. It was the organ of the Whig party in the county, and upon the organization of the Republican party espoused its cause. The next paper in Delaware County was the Standard. It was originally established about 1844, as a Democratic paper, and continued, with varying fortunes, and a number of changes in pro prietorship, until 1864. In the issue of November 24 of that year, appears the announcement that it has been sold to Theodore P. Reid, a native of Delaware, and a practical printer, who will supply " paid-up subscribers for the unexpired terms for which they had paid." On the 1st of December of the same year, Mr. Reid started the News, a paper that is still in existence, though it has, we believe, changed hands a time or two. On the 23d day of August, 1866, the Dela ware Herald issued its first number. It was established by a joint-stock company, and as a Democratic paper, which principles it still maintains. It is quite a flourishing and readable paper The Western Collegian was started in 1868, and is devoted chiefly to the interests of the University. The Signal was established in 1873, and is the organ of the Prohibition Temperance party. The Daily Reporter is a new enterprise in Delaware, being the first attempt to establish and support a daily paper in the city. It is a sprightly little sheet, and deserves the patronage of the town. In 1873, a paper was started at Sunbury, called the Sunbury Enterprise. It afterward changed hand and name, and became the Sunbury Spectator. Recently it was removed from the county to a more prosperous field. (RETURN TO THE TITLE PAGE) |