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Top row: A.W. Henneberger, Mr. Taylor (Assistant Manager),
Campbell Graf, Mel Goldrick, Adam Braun
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A Brief History of the Hamilton Schools, 1915
by Charles H. Lake
In Hamilton as in a great many other Western cities at the beginning of the Nineteenth Century, the school system was not very well crystallized. There were schools of course, but the time for having a school was determined entirely by the supply of surplus money and demand. The first schoolhouse in the present limits of the Hamilton City School District was erected in Rossville, or the First Ward, as it is now known. However, previous to that time there had been a number of schools held in different parts of the village. Many of these schools were private and supported entirely by the tuition paid by the patrons.
At a special election held in 1851, the schools passed under the control of the "Akron School Law, " and from that time on the schools were supported by public funds and the private school rapidly disappeared.
On the East side of the river the first school was established by Mr. Ritchie, on Front Street, in the year 1809. The next year the Reverend M. G. Wallace opened a school on Court Street, opposite the United Presbyterian Church. This school was continued until 1914. During the next fifteen years the schools were presided over by a number of instructors, including Benjamin Pardee, Alexander Proudfit, Thomas McMechan, Henry Baker, Francis Montfort, Benjamin Raleigh, and Ellen A. McMechan, who was the first woman instructor in Hamilton.
In Rossville we find the name of Lemuel Ball, who had a school in an old frame building between D and E Streets. Stephen White and Miss Eliza Green taught school in a brick building in the rear of the old engine house. Later Miss Green became Mrs. White, and she succeeded in making a considerable success of her husband. Other teachers in Rossville were Evan Davies, J. P. Ellinwood, Ransford Smith, Mrs. A. A. Phillips, Mrs. J. Curtis Strode, the Ball sisters, William Phares, James A. Neal and Enoch Powers.
In 1854 Hamilton and Rossville were united, and from this time the schools have been under the control of the Board of Education of Hamilton.
The first Board of Education of Hamilton, made possible by the act of legislature mentioned above, was composed of the following members: Isaac T. Sanders, William Hunter, John W. Sohn, John W. Erwin and Stephen E. Giffen. Mr. Sanders was the first president of the Board and Mr. Hunter its first secretary.
From the records available it seems that this Board was quite progressive. They immediately took steps to systematize the schools and do something in the way of grading them. In June of 1861 we learn that they visited Cincinnati, Dayton and Eaton for the purpose of examining their schools and schoolhouses.
In those days the schools of Hamilton were held in almost any available place. Rooms here and there were rented for the purpose. The basements of a number of churches were used at different times for classes.
It is not possible to give a complete list of all the presidents of the School Board of Hamilton, owing to the fact that the records are not quite complete for all the years since 1860, but the following men have served in that capacity: Isaac T. Sanders, 1851-53; Stephen Giffen, 1853-55; Josiah Scott, 1856-57; Henry Beardsley, 1857-60; W. W. Caldwell, 1860-61; Isaac Robertson, 1861-63; Rev. M. T. Bowman, 1863-64; Elijah Vance, 1864-70; Joseph Traber, 1870-76; Jacob Matthias, 1875-76; Jervis Hargitt, 1876-77; John L. Martin, 1877-78; James Giffen, 1878-81; W. A. Eudaly, 1881-82; 0. C. Brewer, 1882-83; Marcellus Thomas, 1883-83; Mr. Grebner, 1883-84; Peter Schwab, 1884-88; L. A. Boli, 1888-89; Peter Schwab, 1889-94; M. D. Lindley, 1894-98; Martin Mason, 1898-99; M. D. Lindley, 1899-1905; Dr. Dan Millikin, 1906-13; C. D. Mathes, 1913-.
Although the titles superintendent and principal had been given to several of the teachers in the district, it was not until 1857 that the office of superintendent was formally created by the passage of a resolution. Previous to that resolution, in 1854, we find that J. R. Burgett had been elected principal with definite supervisory duties. He was succeeded by D. W. McClung, who became the first Superintendent of Schools under the resolution mentioned above. Mr. McClung served in this capacity for one year, retiring from the teaching profession to take up the study of law. In the winter of 1860 he was appointed Probate Judge of Butler County. In the war which followed he was quartermaster of Camp Dennison. After the war he returned to Hamilton and later moved to Cincinnati, where he was prominent in both public and private life for many years.
Other superintendents of Hamilton Schools, a number of whom have been prominent in educational and business circles, were: George E. Howe, 1858-69; F. W. Hurtt, 1869-60; J. R. Chamberlain, 1860-62; H. T. Wheeler, 1862-63; John A. Shank, 1863-64; John Edwards, 1864-67; E. B. Bishop, 1867-71; Alston Ellis, 1871-79; L. D. Brown, 1879-84; L. R. Klemm, 1884-87; Alston Ellis, 1887-92; C. C. Miller, 1892-95; S. L. Rose, 1895-1903; Darrell Joyce, 1903-.
High School work, or work of a more advanced nature than that given in the ordinary grade school, was given in varying quantities as early as 1835, when the Hamilton and Rossville Academy was established, but there was no definite course of study adopted until about 1858. It is hard to tell just when the head teacher began to be dignified by the term principal, for before 1857 for a number of years the term was usually applied to the person who exercised supervisory duties over all the schools. In 1853 a Mr. Elliott was the principal teacher in the High School. Later J. W. Legg succeeded Mr. Elliott, who had resigned. Mr. Legg was succeeded by Mr. McClung, who afterward became superintendent. Sidney A. Norton, who later became dean of the Engineering College of Ohio State University, was the next principal of the High School. He was followed by F. W. Hurtt, 1858-60, who served in the capacity of both superintendent and principal. In 1863 Miss H. H. Ringwood was elected as an assistant in the High School. Later she became principal and served in that capacity until 1885. She was followed by Dr. W. P. Cope, who served for twenty-four years, 1885-1909, and Charles H. Lake, 1909-. It is worthy of note that the Hamilton High School has had but three principals in fifty years, Miss Ringwood, Mr. Cope and Mr. Lake.
The course of study has developed from a few studies a little more advanced than the grades, to our present eight courses. In 1864 we read that Mr. Legg, Principal of the Third Ward School, requested the Board of Education to be allowed to teach geometry to the advanced class. For more than sixty years there have been special teachers of German in Hamilton. In 1852 the Board rented the basement of the Methodist Church for the German department, and this department while not always a part of the High School, has been continued to the present time with the exception of a few years. In 1869 the Board passed a resolution making French optional with the pupils of the High School.
At the present time the High School offers eight different and distinct courses of study. Three of these courses, the Classical, the Modern Language, and the Scientific, prepare pupils for college. The other five courses are vocational in character and are intended to better prepare those pupils who do not intend to go to college, for citizenship and for doing something useful in the world. These courses are the Domestic Science, the Manual Training, the Commercial, the Cooperative, and the Normal. Forty different subjects are now offered in the Hamilton High School, including pattern making, molding, forge work, machine-shop practice, joinery, mechanical and architectural drawing, design, free-hand drawing, millinery, dress making, cooking, designing, music, all forms of commercial work, modern and ancient languages, history, mathematics, and science, and the tendency is to add other courses as fast as the needs of the city demand them.
The High School is the highest educational unit of learning of the community, and every boy or girl who does not avail himself of the opportunities afforded there for improvement is failing to make the most of his advantages to become a useful and productive citizen. The city is spending money to furnish these opportunities and it has a right to expect that its boys and girls shall use them.
A history of the location of the High School from time to time may interest some. In 1854, when Hamilton and Rossville were united, it was stipulated in the articles of annexation that a high school building should be erected in the near future and that it should be located in the First Ward. This agreement was never carried out, although Thomas L. Rhea offered to donate a two acre site for the building on Prospect Hill.
The first High School as such was first held on the East
side of the river in the Third Ward, although some high school branches
had been taught from time to time in various schools of the city. In March,
1858, the superintendent was directed to move the High School to the new
grade building in the First Ward. This was done in September of that year.
The attendance then was about fifty pupils. Twenty-two years later, in
1880, the High School was transferred to the Fourth Ward building, in spite
of the very strong protest of the citizens of the First Ward, who claimed
a violation of the original agreement to place it in their ward.
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The school remained in the Fourth Ward until it was moved to the present Central High School building on the corner of Ludlow and Second Streets. This building was erected in 1891-92. On the twenty-sixth of January 1891, Max Reutti was employed as architect to draw up plans and specifications for the building, and on June twenty-second the contract for erecting the same was awarded to The J. F. Bender Company, at their bid of $47,480. This school, which at that time seemed to have space far in excess of the needs of the city, has housed the High School for twenty-three years, but there have been many additions and extensions to make this possible. In 1908 the Frechtling property adjoining the Central High School was purchased to make room for the rapidly expanding science departments. The buildings in the rear of the residence were fitted up for the Manual Training and Domestic Science courses. |
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Ludlow and Second Streets, Built in 1892 |
Later a one-story structure was added in the rear for class work. The High School had completely outgrown its cramped quarters, and at each period of day several hundred pupils were reciting outside of the main building in makeshift rooms.
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Top row: H. Lee Good, Walton Bowers (Manager), Mr.
Newell (Coach), George James
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When it was plainly seen that some permanent provision
would soon have to be made to take care of the rapidly increasing numbers
of the High School, the Board of Education, in 1912, proposed to submit
to the people of Hamilton the proposition to issue $300,000 in bonds to
build a new school in East Hamilton and a new High School. It was proposed
to build and equip what is known as a composite High School, wherein should
be given a very large range of work suited to the needs of the community.
The bond issue carried on May twenty- first, 1912, and architects Frank
L. Packard and Frederick G. Mueller were employed jointly to draw up plans
and specifications for the High School building. The flood of 1913 delayed
the work for one year, but in 1914 a site was selected, and on July 2,
1914, the contract for the erection of the building was let to The Roche-Bruner
Company of Cincinnati, at their bid of $213,894; the building to be erected
on the site bounded by Dayton Street on the North, the alley on the East,
Butler Street on the South, and Sixth Street on the West.
| The work on the new building was begun July 1, 1914,
and was finished in August of 1915. The Roche-Bruner Company deserve praise
for the masterly way in which they have handled this contract, as do the
architects Frank L. Packard and Frederick G. Mueller, who have given the
work their most careful attention.
To equip the building and to grade the lot surrounding it, and also to install a heating plant in the Jackson School, $35,000 in bonds were issued in May, 1915. |
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Dedicated December 16, 1915 |
The equipment includes that of Manual Training, Domestic Science, and Commercial departments, curtains, and fourteen hundred seats for the auditorium, pupils' and teachers' desks, lockers, chairs, lunch-room, library, laboratory and office equipment. With the exception of a gymnasium, the building is as complete as could be desired, and it is strictly modern in every respect. The cleaning will be done by the latest approved vacuum system.
The first class was graduated from the Hamilton High School in 1862 and was composed of Dan Millikin, Laura Creighton and James E. Neal. Since that time, each year, with the single exception of 1866, a class has been graduated, until the number of graduates now approximates closely the two-thousand mark. The influence of the Hamilton High School in the community has been steadily growing for half a century and its influence will be increasingly felt as the years go on. The graduates of the Hamilton High School are now accepted by all the colleges of the United States that admit pupils without examination.
The people of Hamilton may justly feel proud of their latest achievement, the new Hamilton High School, and the people and the Board of Education should be congratulated on the success of the large undertaking.
Hamilton High School Auditorium, 1920
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