Teaching the 3 R'S
It is interesting to remember that in pioneer Worthington children were not required to attend school. Parents who wanted their children to learn reading, writing, and arithmetic paid for each child enrolled.
When Ohio became a state in 1803, it required that land in section sixteen (or its equivalent) in each township be set aside to support common schools. But that income was never enough to erect buildings and pay teachers for all children, so parents were charged a subscription.
Worthington's earliest schools were conducted in a log building on the northeast side of the public square. A $3.53 receipt still exists for the final payment from Nathaniel Stewart of the school committee to Clarissa Thompson for her 1804 salary as teacher.
Alexander Morrison, Jr. was clerk of a meeting held December 31, 1804 at the Worthington school house which resolved to conduct a school for two months supported by subscription plus "1/2 Cord of 5 feet wood" for each scholar sent.
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67 East Dublin-Granville Road
The oldest school building still standing in Worthington was built in 1856 with two classrooms on the ground floor and I.O.O.F. Lodge quarters on the second
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It was 1821 before Ohio passed a law allowing township trustees to organize school districts and levy a property tax to erect a school house or "for the purpose of making up the deficiency that may accrue by the schooling of children, whose parents or guardians are unable to pay for the same." Needless to say, few townships voluntarily levied a tax. But Worthington citizens were voluntarily supporting both a common school and the Worthington Academy with subscription payments from students' parents and rental income from the one hundred acre farm set aside by the Scioto Company pioneers.
Ohio's first law to finance public education in 1825 required each county to raise funds for "instruction of youth of every grade and class without distinction, in reading, writing, arithmetic, and other necessary branches of common education."
It was soon after this that Worthington erected its first building to be used solely as a public school. This was a single room brick structure on the northwest corner of lot 142 (now the south corner of Short and Oxford Streets). This land was sold in 1829 to Ira Metcalf, Pirum R. Hunt, and Arory Buttles, Directors of School District #3 by John W. Ladd, a Worthington resident who was one of the three Franklin County School Examiners who certified teachers.
Sharon Township had been divided into districts by this time, but the total number of schools is not clear until mid century when twelve districts were regularly dividing tax funds. Early schools were often located on private property and were probably log houses donated by farmers who had built more substantial dwellings and were glad to have a school convenient for their children.
When the John Johnston farm was advertised for sale in 1833, the advertisement referred to the "District School House in one Corner," but this location on present Route 23 just north of 1-270 had no school after state law required directors to own property before constructing a building. Directors for this district bought land on what is now Flint Road.
Worthington also changed the location of its public school several times. In 1841, and perhaps earlier, school directors were leasing a room on the lower floor of the Worthington College "Edifice" for a common school, agreeing to be responsible "for all damages the Teacher or Scholars may do to said Building."
Since the 1840 census shows L. (Laura) Bristol and S. (Stephen) Hoyt each with 20 scholars, there were apparently two school classes divided by age and level of study.
In Ohio in 1838, male teachers averaged $25 per month for a four month winter term and female teachers were paid $12.50 per month for a four month summer term, when older boys who might be discipline problems were probably busy with farm work. Ohio Commissioner of Common Schools, Samuel Lewis, urged counties to stretch their financial resources, particularly those "who are in the habit of paying men for instructing little children, when females would do it for less than half the sum, and generally much better than men can."
The sorry state of Ohio public schools in the 1840s is revealed in a scathing report by the secretary of state attacking irregular student attendance and poorly qualified teachers. "Men do not change their blacksmiths as frequently as they change their teachers - a fact which indicates that the feet of horses are treated with more consideration than the minds of children."
One result was 1848 legislation which addressed, for the first time in Ohio, education for black children. Black and mulatto residents of any town or township with twenty or more children wanting to attend school might organize and tax themselves to support a separate school. In districts with less than twenty black children, directors might admit blacks on the same terms as whites, unless they received written objection from a parent or legal voter of the district.
This made it possible, but unlikely, for black children to attend public school with white children. This legislation is particularly interesting, since the Worthington 1850 census enumerated twenty-three black or mulatto youth between six and eighteen. Many were obviously employed by the time they were teenagers, and no evidence has been found regarding their school attendance in early Worthington.
But school enrollment was growing and in 1855 the Worthington Board of Education composed of Homer Tuller, William Bishop, and George Taylor purchased land to build a public school which still survives. This building on the north half of lot 84 (now 67 East Granville Road) contained school classrooms on the ground floor, and the I.O.O.F. Lodge on the second floor. Later, it became the township hall and is now owned by St. John's Episcopal Church.
By the 1850s, state law required each township to have a board of education with one representative from each sub-district. The Sharon Township Board in 1855 included: R.C. Carpenter, C.E. Burr, S.R. Holt, Abraham Moore, Alvin Fuller, B.F. Noble, Jabeb Keys, Henry Bunker, L.M. Malbone, George Snouffer, I.N. Case, and Joseph Hyde.
Like the rest of Ohio, Worthington and Sharon Township had moved in five decades from subscription schools for those who could afford it to a system of public education financed by property taxes and controlled by locally elected officials.
SOURCES:
Minutes of the 31 December 1804 school meeting and Clarissa Thompson's receipt to Nathaniel Stewart are in the Griswold Papers, 1802-1809, photocopy at the Worthington Historical Society.
Edward H. Miller; "History of Educational Legislation in Ohio from 1803 to 1850," Ohio Archaeological and Historical Publications, Vol. XXVII) (1919) pp. 1-271. For specific legislation cited see Ohio Laws; Vol. 19, pp. 51-56 (22 January 1821); Vol. 23, pp. 36-41 (5 February 1825); Vol. 32, pp. 25-35 (23 February 1834); and Vol. 46, pp. 81-83 (24 February 1848).
Deed from John W. and Lydia S. Ladd to District #3 School Directors, 3 October 1829 conveying an area 45 feet by 45 feet in the northwest corner of lot 142 is in Franklin County Deed Record 12, p. 163.
The John Johnston farm advertisement appeared several times in Ohio State Journal in January 1833. Bristol and Hoyt households, 1840 U.S. Census, Franklin County, Worthington, p. 168. Contract 17 December 1841 by School Directors F. Tuller & S. Hoyt to lease room at Worthington College is in the Griswold Papers, 1840-1849, photocopy at Worthington Historical Society.
Samuel Lewis, Ohio Common School Director, Vol. I, No. 6 (November 1838) pp. 92-93, and Third Report to 38th General Assembly, 13 December 1839 (Ohio Executive Document #17) p. 46. Samuel Galloway, 1846 Report of the Secretary of State on Common Schools.
Blacks in Worthington in the 1850 census are shown in Franklin County, Sharon Township, pp. 17-34, households #208-211, & #217-219. Worthington Board of Education, 10 September 1855 is named in Franklin County Deed Record 61, p. 585. Sharon Township Board of Education, 12 December 1855 is named in Deed Record 59, pp. 397-398.
This article is one of a series of 31 articles originally published in the Worthington News and then in the book "Probing Worthington's Heritage" copyright by Robert and Jennie McCormick. The 1990 book is out of print, but copies are available at the libraries of the Worthington Historical Society and the Old Worthington Library. Much of this content was later included in the book "New Englanders on the Ohio Frontier" which can be purchased at our Gift Shop.
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